#gealach reads

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Tam Becket has hated Lord Lyford since they were boys. The fact that he’s also been sleeping with the man for the last ten years is irrelevant. When they were both nine years old, Lyford smashed Tam’s entry into the village’s vegetable competition. Nearly twenty years later, Tam hasn’t forgiven the bastard. No one understands how deeply he was hurt that day, how it set a pattern of small disappointments and misfortunes that would run through the rest of his life. Now Tam has reconciled himself to the fact that love and affection are for other people, that the gods don’t care and won’t answer any of his prayers (not even the one about afflicting Lyford with a case of flesh-eating spiders to chew off his privates), and that life is inherently mundane, joyless, and drab. And then, the very last straw: Tam discovers that Lyford (of all people!) bears the divine favor of Angarat, the goddess Tam feels most betrayed and abandoned by. In his hurt and anger, Tam packs up and prepares to leave the village for good. But the journey doesn’t take him far, and Tam soon finds himself set on a quest for the most difficult of all possible prizes: Self care, forgiveness, a second chance… and somehow the unbelievably precious knowledge that there is at least one person who loves Tam for exactly who he is—and always has.

"But if you want to be loved, really loved, first you have to be you."

Alexandra Rowland's Yield Under Great Persuasion is a cozy adventure of self-exploration, featuring an unlikable protagonist who becomes less unlikable as he starts working on himself and experiences love and acceptance. It's a soft story about second chances, coming to terms with all the ugly parts of you, and coming out willing to do the work to become the better version of yourself.

On the others side of the equation is Lyford, hopelessly in love with the main character, a paragon of understanding. He, too, learns something: to challenge the one you love and allow yourself to get angry sometimes and stand up for himself, and to stop just accepting whatever's sprouted at him. Together, the two will learn to complete each other and coexist, accept and challenge each other.

The worldbuilding is exquisite, featuring a meddling hearth goddess and her equally meddling siblings. Gods have people they favor, and they bestow upon them gifts that can help others; learning to navigate this favor and find community and acceptance is also a main theme of the book.

But most of all, this is a book about working on yourself and features therapy lingo very heavily.

Yield Under Great Persuasion will drag you to therapy kicking and screaming.

✨ 4 stars

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

This book rewrote my brain chemistry, everyone go read it! Show it some love!

Here's my review

Unholy with Eyes like Wolves is currently 99¢! If you want an F/F/F historical gothic vampire romance with Carmilla and Erzsébet Báthory (Elizabeth Báthory), check it out!

[cuppajj]

Gealach and Coru were close friends. They spent so much time together, whether it be to read, walk through nature, or play music in their favorite quiet place. They were practically inseparable, and Coru more than anyone cherished the moments they had together. But he was always wary of Gealach's fascination with the stars, and a small part of him worried that they would take them away from him. His fears were deemed true when Gealach one day declared to him their desire to venture beyond Thalamhan. Coru, forever bound to the titan Danuas, refused to go with them. That was the last time he ever saw them.

After the Navigator's departure, Coru mourned them as if they had passed on. He had the statue of his close friend erected in the capital city to commemorate them, but he was never the same afterward. Even though he had known Gealach all his life, Coru did nothing to prevent their legacy from becoming little more than Thalamite legend.

[lovecatsys]

5, 7, 20, 24 for aki!!

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Kingdom of Welcome Addiction by IAMX, go listen to it it's so good. I also made a very simple edit of Akihiro to this song.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

There's a few things but all the people who headcanon him as asexual, this reading is really great because it goes against all the sexualization and fetishization he's subjected to as a character, and it really feels so accurate to his character as well if you really dig into a lot of his early appearances. Also everyone who makes an effort to refer to him as Akihiro exclusively.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Ooooo this is a hard one. I don't really think there's ever been anyone in Akihiro's life who qualified as a "best friend," in fact it's really hard to read any of his relationships like that when they are almost all temporary relationships that he abandons or is abandoned by. I guess you could argue that Laura is the closest he's ever had to a best friend, but their relationship is very familial in nature. Honestly to me, I feel like he and Aurora could be best friends outside of their romantic relationship, even if they go through a breakup. My other thought would be Johnny, they're also obviously meant to be a romantic relationship but I think they could be best friends outside of that.

This being said though I feel like he deserves to have a best friend who he's never had any romantic attachments too, as that can be something that interferes with a relationship and especially for Akihiro. My top pick for a best friend then would probably be Lorna. I loved the way @gealach-in-a-misty-world wrote their relationship in her fanfic The Ties that Bind. I can also see potential for him and Kwannon to be friends.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

hmmmmmm this is difficult because I don't really have a lot of other fandoms lol. You could say there are some similarities between him and Curt Wild from Velvet Goldmine, but honestly i tend to compare Curt a lot more to Kyle Gibney. One instrumental difference between Curt and Akihiro though is that Curt is a very vulnerable and emotionally open person, Aki is not at all. So I would probably say they're kind of similar on a surface level, but once you get deeper they are not similar at all.

Honestly there's probably something I'm forgetting because Aki is very much My Type as a character and I've been liking characters like him since i was younger, but I'm blanking right now on what things I've been into in the past lol. amnesia :sob:

Send me a character ask!

[teal-bandit]

Tagged by @imperiuswrecked

Rules: tag 9 people you want to get to know better/catch up with and answer the questions below

Last song: The Carpal Tunnel of Love - Fallout Boy (I picked a great band to be into as someone with Auditory Processing Disorder lol)

Last movie: Shutter Island (I know it has a lot wrong with it, but I love movies that delve into the psyche of their characters. Horror has a lot of capability to provide catharsis for dealing with the messy emotions that a lot of other genres avoid)

Currently reading: The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté (I love Dr. Maté's writing; it's very informative and enlightening. I've read his book on ADHD [Scattered] and the one exploring the relationship between autoimmune diseases/chronic illnesses and a person's ability to cope with stress and negativity in their lives [When the Body Says No] )

Three ships: Bullsnikt (I can't help myself; I'm a sucker for enemies to lovers and the romance of being accepted as you are [even if what you are is a remorseless killer])

Akihiro/Aurora/Carl (Akihiro has two hands, Marvel) (Something about someone you spent a lifetime with despite not knowing that was what you wanted/needed is just -chef's kiss- and add in someone who you can relate to and who can love you now... The juxtaposition of past lover and current lover, but make it work)

Jubilee/Laura (they were so cute in the X-23 run I wish they were being written by almost literally anyone other than fuckin Leah Williams right now I've been waiting for them to get back together)

Craving: nothing, currently. Am sick 😷 usually craving spicy foods, though

Tagging: @manicr @honmyoseagull @gealach-in-a-misty-world @paigeartsaround @thisiswhatwereupagainst @urgoingtohell @vortalchorus @bothsidesofaquestion @cykelops and whoever wants to join :3

[honourablejester]

These are fascinating. It’s not a thing I ever learned in school, tree names in Irish, not beyond a couple of the basic ones (daire, oak, etc). I know ‘sceach’ from my mam, who’s from Kerry, but she/they use it to mostly mean ‘undergrowth’, like brambles and, yeah, hawthorn, but also any old thorny bushes.

A couple of things. Most of these are not direct, word-for-word translations. If you’re wondering how silver birch, white poplar and hawthorn can all have the same word in them, ‘geal’ means ‘bright’, not directly white or silver. ‘Gealach’ is the word for ‘moon’. So it means pretty much something pale and bright.

Is Wych Elm a mountain species? Because the Irish translates to ‘mountain elm’.

Horse Chestnut read so weirdly to me, though. It kind of reads like a clumsy back-translation? And it sort of is. Horse Chestnut isn’t native, it’s been introduced over the last 200 years, which I didn’t know. So the Irish name is a later back-translation, or I suppose a translation-translation, turning the English common name Irish. Though it isn’t ‘horse chestnut’, it’s ‘horse nut tree’. Why they didn’t just use ‘castán’ and add ‘capaill’ to the end I’ll never know.

Common names are so cool. Like place names, they kind of tell you a lot about the thing/place, the history of it.

na bachlóga

the buds

[windy-trickster]

17 26 33 34 for freaya

17. public transport. is it good?

"⋆｡°✩ It's alright. I prefer to walk tho." 26. how do you react to attempted murder on yourself? have you ever had to survive an attempt?

"⋆｡°✩ Better luck next time, chap! Also I'd watch out for Gealach as well." 33. remember to drink some water, reading this many questions can cause problems with dehydration. anyways. how often do you drink water? 34. what’s your guilty pleasure in the respiteblock? something your quadrants only know? or maybe they don’t yet…

"⋆｡°✩ I make sure to have a couple glasses a night, a little more if I've been out and about 'round Alternia. But you should never drink TOO much water as well! Too much of anything can be deadly." "⋆｡°✩ And if I did have a guilty pleasure. Why would I see reason to tell you?"

[monsieuroverlord]

Inktober Day 31 -- Farm

Whew, finally done! (-ish)

I had finally caught up on reading @gealach-in-a-misty-world ‘s String of Fate series (last chapter was amazing btw, I’m still sobbing, lol) With all the recent and wonderful angst I’m still reeling from, I needed to create some self-comfort art. 

Anyway, Akihiro and Johnny are taking Gabby to a petting zoo on a farm. They’re all having a great a time and nothing is wrong, lmao

 In my experience, the animals tend to flock to the person that pays attention to them the least, hence the alpaca and chicken hanging with Akihiro.

All my art posts are going to slow down significantly now that Inktober is over, but I might post here and there depending on ✨stuff✨

[honmyoseagull]

Regarding Daken’s name…

And the interview of Leah Williams that appeared today…

@manicr

@gealach-in-a-misty-world

and any other good soul who would have re-read the comics more recently than me…

IS THERE ACTUALLY A MOMENT WHEN DAKEN INTRODUCES HIMSELF AS AKIHIRO to any character?

I see some characters call him that from time to time, but each and every single one I wonder how they would even know that name, considering the episode above (source: Wolverine Origins #26 (w) Way (a) Segovia) because I don’t see Daken flaunt it without a whole mental breakdown, honestly…? Akihira disowns him, here !

(For the anecdote, funny - as in not at all - thing is, when I first typed disowns it appeared drowns on the screen, and isn’t it an horrible lapsus calami when you talk about Daken…)

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Avra Helvaçi, former field agent of the Arasti Ministry of Intelligence, has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world―and the only place to flee with a secret that big is the open sea. To find a buyer with deep enough pockets, Avra must ask for help from his on-again, off-again ex, the pirate Captain Teveri az-Haffar. They are far from happy to see him, but together, they hatch a plan: take the information to the isolated pirate republic of the Isles of Lost Souls, fence it, profit. The only things in their way? A calculating new Arasti ambassador to the Isles of Lost Souls who's got his eyes on Avra's every move; Brother Julian, a beautiful, mysterious new member of the crew with secrets of his own and a frankly inconvenient vow of celibacy; the fact that they're sailing straight into sea serpent breeding season and almost certain doom. But if they can find a way to survive and sell the secret on the black market, they’ll all be as wealthy as kings―and, more importantly, they'll be legends.

My thanks to the author for providing an ARC copy.

Alexandra Rowland's Running Close to the Wind is a cozy low-stakes pirate adventure set in the same world of the excellent A Taste of Gold and Iron, loosely connected to it by a plot point. The two books couldn’t be more different, as Running Close to the Wind is funny. Hysterically, being-in-stitches, laughing-on-the-floor funny. It’s so funny that it’s too funny sometimes, but it’s a joy to read a book that doesn’t take itself so seriously while simultaneously delivering some very profound reflections in the more serious segments.

The trio of main characters is a delight, their banter on point as the dynamic between Avra and Teveri expands with the arrival of the mysterious Julian and his wiles. The characters are unapologetically horny, but the book is surprisingly chaste in that regard, while also being incredibly tender in parts. I especially enjoyed the few conversations about having and defending one’s boundaries. The rest of the cast, from the colorful crew to the pirates on the island, were all painted in deft strokes, resulting in vivid characters with so much to say. It really was reminiscent of Our Flag Means Death, as it was pitched, and it was an absolute romp.

The world gets expanded in a really clever subversion of what we know from A Taste of Gold and Iron, showing what the outside world thinks exactly of the choice to keep for themselves the only way to sail safely during a certain time of the year. There’s sea serpents and giant turtles and ghosts that need a complex reference guide to be handled, and it’s all so delightful. This choice to have loosely interconnected stories where the world is explored more and more is an intriguing one, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Running Close to the Wind is a fun adventure with hidden depths.

✨ 4 stars

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[kati-mcrae]

Apparently, I found my marketing niche for my Castle Gealach series. 🤣 Gained 30 new story followers and 100 reads overnight from one Facebook group!

But seriously, if you’re interested, I have a free and completed story for you on Dreame. It’s not Harry Potter fan fiction; it’s an original fantasy romance story that I recommend for fans of Harry Potter.

https://m.dreame.com/novel/zugCnrD4t6W/eu7bUBlaWg==.html

[wiccanery]

Feedback: Love your readings! They're always so accurate. Thank you for helping us with your gift

Ahh thank you so much! :D Thank you guys for coming to me for a reading :3

[teal-bandit]

Thinking about some meta I read on @gealach-in-a-misty-world blog about Itsu and Akihiro and their connections to kitsune...

[jupitermelichios]

Tag meme

I was tagged by @tigertigertigertime

Rules: tag 9 people you’d like to get to know better

Top 3 ships: I’m generally much more character focused than ship focused, so if I love a character I’m pretty open to most ships involving them, but what I’ve mostly been reading/writing lately is Tim/Jason, Geralt/Jaskier, Eddie/Venom (while I do like them, I’m not ashamed to admit those last two is 50% because those are the fandoms that a lot of the good kink writers have graduated to)

Last movie: like everyone who saw it, the last film i saw in the cinema was Harley Quinn. The last film I watched on TV was High School Musical 2, which I watched while doing pensions calculations, because quarantine’s just been like that

Reading: I’m rereading 20th century boys and black cat, and listening to the audio book of Gorgenghast. The amazing MorganoftheFey has also started posted a new story in her Reed900 OTP: Fight Club fic series, so I obviously had to take an early lunch break today to read it. 

What food are you craving right now? I’ve listerally just finished dinner, which was summer rolls, so all I can taste is sweet chilli sauce which makes it hard to think about other food. I could go for some cake though - I might make a ginger cake tomorrow. 

I’m tagging @ameliahcrowley @bookobsessedforever @kiseiakhun @caducus @galaxy-of-hair @starcityrebels @celestialbisexual @dracze @gealach-in-a-misty-world

[writermuses]

But Lover, Please Stay With Me || Abigail Lebreton & Tadgh Pairceir

Her throat scratched, dry with nervousness over the minute hand on the bedside clock showing just five minutes until her date. It had been ages since Abigail had gone on a date. In truth, when she received approval to study abroad in France she had told herself that she would have fun, no ties. Tadgh had taken her by surprise. With extended family in France, many of her weekends during her study abroad program had been spent with them. It was a sort of stipulation her parents made before letting their only child travel alone across the world. Still, Abigail made time for fun with people her own age and had been out dancing when they didn’t make plans to show her around. Those nights out had introduced her to countless attractive Frenchmen. Tadgh, however, was this Irish exchange student in her French literature class that kept to himself- possibly the only person that never flirted with her. So, she lost herself in memories as she waited…

Abigail couldn’t help but think about the frustration of the lack of his attention, even that frustration led to her being annoyed with herself. With a shuffle of paper and the slamming of textbooks, class let out and Abigail lingered. She had noticed the book he was reading, a book hidden behind the course’s textbook, and decided to talk to him. A part of her felt curious about the book and another part of her was curious about him. Tadgh had always been quick to answer when called on but never rose his hand. She had noticed his answers were never wrong, but that his French was poor and only made more difficult to understand with his thick Irish accent. Everything about him intrigued her with every step closer, then she looked at him and realized what those people flirting with her must have looked like and her cheeks flushed a deep melon. “Ce que tu lis?” Her American accent was easily disguised when she spoke her fluent French.

She watched his Adam’s apple bob before he answered, “Le cours est terminé. Pouvons nous parler en anglais?” Abigail wondered if it was because he didn’t want to speak French or because he knew she was American. She didn’t give answer him, studying his hands as they covered the title of the book he’d been hiding. Though Abigail had thought he was unaware of her curiosity, he certainly was and the next thing he said threw her off her game, “Sheol tú, A gealach-bhíoma ar an domhain, domhain uisce-domhain, Chun teacht ar Endymion.”

With her eyebrows shooting up she couldn’t help but utter a surprised “What?” The corners of his mouth tugged into a smirk. It was obvious he was trying to control it but the longer the tension grew they both eventually ended up bursting into laughter. The classroom was long empty by the time they stopped laughing, Abigail slipping into the seat next to him. She would be the one to break the silence, “What language was that? What were you saying? It sounded to pretty to be a blow off… not that I’m assuming that you want to talk to me.”

Tadgh looked at her, his blue eyes studying her own, “It’s John Keats… just, in Irish Gaelic. If you let me pick you up for dinner tonight I could read some to you?” Abigail mulled it over, wondering if he wasn’t so different from everyone else after all. The way he looked at her flustered her and his accent gave her goosebumps. To Tadgh, however, the waiting was the worst part and his eyes fell after a few minutes, the books slipping into his bag. “It’s fine. I’ve seen that you’ve had plenty of other offers.”

Standing up in tandem with him, Abigail wasn’t sure if she should be offended, surprised, flattered, or some combination thereof. “I’ll have you know that I was just thinking of what to say. I’ve never met some fancy Irish guy before and… You just surprise me is all.” Biting her lip she looked up at him, feeling woefully small next to him. “How about I help you with your french and you tell me about Keats– and all those other books you bring to class and hide behind your textbook.” He raised an eyebrow as if to ask her if she’d really seen him doing this. “Yes, I notice things, too, smarty. Pick me up at seven by the fountain.” It wasn’t a question and she turned and walked away, her cheeks hot with embarrassment and excitement.

[from-mister-madness]

Can't say I'm familiar, but I like this as an introduction. Tell me, why don't we progress this? You've had time to deal with your own skills, your own habits, your own pace. Real talent lies in how you deal with others. Treat it like... well, you've been hitting bullseye every time, but now the target's moving. 🌙

anti's forgotten half the words to the song, and instead begins to hum along until he gets your notification.

it's not like he needs to read your message to know what it says - he's far too powerful with technology to need that. but just to show off, just to show off, he looks up at his webcam and smiles. he's reading the text but still playing the knife game, not even hesitating to worry about the state of his fingers.

"what, are you not impressed? too easily bored? funny. i don't see you playing along."

the knife picks up speed as it hits the table, stabbing in a different pattern now. "i'd say this is far more of a challenge than just slashing up victims - come on, gealach, don't tell me you're not having fun watching me play risky? i mean, i need these fingers to play bass, and any second now i could-"

as if on cue, the blade doesn't make the typical tapping noise, but instead a slightly denser thunk. he only flinches a little, and you wonder how much of it was on purpose when he lifts his bleeding finger to lick the blood from the wound.

"if you want to watch me make someone squirm, just say it. if you think i'm playing too unexciting, well... so are you."

he waves the knife around while he talks, gesturing enthusiastically, and gives you a wink.