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pushspacetocontinue · 11 days ago

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Tides and Truths (Narrative)

In which Russell finds out what made him so scared of the ocean in the first place.

Trigger warning for brief mentions of verbal and physical abuse.

"So guys, real, real talk a, a minute..." Russell said, as he poured water on the dried ghast he had found.

"Aw no..." David only said, "You're not going to give us some lecture about the best way to get back to the ghastling farm from this cave, are you? More boring than Bradley's lessons on the most effective plant proteins."

"You're lost again, aren't you?" Bradley quipped.

"No," David said, before sighing when Travis started laughing, "Maybe... all right, I should have been marking the directions better."

"How many ghastlings is that now?" Truman's soft voice spoke up from the headset, "Are we going to replicate James and the Giant Peach anytime soon?"

"We got twelve," Simon said, "So if you want to really do that, we're going to need four hundred and ninety."

"Fuck that," David said, "Let's just get forty."

"Are we sure that twenty each is going to lift up our platforms for this air fight?" Truman asked.

"As fun as this is," Martin spoke up then. His voice was firm, but gentle, "Russell was talking."

"Ah yeah, sorry, Custard," David said, "What were you saying?"

"Do, do, do any of, of you, of you know why I'm, I'm afraid of, of the, the ocean?" Russell asked, "Did, did something happen, or, or was I, was I just, was I just always afraid?"

There was some silence from everyone else. The only noises that could be heard were the nearby chickens and sheep from David's digital ranch.

"Well, you weren't always afraid, and while it could be because you were essentially traumatised, it could be because you were quite young at the time," Truman started.

"Wasn't he six?" Bradley asked.

"Five," Simon corrected, "Turning six that October."

"I remember that," Martin said, "I had to have surgery."

"For your liver, right?" Travis asked.

"No, my appendix needed taking out, my liver wasn't that messed up yet," Martin said, "That was a few years later. And Lewis was with Enda after she took that nasty fall and broke her ankle."

"Oh yeah. I remember that part. Was Gracie born then?" Truman asked, "Or at least close to it?"

"Close to it, so Enda being almost in the third trimester and having a broken ankle meant she needed some help," Simon said, as his player character then walked up and placed some iron ore into the nearby furnace, "I really need to get some more gold."

"Have, have some of mine," Russell said, "I'm, I'm watering these, these ghasts at, at the moment."

"Thanks, Custard," Simon replied.

"So some new neighbours took us the beach," Truman said, "Simon didn't go."

"Of course not," Simon said, "I had better things to do."

"So, it was me, David, Bradley, Custard, and you, right, Truman? Us five?" Travis asked.

"Yeah," Truman confirmed, "And to be honest, as the oldest brother there, I should have been keeping a better eye on you guys."

"What, were you too busy showing off and trying to look cute for any guy that walked past?" Bradley joked.

"Like you weren't doing the exact same for any girl who happened to walk past," Truman retorted, "You were flexing between all those volleyball throws like some absolute jerk jock."

"Touche," Bradley said.

"You'd think it would be me doing that," Travis said, "I think I was building a sandcastle, wasn't I?"

"No, David was burying you," Truman said. Simon laughed out loud that image, "Not in that way, I think you both got the idea to try and shape the sand so you'd look like a muscle man, but you just looked like a lump."

"I, I guess I, I was too close to, to the water or, or something," Russell finally found the will to speak again. His heart had started to pound at this event he just couldn't remember.

"We should have known better," Martin said, "You can swim of course. Lewis and I made sure of that, but we didn't think to warn you about riptides and what they look like."

"I, I was, I was pulled into, into a riptide?!" Russell asked. Well, that explained a lot.

"Yeah, Travis was the first one to notice you in the water, suddenly being dragged away," Truman said, "And you know, you were just a kid, and you clearly panicked and tried to resist it, swimming against it as hard as you could. But you quickly wore yourself out."

"So their credit, Travis and David did want to come after you," Bradley explained, "But we didn't want them to put themselves in danger as well and have three little brothers in danger. We were going to grab a life guard but..."

"She was like an angel from the heavens. This lady came up in a boat and managed to fish you out," Truman said, "She was full on leaning out, using her foot to keep herself anchored, and almost entirely in the water herself."

"I can only imagine it from your point of view, Custard," Travis said, as his character got out a piece of bread to eat, "Being so small, and tired, can't breathe, and surrounded by nothing but just this deep blue abyss on all sides."

Russell's breathing had quickened and his heart had started drumming in his chest. A cold sweat had formed on the back of his neck and his palms.

"Oh well done, Travis," Simon said, "You really had to kick his imagination into gear."

"Sorry. My bad," Travis said, sheepishly, "You're okay, Custard. You're all good. You're not there. It can't hurt you."

Russell forced himself to take a few deep breaths and then gently stroked Misty along her fluffy back, making her chirp.

"And you were rescued," Truman said, "But the neighbours very quickly decided the trip was over after you were brought back to the shore."

"I think we told Ma some lie about how Travis tried to drown you or threw you into the water too hard or something," Bradley said.

"Oh wow, blame me," Travis said.

"Well, we knew you'd get off lightly," David said, "She would have been more mad about the fact you didn't seriously injure Custard or kill him than an actual attempt. I think she only gave you a slight slap with just her hand or call you something. Not that her behaviour was okay or anything, but it wasn't bad it could have been."

"Fair point," Travis said, there was a rustling of clothes, indicating that he was getting himself into a better position or shrugging, "But yeah, that was pretty much it."

"I'm, I'm real sor-sorry to, to have made you, made you all talk, talk about it," Russell said, "I uh, I didn't realise it, it was that bleak."

"You have a right to know, and that might give you some idea of how you want to face that fear, should you decide to," Martin said, "It happened to you after all. But seeing as we're having real talk at the moment, I want to discuss something a little more light-hearted."

"Yeah, I, I think me, me being scarred for, for life is, is some-something we, we can move aw-away from," Russell agreed.

There were a few other words or noises of agreement from the rest of the brothers.

"All right, good to know we're pretty much on the same page," Martin sounded satisfied, "I was thinking that we could probably talk about what we could do on Lewis' 50th heavenly birthday in November..."

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starsofang · 1 year ago

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simon riley x autistic!reader requested by 🪼 anon! <3 tw: anxiety/bits of a meltdown, but other than that, it's fluffy! previous part

Today’s been a very, very bad day.

Everything that could’ve possibly gone wrong, went wrong.

Your brain was filled with fuzzy, radio static no matter how many times you tried to flip the channel. The buzzing rang through your ears like an endless swarm of bugs whipping at your face, causing your skin to itch and crawl with impending unease.

It felt as if you were teetering off of a high cliff, legs dangling over the bottomless pit with only a single hand on the edge to keep you from sinking down into the vast ocean of nothingness.

Your brain was having an inner battle with the things that kept you operating. It was coercing you into a full blown shutdown, panic pressing all of your buttons and sending you into overdrive. You were sure you would short circuit and billow out with exhausted rings of smoke, and it was only a matter of time before it became too much to handle.

Simon was there before your system called it quits and imploded on itself.

He was always there. Ever since he’d formed a bond with you after learning of you being autistic and researching every possible way to understand you as an individual, he was always there, trailing close behind and aiding you before you burst.

Simon knew from the moment he saw the distant look on your face and the befuddled furrow in your expression that you needed a moment to breathe. Air to fill your lungs, peaceful serenity to occupy the warzone in your mind.

The way you became snappy towards the team was like a ticking time bomb ready to go off and wreak havoc to anybody unfortunate enough to get in the way. You were reclusive, close-minded, and nearly sent Johnny into an early grave when he attempted to joke with you. Poor Johnny was only trying to lighten your spirits, but Simon knew that wasn’t what you needed.

You needed security. You needed grounding. You needed somebody to lightly tug you back down to Earth and exterminate the ugly parasites worming around in your brain with a gentle coax of patience.

When Simon saw you sat around the others with your hands curled into fists, nails biting into the smooth skin of your palm, and your jaw clenched so hard he feared your teeth might break, he called things quits for the day.

He said nothing as he stood from where he sat, gently guiding you with him with a touch on your elbow. He let go as soon as you got the hint and opted to gesture with a nod of his head to follow him, as he knew any form of communication or physicality might truly coax your hand to let go off that ledge and dive right into that empty abyss.

He knew if he let that happen, he might have to spend weeks searching it to find you again.

Your steps were heavy and dragged from behind him. Your shoes made muted thumps on the floor, and you walked with a bitter vengeance, like you were hoping if you stomped hard enough, the floor might open up and swallow you whole.

Simon said nothing, even as the two of you entered the privacy of his quarters. It was new for him to allow somebody in the very space he could hide away in like that of a troglodyte. This was his sanctuary, and nobody, not even Johnny had the permission to enter it on their own free will.

You were an exception. You were always an exception.

Any time you needed time to think, space to collect yourself before you succumbed to numbing stimulation, Simon would allow this sanctuary to be yours as well.

“Sit,” he told you, and though a demand, it remained soft and quiet so as not to rattle the drums in your ears that were already on the brink of exploding into a bloodied mess.

Your face was mucked up into a darkened scowl but you did as he said, plopping yourself down on the edge of his mattress. The fabric underneath your hands felt like sandpaper, and when you spread your palms along the material, it felt like shards of glass cutting into your skin.

The static in your brain raised tenfold. It grew louder and angrier, and you took the mattress sheet into your fists, balling it up so tight, your knuckles turned a pale white.

Everything felt overwhelming, everything felt loud, you didn’t understand why the buzzing wouldn’t stop, why the bugs biting at your skin couldn’t feast on a meal that wasn’t you, why–

Something soft and puffy encased your ears, submerging them with a gentle string of mellow chords and instruments and filtering through to the chaos rooted in your brain. The static slowed to a light hum that no longer felt suffocating, but instead, warm and fuzzy, like a loving hug that shifted all of your pain and worries into nothing but dusted air.

Simon stood before you with both hands carefully placing the headphones to your ears. It was his way of wanting to touch you for comfort, without having to actually touch you. He knew every little trigger as well as every necessity that ensures you feeling grounded and safe, and music was one of them.

You hated loud, fast music when the world felt like it was collapsing in on itself, and Simon knew that. It was exactly why he opted for a tender melody that contained no words, no singing, just simple notes that you could force yourself to tune in on and seek solace in.

When Simon saw your expression melt away from stiff and angry to calm and peaceful, he took his hands away from your headphones, letting them sit on their own. The war in your mind was calling a truce, but just to assure both himself and you that it stayed that way, he grabbed one of the blankets he kept for you and began wrapping you up in it.

He made sure it was just loose enough to where you could move, but tight enough for it to feel like an embrace that he knew you weren’t ready to receive from him yet. When the time was right, he’d join you under the confines of the blanket and hold you for as long as you needed, but for now, he was perfectly content with sitting and waiting for you to come back to Earth.

The room was silent during his patient waiting, apart from the faint sound of the classical music playing from under your headphones. He remained crouched in front of you, hands resting on his knees and itching with readiness for when you’d open your eyes and give him that blinding smile he fell in love with along the journey of your friendship.

When the time came, Simon tilted his head at you as you stared back with a spark back in your eye.

“Better?” he asked, and when you gave him a toothy smile, he knew he’d done well.

“Better,” you repeated in confidence.

Simon smiled back, eyes crinkling beneath his mask. He gave your knee a gentle squeeze, and he happily joined you under the blanket when you lifted it in invitation, molding you into his side and letting his fingers brush through your hand with a thoughtful touch while the music continued to give you much needed calm.

If tranquility was all you needed in times where your mind was exhausted to the point of collapse, he’d greedily wait a lifetime if it meant being the calm before (and after) the storm and having the opportunity to end it rolled up in blankets with you in the congested space of his bed.

as always, i hope you enjoyed, and i thank 🪼 anon for this lovely request! hopefully you like it <3

#cod #call of duty #simon ghost riley #cod mw3 #ghost cod #cod mwii #cod x reader #ghost simon riley #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ‘ghost’ riley x reader #simon riley x reader #cod ghost x reader #cod imagine #autistic!reader #request #cod requests

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pricegouge · 3 months ago

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No but Price does fakes the apocalypse with Nik’s help. Maybe Reader has enough of feeling suffocated in that bunker. Maybe she tries to plan an escape. Maybe she doesn’t realize that her dad and Nik know that she’s trying to get out.

Would be a shame if Nik called up some favors with some crook scientists to make a problem… Would be a shame if Nik brought a fucked up human down there just cause he’s wanting to ‘research a cure’… would be a shame if Price tied her to a chair to make his babygirl see why she has to stay down there when that fucked up human just gets close enough to her…

right? can just see john price with all these back doors into his daughter's phone just feeding her escalatingly horrible false news articles while slowly blocking her off from her friends and social networks. maybe she's a bit of a recluse like him, barely goes outside because he's been filling her head with fear all her life. easier to manipulate that way.

hm. how about instead of human experimentation they just call in simon? stage it to look like he broke in. mask off, human butcher block, covered in scars and stinking like hell. he acts crazed, like he hasn't seen other humans for months.

hasn't seen a woman for much longer.

it takes both of them to wrestle him back out the hatch and they find you cowering under the bed when it's all done, just as frightened as the day they brought you down there. after that i think you're double checking the locks, absolutely terrified of being stuck with worse than what you have.

#gouge answers #incest cw #papa price #apapocalypse

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sonofhelios2005 · 4 months ago

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Dead Boy Detectives and Mortal Instruments AU. This AU would see the boys existing within the same universe as the Mortal Instruments, The Dark Artifices, and other series.

Edwin would be a Warlock and experience a childhood of no parental love as his mother is aware of what he is. His demonic father isn't a named demon but an Eidolon demon. Due to his lonely upbringing, Edwin found solace in his magic and dedicated himself to mastering it. Unwilling to participate in WW1, Edwin leaves school before he is sent off to fight and sets off to explore the world. During his travels, Edwin encounters several other Warlocks who invite him into their group. The leader of this group Simon is obsessed with Edwin, and when his advances are refused, Simon uses Edwin in a ritual, which sees Edwin banished to hell.

As he is not human, Edwin isn't tortured in hell, but he is forced to make a deal with Asmodeus to get back to Earth. Back on Earth, Edwin becomes a recluse and spends years in London privately researching magic and making trips to the spiral labyrinth, becoming well known as a researcher. Edwin is not the most powerful Warlock in the world. However, he is far more knowledgeable than others who are centuries older than him. His Warlock Mark is something he has never shown anyone (Not sure what his mark would be). Edwin remains a recluse until he meets Charles Rowland in 1989.

Charles Rowland was born in the 1950s to a mortal mother, and his father, who was disgraced, deruned Shdaowhunter. Bitter about how his life turned out and that his son inherited some of his Nephilim abilities. Paul Rowland treated his child and wife horribly. Despite his abusive childhood, Charles grew up to be a kind and brave person who was completely aware of the supernatural thanks to having the sight and some enhanced physical abilities. It was entirely possible Charles could have become a full Shdaowhunter at some point however while he was away at school he had an encounter with a vampire who intrigued by his unusual smelling blood attacked and later turned him. Charles was forced to spend several years with his Sire before he could make his escape.

Charles returned home in the hope of reconnecting with his mother. However, she had left his father in those few years. His father was aware that his son was now a Downworlder, who tried to kill Charles, who was still a young vampire and was driven by instinct fought back and accidentally killed him. Before he fled his childhood home, Charles retrieved the seraph blade, and Stele that his father, had kept after being banished. Charles was shocked to find that despite being a vampire, he was somehow able to use the Stele and blade like a Shdaowhunter could. Although he fully accepted he was a vampire, Charles still had a strong desire to protect people, so he decided to use the items his father had left behind. Charles becomes the one other Downworlders will seek out to remove any demons troubling them so they don't have to bother with actual Nephilim. Charles has a particular hatred of the Clave who see him as an aberration like they do any Shdaowhunters who are part Downworlder.

Charles and Edwin met in 1989 when they were forced to work together after a stupid Warlock attempted to summon a greater demon in London, Edwin was able to bind the demon whilst Charles stabbed it through the heart and banished its essence back to hell. This was the start of their friendship and the beginning of the Payme and Rowland international Downworlder investigation agency, solving Downworlder problems since 1989.

For the other characters.

Crystal - Shdaowhunter

Niko - Faerie

Monty - Warlock (abused by Esther who is still a which)

Cat King ( Actual cat who like Church was used in a necromancy ritual so is now immortal)

Night Nurse - Reasonable Clave Official

David the Demon - A Demon

This is yet another of my mad rambling that I couldn't stop thinking about. The boys are Downworlders because normal Shdaowhunters are boring. Charles was born earlier because I wanted him to have something of a past before Edwin. Charles killing his father was an accident, and he feels guilty about not being guilty he's dead. Nephilim/Downworlder hybrids exist, so I thought, why not have Charles be a vampire who can use runes. He still has the weaknesses of a vampire, though not as bad as a regular vampire. He isn't Daylighter. Edwin's deal with Asmodeus is an issue to be dealt with in the future.

This won't actually be a story as I have no ability to write a coherent narrative.

#dead boy detectives #charles rowland #edwin payne #crystal palace #shadowhunters #dbda au #vampire charles rowland #mortal instruments #Warlock Edwin Payne

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resident-idiot-simp · 11 months ago

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Love Bites

Vampire Riley who is a recluse after killing his sire (Roba) and has been fighting his instincts ever since. He refuses to let himself be vulnerable in the slightest. The first while away from Roba was an absolute bloodbath the man was undeterred in his feeding, but once placed in the 141 he calmed slightly.

MacTavish takes one look at him and wants to fix it. So he goes out of his way to be welcoming and unintrusive for the new member. Riley's thankful but wouldn't dare reveal that. It goes on like that for months but slowly Riley gets more and more comfortable.

One time the Captain drops by and offers one of his hoodies. (MacTavish had done a lot of research) Riley is unsure but takes it. He can't help but put it on immediately.

Riley is slowly given more and more clothes and doesn't even realize what he's done until it's too late. He made a nest and it's the most comfortable he's been in his life. He is happily purring and he doesn't even notice. All you can smell is MacTavish his Captain his mate his .

He doesn't even realize the possessive nature has already reared its head. He doesn't realize he's slowly trying to reciprocate by rubbing himself against MacTavish whenever he can. But MacTavish realizes what's happening and he can't help the smile that spreads across his face every time.

It all comes to a head when another vampire is dropped on base one day.

The vampire was nothing special however. The creature has the misfortune of getting a bit too close to MacTavish. Testing Riley's limits seeing the claim is what it is. Riley takes it about as well as one can expect from the well-adjusted vampire.

Riley is eating in the mess when he hisses at the soldier showing off his considerable fangs. THEY ARE GETTING CLOSE TO WHAT IS MINE . Riley hadn't even realized what he had done before 141 members were trying to intervene. But Riley didn't take it any better that idiot had challenged his claim he couldn't allow that in good faith.

He stalks forward before MacTavish grabs him. "Stop it's ok Simon."

"NO IT'S NOT THEY TRIED TO TAKE YOUS FROM ME!"

MacTavish blushes slightly liking the way Riley claimed him as his own. "I'm not goin' anywhere but ye can't start fights no matter what the other idiots do."

MacTavish has to drag Riley away to prevent the situation from escalating. They eventually made their way back to Riley's room. As soon as MacTavish opened the door he froze at the sight in front of his. His clothes were all neatly placed around the bed the newest item at the head.

The Captain had to stop himself from commenting just brought Riley to his bed and ordered him to get some rest.

"No, they might try and mark yous again!"

The Captain sighs before offering a different solution. "What if I stayed in here then."

Riley perks up immediately before nodding fervently his mismatched eyes shining. MacTavish chuckles but allows himself to be pulled into the bed.

Riley curls around him rubbing his face against the Captain's neck marking him . Riley doesn't even realize when his face migrates to the junction of the Captain's neck, but MacTavish does.

"Ye want a drink love?"

Riley purrs loudly and MacTavish smiles down at him. "Go ahead Si."

Simon does he laches on and drinks slowly going completely pliant and mindless. MacTavish cannot help but freeze in shock.

Vampires only act like that while they feed If they feed from a sire or close-mate/friend possibly even family.

Riley feeds for some time. It's slow prolonging the experience the intimacy. MacTavish feels floaty himself It's something he could get used to. When Riley finally pulls away full and content he licks the wound sealing it. Riley is purring loudly as he feels himself slowly drifting off.

A few hours later Riley wakes again and freezes as he realizes his predicament and a sudden shocking moment. What the hell had he done? He tries to jump away scramble really MacTavish has an iron grip on him.

The movement wakes the captain as he blinks blearily up at Riley. "Wha' the hell do ye think you're doin'?" His accent is much thicker with sleep.

Riley flounders how does one answer that question. 'Oh, nothing just trying to run away because I had emotions and I'm not used to that' MacTavish would laugh in his face.

The silence seems to be answered enough, "You're not going anywhere Simon not now that I have ya."

And Riley can't help the surprise chirp that leaves him because what what the hell had he missed?!

The Captain doesn't answer however as he drags Riley back and places himself on the vampire. "Rest I'm still tired"

The next time they awake Riley is more calm his subconscious has somehow managed to comprehend the situation to some degree. He still wasn't sure exactly what was going on he didn't know much about himself in the first place scared to research. Everything just reminded him of Roba.

The Captain patiently answered his questions and soon Riley felt relatively caught up to speed.

He neglected to mention what his mind had dubbed MacTavish but it seemed the Captain already knew.

Over the next week, MacTavish exchanged clothes to give him more of the ones he had worn recently the scent stronger. And if the captain had walked into him buried under a pile of shirts that was something they weren't to mention. Slowly Riley became more comfortable with asking or rather requesting MacTavish to do things for him.

The captain always jumped at the opportunity. Riley had even mustered the courage to ask to feed from him again. It was somehow better than the first time with the Captain scratching the back of his head.

Months passed and slowly the relationship developed well… Relationship was a generous term…

Neither quite knew what was going on but we're both happy to indulge it. It became an unwritten rule of the 141. MacTavish and Riley had a thing of their own unnamed but eternal.

Riley had moved into the Captain's room at some point down the line. They were private with their thing It was still too delicate and fragile to risk anything.

However, It eventually did evolve to the point where he didn't have to be behind closed doors. MacTavish would hold Riley close around the base and rub his body against the vampire.

He would snap his teeth at Riley and get a snap in return. It was courting through and through and anyone who knew anything about vampires knew it.

Slowly ever so slowly Riley would feed in public only around the team. He would place himself in the Captain's lap too just to soak up the heat on the man.

They slept curled around one another and slowly Riley felt safe again

If you are thinking to yourself humm I recognize some of these aspects. Yes Yes you do you recognize it from here I really need to get to writing that

#call of duty modern warfare #cod modern warfare #john soap mactavish #soap x ghost #ghoap #captain mactavish #09 ghost #09 soapghost #Vampire Simon Ghost Riley #ao3 #Resi's shorts

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ask-site-61 · 1 year ago

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CHARACTERS -

Co-Site Director Benjamin Oliver Walker - Co-Site Director, (Wise-)Bright's Husband, Founder of The Library, Head of Pedology, but most importantly: good boy extraordinaire and D-9341 variant.

Dr. Jack Bright (Wise) - Holy fuck there's so much to say about him. Chaos incarnate.

Assistant Researcher Emily Ross - Died in The 2012 Catastrophe.. wonder how she's back. (SCP-061-ICE)

Pontos Doe - Himbo intern who's into greek mythology.

Dr. Wilhem Cure - Site Head of Medicine… probably the only LITERAL doctor on-site.

Agent Ulgrin - KYS'd after 2012 Catastrophe. Got SCP-061-ICE'd (trust me you'll see what it is in time.)

Researcher Penelope Normelle - Literally the most normal person here.

Site Director Bjärk Jakobssons - Quick to snap, jeez louise. Can teleport and is omnipotent across the Site.

George Olkassen - Class-D. Everyone calls him Georgie though. Cool kid wannabe.

Electra Macbeth - Longest-running Class-D. Seriously. How is she STILL alive.

Cookie - Nickname for one of the trans characters!! :3

Dr. Alto Clef (Wise) - Oh what a fucking asshole. Seriously. Only showing up when it entertains him. Might be fucking Maynard.

Dr. Akihito Saku - The Foundation's lovable "Head of Safe Classed Objects"; always the goofball.

Dr. Hartwell Artz - The Foundation's controversial "Head of Euclid Classed Objects"; he's better safe than sorry.

Dr. Amberlynn Rhodes - Th Foundation's rather enigmatic "Head of Keter Classed Objects"; it purported she's resistant against kill agents. Basically the middle ground of Saku and Artz. Not gonna snap at you for pressing a button, but still takes her work seriously.

Senior Researcher Thomas Rivbacht - Jeez.. uh… well, he doesn't take care of himself.. at all… he really should. He uh.. misses his family and is extremely depressive. Reclusive, too.

Dr. George Maynard - Mastermind of The 2013 Catastrophe. Forgiven, but scrutinized. Pale white skin since The Chaos Insurgency revived him utilizing a spliced variant of SCP-049's Touch.

Dr. Jack Bright (Emo) - I CHIME IN!! HAVEN'T YOU PEOPLE EVER HEARD OF.. CLOSING THE GODDAMN DOOR, NO???

Head Nelson Van Martins - The GOC's Icelandic Head. He lied. He's 16, not 18. Either way, he's here now and ready to stay.

Operative Roxxane Sparkes - Another trnas character!! This one being a member of Site Guard who's easily distracted. ^^

Researcher Carly Rosè Colbert - Espionage for The French Government; truly, The French must be stopped.

Researcher Stella Gospelle - The name says it all; "EVERYBODY LOVES STELLLLAAHHHH!"; drama queen and gossip bitch. She will ruin your life.

Site Head of Ethics, Jessica Parish - One of three. The enigmatic Parish Family. Anyways, besides often being mistaken for a bimbo, she's actually quite fierce and once threatened to rip the throat of Darvann out.

Junior Researcher Alexander Grimmes - "Foundation Head of Neutralized Objects"; but more over, attention-seeking extravagant.

Dr. Michelin Frances - Huh. For "Foundation Head of Thaumiel" objects, he speaks formally, maybe a bit posh, but he isn't god awful!

Dr. Amelia Polynaut - What the fuck is going on with "Foundation Head of Apollyon" objects over here?? Bitch is fucking shattered across time and space, apparently.

Chaos - Agent #080 deployed in Nálægt, Iceland for Site-61 raids. Variant of D-9341. LITERALLY Chaos Incarnate.

Dr. Simon Glass (Wise) - Moral, upright and somewhat skittish. At least his head's in the right place, as is his heart!

Dr. Stelle Shamrock Saraden - A humanoid drone bee! He has trauma to unpack, but first, he has to unpack YOURS! :D

Agent Steve Eastside - of the Eastside channel, probably cool in the head but quick to rage.

Senior Researcher Gemini D. Shirks - or just "Shirks", based off of SCPReadings, though, I suppose I could've also just done Dr. Goods. Either way, very hip! The Researcher all the interns wanna work for since he's just chill like that.

Reseacher James Talloran (Wise) - KILL HIM AG- huh? What. Oh. Oh. Okay. No, no he's fine. Yeah. Uh. 3999's still dead. Thank god for SCP-061-ICE.

Dr. Elias Shaw (Wise) - The Foundation's SCP-963-2.. it worked but.. his mind's being fractured each time he dies.

Dr. Charles Gears (Wise) - Now this is one I haven't actually done. He's monotonous, robotic, downright cold. Anyways, stop observing SCP-914 every waking second of your.. existence? …please?

Dr. Ellis Gill Iceberg (Wise) - Well… at least now he WANTS to be alive… FUCK HE'Z THROWING MOLOTOVS AGAIN

Eve - Yes, as in THE Biblical Eve. She's an MTF Agent now. Who knew she was a bad bitch?

Dr. Agatha Rights (Wise) - Femme fatale… and actually pretty funny. Get past the slut accusations and she's basically an auntie.

Dr. Mary-Ann Walker - Hey! Walker's Aunt— GAH!! WHO'S ALSO SCP-1938-J— MARYNODON'TCLICKTHATKINK GODDAMNIT

Dr. Evans Harper - "You'd better keep your mouth shut, seal yourself lip from lip, else I'll get to cram a mouthful in~!"; loonie. He has flowers growing on him, so pretty, but a loonie.

Agent Convit - STOP FUCKING JACKING OFF IN THE CAFETERIA MAN

General Dravi Kondraki, Junior Researcher Riseo, Dr. Benjamin Kondraki - Are all here too, but I haven't done them yet…

General Patrick Philia - "…ew. Bitch, bitch! DISGUST— DISGUSTING!" (Trust me. No.)

Persons of Interest up for questioning:

Dr. Wondertainment (Wise) - STOP FUCKING TALKING FOR FIVE SECONDS

Liddy Doves, of Doves and Co. Inc. - AND STOP MAKING PRODUCTS THAT MAKE PEOPLE HORNY!!!

Charles Fernando Walker - AND… okay, well, you're fine. You just have to figure out that "Bronze-and-Jade" amulet's SCP-963-3.

SCPs up for questioning:

SCP-999 - The Tickle Monster

SCP-131 - Eyepods

SCP-035 - Possessive Mask

SCP-049 - Plague Doctor

SCP-096 - Shy Guy

SCP-352 - Baba Yaga

SCP-106 - The Old Man

SCP-682 - Hard-to-Destroy Reptile

SCP-079 - Old AI

D-9341 - Respawning Test Subject

SCP-1048 - Builder Bear

THIS LIST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. CHECK BACK WHENEVER, THERE WILL BE MORE. :)

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disaster-brings-critters-closer · 3 months ago

Text

Muse Background Informational

Dogday & Entity

Two Souls bound to one body. One far stronger than the other.

The Entity was the one who ‘freed’ Dogday and his friends from the Cartoon World initially—allowing them to roam the lands of reality. However, it had an ulterior motive that has been made clear: To kill them one by one, in the form of a ‘game’ to play due to being trapped for so long. Currently puppeting Dogday’s body to satisfy his end goal.

Dogday is still in there, but his soul has receded to the most unlikely place in order to avoid being fully snuffed out by the entity. He yearns for the day he’ll be able to reunite with his friends.

Currently in captivity and being studied by Catnap and Bubba Bubbaphant for a way to remove it for good.

Face is permanently a smile.

Catnap

The Moon who refuses to give up on his sun.

Lived with Dogday peacefully until after they escaped to the real world.

Knows Dogday isn’t gone. Wants to save him by any means necessary—even though it’s costing him his friend’s trust.

When he goes out to scavenge, never leaves without his stun gun tailored by Bubba. Stun Gun is capable of stunning hunters—after all, they’re already dead.

Hoppy Hopscotch

One of what is considered the ‘muscles’ of the survivors, goes out on scavenge runs with Bobby and Icky often.

Has seen what the entity has done to her friends and firmly believes there is no saving Dogday.

Feels like Catnap and Bubba Bubbaphant are wasting their time. Secretly wishes they could open their eyes and realize their friend is basically dead.

Is currently in a relationship with Bobby. Only person that keeps her going at points, as she’s growing distrustful of everyone.

Bobby Bearhug

Another one of the muscles, she often goes out on scavenge runs with Hoppy.

Unlike Hoppy, she’s placing her trust in everyone a lot more than ever. Everyone but Catnap.

Acts as a shoulder to cry on for the more timid survivors. Even if she can’t offer words to them, her presence alone calms them.

Is in a relationship with Hoppy. Loves her dearly, but knows Hoppy is only hurting herself by growing to distrust everyone around her.

Bubba Bubbaphant

The 2nd researcher, works closely with Catnap.

Is the original manufacturer of the collets of weakness that are chained to Dogday’s arms—which prevent the entity from causing harm directly to anyone, regardless of method.

Knows he’s not the most liked member, so he tries to avoid social interaction as much as possible.

Feels responsible for what happened to a certain bird…

Allister Gator

The one who organizes scavenge runs. Despite being very lazy before, has chosen to take a stand by casting off that coil holding him back.

Plans every scavenge run to the very last minute detail—even goes on them sometimes to make sure they go well.

Carries a whip to put others back in their place if they overstep their bounds in the base. Or intentionally try to sow chaos.

When scavenging, uses a baton that can be electrified for self defense. Has only had to use it a couple of times…

Icky Licky

The last of the ‘muscle’ of the survivors. Ironically, not as physically strong as Bobby and Hoppy.

Due to a close encounter with the entity, he’s grown quite reclusive. In fact, he’s VERY easy to scare or intimidate.

Carries a sledge hammer with him everywhere. In fact, due to how easy it is for him to wield, it’s why he’s become one of the muscles.

Lies constantly that he’s fine. He isn’t fine, and hasn’t been since he saw… something very specific.

Simon Smoke

The dedicated medic of the survivors. For one reason only: his access to healing magic.

While he has latent healing magic in his body, his body is not adept for using it. Due to this, he can only use it to help heal small wounds, such as cuts, bruises, and scrapes, for example.

Any large wounds and he has to bust out a medkit. He could try to use his healing magic, but that will leave him incapacitated for an unknown amount of time. He did it once before, and that’s how he knows it.

However, if a wound is too big—say, an arm chopped clean off—he’s out of luck with his healing magic and medkits. He’s not a licensed doctor, sadly.

Due to being the medic, he’s been bottling up his emotions, opinions, and desires, seeing them as not being helpful in the current moment. Was also the second to last survivor brought into the base, and looked broken when he was brought in. Nobody has gotten a word out of him about what he saw.

Despite how much he bottles everything up, he’s very resilient to what others have to say about him, especially when he has to enter the vincity of the entity. However… he can’t keep being resilient forever. Not with a really sore topic existing.

Maggie Mako

The last survivor in the base. And unfortunately, the one who has to stay exclusively in the base.

Was originally one of the muscles before being chosen to put the collets of weakness on Dogday’s body. The entity blinded her for that one.

Uses her sense of smell and hearing to guide her around the base. They don’t fail her, unlike touch.

Seen as a liability, but Icky, Allister, Bobby, and Hoppy all defend her from being taken out of the base to die.

The Hunters

Kickin Chickin

The first to fall. Was killed by the entity when the entity first gained control of Dogday’s body.

Now puppeteered, Kickin’s body wields an ax and uses it to destroy structures it deems ‘useless’.

Cannot speak. Only laughs indicate when he’s nearby. If heard… hide.

All hunters have a permanent smile carved on their faces. Kickin’s smile is colored red.

Bubba feels responsible for his death. Not helped by Hoppy blaming him for it too.

CraftyCorn

The second to fall, in retaliation from being attacked by Simon.

Her body puppeteered, she silently stalks her victims in the night, waiting for the opportunity to deliver a precise stab with her newly acquired sword.

Was actually Simon’s best friend. Managed to mellow him out during high school. Needless to say, when Simon watched her die in front of him… he will never heal from that emotional scar inflicted.

Out of all the hunters, the most humane. Just delivers a single stab that blinks out the victim’s life in but one instance.

Touille

The third to fall. Only one who knows it is Maggie.

His body puppeteered, the only thing that indicates his approach… is the tugging of harp strings. Should they be heard, keep out of sight—he is no angel.

The entity affixed wings onto Touille’s body to give him the ability of flight, finding it amusing most particularly on the rat’s body.

The most ruthless. If he spots a survivor or even just an innocent person, he will relentlessly chase them down until they are either dead or hiding somewhere.

Rabie Baby

The fourth to fall. Was killed in front of Icky while he was hiding. This is why he’s particularly reclusive.

Her body puppeteered, she uses the art of manipulation to lure victims into an advantageous position for her to strike them down.

Doesn’t care about innocents, only cares about the survivors as they’re the ones who left her to die—they deserve her hate, not anyone else.

Only one known to retain a small amount of personality from before. Evident by how sometimes, she goes completely silent to listen in to the conversations of innocent lives.

Picky Piggy

The 6th to fall. However, despite being puppeteered, the control the entity has over Picky is weak. An outcome from a rushed job.

Currently unknown where she is. And little is known how she does her hunts. Only thing that is known is people just disappear at points, while others are fed through mysterious meals that pop up on their doorstep.

The Unknowns

Baba Chops

While having been the 5th to fall, Baba Chops still fought to keep her personality intact, and succeeded when the entity started puppeteering her body.

Wants to end this madness, and so is searching for a way to permanently kill the entity, believing it will just possess one of the other critters if not dealt with. So far isn’t liking what she’s finding.

Occasionally has to hunt the survivors, but always lets them go after a bit. She isn’t a fan of chasing them, personally. Especially if Hoppy, Bobby, and Icky are all together.

Currently unknown with her whereabouts. Alongside one other critter.

Poe

The only critter who didn’t initially escape the cartoon world. Due to this, wherever they are, it’s unknown.

Although, Simon claims to have been saved by something that vaguely resembled Poe. If it was him or not, nobody—not even Simon—knows.

#lore: The Entity’s Game Explained

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thedojoofintellect · 1 year ago

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Kid Quanta

Dr. Simon Epstein is a complex and highly intellectual fellow. If even twenty-five percent of the western world’s population were his intellectual equal, we’d likely see technological progression akin to that of a post-space age 31st century technocratic society. Dr. Epstein’s IQ is easily unprecedented in a fashion which is most diametrical to egregious. An exceptional individual to put it mildly, his parents evaded Third Reich persecution by emigrating to Anaheim, California in 1938.

The dawn of a new age manifested itself in the year 2039 when the then-estranged and reclusive professor re-surfaced and leapt back into the limelight by unveiling his groundbreaking invention of earthshaking importance: the Feynman Space-Time Transmogrifier, humankind’s very first fully operational time machine. The first point in space-time to be tampered with was that of an early morning birth at Waterbury Hospital in May of 1991. The infant Anthony Cannata was taken to a research facility in Simon Epstein’s subterranean complex at a black site fifteen miles south of the Arctic Circle. Anthony was subsequently held captive but treated humanely and when he reached maturity he was turned into a cyborg and indoctrinated with the primary objective of detonating the two moons of Mars using an optical positron augmenter, catalyzing a war between humans and the High Chancellor of Mars’ private mercenary militia. All went as planned, and the Martian head of state signed non-aggression pacts with the nations of Earth. Meanwhile, Dr. Epstein became fat and rich off the antics of his faithful disciple until divine intervention took place and St. Peter hired the cybernetic Anthony as a bouncer in the Kingdom of Heaven’s most frequently visited restaurant and pub.

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phanfictioncatalogue · 5 years ago

Text

Mey’s Monthly Memorables

Admin recs of February, 2020.

Tori

begin and never cease (ao3) - palomeheart

Summary: Dan is a grumpy second year law student living with reclusive, perpetual grad student named Phil. When the holiday season brings out a side of Phil that Dan’s never seen before, Meanwhile, when Phil finds out Dan hates all things festive, he makes it his goal to change Dan’s mind before Christmas. And also to find the perfect mince pie.

Homo Howell vs The Heterosexual Agenda (ao3) - CanDanAndPhilNot (enbycalhoun)

Summary: Dan had a normal life. At least that’s what he would have said two weeks ago. Before he found that creek-secrets Tumblr post about the closeted gay kid at school. Before he made a secret email account so he could respond with a simple “THIS.”Before his daily routine was staring at his phone and computer anticipating the next email from Fish. Before Matthew, the seemingly innocent nerdy theater kid found and screenshotted said emails. Before said nerdy kid was blackmailing him. Yeah, Dan had a normal life. And if by normal, you meant dealing with all of that on top of trying to hook Matthew up with one of Dan's best friends so he wouldn’t tell the entire school about Dan's sexuality? Sure, Dan's life was fucking normal.

aka a Love, Simon AU that's based on both the book and movie.

Shining Bright and Growing Strong - queenofallcorgis

Summary: Game of Thrones Crossover. Phil was not pleased that his father had basically bought him a husband in exchange for an army. He was equally displeased that his new husband was scared to death of him.

Christy

Coming Clean and Kisses on Screen (ao3) - hygge

Summary: Dan and Phil are finally ready to make the news of their marriage and their new family public.

Love The Way I Hate You (ao3) - HelloAnonymousWriter

Summary: Dan and Phil have a fake rivalry at school when they’re really dating.

The Valentine's Day Classroom Helpers - Yiffandquiff

Summary: Dan knew the day was coming but that still didn't mean he was prepared, so when his son Oliver brings home a note saying Dan is due to be a parent for his classroom for the Valentine's Day party, he already feels a bit of dread. Reluctant to go, he meets Phil, another parent: who just happens to be the father of Oliver's best friend. And he realizes maybe it's not so bad after all.

Alexis

berlin (ao3) - waveydnp and dizzy

Summary: dan and phil meet at a hostel in berlin

give me all your hopeless hearts (ao3) - itsmyusualphannie

Summary: Dan is a university student who doesn't believe in love, but when Valentine's Day rolls around, he feels himself suddenly falling for the boy who sits next to him in his writing 101 class. When they're assigned a project together, Dan has the brilliant idea to ask Phil out - for research!

shapes and weights to choose (ao3) - queerofcups

Summary: Getting to interview Phil, Phil Lester, feels like the kind of recognition he's been working towards for years and Dan doesn't know how to handle it.

Dan's a sex toy blogger, Phil's a nearly-retired porn star. They fall in love, eventually.

Some Other Light (ao3) - jestbee

Summary: Dan works the night shift because it's easier to exist in the dark

‘til death (ao3) - waveydnp

Summary: in which dan and phil are young, in love, and so, so impulsive

#phanfictioncatalogue #phanfic #phanfiction #phan #masterlists #monthlyrecs #faves

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pushspacetocontinue · 5 days ago

Note

How old are Russell's older brothers? There's about three years between them, but what does that make them particularly at this point?

((From the oldest to the youngest, as of writing this post.

If Lewis was alive, he'd be 49 but turning 50 in November, hence the brothers talking about a possible gathering for his 'Fiftieth Heavenly Birthday'.

Martin is 46 and turning 47 in December.

The twins (Truman and Simon) are 43 and turning 44 over 2025

Bradley is 40 and turning 41 over 2025

David is 37 and turning 38 over 2025

Travis is 34 and turning 35 over 2025

and Russell is 31 and if he was still aging normally at this point, would be turning 32 in October.))

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justforbooks · 5 years ago

Photo

Nausea (French: La Nausée) is a philosophical novel by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, published in 1938. It is Sartre’s first novel and, in his opinion, one of his best works.

The novel takes place in ‘Bouville’ (literally, 'Mud town’) a town similar to Le Havre, and it concerns a dejected historian, who becomes convinced that inanimate objects and situations encroach on his ability to define himself, on his intellectual and spiritual freedom, evoking in the protagonist a sense of nausea.

French writer Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre’s lifelong partner, claims that La Nausée grants consciousness a remarkable independence and gives reality the full weight of its sense.

It is one of the canonical works of existentialism. Sartre was awarded, though he ultimately declined, the Nobel Prize for literature in 1964. The Nobel Foundation recognized him “for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age.” Sartre was one of the few people to have declined the award, referring to it as merely a function of a bourgeois institution.

The novel has been translated into English at least twice, by Lloyd Alexander as “The Diary of Antoine Roquentin” (John Lehmann, 1949) and by Robert Baldick as “Nausea” (Penguin Books, 1965).

Written in the form of journal entries, it follows 30-year-old Antoine Roquentin who, returned from years of travel, settles in the fictional French seaport town of Bouville to finish his research on the life of an 18th-century political figure. But during the winter of 1932 a “sweetish sickness,” as he calls nausea, increasingly impinges on almost everything he does or enjoys: his research project, the company of an autodidact who is reading all the books in the local library alphabetically, a physical relationship with a café owner named Françoise, his memories of Anny, an English girl he once loved, even his own hands and the beauty of nature.

Over time, his disgust towards existence forces him into self-hatred and near-insanity. He embodies Sartre’s theories of existential angst, and he searches anxiously for meaning in all the things that had filled and fulfilled his life up to that point. But finally Antoine comes to a revelation into the nature of his being when he faces the troublesomely provisional and limited nature of existence itself.

In his resolution at the end of the book he accepts the indifference of the physical world to man’s aspirations. He is able to see that realization not only as a regret but also as an opportunity. People are free to make their own meaning: a freedom that is also a responsibility, because without that commitment there will be no meaning.

Antoine Roquentin – The protagonist of the novel, Antoine is a former adventurer who has been living in Bouville for three years. Antoine does not keep in touch with family, and has no friends. He is a loner at heart and often likes to listen to other people’s conversations and examine their actions. Even though he at times admits to trying to find some sort of solace in the presence of others, he also exhibits signs of boredom and lack of interest when interacting with people. His relationship with Françoise is mostly hygienic in nature, for the two hardly exchange words and, when invited by the Self-Taught Man to accompany him for lunch, he agrees only to write in his diary later that: “I had as much desire to eat with him as I had to hang myself.” He can afford not to work, but spends a lot of his time writing a book about a French politician of the eighteenth century. Antoine does not think highly of himself: “The faces of others have some sense, some direction. Not mine. I cannot even decide whether it is handsome or ugly. I think it is ugly because I have been told so.” When he starts suffering from the Nausea he feels the need to talk to Anny, but when he finally does, it makes no difference to his condition. He eventually starts to think he does not even exist: “My existence was beginning to cause me some concern. Was I a mere figment of the imagination?”

Anny – Anny is an English woman who was once Antoine’s lover. After meeting with him, Anny makes it clear that she has changed a considerable amount and must go on with her life. Antoine clings to the past, hoping that she may want to redefine their relationship, but he is ultimately rejected by her.

Ogier P., generally referred to as “the self-taught man” or the Autodidact – An acquaintance of Antoine’s, he is a bailiff’s clerk who lives for the pursuit of knowledge and love of humanity. Highly disciplined, he has spent hundreds of hours reading at the local library. He often speaks to Roquentin and confides in him that he is a Socialist.

Like many Modernist novels, La Nausée is a “city-novel,” encapsulating experience within the city. It is widely assumed that “Bouville” in the novel is a fictional portrayal of Le Havre, where Sartre was living and teaching in the 1930s as he wrote it.

The critic William V. Spanos has used Sartre’s novel as an example of “negative capability,” a presentation of the uncertainty and dread of human existence, so strong that the imagination cannot comprehend it.

The Cambridge Companion to the French Novel places La Nausée in a tradition of French activism: “Following on from Malraux, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus among others were all able to use the writing of novels as a powerful tool of ideological exploration.” Although novelists like Sartre claim to be in rebellion against the 19th Century French novel, “they in fact owe a great deal both to its promotion of the lowly and to its ambiguous or 'poetic’ aspects.”

In his What Is Literature?, Sartre wrote, “On the one hand, the literary object has no substance but the reader’s subjectivity … But, on the other hand, the words are there like traps to arouse our feelings and to reflect them towards us … Thus, the writer appeals to the reader’s freedom to collaborate in the production of the work.”

The novel is an intricate formal achievement modeled on much 18th-century fiction that was presented as a “diary discovered among the papers of…”

Hayden Carruth wonders if there are not unrecognized layers of irony and humor beneath the seriousness of Nausea: “Sartre, for all his anguished disgust, can play the clown as well, and has done so often enough: a sort of fool at the metaphysical court.”

Like many modernist authors, Sartre, when young, loved popular novels in preference to the classics and claimed in his autobiography that it was from them, rather than from the balanced phrases of Chateaubriand that he had his “first encounters with beauty.”

Sartre described the stream of consciousness technique as one method of moving the novel from the era of Newtonian Physics forward into the era of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. He saw this as crucial because he felt that “narrative technique ultimately takes us back to the metaphysics of the novelist.” He wanted his novelistic techniques to be compatible with his theories on the existential freedom of the individual as well as his phenomenological analyses of the unstable, shifting structures of consciousness.

Disdaining 19th-century notions that character development in novels should obey and reveal psychological law, La Nausée treats such notions as bourgeois bad faith, ignoring the contingency and inexplicability of life.

From the psychological point of view Antoine Roquentin could be seen as an individual suffering from depression, and the nausea itself as one of the symptoms of his condition. Unemployed, living in deprived conditions, lacking human contact, being trapped in fantasies about the 18th century secret agent he is writing the book about, shows Sartre’s oeuvre as a follow-up of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Rilke’s The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge in search of the precise description of schizophrenia. Rilke’s character anticipates Sartre’s.

Roquentin’s problem is not simply depression or mental illness, although his experience has pushed him to that point. Sartre presents Roquentin’s difficulties as arising from man’s inherent existential condition. His seemingly special circumstances (returning from travel, reclusiveness), which goes beyond the mere indication of his very real depression, are supposed to induce in him (and in the reader) a state that makes one more receptive to noticing an existential situation that everyone has, but may not be sensitive enough to let become noticeable. Roquentin undergoes a strange metaphysical experience that estranges him from the world. His problems are not merely a result of personal insanity, without larger significance. Rather, like the characters in the Dostoevsky and Rilke novels, they are victims of larger ideological, social, and existential forces that have brought them to the brink of insanity. Sartre’s point in Nausea is to comment on our universal reaction to these common external problems.

Hayden Carruth wrote in 1959 of the way that “Roquentin has become a familiar of our world, one of those men who, like Hamlet or Julien Sorel, live outside the pages of the books in which they assumed their characters… . It is scarcely possible to read seriously in contemporary literature, philosophy, or psychology without encountering references to Roquentin’s confrontation with the chestnut tree, for example, which is one of the sharpest pictures ever drawn of self-doubt and metaphysical anguish.”

Certainly, Nausea gives us a few of the clearest and hence most useful images of man in our time that we possess; and this, as Allen Tate has said, is the supreme function of art.

Criticism of Sartre’s novels frequently centered on the tension between the philosophical and political on one side versus the novelistic and individual on the other.

Ronald Aronson describes the reaction of Albert Camus, still in Algeria and working on his own first novel, L’Étranger. At the time of the novel’s appearance, Camus was a reviewer for an Algiers left-wing daily. Camus told a friend that he “thought a lot about the book” and it was “a very close part of me.” In his review, Camus wrote, “the play of the toughest and most lucid mind are at the same time both lavished and squandered.” Camus felt that each of the book’s chapters, taken by itself, “reaches a kind of perfection in bitterness and truth.” However, he also felt that the descriptive and the philosophical aspects of the novel are not balanced, that they “don’t add up to a work of art: the passage from one to the other is too rapid, too unmotivated, to evoke in the reader the deep conviction that makes the art of the novel.” He likewise felt that Sartre had tipped the balance too far in depicting the repugnant features of mankind “instead of placing the reasons for his despair, at least to a certain degree, if not completely, on the elements of human greatness.” Still, Camus’s largely positive review led to a friendship between the two authors.

G.J. Mattey, a philosopher rather than a novelist like Camus, flatly describes Nausea and others of Sartre’s literary works as “practically philosophical treatises in literary form.”

In distinction both from Camus’s feeling that Nausea is an uneasy marriage of novel and philosophy and also from Mattey’s belief that it is a philosophy text, the philosopher William Barrett, in his book Irrational Man, expresses an opposite judgment. He writes that Nausea “may well be Sartre’s best book for the very reason that in it the intellectual and the creative artist come closest to being conjoined.” Barrett says that, in other literary works and in his literary criticism, Sartre feels the pull of ideas too strongly to respond to poetry, “which is precisely that form of human expression in which the poet—and the reader who would enter the poet’s world—must let Being be, to use Heidegger’s phrase and not attempt to coerce it by the will to action or the will to intellectualization.”

The poet Hayden Carruth agrees with Barrett, whom he quotes, about Nausea. He writes firmly that Sartre, “is not content, like some philosophers, to write fable, allegory, or a philosophical tale in the manner of Candide; he is content only with a proper work of art that is at the same time a synthesis of philosophical specifications.”

Barrett feels that Sartre as a writer is best when “the idea itself is able to generate artistic passion and life.”

Steven Ungar compares Nausea with French novels of different periods, such as Madame de Lafayette La Princesse de Clèves (1678), Honoré de Balzac Le Père Goriot (1835), André Malraux La Condition humaine (1933), and Annie Ernaux Une femme (1988), all of which have scenes with men and women faced with choices and “provide literary expressions to concerns with personal identity that vary over time more in detail than in essence.”

A main theme in La Nausée is that life is meaningless unless a person makes personal commitments that give it meaning. William Barrett emphasizes that the despair and disgust in Nausea contrast with the total despair of Céline (who is quoted on the flyleaf of the French edition) that leads to nothing; rather, they are a necessary personal recognition that eventuate in “a release from disgust into heroism.”

Barrett adds that, “like Adler’s, Sartre’s is fundamentally a masculine psychology; it misunderstands and disparages the psychology of woman. The humanity of man consists in the For-itself, the masculine component by which we choose, make projects, and generally commit ourselves to a life of action. The element of masculine protest, to use Adler’s term, is strong throughout Sartre’s writings … the disgust … of Roquentin, in Nausea, at the bloated roots of the chestnut tree …”

Mattey elaborates further on the positive, redeeming aspect of the seemingly bleak, frustrating themes of existentialism that are so apparent in Nausea: “Sartre considered the subjectivity of the starting-point for what a human is as a key thesis of existentialism. The starting-point is subjective because humans make themselves what they are. Most philosophers consider subjectivity to be a bad thing, particularly when it comes to the motivation for action… . Sartre responds by claiming that subjectivity is a dignity of human being, not something that degrades us.” Therefore, the characteristic anguish and forlornness of existentialism are temporary: only a prerequisite to recognizing individual responsibility and freedom. The basis of ethics is not rule-following. A specific action may be either wrong or right and no specific rule is necessarily valid. What makes the action, either way, ethical is “authenticity,” the willingness of the individual to accept responsibility rather than dependence on rules, and to commit to his action. Despair, the existentialist says, is the product of uncertainty: being oriented exclusively to the outcome of a decision rather than to the process yields uncertainty, as we cannot decide the future, only our action.

In his “Introduction” to the American edition of Nausea, the poet and critic Hayden Carruth feels that, even outside those modern writers who are explicitly philosophers in the existentialist tradition, a similar vein of thought is implicit but prominent in a main line through Franz Kafka, Miguel de Unamuno, D. H. Lawrence, André Malraux, and William Faulkner. Carruth says:

'Suffering is the origin of consciousness,’ Dostoevsky wrote. But suffering is everywhere in the presence of thought and sensitivity. Sartre for his part has written, and with equal simplicity: 'Life begins on the other side of despair.’

Sartre has written, “What is meant … by saying that existence precedes essence? It means that, first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and only afterwards defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives of him, is undefinable, it is only because he is nothing. Only afterwards will he be something, and he will have made what he will be.”

If things—and also people—are contingent, if they “just are,” then we are free and we create ourselves solely through our decisions and choices.

David Drake mentions that, in Nausea, Sartre gives several kinds of examples of people whose behavior shows bad faith, who are inauthentic: members of the bourgeoisie who believe their social standing or social skills give them a “right” to exist, or others who embrace the banality of life and attempt to flee from freedom by repeating empty gestures, others who live by perpetuating past versions of themselves as they were or who live for the expectations of others, or those who claim to have found meaning in politics, morality, or ideology.

In simply narrative terms, Roquentin’s nausea arises from his near-complete detachment from other people, his not needing much interaction with them for daily necessities: “the fact of his alienation from others is important; as his own work ceases to entertain and to occupy him, Roquentin has nothing that could distract him from the business of existing in its simplest forms.” As a practical matter, he could solve his problem by getting a job; but, as a device for developing the novel’s theme, his aloneness is a way of making him (and the reader) recognize that there is nothing inherent in the objective nature of the world that would give any necessary meaning to whatever actions he chose, and therefore nothing to restrict his freedom. “[H]is perception of the world around him becomes unstable as objects are disengaged from their usual frames of reference,” and he is forced to recognize that freedom is inescapable and that therefore creating a meaning for his life is his own responsibility. “Nothing makes us act the way we do, except our own personal choice.”

“But,” David Clowney writes, “freedom is frightening, and it is easier to run from it into the safety of roles and realities that are defined by society, or even by your own past. To be free is to be thrown into existence with no "human nature” as an essence to define you, and no definition of the reality into which you are thrown, either. To accept this freedom is to live “authentically”; but most of us run from authenticity. In the most ordinary affairs of daily life, we face the challenge of authentic choice, and the temptation of comfortable inauthenticity. All of Roquentin’s experiences are related to these themes from Sartre’s philosophy.“

Genius is what a man invents when he is looking for a way out.

During the Second World War, the experience of Sartre and others in the French Resistance to the Nazi occupation of France emphasized political activism as a form of personal commitment. This political dimension was developed in Sartre’s later trilogy of novels, Les Chemins de la Liberté (The Roads to Freedom) (1945–1949), which concern a vicious circle of failure on the part of a thinking individual to progress effectively from thought to action. Finally, for Sartre, political commitment became explicitly Marxist.

In 1945, Sartre gave a lecture in New York that was printed in Vogue in July of that year. In it he recast his prewar works, such as Nausea into politically committed works appropriate to the postwar era.

Marxism was not, in any case, always as appreciative of Sartre as he was of it. Mattey describes their objections:

Marxism was a very potent political and philosophical force in France after its liberation from the Nazi occupation. Marxist thinkers tend to be very ideological and to condemn in no uncertain terms what they regard to be rival positions. They found existentialism to run counter to their emphasis on the solidarity of human beings and their theory of material (economic) determinism. The subjectivity that is the starting point of existentialism seemed to the Marxists to be foreign to the objective character of economic conditions and to the goal of uniting the working classes in order to overthrow the bourgeoise capitalists. If one begins with the reality of the "I think,” one loses sight of what really defines the human being (according to the Marxists), which is their place in the economic system. Existentialism’s emphasis on individual choice leads to contemplation, rather than to action. Only the bourgeoise have the luxury to make themselves what they are through their choices, so existentialism is a bourgeoise philosophy.

Sartre was influenced at the time by the philosophy of Edmund Husserl and his phenomenological method. He received a stipend from the Institut Français, allowing him to study in Berlin with Husserl and Martin Heidegger in 1932, as he began writing the novel.

Roy Elveton reports:

In January, 1939, one year after the death of Edmund Husserl, Sartre published a short essay entitled 'Husserl’s Central Idea.’ In the space of a few paragraphs, Sartre rejects the epistemology of Descartes and the neo-Kantians and their view of consciousness’s relationship to the world. Consciousness is not related to the world by virtue of a set of mental representations and acts of mental synthesis that combine such representations to provide us with our knowledge of the external world. Husserl’s intentional theory of consciousness provides the only acceptable alternative: 'Consciousness and the world are immediately given together: the world, essentially external to consciousness, is essentially related to it.’ The only appropriate image for intentionality and our knowing relationship to the world is that of an 'explosion’: 'to know is to “explode” toward’ an object in the world, an object 'beyond oneself, over there…towards that which is not oneself…out of oneself.’

Following Husserl, Sartre views absurdity as a quality of all existing objects (and of the material world collectively), independent of any stance humans might take with respect to them. Our consciousness of an object does not inhere in the object itself. Thus in the early portions of the novel, Roquentin, who takes no attitude towards objects and has no stake in them, is totally estranged from the world he experiences. The objects themselves, in their brute existence, have only participation in a meaningless flow of events: they are superfluous. This alienation from objects casts doubt for him, in turn, on his own validity and even his own existence.

Roquentin says of physical objects that, for them, “to exist is simply to be there.” When he has the revelation at the chestnut tree, this “fundamental absurdity” of the world does not go away. What changes then is his attitude. By recognizing that objects won’t supply meaning in themselves, but people must supply it for them – that Roquentin himself must create meaning in his own life – he becomes both responsible and free. The absurdity becomes, for him, “the key to existence.”

Victoria Best writes:

Language proves to be a fragile barrier between Roquentin and the external world, failing to refer to objects and thus place them in a scheme of meaning. Once language collapses it becomes evident that words also give a measure of control and superiority to the speaker by keeping the world at bay; when they fail in this function, Roquentin is instantly vulnerable, unprotected.

Thus, although, in some senses, Sartre’s philosophy in Nausea derives from Husserl and ultimately from René Descartes, the strong role he gives to the contingent randomness of physical objects contrasts with their commitment to the role of necessity. (Elveton mentions that, unknown to Sartre, Husserl himself was developing the same ideas, but in manuscripts that remained unpublished.)

Ethan Kleinberg writes that, more than Husserl, it was Martin Heidegger who appealed to Sartre’s sense of radical individualism. He says, “for Sartre, the question of being was always and only a question of personal being. The dilemma of the individual confronting the overwhelming problem of understanding the relationship of consciousness to things, of being to things, is the central focus” of Nausea. Eventually, “in his reworking of Husserl, Sartre found himself coming back to the themes he had absorbed from Heidegger’s Was ist Metaphysik?” Nausea was a prelude to Sartre’s sustained attempt to follow Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit by analyzing human experience as various ontological modes, or ways of being in the world.

In 1937, just as Sartre was finishing Nausea and getting it to press, he wrote an essay, The Transcendence of the Ego. He still agreed with Husserl that consciousness is “about” objects or, as they say, it “intends” them – rather than forming within itself a duplicate, an inner representation of an outward object. The material objects of consciousness (or “objects of intention”) exist in their own right, independent and without any residue accumulating in them from our awareness of them. However, the new idea in this essay was that Sartre now differed in also believing that the person’s ego itself is also “in the world,” an object of consciousness to be discovered, rather than the totally known subject of consciousness. In the novel, not only Roquentin’s consciousness but his own body also becomes objectified in his new, alarming perception.

And so Sartre parted company with Husserl over the latter’s belief in a transcendent ego, which Sartre believed instead was neither formally nor materially in consciousness, but outside it: in the world.

This seemingly technical change fit with Sartre’s native predisposition to think of subjectivity as central: a conscious person is always immersed in a world where his or her task is to make himself concrete. A “person” is not an unchanging, central essence, but a fluid construct that continually re-arises as an interaction among a person’s consciousness, his physiology and history, the material world, and other people. This view itself supported Sartre’s vision of people as fundamentally both doomed and free to live lives of commitment and creativity.

As Søren Kierkegaard, the earliest existentialist, wrote: 'I must find a truth that is true for me … the idea for which I can live or die.’

La Nausée allows Sartre to explain his philosophy in simplified terms. Roquentin is the classic existentialist hero whose attempts to pierce the veil of perception lead him to a strange combination of disgust and wonder. For the first part of the novel, Roquentin has flashes of nausea that emanate from mundane objects. These flashes appear seemingly randomly, from staring at a crumpled piece of paper in the gutter to picking up a rock on the beach. The feeling he perceives is pure disgust: a contempt so refined that it almost shatters his mind each time it occurs. As the novel progresses, the nausea appears more and more frequently, though he is still unsure of what it actually signifies. However, at the base of a chestnut tree in a park, he receives a piercingly clear vision of what the nausea actually is. Existence itself, the property of existence to be something rather than nothing was what was slowly driving him mad. He no longer sees objects as having qualities such as color or shape. Instead, all words are separated from the thing itself, and he is confronted with pure being.

Carruth points out that the antipathy of the existentialists to formal ethical rules brought them disapproval from moral philosophers concerned with traditional schemes of value. On the other hand, analytical philosophers and logical positivists were “outraged by Existentialism’s willingness to abandon rational categories and rely on non mental processes of consciousness.”

Additionally, Sartre’s philosophy of existentialism is opposed to a certain kind of rationalistic humanism. Upon the confession of the Self-Taught Man as to being a member of the S.F.I.O., a French Socialist party, Roquentin quickly engages him in a Socratic dialogue to expose his inconsistencies as a humanist. Roquentin first points out how his version of humanism remains unaffiliated to a particular party or group so as to include or value all of mankind. However, he then notes how the humanist nonetheless caters his sympathy with a bias towards the humble portion of mankind. Roquentin continues to point out further discrepancies of how one humanist may favor an audience of laughter while another may enjoy the somber funeral. In dialogue, Roquentin challenges the Self-Taught Man to show a demonstrable love for a particular, tangible person rather than a love for the abstract entity attached to that person (i.e. the idea of Youth in a young man). In short, he concludes that such humanism naively attempts to “melt all human attitudes into one.” More importantly, to disavow humanism does not constitute “anti-humanism”.

The kind of humanism Sartre found unacceptable, according to Mattey, is one that denies the primacy of individual choice… . But there is another conception of humanism implicit in existentialism. This is one that emphasizes the ability of individual human beings to transcend their individual circumstances and act on behalf of all humans. The fact is, Sartre maintains, that the only universe we have is a human universe, and the only laws of this universe are made by humans.“

In his Sartre biography, David Drake writes, Nausea was on the whole well received by the critics and the success of Sartre the novelist served to enhance the reputation he had started to enjoy as a writer of short stories and philosophical texts, mostly on perception.”

Although his earlier essays did not receive much attention, Nausea and the collection of stories The Wall, swiftly brought him recognition.

Carruth writes that, on publication, “it was condemned, predictably, in academic circles, but younger readers welcomed it, and it was far more successful than most first novels.”

Sartre originally titled the novel Melancholia. Simone de Beauvoir referred to it as his “factum on contingency.” He composed it from 1932 to 1936. He had begun it during his military service and continued writing at Le Havre and in Berlin.

Ethan Kleinberg reports:

Sartre went to study in Berlin for the academic year 1933. While in Berlin, Sartre did not take any university courses or work with Husserl or Heidegger. Sartre’s time seems to have been spent reading Husserl and working on the second draft of Nausea.

Drake confirms this account.

The manuscript was subsequently typed. It was at first refused by the Nouvelle Revue Française (N.R.F.), despite a strong recommendation from their reviewer, Jean Paulhan. In 1937, however, the imprint’s publisher, Gaston Gallimard accepted it and suggested the title La Nausée.

Brice Parain, the editor, asked for numerous cuts of material that was either too populist or else too sexual to avoid an action for indecency. Sartre deleted the populist material, which was not natural to him, with few complaints, because he wanted to be published by the prestigious N.R.F., which had a strong, if vague, house style. However, he stood fast on the sexual material which he felt was an artistically necessary hallucinatory ingredient.

Michel Contat has examined the original typescript and feels that, “if ever Melancholia is published as its author had originally intended it, the novel will no doubt emerge as a work which is more composite, more baroque and perhaps more original than the version actually published.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Jean-Paul Sartre #La Nausée

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newenglandmonsters · 4 years ago

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“Kid Quanta”

The associate professor of quantum physics at the California Institute of Technology speaks highly of Hawking radiation, positron emission tomography, as well as the uncertainty principle and superstring theory. Dr. Simon Epstein is a complex and highly intellectual fellow. If even twenty-five percent of the western world's population were his intellectual equal, we'd likely see technological progression akin to that of a post-space age 31st century technocratic society. Dr. Epstein's IQ is easily unprecedented in a fashion which is most diametrical to egregious. An exceptional individual to put it mildly, his parents evaded Third Reich persecution by emigrating to Anaheim, California in 1938. The dawn of a new age manifested itself in the year 2039 when the then-estranged and reclusive professor re-surfaced and leapt back into the limelight by unveiling his groundbreaking invention of earthshaking importance: the Feynman Space-Time Transmogrifier, humankind's very first fully operational time machine. The first point in space-time to be tampered with was that of an early morning birth at Waterbury Hospital in May of 1991. The infant Anthony Cannata was taken to a research facility in Simon Epstein's subterranean complex at a black site fifteen miles south of the Arctic Circle. Anthony was subsequently held captive but treated humanely and when he reached maturity he was turned into a cyborg and indoctrinated with the primary objective of detonating the two moons of Mars using an optical positron augmenter, catalyzing a war between humans and the High Chancellor of Mars' private mercenary militia. All went as planned, and the Martian head of state signed non-aggression pacts with the nations of Earth. Meanwhile, Dr. Epstein became fat and rich off the antics of his faithful disciple until divine intervention took place and St. Peter hired the cybernetic Anthony as a bouncer in the Kingdom of Heaven's most frequently visited restaurant and pub.

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weeklyhumorist · 4 years ago

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Minutes From Last Months Meeting Of BRONIE, The Social Group For Men Who Are Obsessed With My Little Pony

Half an hour spent by Brian calming other members down, assuring them that it’s perfectly okay for grown men to be obsessed with My Little Pony. Check and make sure that each member’s Xanax prescription is up to date with plenty of refills.

Other members express sympathy to Edward over his recent divorce.

Also condolences for Kenneth, Brad, Tim, Brent, Simon, Eduardo, Philip and Edgar re their recent divorces.

Discuss firing website moderator who won’t remove misleading info on group site that claims BRONIE stands for Broken, Reclusive Oddballs Needing Immediate Euthanasia.

Forty-seven minutes spent going through group’s Facebook page, erasing rude messages from fake members who signed up just to be mean.

One hour and fifteen minutes spent with the group outside, fashioning the huge spray-painted image of the large penis on the side of Simon’s house into a My Little Pony character(Twilight Sparkle, because of the mostly purple color of both images).

Half an hour spent discussing last week’s Bronie gathering in front of city hall, protesting the recent local ordinance that requires all Bronies to notify neighbors in person of their presence when moving into a new neighborhood.

Thirty-eight minutes spent researching a lawyer who might represent us re Edgar’s recent back tattoo (which did include the My Little Pony character that Edgar requested, but engaged in activities that Edgar did NOT request, and that Fluttershy would NEVER perform upon a lactating dragon).

Minutes From Last Months Meeting Of BRONIE, The Social Group For Men Who Are Obsessed With My Little Pony was originally published on Weekly Humorist

#collectors #funny #groups #humor #my little pony #social group

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jellyinmybelly · 3 years ago

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oh my god my time to shine ok here it goes(all of these are fiction btw :p):

The Bright Sessions- what a show. It's clever and funny and will definitely make you feel things. Here's the blurb: The Bright Sessions is a science fiction podcast that takes place in a fictional universe where super-powered individuals, called "atypicals", exist. Dr. Bright provides therapy for them and their sessions are recorded for research purposes.

The Penumbra Podcast- amazing rep and very gripping. Blurb: At the Penumbra, you might follow Juno Steel, a brooding, sharp-witted private eye on Mars, as he tangles with an elusive homme fatale, tracks dangerous artifacts of an ancient alien civilization, and faces his three greatest fears: heights, blood, and relationships. Or you might enter the world of the Second Citadel, where the merciless Sir Caroline must corral a team of emotionally distraught all-male knights to defend their city against mind-manipulating monsters...even the ones they’ve fallen in love with.

Blackout- v smort and interesting also RAMI MALEK!! Blurb: Rami Malek stars in this apocalyptic thriller as a small-town radio DJ, Simon Itani, fighting to protect his family and community after the power grid goes down nationwide, upending modern civilization.

Me and AU: queer and cute af and it mostly happens in tumblr so Blurb: When Kate "ACunningPlan" Cunningham sparks up an online friendship with a fellow fanfiction writer it seems like the perfect distraction from a summer stuck in her hometown, not to mention the coming terrors of her final year of university and the Real Adult Future beyond. (Seriously, please don’t mention them.) After all, Hella--Enchanted is funny, smart and writes canon-divergent werewolf fic like no one else. She’s everything a fangirl could ask for. But... what if she’s everything Kate could ask for, too?

The Cipher: brilliant voice acting and sooo compelling and cool. Blurb: When 16-year-old Sabrina cracks the cryptic Parallax, she’s recruited to track down a serial killer... who might not be from this world.

Greenhouse: queer and adorable. Blurb: Greenhouse is an anxious audio love story of a recluse write and a lonely florist as they learn letter by letter that the world is a whole lot brighter when you have someone to share your story with.

Welcome to Night Vale: very weird. Blurb: WTNV is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events. Turn on your radio and hide.

etc.

Here's an honorary non-fiction podcast mention that I loved:

Last Seen: art theft cool. Blurb: Last Seen investigated the most valuable — and confounding — art heist in history: the theft of 13 irreplaceable artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. WBUR and The Boston Globe teamed up to ask why, 28 years later, this still unsolved crime exerts its irresistible pull.

sorry for the long post but these are some of my absolute favourites! hope you enjoy!

can someone please recommend me some good podcast i can listen on spotify?

thank you

#aosjnxhssj there are more #but these are some of my tops #podcasts about tv shows are really good too #like the office or b99 or parks and rec #ok bye lmao #podcast #spotify podcast #podcast recommendations

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misskaao · 7 years ago

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Simone Snaith: Interview

Simone Snaith has a lot of books written and they are wonderful (I have written reviews on them all: Faireville Woods Series, The Indigo Stone, and Into the Drawing).

All of the books can be found at Amazon and I recommend buying them if you have not already.

**I was really happy and excited that Ms. Snaith had taken me up on answering a few questions for the blog. They are wonderful responses, and I want to thank her for taking time out to do so.

Q & A

You have written a few books, one being a companion series (From the Ashes and Through the Eyes: Faireville Woods) and the rest standalones. Which are your favorites to do; series or one book a piece?

I prefer both writing and reading stand-alone books, most of the time. I like the idea of leaving the reader to imagine his/her own version of what else might happen in that particular fictional world. And I like having that freedom myself after finishing reading a book. There are some exceptions though; I eagerly read all of A Song of Ice and Fire and the Harry Potter books.

If I recall, there is not many/if any love triangles in your books. Do you hate them/love them or consider them unnecessary?

I absolutely hate love triangles! I think they are widely overused as a plot device and also, they’re not even very realistic. I’ve never been in love with two people at the same time, and neither has any of my close friends or family members...

Do you have a favorite book that you wrote?

I think my favorite is “The Indigo Stone.” I love a good, fish-out-of-water adventure story with a romantic subplot, and I feel like I achieved that with that novel. “In The Drawing” is the most personal, however; Genevieve is loosely based on a younger version of myself.

Do you have a favorite character from your books? What made you love that character?

It might be a tie between Eine from “The Indigo Stone” - because she is a tough survivor, but in a matter-of-fact, unshowy way – and Lundy from “From The Ashes,” for her kind heart, and her love of books and music.

How did you come up with the idea for your books?

They often spring from images that pop up in my head, or just scraps of ideas. “From The Ashes” was a very old story idea of mine, but one of the first images I had was of Harlan in Lundy’s window. I had a dream about the spinning contraption that Eine is strapped into by Indigo, and “In The Drawing” definitely started out as just the idea of vines growing over a building overnight.

Can you give us a hint to what we should be expecting in your next book?

“Between The Water & The Woods” is scheduled to be published by Holiday House in the spring! It’s a YA Fantasy that involves monsters, magic, and machines. 😉

Where do you like to write?

I usually write at my desk at home, but I also write on my Kindle Fire when I’m out and about.

Do you decide character traits before you sit down to write the book, or as you go along?

There are usually some that I know beforehand, but others that develop as I go. That’s one of the exciting parts for me.

If you could give a young writer any tip, what would it be?

Keep going until you finish the first draft, and THEN go back and edit. Don’t keep stopping and second-guessing things. A lot of the writers I know have trouble finishing even that first draft.

If you weren’t writing, what would you want to be doing for a living? What are some of your other passions in life?

My other passion is music, so I would be focusing more on that if I wasn’t also a writer. I currently sing and write songs in a band that plays locally in L.A.

What do you love about being an indie author?

I love the fact that many indie publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts! While literary agents are obviously amazing, they are also gatekeepers, in a sense. If you can’t find one who is excited about your current book, then you’re stuck, because the major publishers will only accept submissions through them. With my self-published books, I liked having control over the book cover and design, and also receiving the sales notifications directly in my inbox.

What is the oddest thing you’ve found yourself researching for your books (if any)?

The most recent (unpublished) novel that I wrote is about a girl whose parents work in the space program, and who starts dreaming that aliens are contacting her. So I went on a tour of the Jet Propulsion Lab here in L.A., read about the Cassini spacecraft and Mars Rover online, and talked to a family friend who works for NASA! I had to figure out how my main character and her friend could do something technically minor that would alter her parents’ spacecraft mission.

Any tidbits you wish to share for inspiring or other indie authors?

If you truly love writing, then keep pursuing it forever and ever. There are many routes to publishing now and you can keep trying them all.

RANDOM Q & A

Which would you pick- (fame, money, happiness, or easy inspiration)?

Happiness, which would give me plenty of inspiration!

How many drafts from first to final?

For myself, usually only 2 or 3, but their have already been more than that for “Between The Water & The Woods.” I’m still in the editing stage with Holiday House.

Do you fit any author stereotypes (Cat owner? Coffee/tea Addict? Messy handwriting? Recluse? Late night writer? OCD spelling/grammer (i.e. hate others who don’t use it properly or even yourself)?

Haha, I fit all of those except for “recluse” and “late night writer!” I prefer to write in the morning, although I certainly don’t get up early, and I do like to get out often. I have a 21-year-old cat who is my true love, and I’m definitely a coffee addict and spelling/grammer Nazi. My handwriting only gets worse as I get older...

What is your biggest pet peeve?

Probably when people are unjustifiably rude. I work in retail, so I see this often, unfortunately. I’m a stickler for basic manners.

What is one thing you love and could not live without?

Rock ‘n roll. <3

****Those answers are wonderful, amazing and the tidbits for writers is a must read! Always helpful to add insight for others. I love the NASA information and I bet it was really cool to do. Manners are a must for me as well, sad to think we are losing some of that. I don't know about you readers, but I'm going to be checking out Ms. Snaith's music now and reviewing it up. Love that she writes music as well!

#book #interview #simone snaith #author #YAauthor

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