#I am running away i am packing my little rucksack

[mountainloversclub]

The fennec Fox belongs to Pomefiore. It's quite unbecoming of them to threaten a vice Housewarden, given Pomefiore's prestige. 🤭

FINALLY. SOMEONE WITH SENSE OH MY G.

your stupid little eel men are being IDIOTS. cease them!!! And tell that goofy one to lean down and stop blocking my view for once! !! -🦊

@mountainloversclub @floydleechrp

Stop causing trouble for our clients. Look at how distraught this person is. We want to solve problems, not create them.

[vigilskeep]

prev rb makes my thoughts on druid vs wizard cooking arguments so so much funnier

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Chilchuck: *shoves Izutsumi off of him to do something else.*

Izutsumi : Chilchuck is…evil? Chilchuck is unyielding? Chilchuck is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the Dungeon as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this party.

[i-m-art-ix]

Obi-wan: *says no to Anakin*

Anakin: *in thoughts* Master is... evil? Master is unyielding? Master is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the galaxy as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.

[the-starry-seas]

Victor Frankenstein: AHHH HOLY SHIT YOU'RE UGLY

Creature: Father is…evil? Father is unyielding? Father is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.

[sunderedstar]

good books of 2024

according to meeee.

there is no order here, at least one of these was published ages ago, I'm just working my way through my 2024 timeline, godspeed spiderman. 🫡

Metal from Heaven

surprise hit of 2024. top of the charts. stunning, spectacular. gorgeous. Metal from Heaven FUCKS. almost every single main character is an explicit spicy toxic hot mess of a lesbian committing literal highway/train robbery, the bad guy is literally named Industry, leading to such peak sentences as "I am going to kill Industry." the prose is synesthetic in a way that most writers cannot sustain for a full novel but which here culminates in a moment of pure blissful Neon Genesis Evangelion that I will not elaborate on due to spoilers. the author pulls out the FUNNIEST lines, and also the most abrupt and heartbreaking tragedies. we're not here to be subtle, we're here to put the pedal to the metal until the engine explodes. such a damning, whip smart condemnation of industry, capitalism, power. all in the form of Lesbians. also the phrase 'clown orgy' is mentioned. this shit is like gideon the ninth with CRUNCH. NSFW.

but don't take my word for it. take amal el-mohtar's.

Absolution

Absolution is a hard book. requires thought and rigor at all times to absorb what's going on - and also a reread of the entire trilogy beforehand, because there's time travel nuance involved, which makes it next to impossible to sum up the plot coherently on its own without spoiling things. jeff vandermeer described it partially as 'fuck that alligator from the movie' and - valid. the first 60% had me; the later section...swapped gears drastically, which meant it took a while to hit its stride (aka until it reached Area X again). in hindsight I was just not prepared for one of the POVs to be the Freudian, violently stoned, unreliable narrator love-child of Karkat and Dave Strider whose perception/conception of the heart of the Southern Reach is extremely phallic. and then suddenly cannibalism happens. I liked Annihilation and Acceptance better, but damn. it almost feels like this should be the set up to another trilogy. much 2 think about.

Yield Under Great Persuasion

I don't know why I didn't hear anything about this one before it came out! (instead, I only saw posts about rowland's other book released this year, running close to the wind - which sadly did not hit for me at all). Yield Under Great Persuasion is just ridiculous enough to be fantastic. stubborn little gremlin man, big mad about Pumpkingate years after the original inciting incident that set him at odds with his love interest, attempts to pack his little rucksack and run away from all his self-inflicted gay problems, fails, is forced to deal with said personal problems by direct goddess-intervention. you know it's gonna be good when the guys are hate-banging by page 2. a short, delightful mix of (extremely silly and low-stakes) enemies to lovers and hurt/comfort and working out your emotional and communication issues on page style comfort food. self-indulgent in a fanfic way that is rowland's trademark in a taste of gold and iron (which was also fantastic and probably deserves a reread now.) NSFW.

The Spellshop

between this and yield under great persuasion there's an odd cozy fantasy pairing here. a self-isolated shut-in spellbook librarian who lives for her work escapes the fall of her city and sets up shop back in her old hometown on a severely magic-deprived island. there's some internalized trauma being worked through, against a simply charming backdrop of community and solidarity and magic spells. really. I was. charmed. which is a rare reaction on my part.

The Hunter's Gonna Lay Low

the curveball of the list, The Hunter's Gonna Lay Low is a translated (gay) Korean web novel, and it's the perfect intersection of a decent translator meeting an author who knows what they're doing. notorious tumblr user @spockandawe has a write up of the plot and its major themes here, but in essence it hooked me with its hunter/super-hero meets Pacific Rim setting, its themes of gifted kid burnout and unacknowledged trauma with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and the fact that the author clearly plotted out all of this in advance, with minor details from the opening chapter being extremely plot relevant a hundred chapters later. also, the characters are FUN! the relationship compels me. clownery abounds in all the best ways, while the world-ending stakes are also scarily sky high. its translation is currently incomplete as far as I'm aware, which is literally this story's only downside right now, since you can read it online for free - but so much of the main story is up and translated already that it's hard to imagine how much higher the stakes can go, and I'm dying to know if these two make it through and get the happy ending they deserve. a delicious repast.

Apostles of Mercy

I'm gonna rant here. this is the story of a series that got the redemption arc it deserved.

if you don't know, axiom's end is lindsay ellis's blatant Bayverse Transformers female lead alternate history fic. period. she has openly admitted this. you can easily and clearly pick out the Optimus/Megatron/Starscream expies. and that first book was GOOD. it understood the assignment. loved it.

then...truth of the divine happened. book two of the series. was frankly. god awful. it was like twilight's new moon, where the main character's depression saturates and therefore stagnates the entire narrative, in this case to its detriment. it dragged. the entire appeal of first book of the series is the bond between the main character and her new definitely-not-a-Transformer life partner, and book two managed to both sideline that - the entire point!!! the main thing you're reading it for! the alien time! - and introduce the most skeevy and (for me) unpleasant to read human hetero romance of all time. it was so unpleasant I actually forgot how bad it was.

somehow. somehow. palpatine returned. after I spent three years mourning what could have been. book three saved it. Apostles of Mercy addresses the whole damn skeevy toxic mess that was book two and refocuses on what matters - the alien love interest and a LESBIAN love interest. yes. it's true. once again the sapphics won. we now have a book where the main character is reliving lesbian sex memories as an alien-robot-insect-definitely-not-a-Transformer mindmelds with her so I mean. good job team? her love interest also acquires an alien life partner of her own to expand this into potential alien foursome range? the assignment is once again UNDERSTOOD. in terms of the action scenes, to quote myself while reading it, "I can't believe I'm saying this but you needed to channel far more Bayverse" [for book 2], and doing so for book 3 has produced a work of art. I would say skip book 2 entirely and thank me later, but experiencing how bad the series got at its darkest point is part of what made book 3 such an exhilarating high in comparison. possibly that was the goal all along, impossible to appreciate until now. I just need lindsay ellis to get the contract to write the currently-in-publication-limbo books 4 and 5. because the series deserves it. it only just got good again! NSFWish because I can't remember currently how explicit they got all these months later, forgive me.

The Deep Sky

yume kitasei is new to me, but this book hit some interesting notes as a sci fi debut. it too is about gifted kid burnout and imposter syndrome, funnily enough, in a thoughtful take on the standard sci fi concept of 'a bunch of rigorously trained young adults are sent out into deep space as an ark to save a dying humanity' that actually does discuss how fucked up that is as a concept, both for the kids as they grow up under enormous pressure to win a spot on the mission and for all those people being left behind, in what might just end up being an overhyped waste of resources, since civilization sure is still kicking when they leave. the summary on the book is somewhat misleading - asuka, the main character, doesn't fall under suspicion until wayyyy late in the book, and spends the majority of it in a pseudo-detective role that is absolutely sanctioned by those in charge. she's not 'an immediate suspect' like the book blurb insists. go figure. it didn't knock me out of the park like most of the books above, but it was an engaging little read.

The Bees

a weird one from 2014, picked up on a whim - it's literally about bees! fictionalized bees! with personalities and priesthoods and caste politics and everything! I cried about it to be honest. very plotty, somehow all of it neatly taking place within the Lifecycle of A Bee™️, which takes some real craftsmanship to pull off and make compelling as a narrative. since I'm an unrepentant Raksura fan, I was like 'wow...how Raksura coded...' knowing full well that Raksura are dragon bee people, not the other way around. also the Raksura could never be as toxic (complimentary) as these bees are. 😂 it's just good literature your honor.

honorable mentions:

Heavenly Tyrant

has not come out yet. but let's be real. it's on the list in anticipation. it's what she deserves.

The City in Glass

I love nghi vo's work, have read and adored all of the singing hills cycle novellas. it took a month for my library hold on this book to be available. and then I promptly got distracted by metal from heaven and the hunter's gonna lay low 😂 I will read it!!! the first eight pages were good! vitrine's voice is very good! I've just had a very busy end of the year interrupting my everything. (update: I read two more pages and it immediately and promptly popped off. whoops. guess I'm reading that next. whenever I have free time again...)

[penny-anna]

Gromit in The Wrong Trousers is really like Wallace is...evil? Wallace is unyielding? Wallace is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.

[phrxgs]

Married SKK interacting

Chuuya: *Pushes Dazai off of him to go change.*

Dazai: Chuuya is... evil? Chuuya is unyielding? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack to wander the streets of Yokohama as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.

[rambheem-is-real]

Deva, removing Varadha from his lap to go do something else: Varadha: Deva is... evil? Deva is unyielding? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the human realm as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household

[raven-delamuerte]

Wednesday: *removes hand from Tyler's hair to go do something else*

Tyler: ...oh, ok

Hyde: Mate is…evil? Mate is unyielding? Mate is incapable of love? I am running away!!! I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the forest as a lone vagabond! I can no longer thrive in this household!!

[my-ot8-is-fate]

chan: *removes Felix from his lap to do something else* felix: Hyung is... evil? Hyung is unyielding? Hyung is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.

[poppy5991]

Enji: Touya…you can’t keep using the fire quirk. You are literally going to die.

Touya: Father is... evil? Father is unyielding? Father is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.

[onlyplatonicirl]

how does it feel to be a minority

I cannot BELIVE Mara Sunnemona would say these things........ i thought star was better than this......... truly i am hurt...... i am packing my little rucksack and running away where i can eat unseasoned food without fear of mockery </3

[purplearrowzandleather-blog]

Slider, gently nudging cat!Mav aside with his ankle: ‘Scuse me, buddy. I don’t want to step on you

Maverick: *gasps* You kick Maverick?! You punt Maverick like a football?! Oh, jail for Slider! Jail for Slider for one thousand years!

Slider: You’re such a dramatic little shit

Maverick: *wails inconsolably* I am unloved. I must pack my little rucksack and run away

Slider, a big softie no matter how much he denies it: Oh, come here, you dumb furball. There’s no need for dramatics

[verycharismaticdragon]

For the ask game, svsss + 22?

[ your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores ]

It's gotten better lately, probably thanks to the easily available English translation, but: SQQ's Binghe Syndrome (when instead of brain there is a Binghe).

Listen, this man is obsessed. In the beginning of the book he is obsessed with Luo Binghe the character, and sort of projecting it onto bby Binghe; by the Immortal Alliance Conference however, he is firmly the irl Binghe's stan (though ofc our king of not being in touch with his feelings does not process that at all). Literally every time Binghe appears, his internal narration devolves into Binghe Appreciation Hour. He forgets family and friends when they are not right in front of his face but he will think of Binghe, unprompted, three thousand times a chapter. He is, honestly, just as weird about Binghe as Binghe is about him, it's just expressed differently.

And for me, this is like... a load-bearing element of Shen Yuan / Shen Qingqiu's character. As in, if he is not at least a little bit insane about Binghe, he just does not come off as a version of SY to me. Might as well be an OC with the name. So you can imagine the kind of stress I'm under when starting to read a new SVSSS fic. Like, "a little bit insane" is already my expectations lowered as much as possible. If there's not even that?? ? How am I expected to handle this. I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond—

[idontliketomatoesleavemealone]

Sammy: removes Marya‘s head from his shoulder to do something else

Marya: Sammy is… evil? Sammy is unyielding? Sammy is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore world as lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in crew.