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battyaboutbooksreviews · 3 months ago

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🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in August 2024 🌈

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Happy reading!

[ Text list below ⤵ ]

❓What was the last queer book you read?

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Failure to Comply - Sarah Cavar 🧡 I Spit On Your Celluloid - Heidi Honeycutt 💛 You're Embarrassing Yourself - Desiree Akhavan 💚 Death of the Hero - Briona Johnson 💙 Between Dragons and Their Wrath - Devin Madson 💜 The Crimson Crown - Heather Walter ❤️ Sacrificial Animals - Kailee Pedersen 🧡 Oath of Fire - K. Arsenault Rivera 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 This Ravenous Fate - Hayley Dennings 💜 Mistress of Lies - K.M. Enright 🌈 Wolf Bite - T.J. Nichols

❤️ In the Valley, A Shadow - Samantha Tano 🧡 Follow My Lead - Adrian J. Smith 💛 The Last Woman I Kissed - Venetia Di Pierro 💚 Full Shift - Jennifer Dugan & Kristen Seaton 💙 Hers for the Weekend - Helena Greer 💜 Come Out, Come Out - Natalie C. Parker ❤️ Rules for Ghosting - Shelly Jay Shore 🧡 How to Leave the House - Nathan Newman 💛 Plot Twist - Carmen Sereno 💙 On the Far Side of a Crescendo - Kalyn Hazel 💜 Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self Destructions - Maxwell I. Gold 🌈 Daylan and the River of Secrets - Edd Tello

❤️ The Italy Letters - Vi Khi Nao 🧡 The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie - Lee Wind 💚 The House Where Death Lives - Alex Brown 💙 Ash's Cabin - Jen Wang 💜 The Avian Hourglass - Lindsey Drager ❤️ The Heart Wants - Krystina Rivers 🧡 A Grand Love - Janna Barkin 💛 You Can't Go Home Again - Jeanette Bears 💜 Libertad - Bessie Flores Zaldivar 🌈 Her Golden Coast - Anat Deracine

❤️ Mighty Millie Novak - Elizabeth Holden 💛 Rise and Divine - Lana Harper 💚 Dying for You - L Flowers 💙 I'll Have What He's Having - Adib Khorram 💜 Changing Her Tune - Amanda Kabak ❤️ Monogamy? In this Economy? - Laura Boyle 🧡 The Rainbow Age of Television - Sayna Maci Warner 💛 Medusa of the Roses - Navid Sinaki 💙 Confounding Oaths - Alexis Hall 💜 Idol Lives - K.T. Salvo 🌈 Brother's Keeper - Quinn Cameron

❤️ Key Lime Sky - Al Hess 🧡 Crushing It - Erin Becker 💛 The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou 💚 Not for the Faint of Heart - Lex Croucher 💙 Tasting Temptation - JJ Arias 💜 Ami - S. Jae-Jones ❤️ You're the Problem, It's You - Emma R. Alban 🧡 Cubs & Campfires - Dylan Drakes 💛 The Dark We Know - Wen-yi Lee 💙 Practical Rules for Cursed Witches - Kayla Cottingham 💜 Riyati Rebirth - Kalani Shimizu 🌈 The Brujos of Borderland High - Gume Laurel III

❤️ A Bánh Mì for Two - Trinity Nguyen 🧡 Dance of the Starlit Sea - Kiana Krystle 💛 Scattered Snows, to the North - Carl Phillips 💚 Beyond a World Apart - Caitlin Myers 💙 Don't Let It Break Your Heart - Maggie Horne 💜 Nothing Heals Me Like You Do - Harper Bliss ❤️ How It All Ends - Emma Hunsinger 🧡 How Do I Sexy? - Mx. Nillin Lore 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 Prince of the Palisades - Julian Winters 💜 Better Left Buried - Mary E. Roach 🌈 Back to Back - Jo Fletcher

❤️ DITCHLAPSE / [REALLY AFRAID] - Tommy Wyatt 🧡 The Love Archives: Bonus Scenes & Excerpts for Palestine - Various 💛 Guardian: Zhen Hun - Ying Priest 💚 The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach 💙 Queering Reproductive Justice - Candace Bond-Theriault 💜 Gender Explained - Diane Ehrensaft & Michelle Jurkiewicz ❤️ The Unlikely Pair - Jax Calder 🧡 In Universes - Emet North 💛 We Love the Nightlife - Rachel Koller Croft 💙 Lessons from Cruising - Martin Goodman 💜 Wild Ginger in the Rhubarb - Eule Grey 🌈 Not My Circus - Delicia Niami

❤️ Asunder - Kerstin Hall 🧡 The Phoenix Keeper - S.A. MacLean 💛 Encounters with James Baldwin - Various 💚 Verity's Game - Jennifer Giacalone 💙 Hunt Me! I Crave the Chase - Fae Quin 💜 The Audacity Omnibus - Carmen Loup ❤️ Haunted to Death - Frank Anthony Polito 🧡 Blood Orange - Paige Grunewald 💛 The Bad Things We Did - Chris Archeske 💙 Dark Restraint - Katee Robert 💜 Worth the Wait - Kenna White 🌈 The Maid and the Crocodile - Jordan Ifueko

❤️ Loving Corrections - Adrienne Maree Brown 🧡 The Last Witch in Edinburgh - Marielle Thompson 💛 The Duchess of Kokora - Nikhil Prabala 💚 The Scales of Seduction - Rien Gray 💙 Survival Is a Promise - Alexis Pauline Gumbs 💜 Loka - S.B. Divya ❤️ The Every Body Book of Consent - Rachel E Simon 🧡 Southern Lights - Liz Arncliffe 💛 Then Things Went Dark - Bea Fitzgerald 💙 Death at Morning House - Maureen Johnson 💜 The Last Doorbell - William Parker 🌈 The Pairing - Casey McQuiston

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redgoldsparks · 9 months ago

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February Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut.

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross read by Alex Wingfield and Rebecca Norfolk

This book started a little slowly for me, as I waited for Roman to regain his memories and for Iris to get back to reporting at the front. Luckily, the magical typewriters once again play a major role in this story as they did in the first one; Roman and Iris's letters are the emotional heart of this series. I also love how it fore fronts the importance of journalists during wartime. Iris's bravery and constant willingness to move towards danger and the unknown in service of sharing the truth makes her a very compelling character. Unfortunately, the magical divine conflict behind the war just didn't compel me very strongly in this book. I think the gods were introduced too slowly into the narrative, and that a lack of a human motivation behind the war simplified the conflict in a way that sucked some of the tension from the text. If you are looking for a solid romance with a strong epistolary element and the aesthetic of wartime setting, this series delivers; if instead you want a complicated, devastating, deeply emotional story of young people surviving a real historical war, pick up Code Name Verity or Rose Under Fire.

Mamo by Sas Milledge

Jo has lived in her small seaside hometown her whole life, and loves it there. But then things start to go wrong- curses, bad luck, mysterious illnesses. She seeks out the town witch and finds a teen girl about her own age, named Orla, who Jo has never met before. It turns out Orla has just returned to town after the death of her grandmother, the previous witch. She wasn't buried properly and her bones are scattered around the town, stirring up bad energy, disturbing the local fae and trolls. Jo and Orla set out of lay the old witch properly to rest, but there's more going on than either of them realize. This is a fairly short but well told tale, queer and magical, and with a little bittersweet edge.

Look on the Bright Side by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann

This is a very charming follow up to Go With The Flow, taking place over the friend group's following high school year. Brit, who was diagnosed with endometriosis at the end of the previous book, had a surgery to remove it over the summer. When she goes back to school, she finds her affection caught between two different boys. Christine has finally admitted to herself that she likes Abby as more than a friend... but telling Abby that is another matter. Abby is still working on her campaign of menstrual justice on campus, while Sasha struggles to balance her homework, sports, and time with her boyfriend. The girls learn, grow, make mistakes, and support each other.

Gathering Moss written and read by Robin Wall Kimmerer

It took me a little longer to get into this one than Braiding Sweetgrass, mainly because I had much less personal knowledge of mosses than the larger types of plants which Kimmerer wrote about in Sweetgrass. It doesn't help that mosses do not have common names, so are referred to mainly by scientific names, and I was rarely able to picture them well in my head. However, by about a third of the way through I had fallen into the miniature world of mosses and the striking and insightful ways Kimmerer links them to all other organisms in their ecosystems. I loved learning how mosses, like tardigrades, with which they probably co-evolved, can survive desiccation and be revived by water even after all seeming signs of life have disappeared. I was intrigued by the story of a moss species which changes its gender over its lifespan, starting out producing only female reproductive stalks in its early days, shifting producing a mix of male and female stalks as it matures, and then producing solely male stalks as the patch reaches peak density. I was frustrated by stories of the illegal moss harvesting which is stripping Oregon rain forests bare. And I was once again completely charmed by the beauty and generosity of Kimmerer's writing and worldview. She's a bestseller for a reason; I highly recommend everyone pick up at least one of her books at some point.

The High Desert by James Spooner

James' white mother and his black father divorced when he was in elementary school, and he moved around a lot. For high school, he moved with his mom to Apple Valley, a barren small town in the desert an hour inland from Los Angeles. Already a skater, James encountered punk music just went he needed it most: as an isolated and angry teen in a racist town with little to no underground scene or counterculture. The music, and later, the politics, of punk raised James in the semi-absence of parents and role models. This memoir, chronically roughly a year, is an unflinchingly honest look at the cruelty, creativity, friendship, and solidarity of teens. It has the density and scratchy texture of a 90s zine without ever sacrificing clarity. I was very impressed by how clearly and in what detail Spooner was able to recreate his high school angst and activist awaking in this coming of age tale. Punk wasn't the music that found me, but I still remember the high of finding a new favorite band or song that felt as if it spoke right to my teen soul. This book is a testament to the power of music to reach into the dark and pull someone out into the light.

Falling Back in Love With Being Human written and read by Kai Cheng Thom

Short and sweet, this book is half confession, half spell book. Each chapter is written as a letter- to trans women, to activists, to sex workers, to johns, to those contemplating suicide, to TERFs, to children's book writers- each followed with a little action or ritual. I listened to it as an audiobook and loved hearing the letters in the author's voice, but I can also see how reading it in print and lingering over each letter one at a time would be wonderful too.

The Great Beyond by Lea Murawiec translated by Aleshia Jensen

Manel Naher is an anti-social and idiosyncratic young woman living an endless city in which everyone advertises their own names on street signs, sandwich boards, at social events, on business cards, and by simply shouting them at strangers. This may not sound so different from our own world except that it's driven by an even more intense desperation: if one's name is not known, and one's presence fades fully from people's minds, and the forgotten person will literally die. Manel wants nothing more than to escape the city into the wilds beyond it, but her presence is so low she suffers a near fatal heart attack and is scared into a fearful scramble to gain enough fame to live. Her attempts to claw her way into people's memories is surprisingly successful, and in the process of becoming one of the 1% she leaves behind everything and everyone she loved. Never before have I read a comic that felt so much like literary spec-fic. The concepts are fascinating and the cartooning knocked me off my feet. A visual masterpiece I'll be thinking about for a long time to come.

The Spectred Isle by KJ Charles read by Ruairi Carter

Saul Lazenby is a disgraced archeologist who served time for a war crime during the recent WWI. Back in England, disowned by his family, he struggled to support himself. The only job he is able to secure is as a personal assistant to a batty old major who believes in fairy stories and keeps sending Saul off to various parts of London to investigate supposedly occult sites. Saul knows it's all fake but he keeps investigating anyway... and then a tree bursts in flames in front of him. And a mysterious gentleman keeps showing up at the same sites of sacred groves or ancient wells which Saul's been sent to look at. That gentleman is Richard Glide, who just happens to be the heir to one of the oldest arcane families in England. And he can't tell if Saul is causing the spiritual problems that keep occurring around him or if it's all an unlikely coincidence. This historical romance is a fun and quick read, shorter than most of the KJ Charles books I've read before. Be warned, the end sets up a sequel which has not, and may not, ever actually come out- but I still enjoyed this one on it's own.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

A gorgeous, nonlinear novel about three generations of a Black family living in New York between roughly the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. The chapters rotate between multiple POVs, covering moments of change, tension, or reflection for the family. The opening scene is the evening of a debut party for sixteen year old Melody, who wears the dress her own mother was supposed to wear at her debut... except that she was already pregnant. From that moment, the narrative spins back time to how each character arrived there: Iris, a teen who refused to give up her baby but also refused to settle into motherhood; Aubrey, a young man in love with a girl who was already leaving him; Iris's mother Sabe, a daughter of a survivor of the Tulsa massacre, a women who stores her money in gold bars hidden around the house; Iris's father Po'boy, who as a young man ran races, and as an old man holds more love for his family that his body can carry. The character work here is so strong- I was immediately swept away into the cares, worries, secrets, and longings of the family. I read the whole book in one day, but I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

We Are The Land: A Native History of California by Damon B Akins and William J Bauer Jr

It took me a long time to read this book, as it was challenging to read a history of genocide while also seeing genocide in my phone every single day. But I'm ultimately very glad that I finished it. This is a well researched, approachable, indigenous-authored history of the native people in the land now called California. I enjoyed how place specific this book is. I felt much more connected to the history recognizing nearly every place name, and once the book got passed around the year 1900 I started to also recognize names of organizations that still exist and activists who I'm familiar with. I have a much better understanding of the patchwork creation of and the broken promises of the reservations, land allotments, and rancherias. I was happy whenever the book mentioned Pomo master basket weavers Elsie Allen and Mable McKay, who my mom has been telling me about for years, or Greg Sarris, Santa Rosa based chairman of the Graton Rancheria and author. I have a better understanding of this land where I have lived and worked all my life after reading this book.

Zodiac: A Graphic Novel by Ai Weiwei, Elettra Stamboulis and Gianluca Costantini

I've been following Ai Weiwei's work since about 2010, and was absolutely delighted to learn he was releasing a comic memoir. I managed to snag a signed copy though the Comix Experience Graphic Novel of the Month Club and I will treasure it. This book is organized into 12 chapters, each themed around one animal from the zodiac. It weaves together slice of life moments from Ai Weiwei's day to day life, stories of his father (the revolutionary poet Ai Qing), memories of Ai's time as an art student in New York, his incarceration, time spent with his mother, his partner, and his son, conversations with artist friends and some of his international exhibitions. It is not a tight narrative; it wanders, it indulges in myths and fairy tales, it is open ended and I enjoyed it so much. It was written along with Elettra Stamboulis, and draw in a delicate lose line art style by Gianluca Costantini. A few of the lines from the end of the book haven't left my head since I read them: "Freedom of speech and human rights are not given to anybody for free. They always come through fighting and struggle" (101); "Any artist who isn't an activist is a dead artist" (165) and "... the purpose of art, which is to fight for freedom."(166)

Witchy Vol 2 by Ariel Salmat Ries

This volume was just as beautifully drawn as book 1; the cartooning is masterful, but I don't have a very good sense of where the larger plot is going. This book was mostly a long side quest in which Nyneve learned how to make a broom under an exiled gay broom making master. I enjoyed this! However it didn't particularly seem to move the story forward. I will keep reading, but the sense of drama and urgency from the beginning of the first book is slightly missing here.

No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull read by Dion Graham

What a ride! I went into this book knowing almost nothing, and I think that was the right way to go so I shall not summarize the plot. This is the first book of a series; it's ambitious, it's weird, it's got a very large and extremely diverse cast; it is such a fresh and original take on a contemporary sci-fi in which the world realizes that monsters, gods, and magic have existed all along. I worried a little in the first third that the book maybe had too many POV characters, most of whom seemed very unconnected from each other except by geographical proximity to either Cambridge, Mass, or the island of St Thomas. However by the end almost all of the characters had been at least tenuously linked by plot events in a way that really worked for me. The book also has trans, nonbinary, asexual, queer, and poly characters whose identities are only revealed slowly, and usually after you've known the character for a while. I am very impressed by the scope of this story and definitely plan to continue with the series.

Arrive In My Hands by Trinidad Escobar

Sensual, at times tender, at times haunting, this beautiful little book is a collection of lesbian erotic comics from a poet artist at the top of her field. I am definitely biased, having been friends with the author for years, but I also deeply admire this work. The women, witches, and creatures in these stories yearn for pleasure and for freedom; they chase both through oceans, forests, broken suburban towns, and through dreams. The book is perfectly sized to hold close to your heart.

Bird by Bird by Annie Lamott read by Susan Bennett

I've been hearing about this book for years as a writing guide, but it is almost equally a memoir or collection of anecdotes about the writing life. Parts of it worked for me and other parts didn't. The author has a very different type of brain than I have, and the chapters on working through the anxiety, neurosis, and depression she suffered from when trying to write didn't really speak to me at all. I also did not enjoy the handful of flippant jokes about killing yourself when the writing isn't going well. However. There are also some genuinely really moving pieces about writing books as gifts to loved ones, especially loved ones who are soon to leave us. I thought a lot of the advice in the middle about focusing on details, on recording memories, on research, and on character development was really solid, and I want to keep some of it in mind when I start developing my next book. There was also a set of lines in the introduction, about how writers are able to participate in public life while also working from home and without leaving the house which hit the nail on the head of why I entered this career!

Recitatif by Toni Morrison read by Bahni Turpin with an intro written and read by Zadie Smith

I've been wanting to try another Toni Morrison, since the only one I had previously read in high school went completely over my head at age 15. Recitatif is Morrison's only short story, and this audiobook version is read by the wonderful Bahni Turpin (who you might recognize from Angie Thomas or Akwaeke Emezi's audiobooks). Also included in an excellent essay written and read by Zadie Smith. This comes first in the audio, but if you are new to the story as I was, skip the essay and listen to the story first! Then go back and listen to the essay afterwards. This way the cleverness and impact of the story can hit you fully. It is so smart, so well crafted, and such a master class in writing that both reveals and conceals so much about the complicated relationship of two damaged women.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 1 by Ryoko Kui

I can immediately see why so many people are charmed by this world and these characters! This is the start of a really fun D&D infused adventure story, with a small group of down on their luck adventures deciding to cut their adventuring costs by eating the monsters they kill in the dungeon. The man behind this idea, Laos, is also searching for a missing sister who may or may not have already been eaten by a dragon. I already have books 2 and 3 on hold; I haven't been so captured by a manga series since starting Witch Hat Atelier.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 2 by Ryoko Kui

I devoured this book as quickly as book one. Our adventure party gets a bit deeper into the dungeon and begin to have more meaningful interactions with the beings who dwell there, including an Orc family just trying to get by, golems which grow vegetables on their backs, and living paintings which might reveal more of the buried castle's history.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 3 by Ryoko Kui

A flashback reveals more of the school friendship of Marcelle and Falin; a deep underground lake leads to many encounters with watery monsters of various types. I continue to have a very fun time with this series!

Bunt by Ngozi Ukazu and Mad Rupert

Molly grew up in Peachtree, Georgia, in her lesbian moms' hardware store, in the shadow of the town's prestigious and expensive art college, PICA. Every since she can remember, she's wanted to attend PICA- despite the fact that her best friend dropped out last year and says the school chews people up and spits them out. But Molly got a full ride scholarship, so her first semester should be a breeze, right? No! Because when she shows up to orientation, no one can find her scholarship or even her registration. It turns Molly will have to pay for her first year after all; she takes out some dodgy loans and scours the financial aid booklets for any other scholarship she can apply for. It turns out, if she can scrape up a full team of softball players... and they compete against other college teams in the same division... and they win at least one game over the course of the semester... the whole team gets a free tuition! Is it possible to win one game with a bunch of big-ego, burned-out, athletically-challenged artists? I loved the energy of this story, with many well-informed digs at art school culture and hypocrisy. The team has great chemistry and the art style is full of action, physical humor, and delightfully expressive cartooning.

#comics #book reviews #reading #comic book reviews #book recs

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pluralzalpha · 9 months ago

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Tim Buckle has gone on to create three more "Morbius" Doctors:

First up is a swashbuckling Barry Letts

This one is actually feasible in a world where Doctor Who started earlier, as Letts was an actor in the 40s and 50s.

Next is old Uncle Terrance Dicks, captain of his ship

And finally, at my suggestion, Terry Nation

I always thought he had a Doctorish look to him.

I think in my headcanon it now runs:

Jo Martin

Verity Lambert

Waris Hussein

Barry Letts

Terrance Dicks

Terry Nation

Christopher Barry

and all the rest.

Now to ponder why the Doctor shifted from a more variable regenerative style to a long run of white blokes (with the brief respite of the unique Graeme Harper Doctor).

#doctor who #forgotten lives #morbius doctors #barry letts #terrance dicks #terry nation

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saturnznct · 2 years ago

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d3 - christmas in chicago | jhs

➸ word count; 1240 words

➸ jude; aged 14, verity & katie; aged 5, connor; aged 1 month

➸ alternative names used; junho (jude), eunyoung (katie)

dadmas masterlist | nct masterlist

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Surprisingly, your five-year-old twins are not the ones who wake you up at five in the morning on Christmas Day. Instead, you arise to the sound of your one-month-old son fussing in his bedside crib.

You stretch, shifting around to position yourself upright. It’s been roughly three or four hours since you last fed, and your body reacts accordingly, loose white t-shirt beginning to dampen.

‘I’ll take him,’ Johnny murmurs from behind you, in his raspy morning voice.

‘He needs fed,’ you reply, lifting Connor up from the crib and onto your chest.

‘I’ll keep you company,’ Johnny settles further into the pillows, lightly tickling Connor’s feet with his finger.

This year, you’d found yourself in Chicago for Christmas. Last year you had spent the holiday in Korea after staying there for a little stint because of Johnny’s work, but you had come back to your home in Chicago during the summer to prepare for the birth of your youngest son.

Your hair falls as you turn your head to smile at Johnny, so he reaches a hand out to push the stray hair behind your ear.

‘Merry Christmas, beautiful,’ he rubs your cheek on the way back down with his thumb, before dropping it down to the back of Connor’s head, ‘and Merry first Christmas, little man.’

‘Merry Christmas, John. Our last first Christmas,’ you smile lazily.

‘Well, I mean, we could have another surprise-‘

‘Absolutely not,’ you interrupt, and he laughs sheepishly, ‘four is more than enough.’

‘I know, I was kidding,’ Johnny kisses your elbow, ‘I love our family so much.’

Johnny just watches you feed for a few minutes before your bedroom door cracks open, two little girl’s faces appearing behind it.

‘Hey girls,’ Johnny sits up on his elbows, the twins taking it as an invitation to come inside.

‘It’s Christmas, daddy,’ Katie crawls up onto the bed, Verity not far behind her.

‘It is, angel,’ Johnny lets her crawl into his arms, ‘do you think Santa’s been?’

The twins nod rapidly, both inching closer towards their father.

‘Can we go downstairs and go and see, daddy?’ Verity bounces on her heels with excitement.

‘Mommy’s feeding your little brother, Vev,’ Johnny explains, ‘we’ll have to wait until he’s done, okay?’

‘Okay,’ the girls sigh, slightly dejected, but the excitement quickly outweighs it.

The four of you talk quietly for a few minutes, the twins buzzing about potential presents Santa may have brought them. Once Connor pulls away from you, the twins automatically straighten up, ready to jump out of bed to harass Jude into waking up.

‘Girls-‘ Johnny tries to get them to slow down, but they’re already reaching up and pulling your bedroom door open, plodding along down the hallway towards their older brother’s bedroom.

‘Can you manage?’ Johnny lays a warm hand just under your shoulder.

‘Yeah, you go make sure they don’t jump on his head.’

Johnny leaves the room as you rise from the bed slowly, beginning to pat Connor’s back.

Jude is leaning against the hallway wall, half asleep still, once you emerge from the bedroom.

‘Morning,’ you chuckle, his face brightening when he sees you and his baby brother.

‘Can we go downstairs now?’ Katie tugs on Johnny’s sleeve.

‘Yeah, come on angel, let’s go and see what Santa’s brought you.’

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

‘Grandma!’

‘Hello little ones,’ Johnny’s mother hugs her granddaughters before looking up and noticing Jude.

‘Junho-ah,’ she breaks away from the twins to hug Jude, ‘Merry Christmas.’

‘John-ah, Y/N! How’s the little one?’

‘Groggy,’ you turn to the side slightly to show Connor laying against your chest half-asleep, ‘someone is ready for his morning nap.’

‘Go put him down, his little crib is still in the spare room.’

Johnny’s parents had a little fold-out crib for Connor just in case you spent a long time there.

‘I’ll put him down, come on,’ Johnny takes Connor from you, rocking him slowly as he ventures up the stairs.

‘Merry Christmas mum/mom,’ you hug Johnny’s mother, ‘thank you for hosting this year.’

‘You know how much I love cooking for you guys,’ she replies, ‘you’ve made such a big family, it warms my heart to have you all here together.’

‘He went straight to sleep,’ Johnny reappears at the top of the stairs, ‘all the Christmas excitement made him tired I think.’

‘Now that we’re all here,’ Johnny’s dad says, ‘lets start on presents!’

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

‘Oh, Eunyoung, no,’ Johnny’s mother lunges across the kitchen counter, grabbing Katie by the waist and lifting her down from the stepstool, just as she was about to put her fingers in the cake batter.

‘Sorry mum/mom,’ you manage to eventually catch up with Katie, the one month old Connor in your arms, ‘I lost sight of her for like two seconds.’

‘It’s okay dear, you should be sitting! Wow I’m getting too old for this.. Where’s my son, he should be- John!’

Johnny appears in the doorway behind you, holding Verity.

‘Sorry, little miss spilled water all over herself.’ He lets Verity down, who scampers over to her Grandmother and twin sister.

‘Girls, how about you go play with your new toys?’ Johnny’s mother suggests, ‘let your mum/mom rest.’

‘No, I’ll help you with dinner-‘

‘No you will not,’ she fires back sternly, ‘you just gave birth. Go sit on the couch and relax.’

Sensing that she won’t back down, you retreat to the couch, where Jude is laying around on his phone.

‘Are you ok, mum/mom?’ Jude looks up from his phone in concern when you quietly whine in discomfort.

‘I’m good, just achy,’ you don’t think your teenage son wants the details of your postpartum body.

‘Can I do anything?’ He offers, forever the sweetest boy.

‘You could play with your sisters,’ you suggest, ‘stop them from getting in your grandma’s way.’

‘Okay,’ he throws his phone down, wandering over to the girls and feign excitement over their dolls.

Johnny helps his parents with the cooking, darting around the kitchen, pulling things off the hob, out of the oven and into dishes ready for the dining table.

‘Dinner’s ready!’ Johnny’s mother calls.

You place Connor in the crib you’ve brought downstairs, as Jude and the twins practically sprint over to the dining table.

‘Ah-ah, not so fast,’ Johnny chastises, ‘let’s carry a dish each.’

He gives the twins a cooler dish each, which they carry to the table and put down, before sliding into their seats.

‘You, sit down,’ Johnny’s mother swats at you when you appear in the kitchen and try to help.

‘Alright, dig in everyone,’ Johnny’s mother announces.

‘Kids,’ you begin sternly before they pick up their utensils.

‘Jal meogeotseumnida,’ the kids chirp in unison, Johnny’s mother laughing as they start stuffing their faces as soon as the last syllable leaves their mouths.

‘You’re welcome.’

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

‘Hey,’ Johnny is sitting up in bed, orange glow of your bedside lamp illuminating the bare skin of his chest.

‘Hi,’ you’d just finished saying goodnight to Jude.

He wraps his arms around you once you’re in bed beside him.

‘I had the most perfect day,’ he murmurs sleepily.

‘Me too. Exhausted now.’

‘M’not surprised. But I love being in Chicago with you, and our family.’

‘It feels like home, doesn’t it?’

‘It is home. But anywhere with you is.’

‘You’re so cheesy,’ you cringe, ‘but I agree with the sentiment.’

‘Merry Christmas, I love you.’

‘Merry Christmas, John. I love you too..’

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tired-angstmechanism · 1 year ago

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Candles (and candle-y products) I think the Young Avengers would have:

Context: I came up with this while being in a Yankee Candles with my family for 45 minutes or so. I got bored, took a bunch of photos of candles, and spent another 45 minutes on this vaguely unhinged Young Avengers post. Also this is just the comics team, so V1 + V2 team. :)

enjoy?

Nate: Coconut Beach - He’d probably have a basic beach candle like this, mostly based off the panels of him on the beach

Eli: Seaside Woods - Not technically a candle but it was in the Yankee Candles so. I think he’d have these solely cause someone else bought them for him and he didn’t want to throw them away.

Teddy: Singing Carols - I think Teddy would have one of those vaguely festive candles with the strange names, and he probably enjoys them too. Maybe they remind him of his mom. Mary-Jo Altman seems like a festive candle type lady.

Billy: Edelweiss - I mean, come on! It’s named after a Sound of Music song, of course Billy would have it! Probably bought multiple, I just imagine him performing spells with the Edelweiss scented candle.

Kate: Hinoki Dahlia - I honestly picked this solely cause it’s purple, but Kate would totally buy it just cause it’s purple also.

Cassie: Movie Night Cocoa - absolutely bought for the ridiculous concept, but turns out it actually smells good so she bought more. I’m sure Kate helped in buying this.

Jonas: Catching Rays - Listen, he’s a robot, I doubt he can actually smell this, but I think it’d be funny if he had it (also I didn’t wanna leave him out, I love him)

Tommy: Ice Banana Pop - He’d buy this just to piss everyone off, especially Billy and David though, he probably thinks it’s hilarious

David: Vanilla Bean Caramel Biscotti - It’s vaguely yellowish-orange and is sort of professional looking. I bet he seriously likes it too, it’s like the anti-thesis of Tommy’s monstrosity of a candle.

America: Cafe Al Fresco - Kate bought it for her. It smells like coffee and America swears she doesn’t like it, but she does.

Noh-Varr: Sunset Disco - I laughed for a solid 2 minutes seeing this candle display, and thought Noh-Varr would totally own this candle just cause it has “disco” in the title

Loki: Mistletoe - Look, I have an awful sense of humor, and Loki probably does too. Maybe Verity bought this for him, maybe he got it himself, who knows.

#young avengers #marvel comics #nate richards #eli bradley #teddy altman #billy kaplan #kate bishop #cassie lang #jonas young avengers #tommy shepherd #david alleyne #noh varr #loki agent of asgard #kid loki

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rockislandadultreads · 1 year ago

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New Title Tuesday: Thrillers

Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead

For fans of Verity and A Flicker in the Dark, this is a twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant within us all...even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist.

Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners' bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar—and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town's secret underbelly in search of true evil.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Gracetown, Florida, June 1950: Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.

But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends—all retirees from the CIA—to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.

Complicating their efforts is Purity’s acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau. More accustomed to dealing with rowdy tourists than homicide, Jo is puzzled by Maggie’s reluctance to share information—and by her odd circle of friends, who seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn.

As Jo’s investigation collides with the Martini Club’s maneuvers, Maggie’s hunt for answers will force her to revisit a clandestine career that spanned the globe, from Bangkok to Istanbul, from London to Malta. The ghosts of her past have returned, but with the help of her friends—and the reluctant Jo Thibodeau—Maggie might just be able to save the life she’s built.

This is the first volume of "The Martini Club" series.

When I'm Dead by Hannah Morrissey

On a bone-chilling October night, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthorp investigates the death of her daughter’s best friend. Hours later, the tragedy hits even closer to home when she makes a devastating discovery—her daughter, Chloe, is gone. But, not without a trace.

A morbid mosaic of clues forces Rowan and her husband to question how deeply they really knew their daughter. As they work closely to peel back the layers of this case, they begin to unearth disturbing details about Chloe and her secret transgressions…details that threaten to tear them apart.

Amidst the noise of navigating her newfound grief and reconciling the sins of her past, an undeniable fact rings true for Rowan: karma has finally come to collect.

This is the third volume of the "Black Harbor" series.

#thrillers #suspense #fiction #new books #reading recommendations #reading recs #book recommendations #book recs #library books #tbr #tbr pile #to read #booklr #book tumblr #book blog #library blog #readers advisory

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eohwyyn · 1 year ago

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Top 5 songs right now & top 10 books ever? 💕

hey! 💕

top 5 songs right now according to my spotify on repeat:

here lies love (ft. Florence Welch) - David Byrne, Fatboy Slim, Florence Welch

I'm Not Calling You a Liar - Florence + the Machine

Cherry Wine - Hozier

Watch - Maisie Peters

Ava - Coeur de Pirate

top 10 books ever:

i read a lot so narrowing this down was really hard!! I tried to limit myself to standalones only, so here's the list in no particular order:

An Acquaintance with Darkness, Ann Rinaldi

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr

Angelmaker, Nick Harkaway

Alice in Wonderland (+ bonus Through the Looking Glass), Lewis Carroll

The Bird King, G. Willow Wilson

The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein

Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier

Sirena, Donna Jo Napoli

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller

Song of the Sparrow, Lisa Ann Sandell

(shhh i know this is more than 10 but i couldn't help myself XD)

Ask me my “TOP 5/TOP 10” anything!

#thanks for asking!#owl post 💌#giazzurra #ask games #mutuals <3

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tygerbug · 11 months ago

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DOCTOR WHO: THE CHURCH ON RUBY ROAD (2023): A Christmas special and the first full story for Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Millie Gibson as their friend Ruby Sunday. Unusually, Gatwa got a lot of screen time in the previous special, "The Giggle," presumably so that viewers could get used to the new actor, but this is Gatwa's first proper outing. While the three specials with David Tennant were a much-appreciated throwback to what the show was in 2007, this one shows what the show will be going forward. It immediately feels more modern than the previous specials, despite having the same showrunner (a returning Russell T Davies) and production team. In most respects it's standard Doctor Who fare, but the differences appear in subtler choices about tone and presentation, which show that a lot has changed since 2007.

The good news, and biggest question to be answered, is that Ncuti Gatwa has the charisma to carry the series. There is a lot going on in this performance, some of it unexplained.

What is clear is that Gatwa is extremely charming, to the point where the Doctor's first interactions with other characters tend to raise the question, is this flirting? The performance then goes on to clarify that the answer is no, but we see how people quickly fall under the Doctor's spell, charmed by that smile. This is also the most explicitly queer Doctor Who. While other Doctors had variations on one basic outfit, Gatwa's Doctor changes outfits frequently and cares about being fashionable - fashion which initially mirrors Ruby's. Gatwa is athletic and muscular, and prefers low necklines that show that off. We've seen this Doctor with bare legs and bare arms, and lots of interesting costumes. The actor's reactions to situations often feel gay-coded, or at least unbothered about being perceived that way. Doctor Who has often been very clearly gendered in the past, with the Doctor standing strong against the monsters while the female companion cowers in fear. Gatwa seems happy to play both sides of that role as needed, projecting either unshakeable charisma and confidence, or occasionally the sort of submissive fear response we'd expect from a Jo Grant. What this means for Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday, we'll have to see.

Their time onboard the goblin ship also involves a full-on musical number, with singing and dancing, although David Bowie (Labyrinth) is not involved, having passed in 2016. Russell T Davies included newly-written musical numbers in his Christmas specials when running the show previously, but it's never been quite this overt.

Earlier, they go out dancing at an LGBT-friendly club, with the Scottish Gatwa in a kilt and yellow tank top, fully raving. Trans actress Mary Malone (The Prince) sings onstage accompanied by Ruby on keyboards. Mary is a minor character but it's enough that she's there. Trans actor Pete McHale has also been cast for the series, and Yasmin Finney (Heartstopper) of course appeared in "The Star Beast." Jinkx Monsoon (RuPaul's Drag Race) has been cast as a villain. Star names include Neil Patrick Harris in The Giggle and Jonathan Groff (Hamilton).

The casual subtext here is that people of color exist, and LGBT people exist, and are important to these stories. People who are not cishet white men exist. This has been the case, behind the scenes, on Doctor Who, since the very beginning, with the first episodes directed by Waris Hussein and produced by Verity Lambert, with a theme produced by Delia Derbyshire. However, this wasn't always reflected onscreen. Classic Doctor Who always had a gay fanbase, and had leaned into that by the 1980s. And Russell T Davies' 2005 Doctor Who worked harder to appeal to women, foregrounding the character of Rose Tyler and playing up the romantic aspect of The Doctor himself. However, there was a strong negative reaction, within the older fandom, to the casting of Jodie Whittaker and Jo Martin as The Doctor. A large chunk of the existing fanbase outed themselves as overtly bigoted.

For his part, Russell T Davies has been including elements in these specials which seem intended to drive these viewers away, such as Donna discussing (in Wild Blue Yonder) how gay the Doctor is really, or the Doctor asking The Meep The Meep's pronouns. Hopefully the bigots have stopped watching by now, so we won't have to hear much more of their whining. I have heard a lot of complaints about the unusual new Sonic Screwdriver, enough that I suspect they're really complaining about the unusual new Doctor Who. There is not, otherwise, much to complain about yet.

The monster of the week plot is a bit weak, and there's a lot about these goblins which isn't explained, and which is handwaved away quickly. The Doctor, at least, gets to waffle on about deciphering a language made up of ropes, knots, accidents, cracks and coincidences. That part sounds interesting, and suggests something evocative which isn't quite explained in full. The goblins also look good - mostly practical suits, and using every penny of the money Disney is adding to the coffers of these specials. An overarching mystery, or two, is also set up, involving Ruby Sunday's parentage … and neighbors. Davies had already hinted that an overarching villain (or villains) was coming, and this is a similar but more subtle way to keep viewers watching, until all is revealed. Running time is a bit of a problem here. The first twenty minutes pass slowly, while the last fifteen minutes cut a lot of corners. We don't have time for that, the show says, or we don't have time for that this week anyway.

Ncuti (pronounced Shuti) also excels at the real-world drama here, especially in a strangely-written scene with Ruby's adoptive mother, in which both are aware that something is missing, or has gone terribly wrong, but they're talking around their feelings about it. Here, Michelle Greenidge dampens the warmth and charm we've seen in other scenes with her, and won't look the Doctor in the eye. We must assume we'll be returning to this situation later, as there is unresolved story and it's populated with character actors -- Angela Wynter as the grandmother, Anita Dobson as the neighbor Mrs Flood, writer Gemma Arrowsmith as a social worker.

As for Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday, the writing is a bit of a problem here, because it takes the character awhile to warm up. She is written strangely during the first twenty minutes of the special, and has very little reaction to the strange events around her. She is introduced doing an interview with TV presenter Davina McCall, which is not quite as relatable as, say, Rose Tyler eating some chips. But I respect that, for a character who initially appears to be Rose Tyler Again, the writing and performance resists the urge to make her literally that, at least in this episode. In practice this means that the character takes some very strange and disturbing events in stride as if they're normal, or as if they're nothing … then has a delayed reaction to it all at the very end of the special, both emotionally and in terms of figuring out what's just happened. I liked her a lot more in these moments, since we can now actually tell what she's thinking. It is made explicit in the script that she is having a delayed reaction and couldn't stop to think about all of this until now. Which is … strange.

Of course Ruby trusts The Doctor immediately and that explains most of her performance here, but there's something lacking in the writing, in terms of presenting Ruby as an actual normal human woman. (Clara Oswald had a similar problem.) Perhaps it's just that Russell T Davies lacks recent life experience of this kind. It feels like a later Marvel movie, where so many cataclysmic and magical things have occurred that people don't react to them like a normal person would anymore. This extends to the plot as well. Something happens to Ruby's family home which is absolutely a major problem, and which does not get solved during this special. I am reminded of how Rose Tyler, Donna Noble, and Amy Pond had to be relatable, while others like Clara Oswald simply had to be there. Is Ruby, like Clara, simply a mystery to be solved? She certainly has chemistry with Ncuti and fits well enough into (what we used to call) the traditional companion role.

Despite a typical Doctor Who plotline, and the presence of Russell T Davies as showrunner, this doesn't quite feel like 2000s Doctor Who. It's clearly a piece of streaming television in 2023, and that has changed the show in ways which are hard for me to define. I am curious how this will play out in the full series, once I have a better idea of what Russell T Davies and company are up to here.

As far as technical concerns go, it is typical for current television series to be a bit dark and murky. There shows were often shot as low contrast video, which would look very grey as raw footage, and then graded for HDR monitors that do not exist yet for the average viewer. In this respect, this special is a lot better than you'd expect, and actually better than the previous specials. It doesn't have the super-bright, overlit look of Doctor Who of old, but you can see everything, and there's usually a bright, contrasty rim light making Ncuti Gatwa's features stand out, as well as Millie Gibson's. The tradeoff with this is that the photography and editing rely too much on closeups, which are often a bit too close. It's not especially moody, but it's not an especially moody story. It's also fairly colorful. A club scene uses what Youtubers call "bisexual lighting," and most exterior scenes are surprisingly diffuse and subtle, with flatteringly soft visuals. This could pass for a current feature film, on the lower budget side, and the key locations of Ruby's family home and a pirate ship are convincingly portrayed. The audio is where I had the biggest issue, although it may be my setup. It sounded like this was mixed for 5.1 rather than the stereo speakers I was using, although everything was audible and it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

The Church at Ruby Road is a good showcase for Ncuti Gatwa's intensely charismatic and charming Doctor, which is all it really needs to be. Despite the presence of Russell T Davies, and familiar Doctor Who tropes, it feels different from 2000s Doctor Who in ways which aren't easy to define. Stylistic traits from the Chibnall and Moffat eras of the show seem to have survived into this one, more than I would have expected. Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday is pleasant enough, but frustratingly hard to get a handle on as a character. (Think Clara Oswald rather than Rose Tyler.) The language of television and film has changed in the past two decades, and I think that's affected how these characters are written and portrayed, in ways that feel a bit distancing, at this point. I'll have more of an opinion about this as the series goes. But it's a good start and we'll see where things go from here. It's also a fresh start, with The Doctor alone again, rather than hanging out with Bonnie Langford. It's bold and confident about what it's doing, and overtly queerer than the show has been before, with or without the aid of Bonnie Langford. I am not, at this point, entirely sure what the show is actually doing, but I'm interested in finding out.

#doctor who #the church on ruby road #millie gibson #ruby sunday #ncuti gatwa #russell t davies #15th doctor

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bluboothalassophile · 1 year ago

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Hi hi, recently finished Vixen & The Fox. Loved it! Favorite kolvina fic by far. I was wondering, who is everyone in the skulk? By my count, it's:

Kol & Davina (obviously), Freya & Vincent (Elders), Monique, Abby & Monique (other Harvest girls), Bonnie, Kaleb, Kai, Nora, Beau, Jo, Stephanie, Amy, Jessica, Anna-Marie (The new Harvest Girls who Hope befriended/were being inducted into the Skulk last we heard of them), Lizzie, Josie, Apollo, Ophelia, Rameses, Radzim, Reto, Regulus, Hope, Constance, Faith, Amity, Grace, Nik, Fionna, Alizee, Verene, Ragnar, Cole, Etienne, Remy, Louis, Armel, Bertrand, Isak, Nathanael, Fernand, Daniele, Davina, Kolby, Briar, Palash (assuming they join Vincent's coven and not Ivy's), of course Kol and Davina have four children but I don't know if they count (they do to me because they would've been accepted had they been raised with them), which brings the number to fifty three including the Kits

Am I missing anyone?

Also: Would the Skulk have accepted any new members after the 'deaths' of Kol and Davina?

Hello,

So, yes, all of the Skulk does include those particular children through familial connections. But there are a few extras who I don't think would occur to anyone to count.

When Vincent and Ivy married, Ivy joined Vincent's coven; we're going to go with the old tradition of a more familial structure where the women go with their husband's families here given the Skulk is founded on Old Traditions. So, Vincent's marriage did bring Ivy into the fold.

When Eitenne married Naltalka, Naltalka joined the Skulk too. Which is sort of an indication for how the Skulk was going to work, but I don't have a lot of the female characters married at this time to other witches, so I can't really show that.

When Hope married/mated Theo, because he's not a witch her children; Verity and Felicity; are a part of the Skulk, but also, given Theo's not really part of the Beacon Hill's Pack, he just sort of joined the Crescent Moon Pack, and they stayed in the Mikaelson sphere of control.

Now, when Grace marries, part of why her wedding is to be made a big deal, is because Rafael is a part of the Beacon Hill's Pack, and her wolf side will go to the Beacon Hill's Pack with Rafael, however, because she isn't leaving the Skulk or her coven, when/if she has children, they'll join the Skulk to learn.

The Skulk also took in the other Harvest Girls, later in their lives. Stephanie, Jessica, Anna-Marie and Amy all had a claim to be in the Skulk given the Skulk had already served as a safe haven for Monique, Cassie and Abigail.

Now, if one of the girls marries a witch, then more than likely she'll go to her husband's coven, whereas when one of the boys marries a witch, they'll more than likely bring a wife into the Skulk. It's a little bit different for the wolves of the Skulk, or marrying a 'mortal' but that's the basic gist given the Skulk is founded on Old Magic. It's not to say the girls are cut off entirely from the Skulk if they leave when they get married, it's just saying, in theory, that's how it's going to work.

As for Kol and Davina and their children, they technically are still a part of the Skulk, but they are effectively severed, magically, from the Skulk due to being in the Armillary Sphere. Runa does not connect with the Skulk with any sort of ease, and can't recognize the bonds as part of her coven, though she knows that's her coven. The magic she's grown up using and the world she's grown up in is drastically different from the Skulk's, and thus, her magic doesn't work how normal witch's magic would normally work.

#bluboothalassophile #hello reader

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ranger-rai · 1 year ago

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Welcome to Sinnoh pt.1

(Continuation of "Cold Eyes, Warm Food")

Only a couple weeks had passed since the unlikely merging of a professional Tri-Games Team and a non-profit cafe.

The three women who made up the team were adjusting to their new positions in the cafe, Konani taking care of the drinks and providing a wonderful herbal spin to those lacking any real flavor.

Vea was providing help with the cooking, nothing too fancy so long as she followed the recipes, she was good at handling the heat for long periods of time.

And Tia, who was providing table service, had a pretty strong sense of balance from being in the air most of the time, allowing her to flow between tables and customers with grace and ease.

This arrangement seemed like it was working well, at least from the surface.

Once a lunch rush had passed Vea exploded to her teammates that they had been scammed into being wage slaves.

Konani was beginning to agree with her, Tia still remaining silent, but her face was showing signs of resentment.

As if Arceus had heard their concerns, a familiar face had entered the cafe and sat herself at an empty table in the corner. Jo was wearing her usual ranger apparel, lab coat, dirty pants, tired expression, the usual.

Vea began calling out to the ranger boss, nearly crawling out of the cook window before using common sense and bursting through the door instead.

She approached the faded purple haired ranger, calling her out for her lack of action as well as their placement inside of the cafe.

“Coffee Please.” Jo simply responded as she rubbed her temples, not even acknowledging the complaints.

Vea continued to argue, not getting more than a death stare from Jo who seemed like she was ready to stand and tell her something only to be stopped by a cup being placed in front of her.

Tia had broken the tension between the two, but she did have a question of her own.

“Any updates?” Tia asked in her usual, cold and to the point way.

This action didn't seem to phase Jo much, but she did owe them that much.

Jo began explaining that the paperwork was in motion, and getting them settled as Sinnoh’s official team was proving to be a bit more difficult, especially without any of them being native there.

This both angered and confused the women as another roadblock slowed them once more, this time being the fact that they knew little about Sinnoh and hadn't been there much longer than a month.

They all began pondering, trying to figure out something they could do to help give the people of Sinnoh and the official league a better opinion of these ladies.

Jo suggested they get to know more about Sinnoh and really engulf themselves in the culture, perhaps with a tour.

They agreed, mostly to get themselves out of work.

Jo also suggested that they document their travels, it would be a good social media promotion.

They were not opposed to it, but they didn't know where to begin with this tour. They would need a guide.

“Okay. You then.” Jo stated as she pointed past the women, catching their familiar Ranger entering the cafe, not even having enough time to take off his hat. He looked like a Deerling in headlights, completely unaware of what he had been signed up for.

—-------

The next day Rai had been given a new assignment, to take these women around Sinnoh and help them fall in love with the region.

Rai met them outside of their temporary home just before sunrise, they were slow to get started, Vea definitely lagging behind the most as they piled into a nice car that Jo had provided.

Between the long rides between towns, and long stretches of empty land the ladies were not really finding much to enjoy.

Trying to offer them some commentary on their surroundings, only to be requested to stop talking while they turned up the music.

Rai felt awkward, but he began picking up speed as he noticed the sun was rising. His speed managed to get them to their destination just in the nick of time as they had arrived at Lake Verity, they caught the beautiful light of the sun rising over the lake.

This was one of Sinnoh’s natural beauties, as well as a premium photo opportunity.

Somehow the light of the sun felt revitalizing over the lake, even the pokemon that were waking up seemed energized and full of life there.

Rai urged them to hurry back into the car as they had one more time sensitive event to make.

They were confused but curious as they all jumped back in the car before Rai rushed them off.

Being a Ranger had its perks in events like this, especially knowing the unused back roads to reach places faster as they arrived just outside Floaroma Town, chasing the sunrise for a very special surprise.

The three women were getting an early workout as Rai brought them to a large hill, egging them to hurry up or they would miss it.

As they trudged to the top of the hill they could feel an increasing wind building up, and once at the peak they could see what it was all building up to.

The women and the Ranger stood in awe as a morning gust blew a cloud of colors over the city and towards them. Rai encouraged them to protect their eyes for a moment.

As the petals flew over them the air was filled with a sweet, floral aroma that was instantly rejuvenating.

The three women were not only awake, but in awe as well.

“So, are you all ready for the tour?” Rai asked with a big smile.

They were confused, assuming this was the big spectacle for them to fall in love with Sinnoh, but the ranger assured them that this was just the beginning.

—----------

Now that some of the tension was broken, Rai was able to start up some more conversation with the three women, mainly Konani who wanted to stop in Floaroma Town to check out the wide array of Teas and Herbs sold there.

Rai apologized that they had a few other things to do, but he would gladly take her there any time.

He also told them some stories of some wild pokemon that he had to relocate, including an angry Drapion that he needed to relocate not far from where they were, or a Himpowdon that caused a sandstorm that shut down a small town for almost 2 days.

They were pretty amazed by this fact, but they were quickly pulled from their amazement when hunger set in. Rai was also feeling this but he figured they wouldn't want to eat at the cafe, but he knew a small place in the heart of Jubilife City that they just might love.

The women had their reservations about going back to Jubilife due to their previous rough experiences, they had visited one of the nicer places to eat right in the center of the city and it was a terrible time.

Rai had parked only a few blocks away from the cafe that had left a bad taste in the womens mouths.

Vea was ready to speak up when she noticed Rai walking completely past the restaurant and into a small path just to the side. It resembles an alleyway, but it wasn't as dark or dirty as you would expect an alleyway to be.

They followed the ranger, ignoring the line of people waiting for the other restaurant to open.

Down the path revealed a small, very traditional looking building. It looked as though it was lost to time, perfectly preserved in a more traditional style, but that clearly had to be the facade right?

Rai dusted off his shoes and instructed them to do the same before he slid open the door to this little place.

“Oi, Jenni! We got some fresh faces who are really hungry!” Rai called out, getting a surprised expression from the three women as they had not expected the ranger to be so informal at a restaurant.

Only a moment after he called out an older woman with messy green hair emerged from the back. She looked like she was around Jo’s age, but she had a very welcoming smile in contrast to the Ranger Boss.

The woman called back and told them to sit anywhere as she prepared them something.

Rai sat himself down, waving to a couple stray employees and informing them about the historic roots of the place.

He explained how the owner is the great granddaughter of the original founder, back when Sinnoh was still known as “Hisui”.

They were taken back by the amount of history that adorned the walls, and surprised by how welcoming the staff was, when he explained to them that they treat people who come here like family.

Rai added that this was the real Sinnoh experience.

The women smiled when they heard this, Tia snapping another batch of photos to share on their social media, however when they were brought a large plate of Potato Mochi she found that she could wait a little bit longer before posting anything.

#welcome to sinnoh #rai lore #rai headcanon #tia #konani #vea #team wild dragoon #story

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easthavenhq · 1 year ago

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Task #006 - Dynamic Duo

Hello, Residents! For August's task, we have decided to split everyone up into pairs to promote branching out and writing with characters and maybe even muns you haven't written much with. This task is the first that is going to be mandatory for everyone and you have the entire month of August to complete it. We realize some are on hiatus, so those pairs will be granted more time, but things should be at least started this month. You can have the pairs do anything you like! Just reach out to your writing partner and you can come up with something for them all to do. Under the cut, you'll find the pairs. If anyone drops a character and we accept more, we'll edit things up, but for now, this is the list! Make sure to tag at least the starters as #easthaventask006 and if you have any questions, let us know!

The Pairs

Gale Peterson & Ann-Marie Seigert (Nadine & Jennie)

Brady Levitt & Josiah Huddington (Jennie & Katelyn)

Elian Browne & James Morrison (K & Sam)

River Jackson & Celine Ediz (Starr & Gigi)

Hazal Senkan & Noah Sinclair (K & Nadine)

Reyna Kendall & Beyza Senkan (Katelyn & Kayla)

Dev Persaud & Aindreis Blythe (K & Marie)*

Savannah Sutton & Ali Webster (Madison & Sam)

Cristian Hernandez & Nora Sinclair (Dix & B)*

Haven Sinclair & Neena Wagner (Katelyn & Gigi)

Tyler Day & Aarin Duskin (Starr & K)

Yasmin Ansari & Callum Jackson (K & Madison)

Jeremy Lieberman & Isla Ricci (Kayla & Mat)

Dean Walker & Riley Day (Dix & Marie)

Enrique Castro & Penelope Ruiz (Jackie & Nadine)*

Summer Cassidy & Sydney Heywood (El & Gigi)

Emira Sahir & Sunny Hussan (Raven & Jennie)

Andrew Jackson & Nick Wagner (Nadine & Kayla)

Cael Montgomery & Max Diaz (Nadine & Starr)

Chantel Bedford & Marcel Vaughn (Katelyn & Mat)

Johnny Wagner & Quentin Levitt (K & Nadine)

Harrison Lee & Viktor Pierce (Jennie & Dix)

Amerie Chen & Maverick Bennett (Mat & Dix)

Roman Rhodes & Lenny Clairmont (G & K)

Waverly Erickson & Dana Allen-Lopez (Em & K)

Aubrey Miller & Simon Heywood (Lital & Marie)

Fredrick Sullivan & Ricky Thompson (Starr & Jennie)

Donovan Morgan & Aster Moon (Starr & G)

Verity Wagner & Bridget Levitt (Mat & Kayla)

Evren Osman & Julieta Alvarez (Katelyn & K)

Sarah Ruiz & Matt Wheeler (El & Kayla)

Jo Spring & Nancy Thompson (Marie & Kayla)

Adem Sahir & Charlie Davis (Madison & Starr)

Lynette Sullivan & Javier Rivera (Kayla & Dix)

Abel Morgan & Diego Castro (K & Starr)

Liliana Alonso-Blake & Stevie Rivers (Nadine & Kayla)

Julian Heywood & Dilara Baysal (Nadine & K)

Luciana Medina & Marcus Reyes (Kayla & K)

Owen Bentley & Maggie Sommers (Starr & Kayla)

Wyatt Wheeler & Benjamin Jackson (K & Justin)

Nate Clairmont & Josiah Huddington (Kayla & Katelyn)

Emre Ediz & Josiah Huddington (K & Katelyn)

Travis Jackson & Catalina Rivera (Kayla & K)

Ashi Hussan & Hudson Breeland (Kayla & Rey)*

Mateo Torres & Luna Morales (K & Lital)

Franny Bowen & Mikala Iona (Kayla & K)*

Mya Rhodes & Jaslene Clairmont (Rey & K)

Nicole Peterson & Logan Walker (Kayla & K)

Orion Bentley & Jeremy Lieberman (Justin & Kayla)

*Means exempt due to partner unfollowed

#easthaventask #easthaventask006

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battyaboutbooksreviews · 3 months ago

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🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in August 2024 🌈

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Happy reading!

❓What was the last queer book you read?

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

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waywardnerd67 · 2 years ago

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9 People You Want To Know Better

Tagged by the amazing: @cosicas-cuquis

3 Ships: Dean x Jo / Beau x Jenny / Castle x Beckett

First Ever Ship: Zack Morris x Kelly Kapowski

Last Song: “One Step Closer” -Linkin Park

Last Movie: Halloween Ends

Currently Reading: “Verity” -Colleen Hoover

Currently Watching: Supernatural / Big Sky / The Winchesters

Currently Consuming: Water with Fruit Punch flavor packet

Currently Craving: This sexy sheriff ⤵️

Tagging: @avanatural @waywardlatina @waywardjoy @nancymcl @siospins2 @idreamofplaid @mrswhozeewhatsis @supernatural-jackles @wingedcatninja

#tag game #no pressure #not spn

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brazilianwhovian · 20 hours ago

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Oh god, this will be so fun, so, let's go!

1. Yes, i watch DW since I'm (+ or -) 8 years old

2. Well, i wasn't born in 2005

3. Smith and Jones

4. I haven't any of the officials, but i had a paper Dalek in the past

5. The Doctor and a Cyberman

6. Wheeping Angels (Childhood trauma)

7. All of the double entendre jokes

8. The 12th Doctor seasons (i didn't like when i had watched for the first time)

9. Local television channel, lol

10. I never watched SJA when i was a child, :(

11. My first Doctor is the 10th

12. My two favorites are the 2nd and the 11th

13. I like all of them :)

14. The Old 11th Doctor receiving the new regeneration cycle scene

15. I like the well-written Doctor-Lite episodes (I hate Love & Monsters)

16. Oh, great question! Um, maybe the 14th(?)

17. Oh boy, i can't choose between Day of the Doctor and The Five Doctors

18. 12th's Regeneration speech

19. Workin at Pete's World Torchwood or UNIT, i think?

20. Wait, platonic or romantic? If it is romantic, 9th and Rose. If it is platonic, Donna and 10th/14th or 2nd and Jamie

21. I can't choose between Jamie, Donna, Romana (both), Jo, Sarah Jane, Steven, Ian and Barbara (someone help me)

22. Secondary companion? Like, Jack, Mickey and Adam? Of course is Lee from The TV Movie!

23. Tourlough. No doubts

24. 2nd, Jamie & Zoe or 1st, Ian, Barbara & Susan/Vicki or 11th, Amy, Rory & River

25. Martha Jones

26. Clara Oswald

27. Donna's family

28. That boy from The Awakening or Linda from Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways

29. Romana and the 4th Doctor (They really traveled with a son and a dog, the 1981 nuclear family lol)

30. Harry Sullivan

31. How can i choose one?

32. Sleep No More (ugh)

33. Love & Monsters, half of the Series 7, Sleep no More, half of the Series 11 and Orphan 55

34. I can't choose one

35. Historical

36. Partners in Crime

37. The Angels Take Manhattan

38. The entire Series 4

39. The 10th Doctor starting to regenerate in The Stolen Earth

40. A Christmas Carol

41. Both

42. Series 4

43. Series 11

44. Entire series? No one.

45. The Eleventh Hour, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon or The Halloween Apocalypse

46. The Stolen Earth/Journey's End

47. Series 1, Series 4 or Series 5

48. Jodie deserves better episodes.

49. All of it :)

50. In New Who, Christopher Eccleston, in Classic Who, Colin Baker (also Paul McGann)

51. Delgado's Master

52. I can't choose

53. The rocks from The Stones of Blood, the water from Waters of Mars and what the hell are that thing in Midnight

54. Sontarans, ironically

55. The main villain of Rosa, that little piece of trash

56. The Ogrons and the Dominators

57. If they were threatening or charismatic

58. Cybermen

59. The Daleks' Master Plan or Genesis of the Daleks

60. Maestro

61. SJA

62. Gwen

63. Ianto

64. None of them (yet)

65. Luke or Maria

66. I me refuse to choose one of them

67. Sorry Rani, but i prefer Maria

68. Sometimes, when i find one of them and i have time

69. At this moment, Engines of War

70. Yes

71. I don't have a favorite

72. I am the Doctor or The Shepherd's Boy

73. 11th's Series 5-7A

74. It didn't, but has a charm.

75. The 3rd Doctor. Do i need to say more?

76. I really like the Classic Cybermen design

77. RTD, Phillip Hinchcliffe and Verity Lambert (does they count?)

78. Moffat, Robert Holmes, Terrance Dicks and Douglas Adams

79. The '80s (Tom Baker 2nd/Peter Davison/Colin Baker First opening) and Series 4 opening

80. Of course yes!

81. Somewhere in the past

82. I can't choose one single planet

83. 1st, 2nd, 5th, 11th or 14th

84. Ian and Barbara, Steven, Jamie and Zoe or Donna

85. Well, they are not "monsters", but the Peladonians

86. Why I will travel to my past, if i can see the whole universe?

87. Literally all. I will ask him so much until he orders me to shut up

88. Arthur Conan Doyle

89. If is the 1st, he accidentally kidnapps me, if is the 5th, he adopts me.

90. For my first travel, i would like to go to the recent past (maybe the '50s?)

91. My country colonization period

92. Something in the humans are the villains, not the victims

93. Sil.

94. Um... Susan's parents.

95. Wow, this is a question that i don't have a answer

96. Same as the above

97. Depends of the writer

98. Bill Potts

99. The whole Timeless Child plot

100. My dear, i have ideias for seasons! One day i will write a fanfic with original Doctor and companions (I don't promise when)

DOCTOR WHO UNIVERSE QUESTION GAME

I spent way too long on this for it to flop but here we go!! Send me question numbers and I’ll try to answer!! (If this flops then I’m just going to answer all the questions instead)

CHILDHOOD

1. Did you like DW as a child?

2. Your age at the time of the revival?

3. First DW episode you ever saw?

4. Did you have any of the toys?

5. Which DW character did you play on the playground?

6. Monster(s) that scared you most as a child?

7. Joke/story you didn’t get as a kid?

8. DW opinion that has changed since you were a kid?

9. Who introduced you to DW?

10. Did you like Sarah Jane Adventures as a child?

DOCTOR

11. Who is your Doctor?

12. Your favourite Doctor?

13. Least favourite Doctor?

14. Best regeneration?

15. Do you like “Doctor-Lite” episodes?

16. Who is the most human Doctor?

17. Best multi-Doctor story?

18. Best Doctor monologue?

19, What do you think TenToo/MetaCrisis Doctor is doing now?

20. Best Doctor/companion pairing?

COMPANIONS

21. Favourite companion?

22. Favourite secondary companion?

23. Least favourite companion?

24. Best TARDIS Team?

25. Most underrated companion?

26. Most overrated companion?

27. Favourite companion’s family?

28. Who should have been a companion but wasn’t?

29. Favourite (canon or non-canon) DW universe relationship?

30. Who did you not used to like, but really like now?

EPISODES

31. Favourite episode ever?

32. Least favourite episode?

33. Which episodes do you skip?

34. Best two-parter?

35. Historical, present day or futuristic episodes?

36. Episode that will always make you smile?

37. Episode that will always make you cry?

38. Best run of episodes?

39. Best cliffhanger?

40. Favourite Christmas special?

SERIES

41. Classic Who or New Who?

42. Favourite series?

43. Least favourite series?

44. Which series do you skip?

45. Favourite series opening?

46. Favourite series finale?

47. Best series arc?

48. Thoughts on series 11/12?

49. How much of Classic Who have you seen?

50. Who should have had another series?

MONSTERS

51. Favourite monster/villain?

52. Most creative monster?

53. Monster(s) that scares you most?

54. Monster you think is too easy to defeat?

55. Least favourite monster/villain?

56. Monster you want to return?

57. In your opinion, what makes a monster good?

58. Daleks, Cybermen or Weeping Angels?

59. Best Dalek story?

60. Best one time villain/monster?

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

61. Torchwood or Sarah Jane Adventures?

62. Favourite Torchwood Team member?

63. Which Torchwood death made you saddest?

64. Do you rewatch COE or MD?

65. Favourite SJA Team member?

66. Mr Smith or K-9?

67. Maria or Rani?

68. Do you read the comics/novels or listen to Big Finish?

69. If you do, your favourite additional stories?

70. Do you like DW analysis (video essays, fan theories, etc)?

DESIGN/PRODUCTION

71. Favourite piece of alien tech?

72. Favourite piece of Murray Gold music?

73. Favourite TARDIS design?

74. Has the 2005 era CGI aged well?

75. Favourite Doctor outfit?

76. Monster with the best design?

77. Best show runner?

78. Best writer?

79. Best opening titles?

80. Will DW age well/stay popular in the future?

IF YOU WERE IN THE SHOW

81. Time period you’d want to go with the Doctor?

82. Planet/place you’d want to go with the Doctor?

83. Doctor you’d most like to travel with?

84. Companion you’d most like to travel with?

85. Monster you’d like to defeat/fight?

86. If you could go back on your own history (like Father’s Day), where would you go?

87. If you could ask the Doctor anything, what would you ask?

88. Historical figure you’d like to meet?

89. How do you think you’d meet the Doctor?

90. Would you travel forwards or backwards in time first?

IF YOU MADE THE SHOW

91. Historical event would you like to see in DW?

92. Issue you’d like to see addressed in DW?

93. Who would you completely erase from the DW universe?

94. One unanswered DW question you’d love to know the answer to?

95. Actor/actress you’d like to see play the Doctor?

96. Actor/actress you’d like to see play a companion?

97. Is DW “too political”?

98. Which characters fate would you changed?

99. What about DW could be improved?

100. If you could write an episode of DW, any ideas for what you’d do?

So yeh, please ask question!!!

#doctor who #My god i am really tired

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