#i also have duplicates of a number of books

[rahleeyah]

Took a little tour of our bookshelves, and determined that we have 297 books in the living room. A number of them I purchased secondhand, or took from my parents' library - my mother's copies of the Louisa May Alcott books being especially dear to my heart and not especially sentimental to my father, for example - and on impulse I opened a number of the older looking ones to see which one is the oldest. So far the award goes to a copy of Rebecca that was published in 1938 and bears the stamp of two different high schools back home, one of which closed down in the 70s. I can't say for sure but I think my father may have liberated that one from the high school where he used to teach.

[fingertipsmp3]

If anyone here keeps a reading/book journal what do you dooo. I feel like I’ve tried multiple options and none of them have really been perfect

[georgescitadel]

I often get the question, “How do you write women?” or “How do you write a dwarf?” Some of that can be resolved by research or talking to people. I had a correspondence with a fan when I was writing the first and second books, long ago, who was a paraplegic, paralyzed from the waist down, and he gave me a lot of valuable insight about how to write Bran and what it would be like. That kind of information from other people, you can never duplicate.

- George R.R. Martin, Ideas At The House (2013)

There are things we all go through, but there are experiences that I haven't had, and when I'm writing about one of those, I try to talk to people who have had that experience. When I first had Bran crippled by his fall from the tower, I had one fan who was paraplegic, and he and I exchanged a number of emails about what it was like to be paraplegic because I could try to imagine that, but I don't actually know it. When I wrote the scene where Sansa has her first period, I talked to a number of women and asked, “What was it like to have your first period? Was it scary? Was it nothing? Was it painful? Tell me about it!” I got about 16 different stories that varied very widely. People who have actually been in combat, I talk to before the combat scenes, and that too varies widely. That's sort of interesting, and, of course, I've read a lot about that. There are some experiences that only women have had in our society, and when I tackle them, I try to consult with women.

- George R.R. Martin, NIFFF Masterclass (2014)

You do have to research the things that can be researched, and sometimes that involves books; sometimes it actually involves talking to people. Those are the trickiest things, if it's a human experience. I'll give you a couple of examples from Game of Thrones. When Bran gets thrown out the window and paralyzed. I'm not paralyzed, I don't have any close friends who are paralyzed, but I wanted to try to get that as accurate as I could, so I did a fair amount of reading about that. I also had a couple of fans who corresponded with me through email about the problems of someone who was paralyzed from the waist down and what it would be like. I also have a scene where Sansa, who is engaged to Joffrey but hasn't flowered yet—hasn't had her first period—so she can't be married by the traditions of Westeros, then has it and is eligible, by medieval standards as well as the standards of Westeros, to be bedded and wedded and bred. Of course, she reacts to that with considerable panic. But I also wanted to know what it is like, and that led to a number of embarrassing conversations with women I knew about: “When did you have your first period? What was it like? Was it painful? Tell me about it!” What I discovered was a wide variety of different stories. It's not always the same thing, so I had to try to make sense of that and do something that had authentic truth to it. Hopefully, I did, but human experience is variable. No matter how much you research, there will be somebody out there who had a different experience, and then they'll write you an annoyed email saying, “You got that all wrong. You don't know anything about that.” Well… okay. But I tried.

- George R.R. Martin, Author Event Series: Featuring Marlon James (2019)

[arkadijxpancakes]

Yes. The Weasleys had too many kids. An analysis. (Part 1 of 2)

Everyone who read Harry Potter read about the prejudices regarding the Weasleys: They all have red hair, are poor and have more kids than they can afford. Insert a sneering Malfoy here.

The books were adamant that that was not the case. The Weasleys are depicted as the best family in the books. (Just look at the others. The Dursleys were narrow-minded, bigoted and abusive. The Malfoys were bigoted terrorists. The Lovegoods were weird. Let’s not even start about Merope and Riddle.)

However, if you look closer, the prejudices have some truth to them: They had more kids than they could afford. However, money isn’t the issue here, not really.

Yes, the Weasleys are clearly depicted as members of the working class. They don’t have much money and fall back on second-hand stuff a lot of the time. Ron in particular is shown to be using hand-me-downs in book one.

However, they don’t live in abject poverty. The family owns their own home on their own land. They have a garden to grow their own vegetables and they have chickens. This means that food scarcity shouldn’t be a big issue for them, because they can produce a lot of it on their own. (Magic should make this even easier, because they can use it for the gardening stuff. And if we assume that you can duplicate food, this should keep everyone well-fed.)

The main issue when it comes to money isn’t that they don’t have anything. They have clearly enough money to stay comfortably over water. They just don’t have enough money to buy all the fancy shit the wizarding world uses as status symbols. (Like racing brooms and dress robes.)

Could things be better, money-wise? Sure. But one can have a loving, comfortable childhood, even with second-hand clothes and working class food. So no. It’s not about the money.

It’s about time. 

And it's also about how the parents divide that time (and the work that comes along with it.)

The Weasleys follow a family structure one would expect from a muggle family of their time (the second half of the 20th century): Arthur is the one who goes out to work and earns money, while his wife Molly is a stay-at-home-mother who takes care of their home and kids. It’s also just their nuclear family that lives in the burrow. There are no other relatives (no grandparents and no aunts or uncles, either) living there.

I find this a little bit weird, tbh. The nuclear family (parents and kids) living alone, without any other relatives and with the father as the sole breadwinner, is a pretty new development. The practice only really established itself after the Statute of Secrecy went into effect. It developed first in the upper classes (who used this to flaunt their wealth) and in urban centers (where there was no space to live together with your extended family.) Before this, living with one's extended family was very common, especially in rural areas, where it was beneficial to stick together. The Weasley’s don’t really have a reason to live as a nuclear family. There is no need for wizards to follow the Muggle trend, and things were different before the statute. Living with other, adult family members would also be beneficial, especially for Molly. And the books do suggest that the extended family is quite large, so “They don’t live with other relatives, because they don’t have any” doesn’t fit their situation either.

This is a common theme for Rowling, by the way. She tends to ignore the extended families of her characters, whenever it is possible. The numbers of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that get mentioned in the book is incredibly low. (The only character who seems to have close connections to his extended family is Neville – and that’s because the other members of his nuclear family are completely absent because of health reasons.)

Anyway. When we look back at the Weasleys, this leaves Molly basically as a tradwife. (Minus the religious baggage.) But let's start at the beginning. 

(Note: I will focus on the books in this. I don’t consider the games canon and will not use them as a source.) Arthur and Molly were born around 1950. We know that he went to Hogwarts from 1961 to 1968. They were close enough in age to start a relationship while still at Hogwarts, and they married shortly after graduating. For this to work, she must have been in his year or maybe the year below or above.

Bill was born in 1970 and was followed by six siblings, the last who was born in 1981. So from the age of ca. 20 to the age of ca. 33 Molly was either pregnant or nursing at least one baby at any given time. (There might have been a short break in that pattern between Charlie and Percy, but it only got worse after that.)

As I said before, Molly and Arthur seem to have a very traditional division of labor between them: He works at the ministry and earns money, she takes care of their home and kids. This means that Molly has drawn the short end of the stick.

While Arthur is working one job 9-5, Molly has to work three jobs and at least one of them is 24/7. Let’s pick them apart:

Her first job is to take care of the home. Molly cleans the house and does the laundry. It is also very likely that she is not only responsible for cooking, but for food production in general. This means that she takes care of the garden and chickens. This would be pretty exhausting, if not for her magic. She can likely cut down on time and effort by using magic for most of those tasks.

On top of this, she is also producing at least some of the clothing her family wears. We don't see her sewing, but she knits a lot. She is using magic for that, too.

Her second job is to raise their kids. Molly is their primary caregiver and does most of the parenting. This is a difficult job to begin with, but there are seven of them. This is where her workload starts to stretch her thin. It can’t be easy to do the laundry, while Ginny needs to be fed, Bill and Charlie are arguing in the backyard, and the twins have just vanished. Magic is less helpful here, because a lot of the work requires her to interact with her kids. She can’t really flick her wand to speed that up.

On top of that - and this is where things get even worse - there doesn't seem to be any kind of elementary school in Wizarding Great Britain. At the very least, the books do not mention any form of primary education and Hogwarts seems to be Ron’s first school. But Hogwarts still requires its students to be able to read, write and do math. Having some education about the Wizarding World couldn’t hurt, either.

However, someone has to teach the kids. And this someone is probably Molly, because Arthur is at work, and they don’t have the money for a private tutor. They cant sent their kids to an elementary school, because there is none. (And they obviously did not send them to a muggle school.) 

So this is her third job. This is another job she can’t really speed up with magic, because she can’t hex the knowledge into her kids’ brains. (Or at least I hope she can’t, because everything else would be disturbing.)

This means Molly has to take care of their home, produce their food, take care of their kids and teach them elementary school-stuff. All while being pregnant and/or nursing for circa 13 years straight.

Her workload just isn’t doable for a single person. It might have started off okay, when she only had Bill and Charlie, and it probably got better once most kids had left the house to study at Hogwarts. But the years in between must have been hell. And she did not really have any help to do it.

Arthur was off to work most days and seems to spend quite a lot of time on his hobby. Additionally, he just doesn’t seem to be all that involved as a father and seems to take care mostly of the fun stuff. 

His parenting style is much more relaxed than Molly’s, too. He’s probably the parent the kids go to when they want to do something their mother would say no to. This, of course, makes parenting even harder for her, because she doesn’t just have to deal with the kids, but also with Arthur’s parenting decisions. There are no other adult family members around to help her, either. They also don’t have the money to hire help. (No wonder Molly dreamed of having her own slave house elf. It would have allowed her to drastically reduce her workload. It’s a really disgusting wish, but I understand where it comes from.)

This is where the family dynamics probably took their first severe hit: It’s very likely that Molly’s workload left her with more work than she was able to do consistently. Whether Arthur pulled his weight in that regard is questionable (and he was at work for most of the day anyway.) She also had no other adults to help her, so she probably offloaded her workload elsewhere: her kids.

Yes. I think it is very likely that the Weasleys parentified their kids, especially Bill, Charlie and Percy. We don’t see it with Bill and Charlie, probably because they had already left the house when Harry meets the family. Still, it’s a little weird that both of them went to live so far away from home. Yes, sure, exploring tombs in Egypt and taming dragons in Romania is fun and exciting in and off itself – but being so far away from home that mom can’t rope you into household chores and babysitting duty is probably a really nice bonus. It would also relax their familial relationships quite a bit, because moving away gives them control over when and how they want to engage. (And it’s probably easier to be the fun big brother to your younger siblings when you aren’t required to watch and control them every day.)

We do see it with Percy, however. He looks after and take responsibility for his younger siblings a lot, especially at Hogwarts. You can see it in the way he looks after Ginny and how he’s constantly at odds with Fred and George because they refuse to follow any rules.

Fuck, he still does this after the big row with his father. Yes, the letter he sends to Ron is pretty obnoxious, but he still wrote it. He did not need to. At that point he had cut all contact, after all. He clearly cared for his younger brother and wanted to look out for him, even if he did it in the most annoying way possible. It would be interesting to know whether he also wrote to Ginny or the twins or not.

Also, did I mention that the Weasleys have too many kids?

They have too many kids.

It’s a numbers game, really. The more kids you have, the more time you have to use for household chores (you need to clean more, wash more, cook more, etc.) You also have less time to spend time with each kid individually. This is especially true for quality time – so time that isn’t spent on chores or education. Time that is spent playing and talking with each other, just to enjoy each other's company.

Molly is already working three jobs. She doesn’t really have any opportunity to spend time with her kids equally. She’s too busy looking after the home and teaching the older ones, while watching the younger ones and making sure the twins don’t burn the house down. 

I just don’t see her spending quality time with her kids regularly, because of this. It’s just difficult to talk with Charlie about his favorite dragons or read something to Percy or to play with Ron, when there is always someone else who needs her more. Full diapers. Empty stomachs. Unyielding stains of unknown origin on Arthur's work robes. A sudden explosion on the second floor. And probably everything at the same time and all the time.

So yeah. Chances are that her attention and her affection can be pretty hard to come by at times. (To a certain degree, this also applies to Arthur, because he is away from home so much.)

Let’s look at the timeline.

It probably starts pretty harmless:

1970 - Bill is born, and he’s the only kid for two years. Yeah, it’s Molly’s first child, and she is a really young mother, but she is a stay-at-home-mum, and it’s just one kid. It’s mostly her and Bill who are at home, and her workload isn’t all that big, because she can use magic for most stuff. The war has started, but it probably hasn’t kicked into overdrive just yet, so this shouldn’t affect her too much either.

1972 – Charlie is born. Molly’s workload is expanding, but things should still be pretty manageable. Also, they don’t have another kid for almost four years. This allows Molly to adjust to caring for two kids. She can also relax from both pregnancies and births. If it wasn’t for the war, this might be her favorite years as a mother.

When Arthur is involved in parenting Bill and Charlie, it’s probably on the weekends. I can imagine him taking them out to do fun stuff, so their mother can get some rest. It’s probably a great time for him, because he can bond with his boys. I can’t see him do much more than that, though. Molly has a handle on things, and interfering could be seen as overstepping.

1976 – Percy is born. This is probably the moment, where the attention-distribution in the family gets a little bit wonky. Molly has three kids now, and it’s the middle of the war. Bill is almost six, which means that she has to start teaching him, while simultaneously nursing Percy and keeping Charlie entertained/away from trouble. This is probably still manageable. She can wait a little longer with teaching Bill, so she can teach him and Charlie together. She can also hand him (and maybe Charlie) over to Arthur, so he can teach him/them on weekends.

Additionally, Arthur is probably still taking Bill and Charlie out for some bonding-fun-time. However, the war is in full swing now, so leaving the house gets increasingly dangerous. Their trips will get shorter and stay closer to home. They will happen less frequently, too. He will also end up working more because of the war, doing overtime much more frequently. When he is home, he is going to be exhausted, as a result.

1978 – Fred and George are born. The attention-distribution in the family falls off a cliff.

This is when Molly's workload starts to become overwhelming. Charlie will be 6 at the end of the year, Bill will be 8. She has to start teaching them, if she hasn’t already. Otherwise, Bill will not be ready when he starts Hogwarts.

And on top of everything, Molly has to take care of the twins. She has to do everything that needs to be done for a newborn – times two.

So her workload explodes. Molly is raising five kids, now. She needs to educate Bill and Charlie, nurse Fred and George, and has to make sure Percy doesn’t fall to the wayside completely. She also has her household chores that aren’t related to her kids. The war is still raging on. Arthur is probably tied up at work most of the time, and when he is home, he’s exhausted. And Molly will be pregnant again in a year. (Really, why do they have so many kids during a war? One or two, I would understand, but this is getting irresponsible.)

This is probably the time when Bill has to take over at least some chores, not just to learn how to do them, but to take some pressure off of his mother. This might not be parentification yet, but it will get worse over time. I assume he has to look after his younger brothers a lot.

On top of all that, it is increasingly hard to shield the kids from the war. At least Bill and Charlie are old enough to understand that things are really, really wrong and scary. And there is not much Molly can do about it.

1980 - Ron is born. The twins are already old enough to open cupboards. Molly is not having a great time. She probably hands over Percy to Bill and Charlie (“Go, play with your little brother!”), so she can take care of baby Ron while keeping an eye on the twin shaped chaos that is growing by the day. She will be pregnant again in a couple of months.

Bill (who will be 10 at the end of the year) and Charlie (8) still require teaching. Percy (4) isn’t old enough just yet, but he will be, soon. (And, let’s face it: It’s Percy. Chances are that he wants to learn, even now.)

The war is still in full swing. Arthur is still overworked and underpaid. Everyone is tired and scared. This also affects the kids. There is probably a lot of pressure on Bill as the oldest brother to watch over his younger siblings, to make sure all of them stay safe. They don’t spend much time outside their home, because it’s just too dangerous to do so.

Around 1980/81 is also the time when Molly’s brothers Fabian and Gideon die. (Gideon can be seen in the photograph that was taken of the Order before James and Lily went into hiding, so he was still alive back then. But we know that he dies soon after the photograph was taken.) Molly never talks about her brothers in canon, but this must have been horrible for her.

1981 – Ginny is born. They are seven kids now. Fabian and Gideon will be dead by the end of the year (if they aren’t already.) Molly’s workload is at its peak, while her ability to pay equal amounts of attention to her kids is at an all-time low. She’s grieving, the rest of her family is in danger, and Arthur is stuck at the ministry. This means that she will likely lean on Bill’s support even more. As Charlie is 8 now (and will be 9 at the end of the year), Molly might consider him old enough to help, so he might see an increase in responsibility, too. At this point, we are in parentification-territory.

With each day, the twins grow more into the troublemakers we see in canon. This sucks away attention and affection from their siblings (simply because they need to be watched and disciplined).

I think the following years are very formative for the family dynamics between the kids. It’s probably less pronounced for Bill and Charlie (who are stuck with chores and babysitting-duty and will leave for Hogwarts soon-ish) and Ginny (who gets more attention because she is the youngest child and only girl). It’s worse for the others. Percy, Fred, George and Ron are basically in direct competition for their mother's attention. I think the dynamic develops as follows:

Fred and George are active and pretty extroverted. They explore a lot and start to play pranks on their family members. This is overall harmless, but Molly has to pay attention to them, to make sure that no one accidentally gets hurt. From this, the twins learn that they can get Molly’s attention by causing trouble, so they will lean into it even more.

This sucks away attention from Percy and Ron. It causes Percy to veer hard into the opposite direction: He tries to gain Molly’s attention by following all her rules and fulfilling her wishes. This earns him her affection and will turn him into her golden child in the long run. It will also put a strain on his relationship with the twins, because Molly compares them a lot, especially when angry. This will cause Percy to perform the “Good boy”-role even harder (because he doesn’t want to be treated like the twins), while they start to resent him on some level.

Ron on the other hand is still too young to affect the family dynamic on his own. He internalizes that his mother cares more about his siblings and that there is nothing he can do about it.

The only good news: At the end of the year, the war ends. This will bring a lot of relief. (It’s short term relief for now, things will need some time to go back to normal.)

However, the end of the war also means, that Percy gets a pet. Either late in 1981 or early in 1982 he (or another member of the family) finds a rat that is missing a finger on its front paw. Percy keeps him and calls him Scabbers.

We all know who Scabbers is, of course. I just want to highlight how fucked up this situation is. Percy is 5, when he adopts him. Because he was a little kid, he probably took him everywhere without a second thought – into the bathroom, into his bed, you know, everywhere. There is probably no part of Percy’s body Scabbers hasn’t seen. Percy probably told him everything, too, all his worries, all of his fears. It’s just creepy.

And keep in mind, Scabbers – Peter – is not just a random wizard. He is a Death Eater and mass murderer. We don’t know if he ever hurt Percy (there are fanfics that do explore that possibility). He probably didn’t, but the idea alone is nightmare fuel.

To get this back on track: This could have impacted the sibling-relationship, too. It depends on whether the other kids were allowed to keep pets.

With that, we are done with the war and with Molly’s time being pregnant. The family dynamic is already fucked up – and it will get worse, as the kids get older. However, this post is long enough, already. So we’ll take a break here. Next time, we will look at how the dynamics shift, once the kids start to go to Hogwarts. See ya!

[noirscript]

call avoidance.

Yandere Hotline: 3/?

featuring: implied drugging. implied tresspassing. lots of male masturbation. unsolicited phone sex (?). implied kidnapping. AFAB!Reader (yan calling reader mommy)

note: this is written while half-asleep. not edited. brain go brrr. i'll add the src some time.

Dealing with mad people can drive anyone insane. But if you're given a hefty sum to keep the insane ones company, you'll take. Life is tough, but you can choose your own hell.

"Got you some drink. Your favorite flavor," Heidi, your 'neighbor' in cubicle, said cheerfully as she placed the drink and sandwich on your spot.

"Well, who are we kidding." You shook your head before placing the plastic cup in your trash bin along with the tasty sandwich that came with it. "They're really persistent, you know?"

You smiled sheepishly as you arrange your cubicle to start a new day. Unlike your workmates, your place is quite neat and devoid of anything that would identify that spot as yours.

No personal images pinned on the corkboard. Not even a framed picture of whoever inspires you to get up and work hard without becoming insane yourself.

Upon accepting the job offer, you made sure to draw the most visible line to keep your personal life to yourself. You've heard some stories—some myths—about some agents disappearing without any trace overnight. Like they never existed in the first place.

"I hope they fuck off, you know?" You sighed before putting on your noise-cancelling headphones. "May we survive this shift," you grumbled as you wait for the first call with baited breath.

You have frequent customers. Most of them were pleasant to talk to. Let's just say that they're not exactly the dangerous type of callers. Those type clients were, most likely, drawn to the idea of being a 'yandere' as a fantasy. Sometimes, there's a hint of sexualization.

Almost every person on the floor are taking calls. Including you. However, your gut's been telling you to ignore the call. Maybe it's one of those unhinged callers who believes that you're theirs. Like they own you and all of your time.

You still have some available credits for call avoidance since you rarely used your credits. Surely, this one call will not affect your performance rating.

While waiting for the phone to stop ringing, you decided to clean up your work email. Being bombarded with useless newsletters about food and books on sale is the worse. Not only does it make your inbox crowded, it's also spammy.

You were fightung the urge to just select all and delete everything at once when you suddenly heard a notification. One after another.

One from your email, another one from your messaging app, and lastly—from the internal chatroom.

You opened the email with an attachment. It was a blank email but as soon as the preview for the attachment appeared, you almost gagged.

It was an image of a man's cock. There were translucent liquid splattered everywhere while the tip of his dick is on a cup—filled to the brim with iced coffee with foamy top. Your favorite.

Your hands were shaking as you exit the window of the website. You clicked the messaging app first. 'Perhaps it was just a promotional message from one of those companies.'

But no.

It was a message from a private number. You don't have any idea how they did it, but they kept sending you images. Most of them were blurry, but the ones with better quality almost made you vomit.

It was taken in a small room. At first, the room was dark, but eventually the image light up. His face was blurred, but you could clearly see what he was doing.

He was fucking your pillow. The one you've been using since you've moved in a better place with better security.

You were confused. And scared.

How could he easily enter your place? Your keys are with you and only the management has access to other duplicates.

"No way..." you whispered as you close the messaging app's window.

One bomb was dropped after another. And you knew something's off.

[NOTICE OF TERMINATION]

Due to multiple reports of call avoidance and drop calls, the management has decided to relieve you from your position as an agent effective immediately.

As we value your well-being, rest assured that you will be receiving your full payment for the next three months along with the other benefits that the company has sworn to provide you.

We sincerely appreciate your efforts for the last three years. We wish you all the best from this day forward.

You were devastated, yet relieved upon reading the letter. You've been wanting to receive this for months. It was the only way out of this place and this industry. You've also managed to save up a lot that you can start fresh somewhere. Far from this place.

Another phone call managed to bypass the automatic system of the place. You took a deep breath before accepting the call.

"Hello?"

"I can't... wait... haah..." the man on the line was clearly doing himself. By the eay he sounds, he's probably close. "We'll move to a big house... haah... hngg... a baby, a babyyy... nhnn... come home..."

Your eyes widened upon hearing your name. Not the screen name you gave them, but your legal full name.

"Let me... hngg... make you a mommy... d'you want that, huh?" You could a wet sloppy noises in the background. "Tiny baby... sucking on your tits... while I make a mess out of you?"

"Ap—"

"No need for... apologies..." he was breathing heavily. "I'll see you soon, okay?

"Heimdall."

He chuckled. "That's me, my princess... took you long enough to say my name."

"How did you get into my house?" you asked while gritting your teeth.

"Patience, my love. We could talk all about it once you're home. Should I get you something to eat? Chicken? Cake? Sandwich? Coffee?"

"I'm done with you."

You immediately pressed the end call button before gathering your things and left. Not even a farewell to your friends.

But there's something you should probably know.

Heidi can't wait to be an aunt and to be your sister-in-law!

[ichimerapunk]

Scene/ part of a story idea I want to put into a fanfic somewhere at some point

So, Danny had been staying with the Waynes. One evening without warning the GIW show up and managed to brute force their way into the manor and past Alfred just long enough to take down Danny and take off with him into one of several white vans of theirs.

The Bats, who had just left for their nightly patrol, give chase. However right before they catch up to the vans booking it out of Gotham, an 18 wheeler pulls out in front of the vans blocking their way. As several of agents pile out to confront the driver (and then pull out their guns when the truck is empty), they don’t automatically notice as the agents that were in the van containing Danny are yeeted out of the vehicle, unconscious.

The remaining agents turn in time to see what appears to be Danny being carried off by another ghost. The remaining agents pile into the remaining vans and take off down a side road to follow them. Jason and Dick are ordered to follow them. At the same time the doors of the remaining van close and Dan behind the wheel takes off.

With Sam giving directions over comms and Tucker manipulating traffic lights Dan intentionally gets as many cops as possible on his tail, driving the van just how his dad taught him in the GAV. The cops are quickly joined by Tim on his bike. During the chase Barbara manages to hack into the signals of whoever had been changing the lights and, through abnormal static, heard several voices coordinating their every move. After catching the attention of enough cops, Dan, while evading but not losing them, books it towards where the remaining vans are still chasing who they think is Danny. Dan catches up to them under an underpass/ short tunnel and uses a brief moment of being obscured by the police to wedge himself in amongst them. [Basically, take the opening chase scene from Baby Driver for the most part; I’m unashamedly taking inspiration from that.]

The vans are all unmarked and have tinted windows. The police have no way of quickly discerning which van they had been chasing down and so the now large number of police surround and forcibly stop all them. (Enjoy getting tied up with that mess for a while, agents.) As they are being stopped, Tim jumps off his bike and runs to the one he knows Danny was in only to just in time see someone that looked like Danny, but had long hair and eyes that turned from blue to red, disappear without a trace.

Above them, the two fleeing figures also disappear. Dani/Ellie* had been dressed as Danny and had been carried by a Dan duplicate. Back near where the chaos happened, Jazz slips out of her hiding spot in the shadows struggling with an unconscious and injured Danny. As soon as she slips out of her hiding spot, Batman appears having not been fooled by the distractions.  

…

That’s the basic rough idea of it. I don’t know if this scene sounds at all as epic and cool as I imagine it to be. I think hope it could actually be pretty cool if I can manage to write an action scene.

*Not sure which I would go with in the story

[ametunns]

The secrets of the Machine are a little underestimated.

This is a place for posters, I don't argue. But all these events take place after BATDR, before the start of B3NDY, some kind of last grandiose Meatly project,

after which the Bendy franchise will canonically close and we will be expected... different ways from this story.

Just like in the last time, I want to talk about the"Secrets of the Machine as the outline of the future world". It's more of a discussion about how the game itself reflects how the Bendy game can changing and how priorities can be set.

I don't think I'm saying anything new, but I was just curious to think about it. Enjoy reading!

||| Collecting parts before analyzing "Secrets of the Machine" >>>

Before I go into how Secrets of the Machine relates to all the latest projects, I need to show some of the things that will be reflected in the teaser game.

Remember the post from Meatly about "Bendy is like BATDR but like BATIM, and it will be in B3NDY". I'll add to that:

Some of Meatly's posts that somehow touch on B3NDY,

Announcement of the book "Silver Screams" with the status "non-canonicity of books",

cucumber pickle on April 1st (as strange as it may sound ik I'm fine believe me)

And I'll try to put it all together-

| • The Meatly's posts >>>

*"Either he has difficulties in tying all his desires together, or he is burnt out from the number of projects on his shoulders" - this is the first thing that came to mind at that moment. But now is not the time for this-

----

Bendy will receive new changes in B3NDY, but keeping the atmosphere of BATIM and taking into account the experience from BATDR to create a new approach in the design of the atmosphere.

---

---

Considering that the game literally has ink sewers and train tunnels, the Gent Corporation could easily create something like that under their organization. It could be a warehouse, archives, places for experimenting on people or trying to create "their own cycle", as noted in the book by Alan Gray himself...Wilson clearly got help from this book for many things.

I'm not even talking about creating a dictatorship, but I want to note!- do you remember the ritual things in Joey's office FROM THE CYCLE? What stopped him from taking these duplicates to start changing the Cycle from the inside, and not taking the real objects that could be under supervision? He got them only for Audrey and a wonderful coffee break also under the Arch Gate studio and in Wilson's personal lab. Again these repetitions "lower and lower"-

And the shaft... I remembered one small detail from the Cage teaser - something similar to a shovel, while we have a very heavy enemy in armor in front of us.

There will be new characters, but the focus will still be on those who have long been familiar.

---

---

By the end of B3NDY, the future of the franchise may move away from the horror theme, which, as it seems to me, could give new life, new breath to the Bendy games (or they will develop all the April jokes, who knows: a bazooka and dynamite are already lying in BATDR)

---

Now let's turn to "Secrets of the Machine", which showed us the next:

The atmosphere of the game sets a new tone from the very beginning: the emptiness of space, in the middle of which there is only an old house and a metal arch that turns on the light with the sound of cold metal. You just don’t know what this secret is, but you keep going, going deeper into the darkness and you notice the world’s attempts to return its details like coffins, pentagrams, things... You notice that the house is bigger inside than outside; Riley’s story doesn’t look like a monologue of a tape, not like some kind of note, but like really being in the role of this girl. And at the same time preserving the color palette and quite directly, without strong guesses, to understand this story. Nothing prevents them from repeating something like this in B3NDY or The Cage;

Bendy can be summoned, although before that it was necessary to either break the cardboard or just hope for a unexpectedness. Changes in character after talking to Audrey..?/...Gent?

New characters like the old cartoon character and the mannequin. They are minor roles, but it is possible to add some story to them too.

'Silent City' teasers suggest new directions for Bendy

|| • A new book >>>

The cinema in Secrets of the Machine can be considered as a premise for a Bendy movie/book. But let's be honest, that sounds very far-fetched.

It's easier to believe that the screen is simply a part of Bendy's world; an element that will sooner or later become a reality, either in the imagination ("Fade to Black") or in reality, all the while continuing to use technology and scientific advances.

The screen in Secrets of the Machine shows Gent's involvement. Yes, this was already made clear to us by the ending of BATDR, when all the real objects and the Machine were finally transferred to the corporation.

And the teaser itself for B3NDY, as you can see, is connected with the theme of the laboratory and research.

And the appearance of Nightmare Taxi, Riley's voluntary departure to Gent (oh yes, her depressed blood for the entire ink machine at the very beginning) - that't all can only give prerequisites for what the corporation is capable of.

||| • A joke, but I haven't found it funny anymore.

The cucumber pickle again showed colors like green and red. In BATIM, we only saw color in Drew's apartment, but with BATDR colors appeared in general. But you know...

There is a box in the Secrets of the Machine. With a questions. And for many efforts, you just get nothing.-

But in the cucumber joke, the doors are always open. Because at least somewhere there should be a "joke" in a place where there are vegetables and water from words.

And personally, I'm already tired of it.

Just it will BE EASY for newsreel worms to eat quickly spoiling foods. And besides cucumbers, you know who will be the next product...

The human.

Fresh, meatly and canned in tomato sauce

---

Thanks for reading. I hope it was interesting ⭐

[artificial-ascension]

Reading through the wolrds surely most accurate source, Death Note fan wiki, I have accumulated a list of Wammys kid letters that are confirmed in some source to have an individual associated:

A- First successor of L, dead by suicide, mentioned in Death Note: Another Note

B- Beyond Birthday, number two of the first known successors behind A and a main character of Death Note: Another Note

D- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

E- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

F- Appears in the opening of L: Change The World film on a massion for L, dies via helicopter attack*

G- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

H- Sends L an email informing him of F's death in L: Change The World

I- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

J- Appears in the game L: The Prologue To Death Note, the game is unavailable in English so little is know of them, presumably a Wammys kid based on name, a separate J appears in the second episode of Death Note: A New Generation, she is not out right stated to be a Wammys kid, but she is assumed to be

K- Antagonist of L: Change The World book and film

L- If you do not know who L is why are you here, also Linda is a child who appears briefly in the manga and is responsible for the drawings of Near and Mello (I belive that is only presumed but I may be wrong, I can not remember where it was said)

M- Mello, second successor of generation four and a main antagonist of Death Note's main series and Matt, unranked member of generation four appearing as Mello's comrade in both anime amd manga

N- Near, successor of L and number one of generation four, appears in half the places L dose

P- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

Q- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

R- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead**

T- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead

V- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead

X- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Y- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Z- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Unused letters- C, O, S, T, U, W***, possibly J as both instances of the usage are for individuals only presumed to be successors

Letters with known duplicates- L and M, J(?)

------

Conclusion:

1. L: Change The World introduced a shit ton of Wammys lore for apparently shits and giggles.

2. Alot less dead Wammys kids than I expected. (Only 9/24, that's only over a third. Maybe 10/24 if you count Watari.)

3. I can understand not finding a U or V, but how the hell were there no genius orphans with S or C names??

4. It is impossible for a Death Note title to not have a : in it.

------

Notes:

I got this information from the fan wiki and my brain. If it is wrong I'd like to know. I'd also love to hear of any more orphans the fan wiki or I missed.

------

*I can verify that that happened. I remember it vividly. Only known Wammys kid to die from a helicopter.

**A greyed name implies death as B's name was also greyed out. However, this also implies L could readily email B whenever he wanted, which is extremely funny.

***W is often totoed as Watari's letter. However, I am not considering him a Wammys kid but this may mean some of the letters shown do not indicate successors but rather other Wammys higher ups.

[diana-fortyseven]

Yuletide Reading Bingo

The 2024 Yuletide collection is about to be revealed, and many of us love to read more than just our own gifts and treats.

If gamification is your thing, why not enhance your Yuletide reading experience with a fun challenge?

Yuletide Reading Bingo Yuletide Reading Bingo 2024 (permanent link to the 2024 version) Yuletide Reading Bingo 2023 (permanent link to the 2023 version)

With this bingo card generator, you can generate your own Yuletide Reading Bingo Card and try to finish it over a timespan of your choice. If you like, you can challenge yourself to not only reading the fics, but also commenting on them. Last year, I saw people making reclists based on their bingo cards, which is such a cool idea to keep track of the fics they read for each square.

There are no fanfic/fandom/Yuletide-negative or bashing items in the lists. This bingo card is meant to be a positive experience and celebrate fanfiction and fanworks in general and Yuletide in specific.

Details and screenshot of the mobile version under the cut!

Have a lovely Yuletide and a happy Hanukkah or merry Christmas if you celebrate. <3

How to Play

Generate a new bingo card until you're (mostly) happy with the results. If some fields are duplicates or contain items you don't want to have in your card, you can then re-roll every single bingo field separately by clicking/tapping on it. Once you have a card that fits your reading habits (or that takes you out of your comfort zone, if you want to challenge yourself), take a screenshot of the card to keep it.

Closing the page and reloading it will reset the card.

Cross off the bingo fields on your screenshot as you read (or read and comment on) fics that you think count for a field.

Items like "Fandom with over 500 works" mean works in the fandom tag, not in the collection. There are specific versions for the number of works in the collection. Items like "Fandom with over 1,000 works" doesn't mean qualifying works. There are specific versions for the number of qualifying works. Items like "Highest number of hits in fandom" or similar however mean in this collection, not in the fandom tag.

If a work you read has a tag that's similar but not identical to a tag on your card, let it count. There were some almost-duplicates that I trimmed.

The Lists

Canon (options like canon released this year, book fandom, etc)

Category (the AO3 categories and their platonic versions: F/F, F & F Gen, etc)

Challenge (the unofficial mini-challenges like Yuleporn, Crueltide, Wrapping Paper, etc)

Creator (only if you checked the "After Reveals" box; options like favourite author, mutuals, etc)

Discovery (various ways you could've found a fic)

Fandom (options like previously ineligible fandom, uncategorised fandom)

Length (wordcounts from drabble to 30k)

Meta (a fic's front-end and stats, also "citrus scale for rating" xD)

Reader (your relationship with the fic; is it your comfort fic, or your first fic in a fandom?)

Style (chatfic, iambic pentameter, custom workskin, stuff like that)

Tag (roughly 1,800 tags from the 2024 main collection; Madness tags to be added)

Trope (roughly 100 tropes)

What do the Checkboxes Mean?

NSFW is basically what it says on the tin. If you tick this box, the NSFW tropes will be added to the mix. If you also ticked the Tags box, NSFW tags will be added.

Tags is also what it says on the tin. It's a list with currently roughly 1,800 tags from the Yuletide 2024 main collection. Around 270 of them are currently marked NSFW and can only be generated if you ticked both the NSFW box and the Tags box.

After Reveals includes items that only make sense after creator reveals, such as "work by last year's recipient" or "creator is your Tumblr mutual".

Leaving the NSFW checkbox unchecked should remove all NSFW tags and tropes, but you could still come across content you find objectionable. Leaving the Tags checkbox unchecked removes all tags, but you could still come across tropes you find objectionable.

This bingo generator can be used to generate totally safe-for-work or family-friendly bingo cards, but it was created by an adult with an adult audience in mind.

If you run into any issues or come across any bugs, please let me know.

If you find something that should be in the NSFW category, but isn't, please also let me know. It's possible that I missed a few tags when I worked through the list of over 2,000 tags in the 2024 main collection. Please don't ask me to remove content you find objectionable.

If there's anything unclear, feel free to ask! I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible, but please understand if it takes a while; it's a busy time for all of us. :D

Just FYI, the platform I'm using, Perchance, added AI options for their generators last year. This is a regrettable decision that I don't condone, and I'd like to emphasise that this generator is 100% handcrafted chaos.

This generator is based on my Fanfiction Reading Bingo I made as a little practice piece last year. It's responsive, which means it should work on desktop and mobile. The mobile layout isn't ideal yet; I'm trying my best to make it better (but I'd also still consider myself a newbie and I'm learning by doing).

The background image is an edited version of this photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash.

I hope you'll find as much fun in using this generator as I found in making it! Happy Yuletide!

[maniacwatchestheworld]

The Mark of the Blind Eye

Here is my second post about the Society of the Blind Eye in order to make sure that we are all on the same page with where my ideas and thoughts about it come from. A third one will be coming! (This series was originally only going to be 2 posts, but then this one got too long and I hadn't even gotten to the main point that I wanted to discuss lol.) But for this one, I want to point out a thing that I don't think that anyone's really discussed before even though indications of it do pretty clearly exist within canon... The Society of the Blind Eye seems to exist in opposition to Bill Cipher himself. And the symbol of the Society of the Blind Eye is a very good example of this relationship!

Is this observation too obvious? Or do I just sound entirely insane right now? Because I swear that I'm right! But I've never seen anyone discuss it before! I just think that if you think about the Society with the idea that they exist to oppose Bill Cipher in mind, it explains a number of things about how and why they operate as well as their aesthetics. But let's discuss the symbol itself first!

So first of all, I think that it's really neat how the Society- from its very first hints of existing to the series finale- it associates itself with graffiti.

This exists in contrast to Bill who- while his iconography also tends to be found in the backgrounds and little details of shots- tends to be found in more structural ways.

Windows and carpets. On dollar bills and commercial products from makeup to DVDs to children's costume props all alike. These differences in how they appear speaks to how the Blind Eye exists in opposition to Bill Cipher. Bill Cipher is larger than any individual on Earth. His existence transcends space and time. He has existed since before humanity and he has had his hand in countless human social movements. From the Egyptian pyramids to the foundation of America, even having a hand in early computer technology. Bill Cipher is more than just a character. He exists within the very structures of human civilization within the show.

Meanwhile the Society by contrast has only existed for ~30ish years by the series' start. And the most significant way that it exists is in opposition to Bill Cipher. In a way, Bill Cipher's existence is cultural... Meanwhile the Blind Eye's existence is countercultural.

I don't think that the modern iteration of the Society ever realized it, but its primary form of iconography- the crossed out eye- is actually simultaneously just a GREAT aesthetic symbol (easy to recognize and duplicate but also looking fantastic to boot) but that it's also rather clever in how pragmatic it is for the Society's unmentioned but inherent secondary purpose. That secondary purpose being to oppose Bill Cipher and to wipe his influence from Gravity Falls.

We all know how Bill is able to look through symbols of himself depicted in the real world. He also seems to be able to look through images of eyes in general (given how he also tends to watch the world through the eye-like patterns on Birch trees). We also know why and how Fiddleford came to found the Society, that he was distressed by the supernatural things he saw- what was beyond the portal especially- and so sought to erase the memories of those distressing things from his mind... Only to realize that others could "benefit" from this as well. The memory gun at the center of this cult would eventually become the very same object that would kill Bill Cipher in the series finale. It was only because of the Society of the Blind Eye that Bill was ultimately able to be defeated! But it's not that much of a stretch to think that Fiddleford may have been using the Society of the Blind Eye to protect Stanford from Bill Cipher from the organization's outset, right? Not only do they use and were the protectors of the weapon that would eventually kill Bill Cipher, but we learn in the Book of Bill that Fiddleford's repeated use of the Memory Gun actually entirely inoculated him from Bill's manipulations! Fiddleford's mind was so damaged, that merely existing within it was physically able to harm Bill! The Blind Eye could easily drive Bill from the mind of anyone he possessed so long as they knew it was him. And given how Bill treats the bodies of anyone he possesses, certainly that would fall under the scope of the kinds of experiences the Blind Eye seeks to allow people to forget. Additionally, the mere symbol of the Society- if applied to already existing images of eyes and of Bill Cipher himself- would keep Bill from being able to look through those symbols, thus limiting his vision! Perhaps this is why in many depictions of the Blind Eye symbol, the X over the eye is emphasized and shown in a different color than the rest of the symbol and the eye itself.

Whether the Society knows it or not, their existence and activity in Gravity Falls puts limits on Bill's power and influence there. (If anyone in town can just kinda randomly get their memory wiped at a moment's notice, it makes it much much more dangerous for Bill to possess ANYONE in town.) And given who founded the Society and when and why he did, I have doubts that fact is a mere coincidence!

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Something that I think is underrated in the fandom is the concept of the cattle children making friends their age in the human world post-canon. I like to think that the younger kids would have an easier time socializing while the older kids may be more withdrawn (especially with the adults), but get better with time.

Do you have any headcanons about their interactions with the human world? And where in the world do you think they settled down at? I’m guessing that snowy area Alex lived at may be what was formerly Russia/East Europe because of his last name, but idk.

I also find it odd that Shirai never told us what Emma’s ‘new’ name was (that becomes her middle name). Have any in mind?

I don't know if I'd say underrated? If asked I think a lot of fans are open to it/enjoy it, myself included.

Underexplored though, definitely, but I think this stems from how hard it can be to sell original characters in fanfiction the closer in proximity and importance they are to the main characters. This is also part of the reason I believe Matilda is Norman's biological mother and Sienna is Emma's biological mother are decently popular theories: it offers people the convenience of already having a minor canon character with a design and foundations of personality and history that can be referenced with greater recognition among other fans to project headcanons onto.

But if we're just talking about alluding to it happening in the background, one of my favorite Rayemma fanfics, She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not by groundedreamer, touches upon it in almost the exact way you describe:

I didn't even realize it was a Rayemma fic at first (or a Hanahaki AU; I usually don't read those) because I zeroed in on it being in the Jemima tag with the entire first chapter being dedicated to Ray & Jemima bonding.

Highly recommend if one's open to RE.

Do you have any headcanons about their interactions with the human world?

This is very broad and we could be here for a while, but all the cattle children aware of the truth before crossing over to the human world, including the Grace Field children who didn't escape but saw Isabella being murdered, have PTSD. This initially makes it rough for the older children to accept help from healthcare professionals and to navigate the best way to handle things for the younger children.

I'm always going to advocate for Norman and Ray going antiquing or to junk shops for items they can fix up and potentially gift to people, especially if they end up finding a duplicate of the music box Isabella gave Emma on her sixth birthday.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 1 Q&A | Questionnaire Translation Source)

I also talk about my preferred career paths for the trio here since I'm not fond of the path Shirai took with Norman and Ray, even if I understand why he did it. (I am 100% behind Nat becoming a famous pianist though.)

And where in the world do you think they settled down at? I’m guessing that snowy area Alex lived at may be what was formerly Russia/East Europe because of his last name, but idk.

I agree given that they start out in former New York City that the demon god would send her to the opposite side of the globe. And while Alex is fluent in English, I think it's sweet if the kids learn Russian to speak with him as he becomes integrated into the family as a father/grandfather figure.

I also find it odd that Shirai never told us what Emma’s ‘new’ name was (that becomes her middle name). Have any in mind?

With how cagey he was about confirming what a number of people had already suspected about Ray's bait note because he wanted to leave the door open for multiple possibilities prior to his health deteriorating, this doesn't really surprise me kfjdgvkj

I default to Wendy because of the Peter Pan connection, but I also gravitate a bit to Alice, Charlotte, or Jane.

[bluejayblueskies]

Bookbinding Year in Review

I bound a lot of books this year, so I thought I'd do a quick little recap of my progress as a binder! Starting off with some stats for 2023:

Total books bound: 68 Total words bound: 1,428,472 Average words per book: 21,007 Total books gifted: 44

I bound a lot of short fics this year, most notably as part of Binderary, a bookbinding marathon event hosted by the Renegade Publishing server in February. I aimed to bind a book a day, specifically binding shorter fics in the pamphlet style--a single signature sewn to a cardstock cover. I hit that and beyond, binding a total of 36 books for the event! I plan to do Binderary again this year, though my project for it is a surprise ✨

(The observant will notice that there are fewer than 36 books in this picture--I finished up a few more after this photo was taken!)

Other events I bound for this year included:

For a total of 54 books bound for an event! That's ~80% of the total amount of books I bound this year!

My top fandom was unsurprisingly Malevolent, coming in at 53 fics. The Magnus Archives was a close runner-up at 8 fics. The other seven fics bound were in the 9-1-1 and Hello From the Hallowoods fandoms, as well as some journals.

I'm really happy with my progress as a binder this year! I participated in a lot of events, gifted many books, got some fun new equipment, rebound my first ever bound book, and generally grew a lot as an artist. My favorite books from this year have to be this set of two volumes I did for @phynoma's work the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world for the Rusty Quill Big Bang:

The embroidery was very much a labor of love, and I'm so happy with how they turned out!!

I also loved collaborating with visual artists in various ways, including working with @kahtiihma to commission artwork from @shadow0haven for her fic Repetition//Retention and incorporating over a hundred pieces of artwork from @captaincravatthecapricious and @genderfluid-druid in my bind of @organchordsandlightning's fic formaldehyde.

I plan to do some more collaboration with artists in 2024, as well as many more gifts and author copies, so stay tuned for that!!

Some other statistics below the cut, for those interested:

Books bound per binding style

Books bound per size

Top 10 Authors Bound, sorted by number of books (duplicate copies included)

With_the_Wolves (12 books)

Croik (8 books)

SupposedToBeWriting (8 books)

Kahti (7 books)

PrettyArbitrary (5 books)

shadow0haven (5 books)

AlexanderPeterson (4 books)

AnonymousSong (3 books)

arthureameslove (3 books)

bluejayblueskies (that's me!) (3 books)

[nocompromise-noregrets]

five good things

Very quickly before I go to work, because I had a bugger of a day yesterday but there are good things on the horizon, and also in response to the lovely @glorf1ndel tagging me to post three things I'm excited for in April (thank you! <3333333 ), here goes:

I am GOING TO HELSINKI AGAIN at the end of the month! Japa's band has a gig on 30 April, I have it from the horse's mouth (himself on FB) that it's going ahead, and I got my passport back yesterday (having suddenly realised last week that it didn't have enough time left on it aargh and had to go to Newport to do the fast-track application thing) and booked flights and hotel yesterday evening. Now to see if the silly bugger remembers me. I think it's unlikely, as it's been over ten years since I last saw him, but he once recognised me after three years, a very radical haircut and losing my most distinctive feature after my waist-length hair (a top hat) so you never know. (this is Thing One I Am Excited For In April)

I went to see Ricky Warwick and the Fighting Hearts at their headline gig in Cardiff last Monday evening and had a marvellous time - they did a much longer set including some Thin Lizzy (Ricky sang for the revived Thin Lizzy, which turned into Black Star Riders when they started writing new music), BSR, The Almighty (Ricky's original band) and their own stuff, and it was GREAT. I managed to get Ricky and the drummer to sign the LP I bought at the first show, so now I have the full set, and I had another little catchup with Ben who is THE SWEETEST. They're touring again in September, which is looking busy already (Japa's band in Helsinki on the 19th which is v tempting, them in Bristol on the 25th, and the prize idiot in London on the 28th, and the 29th if I lose the plot any further and decide fuck it I might as well go to the second date as well seeing as I'm there...)

It's BARDUIL MONTH you guys! I am very conscious I have been extremely distracted for the last several months, but if anyone fancies helping me shake the muses into action, the prompts are here and here, please send me some! As specific as possible, and especially for my existing 'verses, as I think I might need to ease myself back in. (this is Thing Two I Am Excited For In April)

I have finished the emergency project I didn't want to do, at job number one, and although I'm likely to be called back in to help with other aspects of it, the main bit is done and I will hopefully be able to get on with what I was about to start doing SIX WEEKS AGO which is sorting out the very fragmentary and duplicated run of chief officers' management team minutes from our employing organisation and knocking it into order and getting rid of all the duplicate copies and generally making it make sense. It sounds incredibly dull but for my enormous administrative-systems nerdery it is an absolute treat and I've been itching to do it for all this time. I'm hoping to be able to get rid of a bunch of stuff we don't need to keep (duplicate copies) and get it into order and that is the most rewarding thing. Also nobody else but me is ever going to want to do it, so. I just want to be able to get on with it! (this is Thing Three I Am Excited For In April)

I only have one more day of the thing that made my day extremely trying yesterday - we are closed to the public for stocktaking and a huge team exercise this week, and we received 800 boxes of coroner's inquest files (investigations into unexplained deaths) from our records management arm on Monday, which all have to be reboxed out of their boxes and into ours. It is much more complex than it sounds, and when we got started on it yesterday it became immediately obvious that nobody had really thought through the logistics of exactly how we were going to do it, and everyone kept asking me because I have the experience. But I don't know either! Because every time we opened a new box there was some different issue! It was absolutely too complex for me and I could not handle everyone constantly asking me questions and I very nearly had a meltdown and spent the afternoon biting my tongue so as not to bite anyone's head off. I also found it impossible to concentrate while everyone was talking, as we were all working in the same room, some of them were talking to each other, some of them were talking to themselves, and I went home exhausted and upset and almost at the end of my tether. I feel much better today, however, and I am going to ask my manager if I can please please work at my desk, if I can't be excused the task, because I cannot spend another day in that room with all of them. The contents of the files are also pretty upsetting sometimes, but that doesn't really bother me - I have a stomach of steel and a heart of stone when it comes to that sort of thing - it's just the complexity of the task and the incessant fucking peopling. Anyway. One more day, and then I am at job number two tomorrow and it will be a blessed relief.

Oh yeah, and the weather is finally picking up. It's supposed to be sunny and warm all week, and if it holds, I'm going to get the bike sorted out at the weekend (battery charged, tyres inflated, general restarting-after-being-in-the-garage-all-winter)

And I finished my most recent assignment, with considerable bad grace, and handed it in at the weekend. I am very much hoping next year's course has been tested and designed better - it is the first presentation of that one as well and I am half-wondering if I should take a year off and let them work out the teething troubles on someone else. But I've done it and it's in, and now all I have to do is the end of module assignment which is a research proposal, I think. And then I shall be FREE for the summer. :D

OH YEAH and here's a bonus Thing I Am Excited For in April: the lovely Toby Jepson's band Wayward Sons are playing in our city next week! Toby was the singer for the Britrock band Little Angels in the 90s and the missus and I both love them very much, and Wayward Sons are just as good. So that's exciting!

And the prize idiot's solo album is happening in mid-May, which means new music hooray! Maybe another song will drop before then? Keeping my fingers crossed.

And I am having so much fun in angst-'verse with my friend. Things are about to get very angsty indeed. And then very fluffy, with a bit of luck. I am DETERMINED. :D :D :D

Right. That's quite enough. Time to go to work and take things out of boxes and put them into different boxes all day. Sigh. Hopefully at my own desk on my own.

As always, if anyone wants to take this format and run with it, please feel free! Five (or more) good things about your day/week/month/year/life, no matter how large or small. Go!

[festudio]

The Language of Flowers

If you've never heard of it, it was one of those long convoluted systems the Victorians came up with to express themselves.

When you search for lists of flowers and meanings from it you either find art prints or the actual scan of the old book. Here's the PDF.

However, if you've ever tried reading something written from the 1800's - let alone what's essentially an etiquette book - you will understand how absolutely infuriating it is to get info from quickly.

This is my gift to you. I've turned this into a quick reference guide for everyone. I hope it helps someone else as much as it's going to help me.

Now, let me whine a little bit. I started in the index at the back of this book. I am about half way done as of writing this section of the post. Some entries do not have page numbers. Many of these plants are duplicated because of the variety so "Lily, White" and "White Lily" are both indexed. Then, when you check the page number to make sure it's a duplicate you find that it's in an entirely different name.

First, it's sectioned by season and then subsectioned by month; except that only covers like 1/3 of the index entries. The plant's that I'm familiar with are also in seasons that they aren't IN SEASON. Daisy's are listen in Winter subsectioned February.

Then, in the middle, there's a dictionary. I almost thought I'd put in a bunch of work for naught but no. The first plant listed in not indexed at all. Turns out roughly 30-50% were not indexed.

Oh and all those indexed plants I couldn't find meanings for don't have any. The author just thought they were super neato even if they didn't have a definition yet.

And, finally, some plants from the index are not mentioned at all.

[avaantares]

Guardian Bonus Bingo: Answer

Okay, I'm going to have to cheat a little on this. I do have an absolutely IDEAL scene for the @guardianbingo "Answer" fill, one that contains the exchange

"Does that answer your question, [name redacted]?"

"If I say no, will you repeat the answer?"

...but I realized I can't post it as a fill because it's the penultimate scene in the (very long) story I'm (hopefully) about to start posting, and as such it would be a spoiler. And since there are a few dozen chapters ahead of it -- most of which I still need to finish editing, and definitely won't have ready before the end of the amnesty period -- I can't just post the rest of the story early to fill the prompt. >.<

So since that can't go live just yet, and I doubt that two lines of dialogue out of context constitutes a bingo fill, I'm going to tackle a question that probably has no definitive answer (see what I did there?). It's one that has mystified me every time I've rewatched this series, and which (conveniently) I was prompted to ask again while pulling gifs from episode 3 for my last bingo fill. The question is:

"Why Do We Even HAVE That Library?"

(If you read that in Izma's voice, you get it.)

The SID has a library. We see it several times throughout the series. But we aren't sure why it has a library, because Zhu Hong straight up states that it's not functional:

...And looking at the books, it's clear that the SID library really is the collection of all time. What's the theme? By what criteria are books selected for inclusion? How are the books catalogued? Why are half of them upside-down on the shelves? Why are there a dozen duplicate copies of several titles? WHO KNOWS?

(Well, probably Sang Zan, eventually. But he's not here yet.)

To probe this mystery, I decided to zoom in and see what I could make of the books. And lo and behold, some of the books have legible titles!

Bottom shelf, left to right:

BLOOD RITE Dominique (not sure if that's an author or a subtitle)

CLASSICAL NOVEL (very original title, that)

Arletta (the Comic Sans nightmare that appears all over the place in various cover colors)

(indecipherable; I think it's both in Chinese and upside-down on the shelf, but it's out of focus)

the statue of liberty (style preserved)

LUXURY HOTELS

Read It Yourself With (last word cut off)

CENTURY

BLOODY HARVEST: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs (I am actually surprised by this one; I had assumed this book was banned by the CCP, but there are multiple copies here)

CENTURY (upside-down this time!)

THE CATCHER IN THE (presumably RYE)

Next shelf:

The People's Lawyer

Unicist Organizational Cybernetics

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE (volume numbers obscured by Zhu Hong's hand; it's the book she's taking down)

Something with an approximation of the American flag and a bunch of languages on the spine

untitled

untitled

BLOOD RITE Dominique (same book as lower shelf)

OUYE Sofa + Furniture (this one's repeated all over the shelves, along with CENTURY and Arletta)

Basics of Modern Economic Management (translated title)

Corporate Finance (translated title)

the 10Ks of Personal Branding

GLOWIENKA

GLOWIENKA (but upside-down)

In addition to many duplicates of these books on other shelves, other titles visible on the wide angle pans include:

Anne of Green Gables (good to know this classic also exists on Haixing)

The American Journal of Medicine (we already suspected America existed on Haixing, given the flag stool in ZYL's apartment)

Imperial Crown

Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man (parallel evolution on Haixing? *rimshot*)

The Hotel Book

None of these titles seem particularly relevant to the SID's function -- except, perhaps, for the Justice of the Peace regulations, which Zhu Hong was actually looking for -- which makes me think there must either be a secret code of some kind, or the SID once raided an IKEA OUYE and took all their prop display books into evidence, and then someone at the SID later saw all the books and assumed it was a reference library.

A lot of the titles in this scene aren't really clear, but when I have time to pull up later episodes that have scenes dealing with the library specifically (Zhao Xinci visiting, et al.), it might be fun to grab some frames, enhance with the magic of Photoshop, and put them on my 4K display to see if I can find other interesting titles.

Also, I don't have time to go looking just now, but I'd bet the books in the library are duplicates of the ones in Shen Wei's apartment, which I seem to remember being pretty random. They recycled so much of the set dressing, I can't imagine there would be more than one collection of weird shelf-fill.

Zhao Yunlan's tastes, on the other hand, are a bit narrower. The most prominently-displayed book in his apartment is just titled Furniture.

[distant--shadow]

Can you share a little bit about your art process? I'm curious to know about how you use references and how you figure out compositions. Your pieces are always so nice to look at and I love how you post a full piece and then a close up, and both of those look really nice on their own.

Love your art <3

(hooo this is long. sorry I love 2 chat.)

well it's multiple factors; in regards to being able to crop a close up and having that work as its own image, that's thanks to the scale the digital medium allows with ease; if these were traditional pencil drawings they would have to be pretty fucking big to have that much detailing on the face, and that in turn would make the drawing process different as you'd be having to step back often, but it's a lot easier digitally to just zoom in back and forth, check things are working from zoomed in and out, flip the image to see things with fresh eyes and make sure things are looking alright etc. I've been drawing on paper for years, and mostly draw/paint in a completely different style to how I do for my fanart, so coming in to digital and seeing it as a hugely different beast actually kinda helps in that sense (tho I'd say most of the time the digital thing really hinders me).

on that digital vs traditional note though, I take pretty much all of my inspiration from traditional artists, so when I'm drawing fanart I'm thinking about how I want the drawing to give me the feeling and sorta composition that those pieces I admire have, whether it's more modern queer and fetish art or old masters and book illustrators. it's having an awareness that the human brain wants to focus in on a face or find eyes, getting as much emotion across in that area but also being conscious and having fun of the potential narrative telling of other details and what the body is doing, sewing in your own symbolism.

for figuring out poses, I have a visual mind, I can see compositions pretty well in my head, so for example; if someone who is commissioning something states the details they would like in a piece, I can usually tell without beggining the sketching stage that, for example, maybe they wouldn't be able to see the hand they want doing something specific if characters were interacting that way and we were seeing their faces as well, or you wouldn't be able to see one of their faces, and if you value seeing their expressions maybe let's chose what you prioritise in terms of what the viewer sees. idk what to give in terms of advice for that, I'm lucky I've got a photographic brain when it comes to stuff like drawing or other boons it grants me irl (but I'm useless with numbers and words so, it balances out).

as for reference I feel like I've touched on this a few times: reference is great! it's important if you're doing the style of drawing I'm doing here (but I also really love work that is more stylised as well, i love folk art and goofy and expressive things) at this point for the likes of Imogen and laudna (and I'm getting there with fearne) - I've drawn them so many times that I just reference myself, and if there's a specific expression I'm needing then I keep a shaving mirror near by and look at myself, same with hands, they're right there, draw straight from em or take a photograph (saying this I am not good at hands lol). other than that yes I will often look for reference of something that roughllly resembles what I wish to draw in terms of posing, and then it's a mixture of kinda treating the reference images like a frankenstein paper doll with metal pin joints and arranging them how I need, but as I've also said before I like to not have a 1:1 reference and duplicate because i want to get my own hand in there, figuring out angles and limbs with lines gives a little bit of movement, proportions being a little off shows what the maker wishes to exaggerate or minimise, these are all enjoyable things to me, I'm not tryna make something photo realistic. so yeah, reference good, reference teach, but your own hand is very important too.

in summary I use a combination of photo/painting/screen cap reference and just my intuition from years of drawing and looking at people for the bodies, and my own drawings and a mirror for the faces. sketching it all out takes quite a bit of time, and I often won't realise until near "the end" (after spending hours colouring caus idk the proper digital ways to do it) that I'm not happy with a thing or two. sometimes I try to "fix" this, sometimes I say "fuck it, it's an excercise and is what it is". people who have commissioned work from me might have had this happen where I've said I'm sending the drawing over and then been like actually can u wait a while I need to tweak some things and spend an hour doing so, caus part of my process is sending the image from my laptop to my phone, and not only is the colour different from my phone to my laptop, but once again it's like seeing it with a new set of eyes and pretty much always reveals a bunch of "mistakes" I've made. the phone thing also goes back to what I said earlier and what you brought up, of that intuition to look at an image both zoomed out in it's full composition, but also pushes our intuition to tap and zoom in (I'm sure there's essays on this shit about viewing art digitally and specifically on phones vs irl) this can be used to your advantage! maybe you have a style that suggests detail but when zoomed in it's very satisfying certain wide strokes of colour, or yeah you can pack in tiny details made with a finer point that you can't see zoomed out. one of the things that sucks about the style I do for my fanart is it's way more obvious when something is wrong. when it's stylised to you it's never gonna be wrong, yknow? uh. anyway. I hope this sorta answers your question. I'm happy to talk about making all day long, I always think what's best is to find what works for you. for me being inspired by things outside of the space youre making things for is really important, and plays part in us all not making similar end results. keep putting your own hand and brain to it and have fun.

thank you❣️