#and I am absolutely obsessed with her and Graham’s friendship

[shy-sapphic-ace]

Dragana Vuković appreciation post ✨ she’s so cool guys oh my gosh

[zannolin]

hello! sorry to bother you, but I saw you said you're reading your book number 91 (!!!! That's impressive) and I've been looking for book recommendations lately, so if you don't mind, would you share some book recs you have? (of fiction if it's possible). thank you!

haha yeah i tend to spend most of my free time when i'm not writing (or doing fiber crafts) reading books. absolutely so happy to give recs!!! all the time!! will talk ceaselessly about the books i'm reading!!

anything by ann patchett ever but my favs by her are bel canto, the magician's assistant, and commonwealth. she's litfic and very very good, even her nonfiction stuff

the scorpio races by maggie stiefvater is my fav book of ALL time. it's ya urbanish fantasy. lifechanging.

the locked tomb series by tamsyn muir. lesbians abound. sci-fi/fantasy absolutely gorgeous in every way. cuts me to the bone

jurassic park by michael crichton. yep there's a book! i am almost done reading it right now (it is in fact book number 91) and i seriously love it like could not recommend more.

any of kristen arnett's books but mostly dead things by her is my fav! it's about a lesbian taxidermist

it's middle grade but the beyonders trilogy by brandon mull is so so so good and i love it deeply

lockwood & co by jonathan stroud is a fun ghost/paranormal series; literally the best ghost series i have read bar none

if you like peter pan, fairytale retellings, or having the heart ripped out of your chest by the concept of loneliness and growing up or the lack thereof, the peter and the starcatchers series by dave barry & ridley pearson is a really good peter pan retelling. if you're willing to overlook how some aspects of the peter pan story as a whole have not aged very well. book four is so fucking good tho

i don't often recommend ya fantasy or romance of any kind but the folk of the air series by holly black is a really good fey series with enemies to lovers i actually liked

in a similar vein of the two above, the lunar chronicles series by marissa meyer is a really fun sci-fi retellings of fairytales; heartless by her is not connected in any way but is also a fairytale retelling i fucking LOVE

our wives under the sea by julia armfield is queer, excellent, and a little horrifying

authors i have only read a few from but highly recommend and need to read ALL of include octavia butler and toni morrison

her body & other parties by carmen maria machado is a life-changing collection of queer horror short stories; in the dream house by her is also incredible but it's a memoir and you should look up content warnings on it beforehand if you're a person who doesn't do well with heavy content

i've only read the first two books but the beartown series by fredrik backman is REALLY good; it's about hockey and friendship and living in small towns and stuff. it does deal with some heavy content as well so again w warnings etc but truly i'm obsessed

mexican gothic by silvia moreno-garcia was another horror book i really liked

middle grade again but i adore the twistrose key by tone almhjell (it's fantasy and about like growing up and beloved pets and things) (i'm trying not to rec a ton of middle grade here because i know it's not for everyone but i am an enjoyer of a lot of middle grade series if you ever want recs lol i am like supreme lord of reading puzzle/mystery/adventure series)

i have only read one book by tj klune thus far but my friends swear by him

the princess bride by william goldman is unironically SO good

if you like vague horror, suspense, and having your mind boggled, mona awad is really good

the dead lands by benjamin percy is (stay with me here) a post-apocalyptic retelling of the journey of lewis & clark (yeah the guys from us history) and i'm gonna be real. i was shocked by how much i liked it. it's WILD.

babel by rf kuang is like. massive. but it's really good historical fantasy.

the only good indians by stephen graham jones is really good horror and i've heard really good things about the rest of his books

meddling kids by edgar cantero is this really funky scooby-doo inspired horror/mystery novel that i love. it is Very quirky.

not fiction but animal vegetable miracle (barbara kingsolver; about farming and american food culture and family and stuff), the shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains (nicholas carr; about information technology etc), long live the tribe of fatherless girls (t kira madden; memoir, trigger warnings again), and the radium girls (kate moore; us history) are just. so so so good. in many different ways. couldn't not rec them!!

thistlefoot by gennarose nethercott is really good fantasy; it's an urban fantasy take on the baba yaga mythos that i really loved

four treasures of the sky by jenny tinghui zhang is historical fiction with a tinge of fantasy; gorgeous writing

the girls at the kingfisher club by genevieve valentine is a flapper retelling of the 12 dancing princesses

tender is the flesh by agustina bazterrica is really really fucked up horror/dystopia about a world where cannibalism has been legalized; very graphic in a sense but like. WILD to read.

i hope that's a good range! i read allll sorts of books and i know not all of them appeal to everyone but those are the ones i've really really enjoyed within the last couple years. hope you find something you enjoy out of all of them!

[ravenadottir]

Hello hello! Can I just say that I absolutely adore your writing and the way you bring even more life and depth to the Litg s2 characters?! Like you’re doing gods work luv fr<33

I’m not sure if you’ve been asked this before, and if so I apologize, but I was wondering what you think would be the islanders from s2’s Hogwarts houses? Unfortunately I’ve relapsed into all my childhood obsessions and rewatched all the Harry Potter movies recently and for some reason I find myself thinking who would be in which house and why. As well as thinking up random funny scenarios they would get up to at wizarding school like the disassociating weirdo I am. 🤪✌️I’ve also been thinking like you’d assume Chelsea would be Hufflepuff which I mean isn’t completely wrong, but I also kinda see her as like Luna Lovegood and being in Ravenclaw! Lol idk kwjsksjsjsjsjsns I could totally see the sorting hat being the narrator from litg and just reading these bitches as it sorts them into a house and them being like 👁👄👁. Also ps I would never trust Jakub with magic that fool would probably maximize his muscles until they popped tbh 🙄🤚.

Anyways, thank you for your time regardless if you answer this or not! I hope you have a lovely day! <3

oaskoaskoasoask the narrator sorting them into houses is honestly GOLD!

now... i have answered this before. there are a couple of posts lost in the i-don't-know-how-many-thousand posts i have on litg, but i can say this: chelsea was indeed a hufflepuff! the loyalty and the dumbassery in general? the friendship and the emotional intelligence? i love her in hufflepuff but i can see her complaining about the color of the uniform lol

probably adding as many accessories as she can to break the darkness of the vests and the yellow of the tie.

because i've done it a couple of times, i think i'm gonna include s1 and s3, 'cause you know, new stuff to read! so here it is:

slytherin:

lucas, elisa, hope, jakub, rocco (he's that year's mascot), lottie, graham, shannon, blake, allegra, lucy, reese, jasper, miles, seb, harry, rafi, lily.

gryffindor:

gary, ibrahim, kassam, priya, elijah, levi, mason, jake, talia, jen, bill, genevieve.

hufflepuff:

bobby, chelsea, henrik, arjun, felix, erika, tim, rohan, sammi, tai, ciaran, nicky, aj, elladine.

ravenclaw:

marisol, noah, hannah, carl, yasmin.

and if i'm not wrong @theclowneryqueen said jo was a squib lol

but yeah, that's it! hope i didn't forget anybody... and i probably didn't get as many right but man! i really am surprised about how many ravenclaw's are in this list... oh well!

[lord-calamity-edalyn]

my second original post on here!!! looks like i only post when a beautiful cartoon announces that it’s releasing its final season, but anyway letsgeddit!

carmen sandiego crew just announced that the fourth and final season will be out jan 15, and like rest of the fandom, i’m panicking. especially when there is still so much to unpack with the show, like finding carmen’s mom, acme’s strange connection to carmen’s dad and their odd motives, destruction of vile, and carulia/julethief (me to sandiego crew: are they,,,are they you know,,,?) 

so here's an itemized (and kinda unorganised) list of what i want from the last season: 

more than 5 episodes!! i think this is confirmed? i saw a post somewhere so yay!

personally i’d like 13 to 15 episodes. i hope that's a decent amount, just double digits please :]

le chevre and el topo please!! i need this to be canon or at least let them runaway/escape vile together please

tigress – listen i don’t want some redemption arc or whatever from her, i just need some grey lining to her. ‘i’m leaving vile but i’m not working with sandiego,’ or begrudgingly help carmen before disappearing from the face of the earth. idk that vigilante, anti-hero type??

paper star is a great and i want to see a lot more of her – my terrifying little girl. honestly i want her to go down with vile, but in the sense i want some huge marvel act three type battle between her and carmen (and team red). just give me more paper star :]

complete abolishment of vile please and thank you

i mean with roundabout now out (oh boy was he a good villain) i think vile is in a pretty bad position as it is, so destroying them completely should be easy. however the main five is just the tree on the top, we don’t see the enormous root system underground with many many graduates of vile running things in crime all over the world so i really want to see how carmen brings them all to light, if that's even possible 

if that means outing herself? and what it means doing that while acme is after her as well? will acme work with her/put her aside for a while to defeat the greater villain, to them at least? carmen pardoned if she helps? even tho, acme is trash :/

her mom? their family reunion? work and fight together? 

player – his backstory?

if not that at least have him meet the team in person please. carmen and player’s friendship is superior and i’d like them to meet after relying on and trusting each other so heavily for many years

our favourite siblings, ivy and zack

more zack content please, my man is a vital member of team red and is more than just comedic relief. he is more than capable and i need him front and centre thank you

ivy already has a lot of scenes showing how capable she is, so i’m not really sure but carmivy is a thing?

graham/crackle/our aussie electrician boi – honestly my reaction after season three was that i want him AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE from anything to do with that world. vile don’t touch him, acne don’t you dare lay a finger on him, and carmen keeps their connection as discreet as possible. and the fact that acme is asking for him is scaring me. i hope he declines acme and joins team red, or better yet warns carmen and stays out of it all

chase devineaux – even more development, he went from some carmen obsessed clown to a genuine complex dude that i’ve grown to love. and i absolutely adore how his view changed of carmen, he’s definitely gonna do some soul-searching (as kipo and jamack would put it) honestly, i want him to team up with julia again, both of them being talented FREE agents and helping carmen on their own. which leads me to my next point:

JULIA

she needs a bigger part in the overall story and join carmen’s team or even help carmen as a free agent. bc i can totally see julia as some private investigator type (maybe duo with devineaux?)

i need julia and carmen working a caper together, like cut off from everyone else, only having each other type situation to showcase their great chemistry 

and so, carmen and julia ship. please make it canon

talking about ships,,,i’ve mentioned carulia, carmivy?? and let's add redcrackle in there as well. and obviously i want carulia very badly but as much as i’d love to see any one of these canon (personally i’d prefer carulia bc i see graham as an older brother type to carmen) BUT there really isn’t a lot of romantic buildup to any of these ships?? well not as much as i’d like?? (i alone can argue against that point with multiple points outlining the gay subtext in carulia lol i really am jobless) but idk how to express it overall but i think i’ll be happy even if carmen stays single?? but obviously a canon ship would be amazing!

yikes now that i look at this monster post, i’m getting scared for season four. of course some of this won’t be necessary and is CLEARLY for self-indulgent purposes but like even without my stupid fantasising there’s still so much to close in one season. i hope sandiego crew came to the decision of having this last season with a planned ending instead of being cut off by netflix, bc if that's the case, i will riot. 

tl;dr – season four please be well done, and close all the impending storylines while simultaneously PROVIDING ME WITH WHAT I WANT,,,,just kidding, i trust sandiego crew and i hope for the best with carmen sandiego’s final season. i will miss this show a lot :( 

if you made it this far, thank you for letting me waste your time. hope you have/had a good day! goodbye!

[manuscripts-dontburn]

In an Absent Dream

Author: Seanan McGuire

First published: 2019

Pages: 187

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 2 days

Possibly the second-best of this (overall underwhelming) series. It always helps when there are no snarky teenagers who speak in a superbly unnatural way.

A Long Petal of the Sea

Author: Isabel Allende

First published: 2019

Pages: 336

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 6 days

More than anything this story was a history lesson for me - and a welcomed one, because I have never researched Chile and the turmoil it went through in the 20th century. The author´s style is not my favourite, it felt a bit too dry and clipped on more than one occasion, but even if I didn't mesh with it I read the book very quickly.

Mr Rochester

Author: Sarah Shoemaker

First published: 2017

Pages: 464

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 5 days

Thank you Sarah Shoemaker for taking a different road than the majority of Jane Eyre retellings, which invariably portray Mr Rochester as a devil incarnate. Because that seems to be the general modern consensus. But you have managed to create a portrait of a man, who retains his flaws (and yes, he becomes manipulative), but finally has a voice and can offer his own point of view. The book has a slow, languid pace and it very much reminds the reader of the 19th-century novels in style, which fits the narrative. There are no great surprises, since everything dramatic we already know, still I greatly enjoyed reading about Rochester as a somehow lost and starving for affection little boy, awkward teenaged trying to please, optimistic and charmed young man and eventually bitter adult who struggles for bits and pieces of happiness. I also believe that this version of Edward Rochester (as well as Bertha Mason) is much more loyal to what Charlotte Brontë had in mind when she was writing them, than what many other have managed, when they tried to twist the characters and their motivations in their own attempts to retell the masterpiece that is Jane Eyre.

My Best Friend's Exorcism

Author: Grady Hendrix

First published: 2016

Pages: 174

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 2 days

This may not have been as half as scary or half as hilarious as I had expected it to be... but it turned out to be a perfect book for the given moment. It reads very easily and quickly and more than on possession it actually centres on the friendship between two teenage girls. I enjoyed it immensely.

The Only Good Indians

Author: Stephen Graham Jones

First published: 2020

Pages: 320

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 2 days

I am rather new to the horror genre, so I have little to compare this book to. That said, I think it was solid, even if unevenly paced. Scenes which truly leave you scared and interested are interchanged with ones that I suppose were mean to give you the less obvious creeps, but quite a lot of them bored me. And frankly, there was way too much basketball, even if it was important in the later parts of the story. Still, I appreciate the Native American culture representation as well as the thrill and immersion I got near the end. I believe it is not a spoiler to say that the finish left me satisfied and actually moved.

Jerusalem: The Biography

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore

First published: 2011

Pages: 752

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

How long did it take: 13 days

I have read some truly excellent books on remarkable cities (like London, Prague and St. Petersburg) and while I admit writing a book on Jerusalem must have been a much more daunting task, it still does not excuse this book being rather lacklustre. Perhaps my own expectations were simply misplaced? I would have liked a story of Jerusalem more focused on the culture, the interesting personalities, the architecture, perhaps even literature and other art forms... focused on what makes Jerusalem special and unique. Instead, this book is an exhausting encyclopedia of every massacre and war and ruler. Which is fine when you are trying to look up something basic, but not nearly enough to make for good reading. I have also come across some inaccurate statements, which, even if seemingly minor, put in question other claims made in the book. Not to mention the author´s obsession with informing you on the sexual prowess (or lack of it) and perversion of nearly everybody he mentions. For example, I did not need to know that Gustave Flaubert once had sex with three girls and orgasmed four times when he visited Beirut. A catalogue of events and names, not a particularly impressive tribute to one of the most fascinating cities in the world.

Komiksová Kytice

Author: Karel Jaromír Erben & various illustrators

First published: 2016

Pages: 315

Rating: ★★★★★

How long did it take: 1 day

Kytice je národní klenot a jedna z mých naprosto nejoblíbenějších knih. Je úžasné, že kdykoliv se k ní vrátím, zcela mne rozechvívá. Grafická zpracování jednotlivých balad jsou rozhodně zajímavá, některá na oči příjemnější než jiná, nicméně celé publikaci jako takové dává participace různých výtvarníků velmi originální koncepci. 

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Author: TJ Klune

First published: 2020

Pages: 393

Rating: ★★★★★

How long did it take: 5 days

This is the absolutely most PRECIOUS book I have read in years! So sweet, so pure! Reading it felt like a healing experience. Loved, loved, loved!

House of Earth and Blood

Author: Sarah J. Maas

First published: 2020

Pages: 803

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

How long did it take: 9 days

I read this book because I thought I would give Sarah J. Maas a chance, her being so popular an author. So my homework is done now and...yeah... this is a super trash literature that is completely fine to enjoy when you want your brain to completely switch off and not think at all. But as for the world-building, editing, writing, characters, pacing.... nah. Not good. I could write a 24-page-long essay on what all there is to criticize, but then I realized this book did not really give me anything so why should I bother reviewing.... Givin it 2 stars here because I did not feel the need to throw it across the room and burn it, it did not make me mad (like some other books did in the past), and that vacuum cleaner scene WAS funny.

Imperial Mother, Royal Daughter: Correspondence Between Marie Antoinette and Maria Theresa

Author: Olivier Bernier

First published: 1986

Pages: 330

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 12 days

A very interesting and revealing collection of letters between two iconic women. Would make an excellent "Side reading" to any biography on the two. The way the letters are chosen and edited I also appreciate, since the whole thing really reads like a novel, even though it is not.

[zacharybosch]

Playing Dead - chapter 3

in which miriam and bev have a bad time

chapter 1: tumblr / ao3

chapter 2: tumblr / ao3

read chapter 3 of Playing Dead below or on ao3!

Miriam was a ghost. Physically, she still moved through the world and her presence was tangible and real, but in all other aspects she was reduced down to a shadow. Her and Bev's little house had grown cold over the months; every room held the echo of a stranger, every meal held the memory of the dead.

It was easy to let it happen, to start walking through walls with her head in her laptop, dark circles around dark eyes set in a dark, hollow face. It felt as though she’d been a ghost all this time, and the past few years she had just been playing at being human, living a life that had never been real.

As far as the FBI was concerned, Hannibal Lecter was dead and Will Graham never existed. They fabricated some story, a burglary that went wrong and ended in a murder so grisly that just an ear remained, and only upon assessing the crime scene did they discover that the victim was the Chesapeake Ripper himself.

Jack took an undisclosed figure in severance pay, packed up his desk, and left without a backward glance for the Florida Keys. He had not reached out to anyone and had rebuffed all attempts at contact with an impenetrable wall of silence. Whether he was rewarding himself for a job well done, or exiling himself as punishment, no-one knew.

Miriam was given a similar pay-off, ostensibly some very delayed compensation for injury in the field, since it was her work for the Bureau that led to her kidnapping and maiming so many years ago. Along with the money, she was carefully advised that her job as Will’s handler had never existed; she did some teaching at the Academy, and she did some consultancy work for Jack, and they had paperwork stretching back years to prove it. Her old office in the basement was and always had been part of a larger storage area, and she owned a small house out in Wolf Trap which she had been renting out for years to a succession of happy tenants. She was now taking a year off to fix up the house and do some travelling. She was undecided if she would return to work afterwards.

Bev did not get any compensation. The story she was told to stick to was that she had taken an extended period of medical leave, for private reasons that she did not want to discuss with fellow colleagues. She had never gone snooping in Hannibal Lecter’s house, and had never been held in the Witness Protection Unit. She was re-adjusting well after a long period of illness and was just as horrified as everyone else when the news broke that their occasional outside consultant, Hannibal Lecter, had been a serial killer all along.

The fairy tales made things bearable, to a point. It was easy to look at it all laid out on paper and say yes, that’s it, that’s what really happened. It was not so easy to lie in bed at night, with the glow of laptop screens and the frantic tapping of keys reminding Bev and Miriam that no, that was not what happened at all.

It had started innocently enough. After the utter collapse of Jack and Miriam’s plot, when it was strongly suggested to Miriam that she take a sabbatical, she’d looked at the endless string of days and months before her and decided to find something to fill the time. It was natural to want to know what happened, if that annoying little voice in the back of her head was really telling the truth when it said Hannibal was still alive and kicking. She wouldn’t do anything with the information, if she even found anything out at all. It would just be closure, a decisive full stop at the end of an unpleasant story. Just a hobby, an idle way to kill time until she could get herself sorted out and maybe find a new job somewhere else.

But Miriam was never one to do things in an idle manner. A cursory websearch on her phone one afternoon turned into a slightly deeper search on her computer the next evening; turned into a running list of recent murders that struck her as suspicious, and heavy-handed overtures to an old friend who worked for Interpol; turned into a map full of pins and strings and the frantic, hasty typing up of every piece of info Will had ever let slip during their conversations together, before they faded from her memory forever. Had he ever mentioned anything about the process of turning a human? Was it drawn out, or did it happen instantly? How easy would it be to transport a seemingly dead body out of the country without the necessary paperwork? Was there a vampire network that he could call on to facilitate these things?

These questions and more like them swirled around inside Miriam’s skull day after day, night after night. She could feel herself withdrawing, pulling the tendrils of her life back inside herself and using them to build a wall. There was a small part of her that felt resentment towards Bev, that she could seemingly get on with life so easily; she would watch her, climbing out of bed early in the morning to get ready for work, while Miriam was hunched over her laptop just as she had been all night. Bev made it look so damn easy.

Logically, Miriam knew that Bev was likely just putting on a brave face, taking a deep breath and powering on through as Miriam herself had done for so many years. But it didn’t stop the stab of anger, the selfish feeling that Miriam had done her time and endured the sick feeling in her head, and now she should get to relax while someone else took on the burden. It wasn’t fair: she had worked so hard to try and cut the trauma out of her life, but after all of her effort it was still there and it hurt worse than ever.

Bev watched it happen, the slow descent into consuming obsession, and she felt utterly powerless to do a thing to stop it. She was barely holding herself together, and though she wanted so much to hold Miriam together as well, she couldn’t. It took all of her strength just to get up and go to work and pretend that she was okay.

It was compounded by the fact that Bev privately held the opinion that she didn’t even have any right to be feeling as she did. Miriam was allowed to be a mess; she’d been mutilated and held captive by one of the most notorious and prolific serial killers in modern history, and after concealing her troubles for so many years it was understandable that she couldn’t hold it in any longer. But all that happened to Bev was that she saw something nasty in a basement. She should’ve got over it months ago. She would get over it. She just had to not think about it, not feel anything about it, not afford it any more acknowledgement than was absolutely necessary.

But the further that Miriam sank into her fixation with tracking Hannibal and Will, the harder it was for Bev to pretend like everything was fine. It was right there in her face every day, flashing across screens and pinned up on the walls, and it was leeching the life from the both of them. She didn’t blame Miriam for it; it was easy enough to see the trains of thought that had led her to this point. She didn’t even blame Jack, not really; if he hadn’t plotted with Miriam in the first place, she would’ve just plotted on her own.

The people she blamed were Hannibal and Will. Blaming Hannibal was obvious, and almost an afterthought; afterall, he had visited upon them both the most obvious and immediate horrors in their lives. But blaming Will felt satisfying and righteous and good, like she’d finally identified the root cause of something insidious, and now all she had to do was rip it out like a weed.

At least Hannibal was human, malleable like a human and mortal like a human and only able to do that which any other human could do. Will was-- Bev couldn’t even begin to understand what Will was. She’d worked alongside him, had made gentle offers of friendship towards him, and was all the while blind to the supernatural horror of him.

By the time Miriam shook Bev awake one night, frantic and excited and talking too quickly, Bev barely even recognised her, a stranger speaking with her girlfriend’s voice. The reflexive thought was familiar by now, Just one more thing that Hannibal and Will have taken from me, but then she actually listened to what Miriam was saying.

“I found a pattern, Bev, a new pattern. Look.” Miriam thrust the laptop into Bev’s face, screen glowing as bright as the sun in their dark bedroom. When her eyes adjusted, she saw a list of purchases and deliveries in various cities across Europe.

“Is that a shopping list? What am I looking at?”

“They’re from a few different medical supply stores and with a few different cards, but it’s the same order every time. Look. And then these,” Miriam scrolled the page down to a second list, “DIY stores. Same orders. Same times as the med supplies. Who needs to buy IV bags and tarps that often?”

Bev pressed her fingers into her eyes as she tried to will away the fog of sleep. “That’s weak, Miri. It doesn’t prove anything.”

“Right, right, I know. But you know that string of cases I found, where the people were slashed up just on one little area on their body? The physical evidence that someone had done something, but the victims had no memory of the attack itself. Black holes in their minds, perfect recall before and after and then just a sudden blank space. And there were the murders as well, remember? Same style, slashed up on one specific area, like the perp was trying to hide bite marks, right? Do you remember?”

“Yes, I remember. That was stronger than these shopping lists--”

“These are the locations of the attacks,” Miriam interrupted, bringing up a map of mainland Europe, dotted with blue markers that were scattered across the continent. There was a small cluster in Italy, centered around Florence, but apart from that they looked utterly random. “And then these are the delivery locations of the purchases.” Miriam brought up a second map, showing all the previous blue markers as well as a host of new red ones. The overlap between the two was considerable. “They’re in Florence right now. I know it.”

When it was displayed like that, Bev had to concede that maybe there was something to it. The attacks and the purchases lined up with an almost startling regularity, dates and cities aligning so neatly that it may as well have been a flashing neon sign. It felt like a trap, and it looked like a trap, but Miriam had a light in her eyes that Bev hadn’t seen in months, and she couldn’t bear to see it extinguished.

Bev stared at the map for a long time. “Why are you doing this?” she asked, finally. “Be honest with me.”

“Because,” Miriam said, “I’m not ready to give up. I want… He-- he owes me.”

“Which one? Who owes you?”

“Both of them! I thought I could be cold and remote, you know, just like Hannibal, detached from all my feelings. He made me believe it was possible. I was so good for so long, I was a model prisoner and then a model survivor and he never even told me what he did it all for.” Miriam’s mouth twitched, and she bit at the inside of her cheek to stop the unhappy downturn of her lips. “It’s not fair. I could see that he was getting inside Will’s head as well and I tried to help him get away, just make it all finally stop, but he just stabbed me in the back. Hannibal owes me his life in exchange for the life that he took from me. And Will owes me the chance to forget that my life was ever taken.” Miriam took Bev’s hands and looked at her imploringly. Bev’s heart broke a little. “This can be it. Our clean break.”

“You can’t just wish your problems away, Miriam. The world doesn’t work like that.”

“I can. It does,” Miriam said, and Bev’s heart broke a little more.

The next day, Bev called in sick to work, and Miriam booked flights to Italy.

[arianakristine]

Graham (because I'm always curious about what everyone else's first impression of him was) and, I feel like I should apologize for this, but all of the Crain kids? :)

Send Me a Character

ALL OF THE CRAIN KIDS??? Girl, you crazy.

Graham

First impression: Okay, so this is the Love Interest. He was sort of that “okay, this’ll happen” and not much more interest than that.Impression now: GRAHAM, YOU ARE MY SON, MY CHILD, MY MOON AND STARS!!!!!!!!!Favorite moment: “I’m leaving you for me”Idea for a story: *laughs uncontrollably* YOU MEAN EVERY FIC I’VE WRITTEN IN THE PAST 7 YEARS???Unpopular opinion: I think the only truly unpopular opinion I have is that what happened to him in canon actually happened? Favorite relationship: Let’s ruminate on this one, shall we? No, but really, Gremma is #1 with Hunted Believer a close #2.Favorite headcanon: That he is still alive in another of those million worlds they keep finding, and his happy ending is still pending.

Now,

*Deep Breath*

Steven

First impression: Aww, look at what a good big brother!Impression now: Ugh, Steven. Why are you the worst? I have such mixed feelings about you. The fucking vasectomy and not telling Leigh did you in. But you’re still trying, and you’re trying to be better, and okay, I guess I love you, too.Favorite moment: It hurts my heart so much, but probably when he tells Luke to keep the camera and the money but leave the ipad. Yes, it’s enabling, but yes, it’s heartbreaking.Idea for a story: His fascination with the house grows to obsession, driving him deeper and deeper into its history and its bones. Because Olivia still has her sights on the rest of her children, and he is the most convenient of the targets.Unpopular opinion: He better have paid Shirl back for Luke’s rehab and paid with money that wasn’t included from the book royalties set for her.Favorite relationship: Ugh, again, it KILLS me, but Hugh and Stevie. They had such a great dynamic when he was young and seeing it deteriorated in the present (ugh, “the wrong parent died” is my death) stings. But that last moment is so touching and emotional that it brings me back.Favorite headcanon: That he bounced around different relatives after The Last Night (he only stayed with Janet that one summer) because nothing ever felt like home again without his mom (but he didn’t admit it was because he wasn’t with his dad as well).

Shirley

First impression: Ooh, okay, so she’s actually the eldest sibling in terms of dynamics. Put him in his place, Shirl!Impression now: You are hypocritical and a mess. I still love you.Favorite moment: “Did you just punch me in the boob?”Idea for a story: Unpopular opinion: That I actually like her character. I mean, she’s awful in many ways, but she’s so damn human in that. She is flawed as anything and still wants her family safe. Oh, and probably that she was right in sending Luke away at Nell’s wedding.Favorite relationship: Despite everything, Shirley and Theo.Favorite headcanon: She is talented in drawing, but when she takes a moment to try quietly, all she can seem to sketch is the forever house (over and over)

Theo

First impression: Basically Shirley’s assessment: “you’re like a guy, like a frat guy!”Impression now: THEO, MY LOVE, YOU ARE AMAZING.Favorite moment: Hands down her breakdown and apology in Witness Marks. She is just so raw and emotional and it’s so damn painful to hear it. I get teary every time.Idea for a story: Theo learning to control her power and help more children/families with the loving support of TrishUnpopular opinion: Trish showing up at the funeral was Not Okay and Theo was well within her right to tell her off for it.Favorite relationship: Still Trish and Theo, with a close second of Luke and Theo.Favorite headcanon: Aunt Theo and Little Eleanor are best friends, just like she is with Allie (and Nellie). 

Nellie

First impression: Aww, adorable little girl, please do not touch her, ghosts.Impression now: NELLIE, MY POOR CHILD, YOU DESERVED SO MUCH MORE.Favorite moment: THE REST IS CONFETTI, I CRY FOREVER!!!!!!!Idea for a story: Nellie sifting through time until she starts to notice a new little girl in the house. She will absolutely protect this little one from those that want to devour her, and even fight her mother over it. Her father is both unexpectedly and expectedly with her on this, even if it means their souls are lost forever.Unpopular opinion: That she didn’t actually kill herself. I mean, I don’t doubt that she was hurting and likely wanted to die, but she didn’t actually kill herself in the end and I want to pull my hair out every time someone says she did.Favorite relationship: Arthur and Nellie, I was sold in those, what, five minutes?Favorite headcanon: She is not the only ghost at Hill House with a gentle nature, and because of that Hill House cannot ever completely win.

Luke

First impression: You’re so tiny and adorable in those glasses!Impression now: Oh, Luke, you’ve gone through so much and you’re trying so hard to overcome your addiction and I am so glad you’re getting all your support.Favorite moment: As Adult!Luke: the eulogy, as Baby!Luke: him teaching Nellie about 7 (7 keeps you safe). But also his big eyes when he asks Stevie to hang out with him in the treehouse???Idea for a story: Luke learning to make and keep friendships that are healthy for him, and Steve accidentally bringing back those memories of the Last Night. He finally deals with his trauma and has the support to guide him through it.Unpopular opinion: That he really escaped the Red Room, I guess? So many fan theories (directly against the writers) wanting to make his (and his siblings’) end tragic when he was actually able to overcome his addiction and trauma?? I don’t understand it???Favorite relationship: Luke and Nell, and baby Luke and Stevie.Favorite headcanon:Luke visits the house but never enters it again (close, but not actually giving in, mirroring his addiction in so many ways).