#and after that every book had a logo on it and a title like an x of y and z

[sprolden]

look i dislike the corporate artstyle book cover trend as much as the next person but we cant pretend every book looking the same is something new. if you stepped into a bookstore in 2013 there would be approximately 57 books whose cover art consisted of a girl in a ballgown with her back half-turned to the camera photoshopped into a vaguely fantasy-like landscape. i was 11 years old fighting for my life to find the right maximalistic girl and her single-adjective book title we cannot forget the horrors i went through please be respectful of my experiences

[haxkattpress]

Our Objective Remains Unchanged by @citrusses

"Harry Potter, returning member of the Oxford University Boat Club, has two goals for the spring of 2005: beat Cambridge, and beat Draco Malfoy. Perhaps not in that order."

This has to be one of the most creative and meticulously researched fics I have ever had the pleasure of reading. If you haven't read it yet, don't walk— run! Citrusses is an absolute genius, and kindly gave me permission to bind her masterpiece.

The cover of this bind is made out four different shades of Allure bookcloth cut by my Cameo 4, and the centerpiece is printed and hand foiled. The banners were machine foiled in gold and black with hand foiled rose gold shading. The endbands were hand sewn with Gutermann silk thread.

You can find more pictures and information about my process under the cut.

The amount of inspiration this fic gave me was overwhelming, and Citrusses' writing fully immersed me in the world of competitive rowing. While designing this bind, I was struck by the sheer wealth of Oxford rowing memorabilia available to me. I settled on this 1929 illustration from an official publication on the Oxford and Cambridge Centenary Boat Race for the cover.

"How hard could it possibly be?" I thought, foolishly. The answer was HARD, but I'll get into that later.

Due to the wealth of design options, I believe that this may be the best typeset I have created to date. Thanks to the help of my friend @tsurashi-bindery, I was able to learn the basics of InDesign (kicking and screaming all the way). There will be spoilers in the text of these photos, so try not to read them if you haven't finished the fic!

For the title page, I modified To See the Crews in Training by Charles Pears (1930). I believe that this was part of a series of advertisements for the race in the London Underground.

For the chapter headers, I redrew the crest from an Oxford Oars, Flags, and Arms postcard, presumably pre 1914. I also had some fun creating a mock email using La_Temperanza's How to Mimic Email Windows on Ao3. Cormac's email makes me laugh every time I read it, and Citrusses provided an appropriately pompous subject.

I also had lots of fun editing the oars from the official OUBC logo to serve as dividers and decorations for the page numbers.

Additionally, I got to edit a full newspaper page for the fic! I was very excited find an opportunity to slip Leyendecker's The Finish (1908) in.

The fic ended beautifully, so I wanted to include one last element at the end to capture the atmosphere. I settled on L'aviron (1932) by Milivoj Uzelac. It makes me feel as though Harry and Draco will continue rowing together long after I've closed the book.

I of course had lots of fun sewing the headbands, and got to do it with not one but TWO copies!

Things got tricky when I had to recreate the cover. I had a poor understanding of how vector images worked, and ended up having to redraw it three times. Once I finally cracked and taught myself how to use Illustrator, the program crashed...and I had to redraw it a fourth time!

I set the vector to cut on my Cameo 4, and I assembled the pieces together like a puzzle on my Silhouette mat. I used Allure's indigo, skylight, white, and black bookcloth in the process. I will be making a tutorial video on this method, so I will keep it brief here.

I also cut a piece of bookcloth to 8.5"x 11" and fed it through my inktank printer to print the center design. I then cut it out using the print and cut feature on my Cameo 4. Both of these methods were a first for me, and they were very scary!!

To be perfectly frank, the foiling was a nightmare and I don't want to get into it. I machine foiled the gold, and then foiled black lettering on top of it. I foiled the rose gold shading by hand, and then foiled a thin black outline along the edge of the banners to make them stand out more.

I hand foiled the spines (because I'm scared of measuring), painted the exposed board (to hide any gaps in the inlays), and used transfer tape to lift my design from the Silhouette mat and onto the cover.

One more fun detail— my copy and the author's copy are sisters! The dark blue and the light blue are inverted on the author's copy, making it distinguishable from mine. This is the first time I have made an author's copy for a fic, and I was admittedly incredibly nervous. I always worry about what authors will think of my work, but Citrusses gave me an incredible amount of encouragement and support throughout the process! Thank you for trusting me with your precious fic!

This story is a work of fanfiction and can be read on Ao3 for free. My bind and typeset are for personal use only and not for sale or profit. Keep fandom free!

[urgardenandmine]

crushes and beats ☊ - m. lee

summary: you have a small adventure in SM's building and meet a cutie genre: fluff pairing: m!reader x mark lee word count: 2.1K

the weather was NOT in your favor on this summer day. well, not just the weather but the whole week itself.

this week was your first week within the SM building after winning what seemed to be a total scam considering you saw the ad to attend a once a year producer group session with a bunch of others from other countries. 

you received the news in your college dorm, while you were aimlessly scrolling on your x feed, just reposting a bunch of mindless posts on what a hippo would look like crossed with a watermelon. as you were scrolling on your phone, you saw the ad plastered in the usual pastel pink they would always use to market their stuff.

"CALLING ALL PRODUCERS!

Want to be a part of SM’s producing session and possibly be chosen to compose a song for our artists? Here’s your chance!

Go to our website and click the form!"

it looked inviting but what if it wasn’t real? (even though you still did it so it was real considering you were now here in their branch in korea.)

while in your dorm, you were procrastinating on your homework. though you had asked for an extension, you were already approaching the extension deadline but i mean everyone deserves a fun small break now and then.

hopping out of bed, you slid into your soft and cozy koala slippers as you took five steps onto your classic off-white rolly chair. opening up your silvery blue laptop, you typed in the link below in the post you had seen earlier. clicking enter, you were taken to a google doc form that was headlined with the official SM logo. the title read “PRODUCER SUBMISSION.” it looked promising but you didn’t have high hopes of getting in. nonetheless, you clicked out the tab and opened up your drive of beats you had made. 

the requirement was the sample be at least a minute long, which was easy considering you had full song lengths of beats. looking at each one you had in your drives, you closed your eyes and clicked on one. opening one eye, you had saw that you clicked it yet the name wasn’t shown (which was somewhat concerning since most of your files were named with the most absurd names like “cocomelon’s rival.”). you shrugged it off, somewhat confident in your skills yet not so cocky you would just automatically book a flight to korea. 

fast forward to a day later, you had received an international call and was told by their marketing team that you won! except you were like literally in the middle of school and like you had to tell your friends, family, pets, the school itself and like whoever else was involved in your life that somewhat needed you nearby. you had received the call during a small passing period between your classes, choking on your apple while surrounded by your friends as you all ate under a tree. you immediately ran to your dorm, your friends close behind as you started to pack for the weekend to get onto the paid flight to another country. 

another fast forward, you were kinda not expecting this rocky ass start in korea where you had to keep up appearances. korea was apparently dealing with a small heatwave this summer, and by small, it was literally 38C (or 101F). you were dressed in long sleeves, not really thinking much on what you packed considering you were packing every ten minutes after every ten minutes of studying last weekend. it wasn’t a good system but you did ace your sociology quiz with a 45/50. 

you were racing through the concrete halls, seeing a bunch of staff walking in the other direction as you had your laptop nestled in one arm, also filled with a binder, papers and your lanyard dangling off your hooked index finger and a single iced sweetened americano in the other hand. in retrospect, you shoulda brought your bag but didn’t want to look like a newbie in front of people who were great composers. 

scanning the glass doors, you read the labels on them except one issue, you struggled to read korean. you squinted your [e/c] eyes, looking at each door as you slowly began to walk passed the doors. one door had said “recording room/(1)녹음실,” which looked familiar since you saw that in the syllabus you were given with your other companions. standing in front of the textured glass door, you took a sharp breath in and let out a relaxed breath out. this should be a piece of cake. you already braved a flight to another country, braved talking to the security guard since you were an hour late and spoke no korean, braved asking for a sweetened americano even though you forgot the word for sugar and ALSO braved wearing a big baggy long sleeve in this weather. 

looking down at your hands, you gently squatted down and placed your cup down at your feet. inching forward with your now one free hand, you turned the handle and turned a small 90 degrees, using your behind to keep the door open. you bent down, grabbing your cup as you then turned back around and pushed your way through the door. it was heavier than you expected but you came for a music workshop, not an actual wood workshop. 

the recording studio was huge, almost the same size as your dorm. to your right, there was an L-shaped black leather sofa. the walls were a soft beige, which differed from the color of the booth as the booth itself was an eggshell white. in front of you was the equipment you had researched beforehand. 

you stepped closer, amazed at all the technical buttons and other mechanics the sound technicians had to work with while the famed idols you have heard of. realizing you were too lost in thought, you shook your head and checked the time on your watch. 1:27 PM. the session should start soon, but it was weird considering you were the only one here but maybe even producers were sometimes a little late.

making your way to the couch, you sat down and placed your equipment in your lap. setting your drink on the carpeted floor, you smiled as you took the whole room as well as the experience. this was real and happening. you were here to show off your talents. 

the door soon slowly opened, causing you to shoot up and look at the one in charge of the session. as you slowly centered your focus, the person you expected wasn’t the one you were met with.

in front of you stood a somewhat lanky and built man, adorned in a grayish tame impala hoodie. he had baggy navy blue sweatpants as well, paired with zebra adidas. as well as that, he had black messy bed hair by the looks of it and rounded frame glasses. 

“(2)아, 안녕하세요.” the man spoke, extending his right arm as he bowed. you looked at him, bowing back and trying to reply with the same greeting he had said to you. standing up straight, the man eyed you as he raised his right eyebrow, smirking.

“you speak english?” he asked, his small laugh making you feel a bit more at ease.

“yes, thank god. i mean-!” you groaned, smacking your head gently as you placed your hand into your palms trying to hide your embarrassment as you spoke before you could even think. hearing a small hearty laugh, you looked up as you saw the man chuckle and hold his stomach.

“nah, no worries! that was me before coming here too.” he said, staring at you, shifting into a more comfortable stance.

“i’m mark, nice to meet ya.” he introduced himself, extending his hand as you reached for a firm shake. the name sounded familiar but it wasn’t so close to ringing a bell. 

“sounds kinda familiar.” you spoke, making him place a hand over his heart, feigning a hurt act.

“wow~, welp, hate to break it to you but i’m kinda known here. i’m in a group called NCT.” he explained, making you nod as you finally realized where he was from. NCT. they sounded familiar but your music taste was all over the place. you solely remembered NCT as the group who basically claimed the color green. you smiled at him, showing him your pearly whites as you chuckled.

“nice to meet you, mark. i’m [y/n].” you introduced yourself, giggling softly as you did a small wave at him. looking at him, a small blush creeped onto his ears as he cleared his threat and looked away. you tilted your head, seeing him blush. you blinked, feeling your own neck get warm as your cheeks were slowly getting more color. turning your head away, you coughed softly. 

mark looked back at you, then seeing beside you your equipment as he pointed. 

“what’s all that?” he asked, walking a bit closer as he stood a foot from you. you turned your head to your laptop and papers, smiling gently as you got closer to them.

“oh! i’m here from winning the SM producer/composer competition.” you explained, looking at him as he scratched the back of his neck. his smile had faded, causing you to look at him and be a bit confused.

“i kinda hate to break it to you but the producing session was at 11:30 AM.” he revealed, causing you to feel your heart break a smidge. looking down at your feet, you could feel your energy shift the mood in the room. you couldn’t believe that you misread the rubric time. how could you have misread “11:30” as “1:30?” granted, you were also trying to do an essay overseas from your college. letting out a somewhat exasperated sigh, you looked up at mark and smiled.

“well, thanks for letting me know! i’ll be on my way.” you forced a small smile onto your face, bending down to slowly grab your things. as you reached down, you felt his hand placed onto yours. looking to your right, your eyes met as he began to smile at you.

“well, i mean you’re already here so why not just show me what you got?” he suggested, causing you to blush harder than ever. mark smiled widely, grabbing you stuff as he placed it onto the table and opened your laptop for you. he sat down on the chair on the left, reaching down to grab a cord and plugged it into your laptop. as he turned his head, he had still saw you standing there, lost in thought. he had patted the chair across from him, signaling you to sit down. 

snapping yourself out of your trance, you shook your head and made you way to the chair. mark had scooted closer to you, causing you to relax from the nerves you felt as you stared into his eyes. you opened your files, searching for one to show him. as his brown eyes read every file, he chuckled and leaned into your personal bubble, pointing a finger at one file.

“can you play this for me?” he asked. your eyes trailed his finger, seeing the file he wanted to be played. you froze, the file being named the absolute most dumbest thing ever. 

“you want me to play this?” you reiterated. you didn’t even remember what this beat/sample sounded like. you were somewhat tipsy when making this (if drinking about almost ten moscow mule during a frat party was “tipsy”). 

“yes. i would like for you to play “daddy won’t lemme see the ice king.”’ he read, laughing between each word. you groaned, smiling as you shrugged it off and clicked on it. shutting your eyes tight, you prayed to god that this file was an actual work of art. to your surprise, it kind of was. the cord mark plugged into your laptop had played the file on the surround sound speakers above you. the sample was one that was more of an r&b vibe. the sample was similar to that of jazmine sullivan or lucky daye. 

looking to your left, mark was beaming. you chuckled, looking at him as he looked towards you. you immediately paused it, now remembering you weren’t sure if you were allowed to be in here. he slowly touched your hand, reassuring you. your eyes met, making you both feel comfortable enough with one another that you could drop each other’s guards. 

“i’ll make you a deal. you and i make a sick song out of this and i won’t tell if you won’t.” he proposed. furrowing your eyebrows, you looked at him a bit confused. he laughed sheepishly.

“i’m not really supposed to be here either.” he said, looking around as if he was a school boy that got caught pranking the teacher. you smirked, leaning forward. taken aback, mark looked at you as you bit your bottom lip.

“i won’t tell if you won’t.”

⋆｡°✩

(1) = 녹음실 = recording room/studio

(2) = 아, 안녕하세요 = ah, hello

i hope this story is good for y'all nctzens! i was a part of the group but not gonna lie, jeno's my favorite but no one heard that from me...

[omegalomania]

the thing is that i can still remember the way it felt.

end of november, 2022, suddenly every feed lights up. they're doing something. people are posting images of the chicago tribune, a full page ad that has this bicolored logo, a face both happy and sad, black and white, and it simply says: FOB8.

"is this real?" quite a few people were skeptical after the years-long pause between mania and now. "i'm not convinced."

"it's a full-page ad in a single chicago newspaper out of nowhere, right after joe got finished doing a whole book tour where he insisted they had no new music to speak of," i answered. "of fucking course it's real. it has fall out boy all over it."

i remember so vividly the sense of wonder that arrived on christmas morning of that same year, when i woke up at the exact right moment to learn that fall out boy did something again. an eerie, playful, earnest, weird claymation video with a haunting soundtrack, featuring a little black and brown dog. it was mystifying and bizarre and striking - a sprinkling of stardust on the dog's muzzle that prompted it to sneeze - and the adrenaline rush i got from the snippet of heart-pounding drums and guitar was the best gift i'd received all year.

so much (for) stardust. i've said it before and i'll say it again - it's a damn near perfect title. it's a play on words, it has multiple meanings nested into one another. given enough time, we all fall apart like so much dust, like so much stardust because that's where we came from. we are made of and from stardust. for stardust. so much for stardust. so much for the cosmic clay that shaped us. so much for this life, so much for the very foundational fucking firmament from which we we all sprang, so much for this whole strange weird existence. it's exhaustion and anger and spite and frustration and, at the same time - it's wonder. it's love. it's a doberman frozen in an instant of elated play, snapping at bubbles. it's a dog breed conventionally associated with danger captured in a moment of buoyant delight. it's an oil painting, surrounded by words shaped from sparkling clay.

it's love.

it's a record full to bursting with love. it's in the very first song they sent to us, sending us their love from the other side of the apocalypse. it's a record that says yes, the world is a mess and it feels insurmountable. maybe existence is meaningless. maybe it's all fucking pointless and we're all gonna die anyway. but like hell that means i'm not going to love life with all that i am. like hell i am going to let that stifle me. if nothing matters, then love is what matters.

and they committed to it, too. if there's one thing we can take away from so much for (tour)dust, it's that fall out boy loves us the way we love them. they'd have to, right? they could have called it quits years ago. hell, they could've packed it up after the hiatus and just never come back. they'd have to really love doing this to want to keep at it, years later, and look at that. they have.

fall out boy, at the end of the day, is propelled by love. they have to really love what they do to keep doing it. they have to love each other, love the music, love the fans, to keep doing what they do. this is something they've repeatedly asserted over the course of this tour and record cycle: the sheer, shared joy, the positive feedback loop of creative energy that comes from sharing something you made with the world and seeing the world respond in turn.

the world is a wreck and it feels, at times, like nothing you do matters or changes anything. so much (for) stardust is the antithesis to that kind of existential apathy. look, it says. look at what your love has changed. because as desolate and nightmarish and inescapable as the pitfalls of this strange, oftentimes terrifying existence can be - we have laughter, we have good friends, we have good music, and we have the ability to not let our own ennui defeat us. there are things in this world worth living for. there are things in this world worth loving. you have to love one another. you have to laugh and do whatever silly, inane thing makes you feel alive. you have to hug your friends and sing with them, cry with them, and savor every drop of this life that we get. prioritize love. be seriously unserious.

a week before this record came out, i spent some 6-7 hours in a car driving to a record store to hear it with a bunch of people, many of them strangers. i heard so much (for) stardust in its entirety in a record store with one of my favorite people, surrounded by awed chatter as we all drank it in. we didn't catch all the words, but the ones we heard sank into us and took root. i almost couldn't bear to wait for to hear the record properly.

a year later, it's sunk into the recesses of my soul. i'm not sure it'll ever come unstuck there. i don't think i want it to.

thanks for the stardust, fall out boy.

we love you back.

[katnissandpeetamellark]

Idk if people aren’t getting Why I’m hyped that the logo on the book cover is shaped like a lyre

But here is why I am SO thrilled about the TikTok commenters epiphany!

••••

I assume most people at least have come across the Lyre as a symbol of Greek & Roman mythology (thank you Greek/Roman phase we all had as a child lol!) BUT for this post let’s look at the lyre as a symbol of one god, Apollo.

Apollo is the god things such as: music and dance, truth and prophecy, poetry … sun and light. AND archery. (among other things… but these are the ones I want us to focus on)

Let’s connect these things to what we know from the previous books!!!!⭐️

- we can connect music & dance to the Covey & Lucy Gray (and music eventually to Katniss & the propos)

- truth to what really happened during the 10th hunger games. The hidden truth of how Snow cheated. The one we as readers know and citizens of Panem were forced to forget.

- prophecy to the line in TBOSAS about the Katniss (root) not being ready yet 👀 To Mockingjays and their connection to Katniss and the eventual symbol that haunts Snow to his grave. The connection between the 10th hunger games to the 74th and beyond.

- poetry again could be Lucy Gray and her songs that continue to persist in 12 despite Snow trying to destroy her and her memory. Ballads of course are poetry (or song) that tell a story. The Hanging Tree originally tells the story of the Arlo & Lil. The Ballad of Lucy Gray is about her failed romantic relationship and being sent to her grave in the games because she was betrayed. Poetry & Ballads are the way history “stays alive” in 12, even if the masses have forgotten.

- the sun and light are … of course the “sunrise” in the title. The beginning, the start. Apollo is the one who brings the light to the sky every day! Maybe this is Lucy Gray or maybe this is Haymitch. Personally I believe they are both Apollo here. Perhaps each child sent to their death in the games is a spark… a beginning to a brighter world where the games no longer happen? A reason to fight.

- another connection of Apollo to Haymitch is that Apollo is the patron of herds, flocks, crops. Haymitch is herding all these poor district 12 children after he wins the games. Unwillingly and unhappily but in a sick way he becomes a Shepard — and he also eventually has his geese. A peaceful Shepard at last.

NOW! Here’s another thing— Apollo has a twin!! Artemis!

Artemis is the goddess of the HUNT! Goddess of wilderness and child care (among other things)… she is also the goddess of ARCHERY!

Sound like anyone we know??

ANYWAYS! Feel free to add on any ideas, argue points (I just ask you please be respectful in reblogs & comments! I like to chat but I won’t engage with condescension or asshole-ry lol), or even speak on different aspects of the cover💜

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 4

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Mike Priest Art - Jeffrey Witty Colours - Jenny Son Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: This was originally meant to be Page 5, with some of the later Waspinator stuff moved earlier. As envisioned by Mike Priest, all of the pages for the comic would have individual titles, but only he seemed to like this idea and none of them made it into the final product. He gave this page the title “Eternal Too”, a reference to the fact that this entire story is an expansion of his previous Mosaic one-shot, “Eternal”. See below for the original script and an early sketch by Witty, along with Mike’s “Writer Spotlight”.

Beast Wars: Second Chances- Page 5

“Eternal Too”

By Mike Priest

-

(FIRST PANEL- Depthcharge’s hand slaps down on wet sand; he’s just pulled himself from the ocean.)

(SECOND PANEL- A full side-view of Depthcharge, on his hands and knees crawling from the surf- wet, caked with dirt, seaweed hanging from parts of his body…we cannot see his chest.)

DEPTHCHARGE: G-geh…

(THIRD PANEL- Close-up of Depthcharge’s head, looking down at the sand, in confusion.)

DEPTHCHARGE: Huh…how?  I-I…thought…

(FOURTH PANEL- Depthcharge whirls and looks behind him in a panic, having heard a voice.  We still can’t see the front of his chest.)

RAMPAGE: (Dialogue bubble unlinked, border color differs) Well…THIS is certainly interesting.

DEPTHCHARGE: (Enraged) X!  WHERE ARE YOU??

(FIFTH PANEL- Depthcharge, horrified expression as he looks down at himself.  We see the pulsing glow of a spark from below off-panel.)

RAMPAGE: Where I’ve always been…

DEPTHCHARGE: (Small text) no…

(FINAL PANEL- Unveiling of Depthcharge’s chest- it is torn open enough for us to see a SECOND spark (smaller; it’s only a half) somehow messily “fused” onto Depthcharge’s larger spark, like some cancerous lump.)

RAMPAGE: …a touch more literally now, it would seem.  AHAHAHAH!

Ah, Beast Wars.  For me, it's a case of "third time's the charm!" Y'see, Beast Wars was Transformers' third coming for me.  And once it hit, I was snared for life.  As a wee lad, I was a fan of G1, from about the age of three 'til the age of seven or eight.  Oh, there was the Real Ghostbusters and Spidey and His Amazing Friends and whatnot here and there.  But Transformers was always the fallback, always something I could go back to when I lost interest with whatever the new fad was on the playground. Around 1991 or 1992, while there were still some Transformers toys on the shelves, I was growing more enamored with Ninja Turtles and Marvel Superheroes, and Transformers was largely on the backburner, possibly for good this time. But my growing love of comic books would bring me to Transformers yet again.  One fateful day in 1993, on a routine trip to the comic store with my older cousin, I saw it on the shelf. Transformers Generation 2 # 1.  Everyone can remember that cover -- Optimus Prime with bullets jutting out of his skull and faceplate and the tag "This is NOT your father's Autobot." I eagerly snatched it up and for the next twelve months, going to the comic store became a regular occurrence.  I loved Spider-Man and X-Men and Iron Man, but Transformers Generation 2 was the comic I HAD to have every month. You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered the book had been canceled after only twelve issues.  Without supporting fiction to give my toy "adventures" some measure of credibility, my interest waned as it had before, and Transformers once again only became a fond memory. Fast-forward to 1996.  My younger cousins tell me of an awesome "computer-graphics" show airing in the morning called Beast Wars.  "It's animals that transform into robots!", they tell me.  I chuckle, inwardly wondering if it is some rip-off of Transformers.  A few weeks pass and I catch an episode.  "The Web", it is titled, but what shocks me most is the "Transformers" subtitle underneath the prominent Beast Wars logo.  It isn't a rip-off, it IS Transformers! Of course, as a bitter, world-weary twelve-year old at this point, my initial reaction is "Turning into organic-looking animals?  Huh, dumb".  This doesn't stop me from watching the show on weekday mornings before going to school, rationalizing that "nothing else is on". Then suddenly, about midway through the first season of Beast Wars, I realize I'm not watching it because "nothing else is on" anymore, I'm watching it because it IS Transformers and it is AWESOME!  Before I knew it, I was hooked again!  And this time would be for good.  Never again would something push Transformers to second or even third-banana status with me.  I was a Transfan through and through and I owed it to Beast Wars for reminding me. To me, Beast Wars represents some of the very best Transformers storytelling has to offer and is unequivocally the best Transformers animated series of all time (so far).  I jumped at any chances to contribute to the Beast Wars universe in anyway, through fanfiction, through Transformers Mosaic, and now, through BEAST WARS: Second Chances. It's funny.  We're calling it "Second Chances".  But for me, Beast Wars was a THIRD chance.  And like I said before, third time's the charm! -- Mike Priest

[justforbooks]

Stieg Larsson

His Millennium trilogy was a worldwide hit. But to the Swedish author, it was only ever a sideshow to his true life’s work: fighting fascism, racism and rightwing extremism

It is a relatively well-known fact that the author of the bestselling and most widely known Nordic noir crime series of all time never got to witness his own success. Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson died of a sudden heart attack 20 years ago this week, aged only 50, before the publication of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the Millennium trilogy that followed.

What is less well known is that on the day of his death (9 November 2004), Larsson was due to give a lecture on the Nazis’ November pogrom at the headquarters of the Workers’ Educational Association in Stockholm. Kristallnacht, “the night of broken glass”, was an important date in Larsson’s calendar, which he commemorated every year. To him, it epitomised the abyss of far-right extremism he spent his life fighting.

Larsson’s life as an antifascist activist has been increasingly overlooked in the wake of his books’ phenomenal global success. One of Sweden’s most lucrative literary exports, the Millennium series has sold more than 100m copies across its various titles, according to publisher Norstedts. The novels have since been adapted into a number of Swedish TV films, a Hollywood blockbuster starring Daniel Craig, and expanded into two further trilogies by two other authors.

“And yet, the trilogy is only one episode in Stieg’s journey through the world, and it certainly isn’t his life’s work”, his life partner, Eva Gabrielsson, wrote back in 2011 in her memoir. Gabrielsson refers to the “Stieg of the ‘Millennium industry’” as being created after his death. The Larsson she knew was an unwavering antifascist – a deeply rooted conviction that shines through passage after passage of his page-turning crime thrillers.

Two decades on, the novels read like a gloomy premonition of Sweden’s political landscape to come, with the far-right Sweden Democrats a de facto part of the governing coalition since 2022. Larsson exposed the undemocratic underbelly of a country usually associated with Scandinavian exceptionalism rather than murderous Nazis. It was a side of Swedish society he knew all too well as a journalist.

In The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a suspenseful whodunnit set on a fictional Swedish island inhabited by a wealthy industrialist family, Nazi pasts are never far beneath the surface of the plot. The Vanger brothers – Richard, Harald and Greger – were all members of the extreme right organisation New Sweden, with Harald becoming a “key contributor to the hibernating Swedish fascist movement”. The investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist later finds photos of Greger with Sven Olov Lindholm, a Swedish Nazi leader in the 1940s. And the fascist ideology of Richard – grandfather of the missing Harriet and her vicious brother Martin – led him to the Finnish trenches in the second world war.

In the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, we find the biker gang Svavelsjö MC (whose logo features a Celtic cross, a symbol common among white supremacy groups) at the centre of a sex trafficking ring. The gang is well connected with the organised extreme right: its number two, Sonny Nieminen, has had dealings with neo-Nazi groups such as the Aryan Brotherhood and the Nordic Resistance Movement while in prison. Lisbeth Salander’s nemesis and, as it turns out, brother – a giant brute who feels no pain called Ronald Niedermann – was part of a skinhead gang in the 1980s in Hamburg, we are told; it’s a nod to a nascent far-right subculture in Germany responsible for arson attacks and murders.

And in Larsson’s final novel, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Blomkvist and Salander expose a shadowy clique within Swedish intelligence called “the Section”, comprised of members of the extreme right Democratic Alliance. “Within the Section this was no obstacle,” we learn. “The Section had in fact been instrumental in the very formation of the group.”

While the Millennium trilogy touches on many themes, especially violence against women (the original Swedish title Larsson insisted on for the first novel translates as “Men who hate women”), Larsson condemned the Swedish far right’s influence at all levels of society.

These convictions were rooted in his biography. His grandfather, with whom he grew up with in the icy north of Sweden, was an anti-Nazi communist imprisoned in an internment camp during the second world war. The grandfather would recount the horrors of the November pogrom, leaving a lasting impression on the young Larsson, himself a committed activist, first in the anti-Vietnam war movement, then in Maoist and Trotskyist circles. But it was Larsson’s commitment against the far right that would shape his politics for the bulk of his life.

In 1979, Larsson joined the Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, where he spent the next 20 years of his modest career as a low-level journalist. But as rightwing extremists began robbing banks, stealing weapons and murdering people in Sweden in the mid-1980s, Larsson became the agency’s go-to expert.

From 1983, he began writing for the British antifascist magazine Searchlight as a Stockholm correspondent. In 1991 he co-authored a Swedish-language book on rightwing extremism. And over the years he penned numerous reports and articles on contemporary antisemitism and the far right for organisations and institutes in Israel, Belgium and France.

A pivotal moment came in 1995. Larsson co-founded the Expo Foundation, which publishes a quarterly magazine on racism, antisemitism and the far right to this day. By 1999, it had become his day job. It was a calling that came at great personal cost, landing him on neo-Nazi hitlists. He received bullets by post. Colleagues were targeted through shootings or car bombs. According to Gabrielsson, it was for security reasons that they did not marry, leaving her without inheritance rights under Swedish law.

“Stieg was a nerd at heart, but there was a certain machismo to covering the far right in the 90s,” says Daniel Poohl, head of the Expo Foundation since 2005. “It was men researching dangerous other men and sometimes that meant having a baseball bat to protect yourself. Because that’s what you do when you feel that you’re on your own.”

Poohl is sitting in the first floor office of Expo in a nondescript block in a residential neighbourhood in Stockholm. Framed covers of the compact, stylish magazine, which today has 7,000 subscribers, adorn the wall behind him. In the next room, the 14 staff members are busy planning the coming issue, page drafts of which are plastered on the wall.

It’s hard not to think of Larsson’s fictional investigative publication Millennium, with which there are plenty of parallels in the novels. “A lot of people have said to me that Millennium is basically Expo,” says Poohl. “But it’s not. Millennium was the ultimate dream magazine. Stieg was a bad businessman, so it would never work in real life.”

The success of the novels, which Larsson wrote in his spare time, has partly helped the foundation, however. A representative of Larsson’s estate said that the holding company that controls it has donated a total of over 40 million Swedish kronor (£2.9 million) over the years, which “have clearly been crucial for Expo’s activities.” .

Poohl from Expo confirmed that the foundation received one off payments, as well as an additional yearly support from the Larssons for a period and a cut of the fourth novel in the series, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, published in 2015 and authored by David Lagercrantz.

“People sometimes think we received a lot of money through the books, but it’s less than they think,” he says. “We’re thankful for the financial support that we have received during the years. But the royalty agreement has since ended.” Poohl adds: “The sad part is that Stieg didn’t get to use his fame to further his political work.” Joakim Larsson, his brother, declined an interview request due to health reasons. Gabrielsson, now 70, didn’t respond to multiple interview requests.

With the electoral success of the far-right Sweden Democrats, a party rooted in Swedish nazism, Larsson’s political nightmare has in many ways come true. “He tried to show that they weren’t simply a gang of madmen plotting to infiltrate Swedish society … but a real political movement that had to be combated through political means,” wrote Gabrielsson back in 2011. The “Millennium millions”, as a Swedish documentary has called the fortune made through the trilogy, would have undeniably been a big boost to his other life’s work.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[furinana]

Reviewing SMT's 30th Anniversary Event in Yokohama

In 2023 (the year of Nanashi's birthday!) I spent some months in Japan so I lucked out when they announced a Megaten concert right before my departure.

This is a compilation of thoughts from tweets and messages I sent to friends that I decided to turn into a public post for archival purposes.

Disclaimer: unless stated otherwise, none of the pictures I'm using here are mine. Most of them were taken from the event's official account.

May 6th. From Kyoto (the city I was staying) to Yokohama was approx. two hours by Shinkansen. Like how a close friend of mine says, "The thing about Japan is that you ride one train and you just become the biggest car hater immediately".

[I ended up taking an overnight bus for the back trip however, took around 7 hours. Cramped on your legs but your pockets hurt way less]

How is Yokohama at the moment? A bright sunny noon and like this user illustrated, windy as hell (my cap came off once and I had to run in the middle of the street to rescue it).

[KT Zepp Yokohama]

I arrived 4 hours before the concert's schedule so I fucked around Yokohama's cozy Chinatown for a bit, among other places I don't remember. I didn't take into account that you could arrive hours prior to the event to purchase the limited merch line and stare at concept art of mainline games in an exhibiton placed in the entrance. The merch would get sold out in a matter of minutes in the gap between the opening and when the concert would start! Don't underestimate scalpers, folks.

A beginner's mistake, this is how life teaches you to be smart.

[For every 5,000 yen you spent, you got the chance of receiving a colored bookmark of one of the protagonists. A lot of items involved abysmal luck to get. Fortunately I was able to grab what I set my eyes on in the later online raffle so things turned out fine on my end (although I'm currently having to deal with a lot of dupes much to my annoyance. But hey, I have official merch of Flynn and Nanashi now)]

Regarding the exhibition: Not a lot of stuff to comment on. They made a timeline of sorts for each mainline title (except the NES games because fuck 'em I guess) and pretty much most of it was available in official artbooks published previously. Nocturne for example, they displayed the writing process & how they sketched cutscenes and attacks prior to making them 3D etc, which was no-news if you browsed the Ayakashi Monthly book before.

[We weren't allowed to take pictures so I can only show the previews from the official account. We had to stay at a long line to look at each piece in a chronological way so it felt particularly... uncomfortable. I don't like the feeling that I might be slowing down other people so I end up rushing what was supposed to be a serene activity]

The actual exclusive never-seen-before art was regarding beta character & demons concepts from SMT4A:

[Top: Drawn from memory by me. Bottom: The "mermaid" is a reference to the Starbucks logo that interestingly, is also present in Nanashi's room (which could mean there was an intention of Nanashi's only reference of a mermaid being the logo of a cafe that wouldn't exist in-universe anymore. For those unaware, the mermaid in question is actually a siren!]

Here are the descriptions I typed on my phone right after I exited the exhibition (and would use as base for my own sketches a day later):

Chironnupu had two beta forms with the face as it is now where one walked on four legs and the other his legs faded out in a ghost-like manner. He also had a third and more distinct from his current design where he was dressed in Ainu attire on 2 legs and was smiling to the viewer (a Youkai Watch sort of vibe, very cute).

Nanashi had an unseen sketch where Doi drew him with a suspiciously big waist. Yeah, I know it's minor but I wanted to comment on how unhinged Doi is in drawing girly boys. Go off king

Cleopatra had a form where she had dark skin, dark green hair and emerald green eyes (...huh? I just realized I painted her hair with brown instead of green lmao I became fixated in making her look similar to Maria Torres from Trauma Team). Considering how some demons get color variations (such as Vishnu or Moh Shuvuu), some even getting darker skin in adaptations (take Rama in the Devil Survivor 2 anime), perhaps Cleopatra getting an alt that is closer to this beta depiction isn't an impossibility. I can dream

Vishnu-Flynn had a version where his face was the same as how Flynn normally is.

Mermaid had a form where she was supposed to resemble the Starbucks logo where her palette was red&other color (I don't remember if it was blue or green) and showed an alluring evil smile.

Now let's talk about the concert. The structure of how it went was basically alternating between the band playing remixes of soundtracks with gameplay videos on the screen and then pausing for the hosts to talk with the audience and share some free-talks with the musicians that worked on the titles.

Fans used this menorah they sold in the booth as a glow stick (the ones you see in idol events).

[Event announcers Mafia Kajita and Chiaki Matsuzawa in day 1 and 2]

At the end there was a little quiz with gameplay-specific questions, for example what a certain skill does. You had to answer with this little cardboard thing that had a Jack Frost in one side and Black Frost in the other.

Regarding the free-talks, a summary of what I was able to get (take those with a grain of salt):

Kozuka never played any Megaten before composing for the games (he thought they were too dangerous)

SJR composer played all of them

Tsukasa said the songs for the SNES games were a lot longer and better-sounding but unfortunately they had to chop off a lot

Meguro makes sound effects before making the music, finished SMT2 before starting composing but doesn't play games anymore

By the end, Kajita wishes Megaten games were released more often so events like this could happen frequently and Matsuzawa says she's a big Digital Devil Saga fan.

By the way, you could easily recognize the western fans from the audience from how louder and cheerier they were compared to the local ones. Japanese fans are the types that respect silence to a scary degree. For another example, I was able to watch The Boy and the Heron right in the opening week and nobody from the session I went to laughed or made any perceptible reaction to other viewers. The only one laughing in the entire room was my, notably, non-JPN roommate.

When the concert was nearing its end however, the hosts allowed everyone to be as loud as they wanted to thus letting the atmosphere at long last turn closer to the spirit of Megaten... chaotic.

[Going personally to the concert was a totally unique experience compared to seeing it from a screen with diluted audio. You truly had to be there to have your stomach twisting from the echoes coming from the band's instruments]

My personal favorite remixes:

SMT1's Ginza

SMT2's Disco Theme

SMT4's Boss Theme & Map theme

SMT4A's f6 Godslayer (when they showed Vishnu-Flynn on the big screen... 😳)

[donutsupremacy]

Muscle head

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Summary

"After the Vision Hunt Decree's sucessfully abolishment, your dear beloved big brother has the opportunity to see you after what felt like decades... It sure is a surprise to see you with someone else."

Warnings

Oni!GN!Reader

Reader is Arataki Itto's little sibling

Fluff fluff fluff very fluffy

Reader having a vision is not mentioned, but can be read as still having one or not anyway

Protective but still goofy itto

Romantic-Haitham

Ooc

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A/N: I started playing HSR, I'd write fics for my lovely Gepard or soon to be husbando Luka, but I didn't pay attention to the lore enough lol

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Your romance begins here

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"He should be here..." You muttered, your clawed fingers rapidly tapping against the surface of the smooth wooden table. "Soon?... Maybe? Hopefully?"

You leaned outwards from your seat to scan the streets once more, frantically looking around for the familiar white haired male you knew as your older brother. However, the bustling streets of Port Ormos had no signs of the red Oni anywhere.

An annoyed sigh erupted from your lips, slumping onto your wooden chair in defeat. "I hope he didn't get caught in the storm... or the boat sunk..."

"Haven't you heard of the word 'Jinx' before?" The grey haired man sitting across from you asked, setting his book down and crossing his arms. "If you keep naming each and every negative outcome that had a reasonable chance to actually occur—"

"Yeah, yeah... It might happen..." You sulked, moping in your seat like a kicked puppy. And that was exactly his image of you, a sad, cute and lost puppy wimpering in it's seat across from him.

Alhaitham planted two fingers on the hard covered book, sliding it over to you. "Your brother will arrive eventually. If it helps to calm that endlessly chaotic mind of yours down, occupying it by reading something to your preferences will help greatly."

You took the book, flipping it to see the title. "Eh? Since when were you into Inazuman related stuff?" You asked, seeing the familiar picture of a purple and green baring it's sharp fangs at eachother, the title above written as; 'The Serpent and Drakes of Tokoyokoku'.

"Don't you remember? Back when you first arrived in Sumeru's Akademiya?" He asked, prompting you to recall that fateful encounter with the male.

The tall bright ceiling towered over you with lights that could blind anyone if they stared at it too long, rows of bookshelves displaying a variety of reading material, students either standing next to said bookshelves or sitting by themselves, engrossed in their studies.

The interior design was no laughing matter. It was so simple, yet, modern compared to your usual Inazuman designs that you were used to. So much plant life... and books.

You blinked in confusion, you didn't think the House of Daena would be this big. You felt like a small insignificant spec of dust in this room, and quite lost too.

"Eh... how in the world am I going to find that—"

"Standing around here and whining about getting lost instead of asking around for help isn't the best idea." A stoic voice spoke behind you, causing you to jump before turning around. "Oh. You're an Oni."

You touched your horns, but the markings on your face were pretty obvious too. "Uhh, yeah, i'm an Oni! My name's [Full Name]!" You chirped, offering him a handshake.

He stares at it for a second, with a blank expression, before eventually giving you a single firm handshake. "Alhaitham. You're from [Darshan], aren't you?"

"Eh? How'd you know?" You asked in shock, only for it to dissipate into embarrassment when he pointed at the book held closely to your chest, which had the Darshan's logo imprinted on the cover.

"Isn't the Vision Hunt Decree still ongoing? How did you get past Inazuma's borders?" He asked, crossing his muscular arms. He was way more muscular than your kin. "And you dropped this on the way in the House of Daena."

He hands you 'The Serpent and Drakes of Tokoyokoku', you thanked him before explaining your decision to leave Inazuma was long before the decree was implemented. You dearly missed your brother, but he respected your decision nonetheless. It was your dream to enter the Akademiya, after all, why would he want to crush it?

And as you continued to explain it, you weren't aware of his focused gaze on you.

You were cute when you ramble endlessly.

You giggled fondly to yourself, your legs swaying back and forth childishly underneath the table. "Yeah! Yeah! I didn't think you'd... ah..." You felt your cheeks flare up, hiding the bottom of your flushed face with the book.

"Didn't take a romantic interest in you because of our personalities clashing? Let's be bonest, no one would. But..." He reaches over and holds your hand, smiling affectionately at you. And he rarely smiles. "Your little ramblings weren't the only thing attracting me to you."

You melted when he brought your hand up to kiss your knuckle, something he knew would make you swoon without fail.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Port Ormos, stood a white haired male and his pet bull. "Uhhhh, hey, did we take a wrong turn near that rock we saw? I feel like we should've taken a left instead of a right... I don't see little [Nickname] anywhere, and we are in Port Ormos, right?" Itto asked, the little bull responding with an equally confused 'Moo'.

"Eh, we'll find our way there. There's a sibling out there waiting for us! Let's roll, Ushi!" Itto marched towards a random direction, his head held high despite receiving many confused looks.

Alhaitham stared at the white haired man walk by without realizing he had accidentally ignored his little sibling, who also didn't realize he was here. 'Certainly related.' He thought as you continued to descrive your brother's appearance, all the while neither of you realized the other was nearby.

He didn't bother using his words, only leaning across the table and held your chin. Flustered, you stumble over your words and froze in your seat. "A-Alhaitham?..." You whispered softly, your heart pounding against your ches—

"Oh! Itto!!" You cried as soon as he turned your head to face the said male nearby. Hearing your voice, the Oni turned around to see you enthusiastically waving at him. "Little [Nickname]!! Hah! See, Ushi? I told you Oni can sense eachother nearby!" He exclaimed proudly before running towards you,

With the grey haired scribe behind you, you ran towards your brother and jumped into his arms. "How's my lil' [Nickname] doing? It feels like an entire decade went by since I last saw you! You've grown so tall!"

"Speak for yourself!... Oh, hi Ushi!" You greeted, giving the little bull a chin scratch. "Man, I have so much I wanna talk about! But how's the gang? Any new rare beetles you caught? Is miss Shinobu still taking good care of you?" You asked, bombarding him with one question after another.

All the while, Alhaitham was silently reading the book and standing behind you, wondering how you could tolerate that boisterous laugh of his since birth.

"Relaaaaax, my lil' compadre. I know you wanna know all about my super cool adventures and how the Arataki "Shogun Slayer" Itto took on the Almighty Raiden Shogun all by himself!" Itto boasted, basking in your praises.

Alhaitham stared at you in disbelief for actually believing in this obvious lie. Then again, there's a reason why you're both related.

"If I recall, it was the traveller who defeated the electro archon. They're also the reason why the Vision Hunt Decree was sucessfully abolished and lifted Inazuma's border." Alhaitham suddenly spoke, closing the book and crossing his arms.

The white haired male's eyes widened at his built figure, his arms were far more muscular than his, the suit he wore hugged his body tightly and showed off his abs. Who in the world is this guy and what kind of training regiment did he go through!?

"Ohh, right! Taki', this is Alhaitham! My boyfriend—"

"BOYFRIEND!?" He yelled, his voice echoing loudly in the air.

Alhaitham only blinked, unfazed by the Oni's sudden outburst and the many eyes staring curiously at the scene. All the while you shrank under their gaze, smiling sheepishly at the grey haired male who gave you the usual blank expression.

"Hold up, hold up, hold up. Since when did you start dating!?... And why him!?" He asked, his eyes hurt and betrayed. You winced internally, you haven't seen those puppy doll eyes since you left Inazuma.

"T-Taki', don't get upset. We... just got together pretty recently, right, haitham'?" You asked, your eyes gazing into his for help. Alhaitham, though knowing that was an obvious lie, only sighed and lazily nodded in agreement.

He doesn't care if your relationship with him was publicly announced, so as long as he doesn't end up getting more work just because he's taken. But, it seems like this would be a tiring reunion for him.

"As for why we... starting datin—"

"Is it because of his muscles!?"

"...What?"

Alhaitham barely flinched when the white haired male suddenly grabbed his wrist, lifting his arm up and gesturing to his biceps. "Look at him! He's absolutely beefy! As a preeeetty buffed dude myself, it ain't a surprise when there's a fan club dedicated to the One and Oni! Everyone loves a dude with muscles!... How did you get so buff anyways? You better not lay a hand on my lil' [Nickname]!"

"[Name]'s dating me for a reason. They wouldn't have continued our relationship if it they held no romantic feelings towards me. Besides, it doesn't benefit me whatsoever if I harm them. There's a reason why I chose them as my [S/O]... because I truly do love them.." Alhaitham stated, his eyes— though normally cold and unfeeling, was full of affection and love as he stared at you.

Itto stumbles over his words, waving his clawed hands around frantically. "Benefit this, benefit that, yeah, yeah, whatever. What if they run into some... I dunno, some dangerous dudes!? You—"

"Well then, what can I do to reassure you that I won't?" Alhaitham interrupted. "I don't exactly need to seek for your approval of our relationship, nor would I let them be harmed in any way. But if it helps to ease your mind, let me know how I can 'prove' myself to you."

Just to make you happy, he'll satisfy this... guy.

The white haired man blinked, processing his proposal. His eyes stared at his muscular figure for a minute, tapping his chin with squinted eyes as he thought of an idea. "Heh, well, you said you would protect em', right? Wanna make a bet on that?"

Itto cracks his knuckles, his arms bulking up slightly while showing a toothy grin. Despite having smaller biceps compared to Alhaitham, the male thought of him as a small fry. "I challenge you to an Onikabuto Battle Royale!"

He presents the brightly coloured bug in his fingers, small legs swimming in the air aimlessly. Alhaitham blinked, raising an eyebrow at the obvious fact that he doesn't have an Onikabuto.

"Ohh, hi there lil' guy! What's his name?" You asked, playing with it's legs. A giggle left your lips as it's nuzzles your finger, seemingly showing you affection.

"Say hello to my new compadre; The Sibling-Oni-Bonder-Boyfriend-Breaker!" Itto announced, presumably making up the name on the spot, you only continued to play with the bug while your boyfriend smirked a little.

"Aww, he's adorable!... Except Haitham' doesn't have one... We're in Sumeru, not Inazuma." You sheepishly stated.

"Bah!— Pssh, yeahahaha! I know. I know. And since he doesn't have one, he forfeits! And i'm the forever unbeatable champ of Onikabutos!" The Oni exclaimed, puffing out his chest proudly and smirking to himself.

"How about this—" Alhaitham walks back to the table, removing one of his sleeves before rolling his shoulder. Your face flushed, his muscles flexing at every movement almost effortlessly. "—Lets just get this over with. Fairly and quickly."

Propping his elbow on the table, Alhaitham nods at his opened hand, gesturing at the seat for your brother. "Oh! An arm wrestle, huh? Hah, rookie mistake! I'm also known as 'The Undefeated Arm Wrestling Champion'! Get ready to lose!"

To be fair, Alhaitham disliked physical challenges, opting for more intellectual-related games. But to not upset you and your brother, he decided it would be more fitting for something small and physical.

Without missing a beat, he takes his seat across Alhaitham, locking hands and fingers with the male. You jogged over excitedly, taking a seat in the middle as to not upset either one of them. You loved them equally and dearly, it kind of hurts to see your brother acting so dramatic about your love life.

But you understand, after all, you've only got eachother.

You hold their locked hands, deciding to be an unbiased referee. Itto smirks confidently, gripping the table for stability with his other hand as Alhaitham did the same. "Ready?~ Three, two, one... go!"

Letting their hands go, it (unsurprisingly) came as a shock when Itto's hand was slammed onto the table with a soft but audible thud. "Gaaah!" The Oni yelped, nearly thrown off his chair.

Alhaitham released the male's hand, his muscles twitching a little under your gaze. It never fails to make you flush, and that blush never fails to make him amused.

"Wah?? Heyheyhey waitwaitwaitwait... you were by like— one second early! That's not fair at all! C'mon, let's go again. And this time; I won't be going easy!" He rubs his wrist and goes back to the same position earlier, waiting for your boyfriend to accept his rematch.

Alhaitham looked at you with bored eyes, he didn't want this pointless shenanigan to drag on endlessly. You grinned sheepishly, mouthing 'One more round?' to him.

He stared at you, brows furrowed and wanting to decline... but, it seems your puppy dog eyes never fail as he begrudgingly locked hands with the Oni once more.

And he sure regrets agreeing to this rematch.

.

.

.

.

"Best out of 57!" The white haired Oni exclaimed once more, gripping his sore wrist and rotating his near tired hand, the faint sound of his bones cracking made you cringe.

Alhaitham, on the other hand, leaned back and rolled his eyes. "How long do you want this to drag on for?" He asked, voice a little dry.

You gave him a cup of water, guilt eating you up for asking your boyfriend to accept every rematch. You looked at your still determined brother, who's still begging for one more round. "Itto..." You moved your chair closer to his, wraoping your arms around his slightly muscular ones. "Haitham's tired... C'mon, just let this go? For me?"

"Seriously, why'd you pick this dude to take care of you?... Am I not good enough?" He asked, voice growing softer at the end as he stared at you with glossy eyes.

You sighed, enveloping him in a hug. "Now, when did I ever say that? You're my one and Oni big brother, you have a special place in my heart because we've been through a lot."

You heard a quiet sniffle, his shoulder shaking a little. "There, there... You can let it out." You reassured softly, patting his back. It bring you memories of when he'd do the same, the days where you'd trip over a rock clumsily and bawled our eyes out as he cuddled you while reassuring he'd 'Take revenge on the rock'.

"I... I'm not gonna cry. I'm a man!" He croaked out, you pulled away and already seeing tears streaming down his face. "I just miss you, lil [Nickname]... I don't wanna lose you to this weirdo!"

Alhaitham coughed into fist, before taking another sip of water whilst you pout at him. "You won't, big bro... And he won't do anything bad, I guarantee it!... Besides, if I ever get a vacation, i'll always visit you in Inazuma!... If Alhaitham joins me?...."

You slowly turned to Alhaitham, showing him the best puppy eyes you could muster. Which— you didn't need to out much effort in anyways. "A vacation is a vacation. Less work for me, more time to be with you. As long as I can rest in a quiet, solitary place with you. You may be a handful, but at least you know how to handle yourself well and I don't have to bother cleaning up any mistakes you might've left for me."

Itto visibly narrowed his eyes, but noticing how happy you looked when he agreed and how he doesn't hesitate in doing whatever you want— You both truly love eachother.

Even if Alhaitham sounds stern, cold and unpleasant, you don't seem bothered by it at all.

"...Fine, i'll let him be your man. But you better take good care of them if i'm not around! This Oni's got a lotta work goin' on with the gang back in Inazuma, so I can't always visit you in Sumeru." Itto said, puffing up his chest proudly.

"No problem! Since the decree's been removed, we can write letters more frequently! But we'll worry about that later... I wanna show you some mushrooms we can play with!" You exclaimed, tugging your brothers arms, your eyes filled with childlike excitement.

"No way! You talkin' about those bouncy mushrooms! Wnat are we waiting for? Let's roll!" Itto yelled, punching the air with a fist while you looked at Alhaitham.

"...Sitting this one out, my energy is needed for some paperwork back at home." Alhaitham explained, dreading the loads of unnecessary projects asking for approval. Most of which might've come from his blonde roommate.

You shrugged, running over to his side and pecking his cheek before dragging your brother away to a spot where there were plenty of bouncy mushrooms. "If you're too tired, you can share the workload with me!" You exclaimed, before running off with Itto.

As Alhaitham stared at the two of you running off to who knows where, the corner of his lips slowly tugged upwards. "Have fun, love. Reliable as you are, there's no need to worry about the paperwork, i'll handle them all today. Just prioritise on your happiness and his."

Perhaps that contagious smile of yours was another thing he was attracted to.

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A/N: Ahahrhquabix I had this sitting in draft for a while and wanted to finish this once and for all. Took a break for my mentality after losing another 50/50. (5 Losses back to back to back to back to back ;-;) Spent 145 wishes and only got 1 Kazoot, AND HERE I THOUGHT THE RNG GODS WOULD THROW ME AND BONE BECAUSE I WANTED C2 KAZOOT BUT GOT C1 KEQING INSTEAD—

Gl and may all of you [Desired character] wanters be [Desire character] havers <3

[invisibleraven]

It's not the way you look, it's the way that you...

When Reggie texts Julie asking what she wears to bed, she has no idea what to think, or where the conversation will go from there.

On AO3!

So I saw this post and immediately thought: Rulie, this is so Rulie. So you guys get this little bit of nonsense, please enjoy!

Julie hummed along to the low music playing from her laptop, kicking her feet behind her while she doodled away. It was too early to go to bed, but too late to do much of anything else, so she was just wasting her time before she forced herself to sleep. She was honestly debating an ill advised late night PB & J when her text alert sounded, and she grabbed her phone.

Reggie: What do you wear to bed?

Julie’s eyebrows flew up-where had that come from? Sure, Reggie was a flirt, and she flirted right back, but neither of them had pushed for more than that, content to stay flirty friends and writing partners whenever Reggie got the itch to pen some country songs. Would Julie like for them to be more? Maybe, but after she and Nick had blown up, then she and Luke had fizzled out, she wasn’t sure she wanted to risk another friendship.

But if Reggie was out of the blue starting what felt like a sexy conversation? Well Julie was cool playing along to see where it went.

Julie: Black lacy bra and booty shorts ;)

She was not, of course, wearing either of those things, but there was no way Julie was telling Reggie she was wearing floral jammie pants and a Sunset Curve shirt she may or may not have stolen from him. Plus it was fun to imagine just how flustered Reggie was in seeing her text. She bet he turned as crimson as his favourite flannel. Making him blush was half the fun of flirting back honestly.

She held her phone a little tighter as the three little dots appeared, then disappeared, back and forth, until finally Reggie’s next text appeared.

Reggie: k, but what about when it’s cold?

do you wear warm pajamas?

MeeMaw is making me get rid of my X-men jammies, and they’re about your size.

Julie sat up at that. While her mother had gotten her into music, her dad had gotten her into comics. It wasn’t an interest she widely published, but she loved reading the adventures and exploits of superheroes, particularly the mutants of the Marvel universe. People gifted with unique abilities and despite the world hating them for these gifts, choosing to help humanity rather than fight against them. While America Chavez was her go to cosplay, a part of Julie’s heart would always belong to Professor X and his gang.

Reggie had come across her reading the comics one day, and instead of teasing her, he enthused over the title she was reading, and showing her his own collection. His favourite was Nightcrawler, and Reggie had gotten her all the copies of Excalibur he owed, with Julie coming to really love the fuzzy blue guy.

So she knew exactly which pajamas that Reggie meant-ones with a hoodie that looked like Nightcrawler’s uniform and flannel pants that were covered in the X-man logo. She had coveted them for forever, Reggie looked so comfy and snuggly in them when he wore them to band slumber parties, and Julie wanted that level of comfort while repping her nerdy side.

She then saw another text from Reggie and melted a little as she read it.

Reggie: i swear they’re not gross or anything, they’re clean, but i can wash them again if you want, i know you like them

Julie: Yes please!

Reggie: cool, I’ll bring them next comic book day?

Julie sent a thumbs up in reply. Every Thursday they walked to a local comic shop to pull their new titles, check out new stuff, and occasionally splurge on a figurine or Funko Pop, with Reggie proclaiming that one day their band would be big enough that they would be here, immortalized in vinyl for fans to buy. Julie hoped he was right.

She glanced over to her phone again, at the sweet gesture Reggie had made, and decided fuck it, throwing the chat log up on her tumblr page, no caption or tags, and left it, browsing a few other sites before calling it a night, not even thinking about it before she slept.

Only when Julie awoke, her phone screen was full of notifications. Messages and reblogs with shouty tags from her friends and followers on tumblr.

Smashley: Girl if you aren’t dating this guy, I will!

Katie-Cakes: #marry this guy now #nothing says i love you like x-men

Jo-Jo-Jo-Your-Boat: #any guy who buys you i was thinking of you gifts #is worth at least a smooch #if not a date

Inn_Your_Wildest_Dreams: Please tell me you said yes to the jammie guy and he asked you out immediately after

Jaybird: #not where i thought this was going at first #too adorable for words #relationship goals #you guys are going to be in a relationship right? #cuz i’m shipping it like crazy

There were countless more, all along the same trend; she needed to date Reggie.

Julie worried her bottom lip, unsure. Yes, Reggie was sweet, she knew they had some chemistry from their play flirting, and had a lot of similar interests. And it wasn’t like Reggie was hard on the eyes either, with his punk style and classic good looks. But it was still Reggie!

Reggie who made her laugh so hard she snorted in a totally undignified way. Who indulged her love of romantic comedies while she sat through his sci-fi favourites. Who encouraged her to branch out musically, and their country songs were pretty darn good as a result, even if her fiddle playing was still less than stellar. Who shared his desserts with her at lunch time, his comics whenever he came across a storyline she might like. And now, here he was, offering her something he had treasured just because he knew she would like it.

Julie touched her cheeks, feeling the burn against her palm, the way her smile was stretching her cheeks. “Oh God, I like Reggie,” she whispered to herself. Sure she had thought along the same lines before, but now she felt like it might be time to throw caution to the wind and act on it, reservations about what this would do to their friendship be damned.

Now what was she going to do about it?

Julie pulled up her conversation with Reggie once more, and looked over the words from the night before, and at her growing tumblr notifications. And maybe her thumbs started moving all on their own.

Julie: I put our convo from last night on the internet!!!

Reggie: Wha??

Julie: I put it on tumblr! You should see the response!!!

Reggie knew of tumblr, that Julie knew, but he confessed that social media wasn’t really for him. “I prefer my technological advancements to stop in the 1990’s,” he had quipped, and Julie had laughed, telling him he had been born in the wrong decade.

“Plus you run the band’s Insta page!”

“Yeah, photos I get, I did all Sunset Curve’s promo stuff,” Reggie admitted. “And Insta is way easier than making posters. But blogging and stuff ain’t my jam.”

Reggie: isn’t tumblr an art site?

Julie: Yeah sort of

But also not really

It’s complicated Anyways, my post got a huge response

Reggie: shit

Oh no, Julie instantly panicked. What if Reggie came to the same conclusion as all her followers and was about to let her down easy? Or get mad at her for putting it up without his permission? Sure she had blacked out his name, but still… those were his words, unfiltered for anyone to see.

She was about to offer to take the post down when Reggie texted her again.

Reggie: i lied to millions on the internet-MeeMaw isn’t making me get rid of my jammies, she thinks they’re adorable

I got the same pair for you at target

They were on sale though

No they weren’t, that’s another lie

I’m sorry tumblr

Can they see this now??

Julie giggled, kicking her feet in the air. Oh gosh he was just too adorable! She didn’t care that the pajamas he wanted to offer her were second hand-that way they would already be that comfy sort of worn, plus they would smell like Reggie, and that boy always smelled nice, unlike many of his counterparts. Reggie knew what soap was, and how liberally to apply aftershave-aka the tiniest dose of something woodsy, not the litre of Axe that Nick favoured, or the eau of body funk Brett from Economics wore.

Still, Julie needed to reassure Reggie. Even if this follow up was so going up as well, but at least this time he’d get some warning.

Julie: Nope!

I’ve gotten a bunch of messages telling me to marry you though

Julie held her phone tight after that as the three little dots telling her Reggie was typing appeared and disappeared, and she was seriously cursing their existence. Maybe she should call him, laugh it all off, go back to their norm.

Reggie: we could start with coffee?

can i pick you up sunday at ten?

Julie: You can pick me up in an hour if you like

Reggie sent her back a wide smiling selfie with him giving her a thumbs up and she squealed before scrambling to get ready.

“Julie?” her dad asked from the hallway. “Are you okay? I heard screaming!”

“Fine papi!” Julie called as she dashed for the bathroom. “I’ve got a date!”

Ray smiled to himself, and it grew when he heard Julie start to sing as the shower started. A country song if he wasn’t mistaken, and he wondered if he should brush off his shovel talk for Reggie or just confess he had been waiting for this day for a long time instead.

Only when Reggie rang the doorbell just about an hour later, Ray didn’t say anything, the boy looked nervous enough, clutching the stem of a single red dahlia in his hands, his smile not as brilliant as it usually was. Ray clapped him on the back, squeezing his shoulder. “She’ll be right down mijo, you want anything while you wait?”

Reggie shook his head, but blew out a breath and turned to Ray. “I really like her, you know. I would never do anything to hurt her.”

“I know,” Ray replied, sipping from a glass of water. “I’m sure it’s the same for her. Just remember to be kind to one another, and to stay friends, no matter what else you may or may not become to one another.”

There was thundering footsteps down the stairs, and Julie appeared in the kitchen doorway. She was in a sundress with puff sleeves, decorated in peach coloured flowers, her curls down and shiny. “Hi,” she said to Reggie, looking and sounding almost shy.

“Hi,” he said back, shaking himself and offering her the flower. “You look really pretty.”

Julie took the bloom and stuck her nose into its petals in an effort to hide her blush. “You clean up pretty nice too,” she finally said. Reggie gave a mock twirl, showing off his khakis and black polo.

“Figured I should put in some effort,” he said. “You ready to go? I thought we could enjoy our coffee on a walk in the park, maybe catch a light lunch after that?”

“I’d like that,” Julie said, handing her flower off to her dad as she took Reggie’s arm. “Bye papi, I’ll be back later!”

Ray waved, but watched from the window as Reggie helped Julie into his truck and bit back a smile as he saw Reggie hand Julie a bag, which she laughed out loud at when she opened, pulling out a weird looking hoodie. Kids these days, he’d never get them.

It wasn’t until he was heading off to bed that night that he had a chance to catch up with Julie. Who was wearing the weird hoodie he had seen a flash of earlier, and pajama pants he had never seen before, but recognized the logo of. Ray couldn’t help but grin at seeing Julie indulge the nerdy side he had nurtured in her. He wondered if Reggie got them for her, given his own love of comics. If so, that definitely made him a keeper.

“Good date?” he asked slyly.

Julie looked up at him, and sighed. “The best.”

“Going on another one?” Ray asked.

“Papi,” Julie whined with an eyeroll. “Yes, we’re going to check out this little farmer’s market tomorrow, and then maybe do a little window shopping on the boardwalk.”

“Sounds like fun,” Ray said. “You two seem good for each other. I’m glad you gave him a chance.”

Julie grinned, and hugged herself. “Thank the internet.”

Ray shook his head at that. He would never understand his daughter-or the internet. So he wished her goodnight and went off to bed.

It wasn’t until many years later, when Reggie and Julie were visiting for the holidays during winter break and they were sporting matching pajamas that he even got the full story. And well, Ray still didn’t get it, but he had to admit, they made a pretty cute couple. Especially when they posed for a photo later, still in their matching jammies, but with Julie’s brand new engagement ring shining on her finger.

[fipindustries]

in media res

there is a quality to certain stories where you can tell this world was chewed over a thousand times by the author before the first chapter was written. but what im talking about is not just chewed over, for the quality im thinking of is often the case that the author has in fact written other stories in this world previously, maybe even with these very same characters.

there is a fullness to everything you encounter when you read these stories. the characters show up with a certain kind of iconic weight to them. they already are what they are supposed to be, they spring forth fully formed. the MCU for a while was the master at this. every time they introduced a "new" character to the franchise you could feel the weight of that character behind them, you could hear the drumroll, the trumpets, the fanfare. spiderman shows up in civil war and the soundtrack swells to let you know. yeah, this is the guy, you know the guy, you are aware of the 60 years of history behind this guy, you can sense the profound cultural weight of this guy here, he is almost like a sun, bending space and time and making everything orbit around them because of that weight.

now of course this is easy to do with characters like spiderman or wolverine or whatever. but the MCU would also manage to do this with guys that the general audiences were not familiar with, for whom the collective unconcious did not have quite as strong a grasp on. when they introduce t'challa for the first time, also in civil war, you know this guy means bussiness, you know this is a VIP. same thing when they introduce thanos in that avengers after credits scene. even if you dont read comics you are aware of the concept of comics having these big larger than life characters with thousands of stories to their name. when at the aftercredits of infinity war we see nick fury contact captain marvel, you might not know who the fuck carol danvers is but by the sheer fact that you know that logo has to have meaning, then it HAS meaning.

another great example of this is arcane. i imagine that to watch arcane if you are a fan of league of legends is quite the treat, but watching arcane without having any idea what is hextech, what is noxus or who he fuck is hermeindinger, is an experience. at every moment you see the camera linger on something, a completly mundane thing or a cool looking clock or a sword that is shaped in a more memorable way than others and you feel that tingle. that feeling of "this is something, im watching ancient runes imbued with ancient lore, there are old magics being invoked here"

but truly, the one medium that has done this multiple times to great success, and the one i want to put particular focus on, is webserials/web novels. i have already burned your ears off talking about these, i will quickly rattle off the typical examples, worm, after the hero, worth the candle.

what these have in common is that they are based on previous stories the authors were writing privately before, for years. and then polished and repackaged in a final form that works as a sorts of spinoff to all those stories that you never read. in a sense you are stepping into a huge franchise, as the title of this post says, "in media res".

now, naive wisdom would tell you this is a bad idea, right? imagine starting the lord of the rings in book two of the two towers. or starting a song of ice and fire in a storm of swords. or the dark tower series in the wasteland. it would be confusing, it would be annoying. you would be constantly feeling like you are missing out on stuff. you wouldnt be able to fully grasp the plot because you are trying to hastily reconstruct the events that happened before out of vague clues and references and in-jokes.

but i will say two things to this.

thing number one, quick tangent into my personal past, i was always a bit neurodivergent as a kid. never got properly diagnosed of anything but, whatever i had, it was strong enough that it made really hard for me to socialize with other kids. i remember going to primary school and being convinced that all my class mates already knew each other from kindergarden. people always seemed to find out about things through "the grapevine", whatever that was and i was always the last to find out. but even beyond that, being a kid is being thrown into the great history of humanity in media res and desperatly trying to keep up. after a while, out of sheer necessity, i learned to just sort of roll with the flow. to sort of act like you know what's going on simply because it made things easier. you learn to pick up things quickly from context clues and try not to ask too many questions.

remember this scene in rick and morty? i *did* laugh at the redgreen grumble reference, simply because i understood it was a reference to something and the instinct of trying to fit in kicked in.

thing number two, dialing back to the main topic, i have read stories starting on the middle book of a saga and actually quite enjoyed myself. the two greatest examples i can think of are the infinity code from the artemis fowl series and the dark flight down from the dead days series. they were written in such a way that, even if i didnt understand everything, by virtue of being children's books, they explained everything carefully and were filled with reminders of past events and the relationships between the characters.

and i think this is what these web stories do that makes them work, that makes them feel alive and lived in and its world well trodden without feeling confusing or overwhelming. its a tough needle to thread because, unlike with childrens books, you cant just stop the story and have the narrator infodump everything on your lap. if you want to do this with any kind of craft and artistry you have to make it seem seamless and organic. worm has taylor start the story with an essay about the story of capes and later uses the fact that she is a cape geek to make her long diatribes explaining who leet and uber are or what is an endbringer or what is alexandria's place in the world natural. in worth the candle there is the excuse that joon already knows the elements of his campaigns and so when he explains them he is actually sharing intel with his team. in prelude to after the hero... honestly i dont know what alchemy josh conjured, but somehow as i read the story and new characters where introduced it just felt like reuniting with old friends, and whatever we saw of ieik, it felt like going back to your childhood home, so props to that.

my point to all of this is that i really really enjoy this style of storytelling and i would love to see more of it. it makes everything feel so meaningful, behind every rock, every name, every place there could be a whole cool backstory you are not even aware of, behind every weird awkward phrase there could bee some profound in-joke or oblique reference. it makes everything pop when i am put in that mental space where i have to stay on my toes because i could be expected to be familiar with whatever is thrown my way.

of course it would be silly to demand that a writer writes an entire story, doesnt publish it and then writes a spinoff filled with references to the original book and then publishes that. and im not about to start reading books halfway on a series trying to capture that feeling because, as i said, this is the kind of thing that takes deliberate finesse to execute well.

but it is something i will keep my eyes open for.

[gumnut-logic]

Okay, I’m possibly nuts, actually, probably nuts, but I’ve been looking for a way to activate my art a bit more. I can draw, paint, whatever and I have a studio full of glorious equipment that is barely getting used.

I had thought to start a sketch book, but the problem with that is that not all my media can be supported in a sketch book and plus I am horribly hard to tie down into one thing (you may have noticed).

I was pondering away and it occurred to me that the one thing that links all my art and craft media is colour. This combined with the fact that I have a pile of beads lined up on my desk in colour combos waiting for me to action something with them. They are like mini palettes.

So what if I come up with a small combination of colours every week and do whatever with those colours?

I know I’m not the first to have this brain wave, but it struck me today as something I could do, so I’m doing it. Initially for the month of February (alongside FabFiveFeb, which I’m also prepping) and see what happens. It may fizzle into nothing due to being back at work :( but at the very least I’ll end up with a little bit of creative stuff done?

So I’m slapping it here, in case anyone would like to join in.

Outline

I will post a small palette of colours, probably on the Sunday (except for Week One which is down below).

Take the colours, which will not be precise, because I’m too lazy to get out my Pantone swatches, and colour matching sucks across monitors and printers and yeah, it’s a graphic design nightmare. So take the approximate colours and do something with with them. Art, craft, traditional, digital, performance, big, small, using all the colours, one of the colours, a derivative of the colours, fanworks or not fanworks, whatever works. I know, getting the creative brain to produce anything is a pain in many body parts. And writers, if this floats your boat, grab it and let’s go sailing :D

Post it to your blog (or not, but I’d love to see it anyway) and tag with #nuttypalette (the whole challenge title is too long and it abbreviates to npc which while I love Ryan Reynolds, isn’t really what I’m looking for :D )

Week One

Here we go.

This week’s palette I stole from my macrame stash. These colours went zing after hunting through my pile of cords and I’ve started a five-weave macrame bracelet with them. But I also have other ideas, so let’s see what happens :D

When I had to slap together the logo above I figured this was the colour set this week, so I used it.

So if you would like to join in, have at it. Write, draw, paint, craft, scribble, whatever works :D

It should also be noted that I’m definitely going to include some of the Thunderbirds colours along the way cos I can’t help myself.

Wanna play?

Nutty

(let’s see if it works at all)

[korgbelmont]

Choices Insiders January 2023

Happy new year everyone, hope you all had a good one.

Here we go with the first of this year's Insiders.

So like many, I was ecstatic to see the announcement of Immortal Desires 2 after being on the fence, but hopeful with that teaser they released. It'll be great to get more of Cas and Gabe and see what the threat will be. As I mentioned in my look over of that post, it is great to see some more gender of choice mc books. I'm going to leave the reused asset thing as I talked about that when looking over the end of year post.

Read the end of year blog post here

I'm not going to be reading Surrender 2 as I didn't read BK1, so I can't really say more on that.

I'm still getting through this, and I have become invested in the story and I'm interested to see how it will play out as it seems that with how yesterday's wide release chapter ended, to quote Stephen Strange, we're in the endgame now.

It's been interesting in that they are letting us decide on certain elements with Blades 2, looks like there will be one more piece for us to be able to vote on, and I'm interested to see what that will be. With these polls happening, I'm guessing maybe a late spring / early summer release for Blades 2, and I am looking forward to it.

You can vote for the chosen monster's power here

Really glad to see this is finally releasing, I can't remember how long ago it was announced, but it is at last coming!

I have seen the final finished cover and I thought then it was going to be a holiday book, and what they have said above confirms that. I'm interested to see where this book's group will be headed.

All these logos look amazing! I like all the different colours used for the final design, definitely gives holiday vibes.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I'm useless with emojis so I won't try and decipher these.

If I remember rightly, they said it was going to be 2024 that Immortal Desires 2 would release. I suppose it depends on when they decided to greenlight a BK2 and how long it takes to work on everything.

It'll be great to see books get released in more languages. Look forward to seeing what languages they go for.

I think I've said all I can with Getaway Girls as we don't have much info available. I think this will begin releasing once Laws of Attraction 2 has finished (I can't believe it's at chapter 15 already!), but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I did a post talking about Roommates with Benefits and First Comes Love a while ago, I'll do a little bit more on Roommates with benefits nearer the end where they give a bit more info.

Two new titles here. Firstly is The Duchess Affair, which going by the title makes me think it will be one of Pixelberry's more mature books as well as being a historical story. I'm guessing this will be the VIP book for April. I also won't be surprised if this ends up being a single Love Interest book.

We had Kindred announced in the end of year post and that it would be a Witch book. I can't really say much at the moment since we don't have any more info. I don't know if it will be a full fantasy like The Cursed Heart and Blades or real world fantasy like The Elementalists. If The Duchess Affair is the April book, then I'm guessing this will be the VIP book for May.

I've said my piece on The Phantom Agent and Surrender, so I'll leave those. I have really been enjoying Laws of Attraction 2, and like I said earlier, I can't believe it's on Chapter 15 already! The time has flown by with this one. I do expect it to be the last Laws book, I usually go into every book expecting it to either be a standalone or the last in a series, just save myself a bit of disappointment.

Guinevere is starting tomorrow! I'm interested to see what the interpretation of Arthurian legend will be like. In my mind, the version that sticks out most is the BBC Merlin series that was on during the 2000s, so I'm curious to see what this will be like. I already know which versions of Artura and Lancelot I am going to choose.

Looking forward to seeing what Kiss of Death will be like, I do enjoy the crime genre. I'm torn between a couple versions of Vic to choose from at the moment.

Because Surrender 2 released in December, I think Getaway Girls will release in April and there won't be anything for wide release in March.

So I'm getting more and more sure that Roommates with Benefits will be a single Love Interest book that is also more mature. I'm also pretty sure it will be a college/university set book now that I have been able to see the image used for it a bit bigger.

It would be nice to see just a bit more info on more of the future books rather than just focusing on their main one for the month like when we got the sneak peak of Lewyn and Astoria weeks before Immortal Desires.

So that's it for this month, quite a lot more than there has been in some of the past Insiders.

I hope everyone has a fantastic 2023.

Keep safe everyone!

[mlobsters]

supernatural s10e7 girls, girls, girls (w. robert berens)

no please not more embarrassing stuff 😭 dean on a dating site? (with his real name??)

re privacy i'm always gonna kneejerk be very defensive of everyone's privacy. i have a bad history with that in regards to electronic stuff. so i still think that's a super dick move by sam, even if they don't really generally have boundaries with each other 🤪 applying real world rules and concerns to a dumb joke setup :p

pretty sure i talked about this before when one of them saw an email intended for the other on the laptop that was private/about something they didn't know about. i think it was dean seeing an email for sam (can't find the post ofc) EDIT: found it s8e3 - (few days later when looking for something else)

i know the title is for girls girls girls but i keep thinking it's girls like girls (i'd never seen the video for this song it's sweet)

oh no. the embarrassment increases. getting catfished? :\ (or not but i'm sure it's something because dean can't get laid without it being plot relevant, right)

laughing that castiel uses websummon but dean and sam use search the web with the goofy logo

hannah, girl. didn't he already use his ~distracting emotions~ excuse to turn you down, what are you doing? more like, writer, what are you doing 😒

damnit the second time this episode something startled the shit out of me. warn a person before you sex-slam dean into a wall

not-fake looking fake birds and laughing about being another motel with such a scenic backdrop!

okay so not the catfish but the didn't realize she was a sex worker, sigh. she keeps reminding me of nina dobrev. brown hair/eyes and smaller top lip i guess

elysia rotaru / nina dobrev

what i said about eyelines so close to the camera i'm not sure? the eye on the left looks like it's at camera, but the reflection in the right indicates it isn't actually. very disconcerting.

ALSO rescue the sex worker trope and dean's acting kinda creepy. should you maybe tell sam you're starting to feel something funny in your tummy that tells you to kill kill kill

so it was rowena in that little bit at the end of the episode whenever

hannah's vessel's husband tracking her down, all right. gonna have a jimmy novak reminder the vessels had families and lives. which leads to a brief flash of fake dating, of course

HANNAH What? Yes. [Hannah takes Castiel’s hand in hers] I left you. For him. He's the reason. JOE No. No, I don't believe it. This guy?

the snort i snorted. with the Emotions music but it's like. funny? but pretending to be serious? oh, show.

haha and we're still supposed to (according to the music) sympathize with (UNDERSTANDABLY) sad husband after that weird kiss situation

i knew cole came back but i'm tired already

are we on a set? lol

HANNAH Being on earth, working with you, I've felt things. Human things -- passions, hungers.

snort x2

and she keeps clutching her stomach dramatically due to Feelings like bella in new moon because she said it in the books so we gotta do it on screen but it looks weird and awkward

this is so strange and abrupt. went on her whole character emotional arc in about 5 minutes. and castiel doesn't reply? were they actually filming in the same place? LOL what is going on

why does this look so fake haha and bonus vessel back in her body stomach clutching

oooh we're solving a problem by having a conversation, how mature and not moc stabby. does the mark do anything? i'm always asking and assuming but we just won't talk about it and who knows!!

reminding me of this (and the leviathan sam and dean already cosplayed the beginning of that story) when jules tells yolanda to keep the gun on him "it's cool, we still just talkin"

DEAN Put it down! [Sam lowers his gun and Cole turns his gun back towards Dean] DEAN Cole, hey, right here. We're talking, okay?

(every time cole reminds me of taylor kitsch, little bit the hair and voice)

DEAN I get it. That was your story. Look, man, I got one of those, too. Okay, but those stories that we tell to keep us going? Man, sometimes they blind us. They take us to dark places --the kind of place where I might beat the crap out of a good man just for the fun of it. The people who love me, they pulled me back from that edge.

s/people/person/

this is a good scene with cole. his actor travis aaron wade is doing a great job

Now, the truth is… I'm past saving. I know how my story ends. It's at the edge of a blade or the barrel of a gun.

sam and i ready to throw hands/have a heart attack but also BLADE, BARREL, REBAR. WHATEVER

giggled

listen.

SAM You've got a family, Cole. I heard you on the phone that night. I'm guessing they need you to come back, and they need you to come back whole.

i mean. not to say having trauma makes you not-whole, and we're talking basically a revenge killing i guess. but this dude already apparently had a very violent period in the miltary

from s10e2

COLE I did two tours in Iraq. Special ops. Darfur. The Congo. I've seen suicide bombers and child soldiers so hopped up on speed that they could barely talk, but they could sure as hell shoot an AK… Don’t tell me about monsters, cause I've met my share.

just doesn't seem like it's automatically the worst thing he's done/experienced

all right. i did not like what they did with hannah in general so i'm not sad to see her go but it does suck they took cas's pal away

so do we learn that jimmy novak is in heaven now or is that later? i don't quite understand what was supposed to happen to his soul anyway all the times castiel has been splatted

wrapping up characters/plotlines left and right.

SAM What you said earlier, back there, about being past saving -- were you really -- DEAN I was just telling the guy what he needed to hear.

yeah, sure! sounds reasonable. not like you ever feel massively guilty for things. picture of unbothered

if i knew rowena was crowley's mom i had forgotten

(another pronunciation surprise but just because i'm not familiar with the name, realized i assumed ro-when-uh instead of ro-ween-uh)

they're stringing me along with crumbs of brother feelings through mediocre episodes

[grouchythefish]

So I saw your reblog about truckstops, and as someone uniquely qualified to answer your rhetorical questions, this excited me. My qualifications include living within fifteen minutes of and having two family members who currently work for the Iowa 80 Truckstop, having worked there for six months after high school, and then having a parent who worked there for seven years before working for the other truckstop across the road.

The truckstop I worked for, Iowa 80, is located in Walcott, Iowa, is the world's largest truckstop. They almost lost that title to their sister location and had to expand their square footage. Inside this truckstop is a 24-hour restaurant, a laundromat with at least fifteen washers and dryers (I haven't counted), a dentist (who I highly recommend for dental emergencies), full scale showers for purchase that include private restrooms (some are fully wheelchair accessible), a small movie theater, a hair salon, a chiropractor, a small office that's used as a church/worship space for truckers with resources for local actual churches and advocacy groups, a food court rivaling our local mall, a game room, a gift store, and finally, the showroom. There's also a small truckers lounge with free internet access and lots of space to sit and converse.

The only thing missing from the post is places to sleep. You could technically sleep there. It is a 24-hour business, and I have seen people take their dogs inside during storms and camp out on the floor of the showroom before. But there's not like... beds or anything. There are a few hotels nearby, but as can be expected due to the nature of the trucking industry, they're all motels and cheap places to sleep that's not the bed inside your truck.

The showroom is large enough to house a full semi with trailer (used for storage), with an electronics section, chrome department, and a small graphics printing section called the custom shop, where you can have embroidered t-shirts and vinyl stickers made of your company's logo, or whatever you want. For sale on this floor includes all kinds of accessories and electronics for truckers, as well as a small media selection of DVDs, CD's and audio books. They also have a section for mattresses for your semi, as well as they used to have a small spot to buy musical instruments.

The foot court and convenience store are a huge room with a Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, combination Einstein Bros Bagels and Caribou Coffee, Dairy Queen/Orange Julius. There is also a full-scale convenience store, with every soda, snack, and candy you can imagine.

In the gift shop, you can buy your normal stuff. T-shirts and such. But you can also buy katanas. For some reason. And I used to have to sell those at 3am. They also at one time sold a whip. But no guns or alcohol, thank god. That would've been too much for the family-friendly label that the family that owns the company has.

There's also a service center, with access to truck diesel, DEF, etc. It has a Chester's Chicken, a Blimpie, and a smaller little gas station selection of candy and drinks and such.

Now, if you want alcohol or lottery, you gotta go across the road, to Pilot.... which is where my mom defected to after like six years of working for Iowa 80. They sell booze. But there's not only one, there's TWO of them, across the road, and across the interstate from Iowa 80. One has an Arby's, and the other has a Subway.

In this small section of town, there's also a McDonalds, but it's not part of everything else. It's just there, between the little Pilot store and one of the aforementioned motels.

You now know everything there is to know about my weird situation with Iowa 80/Pilot.

But there is one thing I gotta say, this is pretty unique. Most rest stops, and gas stations are like Pilot. Located off the interstate, a little shop to get gas and snacks, a restroom, and some space to stretch your legs. Iowa 80 is a big ass building and part of a family owned business with multiple sister locations. In the US, most rest stops and such are just a gas station, maybe a bathroom with a place to get out for vending machine snacks and a spot to hide from bad weather.

Okay that's all bye~

Omg thank you so much for sending me this!

No place to sleep does make sense since most transport trucks have beds built in anyways.

Most truck stops here are basically just roadside food courts with a gas station outside and sometimes with a tiny gift shop that might have t-shirts and keychains. I pass 5 on my way to and from work (god my commute is far too long) and all except one are owned by the same company (OnRoute) and are pretty boring.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure the only truck stops I've been to with anything more than that have all been in the US on roadtrips. Though obviously none as exciting as the one you are describing (Jesus Christ a movie theatre and a dentist??)

I kinda wanna own a truck stop katana now.

[avelvokai]

Production post #3

Cover art

Initially, I experimented with various fonts to represent the title of the book. During a tutorial with Neal, he suggested I create a logo that could be stamped on every page, a personalized element that would tie the book together.

These were initial ideas for my logo.

Once I had settled on a font, I decided to make the cover more unique and special by incorporating the Mesopotamian pattern, which is inspired by a pattern from an archaeological find in Mesopotamia, specifically from the Mosul region, dated to around 1232 CE. This connection to real-world ancient civilizations adds authenticity to the fictional world I’ve built.

Thus, I have created a logo for my cover page that looks like this:

After further experimenting I settled on this final design that has a more polished look:

References:

Clsc.dk. (2019). 800 years old pattern from Mesopotamia - Patterns - Graphics - clsc.dk. [online] Available at: https://clsc.dk/graphics/patterns/800-years-old-pattern-from-mesopotamia/ [Accessed 30 June 2024].