#also very appropriate for this time of the year

[english-history-trip]

[Merlyn] was dressed in a flowing gown with fur tippets which had the signs of the zodiac embroidered over it, with various cabalistic signs, such as triangles with eyes in them, queer crosses, leaves of trees, bones of birds and animals, and a planetarium whose stars shone like bits of looking-glass with the sun on them.

....

There was a real corkindrill hanging from the rafters, very life-like and horrible with glass eyes and scaly tail stretched out behind it. When its master came into the room it winked one eye in salutation, although it was stuffed. There were thousands of brown books in leather bindings, some chained to the book-shelves and others propped against each other as if they had had too much to drink and did not really trust themselves. These gave out a smell of must and solid brownness which was most secure.

Then there were stuffed birds, popinjays, and maggot-pies and kingfishers, and peacocks with all their feathers but two, and tiny birds like beetles, and a reputed phoenix which smelt of incense and cinnamon. It could not have been a real phoenix, because there is only one of these at a time. Over by the mantelpiece there was a fox's mask, with GRAFTON, BUCKINGHAM TO DAVENTRY, 2 HRS 20 MINS written under it, and also a forty-pound salmon with AWE, 43 MIN., BULLDOG written under it, and a very life-like basilisk with CROWHURST OTTER HOUNDS in Roman print.

There were several boars' tusks and the claws of tigers and libbards mounted in symmetrical patterns, and a big head of Ovis Poli, six live grass snakes in a kind of aquarium, some nests of the solitary wasp nicely set up in a glass cylinder, an ordinary beehive whose inhabitants went in and out of the window unmolested, two young hedgehogs in cotton wool, a pair of badgers which immediately began to cry Yik-Yik-Yik-Yik in loud voices as soon as the magician appeared, twenty boxes which contained stick caterpillars and sixths of the puss-moth, and even an oleander that was worth sixpence—all feeding on the appropriate leaves—a guncase with all sorts of weapons which would not be invented for half a thousand years, a rod-box ditto, a chest of drawers full of salmon flies which had been tied by Merlyn himself, another chest whose drawers were labelled Mandragora, Mandrake, Old Man's Beard, etc., a bunch of turkey feathers and goose-quills for making pens, an astrolabe, twelve pairs of boots, a dozen purse-nets, three dozen rabbit wires, twelve corkscrews, some ants' nests between two glass plates, ink-bottles of every possible colour from red to violet, darning-needles, a gold medal for being the best scholar at Winchester, four or five recorders, a nest of field mice all alive-o, two skulls, plenty of cut glass, Venetian glass, Bristol glass and a bottle of Mastic varnish, some satsuma china and some cloisonné, the fourteenth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (marred as it was by the sensationalism of the popular plates), two paint-boxes (one oil, one water-colour), three globes of the known geographical world, a few fossils, the stuffed head of a cameleopard, six pismires, some glass retorts with cauldrons, bunsen burners, etc., and a complete set of cigarette cards depicting wild fowl by Peter Scott.

Art by Alan Lee for The Sword in the Stone by TH White (1977)

[radioactive-zafiro60]

Teenage Damian finally being more involved in JL matters thanks to his leadership on the Titans which eventually leads him to work with his father and siblings.

Things can get a little awkward from time to time because even if Damian is now almost as tall as Dick and he has demonstrated multiple times he's capable of defeating most of the other heroes he's STILL the little baby to his family eyes.

So picture a situation in where Batman, Nightwing, Red Robin and Robin (Damian) plus some members of the JL, the Titans and Jung Justice are all cooperating for some major menace, which apart from other things, means family reunion.

Nightwing *checking some security cameras they put on the main suspect of the villan of the week room*: Well if he does anything suspicious we can confirm all this mess is his fault

Red Robin: It will be great if we can confirm it before he destroys the world

Wonder Woman (looking at the screen where their main suspect appears to bring a girl to his room to something more that chatting): Well if he's actually about to destroy the world he certainly has enough time for THAT

*moanings start coming out of the computer and even when most of the heroes start laughing Nightwing seems scandalized*

Nightwing *reaching from the other side of the table to try covering Damian's eyes*: YOU CANT WATCH THIS DAMI!!! YOU ARE JUST A BABY!!!

Red Robin (not actually caring but always on favor of annoying Damian): This is not an appropriate look for a ten year old!!!!

Damian|Robin (Very clearly not ten): Get off me!!! And stop being so dramatic

Superman (participating mostly to catch Batman's attention): Well you are the kid in here we have to protect your innocence

Batman is trying to ignore the hole scene but a soft smile escapes from his mouth while he sees his kids fooling around just like before

Robin|Damian (still trying to get Nightwing off him): Stop acting like I'm a baby! There are other teenage heroes on this same room!!

Batman: Well yea but their families aren't here

John|Superboy (trying to help Damian): Im here

Damian finally getting away from his brothers and suddenly feeling sassy enough to speak more than he should.

Robin|Damian: Funny that you still assume I'm a virgin...

Damian leaves almost immediately leaving a room full of shocked heroes behind him.

All: ...

Nightwing (with the most concerned grin in his face): ... WHAT

Red Robin laughing his brains out: Oh god!!! You have such a traumatized face!!!

Nightwing, still not processing what just happened and having some type of panic atack: THATS MY BABY BROTHER WTF!!! 😭😭😭

Batman bluescreened from the beginning and Superman is trying to bring him back (he's also trying not to laugh)

Meanwhile, John|Superboy is on the back trying to piece everything together because WHY DAMIAN DIDN'T TELL HIM ANYTHING??!! There supposed to be like best friends, Why would he lie about something like that?? Does he even had a girlfriend he didn't know about??!! and NO HE'S NOT JEALOUS WHY ARE YOU ASKING??!!!

Red Robin, still trying to stop his laugh: Don't be so dramatic Wing... He's almost 16, how old where you when... you know?

Nightwing, in a super dramatic voice: IM NOT ANSWERING THAT IN FRONT OF MY DAD!!!!

Batman, who has started to came back to reality is looking at his boys with the most, Bruciest grin in his face, completely forgetting he's THE BATMAN

Anyways... Damian realizes what he confessed teen minutes later and decides to avoid every single member of his family for the rest of the month

[shalom-iamcominghome]

My jewish community, friends, rabbi, and educators: We are very invested in helping you be jewish. Do you want to help read the haftarah? Here's a chanukiah! You can have it!! Borrow these books! Here's some books! You need more books... Come to pesach! Come to the chanukah party! When are your classes done? We need a minyan for once!

Me and my 50000 IQ: What if I am Secretly Appropriating judaism? What if I am doing a Cultural Appropriation........

[jackslocket]

IL PREDESTINATO VINCE.

(inspired by @scdria's super awesome monaco poster)

[royalarchivist]

I say this in the kindest way possible, but I think this style of prose is more appropriate for a personal account rather than an update account. I have no idea who's being talked about half the time. 🥲

[ Tumblr meme via @mikaikaika ]

[bull-shit-suji]

actually no i need to talk about the green witch arc. ciel and his band of merry fools go to germany and learn that this forest is haunted by WEREWOLVES and in it is a village full of WITCHES with cursed amulets and potions and whatever

and the immediate vibe is "lol what a bunch of bogus" which is really just batshit coming from the kid with a demon butler

and then woah big reveal! it wasn't werewolves or witches it was a covert military operation REPLETE with radar tracking (not a thing until wwii) and electronic displays (most likely crt screens, which again weren't fully developed until the 1930s) and TANKS. for reference the first "tank" was put together by a guy in 1899 who mounted a machine gun to THIS

absolute paragon of engineering. the panzer (the exact model of tank in the arc) was not a thing until wwi.

and. and ciel and ESPECIALLY the Demon Butler in question are like. ohhhh yeah that makes more sense. the amulets were just transmitting our exact locations through technology that won't exist for another three decades. whew glad we sorted that one out. man wouldn't it have been CRAZY if it really was werewolves.

[loullipopx]

Man I hate ¡nstagram lmao. Did I really just have an argument with an art theft about art thievery only for her to play victim and learn absolutely nothing

[hand-face-chan]

I'm only halfway though Hbomberguy's new video and I dont know if this is a universal experience but my main horrified takeaway from hbomb's plagiarism video so far is that one of my highschools TAUGHT AN ENTIRE CLASS OF 13 YEAR OLDS TO PLAGIARISE. LIKE, ON PURPOSE.

I ended up moving to a much better highschool, but my first highschool essentially taught us to "write" essays by reading what someone else had written and then write what they said again but putting it "into your own words". Which in practice was teaching us to change, for example, "the works of Shakespeare were regarded by many as the first popular art form" to "Shakespeare's plays have been said by some to be the first example of popular media". One teacher actually told us that the process of writing an essay was "saying what the people you've researched have said, in a way where it sounds like you said it".

Like. The tactics that actual plagiarists use to hide the fact that they were stealing. An actual teacher tried to teach me to do that.

[geddy-leesbian]

cryptic spoiler for what im writing rn

[johanarchy]

Because I cannot be stopped in my madness in any way whatsoever, here is the man, the myth, the legend (and his four boyfriends)

Laurel Doppler and the Bodice Rippers

I am now deeply invested in them and their stories. More yapping under the cut. Questions are welcome

So, the Bodice Rippers ! First of all, they're really not big fighters; they are first and foremost artists and entertainers who happen to do a lot of fighting in the process. This is important because if they had to rely on their skill on the battlefield to earn their fame, they would still be nobodies (or dead bodies tbh). Lucky for them, they serve both a legion and a god that heavily relies on social events and entertainment, so by making it their specialty, they were able to earn a modest amount of recognition.

Story-wise, the four of them were neophytes during the Laer campaign, along with my other EC boy Antares (who rolled with them for a while post Heresy), so they're pretty old but they hardly knew the legion without slaaneshi influence.

They can all play a variety of instruments, but the usual distribution is Hook on the drums, Kronos on the bass, Nicky on the guitar or piano and Vega on the guitar and lead vocals (backup vocals can be done by all).

Vega is the closest thing the band has to a leader. He's a diva, people looking at him is his greatest pleasure in life, making him very motivated to get famous.

Hook probably has a real name, but nobody knows what it is, even pre-Heresy he tended to just go by Hook. He's a masochist, even by slaaneshi standards; he will purposefully dislocate his wrists and knees before every drumming session because being in pain makes him play better.

Nicky was already vain before the corruption took hold, and it has only gotten worse with time. He is obsessed with staying young and pretty and goes to ... appropriate slaaneshi lengths to do so.

Kronos took the idea of the tortured poet and ran with it. He's a self described "heartbroken romantic" who stews in his own sadness until he can make art out of it. He is also obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED with Fulgrim, who he views as the ultimate tragic figure.

Laurel came into the picture fairly recently. He's a post-Heresy Iron Hand, about a thousand years old, and was extremely easy to turn to Chaos, for two major reasons. Number one, his loyalty to the Imperium never ran terribly deep. Number two, this man, and I cannot stress this enough, thinks entirely with his dick. Vega was the first to seduce him into working with the band and now he has four boyfriends and an eternity of drugs, sex and rock'n'roll ahead of him

I'll stop there, but I am already getting ideas on how to make them interact with my other boys so ... more ramblings coming soon

Traitor Iron Hand who does sound engineering for Noise Marines

Is this anything ?

AND THEYRE BOYFRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[quasi-normalcy]

.

[batri-jopa]

Quite recently I realised that whenever I hear or see a word "always" it sounds in my brain more like polish "za każdym razem" (that is "every single time") instead of what I've been taught ("zawsze" is more like "now and forever"). Would you please tell me what it really means?

[marcmorrigan]

my heart's crippled by the vein that i keep on closing / you cut me open

OCs, they/them for seyva and he/him for rauel! bloodless version + original concept sketch and some notes under the cut

heavily inspired by carrie + vintage pulp novel cover art... i didnt end up emulating the style much, but i think i got the vibes okay!!! yayyy blood

[moonisthedoor]

Got a couple:

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins: a classic. This is a book that shaped my teenage years and I genuinely think it's one of the best in YA genre, absolutely deserves every ounce of its popularity. It's very good at addressing some very dark and mature topics in a way that feels age-appropriate but not dumbed down and that's a really fine line;

The Great Library series by Rachel Caine: also YA, less suited for someone who doesn't really like the genre but if you have tolerance for its tropes or minor plot holes then it's really good. Caine really shines at having different and multidimensional characters and, to be fair, a lot of the tropes get more nuance as the series progresses. It's also really great to see many queer characters (a gay canon pair at the forefront, an aromantic allosexual (!!!) background character in later books, nonbinary and sapphic characters who are very episodic but still noticing them made me feel great); it's especially cool that they feel like part of the world and the way they describe themselves/are described feels organic and not just as if modern labels were slapped on them haphazardly. Also, one of the protagonists is Muslim and Caine worked with sensitivity readers to ensure her portrayal is respectful! I cannot comment on how well she actually turned out since I'm not Muslim myself but at least for me it felt very careful and like a core part of the character's identity, not just a once mentioned and forgotten thing;

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: this one was co-written by a man but I think it deserves a mention. A sci-fi epistolary novel about a lesbian couple that really makes you Feel A Lot Of Things. It's not that long, I binged it while on train in four or so hours, so you can just read it in one evening. It's a lot at times, but in a good way for me; turbulent in terms of emotions you will feel but worth it. I don't even want to say a lot about it, I think you just need to experience it for yourself.

The OP of the other post going around is a TERF so I didn't want to reblog it but I still want to celebrate women writers SO!

What's a book written by a woman that changed your life or that you consider a classic? Any genre, any language.

[seraphasia]

the problem with self-diagnosis that most concerns me is the risk of people, teenagers especially, pathologizing normative behavior

[cave-monkey]

I think one of my favorite thinks about LMK is that Sun Wukong genuinely feels stupid old sometimes in the sense I am genuinely unsure if he knows the difference between a 2yo, a 12yo, and a 20yo. All the characters are fully grown adults, but Sun Wukong is over here treating it like a wacky preteen adventure show because he has no clue. MK probably told him his age once and Mr. Great Sage straight blue-screened for a second doing mental calculus trying to remember what that means for mortals and he still hasn't figured it out. Old enough to be away from his parents some of the time, sure, obviously, but like...only two decades? That's not very many. How many of those do humans usually get?

When he's not tossing it on the mental pile of 'probably not important' he's trying to figure it out from context like a name you don't want to admit you forgot. This has cleared up exactly nothing.