#also the book is over 600 pages

[cultivating-wildflowers]

a positive review for a booktok book:

“The Good: every single page was a plot point, the writer wasted no time on filler scenes. The Bad: this is the most formulaic book I’ve read in my life.”

[thisbrilliantsky]

u ever read a book that has cool ideas and compelling characters and the writing itself is decent but. there is just a total lack of actual storytelling skill. and it's 1000+ pages.

[orcelito]

Thinking about rereading Sentido before I reread ITNL

I peeked in the last chapter and I was like "damn ok this is actually kinda good"

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

Hi John, congratulations on the book! Feel free to ignore this dumb ask, but my partner and I have been debating over dinner about this - how long does it take you to sign 100,000 books?

It will take about 220 hours in total.

I can sign about 600 times an hour, but I need to take breaks for my elbow and shoulder at this point, which slows me down a little. It also takes some time to straighten and pack up all the pages and open new boxes and reach for more sheets and all that stuff.

220 hours is a long time, but also what the hell else am I going to do with my time? I like signing. I like the idea that a page I touched will be in your copy of the book. I know what signed books meant to me when I was younger. So it is a little way that I can hopefully make someone's book and reading experience more valuable. And hopefully it also shows gratitude to those who believe in my work enough to preorder something.

In short, it is not the worst way I've ever spent 220 hours. You can preorder a signed copy of Everything Is Tuberculosis wherever books are sold.

[bloodfiendarling]

𝓫𝓪𝓭 𝓽𝓮𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓪 𝓫𝓪𝓭 𝓼𝓽𝓾𝓭𝓮𝓷𝓽

pair — rich student!reader x lecturer!ratio

wc — ~600

contains — dom reader, sub character, cock can be seen as a strap, written with mtf reader in mind, porn with little plot, college au, blowjobs (reader receiving), teacher x student (both adults), blackmailing, dubcon, power imbalance, picture taking

i cant get him out of my head all week .. oh my god . i need a hot lecturer to suck me off bad .. euhg ... gomen ... ive been staring at pics of him .. and now i cant sleep because of him . ratiosama , youre so pretty .. please let me hit . pleas eplease please please plea

also ..! my short requests are back open as of posting this ..!!! :D feel free to hmu on my inbox >_<

you flip through the pages lazily, looking bored out of your mind. the book you were reading.. agh, how boring. you couldn’t understand why ratio found it so interesting. and ah — seems like you found the page he left himself off on.

“so,” you used your leg to push against your professor’s head, making him choke a little before adjusting. as soon as your leg relaxed ratio finally slipped your cock out of his mouth, coughing — you made sure he didn’t move an inch. “what’s so interesting about this book, anyway?”

he stayed quiet at the question. not a talker, huh?

well, you understood his reasons. he’s been failing you for so-called incompetence. purposely screwing you over just because he didn’t like you.. well — at least you managed to get him into his position. choking on your cock in your dorm of all places. maybe not having roommates was a good idea.

all because you had some suggestive pictures of him you got.. with your own ways. not like it mattered how. “sooo, ratio..” placing the book down beside you on the couch, you lean down and grab onto his face, forcing those reddish-pink eyes into a death glare. “you gonna improve my grades or what?”

he just looked at you with that same, pissed off face. the one you’d see whenever you passed him by the hallways. yeah, he really wasn’t a talker. hah.

you sighed, waving your phone at him — showing off those pictures again. you swore you saw his eye twitch. “you want me to spread this, or, like —”

you turned your phone around, adjusting it onto his face — making sure the position was clear as day. dr. veritas ratio, between someone’s, no, his student’s legs to take cock like a good boy. it was almost amusing.

“what are y—” he almost wanted to lash out. but he knew better — not only was his entire career in your hands with just a few pictures, but you had daddy’s influence. you could most definitely ruin his life even more. only blackmailing him was probably a relief with what you could be doing to him. “you gonna comply or not?”

he nods — rather reluctantly. it felt horrible to obey. he wanted to do at least something to somehow defend himself, but it’s not like he can. “so be a good boy, will you, veritas?” prying open his mouth with one hand, the other was tangled onto his dark, purple hair, positioning it better so he could suck you off.

“you pissed me off, you m’gonna make you do more, yeah?”

with those words, you forced him to bottom out on your cock. he choked and coughed — but god did his throat feel good. you could see those pretty eyes rolling back with his brows furrowed, both hands on your thighs to push himself off only for you to get rougher.

you guided his head, bobbing it up and down your dick. even if you could tell he was inexperienced with his mouth — damn it still felt nice. that soft tongue of his swirling around your cock, messily coating it with his saliva. after you’ve gotten a good pace on him, he started doing it on his own accord. it felt kinda nice to be forcing him down your length, but this is fine.

finally — he was able to spit out your cock — coughing again. “aghck– hnnng..♡” suddenly, he looked like he was the one trying to seduce you. looking up with those eyes, drool running down his chin with his tongue lolled out like a pathetic little doggy. you didn’t know — nor care, if it was intentional or not — you could not just pass this opportunity and not snap a pic. was this a prestigious lecturer or a slut? you almost couldn’t tell.

oh you’re sure you’ll be seeing him like this more often.

hsr masterlist ♥︎

[archivist-crow]

On this day:

VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT: MOST MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT IN THE WORLD

On August 19, 1666, the rector of Prague University sent a letter and a manuscript to one of his former students, the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. The manuscript had lain forgotten in the monastery library in Frascati, Italy, for 250 years. It was obtained by Wilfred Voynich in 1912 and went on to be dubbed "the Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World."

Christened the Voynich, the six-by-nine-inch parchment codex appears to be a straightforward book. It is, however, over two hundred pages written in a code or unknown language that has never been deciphered. The text is elaborately illustrated with colored drawings of unknown plants and the sun, moon, and stars. Depictions of tiny naked women also frolic over the pages.

First appearing in history in 1586, the book was purchased for a then-outrageous sum of 600 ducats by the Holy Roman emperor, Rudolf II of Bohemia. One of the most eccentric European monarchs of the era, Rudolf collected dwarfs, had a regiment of giants in his army, and entertained all manner of magicians and alchemists. It has been suggested that the Voynich manuscript is the work of Roger Bacon, a famous English monk and scientist, and that it made its way to Prague via John Dee, a famous occultist of the time.

From dating of the vellum, pigments, calligraphy, and drawings, the manuscript is judged to be from the late thirteenth century. It has been labeled as everything from an illustrated herbal, to an alchemical treatise written in code to protect the contents, to an elaborate hoax. Its contents are roughly thought to be divided into sections of astronomy/astrology, biology, cosmology, pharmaceuticals, and recipes. After Voynich's widow died, the manuscript was sold to a book dealer and then donated to Yale University.

Text from: Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored by Juanita Rose Violins, published by Weiser Books, 2009

[ms--lobotomy]

@angronsjewelbeetle (humbly offers this to you)

Summary: Magnus takes care of his sick (masc) lover.

Word Count: 600

Content Warnings: Sickness, idk this one's pretty fluffy as far as the war-criminals-in-space fandom goes

Image Credit: @squishyowl

It wasn't often that the betrothed of Magnus the Red got sick. With a touch of his hand, he could remove almost any illness that got in your way. This one was persistent, though, resistant to even the most powerful psykers the galaxy had to offer. Aches and pains dashed down your body. You shivered in the bed.

It was hard to ignore his looming presence besides you. He looked aloof as he paged through one of Lorgar's treatises, but his eye remained on you. You didn't even know if he was reading the darned thing, but you had neither the want nor the energy to confront him about it.

"Hm?" Magnus asked, turning one of the pages.

Your cheeks flushed warmer than they were. Something about the rumble of his voice put you at ease every time he uttered something. Even a grunt would make you feel all warm inside. The corners of his mouth turned up, and he put the book aside. You felt a hand snake towards your forehead, completely engulfing it.

"How are you feeling?" he asked. No matter how dire the situation, his voice always maintained a soft quality when around you.

"Urgh," you groaned in response. You turned over to face him.

Magnus chuckled at you, rubbing his cool hand along your forehead. "At a loss for words, my beloved?" he asked. "No matter. Tap the bed twice if it is okay for me to go inside your mind."

You tapped once, then hesitated. Usually this action was reserved for the most dire of situations, and were you really that sick? You weren't in danger of death, after all, this disease felt like more of a cold than anything. Magnus frowned.

"You don't have to, love," he said, his hand retracting from your forehead.

It was then that you tapped the bed, twice to confirm your decision. Magnus sat you up on the bed against the mountain of soft pillows he had personally requested for you and grabbed for both of your hands. You were kneeling now, your legs creating a w-shape behind you. The red of his skin was pronounced against your natural hue, and he ran his thumbs along your knuckles.

"Ready?" he asked.

You nodded, and his hands stopped moving. You felt him move past a sea of ow ow hurt pain to something a lot calmer, a lot quieter. You closed your eyes to see you two on Prospero together, holding hands as you watched the sun go down and saying nothing.

Prospero became the Imperial Palace. You were on a balcony, doing a little dance together before you were listening to one of the remembrancers play and sing an ancient instrument. Different little moments flashed through your mind, moments that had both happened and were yet to happen with him before finally you saw yourself in a suit, walking down the aisle to join him in marriage once and for all.

You could feel yourself falling into him, his twin heartbeats steady against your ear.

"Magnus," you said softly, your hand leaving his to settle on his chest. In the real world, you had also fallen onto him, running your hand up and down the soft fabric of his shirt.

"Yes?" he replied, grabbing your waist and rubbing his thumb over your belly.

"Can we stay like this for a while?" you asked. "Feels... nice."

"Do not worry," he replied, his eye closing while he pulled you in. "I have you here and now, and I will have you forever. And this will be over soon, I promise you."

Taglist: @bispecsual @justeverythingnothingelse @bleedingichorhearts @nekotaetae @historitor-bookshelf

[takamimami]

takamimami Celebrates 100 Followers!!

EVENT CLOSED: RULES AND PROMPTS UNDER CUT (event end Oct 11th)

What better way to celebrate a milestone than with these three goofballs?!

Seriously though, I want to thank everyone who has liked, followed, reblogged, and interacted with any of my works I've posted on this blog. Let me start off by actually introducing myself:

Hi! My name is Tia/Angel/Princess/any pet name you want to call me :3 - I am a 27-year-old loser who shamelessly obsesses over people I will never meet. I pride myself in trying to be an open book, so I am always open to chatting about anything from anime, video games, music, books - but I need to come with my own CW because I am unhinged 87% of the time (srynotsry). I once saw this post that said something like 'Create pieces that you are the target audience for' and that is 100% my motto when it comes to writing, so the fact that anyone enjoys what I create is amazing bc it means I'm not as crazy or alone as I once thought I was <3 (ew that was oddly sappy). This blog is technically a side blog where I post my writings, so if you really wanna be friends, consider following/interacting with me on my main page @limitlesstildil

EVENT RULES UNDER THE CUT - PLEASE CONSIDER LIKING/REBLOGGING THIS POST TO SPREAD THE LOVE :3

Supernova Captains 100 Follower Event:

RULES:

The rules are pretty easy: submit an ask here and choose a prompt from the lists below, and then let me know which of our lovely captains you want me to write about for you!! ALL WILL BE WRITTEN AS X READER FICS - SO PLEASE SPECIFY IF YOU PREFER F!READER, M!READER, OR G/N!READER!!

Be mindful of what prompt you are choosing - Smut prompts will be NSFW - Fluff Prompts will be SFW - and Angst will be SFW unless you request otherwise :3 NOTE: you can select choose for me to write a prompt for all three captains, but the blurbs will be smaller (5-600 words each) than if you just choose one of them. Single character pieces will be roughly 1.5k words - give or take (and also depending on my self control :3) ALSO: please feel free to include any ideas/pet names/headcanons you would like me to include/lean into - I want to personalize them for whoever is asking as much as possible so do not hold back when it comes to letting me know what you're in the mood for :3 HAPPY REQUESTING <3

PROMPT LIST:

SMUT 🔞

“Don’t act innocent when we both know where your mouth was two minutes ago.”

“We should probably leave, before we start a scandal.”

“My tongue still remembers the way you taste.”

“Jealousy seems to be a great motivator for you.”

“I could make you feel better.”

“I know I should care about the reason why you’re naked in my bed, but I will just enjoy it for a moment.”

“Your hand feels so much better than mine.”

“Your moans will wake everyone up and I’m oddly fine with that.”

“Your eyes are already saying yes, now I just need your mouth to tell me the same.”

“How about we get really dirty before we shower, so that it’s actually worth the effort?”

“Oh, you’re such a tease!”

“Hmm, is that a threat or a promise?”

“I want to ruin you.”

Our bodies fit so well together.”

“Make me shut up then.”

FLUFF🍬

“How come you always end up under my blanket?”

“Have I told you I love you today?”

“I would like my good morning kiss now.”

“You getting so flustered is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.”

“I think I know what that smile means.”

“You give the best hugs.”

“You’re enough for me.”

“Wait, we have a few more minutes.”

“You’re just the cutest.” “You’re the only one who is allowed to say that.”

“Do you think they will like it?”

“Sweet of you to think of me.” “I always think of you.”

“You make me a better person.”

“Everything alright?” “I just missed you.”

“I wouldn’t want to be here with anyone else.”

“Come on. Let’s go home.”

ANGST🥀

“I shouldn’t have left.”

"Please don't talk about yourself like that."

“No, this can’t be real!”

“We tried our best.”

“Please, let me in.”

“Can’t you understand why that hurts me?”

“I asked you not do this, but you did it anyway.”

“Don’t touch me!”

“I’ve always been alone.”

“It hurts, but I’ll live.”

“Please, tell me you're ok.”

“Sleep doesn’t come that easy without you.”

“I don’t really care anymore.”

“No, I’m actually not ok.”

“You just can’t help it, can you?”

[helenstudies]

I've seen a lot of "gifted kid burnout" posts and also a few "where do we go to post studyblr stuff when we're bad students and don't get good grades" so I'm here to talk about my own experience of "I've never been a gifted kid and I've never been a good student".

I'm not a gifted kid. In fact, there was no "gifted kid" system in my country at all. And instead of multiple choice questions or true or false questions, we had to memorize pages and pages of our textbook and write them down during three hour exams. You can't get "a" and "the" wrong or you lose points, that's how much memorization we had to do. We didn't get electives until our last two years of high school and the electives were "biology or economics?" Yeah, those were the only two. Even at my university, I didn't get to choose my own electives. Everything came in a neat little box that you can never escape. And we never, EVER get full marks in Burmese or English. 80 out of 100 is considered phenomenal and no one's ever gotten more than 82 in either subject. So our matriculation exam's full mark is 600 but the most you can get is 550.

Suffice to say, the education system sucked and I don't like memorization so my grades were 50% at most. I failed my math and physic classes with 28 marks out of 100 for a whole two years, only barely passing on midterms and end of year exams. For my matriculation exam I got 340 out of 600, which is SUBPAR. That's 2.0 GPA btw. I never thought of myself as educated or a good student and I still don't.

But I love languages and I realize that while languages seem hard to learn and have strict rules, they actually don't. You can move them around and learn them however you like. So as an avid reader, I started learning languages so that I will be able to read books in those languages and I found studying liberating. Why not? I'm no longer memorizing 600 pages of text book and writing them down.

I realize that I love learning and studying when I get to choose what I learn. So I stopped caring about grades and started learning things that I love. Hey, do you know what's the biggest side effect of learning things that you love and not caring about grades? It's that you actually start to learn and your grades start to come up. I realize I perform badly when I am stressing out about my grades. This is why you're seeing all my 100% grade and 80% grade all over my walls. It's not because I'm a good student. It's because I've let go of the notion that I HAVE to be a good student.

I can talk about my bad grades as freely as I can talk about my good grades. I can tell you that I've been learning Japanese for ten seven years and I'm only JLPT N3 level. Honestly, you know what? As a generation, we're due to appreciate our process and progress instead of our achievements. It's fine if you're a bad student. It's fine if you are a gifted kid who fell off the wagon. It's fine if you've never been a gifted kid or a bad student. What matters is you're here studying and learning and appreciating yourself for doing all that.

So post your good grades, post your bad grades. Post your good stuff and bad stuff and messy notes. Post about your good days and your bad days. Talk about your productive days and talk about your rest days. Keep going and keep learning!

[unbizzarre]

Barrayaran Uniforms

My laptop’s still broken so it’s been a messing-around-with-gouache-paint weekend! I always draw too small so doing the deatails on this one was rough! 😫

Modern imperial dress greens on the left, and an attempt at vorkosigan house livery on the right (I don’t love how the vorkosigan house one turned out so I’m probably gonna rework it some more before adding anything to the ol’ headcannon)

NOTES ON IMPERIAL DRESS GREENS

-book mentions stiff high uncomfortable collars, forest green color, riding boots and side piping. There should also be two ceremonial swords but I got lazy

- I wanted to put an emphasis on embroidery and hand details in barrayaran fashion in general so I picked side piping a little more intricate and ornate than just a simple stripe

- originally I was put piping across the front like in the reference, but it got too busy and I wanted the chest to be a little simpler that way medals and other stuff would stand out better against the fabric. Plus having fewer fiddly bits helps it feel more sleek and less out of place in space.

Reference photos:

UNIFORM OVER TIME

- Barrayar as a setting has had to basically speedrun 600 years of fashion history as they make the leap from midieval to space-age in a single generation. In order to show the shift in eras I made a little timeline(ish) of the general changes in the uniform silhouette.

- biggest change in the general silhouette is the gradual shortening of the coat/shirt element from calf lengths tabards to thigh length coats to to waist height jackets

- armor and chainmail fall by the wayside, and guns are picked up. Early occupation uniforms eclectic and a hodgepodge of old midieval weaponry + stolen cetegandan ordenance. They are not uniform at all as the barrayaran military is mostly small gorilla outfits with each fighting force cobbled together from the resources at hand. New Uniformity would come with the return of central government and the implementation of infrastructure for mass production. The uniform would probably stay relatively consistant during the conquest of komarr through the pretendership. Another major shift in in uniform style would probably occur during the regency or Gregor’s coronation in reflection of the successful regime change and the continued push towards a more modern barrayar

Here’s some rough outlines:

Reference Collages from photocopies of a fashion history book I picked up from the library a while back. Don’t remember the title. Will edit post when I do Left is Russia (not sure which century). Right is references for occupation fighters pulled from various pages, time periods, and nationalities (Russia, Mongolia, Crete and turkey maybe? Idk) I wrote all the page numbers down on the collage but I returned the book so now they’re useless.

Thanks for reading!

[cultivating-wildflowers]

2024 Reading - February

I set a goal for February's reading: read printed books. Audiobooks are great and I'll never bash them as a whole, but I've found (no surprise) that reading such a high percentage of books via audio has left me with next to no attention span for printed books. They've honestly been a trial to get through, even when the story is engaging.

I didn't expect to read many books this month...so at least I was correct there. We'll blame the head cold, because I know it wasn't down to a lack of access to good books.

Maybe I'll try this again in future. Maybe not.

Total books: 2  |  New reads: 2   |   2024 TBR completed: 1 (1 DNF) / 4/36 total   |   2024 Reading Goal: 7/100

January | March

potential reading list from Feb 1st

#1 - Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett - 4/5 stars

Since the first book in this series absolutely blew me away, giving the second installment a lower rating feels a bit harsh, but I have my reasons! Namely: how Fawcett writes action-heavy scenes kind of confuses me. I get lost very quickly and somehow the tone never matches the event. I know this is meant to be a journal written by a meticulous, somewhat emotionally detached scholar, but even so. It's just odd.

Apart from that, and disregarding how very long it took me to get through this book, I loved it. She might lose me in the action sequences, but Fawcett can write amazing characters. Also the fauns? Heckin' creepy.

Now I have to wait a year for the next part. Whine, whine, whine.

More like this: I maintain that this most reminds me of Howl's Moving Castle but for some reason I was also thinking of Sabriel as I read it? Make of that what you will.

#2 - The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis - 4/5 stars

This wasn't as remarkable to me as most of Lewis's other works that I've read. I do love his conversational format and how open he always is about working these things out himself, but parts of this fell flat to me. On the other hand, I was highlighting a lot of stuff and nodding along thoughtfully. I'll definitely need to revisit this one.

DNF

The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton ('24 TBR) - It’s a no from me, kids. I skimmed more than anything but what excerpts I did read felt contrived and were full of bias and digging between the lines for material. I'm not convinced the biographer actually read Mind of the Maker, let alone the rest of Sayers's essays.

Currently Reading:

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik ('24 TBR)

[germanpostwarmodern]

As one of Italy’s most significant architects and designers Gio Ponti (1891-1979) deserved nothing less than the present behemoth of a monograph: comprising roughly 600 pages, weighing in at about 6 kilos and published by the one publisher notorious for its heavyweight books Taschen, it is the most massive display of Ponti’s ingenious creativity. The book contains a chronological catalogue of 136 works, ranging from his early houses over the foundation of Domus magazine and first design works to his late churches and the Denver Art Museum. Each project is documented in comprehensive photo spreads, drawings and plans that not only transport very plastic spatial impressions but are also crisply reproduced feasts for the eye emanating from the Ponti archives. In between the projects a number of essays address various aspects of Gio Ponti’s career, e.g. his design philosophy, his criticism of industrial design or the unique climate of 1950s Milan. They provide additional and necessary context to Ponti’s overabundant creativity and also trace the origins of his approach towards architecture, design, lifestyle and spatial experience, an approach best described as a Gesamtkunstwerk or total work of art.

The latter is also what continues to resound from reading and browsing the book: Gio Ponti ingeniously combined and adjusted all aspects of a building, an interior or just a room to make it an experience of joy and beauty that also exerts a playfulness rather rare in the history of modern architecture. The present volume surely isn’t the most handy book about Gio Ponti but undoubtedly the most beautiful and visually stunning monograph ever published about him. Hoping for a downsized edition in the near future...

[it-happened-one-fic]

Congrats on your milestone! I'll put in a request. I chose Twisted Wonderland, a courtly drama and a tome falling apart to reveal its yellowing pages.

Good luck on your writing and I'll see you at your next milestone!

Thank you so much for the congratulations! I was so excited to see your name pop up in my inbox! It’s always so lovely to see anything about you in my notifications and to read your comments. I ended up writing this fic while listening to “For the Love of a Princess” from the Braveheart OST and, fair warning, I played a bit with accents which might be one of the reasons this fic ended up quite so long. I hope you enjoy your tale!

600 Followers Event!

Underneath the Highland Moon - Silver

Type: Gender Neutral reader/ Fluff/ romance implied/ 600 follower event/ courtly drama & A tome whose binding is slowly unraveling as the cover attempts to fall away and reveal the yellowed pages beyond/ isekai

Word Count: 3419

I was barely able to react as the light flashed up brilliantly from all around. Blinding me as I dropped the weighty book from my hands in favor of shielding my eyes.

Distantly, I remembered Trein saying something about how books could be enchanted, and I almost cursed myself for being quite so foolish. To be fair, though, thus far all of the books I’d encountered in Twisted Wonderland had just been normal books.

But if the flash of light hadn’t been enough evidence of the less than average nature of this book, then the sinking feeling followed by utter darkness was.

And when I opened my eyes, I was no longer in NRC’s library.

Instead, I was lying in a plush, four-poster bed that had curtains hanging all around it. And was utterly covered in thick quilts with spiraling celtic patterns.

I blinked, immediately frowning as I sat up, sending rich fabrics everywhere with my motions as I heard a woman’s voice speak from beyond the curtains in a thick, undoubtedly Scottish accent, “Ma liege?”

I reached over, pulling back a curtain, only to find myself peering out at a young woman who was quite obviously dressed as a maid, with her plain dark dress and white apron decorated lightly with pale green embroidery in the corners. 

I stared at her, my eyes widening as she smiled sweetly back at me, “Ah, good. Yer up. Today is th‘day th’knight sent by th’royal family is coming.”

“The knight?” I faintly echoed her words as my eyes darted around the lavishly decorated but wholly unfamiliar room.

But, somehow, in some way, I knew exactly where I was.

This was my room. But it was also the room of the oldest child of a noble family connected to an ancient clan. And that person’s memories were wholly unfamiliar, but also bouncing around in the back of my head like a poorly buffered last-episode recap.

“Aye, ye know, th’wan th’royal family ha’ sent to keep ye safe? Come noo, ye must finish waking up so we can get ye ready! Ye’ll want to look yer best with yer history wi’ him after all!”

I was tugged out of the massive bed, stumbling to my feet as the maid pulled me along and sat me down, chattering away all the while as if all was as it should be, “ ‘At Duke is also coming today. I bet e’ll be right surprised to see a knight here to keep ye safe! It’ll probably ruin whatever schemes he’s cooking up in ‘at nasty old head of his.”

Slowly, the pieces began to fall into place as I dimly recalled more of Trein’s words from class: “For a period, there was an entire genre of enchanted books that were particularly popular simply because they allowed readers to live out and experience stories in real time. The book would pull you and perhaps a companion, if they were close enough, into the story itself and assign roles.”

I all but grimaced as memories came flooding back of the ancient-looking, painfully large tome of a book whose binding had been slowly unraveling when  I’d picked it up simply to snicker at its title while also wondering how such a book had ended up in a school library of all places.

‘Underneath the Highland Moon.’ It had doubtlessly been a romance of the particularly tropey variety.

It made sense for it to be at the school if it were a magical book, though. It was probably something that had been purchased for some form of test or experiment.

But now, through pure chance, or perhaps bad luck, I’d found myself transported into yet another world. But this time it was one within a book where I was apparently filling the role of a landed noble whom the royal family wanted to keep safe for inexplicable reasons that probably had some form of plot relevance.

And, if I had to make a guess, this knight was probably supposed to be my character’s love interest. A thought that had me grimacing.

But I had greater concerns to deal with beyond the appearance of a love interest. Namely, how I was going to get out of this book.

I hadn’t questioned Professor Trein about the specifics of the enchanted books, but if I recalled correctly, there was something to do with the plot of the story. Like it had to be completed, interrupted, or something along those lines.

“Ye just aren’t yerself this morning. Are ye feeling weel?” I blinked, snapping myself back into the moment as I glanced at the maid, who was eyeing me worriedly.

Now that I really looked at her, she might actually be the main character of this story. She certainly could fit the part with her sweet face, but with the amount of backstory that was flitting around in my mind and clogging my thoughts, the character I was subbing for had to be important.

Either way, though, I could tell the maid was genuinely worried, and if these character’s memories were anything to go by, we were close.

I shook my head, pasting on a reassuring smile, “I’m just distracted…. Why do you suppose the royal family has sent us a knight anyway? I would think they would want to keep all of their people closer than that…”

I trailed off, hoping to glean more information about the plot of the story I was in.

The maid smiled, almost sympathetically as she nodded, “Thought ‘at might be on yer mind.”

She sat down next to me, her hands taking one of mine into hers as she twisted to face me, “What with ye being the last member of yer clan and wan of the few nobles to hev come from a clan, Yer important to this country. I’ll bet that the royal family recognizes ‘at.”

I blinked at her words, that so perfectly matched my backstory information but also sounded disappointingly like the backstory of a main character.

Her gaze swiftly turned frigid though, and I felt myself tensing before she continued in a far colder tone than before, “But ‘at’s also why so many are after ye. For the power ye hold.”

She shook her head before straightening in a huff, “Lek ‘at Duke. But he won’t be able to do anything. No’ with ye having a knight of yer very own.”

Her tone was so final that I barely had any words. Especially not after the lengthy exposition she’d just given me about my entire situation in this book.

And I stayed silent for most of the rest of the time she bustled around, adjusting my clothes and cooing reassurances that all would be well now that the knight was coming and that I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

By the time I finally escaped what had felt like dressing room hell I was both up to date on my situation and exasperated with the plot of this book.

Evidently enough, I was supposed to be a shrinking violet who’d already been kidnapped once and held for ransom.

For reasons unknown, the royal family had, inexplicably, taken action and had been rescued before declaring that the situation was far-too risky to be left as it was and that they were going to send a knight to guard me.

Even as I went down the massive flight of stairs with my maid by my side she continued to coo over my apparent rescuer from that time, “I do hope this knight will be th’same wan who rescued ye. He was so... so…”

I smiled, cutting in before she could utter the word dreamy once more, “Yes, I also think it will be reassuring if it’s the same man.”

She giggled at my words, shaking her head and adjusting her plaid shawl in a manner that almost had me arching an eyebrow at her.

“Ye were quite taken wi’ him, weren’t ye? I dae no’ blame ye, o’ course. He did rescue ye after all,” She was all but beaming at me as I kept the same polite smile on my face.

Oh yes. This knight was definitely going to be the romantic lead of this plot. 

If I were lucky this wouldn’t end up with a love triangle situation. I wasn’t sure if I could handle that along with trying to figure out a way out of this book.

Especially considering my current run of getting out of worlds that I'd randomly been sent too.

Not that I could say that I regretted my time in Twisted Wonderland. I’d grown quite close to the people there. Like Silver, who’d been in the library with me when I’d been sent here.

Everything seemed to come screeching to a halt as I recalled the young man who’d fallen asleep after helping me carry books into the library. 

I’d been about to wake him to show him the book I’d found to see if he’d had any idea as to why such a book would be in the school library when I’d opened the tome and ended up here.

“Ma liege!” I blinked at my maid’s voice, briefly searching the room only to find that she’d moved on ahead of me to peer out the window.

Her eyes were bright as she pointed out the window, bouncing up and down on her toes in a way that had me frowning as I walked towards her.

“It’s him! It’s him! Th’knight who saved ye!” Her voice was pitched higher than it had been in excitement and I hummed. Leaning over to peer out the window and see who this love interest of mine was going to be only to go still. My eyes widening as I look at the knight who came riding up the rocky path on a magnificent, glossy black stead. A perfect opposite to his pale beauty.

I dashed to the side, my hands flying to the door handle as I yanked it open and I rushed out onto the porch right as he reigned the horse to stop.

I could hear my maid behind me shouting my name in surprise, but my eyes stayed on him as his gaze slowly lifted to meet mine.

“Silver,” I barely even whispered his name as I stared at him, neither of us moving as the wind blew. Causing leaves to dance through the air as it toyed with his hair.

And it really was a perfect scene from a historical romance and he dismounted and took only two steps towards me in utter silence before kneeling. One knee hitting the earth as he looked up at me, “I have come to guard and protect you, Y/n.”

I faltered before blinking myself to reality and nodding, “Please, get up. There’s no need for you to kneel like that.”

As I spoke I came off the porch, bending and taking his hands in mine before I straightened. Pulling him up with me and twisting to look back at my maid, “Could you prepare us something to drink?”

It was the first thing I could think of to ask her to do that would send her away and give me some time to confer with Silver.

If I was lucky he would know a way for us to get out of this book since the best I’d come up with so far was to finish the story, which would be difficult considering I had no idea what the plot might be.

Stories like this could get tangled up in their own drama so quickly that it was difficult to predict where this tale might lead us if we were going to have to follow it all the way to its end.

My maid curtseyed before zipping off into the house, and I could hear her giggling all the way. The sound of it making me sigh slightly as I turned to look back at Silver.

His horse was already being led off by a man whom I could only assume was a stablehand.

“Any idea what’s going on?” I questioned him, hopefully only to feel my hopes flag as he shook his head. Utterly calm despite the situation we were in.

“Only that we’re in an enchanted book,” He paused, tilting his head slightly, before he continued, “Do you know anything about the plot we’re in?”

I sighed, turning and heading back into my house, which I now noticed was quite large. In fact, it was probably better to say that I was living on an estate more than anything.

“My character is some sort of noble lady that your character apparently rescued by order of the royal family,” I started in a surprisingly weary tone, but it already felt like it had been a long day even though I’d only just woke up.

“Yes, you’d been kidnapped and were being held for ransom. My character saved yours and brought you back home,” Silver clarified, and I nodded. His story matched the backstory I had received upon waking almost perfectly.

I could only assume he’d also received a backstory for his character.

“And now the royal family has sent you to guard me because of something to do with my character being the ‘last member of my clan and one of the few nobles to have come from a clan.’” I quoted my maid directly as I slipped into what was the sitting room.

“You’re also distantly related to the royal family, which means a lot of people are after you for your position, power that comes from your family line, and relation to the royals,” Silver again clarified, but this time his words had me turning to look at him with a slight frown.

So my character was related to the royals? That was something I hadn’t realized, but it was also something that rang true with my character’s backstory that seemed to be continually updating itself in my head.

I sat down quietly and watched as he did the same across from me before I continued, “Just based on our current backstories and the title of this book, I suspect this is a dramatic romance. Probably of the variety that deals with court drama since I’m related to the royal family.”

Silver nodded, his gaze turning thoughtful as he blinked, his eyes growing steadily more hazy in a way that told me he was about to drift off.

“Do you know anything else about your character?” I questioned him again, my words snapping him back awake and causing him to nod as he focused.

“Yes, I volunteered to come and protect you on the basis of having already rescued you once,” I felt my eyebrows lift at his words and met his gaze directly.

“If this is a romance, then do you think you’re….” 

I trailed off, not quite able to finish only for him to finish for me with a nod of his head, “The love interest? If Father’s stories are anything to go by, then yes.”

I wrinkled my nose slightly and looked at him in confusion, “Your father reads romance novels?”

Silver shrugged slightly but remained silent, and mere moments later, my maid entered the space with tea.

Her gaze flickered between me and Silver, and she barely hid her smile as she bustled about, already beginning to question Silver as she looked towards him, “Do ye think ye’ll be able to-”

She was cut off by Silver darting across the room and tackling me to the side right as the window broke, causing my maid to shriek as I grabbed a hold of Silver in alarm and a startled sound squeaked out of me.

I stared in alarm over his shoulder as he slowly leaned back to glare out the window, but my eyes were on the arrow sticking out of the couch cushion where I’d just been sitting.

“Ma liege, are ye alright?!” I continued to stare wide-eyed at the arrow as my maid rushed to my side, grasping my arm before she leaned over before hugging me tightly. 

Instinctively, my arms curled around her, almost as if to reassure myself as I dragged my stare away from the arrow.

But in no way had I been prepared for such an attack. At the very least, I hadn’t been expecting for this book to be that sort of drama.

After another brief moment, Silver turned and yanked the arrow harshly out of the seat and frowned at it before his gaze lifted to meet mine.

Evidently, this story was going to be a little bit more action-packed than I’d initially expected.

Despite her genuine sweetness, it was honestly a relief when my maid finally left us once more after we all relocated to another room. This time one with no windows.

I glanced over at where Silver stood by the doorway with his arms crossed. Almost like he was ready to leap into action at a moment's notice.

And I couldn’t blame him; after all, I was still startled by what had just happened, though a numbness had now set in that kept me from panicking.

I started in a quiet voice, “The only two things I can figure out to get us out of this book are to either finish the story or to run its plot so off the rails that the book kicks us out.”

Silver nodded, his gaze shifting as he obviously considered my words and met my gaze, “Which option do you think is better?”

I shifted, leaning against the table in front of me as I frowned thoughtfully, “Finishing the plot could be risky if there are more action scenes like what just happened, plus we don’t know where the story is going….”

I trailed off, glancing his way and setting back in my chair as I started to nervously toy with my fingers, “Throwing the story of its rails might be a bit easier…. Especially if this is a romantic courtly drama.”

He nodded, “What do you want to do?”

I faltered slightly when he put the decision in my hands, but then I straightened. Steeling myself even as I made my decision, “If we shove our two characters into a relationship earlier than expected, then that will probably do.”

I stood, glancing at him and waiting for a sign of refusal, but he didn’t move. His expression was as stoic as ever, and I inhaled and called for my maid.

She came rushing in hurriedly, her face slightly flushed as she looked at me half-expectantly and half-worriedly. I couldn’t blame her, though; there had just been an attempt on my life.

My gaze flitted over to Silver as I balked, wondering exactly how he’d react but suspecting this would be the best and easiest way to derail the plot.

I squared my shoulders and looked back at my maid, “Please send out letters announcing my wedding to everyone of any importance.”

She stared at me like I’d lost my mind, looking around in an obviously lost fashion, as I did my very best not to look at Silver even as I felt myself warming from embarrassment.

“Yer wedding, ma liege?” She even sounded lost when she spoke, but I nodded firmly. Praying this would work and not land me in an even more awkward situation than filling the role of an utterly foreign character.

I couldn’t help but let my gaze flicker over to Silver in an apologetic fashion, and I could see in his eyes that he already knew where I was taking this as he straightened right as I spoke, “Yes. My wedding to Sir Silver.”

I’d barely even finished speaking before light flashed forth, utterly blinding me and blotting out the entire room before everything went black.

I opened my eyes hazily to find myself sprawled on the floor of the NRC library with a book on my lap.

Silver was sitting up from where he’d been at a table, his gaze resting weightily on me in a way that had me looking down at the book and away from him to avoid any further embarrassment.

And there it was, resting as innocently as could be on my lap, “Underneath the Highland Moon.”

And me and Silver hadn’t even made it to the moonlight hours before I was declaring our wedding.

I could only hope that I would make it through the rest of the day without dying from sheer embarrassment.

[feathernotes]

Hello! My name is Krispy, and I’m the co-creator of the webcomic Ghost Junk Sickness (along with @spacerocketbunny​) It's story time!

GJS is a webcomic published by Hiveworks and features two bounty hunters with an unstable dynamic who are pushed to pursue the deadly bounty dubbed the Ghost The current iteration of GJS is about 9 years old (and wrapping up next year!) It’s been an incredible journey full of ups and downs. We’ve learned SO MUCH creating this comic, and I wanted to share some of it’s origins with you all in hopes of inspiring more folks to take chances, make mistakes, and get messy- and make that comic!

The origin of Ghost Junk Sickness came from our love for Magic Knight Rayearth and Final Fantasy 7. Vahn, the protagonist of GJS, was basically a mash up of Hikaru and Cloud from those two series. The very first version of this story has unfortunately been destroyed, and this map is the only piece I have left of that world. Character art still exists though, and it was pretty funny to see how obvious we were with our inspirations at the time.

The original attempt at the story was called Crew, and my sister Space and I worked on it in 2002-2004. We sort of got lost in our own ideas after that, and weren’t as focus on making the comic (now lost). A few years later, I decided to try my hand at it and it looked like this:

This was all done on low quality paper, whichever I could find at the time and some pencil crayons. This attempt was over 600 pages long and had a pretty random story plot, much like the first version. I could not tell you what it was about haha 😅

My second attempt (then called Divine Ace) I wanted to look more 'traditional manga' and kept with just inks and tried my darndest to tone on the computer (it never worked out). This one lasted over 400 pages, and was more allinged with my liking to edgy action anime and games at the time. It was also Trigger's first appearance!

After experimenting and eventually wanting to change- I started to work with Space again, and we collaborated in full on our first fancomic for TF2 called "Be Efficient, Be Polite." It was a good lesson on how we could coordinate our shared skill sets and plan out who did what as far as the whole process of comics go.

All of these comics (save for the very first lost version) were hosted on DA the day we got our hands on a scanner. It was our first taste on being 'webcomic creators' back in the day, and it was very fun! We didn't much care for readers, only the process of completion at the time, so a page done was always a victory worthy to be celebrated (and back then, we had more time to make pages!)

And so, as the years went by and we decided to move on from our fandom roots, Space and I went back to the Crew/Divine Ace project and redesigned and overhauled the entirety of it. (You can see the full evolution here) We wanted to re-asses what the story, comic, and characters meant to us, and how we could convey some pretty important ideas and concepts to our potential readers. From that, Ghost Junk Sickness was born, and began pre-production in 2013.

Years after, we find ourselves reflecting on how much we've learned from the process of going ahead and diving in head first. There were certainly many iterations and years it took to get where we are today, but realising that it all began that day Space and I decided to scribble some pretty mediocire comics in our homework books and papers. Because that is the beauty of comics- The many skill sets, the hats, and challenges that come along with creating them. And how much we've become better at so many things along the way. So if you read this and feel nervous about diving head first into your first comic, I'm here to re-assure you that things will feel tough, but exciting. Things will feel really hard but amazing when you're getting your story out in front of you with such an incredible medium. Webcomics will always be my favourite because of how accessible it is to any skill set. And know in your heart of hearts that there ARE people out that that LOVE to see growth, they love to see the progression of your journey. So get out there and start creating that comic that's occupied your brain for so long, and start breathing that life into your OCs and your world. The only way is up with webcomics, and the only way to start is just by creating now.

[monstrousproductions]

Impromptu book club! I want to know what yous have been reading this week 💕 For me, my week's looked a bit like this...

Currently Reading:

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton (audiobook performed by Katharine Chin and John Pirhalla) and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. I usually have a few more on the go so will start something else soon, too. I've got a Wob order coming on Monday so plenty to get my teeth into!

Recently finished:

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - had an absolute blast with this, and knew I was going to from the moment I picked it up and saw 600+ pages of tiny font with barely any margins and a map at the front. Bread and butter fantasy, relentlessly straight, white and male, but enormously good fun all the same.

Wool by Hugh Howey (audiobook performed by Susannah Harker) - far too long for the amount of story and some very ropey prose in parts. Sniffed around some interesting ideas but never really committed to any of them. Also no harm to Susannah Harker, who I know rightly can act and who has a lovely voice (she played Jane in the 1995 Pride & Prejudice!) but she is also very much an English person inexplicably cast to read a novel set in America, where every character is American. No, she cannot really do an American accent. No, that does not stop her from trying. Relentlessly.

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff - picked this up at the library on a whim, knowing nothing about it. A servant girl escapes her colonial settlement in the 1600s and sets off into the wilderness alone, carrying her god with her in her heart. Beautiful writing in parts, insufferable writing in other parts - at one point she describes "seabirds with the bigness of pigeons" which had me rolling my eyes. But the beautiful parts are the majority, and I was left turning the story over in my head for days after finishing.

Binned Off:

Whalefall by Daniel Krauss - another library pick, morbidly overwritten, put down after just a few pages.

What about yous lot? Tell me everything 🍿🍿

[confuselibrarian]

Haunting Adeline is bad.

It only gained hype because of the controversial themes because the construction is crap. A poorly written book with shameful dialog and characters shallower than the drain in my sink. The book makes an effort to be profound, showing how cruel and dark the world is, but in the end it tries so hard that it's more like those One Direction fics kidnapping Y/N. Adeline herself as the protagonist seems to have come straight out of a Wattpad self insert. It's also unnecessarily long. There's no justification for this story being 600 pages long, let alone a sequel. If you take away all the unnacessary bullshit, the whole duology could fit into a single book.

Such a long book, but it still fails to introduce us to the basic concepts of the characters. So many things are poorly explained that they basically expect readers to accept just “because...”? For example, Zade's motivation? I finished the book without understanding his backstory and why he would go so far to do what he does. “That's because he's angry about the existence of child trafficking”, congratulations Zade, you're a normal person who is outraged by child violence, so what? One person finding abuse wrong (which in itself is ironic when it comes to Zade, given what he does to Adeline) isn't enough to justify everything he does. He ends up being the author's puppet for action and smuty kinky scenes, rather than a complex character.

Speaking of kinky, I see a lot of people (including the author apparently) who don't know the basic difference between fetish and abuse. All fetish and kinks, including cnc, needs to be done in a healthy, safe and consensual way. These are the basics of the practice and are non-negotiable. Practically all the sex scenes in this book that take place between Adeline and Zade fall into the dub-con (dubious consent) spectrum. Whether it's because he's forced himself on her, coerced her, manipulated her, etc., from the lightest to the heaviest, all the sex between them has a non-consensual aspect in addition to the disparity of power in the relationship that was not negotiated between them. So you can't use the excuse that it's a fetish so anything goes, because that's simply not the reality. If you let go of the dark romance for a second and actually research how this works, you'll quickly realize that the way this book deals with fetish is extremely off the mark.

Lastly, there's the issue of human/child trafficking. I see a lot of people criticize how graphic the scenes are, which for me wasn't a problem, but very few people talk about how the vision portrayed in the book refers to a line of thought that connect whit the crazy right-wing american conspiracy theorist mentality . Whenever there was a scene involving violence against children, I had the impression that H.D Carlton had studied the subject on the QAnom forum. Anyone who does the slightest bit of research on the subject knows that the main victims of this kind of violence are not the white suburban American children of the traditional family, as we see repeatedly portrayed through Zade's missions. It's not a black van that springs up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood and steals away a beloved child while their parents cry copiously over the loss. Those who are targeted are usually non-white, disabled children from very poor areas who are generally forgotten by the system. Not to mention that the book kind of implies that most of the guys involved in the dirty work of kidnapping the children are Mexicans and mestizos. These are the people we see Zade, the white guy, fighting against to save the day. Also I'm not Jewish so I can't say 100%, but the way the author constructed the secret society plus all the strange and conspiracy-oriented things in the book gave me an anti-Semitic vibe. The secret society in this book is literally a ctrl+c ctrl+v of Blood Libel. Maybe I'm going too far with my interpretation, but considering that the author literally had to put a disclaimer at the beginning that she has no connection with conspiracy theory groups, I don't think I'm so wrong to notice parallels.