#baz pitch edit

[blueraimo]

[carryonthroughtheages]

Mona Baz would like to remind you that COTTA is happening.

Yup. That's what he's smiling about. Mystery solved.

Carry On Through the Ages is happening. November 3rd through the 9th, specifically.

(You can learn more about it through our handy-dandy FAQs.)

(Also there's a Discord server.)

[pacey-bunce-loves-joey]

imagine the healing of reading the menu at the Cheesecake Factory

[cutestkilla]

"She asked me to give you something…"

"What?"

Simon holds on to my shoulders and stands on his toes to kiss my forehead.

Then he settles back on his heels and smiles at me. "That."

[clockworkbee]

[corvidares]

okay, so i just finished re-reading Any Way the Wind Blows and this feels so blatant as to be smacking me in the face: simon is disabled.

now, the reason why that makes itself even clearer in this book than in wayward son (where he, of course, also has the wings + tail) is because simon is once again in the world of mages - despite doing his best to leave it behind. compared to wayward son, where hes basically and literally in the wild west. where theres magical beings everywhere, where simon practically fits in because he is one.

but ill get back to that.

ive seen a lot of really interesting points about what simon's wings represent and mean, and i'm not disagreeing with those. but in a very literal sense, they are a disability.

think about it like this: the world of mages (and Normals) is not built for humanoids who have giant webbed wings and a tail. simon constantly struggles with controlling these limbs, and their size makes it ten times harder. spaces are too small, furniture and objects are broken when he spreads them, and many a shirt or jacket are ruined.

he struggles to find a good way to deal with this - spell them away? wear them out by cutting holes in things? fold them extremely painfully into his shirt? even though this last one is treated like a solution for a little while, its far from ideal. who is simon doing this for? himself, or everyone around him? yes, of course Normals cant see them. and yeah, hes expressed discomfort about baz and penny spelling them hidden. but thats not the point. even with this botch job of a way to "wear" his wings, which succeeds at hiding them from Normals, simon still states a couple times that he knows people stare at him and his seeming hunchback. i mean, thats blatant.

(he eventually, with shepard's help, realizes a good way to work around this - zippers or buckles on shirtbacks - which very much feels like an aha! disability aid moment)

im not saying disability is based in how people look at you, or it only being a societal thing. (as in, when he wasnt in the world of mages, he wasnt suddenly 'not disabled at all') disability is a huge spectrum. but those things absolutely can be a part of the disabled experience.

but all of that doesnt even get to my main point: simon has no magic anymore. and in the world of mages, thats a huge deal. magic is like living and breathing, especially for baz and penny. its not something they question or have to worry about not being able to call upon. hell, even before simon lost his magic he was disabled, just to a different extent.

before awtwb, we dont hear much about mages whose magic is weak. but they come to the forefront now - which just solidifies that solid magical ability = able bodiedness.

smith is promising a miracle cure. a cure. think of it like bullshit orgs such as aut!sm spe@ks, wanting to "cure" autism - he wants to cure people. (and hes just as full of shit) why? because weak magic is seen as a disease, a problem, even subhuman.

take daphne, baz's stepmom. her quality of life is fine, great. her weaker magic doesnt seem to put her at a disadvantage. she manages her disability well. but in comparison to the norm, to what is expected of the average mage, shes got nothing. less than nothing. she feels shame over what she cant do.

smith's case becomes even more blatant when we see, at the end of awtwb, that he wants to essentially cull weak magicians. that they're holding back society. that theyre better off as powerless as Normals - who are blatantly seen as subhuman - than as weak mages. much like how ableist rhetoric puts forward that disability is a fate worse than death.

which brings us back to simon. he insists hes a Normal, now or always has been. baz insists hes the most powerful magician to exist. both of them are wrong.

and right. and right and wrong.

simon is some third thing - not a mage, not a Normal. akin to how disability is its own minority aside from race or ethnicity he has a foot in each world, and he always has. but now he cant achieve blending into either.

this is why the increasing presence and humanization of other magical beings beside mages is so important (thank you shephard!) how mages tend to seem magical beings is very ableist. theyre subhuman, theyre not to be trusted, theyre freaks, theyre dirty, etc. except oops, how can you keep thinking that penny, when this very nice one works at a cafe and helped you translate shephard's engagement terms?

even baz and the events of wayward son play into this - yeah, some vampires are horrible people. but plenty, like baz, are just people. with a range of experiences and morals and ways of living life. (take nicodemus) (i could make a point about how simon's stalwart acceptance of baz's vampirism helps baz comes to terms with it and how this is also super disability coded, but thats another essay)

in the beginning of awtwb, he decides to go to the extreme opposite of his chosen one powered life - to live as a Normal, and the second step (after cutting himself off from baz and penny) is getting his wings removed.

except he cant do it. and even having his wings touched is horribly uncomfortable. now, this partly has to do with how much theyre sensual parts of his body - same as his tail. but its also, separately, very intimate. theyre treated very clinically, like a fascinating specimen to pore over. im not trying to give niamh shit here, just saying what i saw.

but theyre part of him. people with disabilities often deal with being stared at and poked and prodded by the medical field (if theyre not ignored or waved off. maybe both.). even every day folks feel the right to touch disabled folks, or their mobility aids.

for a lot of people, mobility aids are a part of them - its like a stranger touching your face and thinking theyre doing you a favor. when instead theyre being weird as fuck.

simon's status as previous chosen one even plays into this sort of thing - people see him more as a figurehead, for what he can and cant do (including his wings!) than a person. hes a tragedy, hes a hero. hes inspirational, hes to be pitied. sound familiar?

the end of awtwb doesnt spell out whether simon ends up deciding to keep his wings (frustratingly). but they spell out that he would absolutely would, in my opinion.

simon increasingly treats them as a natural extension of his body. think of the scene where he flies about the watford goats. how he expresses his feelings with his wings and tail. and of course, how he learns to let baz loves each and every part of him: including his dragon limbs.

baz loves him, and loves them, not in a fetishistic way, but because its simon, and he loves everything simon is. not just what he represents or can or cant do.

[bloodiedpixie]

AWTWB Fan Illustrated Edition!!

Heyo! I’m back! With the final (for now) instalment of my makeshift illustrated editions. This one is for the third and my personal favorite book in the Simon Snow Series, Any Way the Wind Blow by the amazing @rainbowrowell!!

Just like last time if you’re tagged, your art is in it!

This is essentially me putting the art pieces to the lines in the book to show the beautiful words and the beautiful art at once.

DISCLAIMER!!! This time, I managed to find out my local library allows me to print pages of colored documents for only 10 cents (woot woot) so the image quality is much better. HOWEVER, if you don’t see an art piece you believe should be on there or have seen before or even made, it is not because I don’t like the art or artist, it’s because I simply missed it when finding art or forgot to put it on a page to print.

This was by far the hardest one to complete, it took a total of 6 and a half months to complete. Two months to find all the art, 3 to glue it all in, 1 month taking photos and labeling, and a half month putting it all in collages and creating the artist credits.

AND IT WAS WORTH IT!! it looks great and it’s amazing to see all the art next to their source material.

Just like the other two times, each piece has a number on it that correlates to the credit page

(Ex. Artist: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

(I strongly, strongly, suggest clicking for better quality on everything and zoom in to see all the lines they’re next to)

Thank you to all the amazing artists in this fandom!! I hope you enjoy!!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Artist Credits

Artists: @bonappetart @doublebraided @dancingwdinosaurs @nick-eyre @penpanoply @karcutie @banjjakbanjjak @letraspal @mostlymaudlin @babybimge @krisrix @peachpit-gabe @palimpsessed @kindaorangey @dehydratedcherry @dazed-squid @frjsti @springdays-arts @artsyunderstudy @dead-cherry-bitch @death-the-sapphic @ivelovedhimthroughworse @stardustasincocaine @henreyettah @cynopoe Jamie Krost @oyabun-draws Xivz @mara-miranda @styx-x @fromteevee @ottomatonic @generatingwings @kirbybot @subparselkie @irlfrogprince @samalander01 @babbleduck @kidovna @cattocavo @cherryfull @salesart @wunder-kin @toonysart @snootskunk @giu-box @schinkennudelnart @ghosttotheparty @mailjeevas66 @luddlestons @twinkle-twinkle-up-above @dreamingkc

[blueraimo]

[twin-tailss]

CASTING CALL!

There’s a new fandom house casting call, and it’s the Simon snow series by Rainbow Rowell this time! Currently we’ve got spaces for 5 characters as well as spaces for artists and video editors, and there’s more characters to come! I’ll link it down below for anyone interested.

There’s also a fandom house discord, which I’ll link below!

[iamamythologicalcreature]

Happy Anniversary to Snowbaz

It's kind of cool, actually.

See, the rough draft for The Haunting of Simon Snow (1st chapter up on AO3) is now complete. As of a half hour ago or so.

On their smoochy-smooch anniversary. I'm kinda stupid sentimental about it, but I didn't plan it that way. Just happened.

[maplebean2003]

Soldier,poet,king Simon snow edit

[brilla-brilla-estrellita]

WIP Wednesday

I know it's late in the day, if it even is still Wednesday where you are. I blame @shrekgogurt, who tagged me when it was still late Tuesday night my time, so I forgot about it until now! But that's ok. I'm just happy to be tagged again.

This is a snippet from an untitled WIP with a couple of redactions because I'm not quite ready to share the full premise yet.

Baz POV (I swear I write things not in Baz POV, too):

I fish my newspaper out from under Simon and attempt to smooth it out enough to continue reading. Just as I find where I left off, Simon says, “Erm– <redacted> is there something you wanted to talk about?” I glance up to once again find <redacted> making a face at us, but this is one of nervousness. He’s standing awkwardly in front of us with a mug of tea in his hands biting his lip. It’s a look I’ve seen on Simon’s face time and again. “Um, yeah, actually. I…” He pauses. Simon straightens himself in my lap. “I want to tell <redacted> about my magic.” At this, Simon lifts himself from my lap and sits in the chair beside me. I fold the newspaper and set it on the table. That clearly isn’t happening today. I’ve stiffened automatically, schooling my face blank like I used to do so often. I rarely use that tactic at home. I don’t need to, and I don’t want to. But it’s a subconscious reaction and sometimes it slips out. “You want to tell &lt;redacted> about magic.” I repeat back slowly. I can hear my father’s voice in my own. I hate it. Simon squeezes my knee under the table. He can hear it, too, then. I take a deep breath and let it out, sending some of the tenseness along with it and relaxing my shoulders. <redacted> stands his ground, not put off by my response, thank Crowley. I try to be very open with the children. Approachable. I don’t want them to think they can’t come to me the way I couldn’t go to my father. It’s been work, but I’ve done well so far.

Ooooookay that's all. Thanks for reading! I'm tagging people even though it's late. Heh.

@onepintobean @thewholelemon @technetiumai @raenestee @facewithoutheart @ileadacharmedlife @martsonmars

[ectolilly]

[bloodiedpixie]

All the fan illustrated editions!!

Carry On

Wayward Son

Any Way The Wind Blows

[hsincerely]

BOOKS READ IN 2023: wayward son by rainbow rowell

Things I hate. a list: 1. The sun. 2. The wind. 3. Penelope Bunce, when she hasn’t got a plan. 4. American sandwiches. 5. America. 6. The band, America. Which I didn’t know about an hour ago. 7. Kansas, also a band I’ve recently become acquainted with. 8. Kansas, the state. Which isn’t that far from Illinois, so it must be wretched. 9. The State of Illinois, for fucking certain. 10. The sun. In my eyes. 11. The wind in my hair. 12. Convertible automobiles. 13. Myself, most of all.