#and tbh yes they look ridiculous but it has a good story

[crookedfivefingers]

[starstruckmoony]

style.

masterlist

pairing - sirius black x fem!reader

summary - you and sirius start dating after accidentally running into each other at a concert but confirm nothing, just to watch everyone lose their shit online.

trope/tags - band/celeb!au, instagram/social media!au, modern!au, fluff, terrible humour

word count - 991

warnings - language

part 1 / part 2 / part 3

yourusername added to their story

starmanblack

❤ liked by yourusername, bartyyy, bellatrixieb and 674,333 others

starmanblack mv leak?? 😱😱

tagged prongsyboy, rjlupin, pete__, maraudersofficial

3,942 comments

prongsyboy last time i did that they threatened to fire me

starmanblack lol i wouldn't worry, i'm irreplaceable

prongsyboy OI NOT FUNNY

rjlupin you're bold af for tagging all of us

starmanblack it's so you can take half the blame

mmmckinnon looks cheap

starmanblack get out

marymacdonald my serotonin levels rose a bit

pete__ are we still your favourite band?

marymacdonald forever and always pete 😚

user728288 did y/n like his post or am i trippin?

user862945 i already cried to the album don't make me cry again

user001991 boyfriend

user446622 you signed my shirt yesterday

yourusername

❤ liked by starmanblack, vance_emm, cissy_blck and 689,672 others

yourusername studiocore

tagged mmmckinnon

3,784 comments

starmanblack the amount of times i've tripped on those wires is bloody ridiculous

yourusername gotta love being a singer

starmanblack you're good at it

yourusername 😳

vance_emm seems like a cool aesthetic tbh

yourusername it's a lifestyle at this point

mmmckinnon we should write some songs together next time

prongsyboy and they can all be about how amazing sirius' hair is

yourusername i've got a few in the chamber already

starmanblack i'm blushing

user272720 does this mean y/n x marlene duet?

user647372 WHAT I THOUGHT U WERE ON TOUR

user327776 she's multitasking

user001911 are we all just gonna ignore y/n saying she's got songs about sirius' damn hair?

user338288 NO BUT I SAW THAT AND CRIED THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING GOING ON

user133543 uhhhh new album? pls say yes

user382809 OMG???

starmanblack added to their story

yourusername

❤ liked by starmanblack, lily_evans, vance_emm and 713,944 others

yourusername thank you for those three beautiful shows edinburgh! i shall be going home with lots of wonderful memories and a bag of gummy bears 💕 (special thanks to whoever gave those to my favourite security lady (alice ily 💓))

tagged ev.rosier

4,409 comments

starmanblack so when are you coming to london?

yourusername when are you free?

starmanblack can i slide into your dms?

yourusername you're free to try 😚

mmmckinnon my throat is so sore i can barely speak

casmeadowes i CAN'T speak

yourusername that means i was good 🤪

pete__ can i come for free next show?

yourusername we can negotiate

prongsyboy i volunteer to spectate from the first row

yourusername pay up prongsy boy

user055251 best experience of my life

user293929 I GOT A GUITAR PICK QUDOQIDJQJDJQDJQJSJ

user456268 can you fight?

user288882 SIRIUS LMFAOOO

user564400 i love him XHADJJAJSJA he's lowkey flirting

user919292 doesn't he have a gf though?

user444447 naw they broke up

user667634 I WAS THERE I WAS THERE

user709111 COME TO GERMANY PLS

starmanblack

❤ liked by yourusername, r.a.black, pandorasbox and 701,232 others

starmanblack unmatched unspoken w rizz

tagged rjlupin

4,111 comments

yourusername you look like you're about freestyle it

starmanblack rapping is my hidden talent

yourusername 😲😲😲😲

marymacdonald HOW did you make remus agree to that?

rjlupin i was bullied please come help me

xeno_lovegood is there context behind this?

ev.rosier there's never context with them

prongsyboy evan is right

user029390 someone make green screen edits i'm begging

user372919 are you and y/n dating?

user644211 ffs y'all are annoying af 💀

user747373 early halloween party?

user327372 HELP ME WHAT

user654553 sirius you're famous 😭

celeb_gossip

♡ 32,982 likes

celeb_gossip not long after his split with actress emma vanity, sirius black has been pulled into some unexpected dating rumours with fellow rockstar, y/n l/n. the two singers have been leaving some interesting comments under one another's posts recently, and fans claim to have seen them together at marlene mckinnon's shows and several other occasions. the alleged couple, however, has not been photographed together yet. what do you think? 🤔 is this just another senseless rumour? 🤨 or is there something more going on? 👀 drop a comment and let us know your thoughts 😘💋

1,063 comments

user709111 never thought i'd see pictures of those two side by side

user900012 wouldn't be surprised if they were together actually

user915624 why does it even matter? 💀

user362625 they're just friends lmfao you all need to get a life

user422224 i thought y/n was dating evan 😭😭

user374848 HELPPP NO HE'S JUST HER PHOTOGRAPHER

user929397 honestly y/n should date me

user113231 PLS BE TRUE DHAHDJAJSHW

user800001 THIS WOULD BE MY DREAM

yourusername

❤ liked by starmanblack, pete__, casmeadowes and 700,512 others

yourusername one day i'm gonna release a song about this little demon and you lot better make it my most streamed track

4,995 comments

starmanblack ooo threats?

yourusername i need everyone to appreciate my pets

starmanblack i have a photo of him looking guilty after he peed on my carpet

yourusername use it as your profile picture

starmanblack done

maraudersofficial THAT WAS THE OFFICAL ACCOUNT SIRIUS

pandorasbox put it on an album and include limited edition photocards of him

yourusername can i hire you?

r.a.black cats are better

marymacdonald as a cat mother, i agree

starmanblack wrong but okay

user433322 I MISSED HIS LITTLE PHOTOS

user111000 AAAAHHGDHSHD CUTE

user726261 I WILL STREAM ITTT

user939290 even your dog got to meet sirius before i did lmao i'm hurt

user937344 SIRIUS WAS TGERE? WTF

starmanblack

❤ liked by ev.rosier, marymacdonald, lily_evans and 722,188 others

starmanblack dog

6,122 comments

yourusername is this your only good angle?

starmanblack it's a representation of how you see me

yourusername i will be contacting my lawyers 😤

yourusername i'm telling him to bite you next time

starmanblack bold of you to assume he'll listen to you

yourusername we both know he likes me more

starmanblack let me be in denial for a bit

prongsyboy woof

starmanblack don't bark in my comment section

prongsyboy ☹

bartyyy has this one contaminated your carpet too?

starmanblack no i was 3 seconds faster this time

user999291 you own this angle

user172777 YOU AND Y/N WE NEED ANSWERS

user866622 I AGREE WITH THE COMMENT ABOVE ME

user232655 EVERYONE LEAVE HIM ALONE 😭😭

yourusername added to their story

[wandering-tides]

TNE Fandom where are you?

Sujin shippers where are you?

I have Fics to Rec

I don't really go out of my way to rec fics (and I dunno why I have never done this before on tumblr), but BY GOD, have these two fics taken a special place in my heart.

I ADORE everything about them.

They are both Suho x Hajin ships

But the ship aside, I am so incredibly grateful for the authors to have brought them to life and allowed us to read these absolute GEMS of a fic in this little, little fandom of The Novel's Extra.

Really, y'guys have no idea how giddy and excited I get at every update.

Now, the fic in question?

1. Flowers of Agápē by DescendedGaia (Not sure if the author has a tumblr or any other social media... but lemme know if you want me to tag you :) )

Kim Hajin is a failure. There's no two ways to look at that objective truth. It's a truth that resonates through how others look at and ridicule him. It's a truth that echoes infinitely inside his head, compounding and doubling down on his inadequacies. It's a truth, despite the unconditional love of two parents that soothe but cannot dispel those haunting doubts. Kim Suho is simply perfection. The desperate vessel and ideal of Hajin's "ifs" and wishes. Because Kim Suho, the protagonist of Hajin's novel, is everything Hajin wants to be for his parents and more. But, that same story falls apart at the seams the same way Hajin has lost faith in himself. Yet, as the common narrative dictates, everything begins anew with an innocuous email requesting to remake Hajin's novel, his desperation and desire incarnate.

*** Alternatively, the extremes of Korean culture break Kim Hajin into someone who feels much more acutely, and everything shifts to the left.

This is such a MASTERPIECE. Hajin's characterisation in here is just *chefs kiss*. For me, thats one of the biggest plus points in this fic. Hajin is so much more emotionally sensitive in here and feels far more acutely than in the orignal, as should have been.

This fic has been adressing almost all the points that made me frown at or dislike in the orignal novel and manhwa (and from what I can notice, almost every one too).

This fic is kinda a rewrite of the orignal novel, (tho the author follows the manhwa flow of the story) with added Suho interactions, and such good characterization of Hajin, I fell in love at first read LMAO.

So far, there aren't any major spoilers (unless you read the author end note, where they give their own tid-bits of the chap, which sometimes contain spoilers too, or go to the comment section which may sometimes give you spoilers to the novel lol) If you are caught up with the manhwa, or atleast the season 1 of manhwa, then so far there won't be any spoilers for you!

And I think i'll stop talking about it here cuz if I keep going, I think i'll end up giving in-fic spoilers Lmao

(Oh, btw, this updates every other thursday! So far, it's been consistent in its updates ^^)

So onto the next fic!

2. Mountain To No one by @thek1ngtalks (as k1ng0fn0b0dy on ao3)

There's a number on his smartwatch that leads to nowhere. Suho's gotten in the habit of texting it throughout his day. Today, it texted back.

_ Or, in a world missing Kim Hajin, everyone is worse off. Fixing this starts with (a lot of) text messages between a protagonist and his missing piece.

And Man.... where do I begin? I have SO MUCH to say about this fic but I think i'll end up spoiling the whole fic if I start lmao. It's just so good dammit. Just gonna say that this fic takes after the end of the novel, after the conclusion. Only couple few remembers Hajin in the orignl right? Well, in this fic, nobody does. But Suho is probably (???) Going to be the first to remember... I dunno tbh, the fic is only 2 chaps in (and yes, I really adore it already)

I love what the author did with Suhos character and how he is dealing with the aftermath of... everything. Same goes for Hajin, and I love where they seems to be taking this fic. How they characterizes these two main characters and everything.

Listen, I have a LOT to say but i'll just end up giving spoilers so really go read it for yourself. This is another MASTERPIECE of a fic and I am so grateful for its presence in this little TNE fandom TT

Really, thankyou for such amazing fics authors!!

And that's all from me!! Lol I was so excited while writing this XD (could you tell? Lol)

(I edited this post twice because of all the typos I ended up making in excitement LMAO)

[thealexandriaarchives]

I'm trying to write more after a few years of a dry spell and digging into the 'Why' of why I'm not writing as much, and a big one I'm facing is a complex mix of guilt and shame that I've been praised a lot for having a very strong, terse style that will have longer descriptions but will always come back around to short, gut-punchy lines.

And at some point I think this writing style turned from being confident in my writing and knowing who I am as an author into a source of insecurity. I'll still write thousands of words in barely edited ADHD discord rambles or Tumblr meta posts, but when I turn to trying to produce anything more polished I am now hyper-aware of my style, and how much people have commented on its 'uniqueness' when its influences feel so very obvious to me? So my writing the last few years has lived and died in my drafts, feeling stilted, awkward, and stiff, or even more often has failed to make it past the brain to keyboard barrier.

I am incapable of writing the long, flowing epics I adore from so many of my friends, and over and over again my works shape themselves into highly crafted and pretentious (/neutral, intentionally telling myself over and over again this is neutral...) short stories instead.

And as the years continue I think I am aware we are all just a collection of our influences, but then I am the same half a dozen 20th century white men (a gender thought to unpack another day)

Isaac Asimov

Jorge Luis Borges

Truman Capote

(Some Dostoevsky & Tolstoy?)

Christopher Moore

Kurt Vonnegut

I ran a couple pieces I've gotten the most of this praise / feedback on through the newest version of 'i write like' and didn't get either Asimov (phew honestly, my love) or Vonnegut though. I got Cory Doctorow (whom I've never read so I cannot tell if this is good but it sounds correct for the story) and H.G. Wells which was also correct for the story and whom I grew up on. I tend to stylize as I write so both were heavy about the scientific method but 'about the direct clarity, accessibility and succinctness of the message' which sounds like my technical writing not literary stuff tbh. Also stuff about 'driving the story forward', I also have issues around the fact I prefer to write in present tense which seems not to be the preference, do they do this too? Is this some autistic science bro tech writer Sci Fi brain thing I wired myself with at a tiny age?

I think some of it is that I am fine with being Cringe & Pretentious if it feels Authentic to myself, but I am unable to reconcile that with the fact that it also feels like I am just Subconsciously Trying to Be Like My Faves. Which is ridiculous when you look at the fact my favorite narratives are all about eternal recurrence, being haunted by the narrative, humanity's patterns repeating themselves over and over again. I need some pithy narrative to remind myself that I am being hypocritical when I hold myself against this.

Yes, I write the weird, fucked up meta short stories just like the stories that most impacted me at the most pivotal times in my life. Big shocker, I'm throwing in my biggest kinks and they also say things about me as well when scrutinized. All writing is a mirror and self-reflection. All stories are the same story branching off the same Ur-Story told around a cave fire at various points.

What is fanfiction's italicized: Oh. Oh.

But an echo on Vonnegut's: So It Goes.

A person falls in love. A person dies. The story repeats again. I hate the phrase 'Kill Your Darlings'. The ghost of Truman Capote smokes a cigarette over my shoulder and reminds me to remove every unnecessary word.

So it goes.

This is basically journalling, but any not-white, not-men, ideally not-cishet names that jump to mind from that short list or other thoughts or ruminations are always welcome.

[no-shxme]

Question if you could rework Talon how would you do it? Like, if you have complete and total control of the character, can change things as far as the beginning or just progress his story. You can do whatever.

What would you do?

OKAY so i actually typed out a long ass response but then it got deleted so this makes me very sad faklsdjkljsfd but im gonna try and repeat myself. Disclaimer ofc this is going to be very long and its also just my personal opinion. No hate if anyone’s ideal talon is different.

So i can divide the changes i would make into like, 3 categories.

Core design

In game

Lore

I’ll go ahead and put it below the cut bc i know its gonna be so long (sob)

CORE DESIGN:

Okay im pretty sure i’ve said smth similar before but i cant remember. Basically i think talon’s core design fantasy conflicts with his design to an egregious degree. Riot’s goal is supposed to be to make the champ design fit the fantasy, but we’re supposed to believe he’s this cutthroat, efficient, STEALTHY assassin, who can kill with no mercy and climb all over the map and yet he’s got this jingle-jangle cape and also a hokey, non-retractable armblade. (this pisses me off bc zed has a retractable blade. So they DO exist.) also wild rift pissed me off bc when they redid their design of him they didn’t fix any of the issues and in fact made the armblade worse. How is he supposed to climb? It fundamentally conflicts with what he’s supposed to be. Get rid of both of them both. banished.

Granted, both of these things make his design more unique, but i dont think talon needs them. In fact their existence makes his own thematic design worse, as someone who’s supposed to blend in, supposed to hide in a crowd and be a nobody. He’s supposed to have a generic design. Maybe they can fuck with his cape a lil bit, but he doesn’t need to have this super notable look to him. Look at akshan. He’s just a shirtless dude (in a repurposed sol uniform) but he wears it well fr. 

As a side note: talon’s design in ‘the name of the blade’ is pretty good as a starting off point but it still has the stupid cape.

To be clear they will never change this i think. Talon’s armblade and cape are too ingrained in his old design so they’ll never be fixed, and this problem with it not matching his fantasy will only get worse over time.

Also i think base leblanc also looks ridiculous and is in the same boat.

IN GAME:

A new model + animations ofc! Hood toggle, + extra animation variants when vaulting over stuff. (over thin walls, thick walls, and side hops.) an idle knife flip. (oh and new splasharts ofc.) a new voice!! My current problem with the voice is that imo he sounds too old and deep, and also he suffers from being old (i hc him as between 23-25) and having few lines. Tbh i think talon would rock a raspy transmasc voice, or at least a raspy voice, prone to cracking bc he’s not super talkative.

random voice line ideas

New interactions with katarina, swain prolly, sett (as a treat) and ezreal. etc.

New joke response: “i dont get it” or “you talk too much.”

New taunt response: “be quiet.”

“Leave me alone” or “you’re annoying” after killing someone.

“I can climb that” when seeing sett or other eligible champs, both masc and fem. bisexual energy.

Lots of vocalizations. “Hah,” hrmphs, occasional “hm.”

A focus on shorter, more straightforward sentences as opposed to long wordy ones.

he will trigger more voicelines when by himself (for eg: in the jg) as opposed to around other champions. (yes im dreaming big.)

as an 'away from people or in the jg' voiceline: whistling. not like a tune or anything, just a few notes.

LORE:

Okay this is the really big one. I’m just gonna go all over the place.

Step 1: make him aro. MAKE HIM ARO. it doesn't need to be a big reveal or anything. Actually it’d be better if all of talon’s lore was lowkey. It can just be smth mentioned or implied on the side, but canon nonetheless. I hc him as bi too but the aro is way more important to me. WHILE WE'RE AT IT. riot please release an aromantic pride icon pls. every year i foolishly hope.

Step 2: i’d also make him trans. This isn’t a hard need for me but it makes his story/character stronger. Also i think its great to have open lgbt rep but i would like rep for people who are stealth too. Talon would be that. He likes to blend in, he likes to be unknown and invisible, he doesn’t want too much attention and he wants to be perfect. It’s pretty on the nose. I know people would be mad bc like, noo he wasn’t trans before, but i just dont care. My ideal talon is trans or at least gnc/nb-coded if amab. Also while we’re at it i’d also either give him autism with my autism ray-gun, or i’d just make him autism-coded. It just fits him. I think he realistically has anxiety and prolly some other personality disorder, if not a touch of tism.

Step 3: make the timeline of events around when he was adopted all the way to the kat comic more definite. Like how old was he when he was ‘adopted?’ (imo at least 13 but i can explain in a not already super long post pfpfpf). Retcon some of the kat comic. I think the most annoying part of it is how much he talks. I think riot thinks he’s like, a boring character, but he’s not. He’s just a NUANCED character. There are many different assassins in league that fit specific niches. (zed is evil shadow ninja assassin, akali is rogue wildcard assassin, pyke is the crazed executioner, yone is righteous, fizz is silly, katarina is proud and showy.) talon is already supposed to fit the most typical ‘assassin niche.’ like assassins creeds. Just let him be that. You don’t have to make him talk a ton, just amplify what’s already there. He’s a perfectionist, he does things in the most efficient way, he’s got layers and abandonment issues, and i think something that’s overlooked by riot is how he’s prolly a victim of manipulation and abuse. In fact i’d make that very clear, even by revealing that talon can’t read. That would already mean smth is up.

In terms of the kat comic: Cut out the whole part where talon monologues like an idiot at the end. While we’re at it, have kat kill the king, not that other guy. I think its a more interesting tie in and adds more character conflict. I actually hate how ‘good’ katarina was in the comic like she can afford to have more awfulness and then visibly grow out of it. Idc. continuing, i’d make it so that talon really thought marcus left, and then marcus returns just before the kat comic events and manipulates talon into trying to kill her. Idk this makes so much more sense to me i dont know why they had talon know about it the whole time, as if it didn’t kill his entire story that we’d been following for years. Like it was such an easy change to still respect what story he already had??? IT MAKES ME MAD. It also allows talon to have more obvious conflict with killing kat, bc their sibling connection improves in marcus' absence.

ALSO i like his scar in the kat comic but i’d like it differently instead of straight down. I feel like eye scars are pretty like, they all look the same yk. Can we vary it up or maybe give him a few more. He’s so pretty in the kat comic but he deserves more scars.

Also, in his high noon story i would not have fucking talon dish out the expository dialogue again. I love that story but it makes me mad how he just word vomits this whole story. Just put that shit at the beginning and leave him out of it. Or maybe find some way to explain that doesn’t involve clumsy paragraphs of expository dialogue. Sorry, no hate to the author but i think a character reciting a whole fable to someone is amateurish, lazy, and a disservice to his character. I would also make him and Yone the protagonists of high noon gothic as an au. Ive been meaning to make a post about it but they parallel each other very nicely. A demon going holy and a good man going hellish.

If i could i would legit canon-ship him with sett or with akshan. But thats ofc very indulgent and relies on setup.

uhhh extra bits that im thinking of:

retcon the going to shurima after failing to kill kat bit. i want him to fester. i would rather him be totally lost for a second and observe the wreckage of his lost family.

imo he never meets cass or soreana, because he enters the family in his teens when they're both already in shurima.

i think a really cool way to deliver talon's lore would be via other champ lore that happens to have him in it. with a consistent voice you'd be able to piece him together while still maintaining the theme of him being on the outside, lowkey.

OH I'D CHANGE HIS ICON BTW. his character icon doesn't look like him. dear god. dark brown hair pls, amber eyes. let it be so.

if i could i would strengthen the anarchistic themes he has going on in his skin lines. yeah let him go apeshit why not. let him be a thorn. let him break apart.

im pretty sure he's canonically short (looked the same size as kat in the comic) but if not. he is now. sorry bud.

oh as a final note. right now his parents are just Gone. but i would make sure that they abandoned him. its the strongest way to cause him to attach to marcus.

there's probably more but i really can't remember rn and its already so long. my god. thanks for this ask tho it was very fun to answer omg. if i ever become a famous author id beg riot to let me write smth for him. a novella or smth like garen first strike.

and ofc to reiterate, these are just my opinions. people can have their own versions of talon for sure, its all ok!

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s3 ep11: The Q and the Grey

One of my favorite crack episodes! Is it hopelessly heteronormative? Yes. Is it stuck on traditional gender roles? Also yes. But does it have some killer one liners that always make me laugh? Definitely yes. Do I enjoy any excuse to get my Starfleet people to play dress up in historical costumes? Hell yes! Must a piece of media actually be good, in order to be good? Absolutely not!

This one is so stupid that I can't believe it's actually a real episode sometimes. Q wanting to have a baby with Captain Janeway is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous premises I've ever heard for a Star Trek story, but her rebuffs to his advances are so scathing, it's kinda worth the secondhand embarrassment of watching John de Lancie have to play these scenes with a straight face just to watch her deliver these sick burns like the queen she is.

Meanwhile, Chakotay is so jealous when he finds out! He literally straight up says so! Oh my god, I didn't even remember that! And then Q pops in, and complains about there being another man, and Janeway deadass says there isn't, while Chakotay is standing right there!! I was cry laughing!! Kathryn Janeway, the woman that you are!! And then Q is all 'my tatoo is bigger than his' and Janeway looks him dead in the eye, and says 'not big enough,' and walks out of the room!! And when Chakotay hears that, he just stands there grinning to himself like 'hell yeah, I got a shot! Suck it Q!', and I'm sitting there dying! How is this even a real scene?!

Q then goes to the holodeck to ask the crew for advice on how to win Janeway over. Tom and Harry are the cool kids who are so over Q, and they defend their space mom like dutiful sons, treating him with a haughty disdain that she'd be proud of. Q then moves on to ask Neelix for advice next, but I don't remember anything after Q referred to him as 'bar rodent' because I laughed so hard.

So then Q tries to bribe Janeway with a puppy, which is honestly the one thing that might actually have worked on her tbh, but the Captain is resolute that she cannot be bribed. (She totally does cuddle the puppy for a while though, and I can't blame her, gotta take what puppy snuggles you can get out there in the cold cruel Delta Quadrant.)

AND THEN none other than Suzie Plakson shows up as Q's jealous girlfriend, Q, looking fabulous in her red Veronica Lake hair, and delivering elite level sass in the meanest, hottest way possible.

We find out that the supernovas Voyager has been encountering have something to do with the Q- the ship is caught in multiple shockwaves, and when Janeway asks Q to take them out of it, he instead takes himself and Janeway to a mansion during the American Civil War- costume time!!! Yeehaw!! Kate Mulgrew was born to wear crinoline era fashions, I swear, she looks so good!!

Obvs Janeway wants to get back to the ship, but Q reveals that they're in the Continuum, and that the Q are at war due to the upheaval caused by the Q who commited suicide in 'Death Wish'. (This episode may be silly, but I so love and appreciate continuity from previous episodes!!) We get some nonsense about how Q thinks mating with a human will produce a more compassionate breed of Q who will end the war- sounds fake, but ok. But Q gets shot, and Janeway, being full of Starfleet goodness, rescues him and tends his wounds, while giving Q a lecture about how being a parent entails sticking around to teach your children your ideals, like compassion, and how families need to be built on love- which, at least, are actually good points that redeem some of the hopelessly old-fashioned heteronormativity of this ep.

Meanwhile, lady Q is still stuck on Voyager after the shockwave knocks them out- it was a Q weapon that caused the supernova, so it temporarily knocked out her powers, and she needs Voyager's help to get back to the Continuum. They have to fly into a supernova to do it, so she has to help them modify their shields, which leads to one of my favorite scenes, where lady Q goes to engineering, and gets her ass thoroughly handed to her by the Ultimate Sarcasm Queen of the Universe, B'Elanna Motherfucking Torres. B'Elanna just stands there, looking absolutely tiny next to Amazon goddess Suzie Plakson, but she cuts her down to size, outsassing the OG sassmaster, the first badass half-Klingon babe, K'Ehleyr herself, with such confidence, such ease, that it rattles even an immortal, omnipotent Q. Your fave could never!! And then lady Q says she's always liked Klingon females because they have such spunk- which in-universe, is her admitting that B'Elanna won the sass battle (yassss queen!!) but also, for the fans, it's acknowledging the passing of the torch from Suzie to Roxann as the current half-Klingon sass queen. Nice!

So anyway, back on the bridge, lady Q calls Tom 'helm boy', and I snort laughed as his face went through the five stages of grief over this, and he looks at Chakotay like 'how do I respond to that??' and Chakotay just sighs and is like 'yeah just do what she says' and Tom sighs like 'ok, guess I'm helm boy now' and does what she says.

They fly into the supernova, and not a moment too soon, because back in the Continuum, Janeway went to the other Q's camp to call a truce, but Q are kind of dicks, and they're like no, sorry, we won't accept your surrender, we're going to execute you and Q instead. So just as Q and Janeway are tied up and facing a firing squad, Janeway nobly argues for peace, and an uncharacteristacally selfless Q pleads to spare her life. The other Q says nah, but just as they're about to shoot them, someone else draws their fire away- it's the Voyager crew, all done up in Civil War gear!! More dress up time!!! Yay!!! They lead lady Q to Q and Janeway, and Janeway urges Q to mate with lady Q instead of her, which lady Q likes the idea of. Q and Q whisper about what we assume are unspeakably kinky Q mating practices, which they invite a shocked Janeway to watch, not because they're nasty freaks, but because all they have to do is touch fingers for a second, and then it's done. But also because they're nasty freaks.

After the Voyager crew subdues the Q, (while looking fabulous in their Union army uniforms, I might add!) they're returned to Voyager, back on their original course. Q pops back in to Janeway's ready room with his new baby Q, he declares himself to be changed for the better by parenthood, and asks Janeway to be godmother, to which she agrees. It's an absolutely insane way to start a friendship, but Kathryn Motherfucking Janeway manages what no Starfleet captain ever has: to make friends with Q. Queen shit, tbh.

How is this episode even a real thing?! I don't know, but I'm glad it is!!

Tl;dr: An absolutely ridiculous, insane crack episode that by all rights shouldn't work, but it does. One of the most hilarious, fun episodes in the whole series.

[ihopesocomic]

[Wall of possible spelling errors, my pride related]

I think the reason why people include homophonia, biphobia, acephobia etc. in content that's supposed to be about LGBT characters is to convey a form of empowerment.

Like "despite their homophobic parents X was finally able to come out and get with Z, and they've found friends that accept them" in that example it's showing preserverance it's creating a sense of hope for LGBT people still in the closet.

But then there's cases with TOO much homophobia in LGBT content, yes there are ofc sad stories that aren't supposed to end well and people watch them at their own risk. BUT this isn't the case for our lovely example MY PRIDE (I know it's referencing a lion pride but something's telling me it meant LGBTQ pride too)

I know the wlw romance isn't the 'main story' per say of My Pride, but it's the part most people talk about/ got advertised and it still takes up a large chunck of the plot.

But you see the problem is most of that plot chunk is taken up by everyone crapping on our LGBT characters. I cannot find a single supportive moment in this show where it's like "hey nothing it's okay to find other lionesses hot". The characters that are supposed to representing us get nothing but crap after crap, so any sense of empowerment they were trying to convey is killed because there's no satisfying end.

But that's just my take on it.

You are absolutely right, it was never a point of conflict for either of the characters. Like. Ever. The only time homophobia was ever a "problem" was when Proudmane said something all the way in episode 7, and even then there was no consequences for it. I will however argue against Hover or Nothing being treated badly for being gay in any capacity tho. Nothing was always ridiculed for being physically disabled. And Hover was sort of antagonized for being prideless, but that was never a personal conflict for her. And the way the two of them got together told me their love was only forbidden because Hover wasn't in the pride, not because they were the same sex. There was no context clues for homophobia being a thing and I presented plenty of times they could've included it in our review. Hell even Powerstrike was like "We don't kill our gays anymore" like what was the point then? Oh there wasn't one. You just happened to be taken over by the one Pride Law fanatic on the entire continent. Because "drama" I guess.

Just to point out to others tho, no one here argued against the existence of queerphobia in media. It has its purposes, like people recounting their own experiences, and making meaningful social commentary on it, but in most cases I've seen its about telling cishet people to not be queerphobic. Which. Sure one could argue that's a good use for it. I don't feel that way about it tho. More often than not, queerphobia exists in media that doesn't actually give a fuck about it and is just used because it's "expected" to be there, regardless of context, tone, messaging, etc.

Or my favorite argument in the case of My Pride is "it's irresponsible to not include it". Like that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. MP can't even take responsibility of its own trigger warnings, and they want to be judgmental about media that chooses to not include queerphobia? What, are people gonna /forget/ that queerphobia exists? Should people be told "Fuck you, that's reality, bitch" when they don't really wanna see it everywhere they look, cuz they already do? Give me a break. Maybe deconstruct why you think the existence of a queer person justifies the inclusion of discrimination. You can ask this same question about anyone tbh.

People just quite frankly don't know what to do with homophobia in fantasy, they just think it makes for decent plot elements, and to that I say "you're boring" and "Maybe take a creative writing course." It's especially egregious in MP because the homophobia in MP is as shoehorned in as the queer romance. (And Moonstrike's existence just creates a whole mess of questions the show has no intensions of ever answering.)

Like maybe the show didn't include any previous mention of homophobia within prides because it was never intended to be there in the first place. That would be MY guess. It would make sense since Nothing and Hover's failed Romeo and Juliet plotline is abandoned about as quickly as they get together, and served about as much purpose as genderbending the mouse in live-action Cinderella.

We've said this before, MP was stronger with the initial plotline, and including homophobia just made it unnecessarily complicated and stupid, especially since there was quite literally no consequences for it. Call me old fashioned, but discrimination in writing should have a point. - Cat

[kiefbowl]

Finally another person that hates HIMYM as much as I do. There isn't a show that I hate more tbh, like there are shows I dislike, but that damn show is something else. Just like you I hate what they did to Robin(and she's the only character I kind of liked; I liked Ted when he wasn't trying to be like Barney and when he would actually call Barney out, which sadly wasn't too often)...and I hate how more often than not the show treated Barney's treatment of women as a joke, or rather the show rarely called him out, and i especially hate the way they ended his character arc, I was like "oh now he'll see women as humans" *eye roll*-- I hate that trope so damn much. The show had potential, and the premise was interesting, it's just that the show was filled with the worst tropes and some of the worst characters on today's tv(or ever, really). I just cannot for the life of me understand its popuplarity.

Also, oh my god yes, I totally agree with you on that final season. What the hell were the writers thinking?!

>"I liked Ted when he wasn't trying to be like Barney and when he would actually call Barney out, which sadly wasn't too often"

one of the most unaware things the show does is pretend Barney is a foil to Ted when Ted and Barney are extremely similar in their views of women. The difference is that Barney is always on, and it's always a goofy heightened reality, while Ted will be written fairly straight wrt wanting to sleep with women.

>"I hate that trope so damn much."

a baby daughter fixed me is definitely one of the worst tropes and also is sooooo fucking lazy. they didn't build a story around Barney in which him having a baby girl in the 11th hour would feel cathartic, that's why it feels so cheap. If he had conflicted feelings about his life and about fatherhood at all, it would still be a lazy and misogynistic choice, but it would at least follow some story logic. it's like a big ass trifecta of shit: Robin and Ted endgame, mother dead, Barney has a fucking baby.

Writing that reminds me that they have Robin "fail" both of her love interests by not being able to have children since children are obviously the one true ultimate goal in this story. A child fixes Barney, and Robin wouldn't have ever been able to do that for him. Truly ridiculous. But anyway I haven't gotten that far yet.

>"I just cannot for the life of me understand its popuplarity"

I have thoughts on this, looking back on old subreddits I think a lot of people hand waved unpleasant parts of HIMYM because they wanted to believe the set-up they were seeing was intentional. Most of it was not as intentional as believed and it ended up being poorly done for the actual planned ending. Case in point: the internal life of Robin is clearly not something the writers cared about. But because the story is focused on who she loves and wants to be in a relationship with, fans thought 'well the internal life of Robin is being treated seriously, so I will read into the subtext'. I think this also comes off because Cobie cares about Robin's internal life. I don't think the writers ultimately know why Robin loves Barney, but I think Cobie knows. I wonder if the writers ever really cared what the actors believed was true about their characters. There needs to be some give and take on this even if writers ultimately gets to decide how the story plays out.

Additionally, I think the five leads are very charming and elevate a lot of material, they all have exceptional physical comedy chops. People liked the characters when they were good, tried to close their eyes when they were bad, and hoped the good parts were leading somewhere satisfying.

[chevelleneech]

Dude, BuckT*mmy shippers on Twitter are losing it. There’s obviously nothing wrong with shipping two characters who are canonically dating, but they stay trying to uplift LFJ as if he’s a main character or some saving grace to the series.

I say this with as little bias as possible, but he is barely a recurring character at the moment. The only reason his episodes made noise, is because they led to Buck finally kissing a man. People who never tuned into the show but knew about the Bi!Buck fan theory jumped onboard, but that wasn’t because of L. It was because no one could believe a hit tv show actually turned a major headcanon canon.

How his fans and their shippers have managed to convince themselves that T*’mmy and LFJ by proximity is so popular the network itself has decided to withhold his appearances on set to boost rating in the season 8 premiere, is a mystery to me. Do I think he’ll be in the premiere? Yes, T*mmy and Buck ended on what appeared to be good terms. It wouldn’t make any sense for him not to be in at least the first three episodes, tbh. At the same time, he apparently hasn’t been seen on set at all, and no one from the cast has been seen hanging out with him the way they do each other. As such, it’s being speculated he was written out. Which is also so incredibly normal for television when it comes to actors landing lead roles elsewhere.

So all of this to say, I’ve been watching production from the sidelines, because s7 was a let down for me. In a few ways than not, so I’m really just trying to wait and see if Tommy is actually still relevant, because his character sucks and LFJ’s fans suck even more. That said, I still think him being gone in a blink doesn’t make too much sense unless they fired him because of his social media posts. RG was a lead in the series when his issue happened, but he also wasn’t the one saying slurs. Like an idiot, he defended his then girlfriend, which if a lawyer has to argue in defense of him, are two different things.

Anyway, I think BT shippers and LFJ fans should just chill out. Talk about potential storylines and what y’all want to happen in s8, but otherwise, let the craziness go. LFJ is not a victim of online bullying, nor did he reinvent Buck’s story. Buck said himself he checks out guys, but also… it’s all fictional. Buck doesn’t have a real sexuality nor is his relationship with T*mmy in real danger, because neither of them exist in reality.

I know y’all want T*mmy back, but at the end of the day, if the character or actor doesn’t fit, they don’t fit. And it has nothing to do with Buddie shippers nor Buddie as a ship. If the writers looked back on the relationship and chose to go in a different direction, that’s just what they chose. Which, if they did, is very normal for Buck’s relationships in the series as a whole. Something people would know if they watch the prior six seasons.

Point is, no on is out to ruin yalls fun. 9-1-1 is a show that has been thriving, which is the very reason ABC bought it in the first place. So whatever happens, happens. But trying to make a random side character more important than currently necessary to not only the central plots as well as paint the actor playing him as more important than the veteran cast in the show, is ridiculous. Liking and even preferring LFJ is fine, but this isn’t his show. He’s a guest.

[antiloreolympus]

9 Anti LO Asks

1. I know nothing about this, I just stumbled onto your blog and started reading, but I saw a post where (presumably) the author said that Aphrodite and Persephone... weren't skinny? They're tiny??? Wtf

2. I love long-haired men so much I never thought I would consider a long-haired man ugly. But goddamn, Hades still looks ugly even with long hair, even to me. That's impressive... are you, like, alive, btw?

3. You know, in the new currently fast pass chapter... Kronos takes over Hades and makes him say stuff to Thanatos? Right, but then he goes, "What's wrong, don't want Persephone to be your new mommy?" Which is terrible writing enough on it's own but then you HAVE to consider that PERSEPHONE HERSELF IS YOUNGER THAN THANATOS, SOMEONES WHOSE MEANT TO BE HADES' SURROGATE SON (who he treats like shit). Like, Hades is more than old enough to be a father but Persephone only JUST turned old enough to maybe be a mother! Which really makes you realize, Hades isn't old enough to be her dad, he's old enough to be her grandpa. Disgusting. Like, there can't be any defense for this 💀

4. tbh i think eris is a shit character and a hamfisted plot device. she could have been added so much better.

5. My personal criticism with LO has mostly to do with the art style. Like yes the writings kinda trashy but trashy can still be good if its coupled with great visuals and characters. The problem is that the arts just pathetically inconsistent. You can't even blame webtoon for it since she has a few assistants. I'm an artist myself and even tho I don't draw for a living, I know it's fairly easy to create simple character charts and reference sheets. Some people say it's not that bad but god the inconsistency in the characters appearances can ruin chapters for me.

For example, the fact that Persephone sometimes has siren eyes, doe eyes, full lips, no lips, extra body fat, less body fat, a button nose, or a longer nose is ridiculous. It drives me nuts when people call the art amazing, because it's just not. And it seems like all of her aesthetic details (IE wardrobe and colors) are all very surface level, aside from Minthe/Persephone and Hades contrasts.

Demeter being green and purple makes some sense, but then her daughter being neon pink ONLY is weird. Hades being blue and winter-esq makes some sense since there's no sun in the underworld, but the ENTIRE underworld being the same blue and black is just ugly. Zeus being a royal purple? Makes sense. Hera being gold? That too. They're the only color pallets that actually correspond with personality, yet they're wasted with basic wardrobes and character development.   Ares being gold makes sense GENETICALLY, but not in practicality. Same with Hermes being red. Plus, she seems to assign colors to characters at random without even seeing how they build off of each other, let alone their own personalities.

I don't think people really get how important color and wardrobe are in stories, especially visual ones. You should be able to look at a character and immediately understand what they're about, even if it's subconsciously. But Persephone is often in bright happy colors and tight clothing even in times of stress or depression. Artemis is always in workout gear or her uniform. Minthe is more in "sexy" clothing, which is fine, but her colors don't change with her mental state.

Another problem I have is again with Persephone. Her wardrobe isn't even picked out by her, it's always by others/magic. She never really gets to visually tell us how she feels other than her glaringly obvious vines and eyes. Like, I could deal with a visual crutch if the writing was good or vise versa, but when they're both lacking it just sucks.

I see a lot of people say the same things I wanted to, like how creepy Perse and Hades are, how Apollo wasn't handled well, yada yada yada. Anyway Hades is creepy and Hera, Minthe, and Demeter deserve the world ✌🏼

6. It's really funny bc I've been reading some of the scenes of Hades' problematic action (esp the latest fast pass) and he literally talks like my abusive dad and my ex groomer. Like hm maybe your male lead having the same verbal manipulation tactics as actual abusers isn't the best. But oh my bad Hades is still a perfect man /s

7. something that makes me angry about demeter is that we are supposed to see her as an abusive or controlling mother ( i know that controlling mothers is an obviously bad thing ) but all her reasons are a good part of the time valid?

Like:

She doesn't want her child dating a 40y + man who she knows for like 11 days +++ someone who was literally a horrible person with her until the point she cried .

And lets not forget about the slaver owner thing 🥺 demeter knows hades more time  than persephone, obviously. It's not something bad if you dont want your TEENAGER daughter next to a grown old man who the only thing he thinks about its her "small petite thicc pink body" 😁

8. i just wanted to say that i really love your blog, like whenever i look at it i feel better. idk if thats kinda weird since its an anti blog but it just kinda brings me euphoria. ty!

From OP: Thank you so much! I’m glad my blog can be beneficial for you. /pos

-----FP Spoiler-----

9. 220 spoiler: full fuckin disrespect, we all know Kronos wants Persephone rather than Hera as his “golden traitor”, because fuck every other god/goddess, the only ones that matter are Hades and Persephone!!

[charismaofobedience]

i need to submit poly eden on power polycule showdown can you help me with canon stuff implying it i'm always afraid i'm doing something wrong

YESSIR AND PLEASE SEND ME THE LINK SO I CAN SUBMIT THEM TOO!!!! ok so from the top of my head

The literal nagisa introductory quote. Nagisa saying how hiyori is like the sun and warms everywhere they go and how ibara REGULARLY cooks pies and quiches for him, which are his favorite food, and they ALL eat together. We just met you why are you telling us you're in a poly relationship with your unit members

We also have other incredible moments for ibahiyo such as when ibara literally called hiyori motherly which i thiiink was in conquest. They're ridiculous 10/10. Also in conquest, we literally get to see hiyori being frustrated at the proposed separation of Adam and Eve to fight, because not only does Hiyori not consider the four as enemies, but he considere them all family. Hiyori canonically, in-story, calls eden his family.

I'm pretty sure on one event story too, adam went on a date? like, nagisa wanting to go on a summer festival with ibara and having to convince him to go along because ibara had work but instantly agreeing once nagisa went "ah, if i see something interesting ill buy it for you ^^" which leads me to my next point: the nagisa and ibara relationship progress!!!! how they started as a contract only thing where ibara dictated everything nagisa did, but slowly they got as close as hiyori and jun are! Not only that, but how Nagisa always lets his guards down to tease ibara whenever he can! I say this while pointing at how Nagisa constantly manipulates ibara indirectly into agreeing with his ideas/plans through seemingly unaware words.

I also point at the one scene in the most recent event (rouge&ruby) where nagisa POPPED A PIECE OF CHOCOLATE IN IBARAS MOUTH. also in rouge&ruby we get junkun worrying about ibara and going after him, which tbh, i think is another nice point!

In ALL three eden focus event we had until now in !! (conquest, exceed, rouge&ruby) we CONSTANTLY see how much all 4 care for each other even if they don't verbally say it! They always look for forms to help the others and comfort them, with things such as the 4 agreeing to stay together in conquest to them helping jun to feel worthy of standing by their side and ibara truly enjoying himself on stage on rouge&ruby, eden always has each others back and will be there to help each other, because as hiyori said, they are family

While yes, we have a major focus on adam, eve and nagihiyo, we can't neglect the others! Nagijun always has some good content on the scout stories and idol stories, even if nagisa was jealous of jun in conquest! It shows a nice progress on their relationship and how they slowly get together!

Poly Eden genuinely cares so much for each other, they're so happy and respectful of each other and their comforts which is a MIRACLE in enstars when you have other certain ships and dynamics!!!

Also, don't forget how they basically have a child (bloody mary) together

[yuujispinkhair]

dued i saw someone say the panel words under sukuna said 'a wedding is on the line when a war is about to break out'. and i am like what!? sukuna better not be getting married i will go into the at manga and fight him.

Also how do you feel about people saying they hate the maga of jjk now. them saying the writting is poor and its losing its touch and something about the season 2 art looks bad

Heyyy babe <3<3 Oh, I think that part about the wedding was in chapter 217 because Yorozu challenged Sukuna to a fight, and if she wins, she wants him to marry her. Sukuna was like, "Yeah, whatever. You will not win against me anyway. But in the unlikely case that I would lose, defeat is like death to me, so you can do anything you like to my "corpse"." LMAOOO he was dramatic. I love him so much!! But from what I see, Sukuna wasn't interested in Yorozu a thousand years ago, and he isn't interested in her now. It's a one-sided crush.

And about the hate some people have for JJK and Gege: I think the problem isn't the story. It is certain "fans" who forgot the nature of the source material or who think fictional characters are real people etc.

Tbh I blocked a lot of people during the last few weeks because of their negativity toward the current chapters and because of their hate toward Gege. I think mostly it is antis who cry about what they think is incest in the current chapters because Sukuna is inhabiting Megumi's body and Yorozu is inhabiting Tsumiki's body. It's ridiculous really, but every other post in the spoilers tag was about this. I blocked all of them. But yeah, I think antis are trying to drag JJK and Gege through the dirt because they think the manga is pRobLeMaTiC. I really hope they will do everyone a favor and just stop reading the manga. Like, if you don't enjoy something, then please leave it behind and read or watch something you actually enjoy. It will bring you much more peace and happiness.

Personally, I enjoy the current chapters a lot! I love that we see the main characters again and that we get lots of plot. I wasn't a big fan of the culling game because, for my taste, there were too many fights with too many new characters. I am just not interested in those, and I don't understand the cursed techniques anyways. So that wasn't for me, but I know that fights are a big part of the genre and that there are lots of people who enjoy those and love to analyze them. So it is absolutely ok that those fights played a big part. Personally, I am happy that we get more plot again atm and that we see our beloved old characters again <3

So yes, I think everyone got things they enjoy. The story had it all: Plot, fights, new characters, old characters, big plot twists, some fanservice, etc. So I don't understand why people would say it isn't good. Especially the latest chapters are super interesting, I think.

Sometimes I feel like, people are too used to living in their fandom bubble and that's why they complain about canon. For example, I saw some people say that they don't like how comedy-like the Sukuna and Yorozu chapters are while such tragedy is happening to Megumi and Yuuji. But I don't understand this since JJK has always been filled with humor like that, and it is one of the things that I love the most about it.

[explosionshark]

Hi hi! I was wondering, how do you choose what to read next? I know you get recs from friends and I assume you read stuff from authors you already know you like, but beyond that, how do you hear about new books? Goodreads? Sometimes I have a million books I want to read but other times nothing at the library is of interest to me and I tend to get stuck there mentally while waiting for my books on hold to be available 😂

Also, do you have any recs for horror books about ghosts? I want to read a good ghost book :) bonus points if there are sapphic ghost books!! 👻

there are a bunch of places i check in on to keep up on new titles or find out about interesting backlist stuff

first, for new releases, there are different columns/websites that exist just to catalogue the new stuff coming out (mostly from major publishers, if you're looking for indie or selfpub these probably won't help much)

io9 has their Bookshelf Injection column of new SFF (and some horror) that gets published every month

Jumpscares has a similar list for horror titles

for a more "literary fiction" bent you can always check out Bookmarks' Best Reviewed Books of the Week posts

If you're looking for a little more editorializing/reviewing I'd start looking around on sites like Book Riot (example lists include: Best Werewolves in books, 9 Books with Disabled Main Characters etc) or Electric Lit (Example: 10 Must Read Books set in Cairo, 7 Books About Grotesque Bodies).

Additionally, there are places to get recommendations that feel a little more tailored and personal. There are podcasts I enjoy for this (mostly for horror) like Talking Scared or Books in the Freezer. And there's always booktube (though finding a reviewer you like can be tricky) I like TheShadesofOrange, Petrick Leo, and Jess Owens.

There's also reddit (r/fantasy, r/horrolit, r/lgbtbooks, r/printsf are the main places I go to). Goodreads does have its uses, though admittedly I use it more to track my own reading and to follow friends, authors I like, and a handful of reviewers whose opinions I trust. Overall, I think the GR community as a whole is a total clown show and I don't put much stock into the rating system there.

If you have some favorite authors and they are on goodreads or social media, I'd say it's usually pretty worthwhile checking out the books they're hyping up.

finding new or interesting books is pretty easy, but choosing what to read from my own, admittedly ridiculously huge library? that's trickier. tbh, i mostly go on vibes.

alright for the second part of your question.

i love a good haunted house story!

anyone you ask with any taste at all is probably going to give you the answer i'm about to, but if you haven't read it yet, the #1 haunted house book I can recommend to you is Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. It's a classic for a reason. If it sweetens the pot for you - the character of Theo is a lesbian. There's great subtext between Theo and the book's main character, Nell. A scholar recruits people who've had experiences with the supernatural to stay with him in a purportedly haunted house to see if they can come up with proof that ghosts are real. Shit gets whacky. One of the finest american novels ever written, regardless of genre.

If you want more sapphics and less house it might be worth checking out Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth (yes, the Cameron Post author). I had some issues with this one. I wouldn't say I didn't like it, but I know a lot of people liked it more than I did. It's very queer, has an interesting dual timeline - one plot set in the past tells the story of a mysterious tragedy befalling an early 1900s girls boarding school, the other plot is about a movie being made about those events in the present day.

The Red Tree by Caitlin R Kiernan - okay this one IS also about lesbians but it's probably the darkest book on this list. A struggling middle aged writer moves into a creepy old house after the death of her girlfriend by suicide. In the house, she discovers a lost manuscript of a previous resident who had been researching local folklore and documenting sinister events seemingly linked to the gnarled, tree on the house's property. Things do not go well. Very well written (have some issues with Kiernan but they're an incredible talent and, worth mentioning, they're the only genderfluid writer in the genre that I know of)

Another book I always recommend on this topic is Echoes edited by Ellen Datlow. It's a HUGE anthology of short ghost stories. Some of my favorite horror short fiction ever written is in this collection. It's a great way to be introduced to some of the best horror writers around right now - Datlow is a legendary editor. I recommend anyone interested in horror check out her collections. The stories in Echoes are varied in theme and from a variety of different voices.

Other ghost books that whip ass

Come With Me by Ronald Malfi - after his wife is killed in a mass shooting, a man gripped with grief discovers a secret she'd been hiding from him for their entire marriage. He picks up an investigation she had been secretly pursuing that sets him on a collision course with an apparent serial killer. A story of grief and the secrets we keep from the people we love.

The Good House by Tananarive Due - a woman has to return to her childhood home, still awash in the grief of losing her teenage son there two years ago. While staying there and with the help of an old friend, she begins to unravel the strange tangle of tragedies that have surrounded the house since her grandmother's time, and to uncover the truth of what really happened to her son. A story about generational trauma and breaking cycles.

The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp - this one's great on audio. This book is told in the style of a posthumously published book from a VICE style douchebag journalist who was attempting to write a book that would once and for all disprove the existence of the supernatural. Extremely unlikable main character, but that added to the experience for me - I was very stoked to get to the part where bad things would begin to happen to Jack Sparks. This one's got a lot of dark humor and some genuinely scary scenes. Love it. Wish more people would read it.

Hope you find something in there you like! Good luck!

[practicecourts]

20 questions

thanks @charmsandtealeaves & @wearingaberetinparis for the tag. I'm not sure how interesting the answers will be so I'm cutting the post here ;-)

How many works do you have on AO3? 20

2. What's your total A03 words count? 215,620

3. What fandoms do you write for? HP

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

a) Not the Doctor Crazy texting Muggle AU, oneshot, meet-awkward ridiculousness ;-) b) Head Over Handlebars For You Muggle meet ugly, Amsterdam, bicycles, Geese, the WIP that got out of control, only 1 more real chapter and 1 epilogue to go... c) It Was A Clear Black Night, A Clear White Moon - Hogwarts, oneshot roaming outside the castles on a Full Moon. I do love this story a lot myself, so I'm happy to see it here! I like to combine something serious and with something lighter. d) Shall We Shag Now Or Later? Rated M, Not inspired by Austin Powers BUT I did have a great time looking up those ridiculous scenes and dialogues. Classic crazy movie! Order Mission gone wrong, Jily forced to go under cover (wriggles eyebrows) e) When it Tastes so Damn Good another @jilychallenge oneshot, prompt along the lines of melting icecream - let's share... 5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

YES!!! I LOVE comments, incredible to have evidence someone read something I thought up and wrote and then left a comment telling me what it made them feel or just to say they liked it. IT IS AMAZING !! all caps worthy amazing. I do turn of notifications now for those because I became too addicted, so now I try to check once every so often. I do intend to answer all of them.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angtiest ending? My saddest ending is probably Silent Night (it's not Jily but a series of moments in the life of Hope Lupin) There's quite some bits that I've written for it, but I'm not sure if they are coherent as chapters, so there's only 2 currently posted. Angst versus sad, I'd have to say my microfic Jockey has the angstiest ending, but mostly because I know what is going on) and I promise the end of the whole fic (if I ever get to writing it, won't be angsty)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I love happy endings... I'm hoping to succeed with bringing HOH to a satisfactory happy end. I think I will. Most of my one-shots also have a happy or hopeful ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics? No

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind? Ha, I thought I'd never... but for a writing challenge I wanted to join due to severe FOMO (i'm only human) I did, and I rewrote that into Shall we Shag Now or Later (Idk if anyone wants to know but I literally took almost all the time available thinking of REASONS why my jily would end up in smut pall position and in the end joked I'd just start of with *low voice* "Hey, Evans, we should shag," and take it from there... This turned into M-rated smut (I'm a little foggy on the difference between E and M still) also not sure what constitutes *kinds* of smut, but that 2 shot was more Smut with little plot. By now my wip Jily who really suffered from a lot of sexual unreleased tension finally got some release, so there's some Smut with plot as well, these days (HOHFY)

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Nope, I don't think I will (unless a certain type of AU would count as a cross over)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope, not that I'm aware of, I'd be appalled and also absolutely flabbergasted if someone would go to the trouble, tbh.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope again, I might translate my own fic in Dutch (although that would be so incredibly weird that I don't actually mean this)

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? No, but it sounds fun. I am soon adding my 3 line to the express.... there's that ;-)

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? Jily, lames, Limes. 15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Life's a beach and then you dive. I want to rewrite it. I've again not outlined this fic very much, but I've so many plans... Maybe, I should ideally have a time turner to add a few hours to my days. bc I now realise how much work it would need to write it up how I want it to be lol. But there's some very personal stuff in there so who knows. I do like to finish stuff that I've started so... I hope i will, i'm not sure of it.

16. What are your writing strengths? Ok, disclaimer as I'm Dutch I'm very bad at this. BUT ... channeling inner Sirius Black: I'm good at making characters feel realistic, I'm good a little plot twist at the end, at humour (which is of course entirely personal) , I'm good at sneaky throwbacks to canon, I'm relatively good at looking at my own work with a critical eye and improving myself, as well as letting go of things that are * good enough* as they are, as this is * a fun hobby* (anyone want to share what they like about my writing - or what they think I could improve on, tell me in the comments )

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Thinking I'll do more in the time I have... and not outlining, I've tried honestly, but I've not found a way that really works yet, but still I have these huge fic ideas creep up on me, so Ideally I'd like to get way better at following some sort of outline instead of discovering my way through it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? As I'm not a native English speaker and my fic HOHFY is set partly in Amsterdam there's some Dutch dialogues * i never even bothered to translate them, I'm so sorry. I'm currently also putting some French in my secret finish before posting fic, that will take a while though and it's only tiny bits as it's more the odd word here and there.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I never posted anything for it, but my first fanfic ideas were set in Tortall (Tamora Pierce) who knows, one day I might venture over there.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Here Comes The Sun I've recently got a lot of lovely comments on fics that weren't less than a week old (yeah!) and reread this one for Myster May because of it & enjoyed it a lot (idk, I don't do favourites, not really.) But I can see quite a few of my own strengths in this one so I'm putting it up here as a fave.

Tagging if you're not already been asked a million times and feel like doing this, no pressure at all, xx @chierafied @chiechie97 @tiffanytoms @oneofthesirens @suzyq31 @ohmygodshesinsane @jfleamont @uncertainwallflower

[sapphire-weapon]

Why is he your favorite VA for Wesker?

Tbh the first time I heard him in game I thought he was Krauser. Like he’s just been stripped of personality in every aspect, voice, appearance, acting, etc.

He sounds like every other wannabe Batman video game character. I’ve heard the whole ‘well he sounded like a bond villain in 5’ and yes he might’ve but it was funny and memorable and now his voice just sounds so forgetful and generic.

but im curious to hear your opinions

i've been asked this question like five different times (almost as many times as i've been asked about lily gao), and i'm just. tired of the question because i'm tired of people looking at wesker in a vacuum. wesker doesn't exist in a vacuum. wesker exists in a series called resident evil.

idk if you've noticed, but RE isn't going for "funny" in the Remakes anymore. bond villain wesker worked in OG because that was the tone that the series was trying to strike to begin with. it's not trying to strike that tone anymore. so anyone who wants him to go back to being a bond villain wants him to stick out among the cast in a really bad way and feel out of place.

i've said this before, but when i first heard craig's voice come in over ada's radio, i got hit really fucking hard with HOLY SHIT THAT'S WESKER. THAT'S THE MOST WESKER THAT WESKER HAS EVER BEEN HOLY FUCK.

you thought he sounded like krauser for the same reason that i immediately knew he was wesker:

menace.

krauser always had a menace factor to him, but wesker didn't. this goes back to the whole "wesker shouldn't be funny anymore" thing. wesker is The Big Villain of the series. he should be menacing. we should feel scared of him -- or, at the very least, he should make us anxious and/or uncomfortable. he's not a morally gray "hero of someone else's story" villain. he is a menacing villain who gets off on psychologically torturing the heroes.

and that's why i always didn't like the bond villain approach to him in the first place. there was always something very sinister about wesker that got lost in translation because he sounded so fucking goofy.

it's not lost anymore.

craig carries a level of tension through his performance that makes it sound like he's always five seconds from snapping, and he does it in a very calm way, so you really have no way of knowing when he's going to pop off and raise his voice. you have no way of knowing when he's going to get violent, because he sounds like he's constantly skirting right along the edge of it.

and it's a good choice for wesker because wesker's particular brand of sinister has always had a sexual component to it, and sex and violence are very closely related psychologically. like i said, wesker gets off on chris's angst and jill's suffering. he now finally sounds like someone who would.

and on top of all of that, craig also has a very... i like to say he has a "radio voice" in his performance of wesker. it's deep and smooth-sounding and very breathy at times; if he were to be given a radio show, people would listen to it just because they'd enjoy listening to him talk. that's also fitting for wesker, because we know that wesker lived a double life for about 20 years.

i can't see dc douglas wesker charming his way into jake's mom's panties, because he's such a ridiculous human being. he always has some snide lilt to his voice. he's just barely this side of snidely whiplash. if he told me i looked beautiful, i'd be like "lol so how much money do you need to borrow?" but if craig burnatowski wesker told me i looked beautiful, i'd probably get the dokis, just because his voice is smoother and he sounds more serious overall.

the same principle applies to him betraying STARS. peter jessop did a fairly good job with wesker, but i couldn't see dc douglas or richard waugh wesker as a leader to look up to, because, again, they're both skirting the line of snidely whiplash. it'd be like "oh, there's a traitor in STARS? couldn't be the guy who sounds like a fucking cartoon villain, could it?"

like. get dc douglas and richard waugh out of your head. stop thinking about them and just look at wesker's lines of dialogue written out on paper. craig captures the character's voice better. he just does. and if you think it makes him sound "generic" then chances are you don't like wesker as a character as much as you think you do.

and now i never want to answer this question again lmao

[kingofscoops]

Hi sweetie! For the for the 🎬 ask box game:

2 7 8 10 11 19 30 31 34 38 39 42

hii, this got long quick so i'm hiding under the cut hehe.

2. What movie do you wish you could unwatch?

Yes, there's probably more than one but the one that comes to mind the most is The Haunting of Redding Hospital, i like my horror movies and i thought this was gonna be an interesting one, but it was just so ridiculously boring i was annoyed at myself for buying it. (also i just looked at the reviews for it online and some people gave it 5 stars and i'm just thinking we're we even watching the same movie?! because it was garbage, pure utter predictable garbage)

7. Name a movie you’re emotionally attached to?

You've probably heard me talk about it several times by now, but it's The Goonies, was introduced to it by my late aunt when I was a kid and i've just loved it ever since.

8. What’s your comfort film?

Howl's Moving Castle, actually you know what make that just studio ghibli in general.

10. Most recent movie you saw in theaters?

Errrrrm... it's been a hot minute, i think it was Avengers Endgame, i keep meaning to go see more but i never remember what's on or coming out lol

11. A genre you just can’t stand.

i'd say probably romance, that's not me saying i've never watched anything from genre, there's probably movies in that genre i've watched and do enjoy, but romance can't be the sole genre for me it's gotta be woven in with something else or be like a minor side note in said movie. that and i just don't understand the appeal of some of them?

19. Name a movie so bad it’s good.

ThanksKilling, yeah from the outset it's a shitty produced thanksgiving themed horror, but if you're not taking the shitty production seriously then it's fucking hilarious, just don't watch the sequal ThanksKilling 3, it's kinda boring in comparison and i almost fell asleep watching it, no actually thinking about it i think i did genuinely half fall asleep while watching it lol - for reference i watched both of these as a lets watch with achievement hunter so it probably seemed funnier at the time lol.

30. Are you looking forward to any upcoming releases?

Well, since i finally watched Beetlejuice for the first time this this year, i'm currently looking forward to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and it's pretty much the only thing i know currently soon releasing that i would actually consider watching.

31. Do you remember the first movie you saw in theaters?

I can't remember if it was the first first movie i ever saw in theaters but the earliest i can remember is A Bug's Life.

34. Which film is the most visually beautiful?

There's loads but it's hard to narrow down, so i am again just gonna answer, majority of the studio ghibli movies lol

38. In your opinion what is the most overrated movie?

There's not many i would considered overrated tbh? but there is something i don't plan on watching but i kept seeing ads for that i would maybe consider overrated? so yeah i kept seeing ads for This Ends With Us on constant repeat over on YT a while back, and while i understand the reason why the story has and is being told, both in movie and book form, i don't understand why anyone would want to go see a movie masking itself as a romantic movie when it's main plot point is about a women in an abusive relationship?

39. In your opinion what is the most underrated movie?

I haven't seen it in forever but I'm gonna go with Creep, and no not the 2014 movie of the same name people are probably thinking of that's about a videographer recording the wishes of a dying man? (idk i haven't watched it but may do in the future). No i'm talking about the 2004 movie called Creep, i'll try not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it and may wish to watch but it revolves around a women getting trapped in the London Underground after missing her train home but she soon discovers she's not alone yada yada yada. I'll say it's underrated because, to me at least, it literally gets overshadowed by the movie of the same name and i never see this version ever get talked about, and it got me thinking of another horror/comedy called Severance (again not to be confused by the tv show of the same name) which i also haven't seen in forever. Put basically i think the British horror genre in general might be the one that's being made underrated lol.

42. Show me a pic of your favorite movie poster.

I don't have any movie posters up anymore unfortunately, but then i also have no space to put them, i do have an avengers infinity war/endgame canvas my parents got me for xmas one year, i know they knew i liked marvel but i'm not entirely sure the thought that process through as my rooms walls are more or less all covered by shelves or furniture of some sort, i guess it's the thought that counted huh? but anyway, here's a pic of fluff investigating the giant thing that i can't actually have in my room due to space lol

(it's currently in the corner of my parents room lol)

🍿🎬 Send me a movie ask 🎬🍿