#a little voice

[two-birds-alone-together]

Hello hello! How is Bookshop 4 coming along? Any tidbits or plot bunnies you can share? 👀

You wanted a novel-length response, right? 🙃

The title is from "A Little Voice" by Sara Bareilles (absolutely SHOCKING, I know). I have no idea why I felt the need to word vomit about the title, but you can find some insight into it below the cut.

Let's see, tidbits or plot bunnies...

I wrote the last scene in February 2024 and the epilogue in July 2024.

I've been focusing on a few other stories lately, but Bookshop is always in the back of my mind. I've been toying with changing up the format a bit... we'll see if that happens or not

Here's a lil snippie... as you may be able to tell, this is unedited 🤣

The ringing phone jerks him awake, neck protesting against the way he’d fallen asleep with his chin on his chest.  He nearly tosses it across the room in the scramble to catch it. “Yeah, hey.” “Did I wake you, old man?”  Wherever Ellie is, there’s a lot of background noise.  She’s supposed to be at [person]’s house, and last he checked that’s exactly where she was. “‘Course you did, it’s…” Joel pulls the phone away from his face, frowning at the time.  “Girl, you better be callin’ from outside the door because you forgot your keys.” Static crackles over the line, like she’s covering the microphone, before Ellie says, “Look, I need you to be cool about something.” “Ellie—” “Like, really cool.  Like, cooler than you’ve ever been in your life.” “Jesus Christ,” Joel grumbles under his breath, already getting to his feet.  “Don’t tell me you got arrested.” “I didn’t get arrested,” Ellie responds dutifully.  “So, are you gonna be cool or do I need to call Tess?” He throws his head back, inhaling slowly through his nose as he shakes his head. “I’ll be cool until morning. Where are you?” “Uh…”  More muffled conversation, then, “The corner of [street] and [street] in [place].  I need you to come get us, and Jesse and Dina need to stay over.” This kid’s going to be the death of him.  “[Place]?  The hell you doin’ out there?  You’re supposed—” “You said you’d be cool,” Ellie interrupts.  “And you’re always on me about calling even if I do dumb shit and think you’re going to be mad, so you should be happy I’m fucking listening to you for once. Can you come get us?”

Previously shared snippies:

ellie & joel argue (1)

ellie & joel argue (2)

ellie & tess bonding

ellie hurts herself in gym class

Picture it: New Jersey, 2024.

I driving home from a famiy thing upstate and had my all-Sara-all-the-time playlist on. I've listened to it a ton, know all the songs, etc., but I find that driving generates so. many. ideas. It also gives me the opportunity to really internalize song lyrics, since it's me, the car, and my playlists.

So I'm sitting on the approach to the George Washington Bridge (where it goes from like 6 lanes to 3, because it's not a heavily traveled bridge or anything). Now, I am at a complete stop, have moved maybe 3 car lengths in 20 minutes, and basically sitting like Joel when Ellie isn't tired.

"A Little Voice" comes on. I'm half-daydreaming, half-listening, and I catch the lyric:

No amount of remembering the better things Will make the bad ones go away.

My brain goes: EllieEllieEllieEllie.

I immediately restart the song because I hadn't been paying enough attention to the lyrics.

Well, here's an accurate (if non-chronological) depiction of me in the car as I pay close attention to the song:

The acknowledgement that trauma remains with you, even after you've learned to accept it.

The finding a way to express yourself when words don't cut it.

The risk you take of putting it all out there.

The realization that part of you isn't there anymore.

It all positively screamed Bookshop 4.

Anyway, it took me another 2.5 hours to get home and I listened to that song and only that song the entire time.

dividers from pngtree

[ratgirlexe]

I guess I make things now, so I guess I’m also allowed to do a little year in retrospect thingy!

This last year is the year I started creating. On the first of February I decided to start trying to make video games, after playing Pseudoregalia. By valentines I had made my first game, a cute little CYOA game that I made for my girlfriend in preparation for a trip to see her. It was silly and cute and small and is the best thing I’ve ever made. I love that game.

Then, I made a little shmup game, mostly as a prototype for a much larger project that I’ve since put on hold until I have more coding experience. It was fun to put together, but it’s very much just a tester project. What’s most important is that it’s finished, and took me only 6 days! I’m proud of it just for that fact alone.

Fast forward a month and I met my lovely partner, who introduced me to Coquette Dragoon. After playing it I really wanted to create something for it because I loved the world and characters so much, so I actually wrote my first bit of fanfiction. It was messy and is still unfinished, but without that writing I never would have had the confidence to write anything for HDG, Or a truly story based game. I love Terra and the Pilot, and it’s a story I’ll probably keep coming back to off and on when I want to write a cute little girl having a really *really* bad time.

After that a lot of life stuff started getting in the way and I moved to much longer projects. Namely 3000 Cycles With You, an ongoing project that I’ll likely be working on well into this upcoming year, and a smattering of HDG fics, most notably Myosotis, and an unnamed and as-of-yet unpublished plushification fic set in the HDG universe. While I’ve definitely gotten a bit mired in these longer projects, it’s been amazing having these big projects to really sink my teeth into and explore. When I first started writing HDG I never could have imagined what Cin and Sepheri and the gang would have ended up meaning to me, and I’m so so so glad that I took the plunge to start writing longer form projects. Myosotis is the longest thing I’ve ever written, and while I definitely would have chosen to write some of it differently in hindsight, I’m proud of how it’s turning out, and I’m proud of myself for writing it.

As for 3000CWY, I cannot *wait* to get a playable demo into people’s hands. I love making video games so much, and while writing is my passion, I think game dev will always be the central hobby I keep coming back to.

Ultimately I’m really excited for where this upcoming year will take me, and I’m proud of where this last year has carried me creatively speaking. Even as it’s been a really tough year for me interpersonally (my current living situation has left me exceedingly isolated socially) it’s been the best year of my life for creating and having hobbies, and I’m proud of that fact.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who has supported me this last year, whether that’s liking my posts about HDG, or leaving nice comments on Myosotis, or giving me feedback about my games! I’m so grateful to have people who even care about the things I make, and without that feedback it would be a lot harder to stay motivated to create. I’m extra grateful for all my friends who have playtested and beta-read things for me, without which I think the things I’ve made would have a lot less flavour. I love you all. <3

[mallalada]

the voice of the devil

[nariarts]

Spent a ridiculous amount of time last night obsessively editing my hand written zines in Photoshop to take away any tiny blemishes so they were definitely readable.

Whatever. Understand or don't.

[triski73]

Kiddos hear EVERYTHING

[frownyalfred]

actually the idea that Dick, the eldest, the only one who ever wore the cowl long term, the only one who raised a Robin on his own, is also the only one who can successfully, perfectly replicate that barked ROBIN! in Bruce's voice? the only one who can pull that exact tone from the depths of his soul, to the point where his voice is identical, so identical that old Robins like Jason are obeying before their minds even realize their bodies are moving? that Dick is the only one, has always been the only one, who can channel Bruce's voice? can channel Batman himself? I am going feral

[justaboutsnapped]

If I see one more naive white queer speaking over actual Chinese queers people and proclaiming xiaohongshu/rednote or even China in general is somehow a fucking wonderland incapable of violent bigotry I’m gonna explode

1) a lot of the queer related tags have suddenly become usable again after the great migration

2) the #le tag for lesbians literally comes from the #lesbian and #les tags being banned so to act

3) the welcome you’re receiving by chinese people isn’t what actual Chinese queers have experienced (we experience a bombardment of loud angry homophobes/transphobes every single fucking day) and every single Chinese queer I know has been ranting about this for days. Unfortunately a lot of people are hypocrites who are only nice to the guests in the house

4) not only is this rhetoric of don’t ask don’t tell being the main consensus in China FALSE (I don’t even want to get into the media’s suppression of hate crimes and how many queer activism accounts are being banned left and right), passive queerphobia is still FUCKING QUEERPHOBIA…

The audacity to come into OUR HOUSE and speak over us after 3 days of being pampered on this app just for being western is vile and so fucking demoralising because we’ve been yelling about our condition for so long and you guys would rather not miss out on social media brainrot than to actually apply some nuance for once… you guys wanted to distance from the sinophobic propaganda take of China being unequivocally evil so bad that you’ve swung to the other end

[littlelightfish]

Funny things I found out playing with language setting in Netflix while looking episode 15:

Chilchuck's scream sounds HAUNTED in brazilian portuguese. Give it a try if you can.

(You can hear it here)

In spanish dub, Senshi says: "tocó mis senos de hombre", which means "he touched my man boobs" in Spanish. And I think that's the best dub line one so far.

[eastgaysian]

[bruciemilf]

It’s always “evil Superman!!!!” this, or “villain justice league!!!” that.

I want an AU of villain! Bruce who’s absolutely dog-shit at being evil.

Firstly: The worst thing he can think of doing is not donating to animal shelters or charities . immediately feels so guilty he throws up.

Secondly: The second a child cries because of him, he’d freeze up. Stand like a statue, unmoving and petrified. No more evil, but just today.

He ends up helping the city by accident more often than not, and to his immortal disappointment, Gotham loves both the Bat and Bruce Wayne.

“alfred come look at my evil plan”

“Yes, sir, “ Alfred is very indulgent. He does his best to pretend it’s actually good. “ ‘Don’t say please to the barista’. Getting bold, are we?”

EVERYTIME He and Clark meet and Bruce monologues about pulverizing him to dust, Clark (and the League) looks at him like this:

“I can make him worse,” GOOD FOR YOU!!! Clark can make him into his malewife and adopt his 7 evil sidekicks who actually know how to villain. Especially the little one.

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

"Why did I do that?"

close up

[two-birds-alone-together]

A very unorganized vibe-based pinterest board for bookshop 4: aldous tuxley's revenge

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

There's "committing to the bit" and then there's whatever the fuck Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster were doing on television every week from 2006-2014

[egophiliac]

GET LOVED, IDIOT

GET LOVED SO HARD YOUR KIDS HOLD HANDS AND POWER-OF-LOVE YOU BACK TO LIFE

sorry guys, this is just my brain now. this is going to be the only thing I think about for the next week at least.

oh and also this

FIVE YEARS IN AND IT'S FINALLY CANON 🎉🎉🎉

WE DID IT

[corviiids]

my top bit of advice going into the new year: compliment people. especially strangers. literally everyone you interact with if you can. when you buy coffee in the morning compliment the barista's tattoos. when you're chatting with a coworker tell them that by the way you like their outfit. always find something they've chosen to do on purpose. nail polish, jewellery, tattoos, hair colour/style, statement accessory, outfit, etc are all good bets. things people hope will be noticed. things that aren't too personal so it doesn't make them uncomfortable (eg probably not their physical features). i've gotten into the habit of scanning everyone i talk to for something about them that i think is cool so i can tell them. it's a great habit because it makes me notice people and realise just how many neat little details there are in people's presentation of themselves that might pass me by if i wasn't paying attention. and it brings out so much joy. you'd be surprised how much it disarms people to receive an unexpected compliment from someone they don't know. it is the most sincere smile you will see all day long. it feels nice to make people happy but it also means you win the social interaction. establish dominance by complimenting a stranger's earrings and disappearing into the fog

[prlssprfctn]

AU, where Bruce accidentally gets de-aged (physically and mentally), and the first person he bumps in is... Red Hood.

To Jason's defence, he didn't connect the dots at first. He was just patrolling around his usual turf, thinking of nothing in particular, when he saw a small child in a ridiculously serious suit, sulking around Crime Alley. He looks distraught, and considering that he looks rich, it is no surprise - that is not a place for him. So, he is either lost or something happened, right?

He takes the helmet off, as he usually does when he is dealing with kids (they got scared easily) and carefully approaches a brooding baby.

'Hey, shrimp. Where are your parents at?'

That said shrimp turns around, his big blue eyes looking confused and lost, and Jason thinks he looks awfully familiar.

'I am not shrimp,' he protests instantly, pouting at him. 'And they are somewhere... here. We just left the movie theatre together!'

Jason glances at the abandoned movie theatre, back at the little rich boy with a familiar frown, and it clicks. This is his fucking dad. Suddenly, a kid - but it is fucking Bruce Wayne, for sure.

'Was watching Zorro by any chance?' Jason still asks, just to be sure that he is not going insane.

Bruce - and it must be him - beams at him.

'Yes! This is a great movie, by the way.'

Oh, hell. At least, he didn't witness his parents' death just yet. Jason wasn't sure he would be able to deal with his father being so small, and mourning his mom and dad. He would probably cry himself at some point.

'Hey,' Jason calls out for him slowly, squatting down; God, who would've thought that this little shrimp would become so tall and big in the future. 'Aren't you... You must be Thomas's kid, right?'

Okay, yeah, Jason is going to lie to this kid. Because there is no way he manages just to steal Bruce as a stranger to bring him back home; it is still a kid, even if it is his father. Right?

'You know my dad?' Bruce tilts his head, little fingers tugging on the hem of his jacket; suspicious.

'You could say that,' Jason nods. 'Alfie... I mean, Alfred called me. Asked me to pick up a kid, since Thomas and Martha got an urgent call.'

Fuck his life and stupid life choices. What the hell he was even doing? He looked like a mugger; or like a psycho. But Alfred was his best bet - he could call him, after all; ask, well, support his idiotic made-up story.

'No one calls Alfred Alfie but my dad,' Bruce pouts in a very, very spoiled manner.

'Well... I do. We served together in the army,' he blurts out.

His armour, apparently, is enough a proof for the kid to nod slowly.

'Okay. But you gotta take off your strange mask first,' Bruce folds arms on his chest.

...???

Did this kid just agree for an unknown man to take him home? Like this? Who could've thought that this pouty child would become the most paranoid man alive in the future?

'Uh, why?'

'So I can remember your face and do an identikit, if you turn out to be a bad guy,' Bruce smirks stupidly. 'Duh.'

Jason is going to cry. This kid is so cute.

'Yeah, duh,' Jason huffs, but despite his better judgment takes the domino mask off as well. 'Go on, take your time. My identikit should be the prettiest, shrimp.'

Bruce... gawks at him. His eyes are comically wide now, mouth open, and then, he jumps a little closer to him - oh, God, he is jumping when excited? - putting his hellishly cold hands on Jason's cheeks.

'Woah. You look like dad.'

'Uh,' Jason nods awkwardly, and because he is an idiot, adds a joke: 'We are brothers, actually. Just don't talk much.'

...Apparently, little Bruce can't take jokes. Because he lets out an adorable gasp, and throws himself on Jason as if they knew each other for ages now.

'Uncle? That's so cool. You look like Zorro!'

Damn this little kid, and this stupid family. Damn Joe Chill and the night he killed this kid's parents. Damn it all. Bruce might be an asshole sometimes, but he was so... cute and innocent.

'Thanks, shrimp,' Jason slides a domino mask back on, picks up little Bruce with one arm, and grips a helmet with another. 'Come on, let's go home. Alfred will make your favourite tiramisu.'

'You know my favourites?!'

Jason sniffles.

'Yeah. Yeah, I do, kid.'

If he gets so emotional over this kid, he has no idea how worse Dick is going to be once he finds out.

Oh, this is going to be one hell of a night.