#i have a physical copy of All Systems Red

[scificrows]

Me: *always getting the The Murderbot Diaries titles mixed up and not being able to remember which one is which* Also Me: Well, Artificial Condition is obviously the one with ART in it!! 😌😌😌

[cusimmrbrightside]

I have always liked the idea of the school for mutants being very literally a school, and I know yes it is but I mean in the sense of if you want to be an X-men, you have to be a teacher. They have exams at the end of years, they have Ofsted checks (for those who don’t know what they are, it’s essentially people coming to check that the school is good at being a school) and they have teachers for every subject, which brings me to my next point;

“I’m Right You’re Wrong, Here’s What The X-Men (‘97 specifically) Would Teach As Subjects”.

(Also this is based off of UK school system but I use American terms like “seniors” and “AP” and “Midterms”)

Maths Teacher Gambit is surprising, for a guy most assume to not being entirely smart, an idiot goof off who’s the comedic relief. But you need to know numbers to gamble, and that he does with being very well versed in mathematics way past an AP level. He’s made the promise for every senior class that he will teach them to play blackjack on the final day, and has only ever lost once. Which is when the rule of “no betting real money” came into place.

English teacher Jean reminds me of the kind of teacher who would let the social outcasts into her class for their lunch breaks. The kids more likely to be bullied and she will fight tooth and nail to make sure those kids bullies don’t come into that classroom. they’re loud and shout and shouldn’t really be in there but no one has to know and she certainly won’t be telling them to leave any time soon.

Physics teacher Magneto is very specific to my highschool experience I’ll be honest. I had a physics teacher who was an actual Dr with a PHD and he hated being there. His classroom has (well, had since the building was knocked down about 5 years ago now) this one cabinet that was never fully shut, it was always open just about an inch or two, and he’d stand with his foot hovering just above it and then slam down on it whenever we got too loud so the noise would shut us up. That’s very magneto coded. Erik Lehnsherr would purposefully make the cabinet always a little open so he can do that.

Biology teacher morph is just a funny concept, a person whose physical form and change and morph into just about anything. They are considered one of the “fun” teachers, you could easily convince them to let you watch a movie all class as long as it was biology centred, but with classics like Osmosis Jones, you’re not stuck watching a documentary about animals giving birth.

Chemistry teacher Storm does not fuck about with children’s education. She is not strict by any means whatsoever, she just will not bend to someone saying they want to watch a film or should do a practical instead of theory. She has a set curriculum. She knows what she will be doing by the first week of the summer holidays and already has the room set up all pretty and organised.

Geography teacher Scott has the unfortunate job of telling his students that, they just won’t be looking at memorising country flags and politics. But hey!! Rocks are cool!! Beach shores are cool! Lake formations are cool! He’s the vice principal and designated nerd teacher. He once beat the elite four for a student on their copy of Pokémon Red because the student promised they’d do well in their midterms. Yes, he was in his 30s when the game came out, he doesn’t care.

History teacher Logan is a walking fun facts book. He’s exhausted, goes on smoke breaks on every gap of time he has, dislikes his job and will randomly get passionate about one specific topic, and will then dedicate his next 4 classes to that topic. Having been through a lot of modern history with personal experiences, he’s able to bring a lot of souvenirs to show his classes. Bullets, helmets, clothes he once wore hundreds of years ago, his personal memories of basic inventions like the vaccine.

PE (physical education) teacher Rogue is full of fun sports games, you can join any kind of sports team you can imagine and if you ask nicely enough, she’ll put Just Dance on a projector in the sports hall so you can just play that instead of actually play an actual sport. As long as you leave her class exhausted and without time to have a shower before your next class then she’s succeeded in making whoever your next teacher is absolutely miserable (bonus points if it’s Logan with his enhanced sense of smell).

Art teacher jubilee does believe that there is a right way to critique art. And she can be a little in your face about it. She does think you can have wrong opinions especially when it comes to your own art. If she overhears you saying you didn’t something wrong, she’ll scream into a megaphone “adapt, improvise, overcome!”. There are no mistakes! She’s eccentric, bubbly, creative and brilliant, the only one suited for the job.

It wouldn’t be a school without budget cuts. That’s why Nightcrawler is both the languages and religions teacher and he’s beloved at both. He comes up with roleplay scenarios the students can play to help learn their chosen languages, he has varied religious texts in his room and when he says to the students “I’ll pray for toy during exam season” he’s not actually joking.

(I forgot about Hank I’m actually going to cry he’s one of my favourites and I forgot about him. He’ll be in pt two or smth.)

[inbabylontheywept]

Following back on the recent fusionposting to run a very technically unqualified intuition I have by you

When talking about baseload power generation, the conversation inevitably turns to nuclear, with a common narrative that certain countries are irrationally afraid of nuclear for not copying the successful policies of their neighbours (usually it's about Germany or Austria needing to emulate France)

What I've wanted to run by you is this viewpoint I've had for a while - that the economics of nuclear power are different from other sources, and that that may better explain the choices of policymakers:

The procurement of nuclear power seems much closer to military procurement in my eyes, with costs stemming from the management of standards, supply chains being inflexible and project/nation-dependent, and the costs of maintaining regional expertise overshadowing the costs that build physical capital.

Can you confirm/disconfirm any of these impressions?

I'm only slightly more qualified than you, unfortunately. I haven't work in the nuclear power sector. I have coworkers that have, and their stories do seem to check out with your descriptions.

Like, in a military style contract, parts might cost 4 times as much as a civilian part, because the military tests the parts much, much more stringently. You don't test the screws at home depot to make sure they match the metal composition, or that their sheer strength matches X, or on and on. You have a baseline level of trust that comes from market forces. But military supplies don't have market forces to work with - there isn't exactly a market for, say, F-35s. So they have to try and catch this manually instead of via crowdsourcing, and the results are painful.

That's military procurement, and I work with that enough to know why it exists. Even if it hurts.

Now, that sound very similar to nuclear power, which also analyzes everything to the T because the cost of failure is so ridiculously high. The coworker I mentioned before that worked for reactor said her first year learn-the-ropes project was doing a report on the safety consequences of swapping the lights from fluorescent to LED in the main office buildings. It was a 200+ page thing going over how the new lights would affect the backup power duration stats, hazards of the new lights vs the old ones (LEDs are less tolereant of undervoltage than fluorescents), things like that. I would imagine that in that case, they probably spent at least 4 or 5 times as much analyzing the impact of the lighting than they actually spent on the lighting.

This drives efficiency oriented people kind of crazy, but the whole point of these systems is not to be efficient. It is to be extremely resistant to failure. Ludicrously, insanely, painfully resistant. Because in the military case, a bad batch of bolts normally worth $40 could make a $35 million plane crash, and in the nuclear case, a meltdown could literally cause trillions of dollars of damage. The Fukushima meltdown is estimated to have caused $200 billion worth of damage, and it was not even close to a worst case scenario.

Anyway, I'm rambling a little, but your intuition seems good to me. I love nuclear power, but people suggesting that we "slash all the red tape around it" scare the shit out of me. They have no idea what they're fucking with, and if we're all very, very lucky, they never will.

[thescarlettbitch]

Mesopotamian Pantheon Explained

Hello! My name is Red, I am a devotee of the Mesopotamian Goddess Inanna, and it makes me sad to see that not a lot of people know about her, let alone the rest of her pantheon, so I thought I'd make a post about everyone, or at least, everyone I can. I've made a masterpost about her, and I really enjoyed it, as it gave me an "excuse" to learn about her, and this is the same. In this post I will be naming the gods and their domains and their relations with each other. If prompted, I would love to do a deep dive on every deity in this pantheon I can. Unfortunately, there are over a thousand deities across all Mesopotamian cultures, so this is by no means a complete list or anything similar.

So, first, what is Mesopotamia? Mesopotamia means "land between the rivers", the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and it is the term to define the whole region and the various cultures that lived there. This includes Sumer, Akkadia, and Babylon. Despite culture being different, they shared similarities in written language, religion, and attitude towards women. The gods may have had different names at different points, but they were the same deity to all, often referred to interchangeably. This region gave birth to about 50 firsts of man.

But, on to the Gods!

The first thing to know about the Pantheon and how people worked with them, is that mortals believed them to be coworkers with the deities, and that they worked together to maintain order. Due to differences in cultures, each civilization viewed the deities differently, so Marduk might have been king of the Gods in Babylon, Enlil was king of the Gods in Sumer. The heavenly Gods were referred to as Igigi, and occasionally Anunnaki, though in some sources Anunnaki was the older or "major" Gods, and the Igigi were the lower ranking Gods.

We are going to start with the Seven Divine Powers, the oldest Sumerian deities.

Anu - sky god

Enki - god of wisdom

Enlil - lord of the air, sumerian king of the Gods.

Inanna - goddess of love, fertility, and war, queen of the heavens

Nanna - goddess of the moon

Ninhursag - mother goddess

Utu/Shamash - god of the sun

Other popular deities include

Assur/Ashur - supreme god of the Assyrians

Ereshkigal - goddess of the underworld

Gula - goddess of health and healing

Marduk - babylonian king of the gods

Nabu - god of writing

Nanshe - goddess of social justice

Nergal - god of war

Ninkasi - goddess of beer and brewing

Nisaba - goddess of agriculture, turned to writing and accounts

Dumuzid/Tammuz - god of shepherds

Enkimdu - god of farmers, seen as the personification of the irrigation system

Geshtinanna - goddess of scribal arts and dream interpretation (theorized)

Bau - mother goddess, healing

Ishkur - god of storms and rain

Ištaran - god of divine justice

Nanaya - goddess of love

Nanshe - goddess of divination

Ninazu - associated with the underworld, though his role is disputed

Ninlil - wife of Enlil, thought to be "artificially created" as Enlil's equal

Ninshubur - god(dess) attendant of Inanna (in some sources she is masculine, and others feminine)

Zababa - war god

Alammush - god attendant of Nanna

Sherida - goddess of dawn

Apsu - primeval freshwater

Tiamat - primeval sea

Creation-

The Mesopotamians had many different tellings of the creation of the world, most likely due to the cultural differences. Atra-Hasis, Eridu Genesis, and Enuma Elish are the most common, as we have physical copies of them today. They, among other sources, depict a different family tree, but with key similarities.

Atra-Hasis: Anu, Enlil, and Enki cast lots to determine who rules what. Anu the sky, Enlil the earth, and Enki the sea. Enlil assigned minor gods to farm, but after many years the minor divines refused. Enki suggested to make humans to do the labor. Mother goddess Mami fashions humans out of clay, flesh, and blood of a slain god, and all the gods spit on the clay. After ten months, humans emerged from a specifically made womb. After many years, humans have overpopulated, so Enlil sends famine and drought every 1200 years. Enlil decides to destroy humanity by flood. Enki goes to hero Atra-Hasis and tells him of the plan, instructing him to demolish his house and build a boat. He does, and he brings his family and his animals and seals the door. When the flood comes it stays for seven days and even the gods are afraid. It ends and Enlil is furious with Enki for breaking the vow of silence but eventually the two agree to find other means of controlling the human population.

Eridu Genesis: the beginning of this has been lost to time. The surviving portion starts with Nintur, the goddess who birthed humanity, where she calls for them to he sedentary and civilized. Then more is missing. It resumes with humanity still being nomadic and barbaric. Nintur is stilling planning to provide kingship to the mortals. Then cities emerge, are named, and become distributional economies. Humans begin to annoy the gods, Enlil was unable to sleep, and made the brash decision to destroy humanity with a flood. Enki tells Ziusudra, a human, and tells him to build a boat to save himself and one couple of every animal. Ziusudra does as he is told and the flood comes. Humanity survives, but the rest is lost to time.

Enuma Elish: at the beginning, Apsu and Tiamet existed, co-mingled. From them came Lahmu and Lahamu. Then Anshar and Kishar, and from Anshar came the god Anu and from Anu came Nudimmumd/Ea. These new gods made noise that annoyed Apsu, who called to Mummu to speak with Tiamat, who proposed to destroy them, but Tiamat was reluctant. Mummu advised Apsu to destroy them. The new gods were worried, but Ea crafted a spell to lull Apsu to sleep. Mummu couldn't wake him. Ea took the halo from Apsu and wore it, slew Apsu and chained Mummu, living in Apsu with his wife, Damkina. Together, in Apsu, they created Marduk. Other gods made fun of Tiamat for not doing anything as Apsu was killed. Tiamat made monsters to fight the gods, eleven chimeric monsters with weapons, lead by her new consort Kingu, and gave him the tablets of destinies. Ea heard of the plan and went to his grandfather Anshar, who proposed Marduk as their champion. Marduk said he would win against Tiamat but that he would need to be king of the Gods if he did so. The others were wary but eventually relented. Marduk was given a throne and many supplies to fight Tiamat. He won and split her body in two, fashioning the sky from one half, places for Anu, Enlil, and Ea in it. He made likenesses of the gods in the stars, and from that he made the days of the year. He made night and day and the moon, he made storms and wind and rain, and gave the tablet of destinies to Anu. Marduk told Ea that he was going to use his blood to create man to serve the Gods, but Ea said that another should be chosen as sacrifice. Kingu was chosen, so man was made using his blood.

So... where do these other gods fit into the family tree?

Great question.

An and Ki had Enlil and Enki.

Enlil and Ninlil had Nanna, Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu.

Enlil and Ninhursag had Ninurta.

Nanna and Ningal (in some sources) had Ereshkigal, Inanna, and Utu. In other sources, Enlil, An, or Enki were their parents.

Ereshkigal and Anu had Nungal.

Ereshkigal and Gugalanna had Ninazu. In other sources, Enlil and Ninlil, or Nanna were his parents.

Utu and Aya had Mamu, Kittum, Ishum, and Sisig.

Enki and Duttur had Dumuzid and Geshtinanna.

Either Sin, Urash, or Anu, and Inanna, had Nanaya.

Dumuzid and Inanna were married, but bore no children together.

Thank you for reading this major info-dump and lmk if you guys want any specifics or deep dives on someone! <3

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: robots and artificial intelligences

A note: I'm differentiating here between artificial intelligence and transhumanism (such as uploaded consciousnesses and cyborgs), which I intend to make a separate rec post for at a later date.

(Titles marked with * are my personal favorites)

Other book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books, portal fantasies

Continue beneath the cut for details on the books!

The Outside by Ada Hoffman*

AKA the book the put me in an existenial crisis. Souls are real, and they are used to feed AI gods in this lovecraftian inspired scifi where reality is warped and artifical gods stand against real, unfathomable ones. Autistic scientist Yasira is accused of heresy and, to save her eternal soul, is recruited by post-human cybernetic 'angels’ to help hunt down her own former mentor, who is threatening to tear reality itself apart.

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden

South African-set scifi featuring gods ancient and new, robots finding sentience, dik-diks, and a gay teen with mind control abilities. An ancient goddess seeks to return to her true power no matter how many humans she has to sacrifice to get there. A little bit all over the place but very creative and fresh.

17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future by Jon Bois*

A multi-media web novel available to read freely online (which you should do!!). I don't want to give too much away as the initial punch of finding things out is part of the journey, but it's both hilarious and profound as it questions the meaning of humanity and life.

Illuminae (Illuminae Files) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff*

Young adult told through the medium of transcripts, text messages and the like (this is one of few books where I highly recommend reading a physical copy over a digital as the visual aspect is much more enjoyable like that). After their colony is attacked, the surviving inhabitants flee on space ships, attempting to avoid the pursuing killers while also dealing with a deadly madening plague on board and a ruthless ship AI seemingly losing its mind.

A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers*

Technically part two of a series, but stands well on its own as the installments are only losely connected (though I recommend reading the first book as well, it's very good). A former ship's AI recently moved into an illegal android body tries to make sense of life as she navigates her way through humans and aliens alike.

The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James*

Young adult. After the spread of a global virus causing infertility, teenagers Lowrie and Shen are now the youngest humans alive as the adults around them race to find a cure. As they investigate the ruins of the world, the two come across records from the past, of how grief stricken people turned to raising artificial children in apps and how these 'children' developed, and through these records the two learn of their history. Also has a bisexual main character!

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot series) by Becky Chambers

Novella. Long ago, robots, upon gaining sentience, simply laid down their work and walked into the wilderness. Long after, a tea monk looking for purpose follows after them into the wilds, where they come across one of the robots seeking its own sort of answers. While not plotless, this story focuses more on character and vibes over plot. Also has a nonbinary main character and features conversations on gender between human and robot.

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells*

After having hacked its own governor module, SecUnit uses its small amount of new freedom to secretly download and watch as much media as it can between doing its job guarding humans. But when the scientists it’s been charged with keeping safe come under attack, it must make a choice about whether to continue keeping its freedom secret or risk it all to save them. The series features both novellas and full length novels, and balances humor with scathing critique of capitalism.

Machinehood by S.B. Divya

Prudent in the rise of AI and machine learning, Machinehood shows a near future in which humans struggle to find a place on the workforce as more and more jobs are given to AI. Status quo is shaken as a dangerous terrorist group calling itself The Machinehood starts committing attacks. A close look both at the rights of humans in a technologically changing world, and at the rights of AI as their intelligence edges ever closer to full sentience.

The Company of Death by Elisa Hansen*

A wild mix of genres, where a zombie apocalypse has struck and vampires gather up humans to keep their food source from going extinct, a robot travels across America with a young man she's tasked to keep safe, and former-vampire-hunter-recent-zombie Emily teams up with Death himself to stop the apocalypse. Features bi and ace characters! Bonus rec: the author also runs the youtube channel Maven of the Eventide, where she talks about various vampire media. Check it out!

Railhead by Philip Reeve

Young adult. In a future where humanity travel between the stars using not spaceships but a portal-connected system of sentient trains, a young thief and street urchin is hired to steal something off of the Emperor's train.

Being by Kevin Brooks*

Young adult. Cards on the table, I think I was about 14 when I last read this, but it made a strong enough impression that I still think of it as one of my favorite books. After having gone in for a routine exam, doctors make a stunning discovery about Robert Smith: he isn't human. Suddenly hunted, Robert goes on the run as he tries to cope with the fact of his own existence. While I love this book, it gives very few answers to its many mysteries, so don’t go in expecting full explanations.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie*

A space opera in which sentient spaceships can walk the ground in stolen human bodies, so called ancillaries. One of these ancillaries, the sole survivor after the complete destruction of her ship and crew, is one the hunt for revenge. This series also does very cool things with gender!

Crier's War by Nina Varela

Who says sci-fi has monopoly on robots? In sapphic YA fantasy Crier's War, artificially created automae have defeated and subjugated humans, who live as second class citizens. Young Ayla goes undercover as a servant, meaning to assassinate automae girl and Sovereign's daughter Crier. This would be easier if the two weren't quick to develop feelings for each other.

My Heart is Human by Reese Hogan

Nine years ago, all complex technology was made illegal. This complicates life for Joel, young transgender single father, as a bionic just uploaded itself into his brain without consent. Scared of losing his daughter, Joel tries to keep the bionic secret while using it to fix his life, but things quickly get more complicated as the bionic gains more and more control of his body. Makes a lot of cool paralells of bodily autonomy to Joel's experiences as a transman. Bonus rec: if you like the general concept of struggling for physical control over one's body with an AI, may I also suggest the (much grittier and gory) movie Upgrade.

The Archive Undying (The Downworld Sequence) by Emma Mieko Candon

In a world where AI gods sometimes lose their minds and take entire populations down with them, Sunai was the only survivor when his god went down. In the 17 years since, he has wandered on his own, unable to either die or age, drowning his sorrows in drink and men. But his attempts to flee his past comes to a stop as he is forced back into the struggle between man and machine. Featuring some pretty wild world building and narrative techniques, this book will definitely confuse you, but it is worth the experience.

Activation Degradation by Marina J. Lostetter

Unit Four comes to life in the middle of a war. The mine it was created to care for is under attack, and as Unit Four is activated with the memories of its predecessors, it is thrown into the task of protecting it at any cost. When the battle leads to its capture, it is prepared to do anything to stop its captors, even as their very presence causes it to question all that it knows.

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill*

Years after the death of the last human at the hands of a robot uprising, Brittle travels the desert searching for machines on the brink of breaking down whose parts she can scavenge. The world is quickly falling apart as a war between OWIs - One World Intelligences - struggle to absorb every robot, willing or not. Bleak and captivating, Sea of Rust features horrible people who you can’t help but root for anyway as they struggle for their lives while questioning the very nature of said lives.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

Hybrid Child by Mariko Ōhara

Japanese 1990s classic. Follows an escaped AI who can take on the form of the people it has consumed.

World Running Down by Al Hess

Follows a powerful AI that has been forced into an android body against its will.

The Thousand Year Beach by Hirotaka Tobi

Set in a virtual world populated by AIs, meant as a resort for human guests who stopped showing up over a thousand years ago, leaving the AIs on their own.

And Shall Machines Surrender by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Novella. Machines are the gods and rulers of the Dyson sphere Shenzhen, where humans live in luxury and strive to become host bodies for future AIs.

After On by Rob Reid

Phluttr is a social media and a person, potential hero and potential villain, holder of the secrets of all her users.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Annie Bot was designed to be a perfect girlfriend, but as she learns all the more about being human, perfection becomes all the more distant.

Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them:

The Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune, Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns, The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole, Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport

[jenyifer]

Book List Time!!!

And with that I have 10 give or take books to discuss. Now I’m up to over 30 books since May woooo telling tumblr about each one has been a great motivator so I hope my reviews and list help people out in a non spoiler fun way. Gonna rank these in order I want to reread them.

1. Green Creek the series by TJ Klune 🏳️‍🌈🐺🌶️🌲 Wolfsong Ravensong Heartsong Brothersong I am obsessed. Literally read all four books in 3 days. I have bought physical copies and marked them up. Will make you cry, laugh, and stay in your heart forever. Just……. Go read it. But the quick synopsis is Powerful Humans Wolves Witches have to pay for the sins of their fathers over and over again while maintaining their found family and finding their true soulmates. There is Ace Lesbian non binary rep in here as well.

2. The Warden by Daniel Ford🏳️‍🌈 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩🧙‍♀️❄️🪦truly a fantasy masterpiece the romance isn’t the focus but it’s fucking good. First sapphic book to get a 10/10 for me. About a witch(with a magic system that is interesting surprising) growing up and finding herself a family without sacrificing who she is. I loved her and at first you think ehhh is this going to be boring no definitely not. Was surprising made me laugh and cry. Can’t wait for part 2 cause more of the hot gf in there I hope.

3. A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland🏳️‍🌈👑⚔️🌶️🌶️ I listened to this book two times in a row I enjoyed it so much. It’s a bodyguard and prince story. The prince’s depiction of depression anxiety panic attacks was so real. The bodyguard is very endearing. The themes of family are strong and interesting. The mystery was easy to solve but I found it rewarding because I wanted the prince to win so badly haha.

4. Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow🏳️‍🌈👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👸🏼🥀😢

Short story about a dying girl who has a special interest in sleeping beauty. It does have a…. Debatably Sad ending. I did enjoy it for what it was trying to talk about. I lost a friend when she was too young. I’m glad I read it.

5. Scumbag Villains Self-Saving System series by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 🏳️‍🌈🚩⚔️😈🕊️🤓🌶️? I’m putting it up this high because besides that scene in chapter 21 that slapped me in the brain I really enjoyed the series. Only Danmei I HAD TO GET THE REST OF THE SERIES IMMEDIATELY Hell I’ve even now written fan fic for the side ship. About a Nerd being put into his favorite love to hate stallion novel (story about a hero who fucks his way to success) but he’s in there as the abusive villain who the hero is destined to kill. The nerd has to save himself and unintentionally builds himself a harem featuring the most red flag the hero who so sololy motivated by the nerd. It’s great easy to read very fun. But 🌶️ scene in book 3 is a definite skip and delete from memory.

6. Case File Compendium Vol 1 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou 🏳️‍🌈? 😈🚩🩸🕵️🥼

I did just finish reading this so maybe I’m bias but I really did find it a book I couldn’t put down. I even brought it with me to work to read a chapter during my lunch breaks. Main characters are heavy in their homophobic lifestyles but they kiss and protect each other? True crime and mentally ill characters. MC is has a fatal mental illness that makes him unstable and MIL was his former private doctor. MC is trying to date MIL’s little sister. While getting up to shenanigans they stumble into a corrupt hospital and evil forces are maybe after them?! Idk its exciting fun to read but only if you like 🚩’s

7. The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish Vol 1 by Xue Shan Fei Hu 🏳️‍🌈🐟👑🎨🖼️ I did genuinely laugh my ass off during reading this book. It was incredibly easy to read I think I finished it in 4 hours. Very cute. I love the inside and outside art. About a nonverbal Prince who has anger issues and his crush on the modern man who is trapped within an ugly little fish. Now yes the Prince is becomes actively in love with the fish. Lucky for us we are stuck in the man who is trapped as the fish’s pov and he is genuinely just trying to get back to his world by obeying the powers that be System’s prompts to go home. Fish is not trying to seduce the Prince or anything. It’s just funny I had a great time with vol 1 probably will read vol 2.

8. So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole 🏳️‍🌈👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨🐉🏝️ while having dragons and diverse cast it ultimately falls short of expectations wishing for more depth and clarity. The asexual spectrum representation feels muddled and Jamaican inspired cultural elements are unexplored which is at odds with its rich backdrop that could have enhanced the story. The story’s mystery element lacked cohesion resulting in a frustrating bittersweet ending that suggests a sequel and left me unsatisfied. I won’t read the next book. Won’t suggest it.

9. Faithless Book2 by C L Clark 🏳️‍🌈🚩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩⚔️👑😩 a big let down from book 1 but I’m locked in for life I guess. Luca is back in France navigating a way to get the crown. While Touraine shows up with a priest and Teen to some how get food for her people. Most of the plot feels useless both MC characters are stupid and do no growing. The new teen character was interesting. I disliked the poly romance I didn’t particularly feel comfortable about Touraine and Luca why not add another person in what could go wrong? Luca’s reign as Queen looks to be very bad and you will feel extremely disappointed at the end. I’m going to read the next book but only because I like the characters who didn’t go to France.

10. Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore.

I read 90% of this book and I regret it. It’s a trans characters as the leads gay retelling of the great gatsby. I was truly excited to read it I’ve read The Great Gatsby many times. However this book just laughs at the source material. I’m tempted to say maybe the Chat GPT’d the plot and didn’t ask for any over arching themes in the book. I couldn’t do it I’m gonna have to find a better trans representation book in my next set of ten.

DNF’s

Last Night at the Telegraph Club, The Once and Future witches, Gearbreakers, the emperor and the endless palace.

[voskhodart]

Hey, do you want to learn how to play VHS tapes in the year 202X?

I know this is my art blog, but it has come to my attention that some of you are too young to have experienced the joys of the Video Home System in its prime. Come hither so I can teach you and we can embrace the beauty of physical media together. If you have a thrift store and a TV, this process should work for you.

Step 1: Get a VCR ($4-$15)

DO NOT BUY EXPENSIVE VCR/COMBO SETS FROM THE INTERNET!

The ones you find on sites like eBay and Etsy are insanely overpriced and might not even work. Instead, find a Goodwill, Savers, or independent thrift store near you and go to the electronics section. There’s a good chance they’ll have at least one VCR. If they don’t, try a different shop. You can also check local online marketplaces, yard sales, etc.

Good things to look for:

4 (or more) Heads — Heads are the things that actually read the tape. The more heads you have, the better your picture is going to be.

Auto Tracking — Poor tracking can create a rolling picture, which is a pain to fix. An auto tracking VCR does that work for you.

Pre-2000 — After 2000, electronics started being mass produced with plastic casings and cheap parts. VCRs made after this time are a whole lot easier to break. Ideally, you want something from the late 80s to mid 90s.

Well-known brands — Sony, Toshiba, etc. Japanese manufacturers tend to have the best quality. Early Emersons are nice too.

Generally good condition — If there’s a bullet hole in the case, it’s probably best to pass on. A bit of dust isn’t an issue, but major damage isn’t a good sign. If you can, plug the machine into a power outlet in the store and see if it even turns on.

Head cleaning indicator — Not something you *need*, but I find it nice to have. You’ll want to use a head cleaning tape when the indicator starts flashing.

This is the one I’ll be using for the sake of this guide. This is an old Emerson that I picked up from Goodwill for $7.95. (Notice the five price tags they slapped on top.)

Step 2: Get Some Tapes (¢10-$1)

This is the fun part. Almost every thrift store will have some VHS tapes, usually near the books/DVDs/records. I’ve seen them as expensive as a dollar, but some stores will just give them away for free. I suggest buying a few movies you like, plus one or two shitty tapes to test out your VCR with.

You may also find 20 different copies of Titanic in every store. This is a normal occurance.

Remember to check the condition of any tape you plan on putting in your machine. If the spool looks moldy, you *can* try to clean it, but you’ll need another VCR to do so. If the tape looks wrinkled or otherwise damaged, you can still probably play it, but it will look and sound a lot rougher than you should expect. If the casing is damaged, I wouldn’t risk trying to put it in your VCR at all.

Remember: VHS tapes stopped being produced commercially in 2006. Most tapes you find aren’t going to be in the best shape, because they’re all a few decades old. (Sometimes, though, you will come across a tape with an excellent picture, good sound quality, and subtitles! The Mummy tape that I own is near perfect.)

Step 3: Connecting the VCR to Your TV

For this step, you’re going to want a coaxial cable and a set of RCA cables (the red, yellow, and white ones). If your TV doesn’t have an RCA input, you’ll also need an RCA-to-HDMI converter. If your TV also doesn’t have an HDMI input for whatever reason, you’re shit out of luck.

You’ll plug these cables into the “out” or “out to tv” connection on your VCR, then plug the other end into the back of your TV.

Note: Not all VCRs have right audio (the red one)! That’s fine. Just leave it hanging free. The left audio (white) is your mono audio, so you’ll just have that instead.

Lastly, put the channel switch on the back of your VCR on 3 or 4. I keep mine on 3. This is the number for the channel you’ll go to on your TV to actually see what the VCR is playing.

Step 4: Setting up the TV

I use a little Roku TV, which is surprisingly steady to set up for VCR input:

Settings ➡️ TV Inputs ➡️ Live TV

From here, you’ll either be prompted to scan for channels OR you’ll have to select “scan for antenna channels”. It will ask you if you want to have channels 3 and 4, to which you’ll say “yeah, I do want channels 3 and 4” and click the button that lets you have channels 3 and 4. If you don’t have an antenna, you can skip the other prompts.

I haven’t done this on any other type of TV, but the process should be pretty similar: get yourself to channels 3 and 4 through whatever means necessary.

Once you’re there, it should look like this. Sad, blank, and lonely. But not for long.

Step 5: Playing Your Tapes

This is where things can go really really well or really really wrong. If everything is hooked up, you can grab your shitty tape and insert it into the VCR.

(Make sure there isn’t anything else in there first, though. Some people don’t remove their precious Titanic copies before donating these things.)

You’ll want a tape that’s fairly clean, with no casing damage, and already rewound (black tape in the left window). To insert the tape into a front-loading VCR, slowly and firmly slide it into the slot. Once it’s most of the way in, the machine should “grab” it and pull it all the way inside. You’ll hear the machine make some noises.

(If those noises are really crunchy, that’s probably not a good thing. Troubleshoot with your favorite search engine or head over to r/VHS to see if anyone can help you.)

Once your machine is only making some clunky whirring sounds, it should be safe to press the play button. Enjoy watching your favorite films in the least pleasant format possible. Don’t forget to rewind em when you’re done.

If you have issues, the freaks over at r/VHS tend to be really helpful, but you can also find decade-old YouTube videos that might answer your questions too.

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Karkat Vantas vs Tavros Nitram!

Conditions:

All "Post Canon" materials are ignored. Both characters have all of their knowns weapons and tools available to them, even if they no longer have them by the end of the story. Tavros is not Gcatavrosprite.

Scenario:

Karkat is both bored and stir crazy having nothing to do on Earth C, so when Tavros invites him to go FLARPing, Karkat accepts. Eventually, the plot of the roleplay contrives that Karkat and Tavros's characters must fight, with both boys getting just a bit too into it.

Analysis: Karkat Vantas

Ask yourself one very important question. A question that has plagued nearly all of mankind since its very inception. What does God, our omnipotent creator, look like?

Stop thinking, because you're wrong. Our God is just an internet troll from another universe who wears a massive sweater, pulls his pants up to his chest, and has a love for dumb rom coms.

Meet Karkat Vantas, a mutant blooded alien troll from the distant planet of Alternia. Born as a mutant with bright red blood, Karkat had no place in Alternia's dystopic blood-based caste system and, as such, his very existence was a crime punishable by death. As such, Karkat has lived his entire life in constant fear and paranoia that one day his blood would be discovered and he would be killed. Growing up as a born outlaw in a murderous dystopia did not do well for Karkat's psyche, resulting in him growing up into an abrasive asshole who was fully convinced he would die at any moment.

Little did he know until his 13th birthday (or 6.5th birthday going off Alternia's time measurement system), he had inherited a destiny, regarding both the future of his race and the future of his very universe.

See, Karkat wasn't any mutant. He was a direct descendant of the Signless. A troll who, many centuries ago, had rebelled in the name of trolls of every caste, seeking to bring peace to the horrific, bloodthirsty dystopia. He was executed for his efforts, but not before his genetic information was copied.... by Karkat himself. Technically.

Karkat's other destiny was his destiny as a SBURB Player. He and all his friends were destined to play a video game called SGRUB, which would bring about the end of their world. The game, if played right, would allow Karkat and friends to become the gods of the new world, but in order for that to happen at all, the game had to allow Karkat to ensure his own existence through time traveling clone science fuckery. It's complicated.

This gave Karkat a golden opportunity to both escape his horrible situation and rule as the leader of a pantheon of gods over his own personal universe. Namely, our universe. He kindly assures us that it would've been a horrific and brutal regime, but it never really got off the ground, as Karkat's victory was stolen from him at the last second by an invincible time demon and Karkat would up having to work with the humans he had intended to enslave for the sake of survival.

This is because Karkat is not even half the conquer he wants to be. He isn't even really the leader of his team. Despite all his bluster of being a God born from a superior warrior race, Karkat is a loud mouthed weakling when measured up to nearly anyone else on his team. He has no special powers, he's physically the weakest out of everyone, and he isn't even an actual God.

What Karkat does have... is heart. Much to his chagrin, Karkat's special power is basically friendship. As a Blood Player, Karkat is supernaturally predisposed to being really good at making friends and maintaining friendships... which turned out to be the very thing he needed to succeed as well as he did.

See, all of Karkat's friends have a very deep, bloody history. As in, "these people are personally responsible for the most traumatic and horrifying events in my life. Events that shape who I am as a person to this day" deep. They've killed each other before and they would again. However, thanks to Karkat's influence, they're able to not only work together but actually almost get along. Karkat had a genocidal highblood supremacist counting him as one of his best friends, that's how potent this guy's friendship power inexplicably is.

A lot of this can be chalked up to the Blood Aspect, sure, but a lot of it can also be chalked up to who Karkat is under all the paranoia and anger. He gets people, he understands their character flaws, their failings, their fears, and he sympathizes with them. He gets, probably better than anyone else, that everyone around him is effectively a terrified kid with boatloads of trauma. That's the real reason he could never by the bloodthirsty tyrant he dreamed of. It's not who he is, at his foundation. It just took a long time and a lot of bonding with the humans he supposedly despised for him to realize that.

That said, Karkat is only physically unimpressive by the standards of the literal gods that surround him. He's still a SBURB Player and he still grew up on an inhospitable hell planet. As such, he is much stronger than your ordinary human.

Notably, he should powerscale to the same kind of meteor trip that Rose survived, as all SBURB Players arrive on their home planets this way and all the Players are capable of surviving their meteor trips. Unless you want to suggest that Rose is thousands of time stronger than Karkat as an infant, Karkat should be roughly comparable.

From this point, Karkat has been getting stronger all of his life. Everyone and everything in Homestuck has an Echeladder, a video game style leveling system that continues to make them stronger as they accomplish random things throughout their life, ranging from opening a fridge to winning a fight.

On top of this, Karkat is certainly a much more skilled fighter than your average human being. His team was able to take in the armies of the Kingdom of Derse, which has been warring with its opposite Kingdom of Prospite for as long as its home reality has existed. Despite that, Karkat found himself being flat out disappointed by how easy they were to fight against, with only the King proving to be enough of a challenge to rally the whole team.

As with all Homestuck characters, Karkat also has a sylladex, a hammerspace inventory system where he can store objects much too big to carry on his person, allowing him to pull out his handy twin sickles whenever he needs them. Really, the fact that most of his friends can knock him out cold with a love tap says more about them than it does about him.

Despite that though, Karkat is still not a fighter and he possesses bad luck to a literally superhuman degree. In fact, his luck is so horrible that it completely counters out luck based superpowers, allowing him to beat Clover, whose luck is so supernaturally good that it made him completely untouchable to everyone else on the battlefield except for Karkat. Turning all your negatives into a positive. If that isn't just Karkat's entire character arc.

Karkat is not the conquerer he so desperately wanted to be. But he is a leader and he is a friend, and in the hands of a Blood Player, those two titles are far more powerful than a warrior ever could be.

Analysis: Tavros Nitram

Alternia. The world before humanity. A death world designed to create conquerors and killers. Only the mightiest of warriors could possibly survive to adulthood. Only the cruelest killers would live long enough to join the fleet of the Alternian Empire and conquer the galaxy.

Tavros Nitram.... is not one of those warriors. Yet, he survives anyway. And Vriska hates him for it.

Tavros is a simple dude. When he's not playing Fiduspawn, rather, Troll Pokemon, he's happily LARPing with his friends while cosplaying Pupa Pan, troll Peter Pan. He's a shy and awkward dork on a planet full of bloodthirsty killers, which you think would make him an easy target. His Lusus isn't even big enough to protect him and he's a bronze blood, the second lowest rung on Alternia's bloodcaste.

Normally, you'd be right, but Tavros has an ace up his sleeve. His unparalleled ability with animal communion. He can control the minds of any animal he can telepathically reach, with his range expanding across entire universes. And when everyone else on the planet has a giant animal parent, that's a very easy way to guarantee no one messes with you. His telepathic ability can even extend to the nigh-omniscient First Guardians, reality warping gods tasked with preparing planets for the apocalypse, so long as they have some kind of animal component to them.

So, Tavros was left well enough alone... until he met Vriska.

Vriska... has had the opposite life experience on Alternia. Even with her similarly powerful telepathic abilities, she lived under a cruel, indifferent Lusus that demanded she hunt down and murder other kids to feed them to it, less she get eaten herself. Vriska, more than anyone, internalized Alternia's philosophy of might makes right. After all, if that wasn't true, then everything bad that happened to her happened for no reason at all and she was just a helpless teenage girl being pointlessly victimized. And Vriska could never admit to that.

So, when she sees Tavros living his best life without a single mean bone in his body, she figures she has to "toughen him up". If she won't, then he'll just die, right? No way someone can be a weakling and live a happy, carefree life.

So begain Vriska's attempts to ruin Tavros's life. Starting with her mind controlling him into jumping off a cliff to shatter his own spine, confining him to a wheelchair that his hive was not built to accommodate. Vriska would continually harass and bully him even as the world burned down around them, all under the guise of toughening him up.

This created something of a misconception in the fandom that Tavros is a complete pushover who lets everyone walk over him. This isn't completely untrue. Tavros is a complete disaster in social skills and the less said about his disastrous attempts to flirt, the better. He's nice, shy, and naive enough to see the best in everyone, even Vriska, which makes him struggle to put his foot down. He's even one of the only people on his team who'd never willingly take a life, even when Vriska tried to force him to kill her with mind control, he instead broke down crying and fled.

But, on the other hand, he does snark back at Vriska for her abuse constantly. He doesn't take anything she does to him lying down, he's just physically powerless to do anything about it and gets humiliated every time he tries. Remember, Vriska is the one most pushing the idea that he needs to be confident to fix all his problems... and Vriska is wrong.

Tavros is more than capable of handling himself in a fight. He used to play Fatal Live Action Roleplay for fun frequently and was confident enough in his abilities to go up against Vriska in it in the first place. LARPing is a lot more immersive when the other players are actively trying to kill you. Tavros spent hours side questing in SGRUB without having to kill a single imp, despite their hardcoded hostility. Equipped with a rocket powered wheelchair, Tavros can easily soar through the skies, charging foes down with his heavy lance. He even survived being carried down to Alternia on the back of a flaming meteor, just like everyone else on his team.

With his Fiduspawn cards, Tavros can create monsters to assist him in combat or call on the nearby wildlife for aide, preferring to use large groups to outnumber his opponents. Tavros is not the dedicated fighter Vriska is and he doesn't have to be. He's perfectly effective as he is doing what he's good at.

Ultimately, Tavros's most impressive feat would come about after his death. After finally getting fed up with Vriska and ditching her, Tavros would help in the battle against Lord English in his own way. He'd gather an entire army of millions of ghosts, thousands of dead gods, to wage war against tge Lord of Time, persuading all of them to his side for the fate of all reality. Tavros would completely upstage Vriska's own plans to take the fight to Lord English and completely shatter her world view, just by being who he is. Just like he always had been from the start.

Alternia tried its damndest to beat the humanity out of every troll on the planet. It might have succeeded for awhile with Vriska, before her own character growth, but with Tavros... it never even came close.

Throwdown Breakdown:

Well, time to see who's actually the weakest troll on Alternia.

Again, not really diving into stats here because they both scale to about the same things. Both of them can survive their meteor trips as grubs and both can keep up with the rest of the group during the fight with the Black King. A lot of the most impressive things Karkat would scale to are also things that Tavros would scale to because they did them as a group.

As for whether Tavros would be willing to fight Karkat at all, I do think he could in this scenario. Fighting is not something Tavros enjoys and Karkat is a friend of his. A very close friend even, Karkat is the person Tavros calls when he first breaks his legs and Tavros goes to Karkat after Vriska kisses him for advice. But, Tavros spends a lot of time FLARPing with and against his friends before and nothing about this scenario mandates that this has to be a fight to the death. Tavros would under no circumstances be willing to kill Karkat and vice versa, but a friendly fight is doable.

I disagree with the notion that Karkat could just bully Tavros into not fighting at all. All of Tavros's most pathetic moments come from interactions with Vriska, someone he couldn't challenge even if he tried. In fact, he did try. He died. Karkat, meanwhile, has never been shown intimidating Tavros and Tavros has never been put down by his insults and tirades. If Karkat was capable of bullying him into submission, he probably wouldn't have been the first person Tav called when he broke his legs. It feels like flanderization to say Karkat could bully Tavros like Vriska could when he has nowhere near the same malicious grip on him that Vriska does.

Now, onto the actual fight. Karkat has a very solid advantage in physical mobility. Even if we're assuming this is a dreambubble ghost Tavros with his working legs, Tav has point blank never demonstrated the same acrobatics that Karkat has by himself. If we don't assume that, then Tavros is either wheelchair bound or using prosthetic legs he hasn't fully adapted to yet. Either way, Karkat backflips and youth rolls all over him.

Problem is, this is possibly Karkat's only advantage and Tavros has counters.

Skill wise, both are pretty on par. Both characters were able to coast through fights with their imps and Derse's armies with relative ease. Tavros was doing a pacifist run, sure, but he still had to defend himself and survive adequately in order to talk his enemies down to begin with. On Karkat's side, he managed to survive up until his thirteenth birthday without anyone ever seeing him bleed, which is very impressive considering what Alternia is like. But, his character introduction directly specifies how little combat experience he actually has prior to SGRUB, while Tavros was a frequent FLARPer prior to being paralyzed. Tav has experience, but logistically, Karkat has the better weapons. Lances can be stilted and awkward to use in close combat as they are built as charging weapons, so if Karkat can box Tav in, he'd be at an advantage. As a whole, I'd say it evens out.

Special abilities is about where this all swings in Tavros's corner. Karkat can't fly so Tavros's rocket chair provides a big advantage, easily getting out of his range and charging from a distance. Even with Karkat's acrobatics, he would need something to jump off of to reach Tav, while Tav could control where the fight takes place to an extent, either by flying off in that direction to lead Karkat there or taking him for a ride should he manage to latch on.

This plays into Tav's obvious trump card, animal communion. With Fiduspawn cards, Tavros is going to have loyal animals on hand to fight Karkat off with and his flight allows him to take the fight to locations where there are animals to get them into the fray too. Or just fly off, grab some animals, then fly back. The sheer range of his telepathic abilities means that, so long as this fight is set on a planet with sentient life (which Earth C definitely has), Tavros can call in animal friends.

Karkat can win if he manages to box Tavros in, but Tav's flight makes that nigh impossible. Even animals that Karkat can completely fodderize through sheer stats would at least serve to distract him and keep him from reaching Tavros, gradually wearing him down with ramming charges.

Karkat's best option is to latch onto Tavros's rocket chair during one of his charges (or latch on after getting hit) and trash it to leave him a sitting duck, seizing the advantage while he's boxed in. And while I do think he's capable of this, he's going to be hard pressed to do so when potentially any and every animal in a ten mile radius could run up and dog pile him at any time, with swarms of birds and bugs pestering him off the chair before can do much damage or leaving him open to get clubbed with a lance or horns while he tries.

Karkat can win, but Tavros has too many options to keep him at bay before he does.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Tavros Nitram!

[keplercryptids]

choir campaign update! we are right smack in the middle of playing through the PCs' backstory two-shots (using a different ttrpg system each time). currently, we're playing out what happened when Pallor (a hacker who's compassionate, fearless but shortsighted, and unwavering) discovered that the galaxy's spaceships are sentient. and then immediately ran away with one, oops.

i have never drawn a spaceship OR a moth before so why not both at once!

this is Cadence (true name redacted). it's an immortal space moth who sounds discordant like an out-of-tune cello, and just wants to be free.

[image description copied from alt text: a digital sketch of a spaceship that resembles a moth, with many layered bronze wings curling down to form a dome beneath the gray body of the ship. The silhouette of a large pendulum hangs within that dome. A large red scar in the shape of a fibonacci spiral is on one of the wings.]

and, just because i genuinely like my initial physical sketches in all their charming wonkiness:

[image description copied from alt text: several pencil sketches of the same ship as above on paper. there are three additional angles (top down, side view, front view.]

[isfjmel-phleg]

May 2024 Books

The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker (reread)

I always enjoy this one. It has a lot of Oz-like charm.

The Master Key by L. Frank Baum (reread)

I was going to try to say some clever things about the ending of this book, but I'm tired, so the short version is that the protagonist is given a series of eletrically powered gifts from the Demon of Electricity (more like a genie, don't let the name fool you), only to get into various misadventures of the type common to turn-of-the-century boys' stories (with a lot of era-typical attitudes toward non-American or -European peoples and cultures that did not age well) and finally give back the gifts and insist that mankind isn't ready for such power and "it's no fun being a century ahead." I wasn't the biggest fan of the protagonist (rather a jerk), and the story was less interesting to me than the historical context and what it demonstrated of perspectives toward technology at the beginning of the twentieth century. Baum has some interesting concepts in this one, but there's a reason that it hasn't really stood the test of time.

Heart of the Curiosity by H. L. Burke (reread)

I did not care for this one. I do not recommend it.

Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

I love this book so much, and I needed to revisit it. I love the characters. I love the twists and turns even though I know they're already coming. *SPOILERS* This time I was struck particularly by Torquil and Hathaway's reconciliation--Torquil has been avoiding his brother after a disagreement, expecting animosity, but then when they finally reunite, Hathaway is just so happy to see his brother and invites him to visit anytime and it's like the grievances never happened, and in a family as dysfunctional as theirs, this is a huge step in the right direction and a very beautiful moment.

Unexpected Magic by Diana Wynne Jones

Collection of short stories and a novella. Inventive in the Jones style, but I didn't get attached enough to any of the stories to have any likelihood of picking this one up again.

Pauline by Margaret Storey (reread)

I've been revisiting some books in light of the CEN discussion in the recent paper. This one doesn't really deal with CEN, but it does portray psychological/emotional abuse quite vividly (the antagonist at times reminded me painfully of the professor who tortured me in the Nightmare Class) and point out how damaging it is. There's a memorable scene in which a trusted adult whom Pauline turns to for help mentions to someone that Pauline has been mistreated by a family. "Is he beating her?" the other person asks. The reply: "Not physically." The acknowledgement that psychological/emotional abuse is just as hurtful and damaging in its own way as the physical kind is quite a statement for a book published in the 1960s.

Last month I reread a book also published in that decade that openly acknowledged the problems with CEN and how it's a cycle that runs in families, and I'm starting to think that that era was a point when some people were starting to more clearly see the negative effects that the likely prevalence of CEN in previous generations especially in particular classes (e.g. upper-class Victorian/Edwardian upbringings) had had. I don't know what to do with this theory, but I will continue to mull it over.

Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr (reread)

This book isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I do love it a lot and I'll probably be yelling about its adaptations at some point.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (reread)

Listen, I love Murderbot but 90% of the time I have no idea what's going on in these books since sci-fi jargon is mostly beyond me. But I was given my own copy of this book a while back and reread it, more slowly so I could wrap my mind around it better, and definitely got more out of it.

System Collapse by Martha Wells

I had to take this one slowly, but it was worth it. I love the direction that it took, with Murderbot getting involved in producing a film designed to emotionally appeal to people who are in danger of choosing an option that will result in their being enslaved--Murderbot needs the chance to work on processing its trauma, as reluctant as it is to deal with emotion, and working on the film is a big step toward catharsis.

Mother Carey's Chickens by Kate Douglas Wiggin (reread)

This one does have its charm, although I've always found it short on plot and character development (Wiggin has a habit of telling things that should have been shown, beyond the typical style of that era), but this time I had some issues with authorial favoritism toward certain characters, which you've probably already heard the rant about.

[aspenonpawzzz]

ALL OF MY AU'S

Phantom of bonesborough (PoBb): talk alot Abt this au, fiction-kin-type is from here, werewolf hunter. I talk Abt it here @phantom-w0lfbane

Wispers on the wind (Wotw) Au: the duology

A whole garden of flowers (ahgof) [WIP]: 12 years pre-canon, hunter disapeared, and was replaced with Maple, a omni-genderfluid, "system" (explained in brother au) pan orientied aroace nerd grimwalker. maple is the grimwalker that phillip likes the most, least ab#used and is the most Phillip (due to hair color) looking. instead of becoming the Golden Guard, Philips made them the Platinum Peacemaker. Phillips gave it a heart transplant, allowing them to do some magic, but she can't do some of the more draining/ diffcult spells. he looks like a (depending on the day) andro, masc, fem, or all/none mix of hunter, Phillip, and @catboymoments huntlow child. tracks IF she went to hexside/ special interests are oracle, illusions, and poitions. he is 15 physically, tho she was "born" Abt 6 months after hunter dissperred. instead of a wolves and cardinals for hunter, foxes and starlings are maples symbols. Platinum peacemaker outfit is a gender neutral GG out fit, with black inplace of white, deep violet =yellow, gold= dark silver. instead of a barn-owl mask, smybolising wisdom, helpfulness, and death of the unworthy, the PP( noo) mask is a phoenix, which smybolises rebirth, second chances, the afterlife.

My name carved in a rock (mncir)[WIP]: Ahgof's brother story, about this Au's hunter, a demiace biro boyfreak he/it (called graves [gray for short] in this) who 12 years pre-canon was "kidnapped" by Darius, but lost, and fell into a titans blood pool, entering the inbetween, and meeting collector. Graves learned many wittabane and Phillip things, and is far more unhinged than canon. he is still 16, but far less mentally stable. it watches luz and the gang, and TRIES to help (cause he has conversed with kings dad before like 3 times) out giving hints, using the wind. oh did I forget to mention that it can control the wind in this AU? yeah, so he uses that to push importiant papers toward luz, whispers things in the gangs ears (sound like that little voice in ur head but its the wind saying it but not out loud? that makes sense?). the main hexsquad can kinda hear it, but not really. maple however, being a grimwalker so having a intamite relationship with death, hears it quite well! maple mistakes this as a system, and gray plays along. it meets luz when she enters the inbetween in "yesterdays lie", and luz pulls him out, ignoring its demands to stay. he stays tho, and after a little bit freaks cause he's like "oh shit maple " and maple has not heard for their head mate gray in a minute. graves doesn't spoil the whole "phillip is Belos" stuff tho.

deviltown (syshun)[WIP]:

ok this is a stupid self-indulgent au where hunter is the Evenader system with 3 alters. everything happens like canon, but system style.

Flint: "Hunter". he/they. biromantic demisexual. Trans demiboy. mostly canon. front-sticky, host/core.

Xander: "The GG incarnate." it/its, doesn't mind he/him tho. caedo-triple a battery. (aroace, Agender). standoffish, robotic, jumpy. trauma holder/ protector

Juniper: "Me but a head mate for a hunter" they/it, red fox alterhuman. apothisexual, arospike. sarcastic, aloof, wild-card. no one knows. nobody understands juniper.

oh happy day (ohd) [WIP]:

s3 happen, but flapjack lived.thats it. that's the whole au.

Partners in Crime(PiC) [irl au, I live in this one kinda]

my world. i live in this universe lol yes I am insane inside my head is a house ? building? thing that's cool and connected to The Inbetween.

I live there with PiC phantom (from PoBb) because he was a OC that got sentient. I do stuff like see universes. I "copy" peoples au OCs and theses ones know Abt my life. I am a chaotic entity that sarcastically comments on hunter AUs lives because I am the titan and the archivists combined. phantom and I have an almost Luz and hunter pre-kings tide relationship. I made this because the brainrot is too strong and I am a INTJ with a hero/god complex.

Wolf Warren (ww) [Oc AU]

An owl house swap AU in which all of my OCs are in their respective places (my gg oc=hunter, exc)

Fox Fort (FF) [swap au]

a swap AU with my main (insert character) AU eg. phantom for Hunter.

WILL ADD MORE WHEN MORE COME!

[bedpolls]

how many characters do you have in your inbox?

I'm sure you didn't expect a nice long response anon, but that's what you're getting.

Right now I have 50 asks in my inbox, including this one. The last time I completely emptied the inbox was on 5/14. Best case scenario, is that it will take about 2 hours for me to sort through and post the requests to the queue. Once I got over 100 asks in less than a 48 hour period, and straight up spent 4.5 hours sorting through them. Here's why it takes me so long.

I do a basic search to make sure the character in question isn't a minor, and to figure out what their actual name is. I cannot stress this enough, idk shit about 90% of the requests I get. I don't know who that character is. Any mistakes made with names or photos chosen aren't because I secretly hate you and that character, or because I'm being malicious. It's because I've got little to no way to know what's correct. I'm going off shit on wikis, and most of that content is written by a bot nowadays anyways.

For me, the ideal submission format is "[FULL CHARACTER NAME] from [FULL TITLE OF MEDIA]" and that's it. That way I can just copy/paste directly from the ask into google. I have not instituted this as a rule, simply because I can't get people to read what rules I do have in the first place. Idk how much more eye catching that posts needs to be. It's bold, in red, and pinned to the top of the blog. If I put in a requirement for formatting, it would disqualify most requests, and I don't want to do that.

Some people feel the need to editorialize in the request itself, which tbh I mostly ignore. I don't care why you submitted this character. Idk anything about this character. Do whatever. Live your best life.

A random character nickname + acronym for the title is also the worst. I can usually figure it out, but it takes longer. When I've still got 30+ requests to get through, that's frustrating. I think sometimes people will just put the acronym for a piece of media in out of habit, or because they see I've used an acronym at some point in the tagging system. Tumblr does recommend tags, and that's why I might use it. This means that, when an acronym pops up again in the ask, I still don't immediately recognize it until I can remember googling it two weeks ago the last time that piece of media came up.

When it comes to the age of characters, I'll be honest I have much less patience. Sometimes I will google "[CHARACTER NAME] age" and what comes up is a spirited reddit thread, where people are arguing about whether or not the character is 15 or 45. Or 16 or 1500. Or whether or not they count as a minor, if they're physically 13 but actually 120 years old. Or whatever. I just fucking delete those, I'm not dealing with that shit.

I also often have to search the blog or scroll the queue to see if I have done the request before. There's a few video games where I've gotten a bunch of requests, there's a shitton of characters, and the names all blend together. If it's a duplicate, I delete those requests.

Generally speaking though, I try my best to ensure that every request gets posted. Yes even if it's weird, even if it's niche. You can submit characters from that one webcomic, or that one movie you love from 1954. The only requests that get deleted are ones that are 1) duplicates 2) violate the posted rules or 3) are so incomprehensible that I have no way of knowing what the fuck the requester is talking about.

[m00ngbin]

SAW YOUR CD POST AND AM NOW FROTHING AT THE MOUTH THAT I FOUND A CD LIKER IN THE WILD PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE plsssss talk about them

Like what's your favourite part of collecting them? Or what's your most prized one? Or maybe what one are you most proud of getting for the price you got it for?

Infodump to your hearts content CDs are like the closest thing in my life to a special interest lol

OH MY GOD EVERYBODY WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT MY CDS THIS IS THE BEST EVER

@boquetgarni @grimlyyyfiendish @spacepajamas956 you guys ALSO said yes. so.

Oh and everything is capitalized as it says it is on the CD or it's case so the capitalization of the words "and" and "of" are going to be the tiniest bit inconsistent

Ok so first: the list:

1. Depeche Mode (unspecified album)

2. Evanescence (Fallen)

3. Green Day (american idiot)

4. Lady Gaga (Born This Way)

5. Miley Cyrus (the time of our lives) (the one I regret getting the most)

6. My Chemical Romance (Danger days)

7. My Chemical Romance (Three Cheers)

8. Paramore (Riot!)

9. Rage Against The Machine (Evil Empire)

10. Rancid (...And Out Come The Wolves)

11. SkyView (Of Love and Despair)

12. System Of A Down (Toxicity)

13. The Cure (Greatest Hits)

14. The Cure (Wild Mood Swings)

15. The White Stripes (Greatest Hits (My Sister Thanks You And I Thank You))

16. Tyler, The Creator (IGOR)

17. Tyler, The Creator (WOLF)

18. Trolls (Band Together)

I love CDs. I feel like I always make my collection sound bigger than it is but I'm very happy with the ones that I have

Questions:

My favorite part about collecting them is kind of that I like completing collections and when I get multiple albums by the same artists it's the best ever, and I also just like having physical copies of my favorite music

My FAVORITE cd is either my The Cure Greatest Hits cd, the Danger Days cd, or the IGOR cd, and my least favorites are the Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and Trolls cds bc I just never listen to them ever

My most prized AND the one I'm the most happy about the price of is the Danger Days cd because I originally got it second hand maybe three ish years ago and at first I was just like "oh cool a my chemical romance cd, I've wanted one of those," but then I looked inside AND IT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST DANGER DAYS CDS THEY SOLD. LIKE IT WAS FROM THE FIRST WAVE OF RELEASES. AND THE GUY I BOUGHT IT FROM WAS ONLY SELLING IT FOR LIKE THREE DOLLARS. I'm very proud of finding it

Organization:

All of my CDs are organized alphabetically by band name and then album name, but I went though a lot of different ways of organizing them just bc I love organizing things. The first time I organized them I did it by genre, then I did it by just band name, then I did it by just album, then I did it by color, and then how much I liked the CD. The only one that isn't currently in it's correct place is Trolls because I wanted to hide it from my friend (will explain)

Facts about the albums and also sometimes the CD:

1. ??? (Depeche Mode)

I know like nothing about this cd. It came in an unmarked cd case and it doesn't say ANYTHING about the songs on it or the album on the actual cd. The only reason I KNEW it was Depeche Mode was because it was written on the cd in red sharpie. I'm like 99% sure it was made by someone and not the actual band, and I could find out what album it is but it doesn't really matter as long as I like the music

2. Fallen (Evanescence)

I saw them live almost exactly a year ago and OH MY GOD they were so cool. The album came out in 2003 and it's not my FAVORITE of their albums but it's not my least favorite either. I UNIRONICALLY REALLY LIKE IT ITS NOT A JOKE

Favorite songs: Everybody's Fool, Imaginary, and My Last Breath

3. American Idiot (Green Day)

I was originally looking for one of their other albums but ykw? This is good too. This cd took so long to find which is such a shock bc as far as I knew, everybody liked Green Day. American Idiot came out in 2004, and it was their 5th album.

Favorite songs: Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday / Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and Homecoming

4. Born This Way (Lady Gaga)

I don't have a TON to say about this album but it did shape my music taste until I was like 12. So. I was a very hardcore Gaga stan. Born This Way came out in 2011.

Favorite songs: Heavy Metal Lover, Judas, and Americano ("fake Lady Gaga fan" I KNOW I KNOW IM SORRY I JUST LIKE HER MOST POPULAR STUFF)

5. The Time Of Our Lives (Miley Cyrus)

Not much to say about this one either, I don't listen to Miley Cyrus that much. This album came out in 2009 and I really only got this CD because it has Party In The USA on it

Favorite song: Party In The USA

6. Danger Days (MCR)

OK THIS IS THE FIRST ONE I CAN INFODUMP INFODUMP ABOUT. SO THE ALBUM CAME OUT IN 2010 AND IT WAS, (SORT OF, I don't count May Death Never Stop You or The Black Parade/Living With Ghosts and I'm not including any of the Numbers), THEIR MOST RECENT RELEASE UNTIL 2022 WHEN MCR GOT BACK TOGETHER TO MAKE THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY. This is unironically my second favorite mcr album, it's only after Bullets and I will never ever understand why people don't appreciate it as much as they should. ALLEGEDLY the last song on the album (Vampire Money) was made to mock all of the people who made music for one of the Twilight movies. FUN FACT THE PERSON WHO WAS MAKING THE TWILIGHT MOVIES TRIED TO GET MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE TO WRITE MUSIC FOR NEW MOON AND NOT ONLY DID MCR SAY NO, THEY WROTE A SONG FOR YO GABBA GABBA INSTEAD CALLED EVERY SNOWFLAKE IS DIFFERENT (JUST LIKE YOU) IN 2011. SINCE GERARD WAY IS A COMIC BOOK ARTIST HE WROTE THE STORY FOR THIS AND HE ACTUALLY MADE A COMIC BOOK FOR IT TOO THAT YOU CAN BUY AND I THINK YOU SHOULD CHECK IT OUT ok I could talk about MCR all day I need to stop

Favorite songs: Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back, Planetary (GO!), and Na Na Na (etc)

7. OR MAYBE I DONT NEED TO STOP BC THIS IS THREE CHEERS FOR SWEET REVENGE (MCR)

OH I COULD SAY SO MUCH AB THIS ALBUM but for the sake of keeping it short, this album was released in 2004 and it fleshes out the story of the Demolition Lovers that was started back when they released Bullets AND I COULD HAVE A WHOLE RANT ABOUT THE DEMOLITION LOVERS I LOVE THE DEMOLITION LOVERS. I got this CD from a shady music store that I haven't gone back to since bc it freaked me out so badly

Favorite songs: The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You, Cemetery Drive, and YKWTDTGLUIP (long ass song names jfc)

8. Riot! (Paramore)

THIS CD KILLED MY CAR. I'm not joking I'm being so serious this cd killed my car I had to get it jumped and towed. It's a long story that all happened within the span of 30 minutes and I was REALLY pissed about it. Anyways Riot was released in 2007 and it is one of my absolute favorite albums by Paramore of all time. Unrelated to this album but Paramore actually DID end up writing music for Twilight, they wrote Decode, (very popular), and I Caught Myself, (significantly less popular).

Favorite songs: For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic, crushcrushcrush, and Let The Flames Begin

9. Evil Empire (Rage Against The Machine)

SKDODNSKFID I love RATM. I think that this album probably has everyone's favorite RATM songs on it, and it came out in 1996.

Favorite songs: Roll Fight, Bulls on Parade, and Revolver

10. ...And Out Come The Wolves (Rancid)

STILL RANCID'S BEST ALBUM ARGUE WITH THE WALL. ARGUE. WITH. THE. WALL. Urgh this was like the only thing I listened to two years ago but it's grown on me. Very reminiscent of middle aged white fathers. The album was released in 1995, and I cannot tell you how many times I had to listen to all of these songs. I don't know jack shit about Rancid but I love this album. ACTUALLY one of these songs was how I picked out a name forever ago

Favorite songs: Maxwell Murder, Lock, Step & Gone, and The 11th Hour

11. Of Love And Despair (SkyView)

This is one of the only CDs I've ever gotten AT a concert. SkyView is (kind of) local band and they usually perform in planetariums bc they can sync up their music with lasers and videos of space and rockets. I would recommend seeing them after doing edibles. The album came out in 2017 and most of the songs are instrumentals

Favorite songs: You Win, All Alone, and Shooting Star

12. Toxicity (System of a Down)

IMAGINE MY SHOCK AND SURPRISE WHEN I FOUND OUT THAT MOST OF THE PEOPLE I LIVE WITH DONE LIKE SYSTEM OF A DOWN. STUNNED. HORRIFIED. SPEECHLESS. I love this album sooo much, it came out in 2001 and it was the 2nd studio album ever released by System

Favorite songs: Prison Song, Deer Dance, and Chop Suey!

13. Greatest Hits (The Cure)

AHKSHDKAIDJS I LOVE THE CURE SO MUCH YOU DONT UNDERSTAND. THIS ALBUM CAME OUT IN 2001 but it's a mix of songs that had mostly come out in the 80s-90s. I GOT TO SEE THE CURE IN CONCERT LAST YEAR AND THAT WAS THE BEST CONCERT IVE EVER BEEN TO I wish they would come back :(

Favorite songs: Why Can't I Be You, Lullaby, and In Between Days

14. Wild Mood Swings (The Cure)

Truthfully I got this CD because I thought it was a different one but it has really grown on me. This album came out in 1996 which makes it kind of weird that none of these songs made it into Greatest Hits but yZK (THEY SHOULD HAVE)

Favorite songs: Strange Attraction, Jupiter Crash, and This Is a Lie

15. Greatest Hits (The White Stripes)

I got this cd for one song and one song only, but up until I got it I'd forgotten how much I love The White Stripes. The album came out in 2020 (REALLY RECENT WOW) and it includes songs going back to 1998

Favorite songs: Fell in Love With a Girl, (the song I got the CD for in the first place), Hello Operator, and The Hardest Button to Button

16. IGOR (Tyler, The Creator)

KSOSHFKSOSJFJE MY FAVORITE CD EVER ACTUALLY. I COULD TALK FOR HOURS. HOURS. ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS ALBUM. I COULD AND WOULD TELL YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT IT but this has seriously taken me two hours, so it's not happening today. IGOR came out in 2019 and won Tyler, The Creator his first Grammy, (FOLLOWED BY CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST WITH HIS SECOND).

Favorite songs: I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE, PUPPET, and ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?

17. WOLF (Tyler, The Creator)

THIS IS THE CD I GOT MOST RECENTLY AND IM SO HAPPY ABOUT IT AND AKDITHSKKDFJEJ OK so the album came out in 2013 and it was his 2nd (solo) album and AKOEJDOAFIRN OK I REALLY NEED TO HURRY THIS UP BC I COULD TALK ABOUT WOLF FOR AN HOUR IF GIVEN THE CHANCE

Favorite songs: Wolf, treehome95, and Answer

18. Band Together (Trolls)

This is honestly my least favorite bc I originally got it as a gag gift but I've been forced to listen to the same three songs on it a hundred times. It came out this year, I really don't have that much to say, it's just here. It's the only one that's out of order in my cd collection just because I have to hide it from anyone that I'm driving around because they WILL put it on

Favorite songs: urgh do I really need to have a favorite (THE TINY CHUNK OF THAT ONE SONG THATS JUST THE TROLLS SINGING I WANT YOU BACK BY NSYNC. Or It Takes Two)

ANYWAYS SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I WOULD SAY MORE BUT I TOOK FOREVER JUST TO SAY THIS. SO.

[like-rain-or-confetti]

5 ⭐️ Recommendations!

Okay, so PLEASE do your research for these because im not taking responsibility. In the same way, i have a look at what i get before i read, i ask you to do the same. I am guilty of not doing enough research, but I have seen people in the past get hate because of the 'why didn't you tell me ___' factor. So... Warning! Some of these books may have smut or generally 18+ content. PLEASE do you research before you read!💙

Self-Help

The Happiness Trap pocketbook by Russ Harris. - this is the condensed illustrative version of the Happiness Trap textbook. There are another two. If you want a smaller easy to read version of these, go for the pocketbook. I was recommended this by my therapist.

101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna West. I bought a physical copy of this book, I loved it so much. Let me paint you a picture. Like I've said before, my mental health tanked after 2020 covid. My life went on hold completely, and there was nothing left. I needed a change of perspective desperately because I'm now 26 years old and I was using an old mental system that protected me when I was a teenager. That doesn't work when you're in your 20s. This book blew my mind and I bought a physical copy that I practically use as a bible. So if you're feeling lost, like life is too hard or simply don't know what you want to do with your life- this book is what you want. It helped me a bunch through therapy and I recommended it to all my friends. It's written by various people, some of which was heartfelt "I wish someone told me this before so I'm telling you now." It's very comforting to me. Like a honest friend giving some honesty as well as not leaving you feeling helpess. Absolutely brilliant. I have mine annotated and still am annotating it to continue creating that new mental system I want to have.

Romance

Flowers for the Devil by Vlad Kahany. - A 18+ historical romance for my peeps! We follow a countess and her forbidden love with the villain of society itself. Set in 1851, making it victorian era romanceeeee! This is one of the most spiciest books I've ever read. Like I was taken aback. I'm not sure if it really counts as 'dark romance' as the sub-genre because it's not the same as other books I've heard of but it's a dark book in itself...and there's romance and an ungodly amount of spice but a very good take on the 'falling for the villain' but I would say do the research first because I did not and I was taken aback by the very veeeery descriptive smut with the borderline stalkery villain.

Beach Read by Emily Henry. Contradictory to my story graph, I am not a big romance girlie... but I want to be. Sometimes, I need a break from the doom and gloom and need an easy, simple book about the wonderous world of love and this one was a hit. Two writers, two different genres, switch genres to get out of their slumps. I give thee grumpyxsunshine trope. Which I have a major soft spot for. A very easy book to read!

Romantasy

Heartless by Marissa Meyer. - Any Alice in Wonderland fans? I love it, and I have so much love for this book that in my brain, it's practically canon. This book follows the journey of the Red Queen before she became Queen of Hearts and how expectations and love can descend someone into madness. It's heartbreaking in the sweetest way and a love story that I still think about on a regular basis. What a prequel take to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson. -Oh dracula fans in the house! Well, it never explicitly states its Dracula but...it's Dracula. This book follows the first wife of an unnamed vampire and his downfall. This is definitely 18+ as far as I remember. There are LGBTQ+ themes and polygamy and themes of having multiple sexual partners. Definitely something you'd enjoy if you enjoy a take of a woman taking back her power. As a vampire lover myself, I ate this book upppp! Old school vampires. ABSOLUTELY CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS. There are some heavy themes that will likely trigger some people so definitely do your research!

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. I'VE FOUND A CLASSIC THAT I BELIEVE DESERVES THE TITLE OF A CLASSIC. This is a sapphic love affair between a vampire and a human. It's classic vampire description written in the 1800s and its brilliant. I will die on this hill that its a love story. I can't express why without giving it away but this is the OG forbidden love story. It's super short and absolutely amazing.

That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion At a Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming. So I did an oops and read book 2 before book 1 one the series which I won't lie, didn't do too much damage so no harm really done but this series is HILARIOUS. Book 1 and 2 follow two POC females who just so happen to be besties. (If anyone is looking for more poc books) Each one got drunk and ended up finding their mate. This writers humour is excellent, very modern day and not forced. These books are SPICY just as much as they are funny. So definitely 18+.

Horror

Hide by Kiersten White. Would you like to play a game? So it isn't Saw by any means, Amanda or Jigsaw aren't here and neither is the spooky doll on a trike...but there is a game. This is a deadly game of hide and seek in an abandoned theme park. One week, don't get caught and you'll get life changing money...but they didn't exactly mention what would happen if you did get caught. Mack is one of fourteen competitors, our main girl with a dark past and there's a whole new level of horror to discover the reasons people would ever create such a game. There is some LGBTQ+ themes and I can't say anything more without spoiling. Just know I'm very pleased. There are some triggering themes like death and murder so as usual check this is okay for you to read.

The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp. -What does the dumb dumb skeptic do? Provoke a demon of course and demons never back down. Jack Sparks is a writer and paranormal skeptic. Working on his new book, he is invited to witness an exorcism (which hell to the no) and his life is never the same as an unknown entity ruins his life one piece at a time using those around him. This is the book for you if you want a read where the main character is not loveable at all. He makes bad decisions and a terrible person to everyone he loves. I'd say there are also found footage vibes as this book is pieced together by Jack's estranged brother who is trying to understand just what happened to his brother. I personally found the story so good that it didn't take away from the plot. I didn't rage read this and hate the story because I didn't like the main character. It was oddly fitting and I definitely intend to read more of Arnopp's work.

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. -I'll start with this, it's definitely horror/thriller. There's a dash, a pinch, a smidge of mystery in the background but this is no doubt horror. Now, this book made me uncomfortable. This book is my answer to 'can you really get scared of books like you can movies?' Yes, the fuck, you CAN. Our adult main character looks back on the strange happenings in his childhood. It all started with the class of 5 year olds writing letters to strangers and it all just went wrong. So I can remember some trigger warnings that I know will upset people as some of them were a shock. There are mentions of animal cruelty and death, death, stalking and implied pedophilia. Also major spoiler (SPOILER) death of a child. SPOILER #2: Grown man is obsessed with child for years whilst the child has no idea. There's also a mystery to solve. Now you may ask why would I spoil this one and not others...because whilst I could stomach it (much to my surprise) it's a shock and I don't feel right recommending this book, as crazy good as it is, without you being aware that I'm not just hyping it up. These are sensitive topics and whether you know it or not, it'll still be a shocking read.

The Vessel by Adam L.G. Nevill. Another short read and listen I thought this was spooky. It won me over for being spooky. THEN THE TWIST HAPPENED and GUYS...this is a masterpiece. We follow a single mother who has taken up a job as a carer as she tries to support herself and her child after escaping an abusive relationship. The old woman she looks after is brutally mean, like you're-lucky-you-dont-have-family-because-your-ass-would-go-to-a-care-home-otherwise. Her house is old and weird with strange happenings. She's a crabbit, violent old bitch and she...happens to get attached to the main characters daughter. Terrific. This book isn't a regular old haunting. Infact, the living are more terrifying than the dead in this book and the mystery is amazing. I ended up not hating the old lady in the end as you get her back story. And I can't express enough just WTF?

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. - A historical horror! So I finished watching the Fall of the House of Usher just before starting this, completely unaware that I once again would be returned to The Madeline and Roderick Usher. This book is inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's stories on the Usher family with a unique twist. A family friend (our main character) has received word Madeline Usher is sick and has come to visit to find things aren't great with the isolated Usher's and their home. Something has taken up residence. What was originally considered a haunting or the results of age is discovered to be a fungus taking over. No, that isn't a spoiler. The description tells you, hehe. It's a short read that's definitely creepy and a lovely mix of seemingly paranormal and zombie vibes.

Found: An anthology of found footage horror stories by Andrew Cull and Gabino Iglesias. - Calling all found footage fans! Same here! So I wasn't sure how this would work as a book. It works. Just as brilliantly. I read this for the Halloween spirit and this is an easy would reread any time of the year. Its a bunch of short stories from various writers and some of the stories are still stuck with me now.

Mystery

If We Were Villains by M.L Rio. Trust the theatre kids to take things too far, eh? This is dark academia aesthetic at full blast. A group of friends, one ends up dead and only the friends know the truth about what happened. They love their Shakespeare as far as I remember. I got recommended this and when I tell you this book takes you on a JOURNEY. It's very poetic and reminds me a lot of 'The Secret History' which is very much in the same genre. If this doesn't convince you- I grew up watching pretty little liars and this was so refreshing. It draws you in the same way but doesn't over do it. Plus you're in on the secrets this time! The twist was exceptional and I remember needing to take a breather before I went to even consider another book. It was perfect.

Thriller

The Sundown Motel by Simone St. James.- I think this was the first book that I read that got me back into reading. It could go in thriller or mystery if I'm honest, but I'm putting it here. You follow two characters. A girl who's Aunt disappeared decades prior, takes the same job in the same Motel her aunt disappeared in hoping to find out just what happened to her aunt. The second being the Aunt and what happened before she went missing. So there are some time jumps but it's rather easy to follow along. I wasn't so intimidated by that format as I usually am. There is an element of paranormal in this book! And I love itttt! A very easy read but did suspect one of the twists...definitely didn't suspect the main twist though.

Fiction

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This book is now one of a series. This book stabbed me in the heart and twisted in my chest...and I ended up thanking it. It's multiple stories. There is a simple, quiet coffee shop with a rumour attached to it. One of the chairs has the ability to make a person travel in time. The book follows a woman who wants to timetravel for reasons you'll find out in her turn and the coffee shops regulars. A definite tear jerker for me that helps you see the beauty of life even in the most painful of times. If you have the ability to go back in time but can't change the past, what exactly is the point? Well, the book will tell you why. So beautiful and an easy read. Again, check for any trigger warnings. There are sensitive themes in this book.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. So I gave this a five star because the ending was magnificent and I can see why it was hyped up BUT I wouldn't classify this as an easy read. I got confused a lot with the Science fiction elements but I might just be dumb af. So if you're interested, you have to really focus on the book. If you skim read or anything like that. You'll have no idea what's going on. Red and Blue. That's their names. They're spies -I think female if I remember?- and their fighting in the war between the more natural world and the industrial world. Or atleast that's how I perceived it. The book is following Red and Blue's taunting notes they leave to one another in various eras and places but gradually turn into something else. Forbidden love. What I'm pretty sure is LGBTQ+. The ending decked me and so even though I found it complicated to wrap my head around some times, I loved it.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. Where... do I even start? So I think if I were ever to get a tattoo. It'd be something from this book. It is an historical fiction/romance about a woman who has been cursed by an entity. No one can remember her. She can't even utter her own name. Yet a few hundred years down the line, someone remembers her. This book is just beautiful. There's nothing else to say. AND THATS ALL IM SAYING BECAUSE THIS BOOK IS SO DEEP TO ME.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. A historical fiction following a celebrities lifestory. Evelyn Hugo gives me Marilyn Monroe vibes and how Hollywood was back in the 1950's. A young woman is given an unexpected opportunity to write this timeless actress biography...the truth. Something the public never heard before.

Non-Fiction

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. A book Mitch wrote about his old mentor and the advice he had to give on how to live life. It's a short read and incredibly emotional to have the perspectives of life by someone half way or younger through their life and someone who's life is coming to an end.

[benpaddon]

Considering trying to retypeset Deep7's Red Dwarf Roleplaying Game from the early 00s to make it more accessible digitally while also smoothing out some of the, uh, questionable choices the designers made (the description for the iguana in particular, yikes!) while also updating the Sourcebook to include BTE, X-XII, and The Promised Land.

It'd be a hefty project, mind. I have physical copies of all the original materials, but no scanner so I can OCR the pages to get the text. I do have a PDF of the CRB, but it's a 48MB file essentially made up of image scans. Can I OCR that? How big of an undertaking is retypesetting all of those pages? I'd basically be redesigning the entire book from scratch - do I want to spend my time doing that rather than, say, writing Jump Leads 2?

It's a thing, for sure. It's a fun system and I'd love to make it more accessible (it's been out of print for nearly 15 years!) while also adding the Dave era stuff. But do I want to spend the time?

Maybe if I could bring a small, dedicated team together? I don't know.

[northwest-cryptid]

I don't collect many things, but of the things I do collect I think the most surreal is physical Mabinogi merch.

To explain Mabinogi is an MMORPG that came out in 2008 and I've been playing it ever since beta. I'd argue it has plenty of charm and enough reason even now in 2023 for anyone with even some slight interest in it to give it a shot however to me (and to my partner) it has a special place. Not only is it how my partner and I met, but it's literally a game I have played for 15 years now; considering I'm 28 that's over half my entire life.

As you might imagine back in middle school and even early high school I didn't really have a lot of money, let alone the understanding of how to order things from overseas. So a very niche MMORPG didn't necessarily have a lot of merch out and about. While most kids at my school had Pokémon backpacks or some kind of Anime plastered on their shirt (normally Naruto or Dragonball) I never had physical merch. So I was always that annoying kid who had to verbally tell you how much I liked my dumb special interest.

To give you an idea of how much this game was a part of my life, my mother once bought me an actual copy of the Mabinogion, like; the book that the game is loosely based on, it's entirely in Welsh and my mom also gave me a dictionary to translate it, I was stoked about this; I was in early high school walking around with a black book with a red symbol on the front speaking in Welsh as you can imagine this did not make me popular and cool.

Now my partner and I collect actual official merch, just last year we acquired a few magazines, guide books, and even manga. It's incredible to behold such a snapshot of time from when this was all still new and popular.

This is a guide book from back when the slogan for the game was still "fantasy life" it would later become "anime life" and a few other things; but this is the one I remember from my childhood:

We were really excited to look through this and translate it, more over we were taken aback by the system requirements listed in the guide book, I mean just check out these specs!

The funniest part is that there was a time at which I was getting a new laptop because I had to travel and I specifically gave the guy at Bestbuy this almost exact rundown for the specs I needed. This was of course because my plan was to install Mabi on it, which I did. However I had a hard time explaining to anyone why I wanted these sort of specs specifically without saying "uh so I can play an extremely niche online game from Korea?"

We also got books that were literally Item and databooks which had full lists of items you could obtain in the game as well as what races and genders could use them:

This was an absolute trip down nostalgia lane for us.

I cannot stress just how cool it was to flip through these pages and go "oh shit I had those, oh I remember that! Remember this? Yea it was from an event, damn that was a long time ago; oh god I'm old."

It's crazy to see just how much detail and effort went into these! I didn't even know they existed, if I was aware of these back in school I'd have gone ballistic over them like, check this out there's entire pages dedicated to Generation 1:

of course the merch pages caught our eye looking over all the stuff we have yet to hunt down for our collection

These books are great and I personally love the manga, illustrations of the world that I've only ever seen as low poly PMGs is such a sight to behold as a long time fan.

However you may notice something, there's not a ton of physical merch. Sure there's books and manga, and it seems like at one point there were standees and a few figures, posters, and mugs; but these days getting your hands on the rarer merch can be difficult and not to mention expensive.

That's sort of why we excitedly took matters into our own hands, slowly and methodically recreating the game's PMG models as OBJs we can actually print from our 3D printer. It's not easy but it's totally worth it.

I know this probably sounds REALLY stupid to you, and I wouldn't blame you for laughing at me for it; but the fact that I have played this game for 15 years; and today I held a 3D printed figure of a Golem in my fucking hands has me feeling a certain kind of way that's hard to explain. Knowing I could print figures of our characters, our favorite NPCs, not to mention entire dungeons and create dioramas of our favorite places from a game that means so much to me is genuinely mind boggling.

I think the part of all this that still has me in disbelief is that if you asked me what I wanted when I was a depressed 16 year old in school who came home and immediately jumped on Mabi; I'd 100% tell you that I just want to live alone with a partner who enjoyed Mabi and maybe a few cats. Now I'm 28 living with a partner who I not only met via this game but who is actually significantly better than me at it lol; we also have 3 cats and our home is slowly but surely being decorated with more and more Mabinogi crafts. I don't mean to sound like my life revolves around this game, though I admit I do laugh when my partner breaks out her signature slogan of "Mabinogi is Real Life" but I guess in a sense it just feels like I've fucking made it you know? I did it, I finally got the life I was longing for and while it may not feel real; every day this sort of thing happens makes it a littler harder to deny that I'm living the dream. I'm far from rich and I'm far from healthy; and I don't exactly have a great career or anything sure, but I think 16 year old me would be happy with the way I turned out.