#but the thing about Edith Prewitt is-- is that she-

[syoish-aot]

the devil on my shoulder: no one who follows this blog cares about your attack on titan OC the OTHER devil on my shoulder (who's sexier and significantly more convincing): you mean no one who follows this blog cares about your attack on titan OC... YET

[fantasticalleigh]

LEIGH'S RIDICULOUSLY BIG TBR/TBW LISTS

like i mentioned before i am too busy/hesitant to actually consume a lot of new media (or at least be able to focus on it) so i'm critically behind on so much stuff. don't judge me pls :S lmao

anything in bold is something that i've begun but not finished :P tagging @snow-in-the-desert bc you expressed interest in seeing the lists!

TO READ:

The Love Hypothesis - Ali Hazelwood

The Hurricane Wars - Thea Guanzon

Winter's Promise - Christelle Dabos

The Stand - Stephen King

North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Work - Louisa May Alcott

Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

Dr. Sleep - Stephen King

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

The Last Duel - Erik Jager

Portrait of a Lady - Henry James

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

The Great Mortality - John Kelly

Dead by Sunset - Ann Rule

Dracula - Bram Stoker

It's Lonely at the Center of the Earth - Zoe Thorogood

The Great Influenza - John M. Barry

The Monster of Florence - Douglas Preston

The Lottery and other stories - Shirley Jackson

Helter Skelter - Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry

White Noise - Don DeLilo

Icebreaker - Hannah Grace

She Is a Haunting - Trang Thanh Tran

This Thing Between Us: A Novel - Gus Moreno

Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler

^^ This is an incomplete list--I know there are others but these are the books I've bought over the past couple years and have not yet finished/ready. They are stacked on my desk and around my room, silently accusing me of neglect. I wither in shame. The rest of the list escapes me currently. This also doesn't include the tbrs currently on my e-reader since I can't remember where it is to see what's on there.

MOVIES/MEDIA TO WATCH:

Any Adam Driver movie that isn't on Netflix (House of Gucci, Annette, Paterson etc.) I have seen the Last Duel, Blackkklansman, This is where I leave you, Marriage Story, White Noise, Frances Ha and a few others). I know Ferarri is in theaters right now but I've kind of developed a phobia of theaters since 2020 :S

a ridiculous number of documentaries/video essays on youtube that I do not have the energy to go look for right now

Fall of the House of Usher (I love Mike Flanagan's work but I'm still hooked on Midnight Mass and Daddy Father Prewitt)

The Haunting of Bly Manor (I know everyone was obsessed with this and I meant to watch it but I was reading the Turn of the Screw when it came out and didn't want to get spoiled for it so I avoided it like the plague and finished the book but never got to watching the show)

Blue Eye Samurai

The Beguiled

Ugly Betty (I'm actually on season 2 and it's charming and funny but holy shit the amount of body shaming/slut shaming/ homophobia in this show. definitely a product of its time.)

Anne with an E

Fleabag (never finished it but thought it was amazing)

What we do in the shadows (have seen all but the most current season)

Reservation dogs

The Batman (2023)

Black Swan

The Crown

Band of Brothers

Demon Slayer

Whiplash

Wolf of Wall Street

Birds of Prey

Downton Abbey

Peaky Blinders

Nimona

Drag me to Hell

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Queen Charlotte (halfway through but haven't finished. i hate things that make me cry when i watch them so i have to be in a very specific mood to watch emotional heavy things)

Lady Bird

The Banshees of Inisherin

BARBIE (*ducks thrown rocks* I'll get to it, i SWEAR) (but i'm amazing at avoiding spoilers at this point i still know very little about the movie)

Men

Pearl

The Invisible Man

The Turning

Succession

Suspiria

Promising Young Woman

Shiva Baby

Luca

The Green Knight

Licorice Pizza

Bullet Train

The Menu

Women Talking

Knives Out + Glass Onion (*ducks more thrown rocks*)

Paddington 2!!!!

SHadow and Bone (honestly I lost almost all interest in reading/watching this once I heard the hot villain dies. BOOOO)

Carol

That one newish show with Adam Scott that looks super liminal and sci fi i can't remember the name

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Oppenheimer

Killers of the Flower Moon

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

M3gan

Turning Red

Everything Everywhere All At once

Nope

Barbarian

Just like the book list, I'm sure there's many other titles I'm forgetting to put here. I actually have branched out and watched a fair amount of new movies this year so i'm going to keep it going! and here's one more list just because this is fun

Stuff I watched or read in 2023 that I loved/recommend (with the caveat that not all of this came out in 2023): (and i'm not including obvious stuff like Spider man across the spiderverse)

White Noise

Don't Look Up

Living in the Time of Dying (documentary on Youtube. It is HEAVY on existentialism and the science/data on the current state of climate change. This WILL ruin your day so I'm warning you now. Definitely don't watch it today. This really affected me and I cried for a long time after watching this but it is incredibly important to keep in mind.)

Blackkklansman (i had to watch this with the volume on the lowest setting bc of all the n words being dropped so frequently lmao but goddamn this was so good and funnier than i expected.)

DIMENSION 20: Burrow's End!!!!! As well as The Unsleeping City season 1. Neverafter and A Crown of Candy are probably at the lower end of the list but I still love them. (thank you to @rogueimperator for cluing me onto how amazing D20 and Dropout are. <3 this is a whole new world lol)

Midnight Sun :)

7. Christine and the Queens - Redcar les adorables étoiles Full show on Youtube. I was supposed to see him live in October but he got injured and had to cancel the rest of his tour :( but this album and the video are incredible! Slight warning for semi nudity.

8. Game Changer on Dropout. he's been here the whole time!

9. The 1975 live at Madison Square Garden. I was lucky enough to see them twice this tour with my twin sister and we had an absolutely amazing time. They always put on amazing shows and this particular tour/their latest album meant so much to us. Even our younger brother has come with us for some of these shows so it's something we all share. (Last time they came to Chicago in 2022 the venue was too small so they didn't have the House set with them so we didn't get to see it in action until this year) Sex and The Sound will always be the perfect closers for their shows and I get so emotional every time I hear them. Core memories for sure.

10. Puss in Boots: the last wish. this seems like another obvious answer that i probably could have left off but this gets an honorary mention because our family cat was diagnosed with advanced bone cancer in August, and we had to put him down very soon after that diagnosis. We spent an agonizing week tending to him and cherishing every last second we could get with him. I've been fortunate enough to never experience the death of a pet until this year, and i almost wish we didn't have any pets at all because I've never felt such excruciating grief. He was a fat, grumpy orange boy with beautiful yellow stripes and a little yellow mustache. I was trying to distract myself and found this movie on Netflix and watched it, then recommended it to my sister (who is actually Thomas's owner but we all shared him) though I warned her the movie did deal with themes on mortality. We all watched it together the night before his final vet visit and Tommy was there with us on a comfy pillow. I hope he approved of the movie, because now any time I think of Puss in Boots i think of him. <3

I could add more to this but my eyes are tired and I'm wired up from coffee. I know this is long as hell so sorry but I had fun making it! I'll probably keep coming back to this post in the future to cross out what I've watched.

[syoish-aot]

THE LETTERS SHE WROTE

JeanxOC / post canon / Attack on Titan ongoing / current word count: 50,822

chapter 5 preview:

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Jean,

My birthday is next week, just in case you forgot. So that means you have to write me a letter. I know you’re busy, and that explains why I haven’t heard from you in almost two weeks but it’s my birthday ! So you HAVE to write. And I’m telling you that so you know it and you can’t say something silly like “oh sorry I forgot”. Don’t be a boy about it. Just tell me happy birthday and then you can get back to your training. 

Look, I’m even keeping this letter short so you have extra time to write back.

I love you,

Edith

PS. Guess what Ada said to me yesterday? You won’t be able to, so I’ll tell you. She told me I put too much honey in my fritters. I’ve never been so insulted in my life. Don’t worry though, I left crumbs under her bed that will attract ants, just to get back at her.

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Happy birthday.

-Jean

PS. You’re a bit of a sadist, you know that right?

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Jean,

I can’t believe you wasted money on postage just to send that, but I guess it means you really are busy. 

Did you hear that Jacob Fischer and Matilda Weber got engaged last week? Ada thinks she’s too pretty for him but I think they’re just perfect for each other considering their favourite hobby is the same: tormenting me!!

Jacob’s mother has become a regular, so I have to deal with him all the time since he always comes with her. I swear he does it just so he can annoy me. Speaking of! Yesterday Matilda called me a “mousey little brat with a rat's nest for hair and a flat chest”. So I asked her: “Which am I then? A rat or a mouse?” ((I didn’t care for her comment about my chest size either, but I couldn’t argue that point so I left it be)). When I asked her that she told me I was also a know-it-all and then I said that it sounded like I had a really interesting personality and I would be fun at parties.

She said I needed to get better at comebacks.

But at least she left me alone. 

OH! Also Grim learned a new trick but it’s a surprise for when you see him again.

I love you,

Edith

PS. that’s rude

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

You know she’s had a huge crush on him since we were ten, right? It’s not that surprising that they’d end up together. I think you’re just jealous.

You really do need to get better at comebacks.

I highly doubt you taught your mongrel anything. He can’t learn tricks. He’s a cat.

-Jean

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Jean,

Why in the world would I be jealous of anyone for being engaged to Jacob!! Gross!!!!! He smells like beef and always has dirt under his nails. I’m in love with you, which is obviously the superior option. 

Anyway, isn’t it crazy that you’re graduating so soon!? I think I might be more excited about this than you are, but I guess that’s a little bit silly to say considering how much work you’ve done over the last three years. I’d like to say that the time passed fast, but it didn’t. It passed so slowly, Jean. Painfully. Slowly. I wanted to claw my eyes out half the time. The waiting is over now though! 

You made #1 right? Then again, maybe you won't know the rankings yet when you get this letter. I bet you did though! They’d be idiots to give the position to anyone else.

I was chatting with Mrs. Geeve yesterday (her daughter was in the top ten a few years back, remember? Pretty much all of eastern Trost had heard her shouting for joy when she got the news!). Anyway, she was telling me that after Marie got her ranking, she’d moved to the interior within the week! I guess that means things are going to flip from going painfully slow, to extremely quickly for you. 

You better stop by in that week. I’ll hunt you down if you don’t!

Besides, I still owe you that pie. 

I can’t wait to see you in a military police uniform. I bet you’ll look handsome like you always do!

I love you,

Edith

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

TROST, 850

Edith Prewitt slept in that morning. 

Perhaps, if she hadn’t, things would have ended differently. 

Perhaps, if she had awoken to Ada’s banshee-like yelling from downstairs like she normally did, things might have changed.

Perhaps, if she had left that morning to go to the market and went about her business like any other day, she wouldn't be alive at all. 

But the fact of the matter was that she had slept in, she hadn't woken to the sound of Ada’s yelling, and she didn’t visit the morning market. Therefore, unlike hundreds of citizens from the southern district of Trost: Edith Prewitt was still alive. 

She'd gone to bed the night before with a terrible cold. The kind of illness that left her head feeling as though it was padded with cotton and her limbs filled with lead. Her father, Markus, had rushed her off to bed early, urging her to get a good sleep so she could wake up feeling refreshed. 

And she did wake up feeling refreshed, quite refreshed, to the point that she was almost completely back to her usual self. 

It was a Thursday, which meant she was supposed to go to the market first thing; but since she'd slept in, Markus had sent her stepmother, Ada, in her place.

“How are you feeling?” Markus asked as his daughter slipped into her seat at the kitchen table. 

“I’m okay,” Edith said as a warm cup of tea with honey appeared in front of her, courtesy of her father. “Did Ada take my letter?” She asked.

Markus chuckled as he patted his daughter’s head. “She did.”

“Good.” Edith smiled before she took a sip of her tea. She wanted to make sure Jean got the letter she had written the afternoon before. This one in particular was important because it was the first letter that she hadn’t needed to send to the training base. Instead, it had been addressed to the military headquarters right there in Trost.

Jean had ranked 6th in his class, or at least that’s what Edith had heard from the group of gossiping mothers that had been at Prewitt’s Baked Goods, just the day before. With the confirmation that he’d made the top ten (although she still felt he deserved the #1 spot) Edith knew it wouldn’t be long before Jean packed up and headed for the interior, which meant it wouldn’t take long for her to be doing the same.

After all, even if Jean didn’t think it would happen, Edith was certain that eventually she’d end up in the interior with him.

They were meant to be together and that was just a fact.

The thought left Edith’s stomach flipping and her heart fluttering with giddy excitement. She hoped he’d stop by in the next few days, once graduation was done and he’d gotten his things packed. If she hadn’t been so sick, she would have already gone to visit him herself.

“Edith?” Markus asked, popping his head through the door that led from the bakery in front of their house, into their living space behind it.

“Hm?” She looked up from her tea, now snapped out of her thoughts and pulled back into reality.

“Would you mind helping me get some rolls into the oven? I have to start on orders.”

Edith nodded as she slipped out of her seat and entered the bakery. She grabbed an apron off of the hook on the wall and wrapped it around her waist before walking to the sink to wash her hands. Next to the bar of soap sat her father’s watch, an old family heirloom that he never took off unless he was rolling out dough. She smiled as she looked at the watch, not needing to touch it to know exactly how the worn leather felt. The delicate golden decor on the watch’s face. The small crack against the glass that made it a little difficult to see where the minute hand was pointing whenever it was between half past and a quarter too.

He’d always said he would get around to having the glass replaced; but for now, he felt it gave the watch character, although Edith knew the truth was just that they couldn't afford to spend money on something so frivolous.

With her hands now washed, Edith dried them before she grabbed her father’s watch and put it into the left pocket of her apron. She knew for a fact that he would finish baking and then complain about not being able to find it, even though he always left it by the sink. At this point, it was easier if she just kept it for him so she could immediately give it back.

Edith turned around to grab a tray for the rolls and made her way to the front of the bakery.

“Thank you for stopping by.” Her father smiled at the customer, a pretty young lady who smiled back as she took the bag of pastries she’d just purchased.

Edith’s eyes fell to the bracelet on her wrist. A delicate-looking piece of jewelry with a subtle silver chain and bright blue beads. It looked expensive and Edith stopped herself before she could let the jealousy seep in. Still, she couldn’t help but think about how nice it would be to, one day, have pretty things like that too…

The lady exited the shop and Edith turned to her father. “Did Mrs. Muller already stop by to-”

Edith’s sentence was cut off by a rumble so loud that caused a picture hanging on the wall across from her to slip off its hook and crash against the floor. 

The sound of grinding stone. Falling debris. A scream, followed by several more.

And then the loud, panicked, ringing of a bell.

The alarm bell of Trost military headquarters.

“TITANS!!!!” Someone screamed from the street outside. “THEY’VE BREACHED THE WALL! THEY’RE GOING TO GET IN!! THE TITANS ARE GOING TO GET IN!!!!”

Edith’s whole world froze.

It had to be a trick, right? Some messed up practical joke that everyone was in on but her. 

It didn’t feel real. Not the people running through the streets. Not the screaming. Not the way her father grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, attempting to snap her out of her daze. 

It was a Thursday, she was supposed to go to the market.

…it was a Thursday…

[READ THE REST ON AO3]