#cracked spines

[andhumanslovedstories]

everyone's always like "oh Animorphs are so dark, Animorphs are so fucked up," and I was kinda like "okay yeah sure" because people will say anything that they encountered in their childhood was actually fucked up. People have a very specific view of childhood media where it is all basically Dora the Explorer, and therefore any level of threat or nuance gets this hyperbolic reaction.

so I'm reading Animorphs for the first time, and you know what? fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine FINE ANIMORPHS ACTUALLY IS THAT FUCKED UP. YOU GUYS WIN THIS ONE.

anyway we did a podcast about it.

Animorphs Part 1: Baby's First Existential Dread

apple podcasts | spotify | buzzsprout

(cyrus btw has already read animorphs, it was at a formatively young age, and don't even worry, the books made them So Weird.)

[hubristicfool]

So @andhumanslovedstories and I are going to try this exciting new podcast technique called “actually announcing and sticking to the books/topics we do in advance lol” 

To that end, here’s our upcoming schedule! 

May 15: Female dirtbags in the work of Grady Hendrix (we’re reading How to Sell a Haunted House specifically, but we’ll no doubt talk about the broad strokes of Hendrix’s novels because we’ve read most of them)

May 29: ~Fungal Horror~ (featuring Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia and What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, plus any other creepy fungus-y books we can get our grubby little hands on)

June 5: The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard (presumably we’ll come up with a more general topic for this one which will allow us to rope in some other media but I (Cyrus) haven’t finished this 740 page epic yet and thus the exact topic remains officially Undecided) 

[arrowhearts]

This week we read uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well it depends on who you ask. One of us read Delivered from Distraction. One of us read Driven to Distraction. This was. Not on purpose. See how long it takes us to realize. Other talking points include: why case studies are the best form of literature, the brand new eating disorder Sarah's been reading about, and Cyrus' inability to remain within the country. Books discussed: Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder Paperback by Edward M. Hallowell M.D. and John J. Ratey M.D Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder by Edward M. Hallowell M.D. and John J. Ratey M.D The Picky Eater's Recovery Book: Overcoming Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder by Jennifer J. Thomas, Kendra R. Becker, and Kamryn T. Eddy

https://crackedspines.buzzsprout.com/1531100/13326166-conclusively-and-without-question-we-have-adhd

Oh hell yeah, this promises to be an excellent episode from description alone. Excited to listen as I spent the day alternatively unpacking from recent apartment move & curling up in a tiny ball to nap

[egophiliac]

my absolute delight at seeing that the riderboys DO in fact have special magical girl transformation sequences --

(now if they really wanted to commit they would go full sailor moon with the ribbons and bubbles and sparkles, hint hint toei)

[krytus]

cobra kai is the lowest high stakes show ever. buildings are getting burned down, people are going to jail, endless home invasions, john kreese has once again faked his death and what are they even fighting for? the soul of the valley? stopping evil karate? stopping evil karate on an international stage once and for all for world peace? be serious. this isnt even a criticism i love this show

[cry-ptidd]

Yk that post that said fangs peeking out was the vampire equivalent of cats blepping

[evan-buck]

stewy's very chill and understated rant to himself about kendall's interview early in 2x01

[alexis-royce]

You are three years into your 100 year transition into a mysterious celestial beast. You are two years into a midnight-black romance with Mr Pages, a dread and nefarious member of that same race.

Stealthily determine the best gift for your wretch of a paramour, and leave it utterly defeated by your superior show of humility, goodwill, and selfless affection.

You are going to get SUCH a good grade in romance.

---------------------

A weirdly competitive romance between two inhuman monsters,

4,000 words

5 endings, plus a randomized correct gift, resulting in several possible runs,

Assets made traditionally with fountain pen and watercolor paint,

For extra fun, try to figure out which words are real, and which ones are Pages making them up in an effort to sound as eloqintellectual as possible!

Play it in-browser here!

[eemoo1o-animoo]

Oh, neato, some panel parallels! (Ch.6 & Ch.9)

[callsignvoid]

i think keegan has really crackly joints (lowkey projecting rn)

and he likes to pop em all in one go and Everyone Hates it

keegan after having been idle for too long: [*popping his joints, knuckles, back, etc*]

the rest of the ghosts:

[andhumanslovedstories]

the brutal part of editing a podcast is that sometimes you have to just sit there and listen to yourself stammer through something that you clearly lost confidence in as you were saying it. the good part of editing is sometimes you can just remove five minutes of audio.

[hubristicfool]

suggestion for cracked spines: you should read seanan mcguire's wayward children series, because you are absolutely one of the Bakers from 'beneath the sugar sky'

I've read the first one in the series and I loved it, so I've totally been meaning to keep reading them! Especially if I get to meet a literary doppleganger who presumably stumbled into a horror world of flesh and/or fungus and was sadly very into it

[reddieswift]

something so personal to me about my battered, worn, and well-loved copy of IT by stephen king 🫶

[maounteighn]

clay never learned how to hit back and bloberta played tennis. im guessing there was no domestic boxing bc honestly she would've twisted his spine with bare hands in 2 min. hes still walking solely bc of her choice to reserve to psychological torture only.

[rottenjestyr]

//A quick Ouma to get back in the mood

[sneeb-canons]

mind can rarely crack his joints bc his bones are metal and whatever and usually run pretty smoothly. but on the rare occasion that he can crack them. it sounds like the entire house is being torn apart by fireworks and violent explosions. his back snaps like a godsamn whip and his neck cracks so hard it's a surprise he didn't break his own spine. every single joint in his body will pop louder than anyone in the house has ever yelled, without fail.

he'll always make sure to do this in direct vicinity of both heart and soul because as he rearranges his internal structures they will stare on in sheer, absolute horror, especially considering that once he's done, he just continues on with his task as if it never happened and as if every atom in his body hasn't been split in two

Headcanon #632