#and thanks for reading!

[arcadianmoonshadowjedi]

Rayllum Month 2024:

July 9th - “I Still Love You”/Reconciliation

After a day of crossing and barely surviving the frozen sea, Callum and Rayla found a small Island where they could set up camp and rest for the night before they reached the Starscraper. They were huddled in their only remaining bed roll against the shadowpaw with Stella and Sneezles snuggling in between them, all keeping warm off the little campfire in front of them. Callum was initially reluctant since it’s been over two years since he’d slept that close to Rayla.

“It’s either we both stay warm together under one blanket for the night or one of us freezes to death, which I’m sure neither you or I would want that for each other,” Rayla had told him when he got all flustered about the one bed roll that didn’t sink in the sea below them.

The two sat awkwardly close together trying to keep warm under the blanket, barely muttering a word for a while. But then Rayla went into deep thought. It’s been around two months since she came back and while Callum at first didn’t want to be near her, they eventually started to patch things up. They’ve been getting closer to each other even more but things still weren’t exactly what they were between them. There was still this gap they couldn’t overcome in their relationship. They were stuck at one point and weren’t really getting anywhere.

“Callum,” Rayla started, taking a breath, looking down as she thought of the right things to say. Callum looked up at her, holding Sneezles in his lap and stroked the tiny glow toad’s soft head with his finger. “Callum, I know we haven’t really talked about everything. You know, me leaving and all that,”

“Rayla,” Callum uneasy, raised his hand trying to stop her.

“No,” She interrupted. “I have to get this off my chest,” She let out another breath before she continued. “It’s just... You know… well,” she sighed. “After the battle of the Storm Spire, when I’ve having these nightmares about Viren, I saw him capture my parents. But he also captured you,” she spoke the few words shakily as her lips began to quiver. “I-I was so terrified of losing you or Viren threatening you, I,” Tears streamed down her cheeks as she sniffled and she felt Stella give her a comforting hug, chittering compassionately. Callum looked straight ahead, felt his chest heavy and unable to express anything. She never told him about these specific nightmares before, only that she was afraid that Viren was alive.

Rayla wiped away her tears and continued. “I never meant for my leaving alone to hurt you, I was just so terrified you being in danger if I ever found him. But now, I know that I messed things up between us, like I mess up everything else,” Rayla could no longer control her sobbing. She lifted her hood on her head and hid her face between her knees, with Stella still trying to give her comforting squeezes.

“You know,” Callum started, heaving as he tried to control his emotions. “When you left without me, I was so hurt that you were gone. But what hurt even more was that you put yourself in danger and I had no way of knowing if you were ok or not, or if you were even alive,” his voice grew even more sorrowful as he spoke. “I also wanted to protect you from harm, Rayla. And when you left on your own, you took that away from me,” He started to sniffle as well. Rayla looked up towards him and lifted her hand, she wanted to reach his shoulder, but then she backed away. She never thought about any of what Callum was telling her just now, only her own desire to protect him.

“That’s why I wanted to come along and be with you. Because I,” He hesitated and caught his breath. “Because I love you, Rayla,”

Rayla gasped and felt her face light up. Callum lifted his hand and reached for hers, pulling it closer to his heart. “And I wanted more than anything to keep you safe. And I would’ve only been able to do that by being right by your side. And I still feel that way now,”

Rayla found herself melting as she looked into his teary eyes, unable to speak or do anything. She only found herself leaning into him. “Callum, I just want you to know that I never stopped loving you, even when I was away from you. Not one moment went by that I didn’t think of you. And all I can say now is that I’m so sorry for leaving you and making you feel the way you did,”

Callum took a deep breath and wiped away his tears. “I know I didn’t listen to you or believe you when you told me about Viren possibly being alive and I’m so sorry I brushed aside your worries and-and your pain of not knowing if your parents were alive or not. I really thought I was helping you move on but instead I just pushed you away. And maybe that’s what lead you to leaving on your own,”

“Callum no, that was never it,”

“No Rayla, I really am sorry about that and I promise, you can tell me anything and I’ll be there for you. And I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to save your parents. But please, just promise me you’ll never leave like that again,”

Rayla tightened her fingers on his hand then pulled it towards her so she could kiss it. “You and I, we’re stronger together. And I can trust you to carry my burdens with me, just as you can trust me with your burdens. We will keep each other safe and support each other from now on,”

Callum looked at her surprised, then smiled. But while she smiled and looked ahead, starting to doze off on his shoulder, he looked away. He thought about his own burden that filled him with guilt that he couldn’t bring himself to talk about. But maybe someday he would when he was ready, just as Rayla did when she was. He then looked back towards her and kissed her forehead. He leaned in closer and they both wrapped their arms tightly around each other. With Stella and Sneezles cuddled between their laps and fast asleep under the blanket, Callum and Rayla soon drifted off in the warmth of the extinguishing fire and each other.

[theriu]

River Reads Midnight Sun

Well met, traveler! This is the starting post for my experiment, wherein I, who have never read the Twilight books or seen the movies, read Midnight Sun (basically Twilight from Edward's perspective) and commentate for (hopefully) your entertainment! I decided it would be easiest to do this a chapter at a time, and my commentary will essentially be a summary of each chapter so people equally unfamiliar with the story can follow along. You can follow or block this experiment with the tag #river reads midnight sun.

I think that should do it! Let's get started with:

Chapter 1: First Sight

In which Edward finds high schoolers very Boring and Inane, and also nearly goes bonkers over a potential snack.

First things first: Can we talk about how gross pomegranates look? Is the cover art SUPPOSED to resemble an optical illusion between a halved pomegranate and a bleeding heart? Either way, EW.

Right, on to business!

Edward is bored, you guys. He is SO BORED. High school is so boring. Purgatory is mentioned, as well as “tedium�� and “monotonous.” He really wants us to know how bored he is, even though the word “boredom” is not used until the sixth paragraph. But trust me, he’s very bored. One begins to wonder why the immortal 100+-year-old vampire is choosing to hang out daily in such a boring place, but I’m sure it will be explained.

Now we learn about his mindreading powers! This is also very boring because most of the minds he has to read are petty high school minds. By the way, the inane sheeple chatter in the school mindscape today is all about the new girl! I wonder who she could be! Ed sure doesn’t care! He can see every angle of her face via peoples’ thoughts, and he is NOT impressed. Half the “sheep-like males” are crushing on her. Edward’s disdain for them is palpable, almost as if it's not totally normal and fine for human teenagers to find new things like a new student exciting. We may be witnessing a smidge of superiority complex, which is shocking, no doubt.

Mind-reading as a way to introduce other relevant characters is handy, I will grant the author that! Of course, Ed tries not to mindread his fellow vampires out of courtesy, but he KNOWS what they are probably thinking, and boy is he ready to tell us!

Rosalie: Is either actually super hot or super thinks she is, and apparently this debate encompasses her every waking moment. She only compares herself to VAMPIRES, of course, because humans could never be comparably hot. Related to a stagnant pool. Wow, Ed.

Emmett: Hyper competitive guy who has no new thoughts because he says EVERYTHING he thinks. Compared to a glass-clear lake. I suppose that means Ed maybe thinks he has depth? Maybe? We'll err on the side of optimism.

Jasper: Suffering. That’s literally the entire description.

Alice (who can see the future) introduces herself by beaming thoughts at Ed asking how Jasper is doing. Jasper is not doing well. Apparently he is so ready to eat people that he has forgotten how to Human and is sitting in a corpse-like rigor, because it seems when you become a vampire you lose quirks like restless leg syndrome and blinking? This feels full of potential hilarity to me, but I fear such hilarity will not be realized in this Very Serious Book.

Anyway, back to Jasper, who is SUFFERING. Alice asks if there is any danger. Edward signals no. Half a page later, his exposition about Jasper's problem adds, “Jasper was very dangerous right now." Okay, so which is it?! PICK A LANE, ED

(On a genuine note, I already like Alice; she counters Jasper’s fantasies about eating a girl by telling him her name and a few personal facts in a way that shows Alice makes an effort to know her classmates as more than just The Humans. Yay empathy!)

Btw, Ed’s internal monologue indicates they’re hanging out at this school to build their strength and endurance by being around humans and not eating them, and to that I say REALLY??? You chose high school for that?! The one where you’re SUPER BORED?? GO HANG OUT AT A COFFEE SHOP OR SOMETHING

Ope, plot progression! Bella has entered the chat lunchroom. Literally everyone is thinking about Bella, including Jessica, no doubt the requisite catty high school rival who crushed on Edward previously. She has many disgruntled thoughts about Bella, Bella noticing the Cullens, everyone noticing Bella, etc. Ed, who has been doing a great job keeping us up to date on the general thought processes of the student body, takes this moment to assure us once again how much he finds all of this chatter inane AND petty AND trivial, and he’s definitely going to try harder to block them out (again).

Wait, oh my word, was that a line of HUMOROUS BANTER between the Cullens just now?! I have renewed hope for this Very Serious Book!

So Edward is the vampires' mental scout who checks for people suspecting he and his family are inhumanly weird (as opposed to acceptably weird), and naturally he does a brain scan on Bella. Oooo but he’s not hearing anything! And now they have locked eyes! Her eyes are very odd, because of the DEPTH of them! Already, Bella is very Frail and immune to mindreading and somehow has “deeper” eyes than I guess any other human Edward has met in his 100+ years? Ed, I think you need to make eye contact more.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled torrent of inane high schooler thoughts! Amazingly, they are all still focused on Bella and being attracted to or jealous of her, because of course real high schoolers are all Inane and Tedious. (The one exception is Angela, who is busy thinking about homework. I like her, she seems normal.) Jessica is being catty again, and what’s this?! Ed suddenly has this STRANGE URGE to SHIELD Bella from this nasty girl! How very odd and unusual! Especially from a guy who very clearly finds all human teenagers Inane/Petty/Trivial! Bella must be special, except she is also “very unexceptional." Also, Ed is highly frustrated that he can’t read this girl’s mind, despite him constantly reading her like a book and her having “deceptively communicative” eyes.

Rosalie breaks Ed out of his frustration-driven contradictory spiral, and they all go to class, Ed casually mentioning his two medical degrees in an internal dig at his biology teacher (again, why are you hanging out at high school???) Naturally, Bella shows up and the only seat available is the one next to Edward, because Plot everyone is subliminally terrified of him. Ed has a moment of panic wondering if not hearing one girl’s thoughts means he has a vampire disease and is gonna lose all his mindreading, and then he has another moment of empathy for Bella having to sit next to the Scary Vampire.

Then she walks in front of an air duct, and Edward is suddenly overcome with INTENSE BLOODLUST THE LIKES OF WHICH HE HAS NEVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE!!! He wants to eat her SO BAD, you guys! He spends roughly EIGHT PAGES brooding on how badly he wants to eat her, noticing how delicious she smells, crushing the underside of a desk with his intense self-control grip (but having the presence of mind to “destroy the evidence” by rounding out the finger-shaped hole he just made), analyzing the logistics of eliminating a roomful of witnesses and whether to do so before or after eating her, seeing his monstrous reflection in her eyeballs, angsting over how bad he will feel when he murders a bunch of people, plotting ways of murdering her that WON’T result in collateral damage, questioning Bella’s sanity for daring to SHAKE HER HAIR IN HIS VICINITY, angsting about how disappointed his wonderful adoptive dad Carlisle will be (aww, that’s actually sweet), stubbornly deciding “she can’t make me,” hating Bella with the fury of a thousand suns for daring to smell so delicious, and shutting off his breathing so he has at least some self-control, which does sound uncomfortable but I applaud the effort.

Then class finally ends (for him and for us), and he goes and hides in his car. Which, honestly, relatable.

The car timeout helps restore his sanity, and he determines he does in fact not need to kill her and that hating her guts for smelling like an eight-course dinner probably isn’t fair! He just needs to avoid her as much as possible. Bless your heart for your optimism, Male Lead of a Paranormal Romance Novel.

The solution he comes up with is to charm the poor secretary (who keeps having to remind herself mentally that he’s too young for her, which, augh) into switching him to a different sixth-period course. Bella chooses this opportune moment to walk in, which he doesn’t notice until her DELICIOUS SMELL is blown over him (I question why someone with such advanced senses can only notice powerful smells when he is downwind of them). Edward’s Amazing Vampire Vision kicks in, allowing him to once again see his Monstrous Face in the reflection of her eyes, despite her being over against the wall. He briefly contemplates double homicide, then . . . uh . . . gives up on changing classes so he can walk away. This doesn’t feel like a long-term solution, Ed, but Kudos for the self-control.

The chapter wraps up with him jumping into his car (it’s the end of the day, so the others are waiting for him) and breaking the speed limit out of the parking lot. Alice uses Future Sight (it’s super effective!) to see that Ed is either going to book it out of Forks (the town) or go and murder Bella in her house. I once again have reason to like Alice, who orders him not to do it, adding that it would metaphorically kill Bella’s dad. He drops them off and races away again, not yet sure if he’s going to tell Dad Carlisle that he’s leaving or going to go eat the delicious new girl. And Scene!

Well, that wasn’t as painful as I feared, so huzzah! I kind of appreciate the internal look at his thoughts and how his mindreading lets us see other characters even when they can’t talk. Got a bit long at times, especially with how Inane and Petty and Trivial high schoolers are to Edward! LOTS OF DETAIL about how badly he wanted to eat Bella and possibly murder all bystanders, which I guess does go to show how bad the bloodlust is, because dang! (But why do none of the others have this reaction to her yet? Maybe they just don’t have classes with her. You must be this close to the Bella to ride the maniac vampire train!)

And with that, I have earned a much-deserved break before delving into CHAPTER TWO: OPEN BOOK! I’m sure Edward will totally succeed in his plan to skedaddle out of Forks and never see Bella again! Stay positive, Ed! =Dd

Chapter 2->

[behindthesefangirleyes]

Just started reading your marauders fic and I was suprised by the pairing. What made you decide to do James and Regulus?

Hi! This is a rambling answer, so fair warning.

Honestly, it wasn’t a long, thought-out decision. I was a massive Jily shipper when I first joined the Marauders fandom around 2008-14. Then after I returned to Marauders fics during the lockdown, I discovered the ship demographics were different.

I had only heard of Jegulus from Choices at that point (and would not go on to read Zep’s stories until after I had to remove mine), but I thought it might be interesting to explore how Jegulus as a couple could survive a read-the-books theme.

As an aside, I still very much want to return to this series. I need to determine the how/when, but it’s still on my mind!

[danses-with-dogmeat]

Also, ahhhhh! Thank you all for this!!

I don't know what to do with all these milestones, omg 😭

I just feel SO privileged to be a part of this awesome community and I wanna thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for reading and commenting and participating in all the random stuff I throw out there, and helping to form just such an amazing place to create and be open and exist in. There are so many fandoms out there that are... ahem, a bit difficult to feel connected to, but I've really only had good experiences with this one, and I truly think that all of you are the reason I've been doing this for... what? Almost 3 years now?! Just Crazy, omg. 😅

But seriously, love you guys so much, and thank you all again ❤️❤️❤️

[semperintrepida]

hiya! i was curious on whether you'd ever be open to writing kass x aspasia in the future? love your work in the breaking !

I might be persuaded to write deimos!Kass x Aspasia, but not eaglebearer!Kass x Aspasia (because of reasons.)

Just think of it: Deimos and Aspasia being deliciously evil together while staying two steps ahead of poor, hapless Alexios. Girls just wanna have fun—while conquering the world.

[monicahar]

HEAD IN MY HANDS FR UR SCARA IS A WEIRD BF FIC HAS ME CROUCHED N CRYING its so gud >”< its def worsening the brain rot

who's scara

[devdevlin]

Hi again! I’m the anon that asked about time travel fics. I read trap 44 yesterday and SPOILER my heart sank when it appeared that Tom won. Will you ever write a Tomione in which Hermione wins? :(

Hahaha, ohhh, ummm… well…

I have a fic with plans for BOTH of them winning together? Does that count?

[manny-jacinto]

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP (2019)

[ursulaklegay]

its so scary to put yourself out there but a SINGLE message saying "hi i loved what you made it touched me in some way" makes it all worth it 10000%

[kilgarraara]

"I guess I never really faced my fears before"

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[beepboopappreciation]

Is this anything

[itsscaredycat]

and they lived happily ever after 🥲🙏

[stil-lindigo]

lead balloon (the tumblr post that saved me)

if this comic resonated with you, it would mean the world to me if you donated to this palestinian family's escape fund.

--

no creative notes because this isn't that kind of comic.

I know I don’t owe any of you anything but I still felt compelled to write about my long term absence. And I feel far enough away from the dangerous spot I was in to be able to make this comic. I have a therapist now, and she agreed that making this could be a very cathartic gesture, and the start of properly leaving these thoughts behind me. I am still, at seemingly random times, blindsided by fleeting desires to kill myself. They’re always passing urges, but it’s disarming, and uncomfortable. I worry sometimes that my brain’s spent so long thinking only about suicide that it’s forgotten how to think about anything else. Like, now that I've opened that door for myself, I'll never be able to fully shut it again. But I’m trying my best to encourage my mind in other directions. We'll see how that goes.

I am still donating all proceeds from my store to Palestinian causes. So far, I've donated over $15K, not including donations coming from my own pocket or the fundraising streams which jointly raised around $10K. In the time since I made my initial post about where this money would be going, the focus has shifted from aid organisations to directly donating to escape funds.

If you'd like to do the same, you can look at Operation Olive Branch, which hosts hundreds of Palestinian escape funds or donate to Safebow, which has helped facilitate the safe crossing and securing of important medical procedures for over 150 at-risk palestinians since the beginning of the genocide.

[danses-with-dogmeat]

Wait is each day a surprise👀 or are you allowed to give us lil hints for the upcoming days😏 love yr glory & Kent ones btw they had me Deep in my feelings lol <3

Hey there!

So, the characters aren't really a surprise (the list of them can be found here. It's not in order, and there's no kinks listed, but it's just the folks I'll be including).

As for the rest of it, there is the official list of kinks that I'm loosely following (roughly in order, with a couple exceptions), but the combos and character order are a surprise!

If you want any hints at all though, feel free to ask 😊

And ahh, thank you! I'm so glad you liked them! Kent's has been one of my absolute faves so far, so I'm happy others have liked it as well! 😁

[thefantastician]

the thousand year door comics!!