#catastrophe book

[normally-blue]

Marcille im lov you <333

[arrowsperpetualcringe]

Bro

I had the weirdest dream that Bill Cipher was hosting a live event in a theater

And there was like hundreds of people in this theater.

Bill introduced himself and started picking people from the audience for a "neat trick" he had planned

Idk why in retrospect but I REALLY wanted to be picked

He picked people row by row and kicked everyone else out of the theater.

At first he picked the people himself, but then he got bored, so by the time he got to my row, he was like "okay, convince me why you should be picked. Wow me." to everyone in my row.

And I had a brilliant idea.

I waved my arms in the air (despite him being like 3 seats down from me) and shouted "ME! I BOUGHT YOUR BOOK!!!" Like really excitedly before anyone else got a word in.

So Bill sees me.

He comes over

Takes one good look at me.

And says "Nope!"

Then I cried.

[aroaessidhe]

aro & ace books: ttrpg inspired

novella series with the vibe

Party of Fools (1, ongoing) - aroace & ace MCs

The Chronicles of Nerezia (4, ongoing) - 3 of the 4 MCs are aroace

Catastrophe Incoming (4, ongoing) - one of the MCs is demisexual

D&D players sucked into their game world

The Mages of Velmyra (1, ongoing) - demisexual major character

long fantasy series based on the authors' TTRPG home game

Isandor (4 books) - various ace, aro, aroace & aspec characters

Rook & Rose (3 books) - a major POV character is aro-bi (mostly word of god, but with a few hints)

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

[viperwhispered]

Too Hard

Woop part 2 of the trip inside Jamil's head. Part 1 here.

The next time Jamil caught sight of you on campus, his first instinct was to turn around on his heel.

What a stupid thought to have because of you.

Besides, that would only make him more conspicuous, not less.

So, when your eyes met his, Jamil gave you a short nod in greeting. He would’ve left it at that and kept on his way, had you not walked up to him.

“Hi Jamil! How’s it going?” you said with that impossibly disarming smile of yours.

Why was it so difficult to look at you like he normally would? You had no right to make him feel so stiff, so unnatural.

On autopilot, Jamil exchanged a few pleasantries with you - those lessons from his parents had been instilled too deep in him for him to falter too badly in a simple exchange such as this. Still, Jamil quickly excused himself by telling you he still had to find Kalim before his next class.

Jamil didn’t miss the way your smile faltered. Had you hoped to get something out of him?

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you two later, then.”

Something about that irked him, though Jamil did not allow himself to dwell on it further.

His heart really had no business still racing as it did when he walked away, unaware of the frown on his face.

Just act normal. That’s all he needed to do.

After all, he had no time for dwelling in silly fancies.

If Jamil had been acutely aware of you before, it only seemed to worsen now that he was making a conscious effort to not act any differently with you. In fact, the harder he tried to keep you out, the more you invaded his thoughts, unsettling him.

The most innocuous words from you looped in his mind, and even the simplest actions caught his eye. For goodness's sake, he’d found himself staring at you while you were queueing up in the cafeteria the other day, not even doing anything other than standing around and looking bored!

For once, Jamil found himself grateful for all his duties. At least they provided him with something else to occupy himself with.

After all, if he was busy enough, it was difficult to think about those bright eyes of yours, your sweet laugh, or the way you bit your lip while thinking.

Still, sometimes it felt like no matter which way he turned, you were there, ready to throw him off-kilter. Not like it was his fault that often the most convenient route to class intersected with your daily routines. Or that your face seemed to jump out from any crowd, catching his attention.

Which certainly did not help his basketball performance. Jamil certainly did not recall you having such an interest in sports before, yet suddenly you were always there, distracting him. What had changed?

Could you possibly-

Jamil scoffed to himself, forcing his thoughts back on track for the nth time that day.

He picked up the tray of food and started taking it to Kalim. After dinner, he’d need to help Kalim with his homework, there were some housewarden tasks that would need dealing with, not to mention the preparations for the next-

Jamil froze in his tracks.

The voice he heard was quiet, but it was unmistakably you.

Really, it should not have come as such a surprise to him. You had become a rather frequent visitor to Scarabia, and Kalim often invited you to stay for meals. In fact, Jamil had started planning the dorm’s meal prep with your tastes and dietary restrictions in mind, just in case.

Jamil rounded the corner with strange exhilaration, his heart fluttering needlessly.

Yet, his mood evaporated when he saw you.

Why did you stop talking and look so guilty as soon as you caught sight of Jamil?

Jamil knew that look you gave to Kalim, had used it himself a thousand times. The one telling Kalim to keep quiet about something.

What could there possibly be that you would be comfortable sharing with Kalim, but not with him? That would give Kalim reason to sit so close to you, a comforting hand on your shoulder?

Jamil's mind raced with possibilities, yet could not settle for any single explanation.

He’d have to ask Kalim about it later.

Jamil gave you a short, polite greeting, his eyes lingering on you in an attempt to read what you were hiding.

“If I’d known you were coming over, I would’ve prepared something for you to eat as well,” Jamil said, already thinking about which parts of the dorm’s dinner to spruce up for you.

“Oh, no need, just figured I’d pop by. I’ll get out of your hair soon enough,” you said, something sheepish about your expression.

As expected, Kalim asked you to stay and dine with them, and with just a bit more persuasion you agreed - though not before telling Jamil that he should join you too and have himself a breather.

And since Kalim agreed with you, Jamil soon found himself sharing a meal with you and Kalim. Yet, even as he sat down with the food, his mind raced.

Had you been getting particularly close to Kalim lately? But surely Jamil would’ve noticed such a thing. Maybe someone from the dorm had been giving you trouble? But if that was the case, then surely you could let Jamil know about it, too. Unless for some reason you did not want to? But if it was something that concerned Kalim, then sooner or later it was bound to concern Jamil, too.

All the while, Kalim was talking to you about this and that, the latest topic being the animals kept on the Asim estate.

“I’ve got some pictures, let me show you!” Kalim said with an excited grin.

Only, a thorough patting of his pockets and a look around confirmed that Kalim’s phone was nowhere to be seen.

Jamil pinched the bridge of his nose. Where had Kalim left it this time?

Before Jamil even had the chance to say that he would handle it, Kalim sprinted off. Jamil hesitated for a moment, automatically halfway up from his seat, before he decided that leaving a guest unattended would be a worse offense than not helping out his master.

Jamil slumped back down with a sigh, mentally tracing the path Kalim took today, trying to recall the last time he saw Kalim handle his phone.

“Breathe. He’ll manage,” you said. There was the faintest of smiles on your lips, and Jamil could not decide if it was knowing or amused. Perhaps both.

Somehow, despite his frustration, Jamil’s own lips wanted to curl up too.

“Hmm. Maybe he will.”

Sure, Jamil could’ve called Kalim’s phone, to make it easier to find, but it was not that urgent, was it?

Jamil took another bite of his food, keeping an eye on you from the corner of his eye.

How was his mind so empty and so buzzing at the same time?

“You know-”

“So-”

You looked at each other, both just as surprised that the other had spoken up at the same time.

Even your surprised look was so-

“You first,” Jamil said. The way you bit your lip... Jamil had to raise a cup to his lips, slowly sipping his drink.

“Just… Feels like it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you be still, you know. Or exchanged more than two words with you,” you said. You were attempting a light, joking tone, yet it was quite clear there was more to it.

“You say that like it would be unusual for me to be busy.”

He was not prepared for the way your soft sigh tugged at his heartstrings.

“No. It is not.”

You were both quiet after, poking at your meals. Normally, Jamil would’ve cherished such a moment of peace, yet this particular silence between you two was decidedly awkward.

Where was your usual chatter? Why weren’t you looking at him like you usually did?

“If you’re worried about me, don’t. I’m fine,” Jamil said, some softness creeping into his tone despite his best intentions.

“That's what Kalim said too,” you said. Yet the way you looked at Jamil made it clear you were still skeptical.

Wait.

Had you clammed up earlier because it had been Jamil you had been talking about with Kalim? That Kalim had comforted you about?

The thought twisted his stomach into knots.

Eta: you can find part 3 here, part 4 here, and finally part 5 here. Hasdhfsdf the way I fought with that last scene I swear. I don't even want to know how many versions I went through, trying to figure out how to say what I wanted without rubbing it into your face or making it too veiled. The joys of trying to convey things through a limited pov. Hopefully it came out reasonably balanced in the end. Rip to all those sentences that were lovely on their own but didn’t work for the whole. Hopefully I can rehome y’all one day. I do have thoughts for part 3 and part x (might be some chapters between those two as well, who knows at this point), so maybe we'll see those at some point, too. Tag list: @colliope @crystallizsch @diodellet @jamilsimpno69 @jamilvapologist @twstgo If you'd like to be tagged for future works, let me know! (Just be aware that sometimes I do also write nsfw, though you can certainly ask to be tagged only for particular kinds of works.)

[schneereggen]

I'm late to the party... But the English translator seemingly also gave up at this point 😂

Husband...? Husband?! I mean, you could have chose partner or spouse. And we all know shinya is flirting. But HUSBAND?!?!

[spicyvampire]

Babe knowing Charlie died first because his senses came back to him, goddamn pit babe not pulling their punches today

[hulloitsdani]

DAY 2: New Years!!!

Guys playing dress up with Kiran is so fun actually. I want to give them the fluffy hood all the time now.

[crimsonmonsoon]

My Qi Rong headcannon of the day (incorporating my design for him) is that like Hua Cheng, he can change his appearance so that even after he loses his mask in the second book/season, people can’t exactly say he looks like Xie Lian. My design for him really turns him into a goblin so if we pretend he looks like that then he’s intentionally becoming something as far from Xie Lian as he can, but his true form would be much more beautiful and their similarity much more prominent. But in canon he doesn’t actually have enough power to do that I don’t think? Hua Cheng is powerful enough to have multiple forms so maybe Qi Rong can get by with having only one.

And ignoring my design for him, I think this is also why he wears a mask. Pretty boy don’t like being reminded he’s related to Xie Lian.

I also have a headcannon that he was executed by decapitation with the royal xianle family so in the afterlife he has a huge scar around his neck. He’d get pissed off to find it mirrors Xie Lian’s cursed shackle.

In other words he’s trying to be something as far from Xie Lian as possible, even if he has to make himself as ugly as he can to do so.

He’s on my walls now…

[unsat-and-strange]

vampire reference in a minor key but its billford

[domokunrainbowkinz]

Ok these are the last ones I swear (lie)

[sea-salted-wolverine]

Having seen the sheer confusion of people who have seen posts about the locked tomb series but not actually read the books themselves, I've got a few theories as to why that is.

The fandom refuses to focus on the plot, and instead gloms on to the particularly odd chunks instead. Post-apocalyptic magic lesbians unearth ancient and terrible secrets. Cool, good overview. Has anyone ever described that way? No. We're all stuck on revenant Barbie and DIY labotomies. Those are both spoilers that sound insane. They're actually more insane once you have context.

The text of the actual novels, often has the emotional character driven style of fan fiction. And like the good stuff where the title is a song lyric in all undercase and a single chapter with 15K word count. Which can make it difficult to tell apart excerpts from the actual book and excerpts from fan fiction. (This isn't even counting the part of the book where a character actually invented an alternate universe where she and her crush were in a cute coffee shop Au)

The memes. I saw a post where somebody had drawn like 8 different memes of the book. Except only one of them was a drawover of parks and rec, AND THE REST WERE CANNON SCENES FROM THE BOOK.

The naming conventions. The series is called the locked tomb. The 1st book is called Gideon the 9th. The 2nd book is called Harrow the 9th. The 3rd book is called Nona the 9th. The 4th book of what was intended to be a trilogy is called Alecto the 9th.

Somehow the POV character is always the person who is least qualified to tell the story. The narrator has no idea what's happening. The narrator may be clueless, haunted, possessed, in denial, or straight up lying. Why would any of us know what's happening? If you're trying to put together pieces from the outside with no context, you're just fucking doomed.

[moghedien]

i want the show to have Rand tell Lanfear that he knows she turned evil because Lews Therin broke her off and for her to just immediately start ranting about tenure and about how you make ONE little mistake and create ONE little bore and suddenly everyone is mad at you all the time and you can't get a third name and you're an embarrassment to have around

[gennsoup]

Love is nothing if not a catastrophe, one that makes me second-guess gravity, history, the limits of my own person. Love is, might be, feels like, a kind of fairy tale too--one that can begin only once the story we thought we knew blows apart.

Sarah Cypher, The Skin and Its Girl

[aroaessidhe]

aro & ace books: nonbinary (adult/NA)

The Bruising of Qilwa - fantasy, nonbinary aroace MC

Our Bloody Pearl - fantasy, an agender aroace siren MC

Màgòdiz - postapoc/fantasy, one of the MCs is nonbinary/two spirit & aroace

A Milky Way Home - contemporary romance, nonbinary transmasc demiaro ace MC

Gender Queer - memoir, genderqueer & acespec author/MC

Werecockroach - scifi novella, aroace agender MC

Catastrophe Incoming - fantasy, one of the MCs is demi

The Thread That Binds - fantasy, 2 ace & aroace agender MCs

The Chronicles of Nerezia - fantasy, 2 nonbinary aroace MCs

She Who Became The Sun - a nonbinary acespec MC

The Unbalancing - fantasy, nonbinary demi MC, nonbinary aroace SC

Blasted Research - postapoc/scifi, nonbinary ace MC

Help Wanted - low fantasy, gender questioning (grey)ace MC

Tears In The Water - contemporary romance, gender-and-ace-questioning MC

The Wolf Among The Wild Hunt - fantasy, nonbinary aroace QPR-LI

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

[hawnks]

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, bitches

[obstinatecondolement]

Christ. Shame on me for watching a one hour video handwringing about booktokers reading books wrong. Time I could have spent asleep in my bed.