#I wasn't expecting much for 4/13 yesterday

[i-upset-to-dead-65]

How I imagine Snow's progression of being reminded of Lucy Gray throughout the Hunger Games trilogy

1. Katniss volunteers. How cute. She has no chance of living past the bloodbath. Her name sounds familiar.

2. Katniss scores an 11 in training. So what she shot an arrow at the game makers. Well, that 11 will put a target on her and she's no match for the rest.

3. Peeta reveals he is in love with Katniss. What an interesting angle. Definitely some kind of ploy. Viewership will be up, as well as sponsors. Interesting to see how this plays out.

4. Katniss is trapped by the careers and Peeta. Aw, look, she dropped a hive on her boyfriend. Looks like she doesn't like him after all.

5. Katniss allies with Rue. Odd, and a terrible choice for an ally.

6. Rue mentions her pin, a mockingjay. The connection is made. Katniss, that swamp potato dug up by Lucy Gray and her mockingjays that still infest the districts. His dislike for Katniss grows.

7. Rue dies and Katniss sings the Meadow Song to her. A jolt runs up his spine. That old song, sung to Maude Ivory by Lucy Gray. It's still around in District 12 and now it's on national television. Snow knows how much the Capitol loves singing tributes.

8. The new rules are announced. This will be interesting. Of course, there's no way Peeta will live long enough for there to actually be two victors.

9. Katniss and Peeta are in the cave, and Peeta begins to recover. The huge influx of sponsored gifts is concerning. Katniss will hopefully die at the Feast trying to get medicine.

10. Peeta makes a full recovery. That wasn't supposed to happen, but the Capitol loves it.

11. Cato dies. Seneca didn't think they'd get this far. Time to revoke the rule change. Katniss will kill Peeta or vice versa. These children barely know each other, and in the Games they resort to their basic human nature of violence. Oh look, she's even pointing her bow at him.

12. The berries. The double victory. Seneca Crane is a dead man. They have outsmarted the idiot game makers. Snow is once again reminded of his cheating in order to help Lucy Gray win. How well that turned out for her in the end.

13. After the games. Snow is certain they are putting on an act to survive and meanwhile, defy the Capitol. Peeta is good with the crowd and is quick witted. So much like Lucy Gray. Katiss is impulsive and heartfelt. So much like Sejanus.

14. Snow learns Katniss hunts in the woods, he possibly traces her lineage, and he finds out everything he can about her. Snow takes measures to quell the rebellion brewing and control Katniss and Peeta throughout Catching Fire.

15. Katniss's wedding dress burns away into a Mockingjay dress. That damn bird again.

16. The force field gets blown out, and tributes escape. Snow recalls when the 10th Hunger Games arena was bombed.

17. Katniss's first propo is televised in the districts, declaring herself the Mockingjay. He should have killed all those birds when he had a chance.

18. The Hanging Tree propo airs. He'd almost forgotten Lucy Gray's songs. How could this girl, now, know them? The song was banned, Lucy Gray was dead. She was dead, right?

19. The rebels in District 5 sing the Hanging Tree while blowing up the damn. Chills run up his spine as he watches the live feed. A crowd of an indiscernable number flood the walkways to the hydro dam. They're singing a song they didn't know yesterday. A song no one knew until now. A song that was as dead as Lucy Gray. Except, she wasn't dead. How could she be, if her song is still sung? The dam blows and the lights go out in the Capitol. Snow half expects the ghost of Lucy Gray herself to appear before him.

20. The war is over. The Mockingjay has won. She appeared from nowhere, echoing the songs of Lucy Gray like the birds themselves. Well played, Lucy Gray. Well played.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Best QL of 2023: Favorite Lines

Okay so I am slightly over my one year mark in the BL Fandom, and have watched over the past like...12-14 months a little under 100 shows, so I am forcing myself to stick to the shows that aired in 2023 or else I would never be able to finish this. But I saw @abstractelysium do this so I had to climb aboard:

Top Five Lines that Lived Rent-Free In My Brain This Year:

"Have you been well? Without me?" - Shin Ki Tae, Our Dating Sim, Ep 4

Y'ALL THIS FUCKING LINE. KNIFE. CHEST. EVERY TIME! This line sits on the same level of absolute and total emotional devastation for me as the "I just want things to be nice for him" link in Big Eden.

"Are you tired, Uncle Jim?" - Li Ming, Moonlight Chicken, Ep 8

Jim and Li Ming's relationship just makes me absolutely so fucking emotional. I love them individually, I love them together, and I love how much Jim does for his community. But no one ever asks him this. And it is so striking to me that Li Ming is finally the one to demonstrate how much he understands and appreciates everything Jim does not only for him but for the entire community when he ass him that question.

"My family is old fashioned. I kept everything in my heart and didn't want to tell anyone until I was 15. My family went to Europe with Wa's family. We saw two women kissing on the street. I saw her and wanted to talk to her. I want to know how she did it. I want to release it like them. But Wa's mother and I...You can probably imagine. A pair of old-fashioned women who think same-sex love is wrong...That's when I realized I wasn't the only one feeling terrible. When we got back that night she broke down and cried. No one knew why. I asked her if it was about the afternoon incident. She asked me if a kiss between two women was wrong. I said no. It's just like two men kissing. It's not wrong. On that night a 15 year old boy and a 13 year old girl held each other and cried." -Sailom, Wedding Plan, Ep. 6

Okay this isn't a line, it's a monologue but holy fucking shit this was such a beautiful speech, and I will quote @bengiyo here and say "I CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE HATED THIS MAN." He has spent so much of his life in the closet protecting not only himself but especially Yiwa. Sailom was going to go through with the wedding just to ensure that Yiwa and Marine could be together without anyone prying.

"This is as tender as I can be. Someone like me." -Mhok, Last Twilight, Ep. 4

Honestly you could replace the first sentence with whatever you want, the part that sticks in my brain the most is "someone like me" because I know that Mhok must have heard shit like that his entire life, and Day is here saying it in a way that I don't think Mhok takes as an actual insult or passing of judgement. I like that the line is used whenever Mhok does show who he truly is and how much tenderness or warmth he is actually capable of in a subversion of the expectations placed upon him.

"But you know, I already knew your preferences so well. When I go shopping with Kakei-san, he talks about you all the time...He says it with a smile" -Kayoko, What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Season 2 Episode 11

THE WEEP I WEPT WHEN KAYOKO TOLD KENJI HOW MUCH SHIRO TALKS ABOUT HIM. This entire second season of WDYEY Shiro has just continuously shown so much beautiful beautiful growth and my heart twists with pride every single time I see him looking more relaxed and smiley. WDYEY is the most perfect show to ever exist.

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 750: Blue sky

(Thank you to @monkeyingaround for helping me with a couple of things in this chapter!! <3)

Pag 1

1: Right?

Hahaha

2: 'morning!

'morning!

Did you bring the thing we talked about yesterday?

Pag 2

1: Summer is here

Pag 3

1: Yeah

2: Look at the color of the sky!!

3: It's a crisp blue sky!!

Well, the color is sky blue, after all

4: Ka....!! You're seriously so narrow-minded! Your eyes are so narrow, too, and that's why you're not close with our kohai

My eyes have nothing to do with... huh!? The kouhai!?

Se... senpaii!! Teh

5: Huh?

Pag 4

1: Rokudai!!

Naruko-san, Imaizumi-san

Good morning!!

Why are you greeting us with so much enthusiasm?

2: You have a huge bag as usual. What is it?

Thank you so much!!

Why are you thanking us!!

Oh, Kinaka is here too

Good morning!!

3: We collected

4: everyone's laundry at training camp, and now we're putting them to dry!!

Yes

Don's take it all on yourself!!

5: It's towels and t-shirts used at training camp that we don't know who they belong to!!

Ah yeah, but even so

Pag 5

1: And the weather is nice, so putting them to dry is nice!!

You already finished drying the first round?

An extreme manager spirit!!

2: What about the other first years?

Ah, they haven't arrived yet, teh

They're not coming?

3: I'll kick them out

Huh...!

What a fast decision!!

4: Think about it again, please!!

Hmm, then let's kick out half of them

Waaa.!!

…. that's what I meant, Hotshot

What?

5: Ah, uhm... by the way, uhm... what about Onoda-san?

Ah, he should be here soon

6: Ah, he's not a morning person?

….. no

Pag 6

1: After training camp, Onoda-kun....

2: Fu fu fu

Ratatata, to the sun...

3: I want to go together... fu fu fu

5: Far

6: Far away..!

Fu fu

That student on the city bike i so fast!!

Pag 7

2: Good morning, everyone...!!

3: He watched everything I recorded while we were at the training camp, and now he's here!!

All the anime!!

4: Look, he's gleaming!! That's the face he has when he's in a good mood because he watched a good anime and came to school while singing its theme song!!

Ohh...

5: Interesting... he watches anime, and... his face is gleaming....

You're taking notes about Onoda-kun's life?

Pag 8

1: Ahh, I'm so happy that “Kawazanyou wa at shiro”, shortened in “Kawashiro”, really has good animation as the preview reviews had said

Oh, yeah?

Imaizumi-kun, will you watch it too?

I'll think about it

Think about it...!!

2: And the second part of “People of the dead”, “the bloody battle” was so scary but so good!

Oh, yeah?

3: You have never seen it, but Onoda-kun

4: He hums an anime song during races

5: And he becomes super fast!!

7: Th.... that's so cool...!!

Pag 9

1: Now!!

2: Third years

Make up supplementary lessons for the members of the bicycles racing team that were away for trainig camp

3: It'll be boring like every year, but we'll get through it

Yeah

Tch, supplementary lessons?!

Pag 10

2: Apply this formula

3: Therefore, the value we're looking for is...

6: Go, Rokudai

For us, too

Pag 11

2: Another three minutes

3: I can see a light!!

He's coming

4: Ohh!!

5: I wasn't expecting this, Furuya

Yeah, Murakami

6: The only one among us first years who could run the whole 1000km in this training camp in the time limit is-

Just a little bit more!

You're in time!

Press on the pedals one last time!

Pag 12

1: The former manager and beginner, Rokudai Renta!!

Pag 13

1: The only survivor

2: Two minutes before the time limit, 23:58, the first year Rokudai

3: completes the 1000km...

4: and is ranked

5: sixth

Kinaka-kun!!

Pag 14

1: You did it, Rokudai

2: Kinaka-kun!!

Ugh-!

3: Thank you, Kinaka-kun.... I could have never done it if you hadn't been there, Kinaka-kun, teh....!!

You did it with your own strength

Guaaaa, thank youu....

Pag 15

1: Cough cough

Are you alright!? Is it your throat, Kinaka-kun!?

You slammed your elbow into it

Teh!?

Hahaha

3: Alright now, let's gather around, give an ending ment, and then leave

Yeah!!

4: Please make a firm ending speech, captain!!

Ah....!!

5: Right... a speech... I have to say some wise saying.... wh- what should I do

Kakaka you can just say whatever you're feeling!!

6: Anyway, finally

Pag 16

1 / 3: All six members who will fight in our last Inter High

Pag 17

3: Are here!!

Pag 18

1: Thank you so much!!

Thank you!!

-you!!

-you!!

2: I'm tired..

But you retired so early on

Yeah but the senpai's race was so intense

I know, right

3: Ahh... this year even just watching it from here made my heart rate increase

4: Yes!! It was an intense training camp!!

Pag 19

1: We're counting on you, Rokudai

4: Oi.... Issa, wake up

5: The teacher looks incredibly angry!!

6: Huh? That daifuku is half the price!? Really, Naruko-san?

It's no use, he's sleep-talking!!

Pag 20

1: Everyone worked really hard at the training camp

3: It's coming soon this year, the Inter High

[hiwataris-bitch]

My ESC 2024 ranking

Although I'm not as into ESC this year as I was the year before, I still wanted to do the ranking. It's kinda rushed since I have only listened to some of the songs for the first time yesterday, but my top 10 was established long before that so who cares. Anyways, here goes:

1-10 Best songs ever:

1. Finland - I LOVE THEM I LOVE THIS SONG THIS IS THE BEST SONG EVERYONE ELSE GO HOME. Finland sending banger again this year. My absolute favourite.

2. Austria - another huge banger, brings me back to early 2000s and I really love the lyrics

3. Poland - okay, look, I KNOW she doesn't sing all that well live. But I really like the song itself so let me have this one. It's gonna be a miracle if we qualify, but still I just like the song.

4. Switzerland - opera and rap in one song? I didn't expect myself to like it as much as I do, but it's just so catchy!

5. United Kingdom - another catchy song for me I can listen to on repeat (maybe slightly less than I can listen to Poland, but still good)

6. San Marino - great rock tune, another song that brings me back to the 2000s, although in a different way than Austria does.

7. Croatia - although they're only 7th on my list, I won't be mad if this wins, because just like San Marino, it is another solid, good rock entry.

8. Netherlands - you can clearly see my taste for crazy performances in this top 10, so it would be an offence if I didn't put the Netherlands here as well. It isn't my favourite, but still a song I like and enjoy very much.

9. Spain - okay, maybe the performance I saw on youtube made me put it higher than I would, I'm not really sure. But I have listened to this song quite a lot since it released.

10. Estonia - to complete my ultimate crazy tunes group for this year, they also closes my top 10. They make a perfect team with Finland, Croatia and the Netherlands. My top 10 would be just top 4 if it wasn't for some other songs that also turned out to be good..

11-20 Songs I like very much:

11. Albania - she was SO CLOSE to making it to my top 10, but I liked the other songs slightly more. Still, 11th place is the lowest I will ever put this song, because for whatever reason it really speaks to me.

12. Iceland - originally it was lower on my list, but after some time I decided it was way too catchy so it had to be moved up. It's really pleasant to listen to.

13. Czechia - I've read comments complaining she can't sing live. Maybe. But just like with Poland, I just like the song and you're not going to change my mind. Nobody listens to live versions after the contest ends anyway, unless they're rewatching the performances.

14. Luxembourg - tbh my places 12-14 kept being rearranged since I like all three of these songs almost equally as much. I am really happy to see Luxembourg return to Eurovision and I think they chose a great song for their return. It's one of the earworms for me.

15. Italy - just like above, places 15-17 kept switching for me. And although I listen to this song a lot, to the point I often skip it now when it comes on my spotify, I cannot in good conscience put it any lower. Even though I listened to it too much I still have to appreciate how good of a song this is.

16. Sweden - I've only listened to it today, but Sweden brings a high production quality this year as well (honestly, what'd you expect from them?). It is a good song, although it doesn't really do anything special for me. Still, It's just pleasant to listen to.

17. Moldova - similar to Sweden, but production value is slightly lower. But I just like fast songs.

18. Lithuania - honestly, I am slightly surprised I put it above Cyprus, because unlike Cyprus, I can barely recall this song. But I like it when I listen to it. Also, good for Lithuania for not singing in English, that is always refreshing to hear.

19. Cyprus - could be switched with Lithuania, but when I actually listen to both these songs one after another, I actually like Cyprus slightly less. They used to be higher on my list, but sadly, their song is a bit too average for me.

20-29 Song I don't care about all that much:

20. Latvia - okay, I lied, I care about this song. I don't usually listen to slower tunes, they have to actually make me feel something, and this one does. I wish I could put it higher, but I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with it.

21. Australia - I mean, it is fine, but too generic. Still, a faster tune will always be slightly higher on my list.

22. Georgia - similar to Australia, except I care about this one even less.

23. Slovenia - another love-hate for me. I appreciate this song and how different it is, I really do. But I can only listen to it once in a while, otherwise I get overwhelmed. Anyway, I like them a bit more because my name's also Veronika (except spelled with W and not V)

24. Denmark - they're... just fine I guess.

25. Germany - an okay song I can listen to and forget immediately. Just like with Denmark, except I forget this one even faster.

26. Belgium - I remember this one, it's just really not my cup of tea. Like, it is a good song, just not really something I listen to.

27. Malta - okay, now this is a bit annoying of a song. I will listen to it if it's on the radio or something, but I wouldn't choose to listen to it on my own free will.

28. Ukraine - look, it isn't a bad song, definitely better than Malta. But it sounds just like many other songs we've heard from Ukraine and honestly, I'm just bored of them.

29. Norway - another not a bad song, but has some parts that annoy me. Would be much higher without them. It's simply too heavy for me at some parts.

30-37 I literally couldn't care less:

30. Azerbaijan - what ever this is, sorry, I barely remember this song, I don't even know why I put it as high as I did, I guess it was less annoying than the others.

31. Portugal - I kinda like the instrumental, but it is a slow song and not a type of a slow song I would ever listen to.

32. Serbia - I don't like ballads.

33. Greece - I'm sorry, it's just too annoying to listen to...

34. Armenia - okay, it's better than Greece in that it's not annoying, but I just don't listen to this kind of music.

35. Ireland - girl, I appreciate your style, but your song is too much for me.

36. France - no. Sorry, just no.

37. Israel - why are you here, y'all know what you did. You know what you're doing.

[grumpygreenwitch]

The Witches & Wizards Jobs 17-18-19

AO3 Link

Buy me a Ko-fi?

Remember: Tumblr has no algorithm. Reblogs give me life.

1-2 + 3-4 + 5-6 + 7-8 + 9-10-11 + 12-13-14 + 15-16 + 17-18-19 + 20-21-22 + 23-24-25 + 26-27-28 + 29-30 + 31-32-33 + 34-35-36 + 37-38 + 39-40-41-42

SEVENTEEN

I slept like I hadn't in months. Living in a constant state of anxiety will do that to you, I suppose. But I was so far from home and from the enemies and dangers of Chicago that it felt as if they were too far away to matter. Even the war seemed a thing happening to someone else. It was a dangerous feeling, particularly because the house didn't have any of the protections of my Chicago apartment, but I was too tired to care.

I woke up to an unfamiliar doorbell and my dog trying to murder me by stepping on my kidneys. That much dog euphorically walking all over you will wake you up in a hurry, if nothing else. I dragged myself out of the surprisingly comfortable bed and down the stairwell to the door.

I found my current boss there.

"Dresden."

"Ford." I was all at once as awake as someone could be, every sense sharply on the alert.

"You can't use an electric stove, can you."

Ok, not the words I'd expected to hear from the man. "Uh, I can probably do it once."

"Without setting the house on fire?"

"Fifty-fifty on that one."

"Mm. Get dressed. We're gonna pick up breakfast."

He must have seen something on my face. I'd expected a lot of things; most people see Soulgazing as a theft, or worse. Very few like what they see in me. I'd expected to be fired, or interrogated, or something in a long and extensive list. Treated to even more food had not been part of it.

Ford shrugged minutely. For once he looked put together, and it was startling. He still had that deceptively harmless quality, the feel of a man that makes friends easily. He was freshly shaved, wearing a light shirt under a summer jacket and casual slacks, all in dark, neutral tones. His hair was still damp. "I refuse to let you think Boston only wants to come at you swinging."

I opened the door wide and stepped aside. "For the record, I don't mind Boston. I just don't want to make waves."

He stepped in. Mouse sniffed him, the banner of his tail wagging sedately, and Ford distractedly rubbed his head. I don't think he even noticed he was doing it. "Is it that easy? If what happened yesterday at the museum hadn't happened, would the city still know you're here?"

"Yes."

He looked thoughtful, but merely went on his way to examine the rooms full of crates while I took the fastest shower in the world, fed Mouse some dog food that looked like it cost more than my rent back in Chicago and got into my spare clothes. We headed out into an unfairly sunny and lovely morning. Trees bordered the street, the houses gracious in their old age. Boston was lovely.

It just wasn't home.

"There is, comparatively speaking, a lot of things living in Boston that aren't human. Supernaturals move, same as us," I explained as we walked. "For work, for life, for family. That's universal. And Boston's one point where that traffic bottlenecks. A lot of them don't go any further."

"So Boston's the best they could find?" He gave me a quick, incredulous glance.

"No, the most convenient. Magic likes it when you throw down roots. You can draw power from your home in a pinch, there's protections that kinda seep into a place the longer you live in it."

"Lintel magic," he murmured.

I damn near stopped walking. It was the first time in all our dealings that I'd heard Ford use the m-word.

"My mother believed," he said after a few steps. "She'd tell me stories, the old classics, and the ones from the Old World. Fairies, wicked stepmothers, charming princes - kelpies, hounds, fairy queens…" He shrugged once again. "I'm not nearly as surprised as I should be that the reality is even bloodier."

"You stopped believing, why?"

The ice flickered briefly in his eyes. "You looked into my soul, Dresden, don't you know why?"

"It doesn't work like that. You know that, or I would already be on a train to Chicago."

He did look amused at that, snorting minutely. "Dresden, you're Crime Lite from where my people and I are standing." He marshalled his thoughts while I tried to figure out if I was flattered, insulted, or something else even more complicated. "Life got in the way. Here comes Parker."

The thief was sprinting at us. She'd probably been coming to meet everyone in the loft. "Nate! Are you getting donuts?"

"Uh, we can?"

"I want donuts."

"I want something a little more substantial than donuts," he pointed out mildly.

"Oh, fine." She peeked at me. "Are you alright?"

"I'll do better with a couple of donuts in me."

She beamed. Ford groaned. We walked down the block to a little shop by the clever name of Double-O's, which did bagels and donuts both. Ford ordered enough food to feed twenty people and we sat at one of the little tables with a couple of donuts and some coffee and they brought me up to speed on what they'd done after I'd gone down.

Parker and Eliot had moved the coffee table, and everything in it, to the storage room, and taped the key to the Witchwell. That was already a huge weight off my mind. But then the Leverage people had gone further - with the crumpled envelope, of all things.

"It's not paper, it's vellum," Ford explained while Parker demolished a donut covered in chocolate and corn flakes. "Which is just fancy paper made to imitate actual vellum."

"Expensive paper," I ventured.

"Precisely."

"There was no writing."

"There doesn't need to be. Remember the embossing on it? It's a sigil, sort of a coat of arms."

"I really, really would love to know what it is you people actually do. So you looked up this sigil thing?

"Solve puzzles." Ford didn't miss a beat. "We didn't have to. Sophie knows it by heart, it's the sigil of Christie's."

"Christie's, the British Auction House?"

"Yes."

I worked on my coffee. "I'm hoping this makes sense to you, because I'm -"

The lights above us flickered. I wouldn't have thought much of it; I was there, after all. But at one of the tables, two women snatched up their purses and one toddler, and scurried off at truly phenomenal speed.

There were advantages to having that many supernaturals around, apparently. I snatched for my wand; like a moron, I'd left my staff back at the house.

"Do not." The gratingly avuncular tone was threaded with menace.

The man in black walked sedately past the counter and the last late morning customers. Only one person reacted to his passage, a young man wearing a typical cycling outfit, a messenger bag slung across his chest. He took one look over his shoulder and bolted. No one else seemed to see him, to know he was there. They shifted out of his way because suddenly they had to reach for a napkin or a sugar packet or something else, but no one directly acknowledged his presence at all.

It was a Veil with conditions. Until that moment I'd never known a Veil could be crafted like that, with exceptions built in.

Ford put a hand on my good shoulder and shook his head minutely. I tried to relax, and managed only to pull my hand out of my duster pocket. Parker was glaring with hyperbolic fury.

"Ah, you must be the sensible one," the man in black told Ford. "What pleasant luck."

"Every now and again," Ford agreed mildly.

He turned to look at Parker. She immediately looked down at her donut and scowled.

"This modern world," the man in black mused. "One comes to find the Prince of Thieves, and it is a woman. How times change. Hands on the table, please. Where I can see them."

"Parker," Ford said quietly when she didn't move. He said nothing else; he merely let his eyes take in the dozen or so people sharing space with us and the wizard.

She obeyed, sulking all the while.

"And yours, wizard Dresden."

Gosh, I'd almost forgotten what it was like, when someone used the title to insult me. I dropped both my hands on the table and worked really hard on not curling them into fists.

"Well, isn't this nice." He sat at our table. He was wearing fully modern clothing, a high-collared white shirt, a black embroidered vest, a long black coat with silver and emerald buttons, dress slacks, expensive shoes. His black hair had been cut and combed back, and his moustache and beard were so neatly trimmed I wouldn't have been surprised to find out he'd used a ruler. He was a very pale man, and his eyes were the same luminous, poisonous green of the painting and his magic. He looked and sounded so smug it took effort not to just haul up and punch him on principle. "So very nice. You have something of mine, sir," he told Ford mildly. "Several somethings, actually." He grinned.

"That would be stealing. I don't make it a habit to confess to crimes publicly, even when I haven't committed any."

The man's eyes flashed. His mouth opened - and closed, and he looked deeply amused. "No, of course not. You have committed no crime." His voice suddenly turned into a lash. "Hands. On the table."

Parker glared at him.

"I do strive to not be a fool more than once," he told her mildly. "If you do that again, I will kill someone here. Someone you do not know. Someone who does not know you. That nice man who served you your donuts, maybe. The old lady one of your companions held the door for one time. It will not hurt you. It will just be a toothache, forever there to be worried at, because I will kill them only if you take your hands off the table. Yes?"

Parker's face had gone to stone. My hands, despite my best efforts, had curled into fists after all. Ford tightened his grip on my shoulder a little more.

"I do not see a need to make this into a quarrel," the man in black said very calmly. "My attention is on greater matters. Whatever Dresden might have told you, until the small issue at the museum, I had committed no crime."

"No c- No crime? At the very least you destroyed the MFA lab. You stole from their vaults."

"Not at all. The portrait is mine. I commissioned Sokolov for it. Beautiful work, truly. I was very pleased with it, even with the nose being wrong."

"Working from memory," Ford mused.

"Mm, as portraitists do. So you see, I was recovering my property."

"You could have gone through proper channels. That shouldn't be a hardship for a man like you."

"I am pressed for time," the man in black admitted. "Which is why I come to make you an offer."

I tensed up immediately. Ford's hand turned into a vise on my shoulder and he shot me a warning look.

"You will return my property to me. And I will not kill you. You will send Dresden home. And I will not kill him. You will forget this matter. And in three days' time, I will grant you and your people your heart's desire. Whatever it might be. Fame, fortune, revenge, knowledge. I am a man of many talents. I daresay there's very little in this world that I could not give you. One wish."

"I get to punch you once," Parker growled immediately.

The man in black blinked in surprise, and then laughed. "Well, not that."

Under the table, Parker's leg bumped lightly against mine. It was so unexpected, so out of nowhere from someone who only touched even her own teammates when she absolutely had to, that it shocked me back to my senses, and I turned my attention to her. She was scowling at the man in black from the corner of her eyes, hunched down minutely, her hands flat on the table, tension on every line of her body, and her face had the same wild expression she'd had back at the Museum, when she'd figured out how to save our asses.

I lunged at the man in black across the table. I did it slow; I already knew I was much quicker than him. For a moment I thought I was going to actually get at him, the one time I didn't care if I did, but Ford belatedly caught me. "Dresden!"

Whatever slammed into me froze me, literally. I felt my veins turn to ice, my muscles lock. Cold blasted into me, left me motionless, unable to even shiver. I could barely gasp for air, but hey, if I wasn't going to get another chance to breathe, I might as well put the one breath I had to good use. "My hands're still on the table," I hissed at the man in black.

I saw surprise and fury flash through his eyes. He'd thrown himself back and scrambled to his feet, his chair crashing to the floor. No one noticed." So they are," he gritted out, and his magic faded, letting me wheeze for breath. With an effort he turned to face Ford, the mild and cheerful facade gone behind a vulturine, sharp and predatory look that was far more appropriate. "My property. Now, if you please."

"Does that include the Burning Witch's Well?"

Surprise once again went over the angular features, quickly hidden out of sight. "Yes."

"Well, you nearly killed twenty people with it, so, uh. No."

The man in black bared his teeth and flicked his hand. The lights went out. I threw my hand up and whatever he'd meant to hit Ford with crashed instead into my shield. It sent us both skidding back until we hit a half-wall behind us, random little decorations falling off it. He looked livid; yeah, still faster than you, asshole.

"Then I will take what is mine, and enjoy the killing of you all in the process," he declared, stalking off.

Breathless or not, Nate rushed immediately after him. I turned to check on Parker. "You alright?"

"Yeah, go get him!" She was wriggling in place. "I gotta put my shoes back on!"

Her sh-

Her shoes?!

There's only so many surprises I can cope with from just one person. I ran after Ford, but he was just outside the door to the shop, looking frustrated, scanning the street in every direction.

"Don't bother," I told him. "He probably closed off the Veil he was wearing to begin with."

"You saw him."

"No. I saw a couple of ladies bolt; they're the ones who saw him. I told you; you can't hide a wizard, not easily."

Parker nearly ran into us both as she charged out the door. "Is he gone?"

"Yup." Ford had that look again, the look that said he was putting together bits and pieces into a whole no one else had even noticed was there.

A man peeked out of the shop. "Mister Ford? Your order's ready."

"Oh, good." He marched back inside.

"You picked his pockets again," I told Parker before either of us followed Ford inside, not sure if I was amused or amazed. I settled for both.

"Yeah, of course I did. You almost messed me up, though!"

"I did? I thought you were signaling me for a distraction!"

She flushed minutely. "No. Your legs are just longer than Eliot's."

"… Sorry?" She grinned a little. "So what did you get?"

She grinned even more.

EIGHTEEN

Nate charged into the loft at full speed. "Hardison, are you here yet?"

The hacker had been in the kitchen; he peeked out of the fridge. "Yeah, man. Uh, fridge's broken."

"Then replace it, landlord mine." Nate glanced at the door and added, his voice quieter. "Quietly."

Hardison's expression filled with understanding, and he nodded. "Did you get breakfast?"

"They're bringing it up. I don't promise there's any donuts left. Is everyone else here?"

"We are now." Eliot held the door open for Parker and Dresden, Sophie coming up behind them. "What's this I'm hearing, that you met the man in black?"

"We did," Nate confirmed cheerfully.

"What?!" Hardison looked stunned.

"Is everyone alright?" Sophie asked.

"Oh, yeah, everyone's fine. He just wanted to talk. Threaten us, bully us, you know, the usual. Dresden, back to your couch, I need Hardison's computers." The wizard went that way obediently, but he didn't let go of the box he was carrying, raiding its contents before he surrendered it to Eliot. Sophie followed Parker to the staging area.

"Hardison." Nate sat and stared at the screens. "The Tetryakov Gallery is the main repository of Sokolov's work. That's not just his portraits and his studies, that's also his journals, his notebooks. The records of his commissions. Do they have electronic copies of those?"

In a moment the central screen was full of documents, more and more being flicked to one side as the hacker blithely charged into presumably secured databases across the world. "Some of it."

"Cross-reference against the portrait. We might not know who the people in it are, but it's absolutely one of Sokolov's largest pieces."

"It's also a full-body portrait of two people. He preferred faces, busts, or large groups. It's unique," Sophie added.

"Give me a minute, I'm having to run all this through a translator. I don't actually read Russian."

"Sophie, Parker. Are there any big art events taking place within the next three days?"

"Yes," Parker replied before Sophie could. "A private art auction in two days." She pulled from an inner jacket pocket a small piece of paper and handed it over with a grin.

Sophie took it, read it, and passed it on. "That's what the Christie's man is here for. He's not selling, he's buying."

"He just went to all this trouble to get the portrait, and he's selling it already?" Eliot protested mildly. "Why?"

"Because in two days he won't need it anymore." Ford stared at the screen. "Dresden, the brass piping. What you meant to do with it, can you do it in the storage room as well?"

"If there's enough brass, yes."

"Do it." Nate looked at his team. "He can't find them. He came to us because whatever Dresden did worked. The key, the circles, whatever it is, they are actually doing their job and he can't find all the stuff Parker took from him. I bet he had some sort of tracker in his pockets, waiting for Parker to go for it."

"Jerk," the thief muttered, but she didn't sound angry as much as resigned. "I figured the paper was safe."

"Dresden."

Eliot brought the piece of paper to their consultant. It was a match to the envelope, heavy vellum, the ink black and gold, the writing beautifully elegant. Dresden grimaced as soon as he touched it, and lifted it up. "Nope. This is your tracker."

"I can't put it back when he just keeps being invisible!" Parker protested.

Nate gestured appeasingly. "Hardison, make a copy. We'll put the original with the rest of the stuff. I imagine next he's going to try and break in, send the leshy to fetch them, or something worse." Once again he turned to Dresden. "Can you stop that from happening?"

"Yes, but I should get started soon," the wizard had sat up straight, staring in something like wonder as, once again, Nate did what he did best.

"You've got the whole day. Sophie, you and I have a meeting for dinner."

"Fedorov?" When he nodded confirmation, she pursed her mouth. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"No. That's why we're going."

Hardison had put the invitation into a scanner that was discreetly hidden in one of the desks. He handed it back to Parker, who glared at it as if it were the man in black himself. The computers chose that moment to beep and he looked sharply up. "Found it." His fingers flew over the keyboard and he grimaced. "They're direct scans from one of Sokolov's commission journals. The OCR is having a time with it, let me see if I can make the name of the commissioner any clearer." He clipped one particular set of lines from the yellowed, faded page on the screen.

Sophie drew in a sharp breath. Eliot, who'd been coming over to take the invitation from Parker, froze.

"You're fine, Hardison. It reads fine like that," Nate murmured distractedly.

"That can't be right," Eliot muttered.

"What's been right about this job from the beginning?" Sophie countered mildly.

"What's it say?" Hardison asked.

All three of them replied at once. "Koschei."

Behind them, Dresden choked on his breakfast sandwich.

Nate clapped his hands. "This is good!"

"Good?" Eliot stared at the mastermind in disbelief. "This is good? We're going up against the main bad guy in every Russian fairy-tale ever written, someone who actually makes the Russians balk, and you think this is good?!"

"All fairy tales have their basis on something real," Sophie had sat to one side, her hands wrapped around a cup she hadn't touched yet. "Khan Koshan was a barbarian warlord, back in a time when Russia was simply Rus, 'the land'."

"It's good because we have a name," Nate explained. "And a name means a trail. Wizards might not be able to use technology - he is a wizard?" He turned to Dresden, waited for a nod to carry on. "But the rest of the world does. A name means a profile, travel records, hotels, purchases. Even if he's not using his own name, and honestly I expect he'd be the sort who would out of sheer arrogance, a name isn't the sort of thing that blows up computers, like an image does." He turned to stare at the screen. "A name gives us everything. Hardison, this isn't your usual profile, but can you give me an estimate of how long it will take you?"

"You want me to guess how long it'll take to sift through two hundred years of fairy tales to get a bead on this man?" Hardison stared at Nate.

"He's older than that," Dresden sounded off. "He's much, much older than that."

"Dresden." Nate acknowledged. "Do you have a starting point?"

Harry exhaled sharply. "Yes," he replied carefully.

The mastermind pressed his mouth into a thin line and added, "One that doesn't involve men in gray and big swords?"

"I'm working on that," Dresden admitted. "Khan Koshan is…sort of a wizardly cautionary tale. He's the only wizard anyone knows of that successfully managed immortality."

"As in he can't die, or he can't be killed?" Eliot asked.

"Both," the wizard replied grimly. "That's half the trick. You can be ageless, if you don't mind every supernatural in the world out for your blood. You can be unkillable, if you don't mind selling your soul. As far as anyone knows, he got both kewpie dolls without paying the price."

"So he's a criminal." Nate didn't look convinced.

"That's the other half, he's not. Technically." Harry seemed to measure his words with incredible care. "The best known way to be ageless is by stealing the life off of someone else. That is outright necromancy. Men in gray. Big swords."

"He's not doing that." It wasn't a question.

"No. No one knows how he's doing it, only that he absolutely doesn't age, and that he's not a necromancer."

"And he can't be killed? Hurt?" That came from Eliot, who was scowling at the very thought.

"Parker clocked him twice at the museum. Solid hits. They were gone by the time I tackled him."

"That can't be an easy trick to pull off," Sophie mused.

"It's not. What… is known is what the fairy-tales are already telling you. He cut out his own heart and hid it - he hid it so well that no one can find it, not even death."

Sophie drew in a deep breath. "The brooch. The Emerald Heart of Koschei the Deathless. The jewel that no one's ever seen, but everyone knows is real."

"Yup. Now, here I'm going on hearsay: he did it to gift it to a woman he loved. But she rejected him, and it poisoned the heart. Turned him greedy and cruel. He was going to share the trick of it with the world, up until that point. Having met the man, I think it's bullcrap. He never meant to give the secret away. He's just spinning some PR to make himself look the victim, not the villain."

"That tracks," Nate agreed.

"Is that what he's after?" Eliot turned. Hardison had put up a picture of the portrait on one of the screens, deeming it safe enough since no phones had been sacrificed in the acquisition of it.

"The placement of the lock would seem to hint at it," Sophie agreed, but she saw Nathan frown minutely.

Surprisingly, it was Dresden who sounded off. "Why? It's been safe all this time, impossible to find. Why bother now, why bother at all?"

"Mm." Nate stared at the painting. "Dresden, do you mind shouting across the room?"

"I like it better than the alternative."

"Then I'd like you to work with Hardison on the profile, but the security around the things we took from Koschei takes priority. Eliot, you're with them. Sophie, Parker, we're going to find out what we can about this private auction."

"I bet Jess knows," Parker suggested.

"Start there, then. Dresden." It was Nate's turn to choose his words very carefully. "Is this something you should report to your people?"

The wizard looked surprised to even be considered on that regard. "Technically."

"We're flying on a lot of 'technically's here," the mastermind muttered.

"I mean, I can't use a cellphone. I'd have to find a landline." A little smirk ghosted over Harry's features making him look, for a fleeting moment, young. "The only ones I know of are back in Chicago."

Nate didn't smile, but it was a close thing.

NINETEEN

To be fair, I did get why Ford called it 'wanton destruction of property'. Eliot just looked way too gleeful wielding a power tool. And it absolutely wasn't because I was a little bit jealous that he got to use the fun toys, like a nail gun. Cordless drill. Power sander.

Nope, not jealous at all.

So the morning went with Eliot in my basement and me out in the yard entertaining Mouse, and the hitter occasionally stopping long enough to relay a question from Hardison back at the loft.

Then he ran out of iron nails. That wasn't anyone's fault, I'd asked for enough for a few spells, not enough to line the doors and windows, which was what it would take to keep the leshy out. No shield or barrier I could think of was going to keep a Golden Bear out, obviously. And I couldn't imagine anyone had ever come up with something to keep Koschei out, it would have been the stuff of legends. No, the point was the circle, and the ward inside, a copy of the pattern on the key.

Hey, if it worked for Koschei it was good enough for me.

Eliot took off to get more nails. Hardison didn't want me near the loft while he worked on a little joint project I'd suggested. Which gave me the perfect opportunity to head into my shiny new basement, close my shiny new circle for protection, and break out Bob.

I'd honestly thought about leaving Bob behind. My apartment might not look like much, but there were protections on it that only living for years in the same place can create. My laboratory, the sub-basement, was not only protected but hard to find. There was a better than good chance that Bob would be reasonably safe. But better than good was no perfect. And powerful and knowledgeable as Bob was, he still lived in a skull, and skulls are fragile. I wasn't worried about any of the many enemies in my life breaking in and finding him nearly as much as I was about them breaking in and not realizing how valuable he was while they wrecked the place.

In any case, I'd brought him with me. I hadn't expected we'd do much. I figured I could let him loose for a little while, if nothing else, and use that later as, heh, leverage when I needed his help. But that had been before I realized the size of the mess in Boston. I brought my rucksack down to the basement, found three boxes that had been on the Endless List, and put the skull on top of them. "Wake up, Bob."

The spirit's eyes lit up like candles, and immediately blazed and sparked like fireworks. "Whoa!"

"Yeah, welcome to Boston." I knew exactly how he felt. I put the sack on the shiny new workbench and sat on the shiny new stool.

"Ooof, headrush." Bob sorted himself out faster than I had, and his eyes rolled all around the sockets as he took in his surroundings. "Nice place. These Leverage people are taking good care of you, I see. Did you ever find out what it is they do?"

"I'm working on it."

"You know, Harry, it wouldn't have killed you to put me on a window during the train ride. It's been forever since I've really traveled."

"I was asleep for most of it."

"Liar," Bob sang back. "Are you wearing a sling?"

"I was trying to sleep for most of it. And yes." The shoulder was only occasionally throbbing, but Eliot had been very clear about wearing the sling as long as possible. "The Leverage people seem to have stepped into something a little beyond everyone's paygrade."

The spirit scoffed minutely. "Mortals."

"I'm not sure I'd have the arm to put in a sling if it weren't for them, so let's skip the pleasantries about that. I need to make a quick veil-shielding charm."

"Harry, you can't do that, you know that. A charm that can defend against a Veil needs to be attuned to, if not the Veil, then the wizard casting it, else it burns up."

"I'm fine with it burning up. I just need it to last five minutes. Two even." I couldn't even imagine the sheer amount of mayhem any of these people could do in two minutes. Or less, but I was trying to play it safe.

"What a waste of magic," Bob scoffed.

"Bob, focus. These are the same people who got you the boxes you're sitting on." The skull was sitting on top of three boxes full of paperback romances. I didn't question his unlife choices and Leverage hadn't questioned mine.

The spirit's attention turned inward briefly. "Well, I'm suddenly feeling a lot more generous toward our hosts," he declared, far too chipper. "Also, this city's making my teeth buzz. Anything that takes attention away from that is welcome."

"Oh, I have lots more questions for you, don't worry. The charm?"

"Did you bring the Vivendum with you? Page 253. By the way, Gottridge is lying, the charm works just as well in metal as it does glass, as long as it's not iron or lead."

I lifted one of the pins I'd found in the Lost & Found box. "How about pewter?"

"Ooo, tin and copper, perfect. If you get lucky, there might even be silver in there."

I found the Vivendum Grimoire, one of the books I'd brought with me from Chicago, found the spell to enchant the charms, and started rummaging about for sympathetic ingredients. Magic's all like that: sometimes you need something specific, but for the most part as long as you have something that sorta resonates with what you mean to do, you're fine. I found a heavy mortar and pestle first, and started throwing things in there: a lens and some colorful beach glass, a few plastic whistles. I tore strips out of a sheet of sandpaper, and emptied a bottle of perfume in. Then I started looking about for something to fill in the fifth slot. Gottridge recommended cheese, but everyone agreed that the man had had a dairy allergy.

"Rice," Bob said in a long-suffering tone. "Rice, Harry. If you cannot go to one extreme, go to the other."

I threw my last ingredient in, covered the mortar and started grinding. "Next question. Can you make a suppression spell into a suppression potion?"

Bob sucked in a breath. How, I didn't know, given he lacked every single element needed for it. "Yes, but it's not gonna taste good. Among other things."

"Other things?" I asked in between working the pestle.

"Think, Harry. The point of a spell is that you can dismiss it at will. If you drink the suppression, how are you going to dismiss it if you need your magic?"

"Can it be done so it's on a timer?"

"Tricky, but doable. And it's still going to taste like the bottom of a ditch. Why are you wearing a sling?"

"Because I dislocated my shoulder last night. Work out the recipe, please." The pestle began grinding more smoothly, so I gave all my focus to the spell. Bob knew better than to distract me, though I could all but feel those witch-light eyes burning into my back.

It wasn't hard, particularly because I didn't need it to be efficient, or good. Like I'd told Bob, I just needed the charms to do their thing long enough for my employers to get wise to a bad situation and bail. I worked the spell into the ingredients until I had fine, dust-colored dust on the bottom of the mortar; I scooped that into an empty salt shaker, sprinkled it all over the dozen or so pins I had ready, covered it all with a dish-cloth with sunflowers printed on it and left the magic to cook.

"You've been here barely a day and you dislocated you shoulder already?" Bob burst out as soon as the cloth settled.

"The suppression recipe, please."

"Harry!"

"It wasn't by choice!"

"That's worse!"

"Bob… These people live and work and do everything on computers. The suppression potion, please. Besides, they put it back already."

I got a recipe, and about ten minutes' worth of being lectured in between every step and ingredient, where Bob knew I couldn't get away or complain too much. "What do these people even do, did you ever figure that out?"

"Nope, and at this point I don't want to. Next question: what would it take to summon a Golden Bear out of the Nevernever?"

Bob went quiet. You wouldn't think this a bad thing unless you knew Bob. Unfortunately, I knew Bob.

"I mean, a couple of the wizards on the Council might be able to, if they can find one. If they can convince it to come through. Things that big, they don't like it on this side, Harry. It takes too much effort and they're not bright enough to put in the work themselves."

"Let me rephrase," I said as I tried to figure out if I had half the things I needed for the suppression potion. "What would it take for someone to instantly summon a Golden Bear out of the Nevernever to do their bidding?"

Bob went quiet again. His eyes were staring at me with an almost solid weight. "Harry, what aren't you telling me?"

"Too hard? Ok, here's another one: tell me every you know about Koschei."

The silence went on for so long that I would've thought him gone if it weren't for the eyes pinned on me. "Harry."

"Yeah?"

"Call the Council."

"Not an option."

"Harry, I know you. If you're asking leading questions about Koschei, it's because you've already met the man. You know for a fact he's here. You are involved, and that is the least safe thing you could be. This is beyond you, Harry. This might be beyond the Council, but at least if you call them it'll be them dying, not you." Bob was sounding very clipped and rushed; it was something I very rarely heard from him, I guess because when you're stuck in a skull there's not much to make you afraid anymore.

"I can't. Not with the War going on. Even if I did manage to get through to someone, I have no way of knowing if they'd have anyone to send. I'm here, now. This is the job."

"You can't take Koschei on! Harry, that's beyond suicide. He has a reputation for holding grudges for a reason!"

"That's a problem for future me. Present me still needs to know everything you can tell me about him -"

"I will not!"

"-because if you don't he's still coming after me, I just won't know when or where or how."

The skull somehow blew me a raspberry, and let out a highly infuriated sound. "What did you do?!"

I brought him up to speed while I worked on attuning a couple of compasses to the chalk I'd scrawled on the back of the portrait. Odds were the painting -sorry, the portrait- would be protected with the same anti-tracking magic on the key, but just in case it wasn't I wanted some way for the others to follow and find it, not just me.

"So he's here for his heart?" Bob saw me grimace as I worked. "You don't think so."

"No. It's been safe all this time, Bob, he has no reason to look it up now, particularly not so openly, so blatantly. If he just wanted the heart he could've gone into the museum at night, broken in by magic and taken it. No, he wants that portrait for another reason."

"And you're sure the woman's the Hag herself?"

"Ford thinks so. I haven't met her."

"I still don't like it."

"Oh, I'm thrilled as peaches about it, Bob," I told him, and all the sarcasm I'd learned from the damn skull came out with the words. "Really. I've met the man twice and both times he wiped the floor with me. I'm sure earning my paycheck."

"Harry, no one could ever pay you enough to face off against the Raven." Bob's voice went to a quieter note. "You're alive. Take the win."

"What'd you say?"

"I said take the win, you -"

"No, I mean, what'd you call him?"

"The Raven? The Blackbird? I wouldn't even be saying his name if we weren't in a circle that I'm sure you've closed. He's one of those people who are deeply attuned to any attention coming their way. You know the type. Opera singers. Politicians."

"So he can tell when someone says his name?"

"If he's listening. If he knows the person saying it. If there's enough intent, like with any other sort of magic. Why?"

I closed my eyes and focused on that morning. Koschei hadn't actually met Sophie; the vault hallway of the MFA had been dark, and I'd drawn his attention away just long enough that, by the time he'd caught up to us, Sophie had already bolted to go get Eliot.

Eliot, he knew. Unfortunately.

But he didn't know Ford. They hadn't even traded names at the bagel shop. More, Ford didn't believe. It didn't matter that he'd seen me actually throwing magic around, he was more like the sort of person I'm used to, the ones who wanted to explain it all away and forget it had ever happened.

So, just as we'd expected, he probably had a nebulous idea of where his stuff was - somewhere on the block, if he'd sniffed me out already. But he wouldn't know precisely where, and with the anti-tracker in place, he never would. "See, that's the sort of thing I need to know. How about sharing some fairy tales with me while I work on the suppression potion?"

Bob wasn't happy about it, but he also had a vested interest in keeping me alive, and it was going to be hard enough without suggesting one of his usual bargains. I spent the next hour setting up and preparing the suppression potion while he told me old Russian fairy tales and scared the crap out of me.

And yet.

The thing was, whenever I was on a case, things were usually happening so fast, coming at me from every direction, that most of the time I wasn't acting, I was reacting. That wasn't happening with the Leverage people; it couldn't. Whatever came at them, one of them knew how to deal with it and the rest knew to follow through.

Which included me.

I'd never realized it before, because I usually worked alone. I didn't have time to think through what I was doing, I barely had time to catch my breath, keep all my body parts attached to the body in question. But working with other people, capable people, I'd held my own. It wasn't gonna save me from Koschei, but it was kind of enlightening to know I could keep up with some of the smartest folk I'd ever met. Even if they were suspiciously criminally inclined.

I got the potion sorted out, dipped my finger and tried a taste, since I was pretty sure I was done doing magic until lunch, at the very least. It tasted about as bad as I'd expected. "Hey, Bob?"

"I don't have a tongue, I'm not tasting it for you."

"It's not that. I was just thinking, if you can see what's in those three boxes, you can probably do a general inventory -"

"Oh, here we go with the drudgery."

"- and I need to know if I've got what I need to make a mirror-mask -"

"Hey, Harry!" Eliot called out somewhere above me. "You home?"

"Inventory, Bob."

"There better be another box in it for me," he grumbled.

"Thanks." I stepped forward and focused on breaking the circle, except as soon as I stepped up to it it disappeared.

Right, suppression potion.

"Dresden!"

"Down here!" I set my foot on the stairs.

The doorbell rang. It was about as old as the house, and it seemed to be holding up well in my presence. It was certainly loud enough to nearly make me jump off the stairs. Eliot had just opened the basement door up top, and I saw him snap around like a wolf scenting prey. He put up a hand; I'd seen enough of the man to stop dead where I was.

He walked out of sight. I couldn't even hear his steps on the wooden floors. I only knew where he'd gone when the front door opened. I heard a woman's voice, I heard Eliot saying something back before he called out, "Dresden, someone here to see you."

That, I wasn't expecting. I trotted up the stairs, closed the door; Mouse was waiting for me there, ears perked and tail on the alert. He whuffled a warning.

Eliot shot me an equally wordless warning with his eyes before he stepped back, away from the door. There was a woman there with a kid, a young girl. I'm not good with children but she was old-ish, maybe twelve. Something like that.

When someone talks about someone who's not classically beautiful? The woman was the very definition of it. She was short, solid, very curvy, but even when she was just standing there there was a grace, a sort of unbreakable dignity that made you take notice. She was wearing a very prim business suit, gray skirt and jacket, white silk shirt, black shoes. She had dark hair done up in a very severe bun, dark skin the color of copper, sharp features mixed in with soft curves. Her eyes were black as midnight, with a ring of gold.

Her daughter had the ghost of her mother's beauty; she was quickly growing into it, though there was a bit of lanky to her that said her father was probably taller, definitely skinnier. She was wearing some sort of uniform, gray pleated skirt and white shirt, and she looked scared; she took one quick peek at me and immediately pinned her eyes down, but it was long enough for me to see she had her mother's eyes.

"You are wizard Dresden?" The woman had a thick, nearly impenetrable accent. She also had a printed sheet of paper with, of all things, my ad on the Chicago Yellow Pages on it. "Lost Items Found?" she recited.

"Uh -" I'm not good when I'm not under pressure. I usually get myself all hyped up and ready when I have to talk to a customer, be it on the phone or in my office back in Chicago. It didn't help when she suddenly started talking in a language that sounded a little bit like music and a lot like nothing I'd ever heard before. "Whoa. Ma'am. Ma'am, please."

"She wants to know if you're the man from the ad." Eliot's frown had changed to a look of curiosity.

"You sp -? What is sh -?"

"Wampanoag. Algonquian. It's a native - hold on." The woman had kept on talking, faster and faster, and Eliot put his hands up to stop her. "Ma'am, please, wait a minute -"

"Ma'am, he's human!" I shot at her, hating that I had to.

It worked. Her eyes went wide, and her mouth fell open. She stepped back. "Sorry! Sorry! Am sorry! Am so sorry! I say nothing!"

Eliot fell back, confused, so I stepped forward. "It's fine. It's fine, ma'am. Yes, I'm Harry Dresden. Can we please move this inside?" I thought for a moment she was just going to bolt, but obviously whatever had made her track me down sight unseen, in Boston, had more weight than her fear of humans and she stepped in, her daughter keeping close.

"Dresden, what was that?" Eliot muttered.

"There's a thousand humans for every single supernatural in the world, and most of them come out shooting if they get so much as a whiff of anything weird. Never sell yourself short in a fight, Eliot, not that I think you would. Humans are the tactical nuke of the supernatural world."

"And scary accordingly?"

"It's just safer if humans don't find out what lives around them. Safer for everyone involved."

"Hardison wants to know why you're not blowing up the earbud."

"Suppression potion. Long story. No magic for me right now. I'd take it out, it's gonna wear off any minute."

We sat down. Mother and daughter laced hands, and the woman said something. Eliot opened his mouth, but the kid beat him to it. "We don't want any trouble. We didn't know you had humans with you. We don't know what the rules are for people in other cities."

"I'm a little looser on the rules than most wizards. Now, I'd love to ask how you tracked me down, but I'm more interested in why."

"I found you on the internet," the girl replied. "I told my mom. We had a friend sniff you out. It wasn't hard." The mother said something. "He said you smell like big water, like a lake."

"You found him by his smell?" Eliot sounded stunned. She shrugged. Her mother said something and he frowned. "I'm not sure I got that right, it wasn't Algonquian."

"It was Welsh," I said. "Wasn't it?" I looked at the two ladies sitting on a couch that had been, until five minutes ago, still wrapped in plastic. "Because there's no word for 'selkie' in the local tongue."

The mother finally found her courage. "You help us. You find lost items, yes? You help."

Well, the next part was gonna suck. I've been the victim of my share of raw deals in my day. There's been a lot of times when I've had to sit down, shut up and take it when someone's doling out misery. I'll never agree to leaving someone in that kind of situation, but there's rules of magic even I can't bend. "Not this one, no. Ma'am… did he take it fair?"

She drew herself up proudly. "Never fair. Never. You know, wizard. You know this."

"Wait, selkie, as in, the selkie? Seal-woman?" I saw Eliot go through every stage between disbelief and understanding in under five seconds. Then I saw dark, cold rage blot out the sunshine. "Her skin. Someone took her skin."

"Someone took her skin, what, twelve, thirteen years ago?" I asked the kid.

"Fourteen," she replied haughtily.

"That deal's done. It's like signing a contract, you might not like it, but you're stuck with it. The penalties for breaking it are… severe. And interfering is tricky. Interfering with magic into a selkie marriage tends to rebound, ricochet. Like a bullet. "Ma'am, I can't help you, I'm just - I'm a wizard. The rules apply to me same as everyone."

"No!" She snapped at me. "I no say -" She growled in frustration, then looked at her daughter and took a deep breath. "He find my skin. Take. Is law. I know. I no need you find my skin, wizard. I need you find my daughter's skin."

Oh, Hell's Bells.

Both Eliot and I turned to stare at the girl. Thirteen, fourteen years old. In some places, to some men that I couldn't legally set on fire, she was ready to be married.

"He took your daughter's skin," Eliot sounded ready to murder someone.

"Yes. You find."

"I'm… working -"

"Can you find her skin, Dresden?"

"There's a few things I could try?"

He smiled at the two seal-women. It almost looked like his usual sunshine smile, but I could see the murder still lurking somewhere behind it. "We'll do what we can, ma'am."

She sagged with relief and reached for her purse. "I pay -"

"No payment required," he told her pleasantly.

"But we'll need as much information as you can give us about your -" Even knowing Eliot felt the same as I did, even knowing I had both backup and permission to act, I still wanted to set someone on fire. I did my best to smile instead. Smile and reassure. "- your husband."

She had it all typed up neatly in another piece of paper she pulled out of her sensible purse, as well as a few hairs in a bit of plastic wrap and her contact information, which directed us to Sannah, her daughter. We saw them to the door, waved them away, and Eliot turned to face me. "Dresd- " The little bit of suppression potion I'd tasted chose that moment to run out, and he yanked the earbud out as it screeched angrily. He drew in a deep breath. "Is that for real? Someone took her skin and she had to marry him?"

"Yeah. Crap deal, with magic and hope keeping them tethered. As long as there's even a chance to get her skin back, she'll do anything, put up with anything."

His hands curled into fists. It took him a few moments and a couple of deep breaths to get past the first crest of anger; he was better at it than I was, I'd known about selkies for so much longer, and I was still angry at the whole situation. "So, how do you normally handle something like this?"

"Uh, I go to the library, look up the guy. Tail him, on foot or by magic, see if he goes any place that isn't home or work. Find out where the skin is, report back to her with the location."

"Wh- That's it? There's no… explosions, no fighting?"

"He's human. Anyone else would know to give the skin back. A selkie's skin is bad luck on an impressive scale to anyone but the owner, it's why you can't use magic to break up the marriage."

"So he'd be using human means to keep the skins." He looked very thoughtful.

"Probably, yes."

A slow, wicked grin bloomed on the man's face that made me feel as if we were about to do some very bad things to some very bad people. It was a good feeling after having Koschei wipe the floor with us. Me, mostly. "Good. Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"Out of the dark ages and into the age of the geek. Unless you're in the middle of something?"

"Nothing that can't wait." Yeah, ok, I was curious to see how Leverage dealt with a supernatural challenge, even if it was a relatively minor one.

[leporschespam]

tag 9 people you want to get to know better

[the thing is 9, but i've got 4 :) ]

i was tagged by @braceletofteeth

fhfhf thank you sm <333

i was asked yesterday on tellonym is there anyone you want to know better and i thought of my tumblr moots so hell yeah let's go~~

(i say all enthusiastically as if i have the ability to start conversations 😔✋️✋️)

three ships

no stop there is no possible way for me to narrow this down to three, i've watched far too many shows

we shall attempt 💪💪

- kinnporsche

vegaspete could definitely be up here too, but i'll stick with kinn and porsche (also porsche is my all time favourite character so of course he's up here)

- moonjo x jongwoo from strangers from hell

whatever they had going on was not heterosexual and i will be standing by that

- sae-bom & yi-hyun from happiness

a healthy relationship being on this list? fake marriage, childhood friends, found family, of course they're here. happiness has to be one of my favourite shows and bfhfhdh i adore them

first ever ship

i definitely had some in childhood but the one that i'm really thinking of has to be mulder and scully from the x-files

they consumed my 10/11 year old brain, and continued to do so until i was maybe 12/13

last song

timezone by måneskin

their new album is actually so good, and this is probably my favourite song from it

it's giving kimchay au imo

nah i really need to write a kimchay fic because i've got ideas but the words aren't wording

last movie

eternal summer, and i think this letterboxd review summarises it very well [spoilers firstly]::

it was a solid 3.5/5 i'd say, but especially considering it's from 2006- oh my god,,

currently reading

i literally haven't read a whole book since about summer last year and i feel awful-

anyway

various stuff on ao3, mainly kinnporsche, but a few gap stuff, some goncharov (the fics are so good istg), and yeah dude a lot

i've got 488 fics downloaded–

yEahh

currently watching

- gap

let's fucking go sapphics

it's perhaps a bit all over the place, but i have been in desperate need of sapphics, and it hasn't disappointed

- all of us are dead

(rewatch) korea just does zombies so much better. su-hyeok x cheong-san, and mi-jin x ha-ri supremacy

- between us

i haven't watched it in a little while because i wasn't feeling amazing and wanted stuff i knew well, hence going back to aouad, but i've got to ep 4 (and omg omg), and will be resuming at some point soon hopefully

i'm also gonna mention stuff i recently finished because aaaaa

- vincenzo

went in expecting a dark mafia show, got a comedy mafia show (and i am SO here for it)

- till the world ends

i need other people to watch this for my own sanity, had me sobbing at 2am last sunday when i finished it

currently consuming

do you consume oxygen–

currently craving

no more writers block would be nice :)

i haven't had it for so long and i thought i was free, but uh no :(

i am vaguely writing though besties (30 wips 😩✋️ send help)

tagging

of course there's no obligation to continue this <33

@saturnskyline @kinnporsche-n-chill @spookyspiderseb @achilleanskops

[ravenelyx]

For the fic writing ask game! 13, 22, 38, 53, 66, 75!

Hello Soph <3<3 thank you sm !!

13- Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what have you been listening to recently?

Nope, too distracting truly 🥲 no matter if it has words or not -- by brain stalls and I just end up either staring at the wall or singing :")

22- Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process?  How do you come up with titles?

Sometimes i do it before the story itself even exists (like ilyet and arranged heartbreak or the wips listed in my masterlist), sometimes in the middle (an epiphany moment in which my brain goes YOU KNOW WHAT---?).

Titles are usually based on the core of the story if the fic is rather long:

I love you in every timeline: inspired by DSMOM originally -- it's actually a wordplay on the entire story : it holds its essence entirely, playing on the identity of the two girls, the contrast of Sebastian's emotions and the way time affects the whole ordeal (how he himself has as well, directly on indirectly, affected both past, present and future). I have a very late scene written out already which explains pretty much everything, but I can't spoil it and I feel like a quivering leaf when i think about it (brain write faster pls i want to reach it soon --- but not so soon bc it's literally towards the end)

Arranged Heartbreak : pretty self-explanatory (i had thought the title to be lame at first and then I just... didn't care)

As for the other short fics, they're pretty simple titles tbh --- except for the list in my masterlist: I went all out and those don't even exist yet

38- What is your most self-indulgent posted story?

ILYET itself 🥲

She's my precious, my baby, my dearest love --- also, MC 2.0 herself is based on my OC (Lys Lovelace my dear) since I haven't written anything about her (appearance and stuff is still ambiguous as a true x reader story)

53- What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

I expected it to be something angsty : it's actually "fluff" :||

Just fluff

I'm a sappy idiot fr

66- What’s a fun fact about ILYET?

Edit: one fun fact no one probably knows about is that the whole fanfiction was actually born from a teen wolf edit that ended on my tiktok fyp... yeahhh... and it's a stydia scene, when Lydia walks up to the group asking "where have you guys been?" and Stiles turns around, completely struck. And then idk why my brain just decided to take that scene and just... make the whole thing up into what it is now...

75- Is there a particular fic that readers gravitated towards that you didn’t expect?

Pretty much all of them -- I've never really had any online presence before tumblr so I wasn't really expecting anything when I first started writing, really :"")

I remember when i posted the prologue of ilyet: it was late at night, (friday night, about 11:45 pm -- i remember it like it was yesterday) so I just posted it, went to sleep and expected nothing in return -- then I woke up to like 300 notes in barely a few hours and I literally jumped out of my skin🥲🥲 those were the good times

But fr -- I expected Loved like to flop bc I literally word vomited it at 4 am, posted it without even rereading it, and then woke up to ppl liking it fr (I still hate it, don't doubt, but still...)

Aaaand... yeah.

Ask game here <3

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Like with the first semi, here are my thoughts on the second one after all's been said and done

1. Denmark 🇩🇰 - Emabrassing

2. Armenia 🇦🇲 - My girl SLAYED! I heard that she was gonna have a dance break from wiwibloggs and I wasn't sure if it was gonna fit but it did! They should have gone less ham on the smoke effects though because she was literally lost in it for a few seconds, hope they sort this out

3. Romania 🇷🇴 - I don't like the rearranged version and the staging was embarrassing, but he's still young so I think he's gonna find his way eventually

4. Estonia 🇪🇪 - Maybe it's because I'm so used to the studio version or maybe she was anxious but I kinda expected more? She wasn't bad or anything like that, I just know that she can sing even better and I hope she brings it to the final

5. Belgium 🇧🇪 - YEEEES! I was absolutely sure he was a qualifier the moment he stepped on that stage. Like I said yesterday, Gustaph's journey this year has been so amazing to watch. From beating out the fan favourite in Belgium's national final (and giving us an amazing surprised / scared reaction 😂) to the fans being unsure if this was gonna do well to him eventually winning everyone by the preparties and the eventual semi performance. Wow! And then he cried when he qualified! I'm so happy for him 😁

6. Cyprus 🇨🇾 - My man pulled through and made us proud (it's an unwritten rule than whenever Cyprus has a better song than Greece we switch sides) He's hot, the hottest guy in the contest this year, no other options are correct, and he also has an amazing voice to go with it. He's gonna go toe to toe with Marco and Remo on best male vocals on the final.

7. Iceland 🇮🇸 - So sad for Diljá honestly, she's so crazy and fun and she's a fan of the contest too! Amazing vocals, especially considering all the jumping around she did but I feel like they could have done something better with her staging? Idk.

8. Greece 🇬🇷 - Wooo boy. Ok. I know I've been going hard at him since the rehearsal footage came out, maybe a little bit earlier because Poland's was not the only selection allegedly rigged, but honestly? He was better than expected. He did work on his pronunciation and his stage presence and he did the best he could... Which wasn't enough. And I don't want to use his age as an excuse because you have kids in Eurovision Junior doing much better than that or even 13 year old Sandra Kim winning for Belgium before the 16+ age limit was put in place. If I remember correctly it was actually because of Sandra Kim that they put an age limit because she was so good she EMBARASSED the fuck out of all the adults and then they complained that she was younger than what her song says (15). The outfit and the GRΣΣK script on English words was cringe as fuck, though these were not his fault. When people say they want countries to showcase their cultures more, spelling spirit as ΣPIRIT is not what they mean. God the greek broadcaster needs to touch some grass real quick. I also have a tiny bit of an issue with what he said in an interview, that he wrote the song because he was feeling overwhelmed about being signed to a big record label or sth? Well, Victor, I hope the whole world only had problems of this caliber! Turns out he actually is a nepo baby after all, his grandfather is a shipowner but allegedly this did not influence the greek broadcaster's decision on choosing him over the fan favourite. Sure Jan.

9. Poland 🇵🇱 - I don't know if the EBU put the two alleged cheaters back to back on purpose, probably not because no one seemed to care about the Greek allegations anyway, but in my mind this was iconic. Okay. Miss BEJBAH was good. Not "slay yas werk you're gonna be an icon of the contest" good but good enough to qualify. I told you all she was gonna make it. Most people who watch the show do not follow the preselection process and then some won't care anyway. Her song was okay, her performance was okay, she's gonna tank in the final. Get over it. I'm also curious about something. If the roles of her and Jann were reversed, would he have faced as much backlash? I think not. But what do I know?

10. Slovenia 🇸🇮 - They're okay. I like them. Their song is catchy. That's it. I literally don't know what more to say. I've seen tons of hype for them and their song and their alleged stellar stage presence and they absolutely deserved to qualify but this is just an okay, inoffensive, enjoyable song. I don't feel too strongly about it either way.

11. Georgia 🇬🇪 - Why do you hate joy Europe? Why? Why did you not vote for her? Why? Why? Why? I voted for her SIX times, two of which I'm not sure even went through because I only got confirmation TODAY, so when the detailed voting scores are announced Greece better have given her SOMETHING. But no I'm genuinely puzzled. Out of the borderline qualifiers I expected her to beat Alika. I'm happy for Alika of course, she deserves it, but Iru gave a very solid performance, she was on key the whole time, she looked great and the song was peak Eurovision, what the fuck went wrong here? A lot of my friends seemed to like her too. Two said she was their favourite last night, same as me, one liked her a lot and the other was the only one who hated her performance. I'm sad 😢

12. San Marino 🇸🇲 - Piqued Jacks was a pleasant surprise honestly. I liked them much more than I expected as they consistently ranked among my least favourites but I think they have a very solid performance that they can be proud of.

13. Austria 🇦🇹 - Okay, I got really nervous because both their performance back in Austria and their rehearsal footage looked so low-key? They felt maybe a bit too shy? I know they couldn't possibly recreate that phenomenal music video on stage, but I wanted, and still do, to see them embrace the kookiness of their song. I think they played it too safe, too serious. But then again they do have a serious message they want to get across underneath this fun crazy song so maybe it was intentional? Anyway, they still were more enjoyable than I thought they would be and I'm glad they're in!

14. Albania 🇦🇱 - Talk about a glow up alright! I'm not even mad they qualified over Georgia, because even though the odds predicted Georgia 9th and Albania 11th (they were even lower before the show) I knew they were gonna make it the moment I saw their performance. It's not a perfect song but it still had so much identity and a distinct ethnic, Balkan sound that is otherwise completely absent from this year's Contest so people were bound to pass it through to the final. I'm afraid they might land very close to the bottom in the final, but it honestly doesn't matter because Albina and her Familja still very much have a place in the final, regardless of their placing.

15. Lithuania 🇱🇹 - YES Monika YES!! Another definite qualifier in my mind. I personally loved her since day one. I said I almost cried during Latvia's performance in the first semi, well I did cry during Monika's! Amazing job girl.

16. Australia 🇦🇺 - Good. Solid. Fun. I don't feel too strongly about this either, and I do think San Marino was more enjoyable to watch, but I'm happy for them.

[someonelookingpraediti]

Mid Year Book Tag 2024!

I haven't seen any of these so far this year, but I don't follow as many book blogs as I did previously, so maybe they are out there, and just haven't crossed my path. I've just reused the questions from last year.

1. What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year? That's actually a really difficult question, because I just haven't been as enthusiastic with my reading this year. The one I enjoyed the most was The Sunshine Court - but only because I'm so obsessed with AFTG - I wouldn't call it the best book I've read. I think I'm going to have to go with Butter, by Asako Yuzuki. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it was a riveting read, and so well constructed.

2. What’s the best sequel you’ve read so far this year? Probably Lockwood & Co. four and five - they were a brilliant end to the series, and I'm glad I finally went back to these books after I was interrupted last year. I also read books two and three of the Howl's Moving Castle books, and loved those too!

3. What’s a new release you haven’t read yet, but want to? I bought The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, and The Shadow Key by Susan Stokes-Chapman, full of good intentions, planning to read them straight away. I really enjoyed both authors' previous work, and I'm sure these will be just as good, I just haven't got around to it yet!

4. Which new release are you most anticipating for the second half of the year? I am so, SO excited for Graveyard Shift, by M.L. Rio! I loved If We Were Villains, I can't wait to see what else the author can come up with! Fingers crossed she isn't a one-trick pony, and this one will be just as good!

5. Which book was the biggest disappointment? I DNF-ed Grieving Gold, by Daniel McDaniel, which was really quite awful, but I wasn't too disappointed because I didn't have any expectations. I think maybe A Study in Drowning, by Ava Reid, which I had such high hopes for, but fell well short of my expectations.

6. Which book was the biggest surprise? I can't honestly say I've been surprised by anything so far this year. Normally there's something that absolutely blows me away when I wasn't expecting it, but not this time.

7. Who is your favourite new (to you) author this year? I read a book by Krystal Sutherland, which was really good, and definitely made me want to try another. And Asako Yuzuki, I will definitely keep an eye out for more of her books!

8. Do you have a new favourite character? So many! I recently read the first Magnus Chase book, and what a guy! Or pretty much every single character from The Sunshine Court! I know we technically were introduced to Laila and Cat in the previous series, but they actually got personalities in this one.

9. What was a book that made you cry? Obviously The Sunshine Court had me wailing - poor, sad little Jean Moreau! We Were Liars also made me tear up a little when I finished it yesterday.

10. What was a book that made you happy? The sequels to Howl's Moving Castle (Castle in the Air, and House of Mane Ways) both made me just as happy as the first one. And The Witchwood Knot, by Olivia Atwater. I wasn't such a fan of the author's standalone that I read, but her faerie stories are amazing!

11. What was your favourite book-to-screen adaptation this year? I have seen absolutely zero book-to-screen adaptations this year. I keep meaning to finally watch Lockwood & Co now I've finished the books. I can't think of anything else I'm particularly interested in seeing.

12. Which book had the prettiest cover? Probably A Study in Drowning. I have the Illumicrate hardcover, and it's so gorgeous, even though the book itself was only average.

13. How are you doing with your yearly goals? Well... not great. Rather than a numerical goal, this year I set myself some monthly challenges. Read a backlog book, annotate a book, etc, etc. I've not managed to hit all six monthly goals so far. Assuming that I would use a different book for each goal, I'd have been aiming for at least 72 books. I'm on 34, so I'm two behind at the moment.

14. What’s a book you need to read before the end of the year? I want to read The Familiar and The Shadow Key. I also want to finally get round to Caravel, A Deadly Education, Emily Wilde. And I still haven't read the sequels to Only a Monster or Belladonna. I need to keep making tracks through the Riordan books. I need to at least finish Magnus Chase, and hopefully start Trials of Apollo.

Most importantly, I need to get back into my blogging. I've just been awful the first half of the year - I've been constantly behind. I have a whole day to myself on Thursday, and I'm going to spend the entire day catching up on my posts, and I'll keep it up going forward.

[auberginesdonthavelimbs]

for the weird asks: 1, 3, 4, 12, 13, 19, 33, 42, 47

Oh golly, I am unprepared. I never actually get asks lol. But thank you! Your social interaction is noticed and appreciated.

who is/are your comfort character(s)?

Usually whoever I like from the thing I'm currently into, but the most abiding ones, and ones which I am noticeably into currently, are probably Edward/Bella from Twilight. They were my first OTP and pretty much every other ship I've enjoyed has been in some way reminiscent of their dynamic.

And yes I realise this says comfort characters not ships but I don't think I have comfort characters outside of ships. The shipping is what makes it comforting.

3. do you leave the window open at night?

Sometimes, if the temperature is perfect and I don't expect rain. But most likely at some point when I wake up in the night I will find the temperature is no longer perfect (this will happen regardless of whether the windows are open) and then close them so I can have a bit more control over the temperature (it will not matter).

4. which cryptyd being do you believe in?

I don't think any, sorry. I am not knowledgeable about cryptozoology.

12. what kind of day is it?

lol I had to go outside to see. good job getting me up from my computer for a minute. it occurs to me i didn''t have to interpret this as being about the weather, but anyway. it's very nice, warm and windy and overcast. i should go for a walk tbh.

13. when was the last time you ate?

I had a nutrigrain bar like 10 minutes ago.

19. imagine we’re at a sleepover, would you paint my nails?

If you asked yes, but I'd rather we both paint out nails at the same time and maybe I can give you tips if you don't know how to do it. I'm far from an expert but I watched an expert give tips in a youtube video so I have that going for me.

33. the last adventure you’ve been on?

Oh gee. Yesterday I went for a walk and took a wrong turn and wasn't sure where I was for a few streets and then managed to get home without looking at a map. Let's say that counts.

42. an app you frequently use besides this godforsaken site?

Libby! Love it so much, check it out if you are a public library enjoyer.

47. what was the last message you sent?

"guelph mention" immediately following a link to a fb post I had seen on tumblr about someone in guelph ontario.

thanks again, this was fun ^‿^

[theorist-influencer-untitled]

9.15.23 Friday

4:55 am

Just got back from the floor of Iqor... Still, there are angles to point out, like why dread-locks guy is not texting me? It is a strange behaviour...

Brother Rodel became a stranger to us.... But we are still friends... But he is being distant, hmm.... It is so strange, people's behaviour changed in a snap of a finger...

Got good 3 opening calls... I had a good mood on that, thank God to Coach Gian for being nice.

And some bad callers an enders for me that I almost wanna give up... But I bounce back after lunch.

But still, my self-esteem is crashing coz of the weird bad callers... He is from the phone brand company that we are carrying an employee and client as well...

I still need to raise up my FCR angels... Some callers are weird and they have different accents. I had a hard time on the employee that is also a client... I can't get his point of expecting to get a credit that all of his 4 lines is suspended.

I feel fat,ugly,old and wrinkled... whew!

Tomorrow is our off... As well as the Dread-locks guy of wave 469...We had a qa talk awhile ago, the last 45 minutes of our working hours... Someone announced that 469 will be having their rest day as well as,the 468 our wave...

Can one angel ask dread-locks guy....Why he added me but not texting? Why, he asked for my messenger, then nah...Nothing... That's a sin, angels... Getting my messenger ID but not keeping in touch...

What's with the "baseball top" dread-locks guy? Where is the ball? Who is the batter? Who is the bat???

11:50 am

I have a sore throat weird... Some of the people in Iqor are also sneezing or having sore throat like Champi...

12:03 noon

Windblow windblow is still here angels...

2:09 pm

Hmm... It is so sad that mommy Linda passed away already, Dina told me 2 days ago and I wasn't able to post here coz I'm fucking tired and busy... I'm having stress on my FCR... Whew!

Mommy Linda was one of my elderlies that I took care of for 2 months... That is the sad part of being a caregiver. I wiped her butt and cleaned her vajayjay... She was nice in spite of the tantrums... But life is a big mystery and the world sometimes is full of lies...

This is Mommy Linda, last December angels...

She is the head leader of Avon here in Cavite...

Rest in Peace Mommy Linda, God is with you now...

Thanks for the memories,Mommy Linda...

This is her log-book...

I added these on her log book.

5:02 pm

Rest day will do my laundry tomorrow and I can't do house chores without gloves or I will really, really cry if I don't have gloves...

I just bought a gloves coz I feel self-pity coz still I'm not yet a regular employee and I truly feel ugly even my hands, I wanna have collagen someday...

My upbringing here since I was 13, before sleeping at night my Aunt Teresa who raised me here in my old childhood house, she taught me to wear my gloves and my hand cream... Most of my events my family always wanted me to wear a gloves... I find it strange...

So,lemme go back to Iqor issues:

The negative of Coach Gian in spite of his long patience... When the time yesterday that he coached me to polish me on the floor, it was ohkay for me to know my mistake... But I don't like Coach Gian when he said that he will call Jen ( one of our wavemates ) coz why he needs to call Jen in-front of me while coaching me. Who is Jen? To embarass me ? Jen is just a wavemate not my friend but in a way a wavemate but I don't know her that much... But helping one another in work is a professional thing.

About Supervisor Gian? ( this is a different Gian ). I know it was just a joke but telling me to give him a 150 just to waive my sup call it is kinda ouchie in my part... That I treated him with respect and I asked a favour to please guide me here in Iqor. Then, he will tell me that I should give him 150... But I just smiled...

If I have money it is ohkay ( I mean extra money), but I'm so tight these days...

Lemme go back to FCR or First Call Resolution:

My self-esteem is crashing most specially I remember this particular customer over the phone named Cristina Croeguert...She said that I received an email back June and I got suspended and who initiated it,that I don't know.

Then, I probe to achieve the FCR you need to ask and ask the customer and paraphrase for confirmation.

Then, I said Ms Cristina you received an email last June and you don't know why it happened that you got a suspension. Right?

Then,Ms Cristina said you don't get it... She said from the past couple of months I received a message an email that I was suspended and I don't know, who initiated it?

I said Yes Ms Cristina if I'm getting it correctly you said you received a mail that you were suspended and you don't know why it happened that you didn't do it... ( meaning this suspension is a double meaning either coz of bills or customer's request ).

Cases that I know I can manage in Iqor:

1. Receiving payment or make a payment. I used Atlas System.

2. Payment Arrangement. I used Atlas system as well here. So many zig-zags and cases of Payment Arrangement.

Payment Arrangement this can be 1 installment on schedule requested by customer or 2 installment requested by customer, 14 days interval if customer requested for 2 installment.

If the first payment arrangement was not successful due to insufficient balance or no fundings in the card, if it is 2 installment then a customer wanted to extend that failed first payment arrangement. Customer must wait for the first payment arrangement to be deleted in the system for 48 hours then that's time they can create an another payment arrangement.

If there is payment arrangement, it is 100% sure that the service will not be disconnected.

3 . Return a payment to the customer's card if it is acceptable card or case. If it is a double payment.

Here I always go to the customer's "checkbook" but I can't see the double payment... Then, I realized I have to search for "payment and look up" in Atlas.

Bounce Check- this is due to insufficient funds.

4. Checking the whole bill of customer's expenses monthly,their MRC ( monthly recurring bill ). But there is an additional if there is a usage on their voice call or any additional thing or plan upgrade then possible there will be "pro-rated".

5. Credit Adjustment. This for goodwill hahaha I need to review the Samson System tab tab grrr.But I handled 2 cases of credit adjustment...

6. Removing Feature. I have to memorize the Samson System tab tab. I handled this once.

7. Transfer Pin--If customer wanted to have their transfer pin and make a t-mobile id. Just guide them on the t-mobile website and find the C2 policy about transfer pin.

This job is not that easy coz of the weird callers, weird accents and weird deep within of your customer's... The FCR is the most difficult to get if the caller is having a bad intention of twisting or simply to damage the agent's reputation.

[hangingthoughts]

I want to add the memory I was able to create yesterday, Friday, January 13. ✨ One would expect it to be bad. But it was a really fun day.

Well,

I woke up and we do not have any internet.

My lola prepared our food to share for the farewell party, while we were all at the dining table, having our breakfast and talking about politics and 90s celebrities. I intended to go to school late because we always wait din naman for ny other classmates to come but then funny funny funny how life works, nakadating ako ng 7:45 a.m. Who did I meet but a second year carrying a cake, waiting din. We made a little chitchat. Her name is Ingrid. Anyway, we were there for around 30 minutes and started to worry, because no one is showing up and they are not opening room 203. So I asked if i can open my messenger on her phone which she gladly approved. Lo and behold, what did I see but a pm from my prof asking for help with compiling the grades. As much as i feel privileged to be the first choice for this, i have to come honestly and tell her 'what a disappointment i am'. Kidding! I told her i don't have the resources to help her because i don't have wifi. But the first one is what i felt. Anyway, i volunteered another very responsible friend. Thank God for the Shaynes of the world. ✨ And while we're at this. I also asked my friends what time is the exam and they told me, 11 AM. All i can think of is wowie. "I can't go home. Sayang pamasahe'. So i told Ingrid I'll be staying at the library.

While there, i availed data and answered my exam on uts on my phone. My data barely breathing. Hehe papatay-patay ba. After that, i went to resolve the favor-problem. Because I have no Messenger installed, i was having a problem with forwarding ma'am's instructions to Shayne. So i boldly went to sir and askednif i can use the pc. Pwede naman pala gumamit nun. Jusqu. HAHAHA long story short, i was able to resolve that by the grace of God. And then i asked about browsing books since i still have much time left before the exam. He said I am not allowed to browse but i can look at the catalogue. Which I spend almost 5 minutes with. Finally, i settled on a Shakespeare. Jamish came in the lib. She studied while i read. 10:55, we left the library and met Ge on the way to room 203 which is by now filled with 2nd year students and food.

The exam was a breeze. Lol. I wasn't able to answer 4 items but i have a 50% naman so hehe. After exams, ma'am made us buy softdrinks outside of the campus. We were told to buy at a karenderya but i said let's just go to emilus bc it's cheaper. Which is a very right choice. Ge, Ella, Shayne and I did this work. Afterwards, we came back to the room and partyed! HAHHA It was so fun. There is so much food. Ge and I decided to get one donut and share it with Ella. We were all hyped, happy and chatting. In the end, some of them did karaoke. I was able to chat with Jean and Paulo for the first time. Andddd, we sang a little bit of You Belong With Me. I walked home with Mar. Well, I'll add more if i can remember more. But so far, it was a very good day. Thank You God for sustaining me with Psalms 91

[madmegatax]

Would I get legal action threatened against me if I pinned a comment on my "You Can't Fight the Homestuck" vid directing people to watch Sarah Z's Homestuck introspective lmao

[zoeykallus]

Crosshair – My Beloved Enemy 33 – Hero Of The Day

Crosshair x Female!Reader (FF)

Warnings: Harassment / Angst/ Tension / Violence /Blood /Strong Language (Tell me if I missed something)

----------------

As suspected, you fall into Rampart's clutches again. This time he chooses a different approach that he is sure will break at least one of you, you or Crosshair. The situation seems hopeless, Rampart is ready to cross some boundaries. Is there any hope?

----------------

What Happened Before:

Part 1 - Crash Landing

Part 2 - Hot And Cold

Part 3 - Hello Kitten

Part 4 - Look Who’s Back

Part 5 - Rebel Darling

Part 6 - Burning Anger

Part 7 - Love And Pain

Part 8 - A Difficult Reunion

Part 9 - The Bitter Taste Of Blood And Failure

Part 10 - Where The Dead Ships Dwell

Part 11 - A Lonely Firefly In Space

Part 12 - Broken Wings

Part 13 - A Helping Hand

Part 14 - The Justifier

Part 15 - The Bounty

Part 16 - Trapped

Part 17 - I Love You Too

Part 18 - When The Past Catches Up With Us

Part 19 - I’ve Never Been Good At Goodbyes

Part 20 - Unexpected

Part 21 - The Question

Part 22 - Sleepless Nights

Part 23 - Sleepyheads And Making Up

Part 24 - Crosshair’s Conclusion

Part 25 - Good Soldiers Follow Orders

Part 26 - I’m Sorry Kitten

Part 27 - Bracca

Part 28 -Rampart

Part 29 - It’s All Tactics

Part 30 - CT 6116

Part 31 - Of Wolves And Sheep

Part 32 - Dying Hope

Part 33 - Hero Of The Day

The first thing that happened when you were on the cruiser was that Wolffe and you were separated, even though you both protested. You didn't want to be alone on that damn ship, that was the main reason why you didn't want to be separated from him, another reason was that you couldn't bear to worry about another ally and friend.

As expected, Rampart came to see you in your cell a few minutes after you were locked up.

"Where's Crosshair?" was the first thing you asked before he could make a sound. "Where are Echo and Tech?"

Rampart smiled unperturbed and said, "I'll do you one better; where's Hunter and the chunky one, um Wrecker?"

Anger and despair flared within you, the latter you tried to keep in check.

"You think you're funny? You're not!" you growled.

Rampart tilted his head slightly to the side, an amused glint in his light brown eyes.

"Oh, you're much more fiery this time, I like that".

As he stepped toward you, you didn't flinch this time, and he moved in so close that his chest bumped against yours, just slightly, but quite noticeably. Breathing slowly and with control, you looked up at him, in your eyes as much hatred as you could feel, but underneath was a fracture, a fracture that Vice Admiral Rampart's experienced eye could well perceive. There was fear, there was a slight tremor.

"I'm not afraid of you," you said coolly.

He smiled, a confident, somber smile.

"That's a lie and we both know it, my dear".

Crosshair and Tech were still in a cell. Both were sleep-deprived, visibly, dark-rimmed eyes, some visible bruises from previous interrogations. But Rampart had now taken a different approach.

Crosshair and Tech, stood in front of a monitor that had been brought to their cell. The Sniper groaned heavily as an image appeared on the monitor and he saw you in a cell, apparently they had caught you again, presumably trying to free him and the others.

"Dank Ferrik!"

Tech put a hand on his shoulder.

"He won't kill her, he needs her to get to us".

"That's exactly what I'm worried about. That's the only reason that monitor is here, he wants me to watch, he thinks that way he can break me.... maybe he's right"

Tech frowned worriedly. The two watched and listened to what was happening in your cell.

When Crosshair saw how close Rampart came to you, he clenched his hands into fists.

"She didn't even flinch," Tech commented.

The Sniper nodded.

"She wants to stand up to him, not show weakness, but Rampart wasn't born yesterday, he'll see through her," he growled.

Rampart's hand lifted, slowly, almost tenderly he grasped your jaw, then he squeezed, hard enough that it was uncomfortable.

Struggling with his grip, you pressed out, "I'm not afraid to die, I won't betray the others."

The Vice Admiral chuckled, "Is that so? Well, it doesn't matter, there are other things you will be afraid of".

He pointed with his free hand to a corner, above him on the right. A camera.

"Your beloved clone is watching you right now. So, either he will cave in and tell me what I want once he sees the things I do to you, or I will break you. Which do you think? Which will happen first?"

You blinked, your gaze darting to the camera again and again, as if some irrational part of you hoped Crosshair would jump out at it at any moment.

"Like I said, I'm not afraid to die," you said defiantly.

Rampart seemed unimpressed.

"That may be, but as I said, there are other things you will be afraid of. Pain might be one of them, or something almost every woman is afraid of"

Your heart was beating up to your throat from one second to the next. Was he implying what you thought he was? Silently you still looked up at him defiantly, but when his free hand moved to the buttons of your jacket and opened them, you felt cold panic climb up your spine. Now it was no longer a question in which direction his hint went.

"That may be, but as I said, there are other things you will be afraid of. Pain might be one of them, or something almost every woman is afraid of"

Crosshair pressed out between clenched teeth, "He wouldn't dare.... he's just trying to provoke us."

Tech by now had also clenched his hands into fists and felt the same helpless anger rising within him as Crosshair felt. You didn't like to be his anymore, but his feelings for you were unchanged, even if he held back for the sake of you and his brother.

Crosshair's gaze searched Tech's. It was obvious to see that the Sniper was struggling with himself. Not much had happened yet, but the hint was there and Croshair knew he couldn't let this happen, Rampart would get what he wanted one way or another.

"You're thinking of telling him what he wants to know, aren't you?"

Crosshair gritted his teeth, then nodded slowly.

Tech rubbed both hands over his face, finally saying with a heavy sigh, "I don't blame you."

Rampart leaned down to you, smelled your hair unabashedly, while the hand that had previously opened your jacket slid very slowly under your shirt and brushed across your stomach. You held still as if you were frozen, the touch made you flinch briefly, but that was all you were capable of at the moment. Your intimidated mind had paralyzed your body, at least temporarily.

The door to the cell opened, a Storm Trooper, appeared in the doorway.

"Sir, sorry to interrupt, but a message has arrived from Grand Admiral Tarkin, you said you wanted to be informed when he reports in. He will be at the rendezvous point in 12 hours as scheduled."

Rampart glanced over his shoulder very briefly and murmured, "Good."

When the trooper didn't leave, he did look over his shoulder again, an angry glint in his eye.

"What else?" he snapped impatiently.

The Trooper sighed and said, "With all due respect, I know it's not my place to question your methods, but what's this going to be when it's done?"

A small glimmer of hope sprouted in you, there was one person who questioned Rampart's approach.

Rampart pushed you off him without warning, you stumbled backwards and fell on your butt.

"Stay right there," he growled at you, turning to the trooper.

"You. Take off that helmet. Now!"

Two more troopers stood to his left and right at the door. The Trooper hesitated, seemed to look left and right at his fellow Troopers, sighed softly, and then complied.

KIX, you thought, relieved and panicked in equal measure.

"A clone," Rampart spoke, surprised and visibly amused "One of the last currently in service to the Empire. Why have I not sorted you out yet?"

Kix looked directly at Rampart, not daring to look at you, afraid he might make things worse.

"I don't know sir, maybe because I'm a good medic and a decent soldier".

Rampart snorted.

"You're redundant here"

He nodded to the other two troopers.

"Get him out of here, let him freeze in Carbonite, maybe I'll have a use for him at a later date after all".

Kix looked from one to the other, his first impulse was to fight back, but he knew that wouldn't get him far, he thought about submitting, but then his eyes met yours. He saw your fear, your worry, and he made a decision. He might not be able to save you a second time in the long run, but at least for now.

"Fuck it," he growled and lashed out, hitting Rampart square in the face, you could hear the sound of his nose breaking.

You winced and widened your eyes in disbelief, watching as he was instantly taken down by a trooper with a stun hit. Kix slumped over and growled, "Worth it" before hitting the ground and losing consciousness.

Rampart, had gone to his knees, blood gushing from his nose, and not a little at that. He straightened up staggering, the punch had hit home. The Vice Admiral cursed loudly, his face contorted with pain and anger.

"Freeze that motherless son of a bitch," he rumbled before turning to you, a hand on his broken nose and saying " Don't be to happy about your hero of the day, I'll talk to you later, don't think this is over."

With these words he disappeared with the troopers dragging the unconscious Kix with them.

Quietly you said: "Thank you Kix..."

@twinkofthedink @tazmbc1 @kristinainspace @ladykatakuri @inthemoshpitt @whore4rex @anndraco0523 @revan-posting @dwarfnip @ben-is-a-hoe @ttzamara @ilikemymendarkandfictional @kaminocasey @brynhildrmimi @photowizard17 @moondust-24 @clone-whore-99 @dumfanting @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond

@moonstrider9904 @chxpsi @nunanuggets @andyoufollowyourheart @kaliel2310 @eternalwaffle

[yuusaris]

(I'm doing this bewcause I Love Me And you Will Too)

I posted 9,392 times in 2021

135 posts created (1%)

9257 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 68.6 posts.

(C....Can... can you round it up...?)

I added 4,777 tags in 2021

#ygo - 2121 posts

#ryou bakura - 648 posts

#yami bakura - 519 posts

#tkb - 340 posts

#tendershipping - 237 posts

#yami malik - 216 posts

#yami marik - 214 posts

#[/tag snatch] - 174 posts

#malik ishtar - 154 posts

#marik ishtar - 154 posts

(Oh holy shit thats a lot of YuGiOh, I came back to tumblr for good reasons)

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#im getting sick of indie games i see being about some abstract concept of youre in hell and bad and must suffer in a very convoluted format

(That wasn't my tag, I stached it in my Tag Snatch cache, just for clarification)

My Top Posts in 2021

#5 -

Tendershipping Week Day 2 - Control [Doll House]

See the full post

13 notes • Posted 2021-07-13 21:21:58 GMT

(Yeah, I'm reducing the size of these foir y'alls sanity, this is a big fuckin post)

#4 -

Angst #1 with Tendershipping ♥ -Pyro Sea

uh, hey @millenniumringg, you don't mind if I uhhhhh fuckinnnnn write a prologue to your Angstshipping fic, Cornered, in which Bakura is a serial killer and Ryou and Malik are investigators who fall in love with each other while Bakura has an obsession with Ryou that ruins their lives, right? Right? you wouldn't mind that right?

I hope not cuz uuuhhh, I wrote it.

Angst 1 - No, I don’t want to say goodbye. Not now.”

See the full post

16 notes • Posted 2021-09-07 05:17:21 GMT

#3-

Oh. Uh also.

@mimibanii did the ah. Tiddy King Bakura mousepads. Right? And a bunch weren't up to snuff and I- I love defective/mistake merch. I love that stuff. I needed it. I... I got it.

Yesterday night.

Oh god it is so much bigger than I expected and oh my god it's so nice to have a pillow for my wrists. Let alone two.

Its... it's so comfortably, I love it. Im a person who owns a toddy mousepad now and I have no regrets. It's awesome. This is awesome. Thank you so much.

18 notes • Posted 2021-09-04 14:01:38 GMT

(Tiddy King made it to my top 5?!?! It's not even my design! It feels like stealing, mimibanii, these notes are technically yours)

#2 -

Be the change you wanna see in the world. Be brave

Thief King Bakura would wear a skirt.

26 notes • Posted 2021-07-02 03:36:23 GMT

#1 -

Listen, every other social media platform can run like a tiny capitalist navy, but Tumblr runs like a Carnival cruise party-boat commandeered by trash-pirates - all of them willing to set this bacteria-infested, mirthless, godforsaken sea coffin on f i r e and sink with it than let The Brand get their terrible boat.

41 notes • Posted 2021-07-22 22:01:33 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[ellanainthetardis]

Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2021

1 Best Book You've Read So Far In 2021

My favorite was probably The Invisible Life of Addie Larue but A Heart So Fierce and Broken and Heir Of Fire also killed me a little XD

2 Best Sequel You've Read So Far In 2021

Unsurprisingly XD I think in terms of love since the series is long I would go with Heir of Fire but A Heart so Fierce And Broken is also my favoooorite in the Cursebreaker trilogy. I just love the characters. * cough* Grey * cough* but I also love Rowan and that's what Heir Of Fire gave me so... XD

3 New Release You Haven't Read Yet But Want To:

Though to be fair, I plan on reading Any Way The Wind Blows after I finish Tower of Dawn. I realized I have close to none memories of the second one but I don't feel like a re-read so...

And I discovered Nalini Singh last year and I loved it so much I've been meaning to pick up this one for a while.

4. Most Anticipated Release For The Second Part Of The Year:

Winds Of Shadow by Nicki Pau Preto though technically it came out yesterday.

What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell, the next Twisted Tale. This one's about Tangled, which is one of my fav so... Yeah, I know I have many others to read in this collection XD

Daughter Of The Deep by Rick Riordan because I will read anything by Rick Riordan and Yes, I know I still have two series from him to read XD

The Excalibur Curse by Kiersten White. I didn't love the second one in this series as much as the first but I still want to read the third (and last I think?) one.

5. Biggest Disappointment:

The Duke And I (Bridgertons 1). I loved the show but it's one case of, really, maybe just stick to the show XD

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht. I really reaaaally wanted to love this one but it didn't work out for me. The universe was too messy and it was hard to follow and make sense of the world. That was a dnf I think.

Rebel Rose (the queen's council 1) by Emma Theriault, which is the first instalment in the latest Disney series. Except you wouldn't find one bit of the disney movies or live adaptation in that book if it hit you on the head. I hated it. Another DNF. I will try the next one since it's a different author and it is MULAN but it won't be high priority.

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron. It wasn't bad but I expected to love it and... I didn't.

American Royals by Katherine McGee. I really didn't like it and honestly there are better novels out there if you want to read royalty romances.

6. Biggest Surprise

I hated Throne of Glass so much when I read it that honestly I didn't expect at all to like the sequel but now this series is one of my fav and it just goes to show I need to reread it all when i'm done XD

I was a bit wary of A Curse So Dark And Lonely just because there had been so much hype when it came out and I saw it around so much, it scared me a little, so I went in expecting the worst and I found one of my favorite new series this year.

Same goes for Aru Shah... I was a bit wary after my first try of the Rick Riordan Presents collection ( which was Race To The Sun, another disappointment albeit not as much as others) but this one was soooooo good. If you like mythology or Percy Jackson, I one hundred percent recommend.

7. Favorite New Author (Debut or New To You)

Definitely Roshani Chokshi... I had other books from her on my TBR and I want to get to them soonish.

Also Sarah J Maas. I am a convert.

8. Newest Fictional Crush:

Chaooool. And Rowan. XD

Grey from A Curse So Dark...

9. Newest Favorite Character:

MANON BLACKBEAK. ALL HAIL THE QUEEN. But honestly I could probably name half the characters in that series in this category)

Aru also because she's the best kid ever and I can't wait to read more of her stories.

10. Book That Made You Cry:

A Heart So Fierce & Broken

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue

Salt To The Sea

They all broke my heart in different ways.

11 The Most Beautiful Book You've Bought So Far (Or Received):

To Sleep In a Sea of Stars is so gorgeous I have him staring out in my shelf just where the sun can hit it nad make it shine XD

And Les Chroniques de L'érable et du Cerisier has sprayed edges and it's just BEAUTIFUL. Cost a pretty penny too so it better be worth it.

12 What Book Do You Need To Read Before The End Of The Year:

I want to finish the Throne of Glass series so I've only got Kingdom Of Ash left once I'm done with Tower of Dawn. It's doable.

I want to read Les Chroniques de L'érable Et Du Cerisier too...

I would also love to read Wings Of Shadow. Not that I'm especially imaptient to know the ending but because those books are huge and I kind of want to be done with that series if it makes sense? I loved it, particularly the meticulous work of world building but it always feel like I've eaten too much once I'm done with it, you know?

13 Favorite Book-To-Movie Adaptation You've Seen This Year:

Shadow and Bones, obviously...

And Bridgerton!

If you want to do the tag, feel free! (and tell me, I would love to discover more books!)