#and not to say I never advertised for something book related

[carica-ficus]

I've watched the infamous hbomberguy video about plagiarism the other day and cannot stop thinking about "content mills" (and consumerism) and its integration in the book community.

I have a bookstagram account because the community there is much more active (and most of my reading/writing friends use it as their primary social site), but it is filled to the brim with so much stupid and uninteresting content. Moreover, I'd say that the Croatian bookstagram community is even worse than the bookstagram community as a whole.

I'm lucky to have really cool mutuals on there that don't follow trends or don't feel the need to play influencers, but so many people do. I unfollowed at least 15 profiles yesterday because I couldn't take it anymore. None of their posts showed any love for reading and so much of their content is sponsored.

Worst of all is they're not even advertising for the author or their work, it's just for the publisher, which makes no fucking sense, in my humble opinion. Since when are books about congratulating a specific publisher on deciding to publish a book, and not for the author or their painstaking and beautiful work?

Not to mention, I rarely see Croatian publishers actually publishing Croatian authors! The biggest publishers only ever translate internationally popular works. And yes, I do realize why that's the case (there's barely any money in this industry and most of our publishers would perish if it weren't for the profit coming from translations), but for fucks sake, if you're advertising for yourself, at least throw in a few of our own authors. At least make our bookstagramers support their own community, the community without which they wouldn't even exist!

And you know what's the worst of the worst? The constant fake amazement in all those countless sponsored reviews, for books barely any of them even read! They call themselves creative, but most of their content wouldn't even exist without the creative work of others. All those giveaways, AI generated pictures, thousands upon thousands of advertisements for publishers only looking for profit, posting content just to post something, promotions for books which barely even hit the shelves, and the never-ending drama of who copies whom in a community where no one is original.

Yes, I know ads also provide a profit for editors, translators, authors, illustrators and everyone else involved in the publishing industry, but I ask you another thing: Why are these people never mentioned in the posts then? Why are they not given any credit? Because it's hard or because, to them - the publishers and to influencers - it doesn't matter? Why do our publishers print translated works with AI covers? Why do we translate and print new editions of old, popular, international works, instead of giving our own writers a chance? Why do some publishers chose to use an AI generated cover instead of hiring a local artist? How much profit do writers, artists, editors and translators really achieve compared to the publishers?

"Oh, but you don't understand. The industry would collapse if we did it differently."

Yeah, because money is the most important thing when it comes to publishing books. It isn't about the author. It isn't about supporting creative endeavors. It isn't about supporting the local community. It isn't about the story and its idea. Yeah, you're right. None of that matters. Because reading is about consumption and about making money.

Spare me.

Let it collapse then. Maybe we don't deserve all the people brave enough to share their work with millions of people who don't even care about them.

In hindsight, maybe I'm bitter because I spend a lot of time surrounded by the truly creative community - writers, illustrators, photographers and all other forms of artists, so I'm angry they're looked over in the community that should praise them. Or maybe I'm just fed up with all the dishonesty and advertisement these co-called influencers push for a few free books. You decide. I'm just saying that I'm tired of it.

[dunmeshistash]

As of... actually several episodes ago but more so on this episode, I'm starting to think there's something (a reason/correlation?) to the anime not going all out on the animation (youd think ep23 part 1 would have gotten more attention) or when its not doing a 100% panel-for-panel adaptation of the manga (ie cutting out gags and some other parts)

Its almost like the anime is slightly just a little maybe advertising the manga? but idk, you dont really get this feeling if youve never read the manga. It only torments those who have who know what's in the manga that the anime-only's are missing out on. and there's also the dungeon tidbits that dont/havent been adapted that expand more on the story.

lets be real tho, some things in the manga just would not translate as effectively into anime. (ie the manga covers that look raw as all hell)

tl;dr i have a feeling the anime is not doing the manga 100% perfect justice because animation restraints AND it wants you to read the manga as well.

I've actually been thinking about that too. But objectively I think the dungeon meshi anime is effective/overall good adaptation of the manga.

The feeling of "NOO IT'S MISSING X THING" as far as I can tell is only for people who have read the manga, everyone else doesn't seem to feel there's a lack of quality. I call it the cursed knowledge of the manga lol.

The fact is that the manga is just PACKED full of so many details an adaptation that has ALL of it is just impossible, and trigger's anime isn't necessarily bad just because it doesn't have it <- I say begrudgingly cause I wish it had all

From what I can tell they have been pacing themselves within their budget/time constraints and focusing on what the medium of animation can serve the best to compliment the manga, which is action scenes, they seem to be focusing most of their efforts into giving us BREATHTAKING animations during the action and honest I LOVE IT.

I recommend @swampjawn's animation breakdowns if you wanna really appreciate it in a more technical aspect, its so good.

But another thing I've been noticing is how much content Ryoko Kui does related to the anime? Like the merch, the blu-ray boxes the collabs. Is that something common at all? The manga author doing so much content related to the anime of their work?

Maybe it's an exception cause she finished publishing Dungeon Meshi before the anime came out but I hope that her gorgeous art inspires people to read it.

Anyway I'm not sure if trigger is on purpose doing "manga advertisement" but just where I believe they'll stop this season is probably gonna make a lot of people want to read so it's a win in my book.

[creekwritersblood]

Today I would like to talk about the various kind of Authors that fits the category Writers.

Feature Writer: Usually is the one who write articles on magazines or newspapers.

Novelist: The one who writes Novels of any genre from Horror, to Romantic.

Poet: The one who writes poems about any topic in its mind.

Blogger: The one who writes Blogs.

Screenwriter: The one who writes the Screenplay for movies, TV Series, video games including acting instructions and scene directions.

Stage writer: The one who writes a Theatre play.

FanFiction writer: The one who writes about Fandoms.

Short Stories writer: The one who mainly write short stories.

Copywriter: The one who writes texts for advertisements or Publicity material.

Starting from this definitions, actually all of those can be considered Writers because to write each and every kind of thing like that Imagination, Knowledge, Studies and Research are needed. In whatever field you will write, you will always find those common elements and here’s why:

Imagination: Is needed because whatever you will write about, a True Crime or a Review of a certain book, you need to visualize the facts happened in a certain situation; if you cannot visualize those yourself, how your reader is suppose to? So this is fundamental, at least to me, I mean, if I read a True Crime article I need to know what happened and if I can see it in my head it can sort out a better reaction.

Knowledge: Know the topic you will write about. To start, write about things you know to have a better come-out.

Studies and Research: Glossaries will be your bestfriends on your travel in the topic you will talk about in your article/book. It doesn’t matter what you will write about, is always adviced to research a bit of words for the specific topic to be more precise and have a better know-how to explain certain things to your reader.

The sub-categories:

Feature Writer:

True Crime: disappearance, murder, or sexual assault, or the collective acts of a single criminal, such as a serial killer.

The first rule to apply to write about True Crime stories for Articles or Books is Do Not Lie on facts. True Crime Stories are something Serious and they MUST be Respected from head to toe. If you want to write about a True crime story, is it an article or an entire Novel, never forget to pay respect for the victims and respect the story itself without changing it. You must be the storyteller, the one who tells facts and keep the reader with you in the travel from the first letter to the last closing dot.

Lighter Topics: There are a lot of things you can write about.

You can write articles on food, writing, design, products to buy, products to NOT buy, everything you can think about, can be written down.

Specific Topics: You can write about specific topics like Medical issues, College issues, Hair styles, As for lighter topics, Everything you can think about can be written down.

Novelist:

Fiction: The one who writes about a non-real fact, or at least, takes inspiration on something really happen, but not related to reality.

Action and adventure, Fantasy: as the words say, they can be set in an unexisting World completely created from the Writer himself, or can take place in real places with fictional Creatures and Characters.

Comedy: Usually is a fiction full of fun, meant to entertain the reader itself and cause him a luaghter as the lines goes on. It can be part of other genres too like Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Parody and many others.

Crime and mystery: Usually Crimes and Mysteries created by the Writer himself.

Horror: Stories intended to pass a shiver to the reader, transporting him into a world, real or fictional, filled with monsters and Creatures that usually are the antagonists.

Sci-Fi: Stories placed into fictional worlds populated by extraterrestrial creatures and spieces.

Recipes: They can be created taking inspiration from the real world, creating fictional stories around those

Non Finction: The one who writes about real facts, existing things related to the real world.

True Crime: As for the Articles, a True Crime story is a tale where is told a real fact happened without changing the facts, with real people.

Recipes: Yes, Recipes, infact, also those kind of books can be novels, the writer can talk about plates and write about the creators of those.

Autobiography: Is a tale of the life the Writer himslef lived.

Poet:

Haiku: This kind of Poetry comes from the Western part of the world, Japan. Is usually very short (three lines) and the first and the third lines have five syllables, while the second has seven. They can be written to recall a mood or a moment.

Free verse: It is considered modern poetry, they do not follow a metrical rule and they do not have to rhyme necessarly.

Sonnet: This is a classic form of poetry, made famous mostly by William Shakespeare. Their origin is in Italy, created by Petrarch. Sonnets are typically following the scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Acrostic: This kind of Poem is different, because Each capital Letter of Each Line, in the end forms a Message.

Villanelle: Originated in France, it has to be composed by 19 lines, following the scheme; ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA, this type of poem only has two rhyming sounds. Plus, there is a lot of repetition throughout the villanelle. Line one will be repeated in lines six, 12 and 18; and line three will be repeated in lines nine, 15 and 19. So although this takes out the extra work of having to write 19 individual lines, the real challenge is to make meaning out of those repeated lines!

Limerick: Funy and sometimes also rude, were made popular by Edward Lear in the 19th century. They have a set rhyme scheme of AABBA, with lines one, two and five all being longer in length than lines three and four.

Ode: The ode is one of the oldest forms of poetry and believed to be born in ancient Greece. The Word ode comes from the greek word aedein wich means to sing or chant, originally were performed with musical instruments. It is written to praise a person or a Divinity, an event or a thing.

Elegy: It doesn’t have rules and have as a subject Death. Usually they are used to remember loved ones that has passed away.

Ballad: They are usually formed by four lines and follow the rhyme scheme ABAB or ABCB.

Blogger: A Blog can talk about everything you like and there is no genre to follow, let your fantasy go wild!

Screen writer and Stage writer: A play - written by the Stage Writer - is a performance while a film is a visual art.

Their main focus is Dialogue, but they differs when we start to talk about the mediums used for a play and a Screenplay; the first rely only on characters lines and is a bit more contained using only few sets, while the second use visuals and camera angles to deepen the story itself and is a bit more opened because of the use of Special effects and various sets.

FanFiction writer: FanFiction does not have rules of themselves, they give you the possibility to pull in an original Character and create a little story based on a yet affirmed fandom. Is a great exercise, because you can test your fantasy, pulling all the characters, or just one of your choice in a different AU that can be the real world, or another fandom, you can adjust those as you prefer.

This is the start of many writers and I must say is a great one.

We all have a dream in life and mine has always been become a writer, so I started writing fanfictions first and I still do at times not gonna lie -lol- I personally would advice those to initate, there are a lot of places to publish them and they can be a great opportunity to start making a name of your own.

Short Stories Writer: As the name itself, they can be written from a minimum of two pages on a maximum of ten, in my opinion, others consider a short story from a minimum of two pages to a maximum of fifty, Think each one has his own objective look on it. As for Novels they can be on everything you want Fictional or not.

Copywriter: This is something a bit different from the others, because, Copywriters usually write based on products they must sell and advertize, so there is no other genre apart the Non fiction one.

Whatever kind of Writer you want to be, don’t hold back and be it!

[bromcommie]

9 TBRs for 2025

Thanks to the great @burberrycanary for the tag! This was a bit of a tough one, not gonna lie. My reading habits have been really weak over the past year, so of course the second I started reading a bit more and making lists for the first time in forever again I got overexcited and ended up with something like 150 titles on there, and no plan on what I'm reading when. Which is classic. Anyway, some picks in no particular order:

In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova — As with many other books in 2024, I unfortunately started and stopped this one several times, but I’m a sucker for meandering retellings of family histories, and I'll be damned if my troubling attention span stops me from finally finishing this hefty thing this year.

Mud Sweeter Than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania by Margo Rejmer — One from the pile of books I impulse-bought in lieu of souvenirs when I visited Tirana last summer. I came to the realization that I actually know very little about Albania (or at least the general experience of the population) in the latter half of the 20th century despite my proximity to it, so oral histories seemed like a decent place to start in bridging that gap.

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin — Baldwin is one of those authors I’ve read mostly excerpts and essays from, watched/read a bunch of interviews of, seen discussed and referenced and dissected and analyzed, and yet who I’ve still somehow never read a full novel by. Which honestly feels like a travesty, so this pick is a step towards rectifying that.

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard P. Feynman — so the last thing I started (re)reading in 2024 was, somewhat bafflingly, Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, which is a book on string theory that I bought ages ago while in the throes of a resurgence of interest in theoretical physics, and which I never got around to finishing. It's an enjoyable read, and layman-friendly enough for my invested but distinctly non-scientific brain to get into—but it also left me feeling like I want to go back to something more concrete, yet have no idea where the hell to start. Enter my new best friend goodreads.com giving me suggestions for a couple of Feynman's books which sounded really promising, and here we are. Back in the pop science phase.

The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr — picked this one up last year because the premise sounded fascinating and like it's going to hit all of my favourite buttons. Advertised as the Prix Goncourt 2021 winner and a love letter to literature, an exploration of colonial legacy, identity and an obssessive quest for truth across various geographies and turbulent historical periods. Really looking forward to this one, I have to say.

Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War by Viet Thanh Nguyen — Watching HBO's The Sympathizer had some side-effects, namely that there are currently five different books related to the war in Vietnam on my newly formed list. I do also intend to read The Sympathizer itself at some point, but this honestly drew me in more. Having a historical background told from the perspective of the same author to go off of seems like a good idea, in any case. I also always find anything that deals with collective memory in the wake of conflict to be very interesting, so this was an immediate pick.

The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić — This is going to be a reread, strictly speaking, but considering that the last time I attempted reading it I was in high school and definitely too impatient and ill-equipped to fully grasp it, I'm gonna give myself a pass. It’s such a classic that it deserves a yearly reread, anyway.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison — another one of those "I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to reading this” picks. Both it and Song of Solomon have been sitting in my laptop in PDF form for years now probably, and it apparently took Aaron Schimberg making it a through-line in A Different Man, out of all the fucking things, for me to remember that fact with a start. The power of cinema, and whatnot. Thanks, Mr. Schimberg.

The Walnut Mansion by Miljenko Jergović — I recently reread another book by this author called The Unearthly Expression of His Hands, which is centered around the 1914 Sarajevo Assassination and the lives of the players (and fictionalized non-players who nonetheless lived in the shadow of the event) that were involved as well as the multilayered cultural and historical fabric of the city itself. It was such a great read that now I have a mini-TBR just for his works. Imho Jergović is masterful at intertwining individual fates against a grand backdrop, and the way he manages to ground his historical fiction work in very universal, human truths while also capturing all the little idiosyncracies of the region never fails to knock me on my ass.

Gonna go ahead and gently tag @dharmasharks, @emjee, @snowangeldotmp3, @camcorderrevival, @bitchyblkqueer, @thankssaragorn, @hardtobeasaintdotmp3, @zenaidamacrouras1, @somanywords, and anyone else who'd like to do this! <3

[well-gosh-diddly-darnit-minyard]

so I was just Thinking some Thoughts, as one does when one cannot sleep, and i was wondering about the saddest book I’ve ever read (either The Raven King [Sakavic, not Stiefvater] or The Sunshine Court) and the book that I was told was super super sad (A Little Life) and now I have to rant. for those of you who have read A Little Life, the book was probably advertised to you in a similar way that it was advertised to me: “this is America’s saddest book”.

and while it is true that ALL is very sad, i have some thoughts on it that I’d like to share. if you haven’t read it but you want to, this is your time to back out and avoid spoilers. also: tw for SA and abuse, and whatever else is in AFTG and ALL.

as I read ALL, I kept wondering about the amount of foreshadowing around Jude’s trauma. when I was finished, I was floored by the writing (impeccable) and the plot itself (???). i constantly felt like Jude’s trauma would vary from place to place, but it seemed like the only form of trauma that the author even considered including was that of sexual assault and abuse. and while these are topics that should totally be discussed and written about in the literature world, it seemed so unrealistic that as Jude went from state to state and place to place that his trauma would only relate to sexual assault and abuse.

and while I do realize that thousands of people across the world have suffered immense amounts of trauma from SA and abuse, when I read Jude’s past I couldn’t see his trauma as anything but exploitative and used for shock value. it also seemed like the author did surface level research on PTSD from SA. before anyone in the notes says that they thought it was accurate, I myself am a victim and it only ever felt like a Hollywood-type piece of media wherein everything is written to gain revenue. there was also very little trauma related to anything BUT sexual assault and abuse. none of it was tied together in any way (I.e., brother Luke didn’t know/wasn’t related to Dr. Traylor in any way).

one thing I truly despised was how Jude responded to all of his trauma. no im not talking about his SH. i’m talking about his half-assed thoughts of, “oh woe is me I’m the worst example of a person ever.” i say these thoughts were half-assed because it seemed like they were never really taken anywhere other than to the people around him, who responded, “no you’re not!! stop hurting yourself!! we’re trying to help you get better!!”

and Jude never got better. there were honeymoon periods, but the author always threw in something new to make his trauma resurface. he also never truly threw himself into getting better, he only ever seemed to make empty promises and then continued to wallow. and in other characters’ povs, it never seems like Jude does anything wrong EXCEPT FOR WHEN HE’S NOT ACTIVELY DOING SOMETHING TO BETTER HIMSELF. it’s only when he is not taking care of himself that others get mad at him in any way, other moments of anger are fleeting and eventually just lead to absolutely nothing.

to sum that all up: there was no moral related to trauma responses or PTSD or healing. there was no true resolution for Jude’s trauma. and the feelings that Jude seemed to have around his trauma always came back to, “I deserved it, I’m the worst person ever, I hate myself,” even when the things that he experienced were so egregious that I had to put the book down. everything was so cliche to me, to the point where I didn’t ever notice if Jude even had a personalized response to his trauma, if there was anything that wouldn’t be found in some clout-fishing TikTok about battling depression where you can practically see the person reading lines off of a poster behind the camera.

of course, take what I say with a grain of salt and don’t let my opinions of the book influence whether or not you read it and enjoy it. many people loved it and I admire the author’s use of words and her writing style, I just think her use of sensitive material for plot value was mediocre at its best.

now: The Sunshine Court.

made me cry. i have only praise for this book and so many thoughts surrounding it, but I’ll try to only talk about Jean’s trauma because that’s what my rant on ALL was about.

in TSC, Jean also experiences some very extreme trauma, and he also resorts to SH, and he also thinks that he deserved it. in my opinion, the difference between him and Jude is the authenticity.

Jean’s trauma mostly stems from his time at the nest, and I say this because his backstory has not been discussed in detail yet. but his trauma is brilliantly discussed and here’s how:

one: he is a person outside of his trauma. he makes fun of people to himself! he does the dishes and cooks!! he’s honest and brutally so!!! not much else to say on this, but I loved that every pov with Jean didn’t always talk about his trauma.

two: the two biggest triggers for him (biting and water) don’t relate!! they are two separate points of concern. biting comes from getting assaulted comes from Grayson. water comes from water boarding comes from extreme punishment comes from Riko.

three: his SH isn’t cutting himself. i realize that cutting is the most common form of SH, but there are other ways that people choose to hurt themselves that aren’t talked about at all. Jean claws at his throat, he tries to scratch the feeling of getting bitten off of his skin. he doesn’t go for the knives in the kitchen.

four: last but most certainly not least, he starts getting better!! he doesn’t just make empty promises, he actually tries to be better! and his line of recovery is. not. linear!!!!! recovery is never linear, and I thought that Nora showed that wonderfully in TSC. he goes back and forth between thinking of the Ravens and being at peace in the present, his past and present aren’t one big flashback.

overall, TSC can be summed up like this: it has a moral about healing. it doesn’t exploit trauma for shock value or revenue, it utilizes one person’s specific response to his own trauma to show how healing and recovery can happen sometimes. and the character actually tries!! he doesn’t wallow, he tries to get better!

anyway. if you made it all the way through, I appreciate you. and if you haven’t read one of these books, I strongly suggest both of them so you can form your own opinions and come to your own conclusions.

[namesarehard123]

"Déjà Vu" - Chapter One

m.list

Audio:

I feel ghosts in the back of my mind. These ghosts are not the ones shown in horror movies with their twisted limbs and empty eye-sockets. My ghosts take the form of blank faces and slurred words in my dreams. 

Sometimes, these ghosts escape the confines of my brain. I’ll see phantom texts pop up on my phone: the sender’s name is always blurred, and my phone never lets me know what the text message says. When I walk past museums, I’ll see blurry figures behind the clear glass doors laughing. Sometimes, it feels like they want me to join in. 

I’m terrified whenever I see them outside of my dreams. Yet, I always feel an inexplicable sense of longing whenever I do see them. In my dreams, these ghosts and I are friends. We struggle to fit into a three seater couch, and I laugh at banter that I can’t remember. In the real world, they’re a sign I’m going clinically insane. 

Scratch that, I’m not going clinically insane, I already am. Today, I heard one of these ghosts clearly. I had just taken the popcorn out from the microwave and was getting ready to carry it down the stairs when I heard her. 

“Needs more salt.”

My knees buckled, and the popcorn went flying. Her voice was gone with the wind, and for some reason, it sounded familiar. Yet, it also sounded like no one I knew. The sound slotted itself between the crevices of my brain as the three words looped in my mind over and over. 

“Kara, the popcorn!” my friend exclaimed. Nidhi had come up the stairs, wondering why microwaving popcorn was taking longer than the advertised time. I saw as she fell to her knees as she slowly gathered the popcorn that had spilled out onto the floor. 

“My popcorn,” she whispered as she cradled the popcorn close to her chest. The look she shot me would make someone think I killed her child. I chuckled, and she threw a piece of popcorn at me in retort. 

“If it’s your popcorn, why don’t you make some more?” I teased. I slowly stood up, testing to see if my legs would be able to hold my weight. Before she could argue back, I started walking down the stairs into the basement with my hands covering my ears. 

I smiled fondly as I saw my friends lounging on my five-seater couch. There, in the middle, was my seat. It was untouched by the snack wrappers and soda cans littering the rest of the couch. As I crawled over to my spot between Madhuri and Ariha, I purposefully kneed Ameer in the process. He barely noticed since he was too focused on his “English is blue” argument. 

“They’re at it again,” Madhuri groaned. I chuckled and sighed in exasperation. Ignoring the fact that Ameer was inherently wrong, he was very persuasive. Somewhere along the line of his argument, he started to convince me that he was correct. 

“Ameer,” Advik starts, interrupting the debate. “It’s obvious that your 3 hour screen time on Instagram is getting to you. Can you even go three sentences without saying something brain rot related?” he teases.  I smile as I see Advik’s shit-eating grin with his brown eyes filled with mirth. 

“I’ll have you know that I’m not a nationally ranked debater for nothing-” Ameer starts, finger pointed accusingly at Advik. 

“Wait, where’s Nidhi?” Ariha asked, rightfully interrupting Ameer. “We sent her up, so she could drag your butt downstairs.”

“I told her to microwave the popcorn because I didn’t want to anymore,” I said, laying my head on Madhuri’s shoulder before it was rudely pushed off by her. 

“Kara,” Madhuri started solemnly. “Do you want another Great Chicago Fire?” 

“Pray tell, how would Nidhi burn a two story building using a microwave?” I asked incredulously. 

“Because if she can burn water, she can do anything,” Advik joked as he stretched. For a violist, his posture was atrocious, and it only became worse as he worked. 

“People can burn water?” I looked at Ahira. All of a sudden, I was worried about the new order of books that just came in. The cardboard boxes were placed smack-dab in the middle of the dining room table. If Nidhi did decide that today was the day she was burning down the bookstore, the new books would never have the chance to be shelved, and I would never have the chance to read Speaking American.   

“Guess you learn something new every day,” Ariha shrugged. 

“Wait, I remember that!” Ameer exclaimed. “The three of us were working on a project, and when Nidhi’s dumbass tried to make some Maggi as a snack, the smoke alarm went off.”

“Heard you guys talking shit about me,” Nidhi said as she walked down the stairs of the basement. “Guess who didn’t burn down the bookstore?” she asked mockingly. 

“Still waiting on the ice cream you said you would give us after endangering our lives,” Advik said before he went back to writing on my school chromebook that never worked on any wifi. 

“You guys are so fake,” Nidhi sighed as she sat close to Advik, passing out the bowls of popcorn she prepared. A way smarter idea than making one big batch in the biggest bowl around, I noted. If only her common sense made her a good cook, I could afford to be a lazier host more often. I grabbed a handful of my popcorn and noted that it had the perfect amount of salt. 

“No, you guys are the fake friends,” Ameer began. “I put my blood, sweat, and tears into sending you guys reels, and you all just leave me on ‘SEEN’!” He pulled out his iPhone 16 in an attempt to show the proof of our indifference. 

“And we’ll do it again,” Advik deadpanned. Madhuri smiled, and I snorted. Ariha tried to stop herself from laughing by covering her mouth while Nidhi guwaffed openly, her fists pounding into Advik as she laughed. Ameer looked like he was ready to start throwing pillows around while Advik looked very pleased with himself. 

“Clocked you,” Ariha quipped through her barely suppressed giggles. Ameer stared at Ariha for a while. Slowly, his sneer turned into a devious smile. I rolled my eyes. Something was about to go down, and if it was, I wanted to be comfortable. I snuggled into my spot on the couch, my legs splayed out over Ariha while Madhuri patted my head gently. 

“You know, since it’s already 3 A.M. and we have popcorn,” Ameer began, “maybe we should watch a horror movie.” While Madhuri glared at Ameer, I slowly started to put some distance between me and Ariha. Nobody ever wants to be close to Ariha when she’s watching a horror movie. 

“Sure, which one are we watching?” Ariha asked nonchalantly as if she doesn’t scream loud enough to make us all go deaf when a jumpscare happens. I silently pleaded with Madhuri to verbally beat some sense into Ameer. I was the closest person to Ariha, meaning it was my arm that was going to go numb if she got scared.

“Since it’s already 3 A.M., maybe we should go to sleep,” Madhuri said, staring pointedly at Ameer. Every day I wonder how I got lucky enough to meet such an amazing woman. She started taking our empty popcorn bowls and stacked them on a table in the corner. 

Advik’s audible yawn made me realize how sleepy I was. Ameer made a peace sign as his head crashed into one of the throw pillows on the couch, his lanky frame taking up the leftmost chaise lounge. Ariha rolled off the couch to sleep on the futon we put below. Madhuri and I cuddled close together, taking up the midsection of the couch while Advik took the rightmost chaise lounge.

On the dinner table, my phone pinged.

“From Mom: ‘Kara, remember to pack your bags for Atlanta!’”

⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀⨀

A/N: Thank you guys so much for waiting so patiently for this chapter! I know it been quite a while since I promised the first chapter would actually be released; I sincerely hope this made up for the delay. Special thanks to my beta reader! Let me know if you guys would like a tag-list!

[onioety]

Okay!!! I'm fucking around with searches on the thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com's computer. I'll keep this thing updated with everything I find!!

(Disclaimer: typing names several times can change the outcomes)

List below!!

-BILL: either jazz triangle YouTube video or a Wikipedia link to eye triangle dollar bill things.

-MCGUCKET: cottoned eye Joe video on YouTube.

-MABEL: stickers will get sticked in the lab until 'lab now fully mabelized' appears on the pc's screen.

-DIPPER: Note from Bill asking him to stare 13 hours at the sun to develope powers to see 'special sun ink'. If you keep clicking, more notes appear saying you're on the right path. Gradually, the notes will get black (you're blind)

-STAN: HERE ME OUT THIS ONE IS MARVELOUS. The first searches will lead you to eBay and different random objects related to Stan (8 ball, rings, compression vest, hat, bow...). If you keep going you'll be able to see this (I love Stanley he's my baby):

Here you can take a look at a TON of random Stan-related things. Special mention to one of Stan's fear being having very small fingertips. I'll never be over it.

-DIVORCE/BREAKUP: THE FUCKING O'SADLEYS SIGN. I'M.

-BOYFRIEND: the romance book.

No because maybe there's more to this... 'there's three sides to every story'. Yes, triangle, love triangle, it's a very good pun. But we had Ford's POV in Diaries 3 and Bill's in the book of Bill. Thinking thoughts.

-GIDEON: sweat resistant bolo ties search on Google.

-TRIANGLE: ')' and 'tri harder'

-ALEX: flannel search on google

-PORTAL: 'portal.exe has been deleted. I bet you could build one'

-GRAVITY FALLS: 'never heard of it'

-FORD/SIXER: 18th y.o Ford's hand radiography. Weird something written I cannot really tell?? H8T0? HBT0? HBTO? H8TO?

-WENDY: 👌

-SOOS: some notes written down by him. Claims that when looking at the book everything glitches and he just sees 'HE'S UNCORRUPTABLE'.

-PIÑATA: video of a girl punching a Bill-shaped piñata.

-ABUELITA: vacuum cleaner commercial spot on YouTube.

-Any insult: soap image, angry message. They do not approve us.

-LIES: okay I find this specially important because the book is very introspective and gives out a lot of info about Bill but we all know he's an unreliable narrator. He rants about post-truth, scientism and superstition (very cool and interesting philosophical topics if I may say). But it's specially interesting when it comes to understanding Bill and his mindset. Lie until what you want becomes true, which can't. Lie until you can't remember what's a lie and what isn't. Reality is doomed, if you can't physically escape, do so in your mind. Lie until you aren't lying anymore. Reality is a compendium, and ultimate construct, a truth of lies, a possibility among endless. Lies are truths

-GOD: video of an axolot swimming with a Bill figurine made out of rock.

-HEY NERD: advertisement

-EVEN HIS LIES ARE LIES:

SORRY: Old picture of Fiddleford and Stanford back in college :(

ONE EYED KING: fucking morse code. Took me some minutes to catch it: -./.-/../-/.../..-/.-/..-.

Resulting in: NAITSUAF. If you enter this word as a new code, you'll see a page with a contract and terms of service to sell your soul. It has a code that translates to: 'you're now twenty one grams lighter'.

[shannendoherty-fans]

August 1992 - Shannen Doherty on the cover of YM (Young & Modern) magazine, by Firooz Zahedi.

Brunette bombshell Shannen Doherty – How she got it all - Part 2.

The got-it-all Girl

Shannen’s love life

What she looks for in a guy: “I’m not going to lie like a lot of people and say, ‘I look for a sense of humor and a personality first.” I look for a good-looking guy first.” (laughs)

How she makes her relationship work: “We make time for each other. Because when everything is said and done, the acting may not be there, but the relationship will.”

Why they postponed the wedding: “We were supposed to get married last March 15. You know, it goes from this small, intimate wedding to his parents’ giving me a list to my parents’ giving me a list. Two hundred of each parents’ closest friends are all of a sudden invited to your wedding. I was going bonkers.”

On her wedding dress: “I designed my own wedding dress. It’s a little too ritzy, a Beverly Hills kind of dress. I’m not too psyched about it, so I think I’m going to do it all over. I'll have them make it a more simple dress.”

Wedding of the century: “[So far] we haven’t found a place that’s big enough to hold the wedding in the style we wanted. We wanted it to be very 30s mixed with Italian charm. All Italian food’s going to be served at our wedding. My favorite is Italian food, my absolute fave.”

Shannen speaks

On Brenda: "I think everybody can relate to my character. She's not the perfect girl in that she really flubs up sometimes. She males huge mistakes, like kissing another guy when she has a boyfriend. Whatever it is, I think she's becoming a stronger character."

On her looks: "You know, my eyes are a little off center. Somebody pointed it out to me. I went, 'Really?' So I went home, and I looked in the mirror, and I said, 'Wow, they are.' And you know, to me, it's cool. It maes me different."

Her day: "Usually I have a 6:30 A.M. call So I get up at 4:30... book to work... sit in the make-up chair for an hour." She gets home between 8:30 and 9:00 P.M.

Her hair: "I wash it in the morning and I put conditioner on it, and that's about it."

Tattoos: "I have a proble with being a grandmother and having tattoos. I think they're cool. But they're a little too trendy for me now. It's, like, if I got a tattoo now, I'd be another trendy L.A. person. And that's what I don't want."

Shannen answers your questions

“When you were in high school, did you have any trouble fitting in?” —Ardis Dumalski, 15, Park Ridge, IL “I never fit in. I was unusual looking. Guys in high school didn’t like me. They were into the typical California blonds. I dressed unusual. Kids are ruthless. I got harassed all the time. You want to know the best thing about being in US magazine’s ‘Ten Most Beautiful Women’ section? All those guys who used to say I was so ugly, I can, like, throw this in their face and say, ‘Excuse me, f— you! Your opinion means s— now.’ ”’

“What's it like to become famous so quickly? How has it changed your life?” —Lyndsey Robertson, 14, Argenta, IL “One word: overwhelming. It’s overwhelming and it’s interesting at the same time.”

“How does it feel to be a sex symbol?” —Beth Lemkin, 19, Isla Vista, CA “You never think of yourself as one. To me, I'm not a sex symbol, so I can’t answer that.”

“Do you have any input on 90210’ story lines? If so, what would you like to see happen with Brenda?” —Emily Harris, 19, Hartsdale, NY “Yes. We can give them story-line ideas—sometimes they use them, sometimes they don’t. If we don’t like something in the script, they change it. I'd like to see Brenda become a stronger woman. They should get her out on her own. And have her go through different weird phases.”

“How do you feel about the writers’ having to change Brenda's sexual decisions because of advertising, viewers, parents and other outside pressures?” —Emily Harris, 19, Hartsdale, NY “Unfortunately those people who didn’t like that are not being realistic, because a lot of teenagers are having sex.”

"What do you do when the show is on hiatus?” —Andrea Wilson, 22, Cambridge, MA “I do movies, like I'm doing a movie of the week now. It’s called Obsession. I'm this 24-year-old girl who falls for a guy in his 50s. And he breaks up with me, and I go psycho.”

"A lot of people think you're really conceited. Why do you think this is?” —Ingrid Douglas, 16, Brooklyn, NY “Cause people read too much bad press. Because the only way the Enquirer can sell is to write bad stuff about you. They say nightmare stuff about me all the time. They said Luke and I hate each other. They say that I throw temper tantrums over my wardrobe. Well, if I threw temper tantrums over my wardrobe, why do I still wear such clothes on the show?”

“Do you spend time off the set with the other actors from 90210?" —Suzy Sherman, 18, Framingham, MA “I hang out with Tori, she’s a really good friend of mine. I’ve gone to a club with Jennie, I've hung out with Jason. I don’t hang out with Gab—she’s kind of on a different level from me.”

(Part 1)

[aceinacloset]

Do you have any miscellaneous lore to share about your AU?

Does Heartsick have arrows on her back n stuff/where are they all placed?

Does she have some sort of item to match with Clockwork? Cuz Clockwork has the earring?

Does HW2 Baby have a claw, or is it just the hand?

What does she do in her free time? Does she have any hobbies?

Why are her eyes uh. Toothpaste colored instead of blue?

Is Arctic's mistletoe real/what is it made out of?

What does she do if one of her icicles break off? Do they break off? Can she use them as a weapon? Does it hurt?

Is Broiler's shovel a prosthetic she can remove, or is it permanently affixed to her body?

How did she lose her hand? Or was it a design choice?

If Broiler is running on something that doesn't make smoke, will she still smoke?

Did William ever cut any corners?

Okay, so since Henry was presumably dead for the fnaf6 fire, and William was rotting away in a rabbit suit, and any possible hiers of the company dead one way or another, who had the idea for Special Delivery? Who had the idea for the Pizzaplex?

Katherine, if you made the minigame actually beatable, why did you hide Elizabeth's cutscene so well?

Me seeing this ask:

Miscellaneous lore? Girl, I have so much, but I'll restrict it. Enjoy these little facts, though...

☆There was a planned cartoon about the funtimes, but it never made it off the cutting room floor. The only cartoon completed is 'The Great Magic Disaster' it was created to explain CB’S green eye.

The cartoon designs would be used for advertising and other merchandise.

The show would have been called 'Circus Baby and Friends'

☆There were two bed time story Circus Baby and Friends books made, both revolved around either Circus Baby or Ballora putting the Bidy Babs or the Minireenas to bed

It was widely praised by parents, but now is a collectors item.

☆The funtimes have holiday themed cutouts, made for many different holidays.

☆"Ennard" was originally supposed to be another animatronic but was scrapped early on, with only his simple mask remaining. He is character, though, just only in the cartoon form.

He's a jester

☆The Funtimes did have Halloween costumes made at one point for kids to wear and for themselves. Now, those are also collectors items.

☆All developments related to the 'Circus Baby and Friends' cartoon are owned by fazbear entertainment and are in fazbear archives.

☆The Circus Baby mini game is a real mini game that could be played. It's was supposed to be part of a bigger game, but it was never finished. All that's left are 4 mini games, all based around the 4 main stars.

.

Most of Heartsicks arrows are in her arms and legs.

Heartsick has a pocket watch, made of Clockworks gears

.

HW 2 CB does not have the claw (thankfully), but the hand is present in both HW 2 and regular CB.

She plays games with the plushbabies mostly, or she may access another mini games she can access (Scrap Baby or Ennard)

Elizabeth's agony is imbeded in her code. It's a slight change. To show this isn't the exact same CB we met in the beginning.

.

Her mistletoe earings are not real, it is made of shiny metal. If they break off, they'll inevitably grow back. If it's summer and that happens, she may have to get help (usually a staff member). Yes, they can break off, but usually only during the summer and late spring. No, she doesn't use them as weapons. It only hurts when it's winter. During the summer, they can just fall off.

.

Her shovel is permanently fixed to her arm. It can only be removed by staff for maintenance. I'm not going to go into too much depth on how she lost it. All I'll say is,'It's why she bundles up in the winter and why she never enters the artics animatronics freezer.'

If she burns something that doesn't smoke, she won't smoke, correct.

.

Surprisingly, not as much as fazbears does, but that's mostly because he has killer robots and that stuff is suspicious enough.

.

Fazbear entertainment

.

Katherine: Only one person would willingly go looking for that secret.

[silviawordsworth]

A comprehensive reason as to why I, as a teenage girl, think the marauders fandom is heaven on earth. (+ a few faults)

In simple terms, its a pit of representation. The characters, even the ones mentioned more than just a name drop, have very little known information about them. Like yes, we know remus lupin marries tonks and we know james marries lily, but besides that? They were teenagers at hogwarts, its fun to play around with the dynamics of them.

And its also a passion project. The marauders is by no means an actual thing. Sure, theyre side characters in hp. But the marauders fandom is created solely on headcanons and fanon info. Its almost like if i were to pull finnick and annie from thg and develop them with such depth that it contextualises things that couldve been explained better in the actual books.

And not only that, but it shows creativity. Its like weve all taken these characters, aged them down to make them more relatable, and projected our own teenage experiences onto them in a way that jk could never as she wrote them as an adult and likely has never experienced the struggles of the lgbtq teens nowadays

The lgbtq is also a good point to bring up. Nowhere anywhere else on the internet will you find a fandom so full of lgbtq characters solely bc 'it doesnt sell'. The marauders is a prime example of how marketing realistic teenagers to teenagers is not unprofitable.

Mental health is also a big thing that needs to be explored more in media. And not as the main plot, but as something that just exists. Its done well in the marauders fandom.

Usually when watching a show or reading a book, you think these characters arent that realistic. In their world, sure. But its hard to relate to characters who link nothing to you. The marauders, though wizards, are teenagers in school. They are relatable.

Also the ability to create everything out of nothing. I adore pandora rosier and regulus black but in canon they are never even shown in the movies besides reg.

The poc inclusivity, the non skinny inclusivity, etc etc.

However! There are issues.

The marauders fandom is primarily girls, yet this fandom is an excellent example of the preference that male characters get. Like, i love regulus. But pray tell why jegulus gets more hype than pretty much any wlw ships combined? And why do i see so much of lily being a surrogate or her dying and james and reg getting harry? If youre gonna cut lily out of james life for him to be w reg, atleast find another way for them to have a kid. Lily is more than her uterus and a plot device for a kid.

And theres also sm arguments over headcanons. Like, if i were to say i hc james potter as straight, i would get attacked in todays fandom. It just gets a bit strange sometimes when people disregard canon at all. I get the seperation of canon from fanon is definitely inevitable in this fandom, but i dislike when people push their hcs as canon when its literally contradicted by canon.

I love the marauders fandom i do, and i love the way the characters are developed enough to be interesting to everyone, and not just babied down enough to be advertised to kids. Theres so much you can do when you dont have to worry about pr.

Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant. Please feel free to reblog w any questions or comments, il respond to everyone x

[kabii-kins]

You know, I never really talked about it in detail. All the shit I've been spouting about Spyke, Annie and the rest, I mean. I should probably talk about that now, even after three drafts I lost interest in writing. Fourth times the charm, I guess.

To start off, I feel like I need to say that in order to see what I see, you need to have a couple of notes in mind.

Note number 1?

Spyke and Annie are not opposites.

Spyke and Annie are different in appearance. That is a more than obvious observation. They're different species, they talk different, they provide different main services, and they stand at different heights. Their appearances are completely opposite to one another. One eye verses two eyes; tall and short-- Different.

But that just about where their differences end. The pair are far more alike when it comes to their composure and blank expressions; Their drive for business that led to the eventual (and inevitable) merger of their talents. Annie's side hustle might actually be akin to one of Spyke's services; obtaining gear to order.

You order the gear, and at a given time you pick up that gear for an inflated price.

Do we know how either of these orders are obtained? Not really, no. Not many people consider the origins of Annie's work, but many make the safe assumption regarding Spyke given his reputation.

But a lot of what they do is actually the same sort of thing. Annie just gets praise for it, while Spyke is always talked down.

The best example lies in Splatoon 2's sunken scrolls, where both scrolls contain an advertisement (from different sources) promoting a concept that sounds too good to be true, and to compell viewers to inquire for more information.

(source)

The main difference is perception and what is being advertised. A positive public reception for a shop with unique clothing, and a negative public reception for a get rich quick scheme which, granted, worked.

Another more observable yet debatable one, is their disinterest in socializing and social events.

Annie is depicted as a shy, introverted type who prefers to stay indoors; while Spyke is depicted as more non-social but charismatic type that prefers to people watch and go to bookstores to browse. (Splatoon 1 Art Book) He even states every splatfest that he enjoys the vibe of the festival, but would rather not participate in them.

And with note 2:

Accept that concept notes might have silently carried over as influence In future installments.

We do this with the ages with the characters, but not much outside of that.

This entire idea runs off of the idea scribbled down on Flow's concept art page about her and Spyke being friends with benefits. So to see the vision I see, you need to keep that very note in mind.

Okay? Are we good? Okay.

This image.

This fucking image drives me insane.

It's Spyke's card sleeve, and aside from it being one of the prettiest card sleeves in the game, I can't help but to feel like this is related to something symbolic.

Two larger triangles that point upward, one with a smaller triangle within it, and another with a purple splotch of paint across it. And two triangles that point downward. Three of these shapes are orange, while the fourth is purple.

I've compared Spyke, Annie, Murch and Flow to these triangles several times but I never really elaborated on why I did that. So, here's that, I guess:

The large triangle with the smaller triangle within it represents Murch: like the triangle has an eye.

The large triangle with the paint splatter on it represents Spyke: the paint splatter on the triangle is in the same spot and alignment of Spyke's eye. Not to mention that it's the same color as his scalare.

The small orange triangle represents Annie: someone who has business connections between the two sea urchins, a connection to the pair that is rather harmonious, surprisingly.

And the purple triangle represents Flow: The odd one out. The issue. The one that is similar in hue to a mark left on another triangle.

It might sound like nonsense, yeah. But it also wasn't the first time someone was singled out in a color-based manner.

Here you see two images of Spyke throughout the Splatoon 2 era. One is 2017-18, and the other is in 2019 and, ignoring the fact that Nintendo doesn't change shit in a current installment regarding side characters, pre Splatoon 3.

In the former are three bracelets, a small chunky one, a large slender one, and a slightly smaller black one.

The first bracelet might represent a younger Murch, who was short and stocky at the time. The second might represent Spyke who was, seemingly, at his peak at the time, leaving the final bracelet to represent Flow: the odd color out and the bracelet that was straight up removed by the final fest.

After all, he's pictured with only two of them at that time.

And you know who else was in that picture with him? Annie.

Just awkwardly dangling there, using his foot as support. Something that was likely foreshadowing given where they currently are.

And this was likely also reflected in his current bracelet (and general jewelry) choice.

He has a bracelet with a hanging triangle charm in the front of his bracelet arrangement, with two virtually identical bracelets behind it. Representing Annie, Spyke and Murch respectively.

The simple, more probable answer would probably be: "well, she's technically their boss. She would be on top due to that, right?" And yeah, it does.

But it can also indicate Spyke's opinion on Annie is higher than his opinion on Flow.

Just think about it: Flow, a woman he used to sleep with, was on the back of his wrist, colored a gun metal black. While Annie, a woman who bought in to his scary reputation and feared him as well, was set to the front of his wrist. One below the large bangle and a different one above it.

And not only that, but the bracelet representing Flow being removed? Indicating a falling out of sorts the moment Annie gets close?

The purple splatter on that large triangle indicating a permanent mark left by Flow?

The fact I can also apply this logic to Spyke's rug???

Honestly, its why I'm anticipating a potential second splat 3 art book announcement. I don't know if it's with excitement or fear, though.

And as much as I want to delve in to Spyke and Annie's overlaps in splat 3 in great detail, I can just say what I wanna say in a different post.

If you have any inquires, send them to my ask box <3

[artsy-hobbitses]

Wait, what is the advertising and pr like on the autobot side of things.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the autobots did charity as well.

That, and they film their table top rpg events live and request donations to some organizations or the autobot cause.

Who even orchestrates the advertising and pr for the autobots? Is it blaster?

Less propaganda (they’re not in the business of conquering territories), more PSAs.

There is some degree of recruitment stuff going on of course, but it tends to have the flavour of signing up for Docs Without Borders or an international NGO—it’s less ‘elite’/militarised than ‘Con propaganda and more altruistic.

While they don’t have ‘territories’, they do have outposts constructed in areas free of Con and Functionist grip, and often train people there/offer backup to help ensure their borders remain free. The idea is to let them rebuild on their own terms for their own people on the foundation that freedom is the right of all.

You’ll find care packages with booklets for war refugees/cold constructs kind of like 101 on agencies that can help them, the rights they have, and where to go for aid and the type of aid they are are eligible for.

There’s also lots of posters combating Beastman and Manual Class stigma, and breaking down how ridiculous it is to adopt the same caste system a bunch of fucking coloniser space squids first used to divide them up into slaves.

Charity work and volunteerism is very much a thing they do as well, though to a slightly smaller scale than the Cons because their funds are sort of limited and they’re just generally a smaller team (their biggest benefactor is Mirage and potentially Tracks) with less manpower. So yes the Tabletop RPG thing and music jam sessions to help raise funds is something that happens quite often.

Something that sort of becomes unexpectedly popular here is actually OP reading (think of it like Henry Cavill reading the Witcher books) and discussing books with the audience after. Sometimes he’ll take book requests so there’s a pretty large online (and on radio for those with no Net access, if you can tap in to Blaster’s channel) book club for the book of the month (there will be people saying his voice reading to them is like a very cozy ASMR). This is also novel because a lot of Manual classes especially did not have access to books outside of their class specification, and in lacking resources to get these books to all of them physically, this is how OP chooses to break that barrier/share the joy and knowledge from them with a worldwide audience regardless of caste. It’s why his moniker as The Librarian sticks in an affectionate manner for a lot of people (sometimes Megs listens in too on particularly lonely nights, though you could never pry that out of him)

OP, Mirage, Jazz and Blaster usually oversee the public relations work they do as it’s mostly a combined effort that gets input from everyone.

[claireelizabethsblog]

~ August's Books Reviewed ~

The month started out strong with me riding a Sanderson high, then I did a thing that I objectively hate and know will 9 times out of 10 have me reading less, which is started several books at once.... as of the end of August I was reading three books at once, yet none of them were finished so none of them get included in August's round up... look forward to that in September I guess!

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

(763 pages)

The stress I felt reading this was unreal... which is simply evidence of how good it is. It genuinely was pulling actual visceral reactions from me and I physically could not put it down at points. I know this is a shorter review than usual, but I can think of nothing else to say.

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

(748 pages)

An amazing conclusion to a really really good trilogy. The twists and turns of this were so well executed and completely shocking in exactly the right way. The ending in particular I never could have seen coming. If this were a spoiler review I'd be able to go on more, but for now, I leave with simply the promise that if you love fantasy novels, Sanderson novels, epic twists and/or social/religious/political commentary then you should definitely give this series a try!

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

(585 pages)

I was gifted this book and admit to being a little wary before committing to reading it, as a general rule books that blow up exclusively on social media tend to be a let down to me after the copious amounts of hype they've received. I'm pleased to say that was not the case with this book. If anything, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It was extremely uniquely written; it was emotional, clever and beautiful. The characters were all so complex and felt genuinely so real. I would say that was the highlight of this book, the characterisation. Every character you could relate to a real person. You sympathised with their decisions, or at least understood them. Like real life, there was no villains and heroes. Bad people and good people and somewhere in the middle people, sure. But also like real life, the last group was the most prevalent, and the first two groups different to each individual's opinions. I would actually really recommend this book to almost everyone I know who reads, I'm pretty sure everyone could find something in it that keeps their focus, be it the mystery, the love story, the characters....

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The twist of a knife by Anthony Horowitz

(373 pages)

I am like 90% sure that this was not the first book in a series, however it stood well as a stand alone book too! Like the other Horowitz book I read earlier this year, I found this novel a little slow to pick up at first, however I did get into it in the end. I found it clever and quirky and I loved the meta elements. Ultimately, it was exactly what it was advertised as - a light, humorous murder mystery - and actually, I'm not mad about taking a break for something silly every so often!

I gave this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio

(422 pages)

After the success of The Seven Husbands, I felt brave enough to try another recent social media favourite book. I'd seen mixed reviews over this one, however my flatmate strongly recommended it and as usual, our tastes in books aligned and it was extremely good. Despite the predictability of the plot, I was fully engaged the entire way through which speaks to how well the characters were depicted that I was willing to look past the predictability of it all just to read more about the people. In fact, I would like to make this a formal call for more people to start writing fanfictions for this novel because I want to read even more about these characters and am being denied that currently based off the limited options on ao3 (if anyone has any good recommendations please let me know!) I think, if I had read this in another month it would have received five stars, however it was let down by the fact that it was read within the same weeks as Sanderson and The Seven Husbands which meant I could not in good conscience give it full marks when the plot was just a little too easy to see coming for me. Therefore....

I gave this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[laslow]

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

tagging: all the ladies out there ;D

Name: Samantha/Sam

Pronouns: she/her

Birthday (no year): May 28

Where are you from? What is your time zone? California! I am on PST timezone so three hours behind the TOA clock

Roleplay experience: Over 10 years! (Dear Naga the passage of time)

Got any pets? No :(

Favorite time of year: Winter!

Some interests and things you like: Reading but that's a given. I'm a huge history nerd and love learning random facts. Also love languages and have tried learning a handful of them but never stick to it rip. Dragons are my fave fantasy creature. (I'm terrible at filling these things out LOL)

Some fun facts & trivia about you: -I own about 300 books -I can skateboard -I wanted to be a geologist as a child until I learned how much math was involved -I can play the piano and a tiny bit of violin -I've never broken a bone

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Zelda, Persona, SSB, Honkai Star Rail

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Water & Vaporeon!

How did you get into Fire Emblem? Watching my brother play on the GameCube

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Physically played: Everything from SacStones on. Read scripts for Genealogy and Thracia.

First Fire Emblem game: Path of Radiance

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Awakening!

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Take a WILD guess. LMAO but besides the Boy of All Time, I can admit I have a crush on Xander.

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom and I'd still S support him I'm basic and that's ok - Fates: Silas and it's a tossup between him and Leo now - Three Houses: Dimitri and still Dimitri. - Engage: Diamant and still Diamant I know what I'm about

Favorite Fire Emblem class: Swordmaster!

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? Swordmaster!

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Blue Lions

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? It's a tie between Leif and Eirika & Ephraim

How did you find TOA? I saw an advertisement for the group on tumblr WAAAAY back when

Current TOA muses: Inilow, Leo, and Azelle

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? The one and only Inigo. I really can't see myself dropping him unless I left the group.

Have you had any other TOA muses? Ilyana and Vanessa!

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards?The loyal ones for sure. A shocking amount have sibling complexes and I don't know what that says about me as a person.

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? Honestly, I enjoy writing a little bit of everything! Happiness, angst, romance. But if I have to pick a favorite it'd be combat :thinking: Something about the adrenaline

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔 Tee-Oh-Ay

Favorite TOA-related memory: Oh naga. I literally cannot pick one so any and all the inside jokes/memes that pop up that would NOT make sense to anyone else

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day that you’d like to share? 😉Coughs into hands. If I said I had a Seth blog what then. Silas is up there too and there's a few from Thracia I have my eye on

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 231

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 33 - “Hustle! Urara and the Curry Restaurant” Date watched: 27 January 2023 Original air date: 28 September 2008 Screenshots Precure Metamorphose Gallery | Sky Rose Translate Gallery Project info and master list of posts

Bunbee is starting to see the writing on the wall and looking for a way out of Eternal. Maybe a curry restaurant. Meanwhile, Urara’s friend has a failing curry restaurant and she wants to help revive it. What happens when Bunbee comes sniffing around the competition? Let’s take a look.

The Plot

Urara asks Yoshimi, a friend and classmate, to help go over her script.

After school, they go to Yoshimi’s family’s failing curry restaurant. Urara tries to rope the others in but Yoshimi asks for just the two of them, not wanting to trouble the upperclassmen.

Bunbee sees Anacondy stressing over the repeated failures of Eternal, trying to figure out why they can't win against the Precures. She’s ignoring him, and Bunbee recalls Kawarino doing the same at Nightmare, so he begins to question his future at Eternal. He ponders opening a curry shop.

Yoshimi's family explains business was booming before an adjacent building literally overshadowed them

Urara and Yoshimi try to put up fliers, but no business will let them, so they try to hand them out directly.

At Natts House, everyone is concerned and distracted by Urara's predicament and this annoys Princess Crepe, who says she’s NEVER BEEN TREATED SO HORRIBLY, because she's dramatic. Syrup leaves to "work".

Syrup actually shows up to help Urara and Yoshimi hand out fliers. Bunbee happens to pick one up, considering it a competitor to his hypothetical future store.

Everyone at Natts House separately leaves to go do something, intentionally or not slipping in the word Curry to their excuses. Nozomi is the last to catch on to what’s happening.

You can view all the jokes in the gallery.

Bunbee shows up at the curry restaurant. He antagonizes Urara and Syrup. Rin shows up, then Karen, Komachi, and Nozomi and Kurumi in turn. Bunbee complains about them not all showing up at once. They transform and Bunbee turns a flier into a Hoshiina.

Lemonade is worried about the restaurant getting damaged so they lure the monster away by flying on Syrup, but it causes them to crash.

Bunbee taunts them about not being strong individually, both as warriors and in the attempt to promote the curry shop. They retort that one person is enough to start a movement. It’s not stated, but the way that relates to the plot of the episode is the idea that they can bring customers to the store.

The Hoshiina splits into 5 and grabs the girls. Rose knocks Bunbee back and the Precure break the monsters’ holds. Coco helps them perform Rainbow Rose Explosion.

After the fight, everyone is eating at the restaurant. Urara apologizes to Yoshimi for not being able to do anything to help, but her parents say that she brought in all these customers (pointing to the others). Seeing the girls happily eating draws in more people and the restaurant is quickly packed.

The Analysis

What I Liked

Yoshimi asks that Urara’s other friends not help them to promote her restaurant, and she accepts that request graciously. That was a nice touch.

Bunbee flashing back to his time at Nightmare is a nice little bit of continuity.

A souvenir store, a clothing store, and another restaurant may not be the best places to advertise, but that’s a good reflection on the relative immaturity of Urara and Yoshimi.

Rin prepares 10 cups of tea for everyone, but there’s one left over when everyone grabs theirs because she forgot to account for Urara’s absence. Everyone gets the big sad. It’s super cheesy and I point that out below, but I also find it funny.

Also, Komachi gets super distracted and dumps a pile of books on Crepe when she says she’s thirsty. She deserved it. (yes, I am being petty)

The gag with everyone coming up with curry-related reasons to leave the store and go help Urara was hilarious, and the follow-up with them dramatically appearing one by one at the scene of the fight was the icing on the cake.

One of the messages of the episode, about helping people in need and the impact that seemingly small effort can produce, is nice.

What I Didn’t Like

The other girls act super sad to not be around Urara for a day while she’s helping her friend, even though they've each previously let friends do their own things without causing such a fuss. Like give the girl some space, jeez!

Related to that, the other lesson in this episode is trying to be “Help your friends in need” but it comes across as “butt into their afffairs when they’ve asked you not to.” which is a bad lesson.

Bunbee’s line about the cures being easy to take out individually is….. A bit absurd. He’s fought them at less than full strength before and of course seen others be defeated by individuals.

The art is middling in this episode.

Princess Crepe is more obnoxious than usual in her one notable moment.

Miscellaneous

Milk does not appear in her fairy form in this episode.

Yoshimi is voiced by Amano Yuri, an actress with credits going back to the mid-80s. Reportedly, her most notable role is Makibi Kiyone in the Tenchi franchise. She also played some villains in Sailor Moon (Berthier in R and CereCere in SuperS). She will go on to play some other minor characters in Precure: a girl named Chika in Fresh episode 18, Mayuka in Heartcatch 44, the Queen of Hope Kingdom in Go! Princess, and Kotozume Shino (Yukari’s grandmother) in Kirakira.

Conclusion

It’s a decent episode about helping your friends, and the impact that seemingly small actions can have, and of course teamwork. It also signals the beginning of Bunbee’s redemption arc, if you can call it that. It doesn’t do much for anyone else, it’s just innocuous fall filler. Even Princess Crepe is reduced to a single scene. She’ll get her conclusion next episode, thankfully. For now, this episode just exists in between Mucardia’s more devious schemes and Bunbee’s more interesting ones.

Next time, on Precure Daily, Princess Crepe finally makes her move. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 kettei!

[anthroparis]

can you go more in depth on why you hated the barbie movie, i thought it was mid but i somewhat enjoyed it. mostly because i took an edible before going. also i love your blog for how angsty and opinionated you are

I would love to! and thank you, I try not to be so edgy (I used to be worse) but I am very opinionated and as my hero ron swanson said, if you believe in something, you sign your name to it.

Intro

"Hollywood is unoriginal and they love money" -ralph sepe, j.r.

thesis: my problem is more that it's probably one of the most soulless and offensive takes on feminism I have seen in my life, and people keep dragging its rotting corpse around on parade like it's accomplished literally anything.

like. come on.

actual movie parts

speaking on technical terms, I really fucking hated the pacing. so many random, useless points were brought up and then never developed. it's like gerwig didn't know what she wanted to say so she just said everything and never developed any of it. there were so many characters, plots and subplots, and conflicts in the movie and none had a good setup or payoff. like so much happened to the point where it feels like nothing happened at all. I'm not even quite sure what the point was? what were they even trying to say? women are powerful? it's okay to be a girl? aging is okay? like oh my god. I'm not saying you can't have a ton of themes, I'm saying that if you don't know how to make them work together and flesh them out enough, it's going to DESTROY your pacing. it was like watching fucking love on a leash with how many things started and ended right after one another.

okay those are my film school dropout gripes. now onto why this movie completely failed as a feminist story:

the feminism

it was a big-budget, star-packed movie made in hollywood

it's fucking barbie

"barbie was made to make women hate men" "barbie was made to empower women" BARBIE WAS MADE FOR MONEY. IF THE PRODUCERS DIDN'T THINK IT WAS GOING TO MAKE A PROFIT, THEY WOULDN'T HAVE MADE IT. IT WAS MADE TO SELL TICKETS. IT WAS MADE TO MAKE COMMERCIALS FOR. IT WAS MADE TO ADVERTISE MERCHANDISE.

it is actually literally not revolutionary at ALL to put money in a producer's pocket and more fast fashion in a landfill. stop pretending like it's feminism. it's not. it's capitalism that is preying on a demographic. congrats, you just fell victim to advertising!

okay now that that's said:

this is the kind of movie I imagine liberal parents would show their small children to introduce them to feminist theory. I saw someone on instagram saying that you shouldn't take your kids to this because it contains "themes that they might not understand" like fucking what? what themes? there was absolutely 0 nuance at all in that movie. nothing was symbolic or thematic, they literally just TOLD YOU WHAT WAS HAPPENING.

this is like if they made a picture book about feminism into a movie. I'm sorry but throwing around terms and buzzwords means literally nothing to me.

you want to write a powerful movie about defying gender roles, misogyny, and wanting to just exist without the weight of expectations? then write a fucking movie about a person. Whip It (2009) is an excellent example of a feminist movie that outsells barbie in every written regard, because it's not hamfisting these terms to fumble around a slightly progressive point, it's telling a story about a humanized, sympathetic character who is struggling with her own relationship to femininity. like I'm sorry, but there is nothing relatable about barbies. I am not flawlessly beautiful, I am not effortlessly successful. most women aren't.

which brings me to my next point: this movie is overly obsessed with the idea of being a woman rather than being a person who happens to be a woman.

I want to see movies about people. just people. not defined by their genders. exhibiting a wide range of traits, interests, experiences, feelings, memories. I don't want to see barbie's steps into ""real womanhood"" being going to a fucking gyno, because women are not defined by our pussies. believe it or not!

I strongly, STRONGLY disliked the really heavy-handed terfy messages in this movie. I understand that most people would not notice them but I do. I see that shit.

here I'll give you one: barbies who are not enlightened by their knowledge of their "womanhood" are brainwashed by the kens. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT. I'm reaching here but the whole brainwashing bit is a super fucking terfy talking point about women who like men. I've heard it a lot as someone who engages in kink.

I'll give you another one: universal girlhood. to "free" the brainwashed barbies, the enlightened ones have to tell them about these things that "every women experiences!"

I remember watching this bit and not relating to a SINGLE thing that was listed. not ONE thing. I am a cis woman. but because I am gnc and was raised to be gnc, I could not relate to these experiences. I do not worry about gaining weight. I am not self-conscious of my stretch marks, and never have been. I am not afraid of being mean or loud when it's necessary.

again I identify as cis. I'm just gnc. I have constantly struggled with feelings of not being a girl in the right way. I imagine lots of other people feel the same thing. this constantly snivelly "well you have to fit THIS criteria to be a girl" nonsense is so fucking harmful to me, to trans women, to other girls who don't feel like they fit within traditional gender norms or struggle with feeling like they're not doing femininity right.

barbie gives us an incredibly narrow, specific window into femininity, and yes, actually, it does reinforce gender norms. there's not really anything revolutionary about being conventionally attractive, smart, and successful.

that's where I really struggle with this movie. it represents a very tiny, limited piece of womanhood and then packages and sends it off as the full picture. it's exclusionary. it's narrow-minded. it's incomplete. things just happen. things just happen!

nothing about this representation of womanhood felt organic to me. it literally felt like it was written by some guy. it had "heyyy queen I saw your tweet about how men are trash and I just wanted to let you know that I agree. although I myself am a man, (i know, ugh)" written all over it.

they were so close. SO close with that part where normal barbie feels like she's less valuable as a woman for not being successful. I like that point a lot, and would've liked to see a movie that focused around that instead. but it's just not not true. she's gorgeous. she's intelligent. she understands politics. she's confident. she has friends. measuring women's success through numbers is literally corporate feminism. it's bullshit.

I would like to see movies about women who are people. women who are flawed, not in the palatable, socially-acceptable way. not in a cute, fashionable way. I want gross girls, I want loud, mean girls, I want girls who exist for themselves. I want girls who are just getting by. I want girls who are impassioned, I want girls who scream and are messy and violent.

because these things are not gendered. let's stop acting like they are.

I am so fucking tired of corporate feminism. of this idea that feminism needs to be palatable to be taken seriously. that women are not naturally aggressive, or loud, or mean. that we are defined by our genitals.

nothing or worth or significance happened in that movie. the arguments about it are stupid

outro

"It just exists. It exists so they can make commercials for it. So that you can pay money to see it. Films aren't made just to exist"

-ralph sepe jr.