#John Bok
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rui would get a kick out of john donne’s poetry actually
#project sekai#karamell doodles#rui kamishiro#i didn’t answer the question bc im a chicken. bok bok#john donne’s poems are awesome man. the compass as a metaphysical conceit?? that was cute#BUSIE OLDE FOOLE UNRULY SUNNE
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It’s a special treat to find images of artists by artists.
Barry Windsor-Smith by Michael Netzer
Gil Kane by Marie Severin
John Buscema by Bill Sienkiewicz
Frank Frazetta by Marcus Boas
Gene Day by Dave Sim
Al Williamson by Bernie Wrightson
Jeffrey and Louise Jones (Later Louise Simonson) by Bernie Wrightson
Jack Kirby by Michael Cho
Hannes Bok by Virgil Finlay
Carl Barks by Al Hirschfeld
#barry windsor smith#Michael Netzer#gil kane#marie severin#john buscema#bill sienkiewicz#frank frazetta#Marcus Boas#gene day#dave sim#al williamson#bernie wrightson#jeffrey jones#Louise Jones#louise simonson#jack kirby#michael cho#hannes bok#virgil finlay#carl barks#al hirschfeld#The Duck Boys
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SKULL-FACE AND OTHERS by Robert E. Howard (Sauk City: Arkham House,1946) Cover by Hannes Bok.
Fantasy/horror collection. Limited to 3004 copies.
Skull-Face is a fantasy novella originally serialized in Weird Tales (October through December, 1929). Clearly influenced by Sax Rohmer's opus Fu Manchu it substitutes a resuscitated Atlantean necromancer for the Asian villain. From the center of a web of crime and deceit he means to end Western world domination in order to re-instate surviving Atlanteans (lying dormant in submerged sarcophagi) as the new ruling elite.
Wolfshead (Weird Tales, April 1926) Cover by F.M. Stevenson • The Fire of Asshurbanipal (Weird Tales, December 1936) Cover by J. Allen St. John • Shadows in Zamboula (Weird Tales, November 1935) Cover by Margaret Brundage.
Contents:
vii · Foreword · August Derleth
ix · Which Will Scarcely Be Understood (Weird Tales, October 1937)
xiii · Robert E. Howard: A Memoriam by H.P. Lovecraft (Fantasy Magazine, September 1936), as “In Memoriam: Robert E. Howard”; revised from “Robert Ervin Howard: 1906-1936” (The Phantagraph, August 1936)
xvii · A Memory of R.E. Howard by E. Hoffmann Price [A slightly different version appeared in The Ghost, May 1945 as “The Book of the Dead, Chapter 2, Robert Ervin Howard”.]
Wolfshead (Weird Tales, April 1926) [de Montour]
The Black Stone (Weird Tales, November 1931) [Cthulhu]
“The Horror from the Mound” (Weird Tales, May 1932)
The Cairn on the Headland (Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, January 1933)
Black Canaan (Weird Tales, June 1936)
The Fire of Asshurbanipal (Weird Tales, December 1936) [Cthulhu]
“A Man-Eating Jeopard” (Cowboy Stories, June 1936) [Buckner Grimes]
The Hyborian Age (LANY Cooperative Publications, 1938) [The first half was published in The Phantagraph, (February, August, & October/November 1936)]
Skull-Face (Weird Tales, October 1929) [Kathulos]
Worms of the Earth (Weird Tales, November 1932) [Bran Mak Morn]
The Valley of the Worm (Weird Tales, February 1934) [James Allison]
“Skulls in the Stars” (Weird Tales, January 1929) [Solomon Kane]
“Rattle of Bones” (Weird Tales, June 1929) [Solomon Kane]
The Hills of the Dead (Weird Tales, August 1930) [Solomon Kane]
Wings in the Night (Weird Tales, July 1932) [Solomon Kane]
The Shadow Kingdom (Weird Tales, August 1929) [Kull]
“The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune” (Weird Tales, September 1929) [Kull]
Kings of the Night (Weird Tales, November 1930) [Bran Mak Morn; Kull]
The Phoenix on the Sword (Weird Tales, December 1932) [Conan]
The Scarlet Citadel (Weird Tales, January 1933) [Conan]
The Tower of the Elephant (Weird Tales, March 1933) [Conan]
Rogues in the House (Weird Tales, January 1934) [Conan]
Shadows in Zamboula (Weird Tales, November 1935) [Conan]
Lines Written in the Realization That I Must Die (Weird Tales, August 1938)
Famous Fantastic Mysteries (December, 1952) Cover by Lawrence. [reprint magazine]
Skull-Face by Robert E. Howard [Weird Tales, October 1929]
Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon [Astounding Science Fiction, November 1944]
“The Homecoming” by Ray Bradbury [Mademoiselle, October 1946]
“The Coat” by A.E.D. Smith [from POWERS OF DARKNESS edited by Philip Allan, 1934]
(London: Panther, 1976) Cover by Chris Achilleos. • (New York: Berkley, 1978) • (Japan)
#book blog#books#books books books#book cover#pulp art#pulp fantasy#horror#beautiful books#skull-face#robert e. howard#hannes bok#margaret brundage#j allen st john#book design#cthulhu#conan#bran mak morn#weird tales#science fiction#solomon kane#arkham horror#dark fantasy#sword and sorcery#cthulhu mythos#chris achilleos#famous fantastic mysteries
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Lankum Album Review: False Lankum
(Rough Trade)
BY JORDAN MAINZER
Lankum are a true progressive folk band, exploring the genre’s crossover appeal. Yet, the Irish quartet don’t make accessible music, necessarily; rather, they find common themes among tales of heartbreak, murder, oppression, and the terrible things the human race is capable of, diving headfirst into the darkness of old stories and applying it to new worlds. Produced by John “Spud” Murphy, the band’s latest album False Lankum is far and away their most ambitious and best, as horrific at times as it is beautiful. It begins with “Go Dig My Grave”, a standard tale of lovelorn suicide and its resulting note with burial instructions, that’s seen versions by everyone from Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson to Lambchop. It starts with singer Radie Peat, a capella, an uneasy shrillness in the weariness of her voice and the sharp tones of the guitar stabs. Eventually, the piercing drones and stomping percussion--meant to invoke the Irish process of keening--emulate the never-ending strikes of shovels in the ground during a burial. It’s straight out of an Ari Aster film.
False Lankum take traditional Irish music and put it up against a mirror, the inherent doom of the song’s themes staring right back at it in the face. “Master Crowley’s” is an instrumental fiddle reel that morphs into something truly sinister and dangerous, woozy concertinas and string instruments squeaking and growling like rabid, out-of-breath animals. On “Lord Abore and Mary Flynn”, Cormac MacDiarmada’s pained singing carries the dark, sad jaunt about a mother who poisons her teenage son instead of allowing him to choose his own love. Epic closer “The Turn”, one of two Daragh Lynch originals, sees the vocal harmonies in lower octaves, the song structure alternating between ambient and a galloping, fatalistic chorus. “Turn, we’ll find better days / Burned to the ground / Mourn, it’s the only way / We’ll make a sound,” they sing, before the song ends with clattering drums and squealing drones, the true sound of mourning, indeed.
Of course, there’s beauty and triumph in the pain on False Lankum, like on Gordon Bok tune “Clear Away in the Morning”, where the abstractly doom-filled strings are nonetheless gentle in their delivery alongside whispered vocal harmonies. “Netta Perseus”, another original, sports muted harmonies and plucked guitars, rolling drums and synthesizers that take us into an abyss of sound. The harmonic, chanted “The New York Trader” is a sea shanty about sacrificing the life of a confessed murderer boat captain in order to calm the seas, immigrants coming ashore in “Amerikay” bloodied but alive, which is how you feel as the song thrashes about until its conclusion.
And then there’s centerpiece “Newcastle”, which has origins in the 17th century but, along with “Lord Abore and Mary Flynn”, has undeniable contemporary applications. The former could be sung from the perspective of the latter’s victim. “Why should I not love my love? / Why shouldn’t my love love me? / Why shouldn’t I not speed after her / Since love to all is free?” the band longingly ask on “Newcastle”, presenting the questions of freedoms and human agency as matter-of-fact, righteous parts of existence rather than something to be begged for. In telling these stories, Lankum keep folk alive and well, peeling back its layers to reveal raw wounds.
youtube
#album review#lankum#false lankum#rough trade#rough trade records#john spud murphy#jean ritchie#doc watson#lampchop#radie peat#ari aster#cormac macdiarmada#daragh lynch#gordon bok
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REVIEW
INSURED TO THE HILT (John Smith Mystery 1) by Charlotte Stuart at The Reading Cafe:
‘a lighthearted and spirited look at greed, murder and insurance fraud‘
https://www.thereadingcafe.com/inured-to-the-hilt-john-smith-mysteries-1-by-charlotte-stuart-review/
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I have been saving this ask for a time in which I felt particularly down and I think this week fits that bill. Salamanders are my favorite animal, do you have any cute salamander friends from around the world you could share? :]
Sure thing booboo, here are some slimy little friends for you...
Spanish Ribbed Newts (Pleurodeles waltl), family Salamandridae, found on the Iberian Peninsula and coastal NW Africa
photograph by Peter Halasz
Barred Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma mavortium mavortium), larva/tadpole, family Ambystomatidae, West TX, USA
This is a subspecies of the Western Tiger Salamander.
photograph by John P Clare
Fire Salamanders (Salamandra salamandra gigliolii), family Salamandridae, Campania, Italy
Poisonous.
photograph by Laura Bok
Chiriquí Fire Salamander (Bolitoglossa cathyledecae), family Plethodontidae, endemic to the Chiriquí Province of Panama
First described in 2022.
photograph by Mike Ponce
Broken-Striped Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens dorsalis), male, family Salamandridae, Scotland County, North Carolina, USA
photograph by John P Clare
Midland Mud Salamander (Pseudotriton montanus diastictus), family Plethodontidae, SW Virginia, USA
photographs by Tristan Clark
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WE SHALL BE MONSTERS
Saptajit Banerjee What does it mean to be human? // 스위트홈 Sweet Home (2020-2024) dir. Jang Young-woo; Lee Eung-bok; Park So-hyun // Victoria Schwab Vicious // Melissa Broder Problem Area from "Last Sext" // Clarice Lispector The Hour of the Star // 스위트홈 Sweet Home (2020-2024) dir. Jang Young-woo; Lee Eung-bok; Park So-hyun // Ocean Vuong On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous // George Seferis Collected Poems 1924-1955 // 스위트 홈 Sweet Home (2017-2020) cr. Kim Carnby & Hwang Young-chan // Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Brothers Karamazov // Frank Bidart Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 // Florence + the Machine Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) // 스위트홈 Sweet Home (2020-2024) dir. Jang Young-woo; Lee Eung-bok; Park So-hyun // John Flaxman Scylla
#not a human not a monster but a secret third thing#this is an excuse for me to post about sweet home lol#on humanity#on monsters#on morality#web weave#web weaving#poetry parallels#poetry compilation#sweet home#song kang#cha hyunsu#sweet home hyunsu#kdrama#sweet home kdrama#sweet home webtoon#saptajit banerjee#victoria schwab#melissa broder#clarice lispector#ocean vuong#george seferis#fyodor dostoevsky#frank bidart#florence + the machine#florence and the machine#john flaxman#poem#spilled poetry#spilled thoughts
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“don’t judge a book by its cover” Wrong. Absolutely judge a book by its cover art.
Take a look at this cover of a repress of “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell. A decent cover, yes? You’d see this on the shelf, think it looks okay, and then never think about it again.
Now look at THIS.
The first pressing cover of the novel from 1948 by illustrator Hannes Bok. Look at how fucking hard it goes. Look how it combines surrealist, almost gothic imagery with the main themes of the novel (humanity, paranoia, etc.). Look at the fucking FACE. Instantly more memorable and will definitely leave an impact on whichever library-goer sees it first.
To some, first impressions are extremely important when it comes to a piece of text or media. If you can judge an album or a game by its art, then surely you can judge a book by one.
SEE ALSO:
The Great Gatsby, with its amazing first press cover, painted by Francis Cugat
A Clockwork Orange has many great ones, but the one copy I have has a boring Penguin template one
#book covers#books#maybe i’m wrong#this is just an excuse to ramble about who goes there’s first cover#fucking love the goofy guy on the front#gecko boy#who goes there?#john w. campbell#the great gatsby#a clockwork orange
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The Lagoon Nebula, M8 // John Dziuba
Zoomed-in, now you can see some of the concentrations of interstellar dust at the heart of the Lagoon Nebula. The darkest and densest parts are called Bok globules where new stars are being formed. These globules are on average 10,000 astronomical units* in diameter.
*An astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or about 93 million miles.
#astronomy#astrophotography#messier marathon#nebula#emission nebula#star-forming region#lagoon nebula#messier#messier 8#M8#NGC 6523#Sh2-25#sagittarius
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조선시대 Pentiment / Joseon-dynasty Pentiment Beatrice & Prester John (style experiment)
The art style is too modern for 16th century, but I took a lot of inspiration from "Lovers Under the Moon" by Shin Yun-bok (월하정인 月下情, 신윤복) for Beatrice and various kings' portraits from late Joseon for Prester John (his clothing is based on Silla clothing)
Beatrice's original design looks like she's wearing a barbette (?) and I debated on giving her a 처네 or 쓰개치마, but I decided on the latter and merged it with her original laurel wreath. I only finished these two, but maybe I'll clean up some of my other sketches.
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Affirmation [hitman!Hyunjin]
Characters: Hyunjin, older fem!OC, Jeong In (mentioned), Felix (mentioned), Lee Know (mentioned) Rating: A/O for Adults Only Content Warnings/Tags: pining (m), banter, mentions of previous voyeurism (m), public foreplay/petting (m receiving), semi-public sex, shower sex, raw orgasm(s), doggy style Word Count: 5,330 Summary: After being apart from Blackbox for over a month, Hyunjin is going stir-crazy. He can't get her out of his mind no matter how much she seems to not want him around. When she agrees to meet him in Seoul, he's both surprised and eager. Note: This is part of a larger John Wick AU, which can be found here.
“I know you fucked I.N.”
She snorted, adjusting the phone against her ear. “Now you’re a stalker, too? Pick a struggle, Hwang.”
“I have,” he said, his voice eerily soft even through the phone. “It’s you.”
“Spare me,” she sighed.
“What does he have that I don’t?” he went on.
“A positive rapport, a moral compass, I could go on but I don’t see the point,” she said.
“I kept you alive in that cell,” he said.
“You did,” she said, sharp now. “It cost me dozens of human lives, and even after all that you still didn’t free me. I.N did that.”
“If it hadn’t been for me, no one would have found you,” he said.
“See, this is why I don’t talk to you,” she said. “You never see the point even when it’s right in front of you.”
“But it isn’t right in front of me,” he insisted. “We’re on the phone.”
“You know what I mean, you jackass.”
He whined. She glared at the living room wall and pretended it was him.
“Where are you?” he asked. “I want to see you.”
“If you have to ask then you must be a truly abysmal stalker,” she said.
“I know you were at the Seoul Continental after your escape,” he said. “I don’t know where you went after that.”
“And I’m not going to tell you. Don’t call again unless you actually need something, Hwang,” she said, and promptly hung up on him.
Hyun Jin exercised a remarkable amount of restraint by waiting a month to contact Blackbox again. A long month of shooting people at Lee Know’s command and hoping against hope that he’d run into her somewhere, despite being pretty sure she was in the States while he was still in Korea.
Hell, at this point he would have accepted running into I.N. I.N was connected to her, therefore Hyun Jin could feel closer to her by proxy.
I.N was partially to blame for Hyun Jin’s renewed obsession with her, anyway. Clearly, she had no moral scruples about sleeping with killers if she’d been just fine with fucking the Gumiho himself.
Hyun Jin needed to sleep with her.
He told himself that was all it was. Not that he missed being around her like when she’d been pretending to serve under Lee Know. Not that he was grateful to her for helping him get revenge on Yong Bok. Not even that she had sacrificed half of her contacts to quench his bloodthirst, a tithe to convince him to keep her alive once she’d been found to not be quite as loyal as everyone thought.
No, he told himself, it wasn’t about any of that. He told himself it was just because he really needed to fill her with his cum.
Losing half her might hadn’t affected her linchpin status. Blackbox had the Gumiho as her lapdog now; nobody was getting close to her without going through him, and very few people dared to even try. I.N had risen to prominence as a teenager and only gotten deadlier with every year that passed.
Hyun Jin was almost desperate enough to mess with him, but he got the feeling if he so much as ruffled I.N’s hair wrong Blackbox would never speak to him again, on the phone or otherwise.
So after a long month of jerking off to the worst things he could think of involving him, her, and sometimes even I.N, he called her again.
“What?” she said, not bothering to greet him properly. At least she was courteous enough to speak Korean. He pouted and wished she could see it.
“Ouch,” he said. “You didn’t miss me at all?”
“Of course I didn’t,” she said. Hyun Jin clutched at his shirt like she’d wounded him grievously.
“After all we’ve been through together,” he said theatrically. “It’s like you don’t even care about me.”
“That’s because I don’t,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re a business contact. I don’t spare thoughts for you in my personal time.”
All right, that one did sting a little.
“Yet here I am thinking about you every single day,” he said.
“Sounds like a personal problem,” she said.
“Quite,” he agreed tersely. “Is he there with you right now?”
“Who?”
“The Gumiho.”
“No,” she said. “Why? Think you’ll finish the job while he’s out?”
“I don’t even know where you are,” he said honestly. “I’m surprised he’d leave you alone, though, after the ordeal. Both the threat to your life part and the fucking his brains out part.”
“I don’t require an around-the-clock watch,” she said, ignoring the crass half of his statement. Hyun Jin shrugged even though she couldn’t see it.
“You never know when you’ll find yourself in trouble,” he said.
“Are you threatening me?”
That stung a little more.
“I had plenty of chances to kill you and I didn’t,” he pointed out.
“Answer the question, Hwang,” she said, impatient.
“Hyun Jin,” he snapped back.
“What?” she asked, sounding as taken aback as he felt. He shouldn’t have said that. His name was one of his best-guarded secrets. He and the Gumiho were a lot alike in that way.
“My given name,” he said, feeling suddenly soft, exposed. “Please use it instead.”
“Are you threatening me, Hyun Jin?” she asked, though the fight had gone out of her voice.
“No,” he answered, truthful. “No, I’m not threatening you. I miss you so much and I’m starting to think that the only way I’m going to see you is if you’re in trouble so bad that you need me again and finally fucking call me.”
She made no reply to that. Probably too stunned to speak. So he went on.
“But I don’t want that, either. I don’t want you to be in danger again. I don’t want you to need me like that. I don’t think I want you to need me at all. I want you to want me. I want you to want to see me.”
Another couple beats of silence. Hyun Jin was gripping his phone too tightly.
Finally, she said, “You’re asking a lot.”
Hyun Jin ran his free hand through his hair and let his head fall back against the wall behind him with a thunk.
“I know,” he said, trying not to sound as miserable as he felt.
“What time zone are you in right now?” she asked, catching him off-guard.
“KST,” he answered. “Why?”
“Are you booked out these next several days?”
Hyun Jin felt suddenly lightheaded. He wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly.
“No,” he said, answering the question as he’d processed it. “No, my time is mine these next few days.”
“I’ll meet you at the Seoul Continental in three days,” she said in a voice that brokered no argument. Hyun Jin’s spine straightened automatically.
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered.
She hung up on him. Hyun Jin pulled his phone away from his ear and stared at it like he’d never seen it before.
Hyun Jin spent the next two days grappling with the possibility that this was a set-up and Blackbox was sending the Gumiho to kill him. I.N was smart enough not to break the rules by committing a crime on Continental grounds, but that wouldn’t stop him from camping out across the street and waiting to dome Hyun Jin when he finally came outside.
Hell, even if Blackbox did show up, was she above using this as an elaborate scheme to lure Hyun Jin into a false sense of security? Was Hyun Jin really stupid enough to walk right into a potential trap like this?
Whether or not stupid was the correct word for it, on the afternoon of the third day, he checked into the Seoul Continental and texted her his room number.
Then he waited.
An hour later, she texted him back.
You’re not going to make me pay for my own room after coming all this way, are you?
He raised an eyebrow and quickly typed back.
You won’t have to pay for shit if you just share with me.
Not ten seconds later, someone knocked on his door. He quickly got up to open it. There she was, suitcase in tow.
“Was that supposed to be some kind of test?” he asked as he stood aside to let her in.
“I wanted to see if you were gentleman,” she said. She surveyed the room, her eyes glancing over the one king-sized bed. “I’m unsurprised to find the answer is no.”
“There aren’t a lot of gentlemen in this business,” Hyun Jin said, keeping his voice nonchalant as he locked and bolted the door. She couldn’t know about what he'd done with her security footage . . . Could she? “And besides, you came here so I could see you. How am I supposed to do that if you’re in another room?”
“They offer rooms with two beds,” she muttered as she propped her suitcase on a stand and opened it. He watched while she unpacked a few things.
“How long are you planning to stay?” he asked.
“If I find I can’t stand you, just tonight. If I can? Then I’m not sure,” she said.
“I’d better be on my best behavior, then,” he muttered.
“I’m afraid it’s a little late for that,” she said, tugging a swimsuit out of her suitcase. Hyun Jin eyed her warily. Did she know? “I saw the pool on the way in. It makes New York’s look like a bathtub. I’m going down and you’re welcome to come.”
Before Hyun Jin could even give his assent, she pulled her shirt and bra over her head in one motion. He gaped at her. She slipped out of her pants and underwear just as quickly. Then she wiggled into her swimsuit as though nothing strange had happened, as though she hadn’t just given Hyun Jin a great view of her bare tits and ass, a view that had only existed in his imagination up until now.
She tossed him a withering look. “I thought we established you aren’t a gentleman. Are you coming or not?”
She had to know. How had she found out? It was true that Blackbox seemed to know everything about everyone, but how had she found that out? He shook himself mentally and went to his own suitcase. “Yeah,” he grunted. He then promptly shut himself in the bathroom to figure out the best way to hide a boner in swimwear.
The pool was enormous. It looked like two long pools built to intersect, large enough to have an island at the center. One could access the island either by swimming to it and climbing a set of stairs or by crossing a bridge over the water. A member of the concierge provided them towels as they entered the pool area, and Hyun Jin followed her lead while she chose lounge chairs to leave their things at. She slipped out of her strapless cover-up, and Hyun Jin tugged his shirt over his head, dropping it on a chair.
Now that he was no longer rattled, he was able to do a quick assessment of her body. The cuts and bruises she’d been dealt from her time as Lee Know’s prisoner had healed nicely, several of them joining a collection of older scars. Hyun Jin had quite a few of his own. It wasn’t really something you could escape in their line of work.
She paused to put her hair into a high ponytail. Hyun Jin opted to leave his hair, almost shoulder length, loose. She crossed to the pool, descending the marble steps into the water. Hyun Jin trailed a few paces behind, surveying the others in the area. There weren’t too many people using the pool relative to its size.
As stupid as it was, Hyun Jin felt abruptly protective of her. The odds of anything bad happening to her on Continental grounds were almost zero, which was probably why she’d chosen to meet here in the first place. Still, he couldn’t help the way his eyes slid across the other patrons, ensuring none of them were sizing her up or making note of her for a later date.
She swam away from him, looking legitimately relaxed and happy to be in the water. So many people in this life, especially as they got older, let the mask be the default. Hyun Jin himself was only in his early twenties, and she had years on him, had been doing this shit even longer. It was nice to see humanity slip in, if only for a moment.
Hyun Jin floated at his leisure, aware of her whereabouts without interrupting her while she paddled and dived down to swim along the bottom of the pool. He was suddenly terrified of annoying her, of breaking her peace.
After maybe twenty minutes in the pool, Hyun Jin’s spine went straight thanks to a familiar voice. As discreetly as he could, he swam around to the other side of the island to get a better look. The owner of the voice met his eyes, and Hyun Jin did everything in his power to pretend it hadn’t happened.
It was a former partner of his from a couple years ago, heiress to an underground empire. Her father had disapproved of Hyun Jin thanks to his erratic personality and reputation. It had not ended well.
He turned to swim back the way he’d come, making it just around the corner of the island when he literally ran into the person he actually wanted to see. She gave him an inquisitive look.
“What’s got you spooked?” she asked, her hands on his arms as though to stabilize him. Hyun Jin wasn’t often aware of the age gap between them, but right then he was extremely conscious of it. He wanted to press closer, as though seeking her protection or comfort, but he narrowly refrained.
“Old entanglement,” he said honestly. “I don’t want her to talk to me.”
She took a peek over his shoulder, then met Hyun Jin’s eyes again. “White bikini?” she asked for clarification.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Do you trust me to handle this?” she asked next.
“Yes,” he said without hesitation.
A switch flipped then, and she backed him against the marble tiles of the island wall, her hands coming to rest on either side of his body, boxing him in. She was close enough for him to feel the warmth of her body, but not so close that they physically touched.
“I don’t want you talking with her today,” she said, her voice sweet, almost pouting. He noticed the way her head was angled. It would be easy for anyone looking over his left shoulder to read her lips.
“Why?” Hyun Jin asked, more than happy to play along.
“Because you’re with me right now,” she said, her right hand rising out of the water to rest on his chest. “I don’t want her to think she has a chance with you. Not as a quick fuck or anything else.”
“She has no chance with me, today or any other day,” Hyun Jin said, frowning now. “What’s past is past. She’s the one who threw me away.”
“Are you bitter, Hwang?” she asked softly. Hyun Jin caught the purposeful omission of his given name. A secret kept between them.
“A little,” he said. Her eyes sharpened on him.
“Why?” she asked. “You should know I can be enough for you.”
“Of course I know that,” he breathed. Was she still acting? Because Hyun Jin sure as shit wasn’t. “I’m obsessed with you. I have been for months.”
“I know, baby,” she said. The petname went right to his cock, which was hardening down the right leg of his swim shorts. “I know you would do anything for me.”
He nodded as she moved closer to him. Her left arm went around his shoulders while her right hand carded through his wet hair. Her body lined up with his, and there was no chance in hell she missed his erection.
“I know all I’d have to do is call and you’d come running,” she said, her voice dipping lower. She was so close to him that no one could have known what she said other than him. Her right hand touched his cheek while her left trailed through the water and down his body, stopping to palm directly at his hard cock.
He sighed raggedly.
“You’d drop everything and fly halfway around the world . . . Whether I needed you to kill a man or stuff my cunt . . .”
As she talked she continued to rub his cock. His breathing was labored now, his body tense as he warred with how good it felt for her to touch him, and how depraved he must have been to be this close to getting off in public, right in front of an ex, no less.
“If you don’t stop, you’re going to make me come,” he admitted hoarsely. She raised her brows at him, her lips curving into a fiendish smile.
“Really? Right here? You really would do anything for me.”
He swallowed hard. “It would be humiliating.”
“Oh, Hwang . . . You’ve done much worse things than orgasm in public . . .”
That was enough. Before he could well and truly climax in the middle of the pool, he grabbed her arm and hauled her to the showers. He only just managed to get the water on and the curtain pulled closed when she was on him, kissing him like he’d starved her to death, pushing him back against the cold tile, as though she had been the one tormented instead of the other way around. His dick throbbed, and she must have felt it because she fumbled to get his swim shorts off without pulling away from their kiss.
He pulled them down for her while she forced her tongue into his mouth, his tongue just as eager, spit and water dripping down their chins. He groaned in relief when his cock sprang free, achingly hard.
She pulled away from their kiss to look at it, to wrap her hand around it, entranced by the way his girth fit in her grip.
“You’re going to feel so fucking good inside me,” she sighed. Hyun Jin’s attention snapped from her hand to her face.
“You’re going to let me fuck you?” he asked, unsure if he’d heard right. He’d frankly been expecting a handjob at best.
“Please,” she said. “You of all people should know how badly I’ve wanted you for months.” He huffed a short laugh, incredulous.
“Fuck,” he hissed, leaning his head back against the tile. “You know about what I did, don’t you?”
“You mean the way you watched my security footage and liked it so much that you kept a fucking copy? Yes, Hwang, I know what you did,” she said. He grinned in disbelief. Then he switched places with her and got to his knees.
“I get the feeling I should beg for forgiveness,” he said, gazing up at her. She chuckled.
“I think that’s a very good idea,” she answered, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes.
He tugged her bikini bottom off and pushed her back against the wall, out of the spray of the water so he could keep all her wetness for himself. He delved his tongue between her folds, long, deep licks that quickly had her sighing and moaning.
“I’m not immune to you, Hwang,” she said. “You’re fucking gorgeous and seeing you in the pool like that made me so wet.”
“Like what?” he asked, moving one of her thighs to rest on his shoulder and putting his mouth back to work teasing her clit. She shuddered.
“At my mercy,” she sighed. He hummed, desire shooting straight to his straining cock, pre-cum drooling from the tip. While he sucked on her clit, he eased two fingers inside her, unable to start slow. She was already so open for him, so ready to be filled. He wanted to stuff his cock inside her right then, a quick, dirty fuck, but he was already so close that if he did it now, he would be the only one that came.
Hwang Hyun Jin was a lot of terrible things, but selfish lover was not one of them.
So he fucked her with his fingers first, stroking her clit with his tongue while he listened to her moans, memorizing what made her flinch and writhe so he could do it again and again. Finally, he found the perfect pressure with his tongue and the perfect speed and angle with his fingers, and she fell apart for him, her nails biting into his shoulder while her body shook and her pussy fluttered.
He didn’t hesitate after that. He stood, ripping the bikini top with its flimsy ties off her body. He lifted her by the thighs, pressing her back against the wall as he fucked into her in one smooth, sound stroke. She gasped a moan, her nails digging into his back, and he hissed, pressing as deeply inside her as he could. Her cunt was still pulsing with her orgasm, and it felt so fucking good around his cock.
“That’s it,” he moaned. “That’s right. So fucking greedy for me.”
She nodded, her wet ponytail bobbing. “Want you to fuck me,” she moaned. “Want you to fill up my fucking cunt.”
Hyun Jin bared his teeth in a wild grin, pulling back nearly to the tip. “I will,” he breathed.
When Hyun Jin fucked back into her, she whined along with every smooth, hard inch. His length filled her so deeply, his thickness stretching her pussy just right, lighting every nerve on fire. When she’d felt him in the pool, she’d known he would be big, but nothing quite prepared her for having him inside her.
Despite what she’d thought would happen, despite how eager he was, he took his time to play with her now, long, slow strokes of his cock, all the way in and all the way out, forcing her to memorize every bit of his shape and size. His muscle control was impeccable. Her body was already buzzing from pleasure; he felt so good but she needed more.
She kissed along his neck, showing her teeth here and there. He groaned, his cock twitching inside her, but he didn’t speed up the pace. She dragged her tongue up the side of his neck and he shuddered, driving himself inside her in a swift, hard stroke, lingering there while another greedy pulse went down the length of him. His control, fraying.
“Please, Hyun Jin,” she murmured against the shell of his ear, little more than a whisper, leaving no chance that someone might overhear his name. He froze. “I need this.” He shivered, a soft groan escaping his perfect, plush lips. “I’ve needed it for months, ever since I touched myself in that fucking confinement cell to thoughts of you, sweaty and dripping, all over me.”
“Fuck,” he choked out, and obeyed, his hands tight enough on her thighs to bruise as he snapped into a sharp, harsh rhythm, keeping her tight against the wall as he craned his neck to kiss her, a sloppy affair that quickly became little more than tongues stroking while they moaned into each other's mouths.
“Yes, Hwang,” she gasped out. “That’s it, fuck, yes. Gonna make me come again.”
“Good,” he grunted, a sound that quickly tapered into a whine as she scored her nails down his back. “I’m not going to last if you keep doing that.”
“Then don’t last,” she goaded. “Fill me up with your cum like we both want so badly.”
“Fuck, noona,” he groaned.
“Harder, Hwang.”
He did as commanded, and like she said she would, she came on his cock, her cunt fluttering euphorically over something so big. She didn’t bother trying to control the volume of her moans, alerting everyone in the showers that there were indeed degenerates in their midst. After three more hard thrusts, Hyun Jin fell apart, filling her with hot spurts of cum. With the exception of one more shuddering thrust, he didn’t even bother to fuck her through it, choosing instead to press as close to her as he could, body to body, cock buried, panting moans against her ear.
“So fucking good, Hyun Jin,” she breathed in his ear once he’d finished emptying his mess inside her, his bruising grip letting up. He put her feet back on the floor and slid his cock out of her, still half-hard after all that. He was staring at her, lips parted as he tried to catch his breath, his tongue shifting behind his teeth. She couldn’t help it; he looked so good, fucked out and dripping wet, that she reached for the back of his neck, fitting her mouth to his all over again. His arms caged her against the wall instantly, pressing their naked bodies close.
When they finally parted, he asked, “You’re staying more than one night, right?”
She laughed, nodding. “Yeah. Seems it’ll be worth my while.”
After rinsing off the mess, they collected their things from the pool area and went back up to their room to wash the chlorine from their hair. Despite his insistence that they could totally shower together, she told him to go first and took hers after.
Good thing, too, because once she got out of the shower Hyun Jin barely let her dry off before putting her face down, ass up on the bed and fucking her again. She came even harder than before, her core still sore from the first round. From the sound of him, he came just as hard this time, and the mess wasn’t diminished in volume.
She rolled over on the bedspread and just stared at him while he pushed the hair out of his face, his eyes locked on her pussy where his cum had started to leak out. His muscles were still tight from the exertion of fucking her twice, his plush lips parted while he panted. If one could get past the crazy and the killing, he was a perfect specimen.
He licked his lips and pressed them together, meeting her gaze as he seemed to come back to himself. Then he stretched to grab the tissue box on the nightstand, his lean, strong body on full display. She groaned, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes.
“What?” he asked as he started to clean the mess from between her legs, careful not to use too much pressure. She could hear the smile in his voice.
“You’re gorgeous and I’m going to be so fucking sore when this trip is over,” she moaned, dropping her hands to look at him. He was focused intensely on his task.
“I would apologize, but I’m not even a little sorry,” he said. She huffed a short laugh in response.
“Me neither,” she agreed. He dropped the tissues in the trash, then came to lounge next to her in the bed. He looked pensive, almost hesitant.
“What is it?” she asked, rolling onto her side to face him.
He was quiet for a moment, then met her eyes again. “You have to tell I.N. I refuse to be the other man.”
“He already knows,” she said. “He knew before I left where I was going and why, and I updated him while you were in the shower. As long as you don’t hurt me, and as long as I don’t replace him, he doesn’t care.”
Hyun Jin sighed with relief. “Thanks. I never want to be in that situation again,” he said. She propped herself up on an elbow.
“You’ll murder forty-seven people in front of me, but you draw the line at infidelity?” she asked, a little incredulous but not unkind.
“I’ve never been killed before, so I guess I’m able to mentally distance myself from that one,” he said by way of explanation.
“You’ve been cheated on?” she asked. He nodded.
“You’d be surprised how often it happens. They either think I’m too busy to notice, or too deranged to care. Neither is true.”
“What about the woman at the pool? Did she . . . ?”
“Yeah. Her father disapproved of me and rather than cutting me loose she just . . . let me be a side piece. Except I didn’t know I was the side piece,” he said. He made a disgusted sound. “And when I did find out, I killed the other guy. It was the wrong call. I should have killed her, but at least I know better now.”
“You kill your exes?” she asked.
“Only the ones that betray me,” he said.
“I’ll try to stay on your good side,” she said.
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” he said. “You’ve been honest with both me and I.N, and I’m sure it’s obvious by now that I trust you. And my trust is very difficult to earn these days.”
“I gathered,” she said softly, thinking of the way his name felt on her tongue.
“I want to meet him,” Hyun Jin said then. “I.N. I want to make sure we all know what’s happening.”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “I can arrange that.”
“Gotta make sure your scary guard dogs can get along,” he muttered. She chuckled, a lopsided grin on her face.
“My what?”
“Scary guard dogs. I figure you need at least two to make up for all the allies you lost,” he said.
“The ones you killed, you mean,” she clarified. He waved his hand dismissively.
“Whatever. Lee Know would have done it if I hadn’t, but if Lee Know had, you wouldn’t have gotten anything out of the deal. He’s not as nice as me,” he said.
“Low bar,” she said. He pouted.
“I’ve been very nice to you,” he said.
She hummed thoughtfully and reached to run her index finger along his soft length. His eyes snapped to her hand.
“I certainly hope you’re not as nice to everyone as you are to me . . .”
“Point made,” he said, his voice a little strained again. There was no way he could go again so soon, and by the look on his face, he wasn’t very happy with his body thwarting him like that. She pulled her hand away from his cock, not wanting to torment him further. Instead, she leaned forward to kiss him, which he accepted gratefully.
“I’m happy I came to see you,” she said softly, her eyes still closed. He kissed her again, his full lips slow and tender on hers.
“So am I,” he said, then gathered her in his arms and lay back down, skin to naked skin.
“You’re so warm,” she murmured, relaxing against him, her head on his chest. “I could sleep like this.”
“We should do that tonight, assuming your sleep cycle isn’t too fucked up,” he said, his voice just as quiet, a vibration against her cheek. She nodded.
“I’d like that.”
Hyun Jin shifted, cradling her just that little bit closer. “Does I.N know your real name?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” she said. He’d known it for years, and even when he’d been angry with her, he’d never given it away.
“Will you tell me, too?” Hyun Jin asked now, timid, like he feared her rejection.
“In the morning,” she said.
“Promise?” he asked next. She moved just enough so she could look him in the face. She’d never seen him look at her quite like that before, his expression gentle and open and a little afraid. She put her hand on his cheek.
“I promise,” she said solemnly, and it smoothed the worry from his features. He closed his eyes, and she laid her head over his heart again.
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John W Campbell: "Who Goes There?" (Shasta, 1948)
Art: Wayne Francis Woodard aka "Hannes Bok"
The art has a weird Rich Corben vibe...
#john campbell#john w campbell#golden age#golden age science fiction#golden age pulp#science fiction#sci fi#40s science fiction#40s pulp#40s sci fi#1940s science fiction#1940s sc fi#1940s pulp#pulps#pulp science fiction#pulp#pulp horror#pulp fiction#pulp sci fi
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THE CRYSTAL HORDE by John Taine [aka Eric Temple Bell] (Reading, PA: Fantasy Press, 1952) Cover by Hannes Bok.
Published in an edition of 2,328 copies, the novel is a science horror story that involves silicon crystalline lifeforms threatening to overwhelm carbon life on Earth. It was substantially rewritten from a version that originally appeared in the magazine Amazing Stories Quarterly in 1930 under the title White Lily.
Amazing Stories Quarterly, Winter 1930. Cover by H. Wesso.
WHITE LILY by John Taine. Illustrated by H. Wesso
“The Astounding Enemy” by Louise Rice & Tonjoroff-Roberts. Illustrated by Leo Morey
“Tani of Ekkis” by Aladra Septama. Illustrated by H. Wesso [Severus Masonby]
“Dirigibles of Death” by A. Hyatt Verrill. Illustrated by Leo Morey
#book blog#books#books books books#book cover#pulp art#science fiction#pulp fantasy#science fantasy#john taine#h. wesso#leo morey#the crystal horde#eric temple bell#hannes bok#fantasy press
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Songs of seals and selkies.
Cover is print 'Seal Song' by Angela Harding, available at her site and as stationary.
The Grey Selkie- Lady Maisery
The Song of the Seals- Jean Redpath
Song for the Selkie- Ardyth & Jennifer
The Selchie & the Fisherman- Connemara
Peter Kagan and the Wind- Gordon Bok
O-E-Dallay- Ann Mayo Muir
Norway Maid- Archie Fisher
The Ballad of the White Seal Maid- Lui Collins
Selkie Bride- Kate Suhr
The Maiden and the Selkie- Heather Dale
Selkie- John Doyle
Seal Lullaby/Seal Harbour- Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen
Silkie- Joan Baez
Mary and the Seals- Sheila Ryan
14 tracks; 74 mins. [Spotify]
[my other playlists]
#original playlists#and the 'selkies' votes have it; close second‚ next up it's: highwaymen#folk music#selkies
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A high-ranking North Korean General was reportedly injured in a recent Ukrainian strike in Russia’s Kursk region, Western officials said yesterday.
This is the first casualty of a senior North Korean military officer in the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict, The Wall Street Journal reported, quoting officials. Ukraine launched at least 10 British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Kursk on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.
It is not immediately clear how the senior North Korean officer was wounded and the report did not include details about his identity. According to a WSJ source, the attack may have targeted a command post used by Russian and North Korean forces in Maryino.
The WSJ reported that North Korean Col Gen Kim Yong Bok, the deputy chief of the Korean military’s general staff, was reportedly in Russia to coordinate his country’s troops with the Russian forces.
The North Korean General is known as one of ten most prominent military leaders of the Korean country and a frequent aide to Kim Jong-un.
North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine will become “fair game and fair targets for the Ukrainians”, John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, had said last month after the troubling intelligence confirmed Pyongyang was sending its troops to fight in the war.
“If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they are fair game,” Mr Kirby said. “They are fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers,” he said.
The US concerns of North Korean participation in a conflict in Europe were amplified by defence secretary Lloyd Austin shortly after.
“If they are co-belligerents – if their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf – that is a very, very serious issue. It will have impacts, not only in Europe. It will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well,” he said.
North Korea, which has one of the largest standing armies in the world with 1.2 million soldiers, has emerged as a key ally of Russia, especially since Kim Jong-un visited Russia last year and Vladimir Putin reciprocated by travelling to Pyongyang this year.
Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a mutual defence treaty pledging to provide immediate military assistance if either country is attacked.
This comes as a top South Korean official on Friday said that Russia has supplied air defence missiles to North Korea in exchange for sending its thousands of troops to back Mr Putin’s war efforts against Ukraine.
South Korea has found Russia provided missiles and other equipment to reinforce its air defence network for Pyongyang, said Shin Wonsik, national security advisor for president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Friday.
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Source: The Universal Weekly, 10 July 1926, with details about the acquisition of Les Miserables (1925) by Universal Films and its American premiere, which was presented in the British 'de luxe' style (with live music) and attended by the French ambassador. Awards were bestowed by French representatives on the advertisers who arranged for the film's showing. The Philadelphia premiere was attended by such Pennsylvania notables as newspaper magnate Cyrus H. K. Curtis, anti-suffragist editor Edward Bok, publisher George Horace Lorimer, Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania Thomas J. Garland, Mayor of Philadelphia W. Freeland Kendrick, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad William Wallace Atterbury, notorious political boss and congressman William Scott Vare, investment banker Edward T. Stotesbury, and movie theater magnate Jules E. Mastbaum. The Moving Picture World reported that Meanwhile, the Washington premiere was attended by first lady Grace Coolidge, her son John, then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (we'd like to thank you), Mississippi senator Pat Harrison, Ohio senator Frank Willis, and Washington senator Wesley Jones,
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