#Sebastian loves LARPing way too much

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2025 #10

I remain full steam ahead on reading a ton even while I am in training for me job. Less reading happening at home before and after work though because I am paying attention to my needy cat. Also letting y'all know ahead of time that next week's reading log is going to be late because I will be at a LARP over the weekend, and so coming home Sunday evening I might be too exhausted to function. wish me well and lots of fun putting on costumes and forcing the jocks of the nerd world to do improv games with me

Finished:

Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 11-13 by Bisco Hatori, translated by Masumi Matsumoto so you know how last week I went "oh wow Tamaki is the first person to 'think i hauve covid'". well Haruhi has now been struck with the same phenomenon where when she realizes (with a lot of help) that she has a crush on Tamaki she ALSO comes down with flu like symptoms. she is not as deep in denial as Tamaki is and instead does Research on what love feels like thru girl's magazines and romance manga. also we're coming to a climactic point with the Tamaki/Haruhi/Hikaru love triangle, bc at the end of volume 13, Hikaru confesses! Haruhi's reaction to be found in the next volume i've hit a tipping point in the manga where despite still being a comedy, there's a much higher proportion of emotional/dramatic beats to gags & jokes

Oak King Holly King by Sebastian Nothwell, narrated by Gary Furlong serviceable gay romantasy, but i wish we dropped the mortal realm side of the storyline in favor of more fae realm stuff. i wanted to linger in the MCs decision to stage ritualized sexual submission in order to save both their lives, coup the fae queen, and have fun while doing it. instead we had an excruciatingly long scene of step by step learning that someone (a trans someone) might change their name (because they are trans) and that that would be mystically recognized as their true name, and a fist fight with a human dude that had next to nothing to do with our protagonists

Check, Please! #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu the way this graphic novel is organized does a MASSIVE disservice to it. Who's decision was it to put all of Bitty's tweets in a separate section at the end, instead of interspersing them chronologically with the episodes they go along with?! That decision makes the comic much less comprehensible, means you miss out on jokes, the reader has to put together themselves when certain tweets were made in the story. It's such a shame bc it would be so fun to end each chapter with "this is what Bitty was tweeting about". i will never not complain about this bc its baffling to me as a way to print a webcomic with tie in tweets

Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent by Katherine Angel, narrated by Cat Gould good pop-academic book about the current state of feminist discourse around rape culture/pushing affirmative consent models as the solution. ie. a lot of the affirmative consent model depends on Empowering Women to know and say what they want, and that has a lot of failure states because it's actually really fucking hard to know yourself and your own desires and express them and act on them, and even if you do, expressing them and acting on them can have social consequences AND we're presuming the person they're expressed to is going to respect that in the first place. also has a good break down on the assumptions that a lot of sexological research has that make it questionable in its actual applicability to life outside of a research setting

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 12 written by Kanehito Yamada, art by Tsukasa Abe, translated by Misa 'Japanese Ammo' *thumbs up* fun, though twitter discourse about it invaded my life this week bc my roommate came to complain to me about people criticizing the way demons are portrayed as ontologically evil in Frieren. i have Thoughts

What Did You Eat Yesterday? Vol. 12 by Fumi Yoshinaga, translated by Jocelyne Allen a volume of what did you eat yesterday is exactly long enough to read during my lunch break. I will be blazing through the rest of this manga very soon, right after I finish Ouran

Abandoned:

The Winter Knight by Jes Battis, narrated by Gabra Zackman, Nicky Endres, Gail Shalan, Lee Osorio, and Dylan Kiedman listened to a Lot of this for audiobook busy work time but never really enjoyed it. decided this morning that i dont have to finish it if I didnt like it, even if i got really far. i think contemporary/urban fantasy is not my genre. also its hard to make a fantasy murder mystery compelling bc you need to do fantasy worldbuilding at the same time as clues, and I think the assumption that the reader would be really familiar with Arthuriana and cared about it was where a lot of the play for reader investment was and I Did Not Care or know enough to care i read to 78% and then decided "actually i dont need to finish this" and returned the libby loan

Started/Ongoing:

Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto VERY readable scifi heist caper with an entirely queer cast. i'm having a good time and my goal is to finish reading it today after i wrap up this post

Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell, narrated by Raphael Corkhill this book is going to make me ill (positive). the erotics of power dynamic at play here.....Surit could at any moment bend Tennal's mind to his will irreversibly, has orders to do so, and would be rewarded enormously for it. he categorically refuses to do so and is ready to go against all of his own interests to get Tennal fucking out of here because he is somehow the Most Honorable Man In The Galaxy. that's hot

[otomates-a]

"Who's a good boy, huh? Who?" Dusty, of course. Sebastian'd been on his way to the saloon when the dog recognized his voice and hopped excitedly up on the fence to greet him. An invitation that only a monster could decline. So, the sight Alex would be greeted with upon stepping outside was Sebastian giving Dusty a gentle pet and scratch of his ears with an uncharacteristically wide smile at the returned affection. A smile that would turn sheepish once he looked up and noticed him watching. Then, a small shrug. His image couldn't be salvaged now, anyway. "He really wanted to say hi."

UNPROMPTED, @rotinthedark.

               If it weren’t for the badgering of George behind him for letting a draft into the house, he’d have probably stood in that doorway forever. He’d be the first to admit how ridiculous he looked, lips parted with his gaze fixated on the man leaning over Dusty’s dog pen in nothing short of awe. It takes every ounce of self control he has to snap himself out of it in order to finish stepping outside and closing the door behind him, but even then he doesn’t look away. He feels like he’s seeing something precious. Okay, yeah, that’s a cringy and gross way to word it, way too cliche, but he can count the number of times he’s seen Sebastian Messer look the way he does now on ... one finger, actually.

               He smiles when Sebastian notices him and turns sheepish. How could he not?

               “He likes you too,”  he replies, leaving the warmth of the statement upon for interpretation. At the very least, he seems just as happy to see him, although he doesn’t exactly have a tail to wag. Absently, he sets the gridball he was holding down on the ground as he steps forward, abandoning it momentarily to circle around Dusty’s pen and stand beside him. He leans over the structure, but doesn’t interrupt the other from giving his dog attention. They seem to be getting along just fine.  “I think he’s glad you’re paying more mind to him now-a-days. It’s pretty hard to get your attention, y’know. Really gotta work for it.”  He laughs, mildly glad the dog is there because he doesn’t want to earn any glares for that one, although he’s sure it’s obvious he’s being lighthearted.

               Finally, he reaches one hand over to pat Dusty’s head, his fingers briefly touching Sebastian’s as they overlap, but if he notices, he doesn’t show it.  “You have a nice smile. It’s  ...  cute?”  He squints his eyes as he pets his dog, not looking up as he genuinely seems to contemplate his wording. It feels weird to phrase it that way, but he doesn’t think it feels wrong, either.  “It’s nice. Seeing you look happy. I always seem to run into you when one of us is having a hard time. As much as I love fighting in the rain or coming to you with my woe-is-me-my-mom-is-dead issues,”  he briefly raises a hand to signal he’s okay and just kidding around for once,  “I think I like seeing your daily life better.”  Even the brief times he’s brought up his programming, or when Sam tells him secondhand about their nerdy LARPing adventures, or having him buy ice cream or smile at his dog  ...  not that he’d know how to word it, but it makes him happy, even seeing a glimpse of that. He looks over at Sebastian.  “You should let me see you smile more often.”  He supposes, in the end, that’s really what he’s getting at, isn’t it?

               Without warning, he rests his hand on his shoulder and gently pulls him back from the pen. It’s just enough so that he can open it up and within seconds, Dusty is running around in front of them, zooming in circles as he chases his tail. As young as the day he brought him home as a kid. He thinks it’s sweet.

               “Come on a walk with us sometime. Dusty would love the company.”  He’s sure the silent implication that he would too is hard to miss.

[please-stop-killing-dean]

Supernatural Opinions

(I was tagged by @sup3r-pott3r-lock3d

1. What season did you start watching Supernatural?

I think I started S1 just as S9 was airing

2. Who was the first character you fell in love with?

Dean, from as early as the ‘Dad’s on a hunting trip’ scene

3. Who was a character that you hated at first but grew to love?

Meg 2.0. I always thought she was kinda badass and totally respected her for that but I don’t think I actually liked her until Caged Heat. And then I was super sad when she got killed off

4. Which character would you most want to be in a long - term relationship with?

I’m just completely in love with both Gabe and Chuck so probably one of them

5. If you could go on just one date with one character, which one would you choose?

Probably Balthazar

6. What would you do on this date?

Ooh idk maybe go to a super fancy restaurant and thennn ;) ;) ;) ;)

7. Which character would you most want to be like?

I think maybe Kevin. He didn’t want any part of the hunter life/being a prophet but he did it anyway because he believed it was the right thing to do. And his character development, man. He went from a frightened kid who’d do/say whatever under duress to save himself pain, to someone who stood up to fricking Crowley, the King of Hell.

8. Which character would you most like to see brought back from the dead?

BOBBY. CHARLIE. KEVIN. EILEEN. CROWLEY. ROWENA i could go on

9. Which character would you most like to punch?

Lucifer. In the face. Repeatedly. He used to be one of my fave characters and while I kind of still want to like him, the S12 finale fucked me up way too much for that

10. Who is your absolute favourite character? 

That’s super tough and I cannot narrow it down to one so I’m gonna say Gabe, Dean, Charlie, Chuck, Crowley, Kevin

11. Which “Big Bad” do you think was the worst?

Idk if this means worse like shittiest, in which case Leviathan, or worse like toughest to beat, in which case Amara and Lucifer

12. Which character are you most like?

Ooh I really don’t know. Maybe Charlie because I like a lot of ‘geeky’ stuff??? Idk I’ve never really thought about it

13. What death hit you the hardest?

I think Bobby, Charlie, and Kevin all hit me pretty hard, but I knew they were coming because I’d seen things on here and on Instagram so I’d kinda had time to prepare. Other than them, probably Crowley and Rowena, because they were two of my fave characters

14. What season finale hit you the hardest? S5 and S9 both made me cry a load, but probably S12, because lbr that was some emotional shit that I had not had enough time to prepare for

15. What are your ten all - time favourite episodes? (in chronological order) (And yes there’s eleven but I put two of them at 9 so it still counts as ten, okay?) 1. Bad Day at Black Rock 2. Mystery Spot 3. The Monster at the End of This Book 4. The End 5. Changing Channels 6. Hammer of the Gods 7. LARP and the Real Girl 8. Fan Fiction 9. Don’t Call Me Shurley  AND  We Happy Few   10. Stuck in the Middle (With You)

16. What’s been your favourite season?

I always find it super hard to answer this like probably S5 and S11 but I also really loved S4 and S6 soo

17. Who is your favourite angel?

Gaaabriel

18. Who’s your favourite demon?

Crowley and also maybe Meg

19. Who’s your favourite evil character?

Uhh probably Lucifer and if Amara counts then her too, although I guess she’s not exactly evil idk

20. Do you have any Supernatural ships? Destiel, Saileen

21. Who’s your favourite supporting actor? Rob, Rich, Matt, Kim, Briana, Ruth, Gil, Sebastian...I could go on, I just adore the whole cast

22. What’s your favourite quote from the show?

I cannot pick just one

‘Family don’t end with blood’  ‘Two boys, an old drunk, and a fallen angel’  ‘Gay love can pierce through the veil of death and save the day’  ‘He who hesitates, disintegrates’  ‘Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it’ 

AND THERE ARE SO MANY MORE BUT I CAN’T THINK OF ANY RN

23. If you could cast one famous actor in an episode of spn, who would you chose?

I don’t actually know but probably any one of the actors who were in KoC because that would just be super cool

24. If you could write your own episode, what kind of creature would you like to see included?

I quite like seeing different gods, but also just some good old fashioned monsters, like vampires and werewolves and stuff

25. Who’s your favourite girl that Dean’s hooked up with?

I quite liked Lisa I guess, idk

26. Who’s your favourite girl that Sam’s hooked up with?

Ruby, definitely

27. What are some of your favourite convention moments?

There are so many but right now my mind has gone completely blank

28. If you were going to guest star (or be a recurring guest star) on spn, how would you want your character described?

Ooh I would just want to be completely badass basically and have a relationship with Gabe or Chuck

29. What do you hope to see in the next season? Gabe back alive. Rowena back alive. Destiel being fricking canon.

30-40. If you had to choose… Bobby or John? Bobby

Bela or Ruby? Bela

Jess or Madison? Jess

Jo or Lisa? Jo

Charlie or Kevin? This is impossible I cannot answer it

Balthazar or Ash? Balthazar

Cas or Crowley Cas, but only just

Ben or Claire? Claire

Jody or Donna? Jody

Sam or Dean? Dean, although I love Sam so much too

Tagging: @heeeatofthemoment @secretlyshycomputer