#but after reading through their quotes

[nymerias-heart]

Jon & Sam

The Winners of My Best ASOIAF Friendship poll:

From that day forth, neither Rast nor any of the others would hurt Samwell Tarly. When Ser Alliser matched them against him, they would stand their ground and swat aside his slow, clumsy strokes. If the master-at-arms screamed for an attack, they would dance in and tap Sam lightly on breastplate or helm or leg. Ser Alliser raged and threatened and called them all cravens and women and worse, yet Sam remained unhurt. A few nights later, at Jon's urging, he joined them for the evening meal, taking a place on the bench beside Halder. It was another fortnight before he found the nerve to join their talk, but in time he was laughing at Pyp's faces and teasing Grenn with the best of them.

Fat and awkward and frightened he might be, but Samwell Tarly was no fool. One night he visited Jon in his cell. "I don't know what you did," he said, "but I know you did it." He looked away shyly. "I've never had a friend before."

[crazydaymycrazyway]

The crown prince of Xianle Xie Lian, a literal seventeen year old, the first time he ascended: I'm learning, I'm young and I have amazing friends

Jun Wu, a 2000+ super senior citizen: *smiles*

Bai Wuxiang, internally: *in a mocking tone* I'm learning, I'm young amd I have amazing friends. WELL OBVIOUSLY THAT AIN'T GONNA BE HELPING YOU! I WAS RAISED BY WOLVES BITCH, BETRAYED BY THE PEOPLE WHO I TRUSTED, LOST MY GODHOOD, DIGNITY AND LIFE, GOT TUMORS ON MY FACE, KILLED AND STOMPED OVER THE CORPSES OF THE GODS WHO DARED BETRAY ME! I WAS BETRAYED AND I BETRAYED AND I'M WASHED ALL OVER BY SINS AND I'M STILL SURVIVING WITH MY SHIT TOGETHER ON TOP OF ALL! AND YOU THINK YOU CAN WALK AWAY UNSCATHED?! BE ALL PURE?! WATCH ME BITCH!! LETS SEE IF YOU CAN FOLLOW YOUR SHITTY "BODY IN ABYSS HEART IN PARADISE"!!!

[naneki-maid]

just finished reading the Age of Innocence and the last line that Archer speaks to himself, sitting on the bench outside Madame Olenska’s Paris balcony after not seeing her in almost 30 years has left me unwell.

“It’s more real to me here than if I went up.”

Cancel all my calls. I will be bedridden for several days. thanks.

[mikimeiko]

Leviathan Wakes (Book 1 of The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey)

[deeplovelydark]

this might be a bit of a reach but I see the goldfinch as a sort of (reverse?) narnia narrative. when theo's with his mother he is in a magical place of happiness and contentment and when she dies he's expelled into the real world. the goldfinch is a symbol of what he's lost but also of the loss itself- the day his mother died. he (to his knowledge) keeps the painting in storage and doesn't look at it. it's a magical door which cannot be entered fully, because his childhood-his time in the magical land-is over. but theo is stuck with one foot in the door and another out. he participates in the real world only tangentially and lives on the memory of the past- a mirage that cannot be grasped. magical lands are often fraught with danger, specifically the danger of staying there for too long. do not overstay your welcome do not partake of its food. otherwise the dream will become a nightmare and you will never be able to leave. theo's in-between position means that he's tormented both by the real world and the magical land. boris steals the goldfinch from theo and that almost lead to his death by suicide- but in the end that is what creates the possibility for theo to move on with his life. whoever clings to his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall save it. boris returns the goldfinch to theo but now theo has the freedom to chose what to do with it. he no longer clings to it like a desperate child. and he choses to give it away. to pass it along. to share it with other people. to allow other people passage into the magical land while he goes on into other places and other lands.

[rolandkaros]

"i had no doubt she'd make it to the final. it only depended on me if i was going to make it. i really wanted to have this battle and decide everything on court. i was sad that she lost." so anyways. i'm going to launch myself into the ocean.

[fictionadventurer]

"It looked like a good day for setting fence posts, and my mother said so while taking the biscuits from the oven. 'Some morning early, when I can get away, I want you to come with me along the edge of the hill in the wood-lot," she continued. "When the shadows of the trees begin to come down the slope, as the sun rises you feel the turning of the earth. You feel the whole globe under your feet rolling into the sunlight. . . . That's something I found one morning when I was driving the calves to pasture. I've been saving it up for you. I wonder if you've seen a more beautiful dawn in any of the places you've been.'

On my fingers I count the dawns I have seen--memorable, just in being dawns. Sleepy-eyed dawn from the Paris markets after a night of dancing; mist dawn against which I was just to late to see the minarets of Constantinople--all the fault of the stupid stewardess who didn't wake me in time; one startling moment of color on the hills around the Dead Sea before they went colorless in merciless heat; sudden dawn like a clap of light over the freezing-cold Syrian desert. Four dawns in twenty years. No, I do not know dawns as my mother does."

-- Rose Wilder Lane, "A Place in the Country" (1925)

[writingthroughthenight]

All hail Jacks, Prince of Hearts.

The one who realized that his idea of a happily ever after could change when he truly fell in love.

We're rooting for you.

[acourtofquestions]

Hearth to hearth, the Flame of War went.

Over snow-blasted mountains and amongst the trees of tangled forests, hiding from the enemies that prowled the skies. Through long, bitterly cold nights where the wind howled as it tried to wipe out any trace of that flame.

But the wind did not succeed, not against the flame of the queen.

So hearth to hearth, it went.

To remote villages where people screamed and scattered as a young-faced woman descended from the skies on a broom, waving her torch high.

Not to signal them, but the few women who did not run. Who walked toward the flame, the rider, as she called out, "Your queen summons you to war. Will you fly?"

Trunks hidden in attics were thrown open. Folded swaths of red cloth pulled from within. Brooms left in closets, beside doorways, tucked under beds, were brought out, bound in gold or silver or twine. And swords-ancient and beautiful—were drawn from beneath floorboards, or hauled down from haylofts, their metal shining as bright and fresh as the day they had been forged in a city now lying in ruin.

Witches, the townsfolk whispered, husbands wide-eyed and disbelieving as the women took to the skies, red cloaks billowing. Witches amongst us all this time.

Village to village, where hearths that had never once gone fully dark blazed in answer.

Always one rider going out, to find the next hearth, the next bastion of their people.

Witches, here amongst us. Witches, now going to war.

A rising tide of witches, who took to the skies in their red cloaks, swords strapped to their backs, brooms shedding years of dust with each mile northward.

Witches who bade their families farewell, offering no explanation before they kissed their sleeping babes and vanished into the starry night.

Mile after mile, across the darkening world, the call went out, ceaseless and unending as the eternal flame that passed from hearth to hearth.

"Fly, fly, fly!" they shouted. "To the queen! To war!"

Far and wide, through snow and storm and peril, the Crochans flew.

[the-shadowsingers-whore]

"cassian bowed. 'with my life, high lord. i'll protect her with my life.'

rhys looked to azriel. he nodded, bowing, and said, 'with both of our lives.'" acomaf p. 581

omfg i need some air

[nona-gay-simus]

"I want to see how this plays out. Alas, I have a bad personality and a stupifying deficit of attention."

- Ianthe Tridentarius,

Gideon The Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: June 5

"Matches to Paper Dolls" by Dessa

[bumpsyp1ains]

mario: …and even though it’s fine, it leads no impact on anything

mario: unlike flurrie when she sits down

[roses-and-elixir]

I’d forgotten how genuinely nice it feels to do things I enjoy

[thefabelmans2022]

i hate history why am i crying doing my readings. AGAIN.

[born-to-lose]

Missing people and regretting shit o'clock