#hilary b. price

[smashpages]

Hilary B. Price wins the 2023 Reuben Award

Jay Stephens, Evan Dahm, Sarah Andersen and more win NCS divisional awards.

[pixeldoodles]

Guys Price Tag and Book’s ship name should be Barnes and Nobles.

[savrenim]

the worst bit about being Super Excited about a new original project is, like. the knowledge that. at best. people aren't going to see it for a year and a half to two years. and that it's really hard to go "hey trust me I'm going to have something so cool in like two years so please stick around now"

[mikansei]

Ohh this articulates so well a thought I've had about regional/temporal/subcultural etc. details like this in fic!

It's hard to recall specific instances - when done well, it blends seamlessly and doesn't stick out. I'm always trying to achieve this in my fics while also tempering my need to describe everything in excruciating detail, lol. Paring away the result of an hours-long research binge like gently peeling an apple...

(Wikipedia's blue links are dangerous stuff 😭 like a gacha except the prize is learning trivial shit about everything under the sun for free)

When done well it's a great way to ground a character within their own world and humanize them, rather than just pasting a reference like a sticky note on top the narrative. One way to do it is to get less specific - per the example, not naming Naruto specifically and generalizing to just "anime," so the reader can mentally fill in whichever series they feel might fit. Still gets the gist across without potentially revealing the author's personal taste in Ao3 reading material, lol.

But making it less specific isn't necessarily the best way, you know? Especially for a character who might reasonably know the specific thing being referenced.

Something I'm currently running up against in my fic: the Visored have lived in the Material World since 1901, and are all at least a little tuned-in to human culture - Rose & Shinji's love of music (despite the slight anachronism of jazz in 1901 lol), everyone's fashion, etc. Rose is more classical-themed (his outfit & Kinshara's conductor's baton), so for actual in-text references I'm sticking to classical music: he complains about Shinji making him play the boring bass part of Pachelbel's Canon in D. (Totally not channeling my former band kid woes here...)

Would it be unfitting to mention him singing something more contemporary? Not necessarily. Does naming a modern song directly in the fic feel like transporting myself back in time to 2003 songfic on FF.net? YES 💀

I don't have like, a solution here, lol. In lieu of specific references that might ring false or forced, I've been trying to focus on the non-specific - the reactions, the feelings, the vibes other characters are getting from Rose as "that one friend of yours who bursts into showtunes at any given opportunity." He is That Guy™ who starts singing in the group call and makes everybody groan, not because he's a bad singer, but because this is the third song he's sung in the past half hour alone. They have been down this road before. A lonely road; the only one that they've ever known--

*I am pulled offstage Vaudeville-cane-style*

Another way to make the setting feel like a lived-in place that the characters actually occupy is inventing things for them to do (or avoid), events for them to take part in (or not) - but the trick is to keep it conversational. If the character's talking about a local festival in their hometown, even in narration, they're probably not describing the whole shebang down to the history of when it was first celebrated. Because they're already familiar with it, you can flex their voice by summarizing what about it would be important to them. Maybe it's "You know, that thing where a noisy crowd makes navigating main street hellish for three days," or "Right, the 'festival' - or as I like to call it, 'an excuse to be publically day-drunk all weekend'."

(Bonus: doing that means you don't have to come up with details, lmao.)

Verisimilitude (long thoughts about writing)

Sometimes I get mailed random books to consider for course adoption. The first one I looked at the other day was so incredibly bad I could not make it past page 12--"oh my god I hate books" bad; "trees were wasted on this!!" bad. And then there's this one. I've made it to page 30-something and I could have told you 20 pages ago that Oliver Twist it would remain, but I am still reading it to read it, and maybe keep it to recommend extracurricularly. (The protagonist Alva is a weeb for American culture, whatever the word is for that, which I think could make for interesting study!) But that's all context to say,

AH YES THE INTERNET RABBIT HOLE OF NARUTO FAN FICTION, HENTAILORD. WE'VE ALL BEEN THERE.

SO...

BLEACH MENTION WHEN????

Based on the style of her screen name, the Naruto porn, and her listening to My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park, this girl is definitely living her teenage life in the mid-00s, in ways that are searingly obvious. Which feels like it should be a massive success in terms of using verisimilitude to pinpoint a particular time and place and, by extension, person. But I don't think it does?

In thinking about why this doesn't work for me as a reader:

1. As a general rule, I tend not to enjoy "fandom" subculture references like this in fiction, because they have never felt true to my experience of fandom, or even my experience of others' experiences of fandom. The specificity is there but not the verisimilitude. Whether this is because of an inability to articulate the breath of life that animates fandom spaces, or a feeling of needing to at least kind of translate it for the uninitiated general audience, I don't know. Not that Alva's narrative goes far enough to merit this discussion; she's just reading Naruto porn for one sentence, but it just doesn't land right for me. (Sidebar, this is probably also why I don't enjoy acafandom or fandom essays that aspire to acafandom; there's usually this attempted, manufactured critical/"objective" distance from the text that often feels performative, or at least the wrong [or less interesting] tool for the job. And even where 'in-group' positionality is addressed, the translation required to make these things legible to the out-group is just--well, not what I want in life, I guess!)

2. I am a great believer in drawing greatly from what you know and feel and all those random thoughts and behaviors and emotions and tics that make life interesting, and giving them to fiction. In fanfic especially, I am a great believer in seeing the author's hands in a text, making the story (and the original canon) unmistakably theirs. But I kind of always want them to be hands that are in the act of giving. By which I mean, I think there's a difference between all these things existing in a story and having been given to a character or a world or a story, and integrated genuinely into them.

Like, all I can think about while reading this book is how the author definitely lived through the mid-00s in a particular and very familiar way. Rather than create a richly immersive world, the details jump out of the page and leave the story behind. They don't feel like they belong to Alva (or perhaps Alva does not feel like a character with the depth to hold them and make them hers). They belong do the author, and to me, and to history, but Alva falls out of the equation. And if this is going to work, I feel like Alva can't fall out of the equation.

3. I was talking to a friend about something similar a few months ago. She was complaining about a historical fiction book she was reading with a book club she leads at the library she works at--how it was clearly very well-researched, but dry as hell. The information was not animated by the story itself. And I compared it to a fanfic I'd (not) read, where the author was very proud of all the research they'd done and how accurate-to-life its setting was. (To be clear, I'm not subtweeting Bleach fandom. Completely different fandom! Also this fanfic was published like 16 years ago.) The fic did bring in lots of specific details about trees and highways and city names--things I knew well, too, because it was set where my sister lives--but rather than be as exciting and, again, rich, as I feel like that familiarity could have been, it all felt dead. Because all these things were described specifically, but not true to how the narrating characters would describe them, or mentally catalogue them, or experience them.

And you might think, well, how would we possibly know how a character thinks about highways? It's not like he's explained this in canon. And I'd say, well, you definitely can. There are probably a lot of different ways a character could plausibly think about highways, depending on the specific shade and flavor of your characterization of them, all equally believable; but it's got to be part of the equation. There are a lot of ways to be right, and you know it when it's wrong. The wrong-est way it can be is for the way they think about highways to not factor into the way those dang highways are being described by them, in their POV.

4. I think about this both as a reader and as a writer--certainly more often as a writer, because I find that level of imagining a character's headspace the VERY best part of the process, and also because I am often concerned I am not doing it, or at least not well, lol. I'm positive I've done all the things I've just talked about not enjoying.

These concerns exist at the level of characterization work in general, but also at that level of, is the wizard behind the green curtain? Are his hands giving? Because while I do write fanfic because "it is fun" and because "this idea interests me," I am also usually writing it to work through deeply personal emotions/experiences. Which again, perhaps selfishly, I support that. But from a craft perspective I don't want it to feel, transparently, like "oh lol this author is going through it."

Moreover, from a relational perspective, I don't want that to be the relationship between me as author and the characters. Because one thing I am ALWAYS writing fanfic to do is to indulge my feelings about how much I am in complete, rapturous love with the characters and worlds in question. I don't want to just place things upon them, like a film or shroud; I want them to be given, integrated, arriving in the text wholly in their bodies and in their minds and entirely theirs. And I mean this for both the emotional arcs and conflicts and the random tics and details. I want them to have been given, and to belong, and to feel completely and inextricably theirs.

So, those are my thoughts about mid-00s Naruto porn!!!

I'd love to hear others' perspectives, as readers or writers or both. Have you had similar reactions, or quite different? Why do you write, and what do you want? What's your template for how you think about characterization, or your writerly relationship to canon/characters?

[diejager]

just thought of something really funny for the monster cod au. what if reader has a small emotional support dog, and reader is just kissing, cuddling and saying “i love you”s to the dog. do you think the animal hybrids would get jealous of the dog bc of their animal instincts?

Cw: jealousy, tell me if I missed any.

You came with a K9, a big Shepherd and collie mix that you took in after you completed you medic training, a little friend you trained and spent your time with. You two were a package deal, the Task Force wouldn’t have you without Milo, and vice versa. You were assured by Laswell that they didn’t mind K9s in the TF, it was a welcome sight to have an actual dog rather than a hybrid or monster. You took it with stride, Milo by your side at all times and they were never bothered by it, how protective he was of you and how much attention you gave him, but you hadn’t expected to see some grow… jealous of Milo.

You watched Soap and König especially turn green with envy, their burning glare shot towards you fury friend when you kissed his nose and praised him for being such a good boy. He truly was, your loyal and affectionate companion that you nurtured since he was a pup, fighting side by side with you when you were on the field. Soap - sweet Johnny - would shift more often, throwing himself at you whenever you were walking Milo. Rather than simply walking a dog, you walked a dog and a werewolf, a jealous and drooling werewolf that kept rubbing his side against yours, panting and growling out words that you didn’t understand. It was hilarious, seeing how jealousy made Johnny act, his tongue lolling out to lick over your cheek, demanding kisses and praises with his wide and gleaming eyes after you gave them to Milo. 

König was as unsubtle about it as Soap was, voicing his envy with nonverbal cues for affection. He would trail behind you, his broad figure so quiet, and tugged at your shirt, mumbling incoherent words until you gave him you attention. He’d stare you down, fluttering his lashes for compliments, whether they were teasing ones or loving ones, he took all and anything you gave him. It was rather… König was less eager than Soap was with praises, but he was more stubborn with it, silent demands and needs for the occasional praise or words of affirmation that you still loved him. 

Ghost and Horangi never showed a sign of discontent about the amount of love you gave Milo, but they did towards Soap and König’s unabashed need for it, some slight disgust and growls, snarling at the other for something you truly didn’t understand. Price and Alejandro were… they found enjoyment in your sticky situation, you caught them throwing you a mean grin when you passed them with either Soap, König or both of them stalking behind you. You remembered them calling Soap and König lost pups with heart eyes.

Then there was Gaz and Rudy, godsends, the gentle but logical figures of the team, they would step in to redirect Soap or König’s attention towards them to let you go about your day. If Johnny followed you around, a big wolf drooling all over the floor, scaring others away, Rudy would send his cadejos to herd the big wolf back. If König became your third shadow, his giant figure looming over you and making everyone hesitant to seek your help when they needed needed it, Gaz was there to offer to cuddle up in the couch and let König run his fingers through his wings. 

Taglist: @craxy-person @crowbird @dead-cipher @iwannabealocalcryptid @iizx7y @mxtokko @capricorn-anon @perfectus-in-morte @sae1kie @yeoldedumbslut @bvxygriimes @distracteddragoness @konigsblog @angelcakes-22 @cassiecasluciluce @ramadiiiisme @ramblingsofachaoticthinker @im-making-an-effort @love-dove-noora @jinxxangel13 @daisychainsinknots @h0n3y-l3m0n05 @mul-pi @danielle143 @beau-min @makayla-666 @urfavsunkissedleo @notspiders @brokenpieces-72 @luvecarson @petwifed @randominstake @heartelysia @jggykhug09090 @cassiecasluciluce @hayleybarnesx @shironasumi @sparky--bunny @bloobewy @call-me-nyxx @sans-chara @infpt-zylith @sweetnanah @aldis-nuts @thigh-o-saur @evolutionarry @kaoyamamegami

[hopeymchope]

Oh GOD the fiendish David Zaslav is rebooting Harry Potter with a new "extremely faithful" adaption of the seven books. J.K. TERFling is heavily involved, she's executive producing, and they've made a TEN-YEAR COMMITMENT already.

Five Rapid-Fire Thoughts I Had in Reaction to This News:

Fuck Zaslav. (Btw, did I mention that — after deleting half of HBO Max's original content — Zaslav has now announced a price hike to the newly christened "MAX" service? As if giving a shitload of money to the planet's most notable TERF wasn't enough fuckery. FUCK that fucking shitheel.)

See below.

3. All y'all who were like "Boycott Hogwart's Legacy or You're Automatically a Terrible Person" or whatever because Rowling was going to make like a 1% royalty off of that game had GODDAMN BETTER boycott HBO MAX (....uh, sorry, it's just "MAX" now, I keep forgetting bc that name sucks — "HBO MAX" wasn't all that good a name to begin with IMO, but now it's worse) from here on out. YES, I know it's harder to boycott an entire streaming service that may contain OTHER content you want, but c'mon now, just bootleg anything you want off MAX in the future. (I'll help! I will send you a link or whatever if you need assistance. Message me. It's cool.) Because this is going to make her SO MUCH MORE MONEY due to involving her FAR MORE DIRECTLY. FUCK. WHY. Why did they fucking do this.

4. There are so many things in the books that are either A) poorly explained workarounds for continuity/logic issues or B) extremely problematic that the movies were actually BETTER for ignoring them. Can't wait to see the scene where every single known Time-Turner gets accidentally broken shortly after Prisoner of Azkaban in order to ensure the characters can never use time travel to fix their problems again! SUPER excited for the plotline where Hermione has to learn that she's silly and wrong for trying to free slaves because the slaves are fucking happier being enslaved! OH BOY!

5. God, a ten-year production commitment UP FRONT. I hope they lose so much money on this stupid-ass project that they wind up dragging their feet to produce future seasons for so long that the contract runs out before they've gotten farther than like, the third novel, and then it just dies on the vine. Would be HILARIOUS.

[lunlumo]

I'm looking at group B standings and the calculations are hilarious:

Spain is chilling BUT they have a minor working overtime and there will be a price to pay

Italy doesn't even have to win, the other two have to lose. or draw, either is cool

Croatia must win and pray Albania doesn't become the best team around. in worst case scenario they have to score more than them at least

Albania must win but also Italy must lose. like. they aren't through even if they beat spain. It is vital that Italians fuck up for their strategy

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

Behold, an exceptionally obscure concept, based on the way Zestial first incited Alastor to dish the gossip.

Okay, so consider this...

a) Lillith and Alastor are friends, but it wasn't widely known except by the higher-tier gossip lovers

b) They got into Some Shit together and ended up both trapped in deals for whatever reason but no one knows that

c) Zestial and possibly a few of the more I Need to Know overlord types assumed that it wasn't just friendship and Lillith was looking for a little Sinner on the Side

Thus when Zestial was making his 'fell to holy arms' quip with that odd little gesture, he was making a tactful jab at the fact that he thinks Lillith and Alastor were an item, Lucifer found out and obliterated him or that they ran off together to who knows where

The theories are so elaborate its almost obscene.

Rosie, who knows full fucking well that's not the truth but just loves to keep her teeth puncturing the jugular of information in the ring, often participated whole-heartedly in the insanity.

Perpetuating rumours she hoped were so scandalous that Alastor would have to come back from wherever he'd disappeared to just to have a meltdown at the ridiculousness of her 'creativity' and continued patronage of the rumour mills

I would honestly love to see this man do his full 180 degree whiplash thing as he walks pask a newspaper/magazine kiosk only to snap about as his brain reads the headline 'Her Majesty's Deerly Beloved: They're on the same Wavelength' or soemthing equally banal.

Rosie's too busy crying with laughter to stop him incinerating the stand and storming off to take out the publisher.

---

Also like, imagine Charlie's reaction to finding out this was her Mum's maybe secret boyfriend, and he's playing like, the Dad card

She's half-convinced its all an act but like... is it though? The thought keeps her awake.

Now imagine LUCIFER HIMSELF arriving to see what he assumes is his wife's 7ft people-eating boytoy smarming it up at the hotel, acting dadly to Charlie and then immediately going for the throat in the Dad-Off

It just seems hilarious to me.

-------

I think the funniest part would be that while Lillith may have noticed and thought it the price of being Queen, Alastor would be oblivious to the whole thing until the news stand incident.

So he's not reacting to any of it, which some assume is just smug confidence/confirmation and others take it as it being untrue.

Chaotic, quirky, cannibalistic! This theory has everything!

[smashpages]

The Reuben Award: NCS announces nominees for Cartoonist of the Year

The winner will be revealed in September.

[marsmarbles]

What do you mean by when you say that their theme is food chain 

Do they each choose a chain to base there individual skins on or start a restaurant together 

If they start a restaurant I headcanon that it would be funny if they sucked at it because they’re food is bad and the restaurant has health violations everywhere 

I think they would have individual food items they provide and no one wants 

Jimmy = a cod and two breads used to make fish sandwiches (jimmy was the cod father who was a fish and he was a bad boy who grew bread)

Big b= he makes cookies which is the the only food that is appetizing ( but they cost a diamond so they would probably sell a lot of them if only they would lower the price) 

Bdubs=salads because he has a moss theme it’s just moss 

Fwhip = would probably be in charge of cooking stuff with a very badly placed fire that causes him to burns himself and the food constantly 

They get made fun of for how bad there food and their costumer service is also for how nobody wants to eat there food

Their designs are all just animal/organism themed(I say organism cuz Bdubs is a plant). But yes they do have a restaurant and your headcanons are hilarious nonetheless. They mostly sell baked goods like bread, cookies, cakes, and pumpkin pies.

[higharollakockamamie]

Dawntrail Thoughts

Just putting my thoughts together.

SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE EXPANSION

Overall, I enjoyed it. The parts I liked less were more missed opportunities than anything outright bad. There was definitely nothing on the Werlyt scale of bad, which is what I was afraid of ever since I heard my personal enemy Werlyt Guy was working on MSQ. You can see where the less experienced writers are getting a feel for things, but I think they did a reasonably good job of it.

Things I Liked:

The environments are gorgeous. I spent plenty of time just ramming my face into plants so I could look at the leaves. Those leaves!

Meeting the different people of Tural was a lot of fun. I liked the summer vacation feeling of just exploring and learning about different cultures. I liked that there were a lot of things for us to do besides "go here kill this", like trade some wool for fancy mezcal like that one guy who traded a red paperclip until he got a house.

I loved seeing fantasy with a Central/South American inspiration. It's really fresh and the colors and designs are wonderful.

The centering of female characters. We had lots of women in major roles, and I really appreciate that. I especially love to see a female villain. I am a full supporter of women's wrongs.

Bakool Ja Ja going from a goofy enemy it was fun to give crap to (I love Wuk Lamat's delivery of, "Be quiet, Bakool Ja Ja. No one cares what you think.") to a tragic child overloaded with expectations was great.

Zoraal Ja betraying his Obviously Going to Betray Him Evil Vizier was hilarious, though it came at the price of giving us less Sareel Ja, who I enjoyed

I liked that the WoL stepped back and took a mentor role. I don't really invest in these kinds of blank characters - they're just a wall for the characters to play tennis against - so you could replace the WoL with a piece of cold pizza with "nods" pepperoni'd onto it and I wouldn't care. So I'm down with them being a supporting character.

Wuk Lamat. I love her design, I liked seeing her journey and growth throughout the story, and I liked the story being based around the development of a leader, this time based on maintaining the peace rather than overthrowing an oppressor. I also thought her voice suited her well. I understand the frustrations of people who thought she monopolized screentime. More on that in Missed Opportunities.

Sphene's part of the story was a lot of fun. I loved how openly friendly yet very suspicious she was, and I enjoyed trying to guess her secrets. Exploring her lands and figuring out the dark side of this ostensibly happy place made me and some friends think of The Giver, and that was fun to compare and contrast.

The combat and dungeons were a ton of fun. Vanguard is a personal favorite. Gotta love any dungeon you crash a train into.

Things I Didn't Mind:

The music used the main leitmotif a lot, but then again, so did Endwalker. In that case a lot of the big bangers that massively slap came in the patches, and, given how Honey B Lovely's theme has taken up residence in my head permanently, that pattern looks to hold out. Also I love the jazz in Tuliyollal.

Missed Opportunities:

I would have liked to see the Scions take more of an active mentorship role. Like, for each culture/area, have one of our buddies teach a lesson: like, Alphinaud should have definitely gotten a chance to talk about not letting yourself think you're the big omnipotent smarty boy who can solve everything yourself. This would have been a fun way to show the Scions' development as well as helping us not overdose on Wuk Lamat by having her be the focus alone.

Where's Zoraal Ja's mom? Where's Gulool Ja's mom? If it weren't for two-heads requiring two parents, I'd think these were those lizards that reproduce parthenogenically.

Zoraal Ja was a little underbaked. He's got this idea of sowing warfare to teach people that war is bad, but where did he get that notion? Why's he willing to go so far for it?

While effective, the idea of fighting someone who is trying to preserve the past at the cost of the present was a bit of an Ascians retread. It's strange that no character ever mentioned that similarity - or, with the idea of things that maintain their existence by sapping the life of other beings, the similarity to Primals.

Also, I hate to argue for more Thancred, who sucks, but "a person you loved and lost continues to exist but at the expense of currently living people" is something he should have been around to have an opinion on.

Where's the Ironworks? There's so much technology they'd have a field day with. Where's Nero? SHOW ME MY BOY

[cannonball5]

My thoughts on Deadpool and Wolverine

(Heavy spoilers for the movie, you’ve been warned)

I just want to start off by saying that it’s a good movie, a fun movie, but it’s not the best Deadpool movie and it’s not the best Wolverine movie.

I think the biggest issue is that it tries to balance the wacky comedy with some heart that Deadpool does with the more somber and serious tone that the Wolverine films do. Sometimes it works…and sometimes it doesn’t. I think the film would’ve been stronger if they focused on making it a Deadpool movie with Wolverine in it vs trying to fit a Wolverine movie inside the Deadpool movie. There’s a whole stretch of the film where the Merc with the Mouth seems like side character in his own movie.

That said if they wanted to show a beaten and destroyed Wolverine they needed a better tragic backstory. When I heard that a bunch of “humans” killed the X-Men my first thought was “huh?” How could they beat Jean Grey a mutant so powerful that she could burn your psyche to cinders? Storm is basically a weather goddess. Professor X literally has the power to change their minds. How did the X-Men get killed by a bunch of regular people?

I have two ideas they could’ve done. The first is go full “Old Man Logan” backstory. For anyone who doesn’t know in the Old Man Logan comic all the villains team up to finally get rid of the heroes. When the bad guys show up at the X Mansion Logan fights them off, all the while unsure of where his team is. When Wolverine finishes off the last villain he turns around and all the bodies are just his team. Mysterio appears and reveals he tricked Logan into killing his friends. They could do that, have it tie into X2 where someone uses Stryker’s hypnotizing fluid to have him kill the X-Men.

Alternatively you could have the same story as the film but instead of humans it’s a bunch of souped up Sentinels. Then during the fight with Cassandra it’s revealed she used her powers to make the Sentinels stronger (something she did in the comics) because she got bored waiting for another Charles to show up for her to kill.

Anyway it’s still a fun movie, definitely worth the price of admission, just not as strong as I’d thought it’d be.

Also here some nitpicks:

The Wolverine-Sabertooth fight should’ve been longer. They even said in the movie we’d been waiting 20 years for this fight and it didn’t even last 20 seconds.

No mention of Ghost Rider. They mentioned practically all the various non Disney Marvel or Sony Marvel films except for Ghost Rider. I’m just saying a quick mention of him fighting Cassandra and almost winning…until Alioth showed up.

Lack of non X-Men villains. All of Cassandra’s minions fall into two categories, disposable faceless minion or X-Men villain. Considering they brought in Blade and Elektra it would’ve been cool to see some of their enemies. Deacon Frost or The Blood Pack from the Blade movies, and while Elektra wasn’t a very good movie I do remember the villain Tattoo being pretty cool or at least bring in a Bullseye variant. Also maybe throw in a Dr. Doom.

They should’ve brought in Michael B. Jordan. After the hilarious misdirect of Chris Evans reprising his role as Johnny Storm, it would’ve been so funny to see Michael B. Jordan coming in and you hear the Wakanda theme and you’re not sure if he’s playing his Johnny Storm and it’s another misdirect or if he’s actually a Killmonger variant. I just think it would’ve been funny.

[what-eats-owls]

As promised, the FAQ for The Fallow Year! Text version below cut:

How does the math work?

For non-math girlies: the more people preorder at independent bookstores, the faster the stories will be released. For the fellow human spreadsheets: imagine two fundraising thermometers, one for preorders overall, and one for indie store preorders. Each one has a goal for first story, second, third, etc., and once one of them clears that goal, the story gets posted. So the first story will be released once we clear either 100 indie preorders, or 200 preorders overall. Fast forward a bit: the seventh story will be released when we clear either 700 cumulative indie preorders, OR 1400 preorders overall.

What qualifies as an independent bookstore?

No big nationwide chains/corporations like Amazon, B&N, Half-Price Books, Waterstones, Target, etc., Small local chains/stores will count. So will Bookshop dot org orders, but most indie stores can and will take online orders and ship to you.

What if we don’t clear all the goals?

That’ll sure be embarrassing for me! But really, if that happens, I’ll release whatever stories we have left…the day before Holy Terrors comes out.

Can you still read HT without reading these?

Yes. TFY previews a couple things that show up in HT, but you can skip them and be fine.

What if I’m waiting for a special edition/it’s not available in my country yet?

That’s okay! I suspect this campaign is going to slow down after the initial flurry, so later preorders will come in handy then.

Is this the only preorder campaign?

It’s too early to talk preorder campaigns with my publishers, but hold onto those receipts!

Is each story in multiple POVs?

One POV per story, and it alternates; about a month passes between each too. Emeric will start us off on the morning of May 1st, then the second story will shift to Vanja in June.

Why AO3?

Low barrier of entry plus ease of use. Anyone can read the posts with or without an account, there’s no character limit, and let’s be real: it’s kind of hilarious.

If you have any other questions, feel free to send them in, and I’ll get to them as I can!

[theanticool]

Wanted to ask ur opinion on the ufc officaily cutting ties with USADA so Conor is allowed to fight at the beginning of the year

Lol. You’ve seen him on the salads. You’ve seen him on the steaks. Now you’re going to see him on the juice.

Dana realized after the Hunt lawsuit he can’t be legally incriminated for juicing and found another price to cut. It’s so nakedly corrupt and stupid. I don’t like usada and honestly juicing isn’t one of my big issues with the sport but bending on a long held principle because one guy, no matter how popular and profitable, can’t stop using T is fucking hilarious. If I’m a fighter who had to get off TRT back in the day or had to sit out 2-4 years because my ADHD meds were banned, I’d be pissed.

Worth mentioning that the UFC includes USADA with their “fighter expenses” part of their revenue so the percentage that “goes to the fighters” is actually going to go down.

[whattraintracks]

Touch and Go

anti-mutant panic following an alien invasion? who'd've thunk

here comes Mikey looking for some cartoons, or maybe just attention

aww Leatherhead plays along with Mikey's antics

oop and then he gets pissed

"it's his secret mutant power" lol

I'd tell Donnie to be nice but Mikey looks very proud about this

not even five minutes in and everybody's Mikey-bashing

oh gosh April and Casey are fast approaching unbearable territory

Raph is very offended that only Casey was thanked for helping with the shop

what is vegetarian chopped liver? this feels like the kind of inside joke when someone in the group is vegetarian/vegan

Leo trying to imitate Raph (or anyone for that matter) is hilarious (he's not very good at it)

ah the Mssrs Touch and Go I've heard about these guys

focusing makes Mikey hungry

honestly same

Mike is getting verbally and physically pummeled today

Raph talks a big game about being faster than Leo

slight problem

Leo is, in fact, faster than him

20 bucks Leo keeps shouting lame insults (snail boy pfft) behind him after Raph takes off for his shortcut

could be why he's so annoyed when he gets back to the lair and Raph's not there! he's a little embarrassed

"man, I'm good" and "like a boss" and "I'm awesome"

Raphs are their own biggest hype man and I love that for them

he's so polite, he can't not introduce himself

the woman the myth the legend, Mrs. Morrison!

Raph looks so flabbergasted, this is adorable

Mrs. Morrison, who most certainly knows something is up with this kid who has scaley three-fingered hands and a shell, laughs and then slams the door in the angry mob's face

Mikey, who has an idea: gasp! I'm using my brain!

Splinter, concerned, in pain, and skeptical: are you though?

the plan is "fake our deaths"

classic

the animators really wanted you to know that Leo was annoyed about Raph not making it back to the lair

'great. he's in trouble'

cut to Raph having a tea party with an old blind lady and her cat

always hilarious to me when the theme is played after a quip

oh yeah, your theme? the musical motif for the entire show? we also use it to indicate irony about your whole turtle situation

"maybe you could stop by again, Raphael...we'd love to have you"

"really?" 🥺

cries in Good Kid from The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical

(no one asks me, Raphy how'd you like to come round and stay?)

room service~

Mike has such a gremlin laugh

this is the kind of kick-butt Michelangelo content I need in my life

Mikey: dad! dad! I had so many ideas!

Splinter: spirits help us

"832 consecutive days of Chinese take-out!"

this is such a specific number

which means a) Mikey is like me and throws out random numbers for fun (my go-tos are 12 or a string of three to five random digits depending on what seems more appropriate which makes it sound like I know what I'm talking about when I do not)

or b) he did some kind of back-of-the-envelope math by counting out enough of the money and knowing the price of their usual Chinese take-out order to make a solid estimate

[ilove-masked-men]

141 WIZARDING AU????? Yes

A/n: thanks to my friend for talking about Harry Potter and making me think of this on call

GAZ ~

He REEKS if Ravenclaw if you disagree argue with a WALL

He's friends with everyone from everywhere but he doesn't get into a lot of trouble just keeps his head down and works but not in a nerdy way

Got asked to the yule ball like five times be fr , went with someone who nobody expected

Lost his virginity on the yule ball night aswel like PLEASE

PRICE ~

Works for Griffindor house but is the Forbidden Forest keeper in his lil shack

Everyone loves him , if you hate him you get shunned by the whole student body

On Halloween he puts a bucket outside his shack gull of candy with a note saying 'take one'

Loves tea (felt I needed to say this)

He went with the executive head of school to the yule ball (as friends he says ((deffo secretly in live with her uts so obvious))

SOAP ~

My man SCREAMS hufflepuff LIKE BRO

He barely passed his tests let's be real , copied off everyone next to him

Everyone likes him, teachers hate him, price thinks he's hilarious

He got asked a few times to the yule ball but went with Ghost (no not as friends)

GHOST ~

I can't decide whether he's Griffindor or Slytherin... or Ravenclaw for that matter... IDK HE'S ONE OF THE ABOVE

Passed with super high grades, would study with Soap and Gaz , soap did bollocks but Gaz and Ghost got good notes in and Soao quickly scribbled to copy them

Will sneak out to talk to Price without the group every now and then because he likes the calmness in his voice

Surprisingly got asked to the yule ball by one of the most popular girls and didn't know what to say (soap spoke for him)

Shot glares to anyone who looked at him or soap weirdly

MINI FIC OF THIS IDEA v

Ghost, Gaz and Soap all had letters in their hands, talking as they made their way across the lawn, passed the whomping willow and to Price's hut.

"You got em? C'mon open 'er up!" Price spoke as the three walked in. They were getting their grades for this year.

Soap hesitantly opened the letter and pulled out the sheet inside. "Uh... uh... oh my god! C's and a B-! I passed!" Soap said with a relieved sigh.

"Really? Good job mate." Ghost was quick to applaud as he opened his sheet. "I got B's and A's." He said with a small smile.

"Uh- gosh- I'm scared.." Gaz said with a gulp as he opened his and his eyes scanned the sheet. "No way... all A's! A few minuses but their still A's." He said with a smile.

"Those 're me boys!" He said high-fiving them all and chuckling. "Now, what's goo'in on eith yous lot and tha yule ball?" He asked eagerly.

"I'm going with Ghost!" Soap quickly chimed and chuckled leaning his head on his shoulder.

"I'm going with Luna." Gaz told him with a small grin. "Lovegood." He added.

"You better not abandon us." Ghost said with a chuckle playfully.

"I might.." He muttered with a blush.