baba1120

[neonwavev1]

Neon Paradise

Ch. 1 

Part 1

Gather your thoughts

Crunching hard into the day old bread clutched in my tattered glove, I got up from the table in the back of the cafe I was eating in. 

Melanie’s was a spot I frequented regularly. There was always a seat tucked in the corner for me, where I could check my holo mail and eat in peace - you don’t get much of that in Neon City. Feeling satisfied that I had finally landed a gig, my first one this week, I continued through the unusually low and dimly lit doorway of the backroom. Melanie knew I liked to keep it lowkey, so I wrapped my black bandana around my face, nodded, and exited. The bell jingled behind me, I made sure to leave her a nice tip. She tries to make the most love infused, pretend-this-isn’t-slop slop, that you can make with the kind of food us peasants are able to get most days. 

Looking up at the towering corporate skyscrapers that seemed to go on for miles, neon lights on them casting shadows below, I wondered to myself: “How did I get here?” In fact, I often asked myself this. How did I find myself in this situation - surrounded by wealth and extravagance, yet unable to break through the glass ceiling that prevailed over most folks in the city? Would this job be the one to get me out of abject poverty? “Pfft” – I scoffed to myself. “Doubt it.” If it was even legit, that is. I was already burned twice last week by Ethan’s gang, and once the week before by the Trinity Squad. 

Before heading off down the street, I reached into my jacket pocket to grab my pack of smokes and jet lighter. The crinkled cellophane that coated the packet read “WARNING – CANCER”, as if the toxic sludge and radioactive waste dumped into our drinking water and food supply in the name of profit by PopCorp ™ and other random, insidious fledglings of the corporate hegemony totally weren’t a problem. I rolled my eyes in disdain, and lit the cigarette. Just as I reached back into my jacket to put away my happy sticks, I was jolted by a woman running into my shoulder. “Hey!”, I yelled. She didn’t stop.

I only caught a glimpse of her amber colored hair beneath the rolled up balaclava that sat atop her head before she turned a corner and was gone. I didn’t think much of it, until I looked down and saw a business card on the ground. It was a solid, matte black card on thick cardstock embellished with a simple insignia – a dark red circle with a vertical line drawn straight down the middle. In vain I turned it over, finding nothing alluding to what it meant. I shrugged it off, picked my smokes up off the ground, and shoved both into my jacket.

[lrosewrites]

LIBRARY USERS OF TUMBLR who are age 35 or younger, are you able to help out a grad student by taking a survey? Your prize will be my eternal gratitude 😔

EDIT: You all are incredible! I have SO MUCH DATA to work with!! ❤️📚❤️

[beach-love-sparkles2]

~ Every leaf speaks bliss to me, Fluttering from the autumn tree.~

[tozettastone]

Anyway, totally unrelated to Hellsing, but I reread LK Hamilton's A Kiss of Shadows while I was sick this week and I'm so impressed that a grown woman and not a 16 year old (i.e., the age I was when I first read it) actually wrote this. It's just so much all at once?

This book is like: 'Well, there's an American fairy princess who has been on the run from her family for 3 years, but now she's forced to return to court, where, incidentally, her aunt the queen keeps a harem of beautiful men who aren't allowed to have sex with anyone but the queen on pain of death by torture. Also, this story is about the princess trying to get knocked up before someone else kills her.'

The male characters all have the aesthetic impact of My Little Ponies or Bratz dolls: the ocean guy with the blue hair and blue eyes and blue clothes; the Darkness guy who is just black everything all the time; the Green Man who is literally green. They all do nonspecific magic that just kind of serves the text however it feels like at the time. Everything is soap opera long looks and big feelings. It goes on.

LK Hamilton gets a lot of shit for being ridiculous, which is fair, because she is in fact completely fucking ridiculous. But I also can't help but feel that she has achieved exactly what she set out to achieve.

Anyway I get the impression from vague chatter that Sarah J Maas is her spiritual successor, so I'm thinking about picking up A Court of Thorns and Roses soon. For... fun? I think?

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

It is evening. The moon is small and new. There are stars, and a stream's sound, and I can hear the wings of insects in the dark. I think what gifts we are given, such gifts - every day.

Susan Fletcher, Corrag

[lovewanttimetopause]

[spunishbread]

Cosplayed Penny of the Stardew Valley 📚

[eksandra]

୨୧

[istoma-v-doma]

[godzilla-reads]

I will be carving a pumpkin tonight, though I’d like to try my hand at carving a turnip one day.

Iykyk

[mika0318]

Check out my novel! Genre is Action, Fantasy, Romance.

It is free on Tapas, Inkitt, and Wattpad.

Please enjoy ♥️

[geceninisiginda123]

Yarınlar hep güzel olacak denir.Oysa bugünler, dünün yarınları değil midir?

Victor Hugo

[kanadraws]

I’ve just finished reading all 15 books of the Jeeves and Wooster series. I had hearty laughs throughout. (I feel sorry if I scared my colleagues by smiling with no apparent reason at my computer. I was just remembering some scenes or phrases.) While I feel contented, there’s a touch of sadness knowing there are no more new Jeeves books to look forward to. To fill the void, I picked up Pride and Prejudice right after closing Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen, the final Jeeves novel. Though I feel a little like I’ve plunged into a rebound relationship, I’m liking it. Eliza is such a delight. I think I like her more than I did when I first read the novel around her age.

[ragazzadalsorrisonero]

«il male non è sempre nero, a volte si nasconde dietro un sorriso, dietro un abbraccio, dietro un'illusione di normalità».

-Call Me Micheal, A Ferro e Fuoco.

[hicranlakitaplar]