#i have like 8 other books I really was excited to read in september and vaguely want to get to still but the dumb part of my brain is like: | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ninja-muse · 3 months ago

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August is over! My reading month felt like it took forever even though otherwise, the month flew by. I blame this half on my top two reads of the month, which I was only reading in short snippets, and half on a number of lackluster reads and DNFs. I'm hoping to get back into my usual habits in September.

I did do better on reading off my physical TBR though! Even though one book was a "aw man, what do I read now?" and two more were, "I'm behind on my goal, quick, read something fast!" Plus the T. Kingfisher, which was graciously provided by my work, as was Running Close to the Wind. (Finally a month where I didn't spend money to add to my library!)

As for my top reads, The Salmon Shanties would be near the top of my list even if there wasn't a degree of reverse-nepotism involved. Absolutely excellent poetry collection, very layered and complex. If you're into Canadian poetry or poetry-of-place, pick it up! And Rose/House, once I got it back from the library because my Libby hold ran out, was absolutely fantastic! As was the quality of the French translation, because it sounded like Martine. So very, very glad I had the nerve (and linguistic ability) to read it. Super-creepy and I'm glad Tor's picked it up so I can hype the heck out of it next year. And then there's Jinn-Bot, which I wrote an actual review for.

On the other end of the list, sigh. I DNFed one book for feeling kind of trite, and another for being too predictable, and probably should have DNFed Voyage of the Damned for being uneven but I needed to know who the killer was. The Library Thief I'm also counting as lackluster—very good book, just wasn't for me or what I was expecting. Still deserves a 7.

Lula Dean, on the other hand, was surprisingly good! Fun and satirical and just plain entertaining. Read it in a couple days and it would likely be higher on my list except my reasons to be "glad to have read them" this month are less about quality and entertainingness than usual. I can't put "really liked this" above "finally I get to read a new book by X!", for instance. Or necessarily above "learned stuff!"

You might notice a distinct lack of any other news, and that's because there is none. September may be marginally more exciting, we'll see. (I know there'll be a bigger book haul.)

Anyway, on to September now, and in the meantime, here's my list everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

The Salmon Shanties - Harold Rhenisch

A collection of poems centered on and celebrating Cascadia in all its facets (or taking it to task, as the case may be). Out in September.

10/10

🇨🇦

warning: mentions racism, colonization, genocide

digital reading copy

Rose/House - Arkady Martine

There is a body within Rose House—two, if you count its architect, who ordered the house shuttered with his passing and left to its AI. Only one person is allowed to enter now, and she’s accounted for. And yet there is a body within Rose House….

9/10

🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: descriptions of a dead body

library ebook

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport - Samit Basu

Lina and Bador want freedom: from surveillance, from power structures, for their city, for all bots, or just for their family. This might come from cunning, or revolution, or a lost ancient artifact, or an underground bot-battle, or swaying a visiting space hero or the Not-Prince. Much more than an Aladdin retelling.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (multisexual, achillean), Indian-coded cast, Indian author

warning: discusses colonization and oppression, references police violence

reading copy

Unwritten, Vol. 8 - Mike Carey with Peter Gross, Dean Ormston, Yuko Shimizu

When Tommy Taylor learns that Lizzie is trapped in the land of the dead, he goes to rescue her—but he’s unprepared for his adventures there, or the wider implications.

8/10

Indigenous Australian secondary character

off my TBR

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

Paul Bäumer recounts his time serving in the German army in WWI.

7/10

warning: war, death, animal death, gore, injury

off my TBR

A Sorceress Comes to Call - T. Kingfisher

Cordelia’s terrible mother has decided to marry a squire. Cordelia knows he and his sister don’t deserve that—but how to stop her, when she can do magic?

7.5/10

warning: child abuse, torture, murder, animal cruelty and death

finished copy received through work

A Man and His Cat, Vol. 4 - Umi Sakurai

Kanda gets the courage to make a new friend and revisit an old situation.

7/10

Japanese cast, Japanese author

off my TBR

A Gentleman from Japan - Thomas Lockley

The true story of a Japanese man who was brought to the court of Elizabeth I and influenced early modern English science.

7.5/10

warning: slavery, orientalism, war and violence

library book

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books - Kirsten Miller

In Troy, Georgia, the fight for public decency is kicked off by Lula Dean, who craves attention and loves her Southern history—and her fencepost library, where someone’s put wholesome jackets over books she’s tried to ban….

7/10

ensemble cast including Black, 🏳️‍🌈 (gay, lesbian), and Indo-American POV characters

warning: Nazis, anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism, homophobia, rape, suicide

reading copy

The Library Thief - Kuchenga Shenjé

Florence talks her way into a job repairing a lord’s library, but is quickly drawn in by the mysterious death of the lady of the house. A gothic novel centering race, gender, and other marginalizations in late Victorian England.

7/10

Black British main character, Black British secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (trans woman, sapphic), Black British author

warning: racism, including slurs; rape, abuse, misogyny, queerphobia

library book

The Voyage of the Damned - Frances White

A grand state voyage is upset by murder and it’s up to the lowly, non-Blessed Ganymedes to catch the killer before they dock. Goddess help them all if he doesn’t….

5.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (multisexual), fat protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (nonbinary, ace, trans man, sapphic, achillean), Indian-, African-, and Japanese-coded secondary characters

warning: murder, injuries, blood, colonial thinking, attempted genocide, suicidal thoughts

reading copy

DNF

Remedial Magic - Melissa Marr

Safe and ordinary Ellie meets a mysterious woman in her library, and is whisked to a fantasy world where she’s probably a witch—and almost certainly in trouble.

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 author

reading copy

Casket Case - Lauren Evans

Garrett stops to ask for directions at Nora’s casket shop and they hit it off. Unfortunately he works for Death…. Out in September.

African-American secondary characters

reading copy

Currently reading

A Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan

A memoir by Lady Trent, renowned natural philosopher and adventuress, but covering her childhood and first expedition, to the mountain highlands of Vystrana, and the troublesome dragons encountered there.

library book

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts. The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle Victorian detective stories.

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 11 Yearly total: 70 Queer books: 1 Authors of colour: 3 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 4 Books hauled: 2 ARCs acquired: 3 ARCs unhauled: 6 DNFs: 2

January February March April May June July

#books #booklr #bookblr #reading wrap-ups #rec lists #book recommendations #read in 2024 #my photos

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emepe · 8 months ago

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— Pairing: Eren x Reader, friends to lovers

— General info: series, 18+, modern AU, serial killer AU, smut, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort

— Summary: Fate is a tricky thing. Certain situations can’t be avoided as much as certain people’s lives can’t be kept from intertwining. With a serial killer on the loose, and unexpected relationships blooming, how will the universe intervene?

— Chapter summary: A journal entry. Meanwhile, Armin does what he can to help Eren out.

— Content warnings: mentions of murder and torture of a woman, misogyny.

— Notes: Hello, hello! Thank you to everyone who liked and reblogged chapter 1 of this series. I really appreciate it <3 Happy reading, bubs!

Links: Read on AO3 | Chapter guide | Masterlist

just friends

September 8, 2024

There’s nothing I hate more than arrogant women. That’s why I had to kill her.

All I wanted was for her to smile at me. She wouldn’t. I filled her room with all her favorite things and even loosened her handcuffs. But she was so fucking hard-headed it drove me crazy. The little bitch even dared to spit at me. I had to teach her a lesson. I had to let out my anger somehow.

For a while, it was exciting to watch her writhe in pain. I can’t even begin to describe how thrilling it is to see how much a human can tolerate until they break. I told her it was compensation for the look she gave me the day we met. She kept lying and saying she didn’t even remember having bumped into me on the street.

I really wish she could’ve bounced back this time. I’m so lonely without her now. I miss her.

Humans are social by nature, it's what all the books say. When one is young, we need protection and love from our caregivers. As we grow, our world gradually expands and we bond with other people — friends from school, teachers, neighbors, coworkers. If one must stick to tradition, there's bound to be a romantic relationship to develop at some point. But for some people, that imposed path doesn't come naturally. Or rather, there have been blockages throughout the years that resulted in stunted social growth.

That's where you find yourself. It's not your fault. When one grows up forced to believe she's nothing but a burden, it's only natural to try to take up as little space as possible. But again, it's not your fault. One doesn't acquire those thoughts on their own.

You ruined my life!

As much as wellness and self-help gurus will preach there's a place in the world for everyone, self-awareness keeps you from blinding yourself toward the baggage you carry. It wouldn't be fair to lay that on anyone else.

So you've shrunk yourself. No making yourself seen, no making yourself heard. No talking outside of what is strictly necessary to survive. No inserting yourself into other's lives. For the most part, it's worked. Albeit, you've been deemed unlikable, weird, and rude. It's better this way. There's no use in putting yourself out there if there's so much to feel ashamed of. It's too much to trouble others with your pitiful self.

Who in the world would want to put up with you?

After the usual snarky murmurs and judgmental glances, you're rarely acknowledged save for when someone — usually a man — tries to “take a crack” at you and the whispers float in the air for another while. Other than that, you're at peace with yourself. You're almost convinced you've developed invisibility powers.

That is until Armin came along. At first, you sighed at the prospect of going over your routine yet again. Cementing boundaries and erasing any hope that it just takes the right guy to “loosen you up”. It was disgusting to have your quietness be misinterpreted for arrogance by the men at work. Even if that were the case, who was anybody to assume you needed to be knocked down a peg through sexual advances?

But Armin proved himself to be different. He tore away at your skepticism by simply being kind with no ulterior motives. Men can be so stupid. They'll believe a girl can't pick up when they're being slimy. It must've shocked them when you started having lunch with Armin more frequently.

It was thanks to him that you slowly expanded your world's limits. It was because of him that you began to question the voice that rang in your ears. After receiving the housewarming party invitation, you wondered whether to step forward or back. There was no denying Armin's expansion had awoken something in you. You wanted company — craved it — but you didn't want to risk bringing trouble into the group. What if Armin was an anomaly and the things that echoed in your head were true? Maybe Armin wasn't an anomaly at all, he just didn't know enough about you. You certainly didn't let him in enough.

In the end, your heart overruled your brain. You wanted more. With a hopeful heart, you went to the party.

A heavy sigh slips past your lips as you pick at your dinner on Sunday night. Your hair is still damp from the shower and it rests uncomfortably along your neck. Your phone lies next to your plate, buzzing every few seconds to match the texts that come into the group chat — arrangements are taking place for the next get-together with Armin and his friends.

After your moment of realization on the balcony, you faked a yawn and went back inside to pretend to fall asleep.

This morning, you avoided being alone with Eren. Not out of fear of something happening, but you needed to sort out your feelings on the situation.

There's no denying Eren is an attractive man — but that doesn't faze you.

Catching Eren's eye wasn't something you planned. Your world suddenly expanded outside of your will — out of your control. You're not annoyed, just overwhelmed.

Being the center of someone's attention means more expectations, more to live up to — he has no idea you're not the kind of girl he needs. Nobody needs someone who's a burden. It's not as if you're open to reciprocating any special attention, anyway.

If history has taught you anything, it’s that love isn't in the cards for you. It's best not to entertain any silly ideas.

Friendships are tricky, but no more than romance — or whatever crossed Eren's mind each time he looked at you. Keeping to oneself is easier than either one. But with the latter idea being too late to return to, you'll have to nip this problem in the bud.

The few hours before lunchtime seem to drag slower every Monday. Given that sparing time to eat was nothing but another task to check off your to-do list, you never used to pay much attention to the clock. But since Armin, lunchtime means more than bringing food to your mouth, methodically stretching your pace to fit the length of your lunch break.

Now it means meeting with a friend, having someone fill in the silence with tales from the accounting department, and occasionally going on quick drives to Kuchel.

So when you venture off to his cubicle, only for him to tell you he's swamped with work and won't have lunch until later, you're mildly disappointed. You don't let it show. After all, work trumps your trivial need for company.

So you wish him good luck and return to your desk. Without any conversation to fill in the minutes, you finish your food fairly quickly. When you glance at the time on your phone, barely fifteen minutes have passed. Your fingers tap rhythmically against your desk before you decidedly stand, grab your bag, and head for the elevator.

The coffee shop on the corner of the street has been your go-to spot since you started working here. You've been there alone and with Armin. It's where your feet take you on the rare occasions when Armin is too busy. There's nothing wrong with the in-house coffee kiosk from your office building, but you find more comfort in being surrounded by strangers who keep to themselves than bumping into someone who doesn't like you.

The early September days serve as a transition into cooler temperatures. A light breeze has added to the warmth leftover from summer. The leaves have yet to develop a clear change in color, but some yellow streaks are popping up here and there. The beginning of autumn pushes you toward all things cozy. By the time you reach the shop, you've got your heart set on having a warm cup of cinnamon tea.

You settle at a table, place your order, grab a book from your bag, and wait. Before you can reach the second paragraph of your read, a shadow casts over your left side, forcing you to look up in confusion. It's too soon for your tea to be ready.

You're met with striking green eyes and plump lips that pronounce a bashful hi.

It's a strange coincidence. You wish you could say you've never seen him around here before, but you've never bothered to commit any face to memory if it's not necessary.

“Eren, hi.”

The tint on his cheeks you remember so well from two nights ago resurfaces. A nervous swallow pulls at your throat. You never did map out a plan — then again, you weren't expecting to see him again so soon.

“I wasn't sure if it was you. Are you here with someone?” he asks, taking a second to look around the shop.

You shake your head.

“No. Armin's busy so I came here alone,” you explain.

He nods, rocking his weight on his heels. A question seems to linger on the tip of his tongue as his gaze flits between you and the floor. It takes him a moment for him to find his voice, though. In spite of yourself, you have to admit it's actually a bit endearing. It's different. It's refreshing.

“Is it okay if I sit with you?” His eyes are overflowing with hope.

You nod. He sits. The book in your hands is put away.

For a while last night, you debated the validity of your theory. Maybe Eren wasn't interested in you in the way you thought. After all, it was your first time meeting and he might’ve been nervous. You know enough about the way you present yourself to acknowledge you're not the most approachable person. Maybe all he needs is time to get used to you.

“Do you want to order something?” You ask, prepared to wave over a server. He stops you with a dismissive hand.

“It's okay, I already had some tea.”

Your eyebrows rise in surprise.

“Not a coffee guy?”

He shakes his head, sputtering a nervous chuckle.

“Not really. I don't like bitter things.” His nose scrunches as if he can savor it on his tongue.

A server brings over your tea along with a small tray of additives. You thank them before returning to Eren's statement.

“You can always add sugar,” you point out with a shrug.

He shakes his head again. This time you're relieved to find a playful smile dancing on his lips.

“Nothing can beat tea with honey.”

Your hand pauses mid-air on its way to pick up the wooden wand half lost in a jar of golden syrup.

You hum in thought as you reach for the sugar spoon instead.

“Really?”

“Yeah. That's how my mom made it for me when I was little. I'd get a stomachache or a cold and it was the first thing she'd make for me. I feel like a kid each time I drink it. It makes me think of her.”

The corners of his lips tug into a smile. You find yourself mirroring his expression as you look down at your hand stirring the sugar into your tea.

“Your mom sounds nice,” you murmur.

“Oh, she's the best. I love her.”

Eren's shoulders relax. He feels at ease talking about his mom. He feels even better knowing he's successfully carrying out a casual conversation with you. In the light of day, everything is less scary. There's less to worry about. That carefree feeling blankets over everything. Suddenly, the motive he walked into this coffee shop for seems doable.

Then a sinking feeling comes over his stomach.

“Sorry.” The word bounces off his tongue without thinking.

“What for?”

He doesn't want to say it, but he hopes his apologetic gaze is enough to convey an explanation.

Your eyebrows shoot up in realization at his hesitance. Then they furrow as you press your lips into a fine line and shake your head dismissively.

“Oh, that.”

The recall of Saturday night when you drunkenly talked about your mom causes your cheeks to flare with heat.

Guilt settles in Eren's stomach. He didn't mean to bring up his mom. He also didn't mean to be so quick to apologize. It just made things worse now that you know he's tiptoeing around you. That's probably the last thing you want — to feel purposely pitied.

Flustered, he rummages through his brain for a solution — a way to get back on the track he was on.

You fix your gaze on him. It's obvious he feels troubled. It's a foreign experience having someone worry so much about if they've caused you any harm. You're unsure of what feelings to associate with it other than guilt. He's not at fault for your crappy family life.

“So you and your mom are close?” you ask.

The crease in his forehead smoothes over.

When he shyly reconnects with your gaze, your eyebrows raise ever so slightly in encouragement. The movement is so subtle it's hard not to miss — but not for Eren, who takes in every detail of your face with so much care. For Eren, the small shifts in your features are so interesting to look at. You express so much with so little. And yet there were times when you would accentuate your expressions as much as you could. What you held back vocally was compensated tenfold through your face. It's fascinating to him.

“Yeah.”

His voice is soft — a trace of his withering embarrassment.

“She's my best friend,” he adds with a little more confidence.

You take a sip of tea. The drink warms your stomach, mirroring that of your chest elicited by Eren's words. The fondness in his voice taints him with a childlike innocence.

Eren Jaeger isn't worried about looking cool. He's honest and clumsy. It's charming.

A light shake of your head keeps your thoughts from drifting further.

“So not a coffee guy but a mama's boy, for sure. Got it.” You nod along with an overly serious expression painted on your face.

He laughs, the sinking feeling in his stomach now dissolving into nothing. Had he not been on the receiving end of your bluntly spoken teasing the other night, he might not have laughed so easily.

A blush spreads across his cheeks.

“Come on, don't tease me,” he mumbles.

You bite your lip to keep yourself from smiling. Eren falls back into his previously relaxed state.

The conversation continues to flow in between every sip of your tea.

“Do you come here often?” you ask as you prepare to take another sip.

Your eyes are locked on his. He struggles with the intense eye contact. At least, it's intense on his end.

“Not really. Armin mentioned it to me so I thought I'd try it out.”

The pads of his fingers drum a nervous beat on the table.

You nod, relieved. You'd feel silly if it had turned out he was a frequent customer and your disregard of the people surrounding you kept you from noticing him. It would've piled onto your embarrassment from the Kuchel incident.

“Ah, so are you on your lunch break, too? Do you work around here?”

“Um, kind of. I do media production and marketing for a museum, but I do a lot of hours at home. My place is just a few minutes by car.”

“That's so cool.”

The amazement in your voice in addition to its sudden turn up in volume is enough to make him blush.

“It's nothing special. I'm definitely not raking in the big bucks like Jean.”

“Still, it's cool. It's a lot more interesting than being an office manager.”

Your eyebrows scrunch together with newborn disdain for your job before you finish the remainder of your tea.

“Well, I can't argue there,” he says, imitating the sliver of bitterness in your voice.

You gasp in mock hurt.

“Hey, only I can say it.” Your tone is serious, but he knows you're joking. He can tell by the twinkle of amusement in your eyes.

He laughs.

“How long until you have to get back to work?”

You peek at the clock on the wall across the room.

“I still have some time. It's a short walk back, anyway.”

Despite your wording, your answer triggers his nervous antics. You're bound to part ways eventually and he swore to himself he would get the words out. He runs a hand through his hair to distract himself from the anxious flutter in his stomach.

It's no big deal, he thinks. She's just a girl.

He regrets not ordering something else when you asked him. It would give his hands something to do. Then again, he can't keep them from shaking as he gathers the courage to pronounce his next thought. So it's better he doesn't have any breakables in his hold.

He pronounces your name carefully. His heart skips a beat when your eyes meet his. It's strange to think that you hold so much power over him within just a couple of days since meeting. He wants to get closer — he needs to. Again, that feeling of wanting this moment with you to stretch farther squeezes at his chest.

“Do you want to hang out sometime? Just the two of us?”

He can feel himself growing numb to his surroundings as he awaits your response. It's similar to the feeling he gets after stepping foot off a rollercoaster. The adrenaline is pumping furiously through his veins while his mind goes blank. It's a weird moment of chaos and bliss all at once.

You clear your throat.

“So… a date?”

He swallows thickly and nods.

He watches you contemplate his proposal. Your lips are pressed in a fine line, your gaze low and brow furrowed.

It's too much to hope you're equally attracted to him — he's aware. But he hopes you like his company just enough to say yes. Or at the very least, you're curious to know more.

Your mind is in conflict. This is more than you've bargained for. All you wanted was to get along with Armin's friends.

“I'm sorry, Eren. No.”

He instantly deflates to your firm tone.

“It's nothing personal,” you explain. “You're a really nice guy. Really. But I'm not interested in dating… at all.” You sigh, dreading the pending words on your tongue. “And I don't really see you that way. I just want to be friends.”

He remains quiet, chewing on the inside of his cheeks as he processes your words.

The situation is uncomfortable for you, but his defeated form weighs heavier on your heart. He looks so small. It's definitely worse for him.

“Eren?”

Your voice grounds him.

“Sorry, I really spaced out there,” he nervously laughs. “Friends, though. Yeah, friends is good. Friends is perfect, actually.”

The word leaves a bitter taste on his tongue each time. He can pat himself on the back for shooting his shot later but, for now, his senses have been blurred by the disappointment of being turned down.

“I really like talking to you, Eren. Really.”

Your attempt to lighten the defeat on his shoulders works — a little. It's a relief you're not entirely opposed to having him around, at least. Eren finds comfort in that. Maybe it'll suffice while he fights away at his attraction.

“I like talking to you, too.” His voice carries a tint of helplessness.

Your eyes soften.

“I should get going.”

You pull out a fresh bill from your purse and place it under the empty teacup before standing.

He stands with you and holds the door open. It's not until you're both out on the sidewalk, bidding each other goodbye, that he forces a smile.

“I'll see you around.”

“Bye, Eren.”

“Sorry I couldn't make it to lunch,” Armin says. He leans against the edge of your desk with his hands in his pockets.

It's been an hour since you got back, and you've been typing away, replying to emails.

You shrug, tossing a small reassuring smile his way before focusing back on your computer screen.

“It's fine. I wasn't alone this time.”

He perks up.

“Really?”

You hum in affirmation.

“I went out for tea and bumped into your friend Eren.”

Armin's jaw falls open.

“Huh. Well, what do you know? That's a crazy coincidence.”

There's something suspicious about Armin's theatrical tone, but you're too engrossed in going over your email for typos to notice. You only manage to murmur a simple uh-huh.

“What'd you talk about?”

You send off your email with a satisfied click and look up at Armin as you lean back in your chair.

“Just this and that,” you reply nonchalantly.

His lips press into a dissatisfied line.

“Well, what do you think of him?” His eyes light up expectantly.

“He's…” You lose yourself in thought for a moment. Images of blushing cheeks, boyish smiles, and shimmering green eyes flash through your memory. You remember the honey and his simple confessions. “... like a little kid.”

Armin's face bears a mix of confusion and amusement.

“What do you mean by that?”

A soft pensive hum vibrates through your throat.

“Dorky,” you reply firmly.

Armin snorts, readying himself to come to Eren's defense, but you continue.

“He's… honest, like a little kid would be. And he's a little clumsy with his words but it's… Kind of endearing. He's a sweet guy.”

Armin nods along, his face serious. Finally, he smiles.

“Sounds like you had a nice talk, then.”

Date proposal aside, your moment with Eren was enjoyable. Even taking your rejection into account, you didn't sense any resentment directed at you and that just further proved your pure perception of him.

It's not the first time you've been asked out. It's certainly not the first time you've said no — that's always been your response, albeit for different reasons. A few guys in the office have tried getting closer to you but, even if you were open to dating, you can always tell it's nothing genuine from their approach. Their overly kind performance just makes it easier for you to decline. Once that's been done, their creepy narcissistic truths come to light — you're stoned with sexist slurs and disgusted looks. It'd hurt more if you were still the kind of person who craves approval from the wrong people.

There's a clear difference between them and Eren. So even though you rejected him, you still wish to be close as friends. He's a nice person to know.

“I did,” you tell Armin.

There's a shimmer in your eyes he manages to catch. Your features are soft and serene as you prop your chin on one hand while you mindlessly scroll through your emails with the other. Your lips are shaped into a discreet smile. Like a kid.

On his way back to his cubicle on the opposite end of the floor, Armin hums a cheerful tune to himself. There's a proud bounce in every step he takes.

“Armin, check your phone. It was buzzing like crazy a few minutes ago,” a female coworker says in passing before grabbing a manila folder from her desk and rushing off to a meeting room across the hall.

“Thanks, Mina!” he calls after her.

Armin taps the missed call notification on his screen and brings the phone to his ear, grinning expectantly.

“You suck,” Eren's voice comes through the speaker after the first ring.

“Woah, woah, woah. What did I do?” Armin laughs as he steps out onto the empty smoker's balcony.

There’s a groan on the other end.

“What do you think? I crashed and burned.”

Armin’s face contorts in confusion. From what he could gather on your end, the coffee shop incident went well. You were smiling, and although the things you said about Eren didn’t seem like it, you meant them fondly — Armin knew you well enough to confidently confirm that. At the very least, it meant you weren’t completely repulsed by his company. Even if there are different sides to every story, the discrepancies shouldn’t be anything major.

“What are you talking about?” Armin sighs.

Another groan on Eren’s end. If Armin wasn’t so patient, he would’ve hung up.

He really is like a little kid, he thinks.

“I asked her out and she said no.”

Armin’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. How could you keep that part out of the conversation you had earlier?

His shock doesn’t stem from your rejection, but rather because of Eren’s unexpected bravery. Although Eren was tough on the playground when they were kids, he grew up to be a fairly meek guy. When it comes to a girl he likes, he’s never been the bold type. Armin found it a bit strange at times. Eren’s had a track record of being popular among women, so his confidence should be over the roof and his personality, unbearable. But if he’s honest, it’s a good thing he doesn’t pay much attention to those things. It’s easier to root for a friend who only acts on more honest feelings. Even if that confidence didn’t stick with him.

“This is all your fault, Armin. So much for having my back.”

Even through the phone, Armin can tell his best friend is pouting. He has to hold back from rolling his eyes — it feels deceitful to do it behind his back when he has to play the role of a sympathetic friend right now.

He rubs at his nape, unsure of whether he should feel proud of Eren for making a move or apologetic for not contemplating what seemed like a far-fetched risk.

“To be fair, buddy, I didn’t send you over there to ask her out. I just thought you would like the chance to talk to her and get to know her a little better.”

“You couldn’t tell me that before? I don’t think I can ever face her again!” Eren half-yells.

Of course, Eren chooses to focus on the negatives. Armin cherry-picks the situations he meddles in. Even if it’ll serve as a confident boost to reveal to Eren what you said about him and how you said it, it could do him some good to bounce back on his own — and learn to pace himself.

“First off, you have to relax an—”

“I can’t.” Eren’s voice is reduced to an embarrassed murmur. “She makes me nervous. I can’t help myself.”

There’s a long moment of silence.

It’s been obvious from the start that Eren is attracted to you, but the near confession pulls at Armin’s heartstrings. It’s times like this when he’s reminded how cute Eren can be.

“That bad, huh?” Armin smiles down at the people walking on the street.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not in love with her or anything but…”

There's a long pause on Eren's side, only disturbed by some light rustling as he moves his phone around.

“... I like looking at her… and I like hearing her talk. Do you ever notice how soft her voice is? There’s just something about it… There’s this thing with her eyes, too, it’s crazy.”

“Well, as long as you’re not falling in love with her.”

Eren releases a third groan.

“Armin, please. I just want to get closer to her. And I don’t want to make myself look like an idiot each time we’re alone. I wish there was something I could do to make her like me.”

“I don’t think she dislikes you if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“She said she doesn’t see me that way. She just wants to be friends.”

Eren’s desolation is seeping through the phone now.

“Maybe I jumped the gun by asking her out so quickly.”

When Armin suggested Eren find you at the coffee shop during your lunch break, he figured it would help him get used to you. So that when the time came, he could ask you out without being more anxious than he needed to be. Had everything gone accordingly, Eren wouldn’t be moping now and wondering what would have happened — if anything was meant to happen — if he had just given you a little more time.

“Maybe,” Armin echoes.

“Do you think I blew it?”

Armin shakes his head even though there’s no way for Eren to tell.

“I think you just got a little excited. You never know how she might feel later on.”

“I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. I hardly think she’ll like me any better if I act like those guys who can’t take no for an answer. I should just try being her friend.”

Armin wants to beg him not to feel discouraged — that there’s a reason why he was so excited to introduce you to each other, and why he teased him at the housewarming party after he caught him blushing while doing the dishes with you.

It didn’t start that way but, the more he got to know you, the more he thought you and Eren would be good together.

Soft-spoken girl who keeps to herself meets the most dependable and kind-hearted boy.

Armin would be lying if he said he wasn’t swayed by the promised satisfaction of playing matchmaker in the fantasy playing out in his head. Not that he felt you absolutely needed to get together. But he could feel it in his gut. You and Eren could do each other a lot of good. He already knew Eren would feel a pull upon meeting you and, if there’s anything he gathered from both sides of the coffee shop incident, it’s that you like Eren enough to let him stick around. It was a good call on your end, though he may be biased.

If you happen to fall in love along the way, then so be it.

“You’re a good guy, Eren. Everything will turn out fine.”

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#snk fanfiction #aot fanfiction #eren yeager x reader #eren jaeger x reader #aot x reader #aot x y/n #snk x reader #snk imagines #eren x reader #eren jaeger x y/n #eren jaeger fanfiction

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notoriousbeb · 7 months ago

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Why is Harry Styles All Over TTPD? A Timeline

TTPD Notes Glossary

Upon much ponderation and rabbit-hole-ing I think a truly stunning chunk of tracks on this double album (20) are her processing her feelings for whatever the hell happened with Harry.

What will likely be my Haylor magnum opus is under the cut because it is a bit lengthy. Good luck. Or I'm sorry??

I think they both pined for each other for years (well documented amongst the Haylors).

Then she split with Joe Alwyn before she left London for the Eras Tour, but she waited to make the announcement public (probably to give him time to pack up his shit and get out of their shared house) until April 8. However, excited to be “Fresh Out the Slammer,” she reached out to Harry ASAP.

I realize I might sound like an absolute raving lunatic, but I legit think Harry was at Taylor’s Arlington, Texas, Eras Tour shows, at the end of March/beginning of April 2023, and followed her to New York City for several days.

While Harry was tied up finishing up the Asian leg of his tour until March 25, I think he came almost straight to her after that, and love-bombed the shit out of her in his excitement.

But then right before he had to leave for tour, with a stopover in LA for the Satellite video and Late Late Show shoots, he gave her some sort of pulling-away speech about taking a pause or pulling back or something, (I’d wager because of the two world tours), which she took as a total rejection, which caused her to lose it and move on to the disaster we call Matty.

Then, in June, he met Taylor Russell in London. And maybe they were just friends at first, but then Taylor Swift started messing around with Matty, and then in July she started dating Travis and it went public in September. So, I suppose at that point Harry figured, "Okay, to hell with it."

And now, somewhere in London, I imagine their shared good mate, Ed Sheeran, has a pounding headache and wishes he still drank whiskey.

I hope the truth of it all someday comes to light in a tell-all book or movie. Or, at the very least, it would be nice if some more clarity surfaces in one of their albums, or a record by Ed.

Oh, and I think Stevie Nicks, of all fucking people, knows the tea. She considers both of them “like [her] children.” She gave them both matching crescent moon necklaces. And has performed with them. And she wrote the intro poem for this record. Read that and tell me it doesn’t match the story I’ve written in my head. Stevie knows.

And now, the timeline. @foxes-that-run Also has a much more detailed 2023 timeline that I recommend.

There are, I shit you not, about a fortnight of possible days (March 29/30-April 12, 2023) where they could have been together...

March 29/30

Harry likely leaves Toyko after his March 25 show. Love on Tour doesnt start up again until May 13 in Horsens, Denmark.

March 31

Eras Tour is in Arlington, Texas, for N1. It's a rain show. She replaces "Invisible String” with "The 1." The surprise songs were "Sad Beautiful Tragic" and "Ours." Read all my notes on TTPD and go watch these two live performances again. They're...really something.

April 1

She sings "Death by a Thousand Cuts" and "Clean."

April 2

She sings "Jump then Fall" and "The Lucky One."

April 3-6

Neither of them are seen these three days.

April 7

Harry is spotted at baggage claim in Atlanta

April 9

Harry is at the Master's Golf Tournament

April 10

Maybe this is when he leaves her. Taylor goes out for drinks with Jack and Margaret. However, this was an obvious pap walk (the day she had those butterfly jeans on); were the paps maybe called to this location to lure them away from her apartment so a certain person might or might not have could arrive unnoticed after a golf tournament in Atlanta?

April 12

In the afternoon, Harry is spotted with his trusty brown duffel bag (sporting an air travel tag) leaving the gym in LA. In NYC, Taylor is pictured on the roof of Electric Lady (maybe shooting music video?) with a Gucci lion ring just like Harry's but with a green stone. I Mr not the 10th, I think this evening was when he said whatever he said that made her so sad; maybe he thought they should take a pause until their tours were over? Maybe he decided their combined spotlights were just too big to overcome? Who knows? Not me. But my nosy ass wants to know!

April 13

Eras Tour in Tampa N1. Taylor cries during “Lover"

April 14

Eras Tour in Tampa N2. She plays "The Great War" (performed with Aaron Dessner) and "You're On Your Own, Kid."

April 15

Eras Tour in Tampa N2. She plays "Treacherous."

April 21

Eras Tour in Houston N1. She plays "Wonderland" and "You're Not Sorry" (these choices seem…significant. In a not good way.)

April 22

N2 in Houston. She plays "A Place in This World" and "Today Was a Fairytale" (for her mom, who I am sure was being a rock for her at this trying time)

April 23

N3 in Houston. She plays "Begin Again" and "Cold as You"

April 27 and 28

Harry does shoots for the "Satellite" music video and the last episode of the Late Late Show. The scenes for the music video aren't used. In my opinion his face looks puffy on Late Late (maybe from crying?)

Eras Tour Atlanta N1 Taylor sings "The Other Side of the Door" and "Coney Island."

April 30

Eras Tour Atlanta N3 she sings "I Bet You Think About Me" and "How You Get the Girl." She cries again during “Champagne Problems."

May 5-7

Ah, the Nashville Era's Tour shows. Such fond, fond memories. She sang “Sparks Fly,” “Teardrops on My Guitar,“ "Out of the Woods,” “Fifteen” (Abigail was there, and she dedicated this one to her)," Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” with Aaron Dessner and “Mine” (also Speak Now drop).

May 11

Dinner with Matty and Jack and Margaret at Casa Cipriani in NYC

Is it possible the villainy of Matty is that he planted the original story in The Sun that he and Taylor were dating? It ran May 3, two days before he showed up (from Asia) to the Eras Tour play with Phoebe Bridgers as the opening act in Nashville. I just always thought that was odd. Maybe he had a big fat mouth.

May 12

Eras Tour Philadelphia N1. She played “Gold Rush” and “Come Back…Be Here” (Aww, girl….)

May 13

LOT picks up again in Horsens, Denmark. He's smiling to himself all cute like during "Fine Line." Plus he played "Stockholm Syndrome" for the first time in yeeeears and looked delighted. :(

Taylor's surprise songs were “Forever & Always” and “This Love.”

May 15

Either way, she leaves Electric Lady studios with Matty in tow.

May 19

She plays "Should've Said No" and "Better Man." (Well, that's seems...not good.)

May 20

Ah, the day of the “Question…?” and “Invisible” combo. (Oh, Tay). Matty is seen entering Taylor's apartment with a big Louis bag full of what many people believe is the typewriter. I always assumed it was clothes or a synthesizer or some kind of equipment. ¯\_(ツ)_/

May 25

This is the last day she was seen with Matty (and the chorus of angels sang)

But, really, only he was seen outside her apartment leaving with his stuff. She wasn’t in town.

They were never seen together again after May 15.

May 26

Era's Tour Metlife N1. She sings “Getaway Car” with Jack Antonoff and “Maroon” (this was a very angry face Maroon).

May 27

Metlife N2. She sings “Holy Ground” and “False God," and cries.

June 22

Taylor records “The Black Dog” at Electric Lady. “Six weeks of breathing clean air,” if we’re being specific here (although she was touring and it could have just sounded good) would be May 11, 2023.

August 13

Stevie Nicks owns the opening poem for the album.

#haylor #have i lost the plot?#i really don't think i have

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theinquisitxor · 2 months ago

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September Reading Wrap Up

I read six books in September, and managed to get through most of what I wanted to read. I read 3 fantasy, 1 sci-fi, 1 nonfiction, and 1 historical fiction. I feel like reading ~6 books per month might be my new normal. I used to read 8-9 books a month, but I don't really see that happening anymore unfortunately.

1.Before They Are Hanged (First Law #2) by Joe Abercrombie, 3/5 stars. I liked book 2 a little bit more than book 1, and felt like this book had a better plot and development than the first book. I still can't say that I really enjoy this series, but I'm committed to see how it ends. The Glokta chapters are really the only chapters I enjoy. Adult Fantasy.

2.A Desolation Called Peace (Texicalaan 2) by Arkady Martine, 5/5 stars. This is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire and while we follow the same characters from book 1, this is in a new setting. I think the duology is excellent, and this will probably be in my top books of the year. Science Fiction.

3.Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World by Tyson Yunkaporta. This was my nonfiction for the month, and I read it via audiobook. I enjoyed listening to it, and also enjoyed that that audiobook was narrated by the author.

4. Paladin's Strength (Saint of Steel 2) by T Kingfisher, 4/5 stars. I had a lot of fun with this book, and I think this series could be a new favorite. Paladin's Grace is still my favorite (I like the tropes better) but I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. Adult Fantasy

5. Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs, 4/5 stars. I was really impressed by the novel for being a debut. I was fully hooked on the story and really enjoyed this novel overall. I had a few issues with pacing and the one romance at the end, but I'll be interested in anything else Torzs writes. Fantasy

6. The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova, 4/5 stars. This is a historical fiction set in Bulgaria, alternating between times/characters. I love how Kostova makes you feel so immersed and present in the setting. This book explores Bulgaria's history after ww2, through a violinist and his troubled past. This book has been on my tbr since 2018, so I was happy to finally read it. Historical Fiction.

Overall, I'm happy with what I read in September, and I'm looking forward to finishing/continuing some of the series I've been reading in October.

The October TBR:

The Last Argument of Kings (First Law 3) by Joe Abercrombie-- I just want to finish this one and wrap up the series

Son of the Shadows (sevenwaters 2) by Juliet Marillier-- I wanted to read this in Sept, but didn't get to it

Paladin's Hope (Saint of Steel 3) by T Kingfisher-- Excited for this one!

Witch Week (Chrestomanci 3) by Diana Wynne Jones-- this will be an audiobook for the month, and I think it will be a good Oct read

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher -- I want to read her newest release asap

The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Brodsky Smith-- This was my Random TBR Pick for the month, so I want to try and get to this

Other possibilites include: Echo North, I Who Have Never Known Men, The Swan Thieves

#Reading Wrap Up #September Reading Wrap up #books #bookblr #fantasy books #the saint of steel #ink blood sister scribe #before they are hanged #a desolation called peace #my post

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choicesseptemberchallenge2023 · 1 year ago

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[Masterlist]

Welcome to Choices September Challenge!

Hello everyone! I'm Aura (@midnightmelodiz ). This is my first time hosting this monthly challenge, so I'm really excited about it. I really hope you all will like the prompts chosen for this month.

🍁GUIDELINES🍁

This is a prompt based contest. There's a prompt given for everyday, using which you'll have to create a content. Some days have multiple prompts, and different types of prompts. Feel free to use them all in the same work if you want.

You can use multiple prompt for the same work if the prompts are for same day. Don't mix and match prompts from different days.

Almost all kind of contents are acceptable. List of acceptable contents : fanfictions, drabbles, short-story/one-shot , poetry, microtale, art, mood board, theme, banner or other graphics etc.

Work based on any book from the Choices universe are welcome.

Submitted works will be featured on a weekly masterlist.

You can participate as many times as you want throughout the month.

Multiple entries for the same prompt, or same day prompts are allowed.

If your work contains NSFW/mature or triggering content, please use appropriate warning.

Mention/list the prompt(s) you are using in your content.

If possible, in stories, drabbles etc., write the prompt(s) in bold.

You can use the tag #choicesseptemberchallenge2023 & #choicesmonthlychallenge .

Please tag @choicesseptemberchallenge2023, feel free to tag me too : @midnightmelodiz . You can dm me your entries as well since Tumblr glitches a lot. Honestly I'd prefer if you dm your works, as Tumblr tags don't always work.

If I don't mention your work in the weekly masterlist, please send me a dm with the link.

🍂PROMPTS🍂

🍁 DAY 1 : Memories •||• "I can't be who you want me to be"

🍁 DAY 2 : Stars •||• Two people who keep crossing paths but miss actually meeting.

🍁 DAY 3 : Sea, Ocean •||• "You really like it?" "No, I was kidding."

🍁 DAY 4 : Moonlight, Moon •||• They have been secretly in love with each other for a long time.

🍁 DAY 5 : Diary, Journal, Notebook •||• "We're here now. Everything's alright."

🍁 DAY 6 : Dreams, Day Dream •||• "I'm in love with you!"

🍁 DAY 7 : Hope •||• Sharing something personal about them that they've never shared with anyone before.

🍁 DAY 8 : Coffee, Hot Beverage •||• "Come back! I'm not ready to get up yet. So you aren't either."

🍁 DAY 9 : Date Night •||• "I'm home, sweetheart!"

🍁 DAY 10 : Gift •||• "I care about you. I always will."

🍁 DAY 11 : Travel, Holiday , Vacation •||• Sharing an ice-cream together.

🍁 DAY 12 : Books, Reading, Writing •||• "You and me, it's never going to happen."

🍁 DAY 13 : Flowers •||• "I want to be with you." "I don't."

🍁 DAY 14 : Polaroid, Picture •||• Clicking candid pictures of their S/O to capture the special moments.

🍁 DAY 15 : Childhood, Nostalgia •||• "I love you. It's always going to be you."

🍁 DAY 16 : Cooking, Baking •||• Pretending to date each other to get out of a situation.

🍁 DAY 17 : Picnic •||• "That's all I really need. Some time with just you."

🍁 DAY 18 : Cuddle, Snuggle •||• Taking care of the other when they're sick or feeling low.

🍁 DAY 19 : Museum, Library •||• Picturing a future together even though they know it might never be true.

🍁 DAY 20 : Blue •||• " Are you saying that there's hope? Maybe in the future-" "No."

🍁 DAY 21 : Love, Kiss •||• Sending love letters to the other.

🍁 DAY 22 : Friends, Friendship •||• "It feels like I've known you forever."

🍁 DAY 23 : Fall •||• "I'm seeing someone."

🍁 DAY 24 : Serene •||• "Guess all those romance novel paid off after all, huh?"

🍁 DAY 25 : Secret, Surprise •||• "Is that my shirt?"

🍁 DAY 26 : Chocolate •||• Predicting the other's words or moves.

🍁 DAY 27 : Sunset •||• "Why did I know you would say that?"

🍁 DAY 28 : Wedding •||• "I always knew you would get together someday. What took you two so long?"

🍁 DAY 29 : rêveur, rêveuse •||• " You are all I could ever ask for."

🍁 DAY 30 : Home, Heart •||• "I'm here for you. Always."

**{Credit for most of the dialogue prompts goes to this blog~ @youneedsomeprompts}**

Have fun creating!

#choices stories you play #choices #choices monthly challenge #choicesmonthlychallenge #choicesseptemberchallenge2023 #choices september challenge 2023 #writing prompt #dialogue prompt #fic prompt #prompt challenge #word prompt

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snowmuttgetsweird · 7 months ago

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5/12/24, late morning

How about something a little more positive while I wait for my mom to give me the okay to call her for mother's day?

I love my day job! I'm a TCG guy more than anything, hobby-wise, so exploring board games as a sales person has been intimidating, and I frequently feel like I'm underperforming even when my coworkers tell me I'm doing great and that I'm providing skills the crew doesn't have otherwise, but it's a wonderful job. It's relatively low stress, there's ample opportunity to steal extra shifts which makes up for the middling pay, and a (generous) employee discount for arguably my most expensive hobby (ironically Digimon is one of the cheapest TCGs out there) is a godsend.

On quiet days, I'm frequently treated with an opportunity to learn a new board game. Last week I learned Wingspan, a few days ago I learned Wyrmspan, and just yesterday I learned Scout. I've even had opportunities to play multiple games before they were even available to the general public like Gloomhaven Buttons & Bugs and Star Wars Unlimited! So far almost everything that I've played I've enjoyed a lot too.

It might not be the highest paying job, but it's very easy, the staff and management is super laid back and grounded, and I get to learn board games. I literally can't think of anything wrong with that. It's the kind of job that makes me WANT to do my best, so I frequently go above and beyond the level of effort I'd normally exert for other retail jobs I've had.

Besides all that, it might have literally saved my life. Art is cool, but it doesn't pay that well- especially at the level I'm at. This day job being my primary flow of income with art being supplemental has been very good, and I'm very lucky that my patrons and followers are willing to be so patient with me while I find my footing.

I know I've said so before, but I feel like this year I've really got a great chance at succeeding financially. Last year I only had my day job since September, so for 8 months I had to earn a bare minimum of about $1800 a month through art alone so I could set aside 20% for taxes and still pay rent. This year, my day job and Patreon more or less cover rent for me, and everything I make through art is technically "gravy." Right now, all of that is going toward paying off money I owe to my roommate for covering most of our utilities by himself, but once that's all paid off and I'm consistently making enough to keep up with paying half of those bills, 30% of whatever I make through art will be set aside for taxes from now on, regardless of how much I make since I'm not trying to hit a specific threshold for rent, and then the rest can become SAVINGS! The key now is to calculate the average cost of our bills and utilities so I can try to make sure I make MORE per month than what I owe so I can catch up to the ongoing fees. I'm pretty optimistic about that.

BOOKS! As you know, I've been reigniting my love for reading since a little before I moved to WA- mostly because it's cheap (I've fallen in love with my local discount book shop's clearance racks), and it's a great way to fill in dead hours and lunch periods at the day job and quiet evenings at home when I'm done with art. Especially now that it's warming up, sometimes I like to head outside for a walk and then settle down and read in the park. Once in a while I treat myself to a milk tea or something too.

I finished The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon, and I loved it. I'm probably going to give it a second read because I think there were some parts I may have ADHD'd through and not quite absorbed, and the sequel should be out sometime this year too. I got The Archive Undying as a birthday gift last year, so the sequel might be the first brand new book I'll have purchased in a while lol- I'm super excited.

My friend that let me borrow Legends & Lattes picked up a copy of the prequel, Bookshops & Bonedust, which he let me borrow before he started reading it himself, and I devoured it. Much like the first, it's a super cozy little read- not much in the way of substance, very little in the way of world building or complex character relationships, etc, but rich in comfort and good feelings.

Right now I'm working on a collection of Lovecraftian/Cosmic Horror short stories called Horrors Beyond: Tales of Terrifying Realities, and I found a couple more books from my local discount book store I'll tackle after that: What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson (honestly I did not know this was a book first- shame on me) and The Star Fraction by Ken Macleod. I got them both off the clearance rack for just a little over $5 bucks in all!

I'm also experimenting with audio books. While I'm doing relatively mindless logistics stuff at the day job, I'm listening to audio books in one ear of some things I've read a while ago, but since kinda forgot. My mom was always a huge Anne Rice fan and had proudly collected the entirety of her works, and so I read a handful of books from her library growing up (my personal favorite of what I've read myself actually being Cry to Heaven). One I remember reading but not really enjoying much was actually the first book in her Vampire Chronicles, Interview with the Vampire. I'm not a big Louis fan (I'm more in the Lestat camp myself) and found the book as a whole kinda dull, mostly due to Louis' weak and winging personality, but I've since decided to give it another shot as an audio book, and it IS at least better than I remember giving it credit for. I still don't care for Louis though, lol. I prefer to read myself, but audio books are nice just to keep my brain going with something in the background while I'm doing something otherwise fairly mindless, like alphabetizing and rearranging miniatures or beautifying shelves of product.

GAMES! Not a TON to talk about here tbh. I've mostly been playing FF7 Rebirth, and it's been... Good...? I finally beat it on Normal after about 150 hours trying to exhaust every sidequest and minigame as much as possible, and I've since begun my Hard mode NG+. The story is great, there are a couple parts I'm not fond of that feels like Nomura is just Kingdom Hearts-ing all over FF7, but it's good overall and the gameplay feels really good. The most frustrating part of the game by far is just all the minigames- mostly that in order to completely beat them all, you have to do them PERFECTLY- it's very unforgiving.

Gotta go for now. Talk later. :)

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 10 months ago

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I've pre-ordered Grace Petrie's album that's coming out on March 8, and I think everyone else should also do that (and I think everyone should do it on Bandcamp rather than those other things because that's what lets you actually download and own your music instead of paying monthly or yearly to rent access to it for as long as the platform keeps hosting it, also Bandcamp is the way to buy music and have the highest percentage of your money go to the artist, here ends the PSA), but mainly this post is to say one of the songs from it is streaming for free already and it's really really lovely:

youtube

Has her voice gotten even better? Probably not, it was always beautiful, but I listened to this song for the first time on break at work at yesterday, in an empty classroom in a brief break in the middle of a day of chaos when I opened the email from her mailing list about the new track out now/album out for pre-order, and was really really struck by the amazingly strong vocals. So nice. I might have gotten a touch emotional at hearing something so beautiful in said empty classroom.

It's fine, not the first time she's done that to me. I got to see her live when she came to Canada in September and was definitely trying to hide from my dad who was next to me the small tears just from being so overwhelmed from being in the same room as her. Also her stand-up show Butch Ado About Nothing was one of three stand-up shows to make me cry last year, but was the only one to make me, like, really properly cry instead of just tearing up a bit. Is that the goal of most stand-up specials? Also made me laugh a lot, to be clear. It did succeed in the goal of stand-up specials to make people laugh.

I was going to now post a picture of the thing I have that's signed by her, but then I started writing a longer story about how that happened and sorry, I'm going to use this as an excuse to write this whole story again even though I already wrote it a few months ago because it's so fucking cool guys, but look the main takeaway from this post is that I'm excited for her new album and people should definitely listen to that new song.

(Warning: rarely seen pictures of my face behind the cut. Technically even something where you if you look hard enough you could see the name of the city where I live. I used to worry more about avoiding that on this blog because I really like being anonymous but since then I've relaxed a little because the internet is large and like four people read this blog and probably none of you are trying to dox me.)

So, I'd gone to Montreal to see Josie Long live in July, saw her on the same night as Tom Ballard and I'd say that was one of the top ten best nights of my entire life, and after the show I was hoping to run into Josie Long and was sort of walking around the area hoping I might happen to see her but wasn't about to do any more than that due to shyness and/or a reasonable desire to not appear creepy, and just as I was considering where I should go I literally nearly walked into her on the sidewalk, and I said a few wildly incoherent things and then pulled out a plastic bag that contained a pen and something I hoped she'd sign so the fact that I'd held onto that all through her show and Tom Ballard's sort of got rid of any illusions that I hadn't planned to run into her and may have destroyed any efforts to not appear creepy, and those efforts may have been further destroyed by the look on her face when I opened the bag because whatever she expected to be in there was definitely not a cardstock printout of a poster of the cover art for the cassette tapes released over ten years ago of her 2010 and 2011 stand-up shows. But I got her to sign it anyway and she was so nice and so kind even though like I said I was an absolute mess, I definitely managed to tell her I loved her recently released book but besides that I just talked incoherently for about thirty seconds and then ran away, only to go back twenty seconds later to say so I'm so sorry I forgot to ask if I could get a picture with you, and she said yes she was surprised I hadn't asked before. And then she asked me if I minded if she put her arm around me for the picture, even though I had made it very clear with my behaviour that that would be the coolest thing that's ever happened to me, because explicit consent over implied consent is important and she's so cool!

Anyway. Then in September I saw Grace Petrie live in my own city, and during the intermission she came out to sign CDs and things, and I bought a CD of an album that I already owned from Bandcamp and then got her to sign it just as a ruse to make me seem like a normal person/if you're going to ask an artist to talk to you for a few minutes it's nice if you bribe them by buying their stuff, and then, if Josie Long wasn't expecting me to pull out a Josie Long poster from the early 2010s and ask her to sign it, Grace Petrie definitely wasn't expecting me to do that, she looked quite shocked. I hastily told her I'm very sorry and I hope she's not offended that I want her to sign someone else's thing because I really am I massive fan of her music and I have all her albums but it's just that I love the idea of having both her and Josie Long's signatures on one thing because they've done touring together and are kind of associated, but unfortunately the only thing I have Josie Long's signature on is a Josie Long poster so would she possibly mind signing this other person's thing? And Grace Petrie was so very kind about it and got really excited to see I had that and said no of course she doesn't mind and Josie Long is one of her best friends and after she signed it she took a picture of it with her own phone so she could send the picture to Josie Long. And then I awkwardly said here's my dad I brought him with me and can he take a picture of us? And he did.

And then as a Christmas gift for me at the end of the year, my parents took that poster and got it framed. When I moved into my new place the month I made sure it got a prominent place on the wall, right next to the printout of the Bugle quote poster that @nyomkitten designed and also my artwork from Nova Scotia/Cape Breton and Newfoundland, just all my favourite things in one place:

Coolest fucking thing ever, all of that. I actually hadn't put that whole story in one post before, having just made posts about each part as it happened. I like having it all in one place, some nice pictures to look at when I feel like great things don't happen in life. But the main point is that people should go listen to Grace Petrie's new song, it's really really lovely and reminder that Bandcamp is the place to go to buy music in ways that's best for consumers and also supports artists.

While we're at it, in case people don't know her, here's my favourite song by Grace Petrie, which she closed her set with when I saw her live, the set was so perfect and she played all her best ones and by the time she got to the end I had heard every song of hers that I'd most wanted to hear barring one, and she said this will be her last one so I thought the only thing that could make this night less than perfect is if she doesn't play that one but there's only one more and even if this isn't it it was still an amazing night and it's okay, and then she turned to the guy on stage with her Ben Moss and mouthed something to him to let him know what the last song would be and I tried to read it and could see she mouthed "The Losing Side" at him, and that was when I knew the night would in fact be perfect, and it was, the tears that I previously mentioned definitely occurred during that song because it was so special to hear it live with all these other people who appreciated it too, which is why I like that YouTube has both the album version for hearing it in its proper quality:

youtube

and nice live versions to capture a little of the atmosphere of hearing it in a room of other people:

youtube

You'd think that me trying to quit drinking would lead to fewer incoherently emotional/overly personal posts on Tumblr. Weirdly, it's kind of increased them. Because I'd mostly stopped posting on Tumblr while drunk, being more likely to write a post while drunk but save it and edit it while sober and then post it. But now that I'm not drinking, I'll just my overly emotional shit when I'm feeling it and there won't be a time when I sober up to try to edit it into something reasonable so I'll just post it as-is. (Also not drinking is just fucking with my emotional state in general and I appreciate having Tumblr as an outlet where I can write weirdly emotional things to reflect that. Also I appreciate the existence of Grace Petrie.)

#Youtube

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greenhikingboots · 2 years ago

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2022 End-of-Year Fic Review ✨

Thanks for the tag @cellsshapedlikestars. 💋 Ya’ll know the drill. Answers below the cut.

1. What’s your AO3 account?

GreenHikingBoots. I used to write my Jonsa stories as NorthernLady and my Dramione stories as DakotaDelacour.

2. How many words did you write in total in 2022? AO3 Statistics says about 140,000. But I have 1) an incomplete Dramione multi chapter that was around 40k words before I orphaned it 2) some fics I originally wrote and published in 2021, took down, reworked, and republished in 2022 and 3) a whole lot of words in Google Docs that aren’t ready to be published yet. So, yeah, take that number with a grain of salt. I’ve seen a handful of writers I really enjoy with way higher numbers and it’s a bit tempting to compare and get down on myself. But you know what? If 140,000 words is about right, that’s like two full young adult novels in a year. As a hobby! That I do not get paid for. That’s pretty awesome.

3. How many fics did you publish in 2022 // multi-chapter vs. one-shots?

21. Again, some of these were originally from 2021 but taken down, re-worked, and re-published. I’m not sure how to count the exact breakdown since I have a handful that are two or three parts (so technically multi-chapters) but the word counts are short enough to match some one-shots out there. Generally speaking, I have a lot more one-shots than multi-chapters. I think only one of my fics is longer than 25,000 ish words and more are under like, 6,000 ish. 4. What was your longest-fic // shortest fic? Longest: Inevitable. It’s the outline at about 72k ish words with one chapter left to go. Shortest: About Damn Time. It’s 921 words. That’s a Pretty Name is a close second with 971 words.

5. What was your most popular // least popular? Most Popular: Inevitable, which I think is to be expected because it’s the longest. A Boy in His Cups is my next most popular, the Jonsa one-shot I’ve had up the longest. Least Popular: That’s a Pretty Name

6. What fic didn't perform as well as you thought it would? So Mighty Love + Better Dreams (a two part series that’s about 25,000 words total) was originally part of one of those fic I published as NorthernLady, took down before completing, re-worked, and re-published this year. And the original version was pretty popular and considering it’s mostly the same fic (the major difference being I found a way to end it sooner), it was easy to assume it would perform similarly. But that wasn’t the case at all. I’m guessing people were turned off by the new “Ambiguous/Open Ending” tag? I’m not sure. This series isn’t one of the ones I’m super proud of since it relies heavily on the show plot and I’m more into the books these days. But!! The closing line to Better Dreams is one of the best damn things I’ve ever written and I kinda wish it wasn’t hiding in a fic most people don’t want to read. So there’s that. *shrugs*

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would? I don’t know about *way* better, but I published Crossing the Threshold around the same time as several other one-shots, and I was surprised to see it beat out the others. I mean, it’s got a cute premise and I was excited to share it, but if I had to rank everything I posted from late September to early November, it probably wouldn’t even make the top half let alone the very top spot. Glad others like it, though.

8. What was your favorite fic you wrote in 2022? Goodness, this is a difficult question. I recently said in another post that A Boy in His Cups is probably the fic I’m most proud of. I’ll stand by that. It’s just got all the elements I love most about Jonsa fanfiction. But Wait and See and Maiden in a Tower are also very near and dear to my heart. I’ve gone back and read those two a handful of times. I try not to care too much about stats (I still care more than I’d like), so I guess what I really like about these three is that they make not caring about stats easy. Like, I love them for the pure fun of writing and would have been pleased with how they turned out even if no one ever saw them. What’s another way of wording it? Many of my other fics are more like an idea that I need to get out of my system so I can move on. Whereas these three fics make me go, “I want to crawl inside this fic and live there!!”

9. What was your favorite fic that somebody else wrote in 2022? Oh my! I’m pretty bad at keeping track of what I’ve read and even worse at remembering titles and who wrote what. Also, I read a lot of stuff after it’s been completed which means just because I read it in 2022 doesn’t mean it was written in 2022. But here are some authors I remember being in my bookmarks at different times throughout the year: thimbleful @justadram_a_dram honey_wheeler @vivilove-jonsa @woodswit @kingsansa @estherruth-jonsatrash @ode-to-an-inkwell @amymel86 Kit_Kat21 caesia @chispas-and-broken-bindings ganymede_elegy (@cellsshapedlikestars) (I try to read and love on other writers I see on Tumblr. Is that obvious by this list?) Also ganymede’s Lounge Act and Mating Game (still in progress) are probably the WIPs I followed most closely. I also have a special place in my heart for her fic The Ghost Inside since I was a beta reader for that. 10. Tag your friends so they can play as well!

Anyone in #9 who hasn’t already been tagged and/or anyone else who wants to play with us!

-x-x-x-x-x- Short descriptions of all my fics mentioned in this post: Inevitable - Modern AU - high school, fake dating trope, best friend’s sister/brother’s best friend That’s a Pretty Name - pre-canon romantic undertones, Sansa lectures Jon about courtesies Crossing the Threshold - Modern AU - high school, drunk confession of feelings About Damn Time - Modern AU - college; Sansa gets a gift from Jon on her birthday A Boy In His Cups - Jon I GoT reimagined; he already knows the truth about his parents Wait and See - Jon struggles to regain his memories after dying and being brought back to life Maiden in a Tower - another pre-canon romantic undertones, a kissing game in the godswood Mighty Love/Better Dreams - seasons 6 and 7 of the show but make it Jonsa

#jonsa fanfiction #end of year review

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s10127470 · 2 years ago

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Thoughts on the Return of Ultimate Marvel

As some of you have probably heard by now, the Ultimate Marvel universe is officially returning for the first time in 8 years in the upcoming event “Ultimate Invasion”, coming this June.

And while many people are excited for this universe to finally return after not being used for so long, there some, myself included, that are a bit more split….

But before I can explain that, let’s give a bit of a history for some more context.

In late 1990s, Marvel had barely manage to survive bankruptcy by selling off the film rights of many of their characters to various studios.

Around that time, they felt like a reason for their declining comic sales was because of how difficult it was for newcomers to get into their comics, given how many relaunches and runs they had going on, combined with the 60 years of history they had under their belts at the time.

So as as result of this predicament, Marvel came up with the idea of doing an all-new comic run that would run adjacent to the mainline comics.

It would revamp the iconic Marvel characters for the 21st century and help introduce them to an all-new generation of readers.

And so, Ultimate Marvel was born!

Launching in 2000 with Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Marvel would become a smash-hit!

It helped launched Marvel back into the relevance and had a strong presence in the comic book industry, which was helped by other series like Ultimate X-Men in 2001, The Ultimates in 2002, and Ultimate Fantastic Four in 2004.

The series was successful financially wise, but quality-wise….not so much….

Ultimate Spider-Man was great and is often regarded as one of the greatest takes on the Spider-Man mythos.

But the same can’t be said for the other series.

A major problem with the Ultimate universe from the beginning was the lack of stylistic focus and cohesion between the titles and creators.

With Ultimate Spider-Man, while striving to be somewhat different, Brian Michael Bendis still wanted to say true to the spirit and style of the classic Spider-Man comics, but just slightly updated for the modern era.

However, most of the other Ultimate titles fell into the trap of trying to be too different from the mainline universe.

This was the result of these titles either being placed in the hands of writers who had a style that didn’t really fit with the intention that Marvel had for this universe, or just weren’t very familiar with the characters they were working it.

As a result, this led to the universe being riddled with ill-fitting characterization and shock-centric storylines.

It’s the reason why this universe is known as the one with the overly-edgy writing and where nearly everyone is an asshole (with some exceptions like Peter Parker).

Probably the best example of this would have to be The Ultimates 1 and 2, which featured a reimagined version of the Avengers.

Written by Mark Millar (who had never written anything of actual good quality until about 2012), the Ultimates was created as a satire/commentary of the somewhat ridiculous Bush-era jingoism that plagued the United States not too long after the September 11th attacks, with the Ultimates being portrayed as a superhuman task force created by the government in order to defend America.

While not a bad concept, it really did not fit for a modern reimagining of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Apart from the comic runs being made horribly dated through its political commentary and abundance of pop culture references and hard to read thanks to Millar’s formerly trademark style of writing like an edgy teenage fanfic writer, it featured undoubtedly the worst takes on the Avengers.

The Ultimates were basically flanderized versions of the mainline counterparts.

Captain America was an overly jingoistic numbskull, Iron Man was a sleazy alcoholic who was almost never sober, Giant Man was an actual domestic abuser, Wasp was an abuse victim who constantly flirted with other men, and The Hulk was a literal monster who frequently engaged in cannibalism.

The only remotely likable characters in those runs were Nick Fury, Hawkeye, and especially Thor.

This was done as an attempt to make the Avengers more grounded and realistic….

Saying the Ultimates is grounded and realistic is like saying Star vs. The Forces of Evil actually had a good series finale.

The main problem was the fact there was barely anyone who you could like or root for.

And in all honesty, it seems that it was the intention while also…..not being so…..

Since there are some moments where they do want us to sympathize with the characters, but due to how most of the series comes off as portraying them as people who don’t deserve sympathy, combine with how unlikable they are, it makes the whole thing pretty confusing.

But other than that, things were fine for Ultimate Marvel until about the late 2000s, when sales started to steadily decline.

A major reason for that was because the quality of writing of the titles began to somewhat decline, along with the Prime Universe gaining more prominence in the comic book world.

Granted, their writing was not exactly good to begin with, but it was definitely better back then that it was now.

The biggest offender to this was none other than Ultimates 3.

Ultimates 3 is unanimously regarded as the worst of the Ultimates series and one of the worst titles from the Ultimate universe.

The run was written by Jeph Loeb, who was not very familiar with the Ultimate universe to begin with.

Plus he was not in the best mental state at the time, having recently lost his son and close friend to cancer.

While Ultimates 1 and 2 were not….ya know…..good, but at least they were leagues better and had something to say when compared to Ultimates 3.

Ultimates 3 basically cranked the overly-edgy writing style to the fucking max, literally being the only thing this run had to offer.

It was pure style over substance.

Along with that, it introduced some of the most infamous moments in this universe.

With the crowning achievement being the reveal of Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch being in an incestuous relationship.

Yes, you heard me right. Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch were in an FUCKING incestuous relationship!

Around the time as well, Marvel began to feel that the Ultimate universe was starting to become too bloated and convoluted.

Ironic how the whole point of this universe was be more simplified than the mainline universe.

So as a result, Marvel decided they want to do a clean slate for this universe and how did they do it?

With Ultimatum!

Ultimatum is unanimously regarded as not only the worst storyline in the Ultimate universe and one of the worst in Marvel history, but also one of the worst comic books of all time!

And it’s all well-deserved.

Long-story short, Ultimatum was about the heroes of the Ultimate Universe having to band together in order to defeat Magneto.

Speaking of which, in Ultimates 3, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are killed by Hawkeye and Ultron respectively, and as a result, it drove Magneto to insanity.

This led him to steal Thor’s hammer Mjolnir (which in this universe doesn’t have a magical enchantment to it), and combines it his magnetic powers in order to alter the magnetic poles of the Earth. As a result of this, it sends a massive tsunami that floods New York City.

Basically, Magneto wants to destroy the entire world as revenge for the death of his children.

Ultimatum was an overly-edgy, cynical, and just flat-out depressing and mean-spirited mess.

Undoubtedly the most notorious element of this comic were the deaths.

This comic featured the deaths of many notable heroes and villains. And unlike in the mainline universe, death in this universe was much more serious and most of all, permanent.

Most of the time….

Not helping was how many of the characters either died off-screen, in ways that didn’t make sense, or in rather gruesome and overly graphic ways.

Some of the best examples include Nightcralwer drowning despite being able to teleport, Doctor Strange having his head exploded by Dormammu, The Thing crushing Doctor Doom’s head with his own bare hands, and perhaps the most infamous, The Blob eating Wasp alive.

Seriously, what was up with the Ultimate universe and cannibalism?

The only remotely good things in this event was seeing Spider-Man going out of his way to save as many people as possible instead of joining in on the edge-fest and J. Jonah Jameson actually finally seeing him for the hero he really is.

Before I move on, I do want to bring talk about the X-Men real quick.

Out of all the heroes in this event, X-Men by far got screwed over the worst.

In addition to losing more than half of their team and many of the characters associated with them (even including the Big Four of the X-Men), the origins of the mutant gene were also revealed to them….

In the Ultimate universe, instead of being a natural phenomenon caused by evolution that’s been around since the early days of humanity, the mutant gene was instead the accidental results of a failed attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum during World War II.

Oh yeah side-note, the Super Soldier Serum was a major element in this universe, with often being tied to the sources of many of the heroes’ powers, most notably Spider-Man and The Hulk.

But back on topic, this revelation has gone down as one of the dumbest twists in Marvel history.

Everyone has already said it, but it completely misses the point of the X-Men and the mutants as whole.

They’re suppose to represent minorities and oppressed groups who couldn’t help the way they were born.

Basically, the Ultimate universe decided to turn the mutants into the goddamn Inhumans, minus the advanced civilization.

And more I think about it, this might’ve been foreshadowing to what would try to do with both teams in the coming years.

Think about it. Remember during the 2010s when the X-Men’s existence was heavily downplayed and ignored due to everyone at Marvel being forced to do so in order to keep Ike Perlmutter happy, since he was being all huffy about Fox still owning the film rights to that team, while also constantly pushing the Inhumans.

I’m throughly convinced that he somehow read this comic, and as a result, it gave him the idea to replace the X-Men with the Inhumans.

Anyway, Ultimatum left a nasty mark on the Ultimate Universe.

In addition to permanently killing off many characters, readers somewhat gave up on the series.

Although the Ultimate Universe did continue for another six years, it never reached the level of popularity that it saw in the early 2000s.

And even though this era of Ultimate Marvel was much more tame when compared its earlier years and especially during Loeb’s time, it never caught many people’s interest.

The only thing in that universe that was really worth anyone’s time was Ultimate Spider-Man, which remained great throughout its run and even its relaunch thanks to Brian Michael Bendis stick with the project until the very end.

And since many of characters were permanently killed off (some even before Ultimatum), they attempted to make up for that by introducing many new original characters to serve as replacements for the dead characters.

These included the likes of Jimmy Hudson (Wolverine), Ray Connor (Daredevil), Derek Morgan (Angel), Mach Two (Magneto), Monica Chang (Black Widow), Theodore Allen (The Blob), and Tyrone Cash (Hulk).

Unfortunately, these characters were met with a resounding “meh” and have gone on to either be killed off permanently or just flat out forgotten.

The only original character from the Ultimate universe that manage to make a name for himself and resonated with readers is Miles Morales, who took on the mantle of Spider-Man after Peter Parker was fatally wounded during his finale battle against the Green Goblin.

After about six years of not much to note, Marvel decided to finally end the Ultimate series with the Secret Wars, which saw the Prime Universe and Ultimate Universe crossing paths for the very first time.

It also saw the entire Ultimate universe being destroyed as well, with the only survivors being Miles, Jimmy Hudson (who get forgotten pretty quickly), and Reed Richards, who during the last years of Ultimate, became a super-villain known as The Maker.

Although the Ultimate universe was revived at the end of the event, the three Ultimate survivors have become main-stays in the Prime Universe.

And yeah….that’s basically the history of Ultimate Marvel

Ever since 2015, Marvel hasn’t really done anything with the Ultimate Universe apart from some occasional cameos and references.

But with "Ultimate Invasion", we'll not only be seeing the Ultimate Universe being utilized in a major way for the first time in nearly a decade, but it also possibly means that the Ultimate Universe might be returning for an all-new comic run.

And it does seems to be in good hands, with the two brains behind this project being Johnathan Hickman as the writer, who's already established himself as one of the best writers currently working at Marvel, and Bryan Hitch, the artist behind the first two volumes of the Ultimates.

And while people are excited to see the return of this once-influential universe, most people are curious on how it will be presented.

Continuity-wise, Ultimate Invasion will either be....

A. An direct continuation of where the universe left off.

B. Pretty much the same as A., but with some notable continuity retcons (such as the removal of Ultimatum).

As for tone-wise, that's where things get tricky.

One of the main traits of the Ultimate Universe was its overly edgy nature and use of shock value.

And while that may've been niche back in the 2000s, in the 2020s, that kind of style is generally looked down upon and seen as tryhard.

Not to mention people are just sick of seeing cynical and mean-spirited media nowadays, due to how over-abundant it has become in recent years. Thanks in part due to everybody desperately wanting to be the next Family Guy or Rick and Morty.

If they're gonna bring back the Ultimate Universe, it can't have an edgy and cynical tone.

However, on the topic of an all-new Ultimate run, a lot of people are hoping that the possible run that's spawned from Ultimate Invasion will be a full-on reboot of the Ultimate Universe, rather than a continuation.

And I wholeheartedly agree for a few reasons.

Trying to continue the Ultimate Universe from where it left off would be pretty difficult. In contrast to the Prime Universe, which had been continuously running since 1939, the Ultimate Universe ran from 2000 to 2015, and is only now returning after 8 years of hiatus.

2. Having a clean slate would do wonders for this universe. Ultimatum cannot be understated in how much it affected the Ultimate Universe. As I previously mentioned, many of the iconic heroes and villains were brutally killed and never seen again, and trying to continue the universe without them wouldn't feel right. Technically the Ultimate Universe already did that during its final years and it didn't work out well. Along with that, heroes and villains could actually be written like their other iterations but with some unique quirks rather than edgy, flanderized, asshole versions of themselves.

3. I think it's just time to give another go at an new Ultimate Universe. Next year, Marvel will have 85 years of history under its belt, and your telling me that nobody thinks trying to compress that history into something more digestible isn't a good idea. I mean, that's basically what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been doing for the last....15 years?!

Good God, I am old...

And funnily enough, it was heavily influenced by the Ultimate Universe.

Well that's all for now. I'm currently planning on sharing my ideas for how I think a new Ultimate Universe should play out.

Let me know what you guys think about the upcoming Ultimate Invasion, and how you would do an Ultimate Marvel reboot.

#marvel #ultimate marvel #ultimates #ultimate spider man #ultimate x men #ultimate fantastic four #marvel reboot #marvel idea #reboot ideas

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incorrect-in-other-lands-quotes · 2 years ago

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New Spin-off Short Story set in “In Other Lands”

1. The News!

I have written a short story set in the world of In Other Lands! Tears Waiting To Be Diamonds introduces us to dwarven Prince Mark, who has the worst day of his life when his father’s subterranean kingdom is usurped and he’s sent up to (shudder) the disgusting surface world, where he hopes for allies and is thoroughly unimpressed to find an arsonist, a murderer, his part-human cousin and the young man referred to by the western fortresses as the Redheaded Trouble…

If you haven’t read In Other Lands, this story works as a standalone about a prince and the terrible people he meets in exile. But if you have, I think you’ll be excited to see 24-year-old Elliot Schafer and friends, all grown up and making a difference in the magical Borderlands (look, the daily diplomatic crises and weathered soldiers begging for mercy and no more lectures is different…)

2. So, Why’d It Take You So Long To Tell Us?

The issue is, I’m a demon for length and everything is my fault. My editor for Tears solicited me for a story, and I thought: yes, it’s time. So I wrote it in summertime. And I handed it in. And then at a convention in September, I was asked a dire question.

EDITOR: Why… is this… three times the length we told you?

SARAH: Oh! You must not know ’bout me…

SARAH: Extremely sorry. Can you still publish it please?

Very kindly, they overlooked my verbal delinquency, and we talked it over and decided the way to handle said delinquency was to publish the story in two parts! This was very pleasing to me, as I love serialized fiction. The greatest compliment ever paid to a writer was a mob running down to the harbour to greet the ship carrying the next instalment of Dickens’s book, all yelling ‘DOES LITTLE NELL DIE?’

3. So, Why This Story?

One of the key things that unlocked In Other Lands as a novel for me was the elves and the different angle they allowed me to talk about feminism. The short story from Luke’s point of view went into the harpies, so I could talk about finding your own body monstrous. Culture clash in fantasy is my jam, and I always knew if I went back to In Other Lands it would be to give the dwarves, and Elliot’s friend Myra of Diamond Clan, their day.

I was really nervous about writing the story, as In Other Lands is so special to me. It’s the book readers talk to me about most, and the last book I finished before I was diagnosed with cancer and my life changed. The experience of writing it felt madcap and joyous, and I always wanted to get back to that, but it was readers who kept the joy alive for me - who loved the book when I didn’t, who kept faith and didn’t forget the story, who reminded me I was a writer. And In Other Lands ends on a precipice - the characters won’t be excused for being kids when they cause trouble anymore. Shit was about to get extremely real. I wanted to give my readers a story that felt both true and joyful. I hope I have!

4. So you have a substack now?

Yes! I’ve been thinking about how much I loved blogging, and talking about stories, but how tough I find it to talk about myself. (I’m fascinating, don’t get me wrong, but there are other stories to talk about too.) So I have an idea for this substack, and I will tell you all about it next week!

Also, I have even bigger news than this, which I can’t tell you yet. I will soon though. (In the true meaning of soon, not like how I kept everyone waiting for In Other Lands news!) Thank you for signing up, you are all jewels and flowers of my heart. Please stay tuned, because I am perishing with anticipation to tell you things.

5. So WHERE AND WHEN?

Tears Waiting To Be Diamonds will be published online in the Sunday Morning Transport. I was very flattered to be asked to write a story for them, as they have published so many of my favourite writers—the latest story I read there was Min Zemerin’s Plan by Katherine Addison, who wrote the amazing book The Goblin Emperor. Part 1 of Tears will be published on January 8 2023 and Part 2 on January 29 2023. So, Part 1 comes less than a month from now! Get ready for trouble.

#I AM SO EXCITED #long post

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wizardtxtmsg · 2 years ago

Note

1-25 for the ask game 🥀🌙

You want me to answer all of them? Wow okay I’ve never had this before this should be fun

1. Song of the year?: psychosocial by slipknot according to my Spotify wrapped.

2. Album of the year: Daughter’s “before the storm” album

3. Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year?: I so technically started listening to slipknot back in 2019 but I never really got obsessed with them until this year

4. Movie of the year?: I don’t watch a lot of movies, mainly just sitcoms but my favorite movie this year was A Silent Voice. Watched it at least three times this year.

5. Tv show of the year?: either community or it’s always sunny.

6. Episode of tv or webisode that defined the year for you?: Remedial Chaos Theory from Community.

7. Favorite actor of the year: I don’t typically like actors all that much but I guess misha collins. The stunt he pulled back in spring/summer was pretty funny imo

8. Game of the year?: I fell in and out of love with genshin impact a few times this year but I did really also like phasmophobia

9. Best month for you this year?: October probably. I reunited with a friend of mine back mid September and we’ve been talking almost every single day since. October was the first month we talked to each other every day.

10. Something that made you cry this year?: no being able to keep up a stable romantic relationship

11. Something you want to do again next year?: watch all of its always sunny again

12. Talk about a new friend you made this year: I made no new friends but like I said, I reunited with one I made last year.

13. How was your birthday this year?: I stayed inside most of the day and took a nap until I got a headache. Then when my dad got off work I just hung out with him for the rest of the night. My dad bought me a katana even though I haven’t wanted one of those since I was 14 lol

14. Favorite book you read this year?: never finished it but house of the scorpion was really good

15. What’s a bad habit you picked up this year?: it’s really gross but I made a bad habit of picking at my scabs

16. Post a picture from the beginning of the year: I’ll be sure to do that after I’m done posting this lol

17. Post a picture from the end of the year: I’ll post it along with the other photo

18. A memorable meal this year?: my dad’s cheeseburger macaroni.

19. What’re you excited about for next year?: hoping I get a girlfriend

20. What’s something you learned this year?: I learned what a radfem is

21. What’s something new about your place of residence (room, home, or general location) now vs the start of the year?: I have a camp crystal lake sign hanging on my bedroom wall now.

22. Favorite place you visited this year?: there’s this beautiful place called Poetry my dad and I visit time to time. It’s a small church town that’s surrounded by forest and fields of cows and horses and goats. Sometimes we find deer there and a few times we even saw a buck! I found a whole deer ribcage on the side of the road there last month!

23. If you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be?: let people in more. It’s scary, but it’s worth having someone to care about you.

24. Did you keep any New Year’s Resolutions?: didn’t make any in the first place

25. Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one: I hate my art style and I’m not particularly skilled at any artistic abilities so that’d be a no lol

#Dallas originals

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whoiskt · 2 years ago

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2022 draws to a close... it is time now... the questions...

1: What did you do in 2022 that you’d never done before?

WENT TO THE OCEAN!!! BABEY WE FINALLY MADE IT!

Also wrote a TV pilot script which has altered the course of my future in ways that are yet to be determined....

I did some other things, of course, but nothing as big as those. Like, I went to the renaissance faire, and tried hot pot, poisoned myself with mold. Just a tastes of some firsts.

2: Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I made... so many. It was too much.

Read 10 books--- Yeah, I technically have started and failed to complete many books. This does include Dracula -_- I’m so bad at finishing things. I’m trying to finish one before New Years.

Go to an event I wouldn’t normally attend--- I mean, I did go to the ren faire... so I want to count this.

Run a mile in less than 12 minutes outdoors--- I didn’t try lmao once it was warm enough to run outdoors I had completely forgotten.

Apply for at least 4 jobs a week----

I was trying to film a second a day too and that ended in... February.

Yeah, anyways, I don’t know. I got to be more reasonable.

3: Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nay! Least you count all the girlies at work.

4: Did anyone close to you die?

Nay!

5: What countries did you visit?

I’m still working on that ok?

6: What would you like to have in 2023 that you lacked in 2022?

Watch as KT chooses “career” for the fourth year in a row... Honestly, no. I’m going to say a feeling of community. That’s what I really want.

7: What dates from 2022 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

I will probably forget everything. I still remember the queen died on the 8th of September. I don’t know why I remember that but I doubt it will last.

8: What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Writing the script. I mean, it has changed a bit, and will continue to, but it was a big step in this journey I’m on. And as you know, I rarely finish things I start, so this was a big deal. Even if it never sees the light of day.

I read it to my family at Christmas and my oldest bro-in-law told me to keep making it because he likes it.... HUGE compliment coming from him.

I have also written the outlines for several other episodes for this not-real TV show of mine. I think I’m up to 5 outlines, in addition to the script. So, yeah. Even if it never gets to TV I might make it into a webcomic. Like, I'll make a pact that if I haven't gotten it made by the time I'm 30, I'll start making it into a webcomic instead.

Plus, I’ve been working a lot on my portfolio. I need to finish that up in January and then I’ll be applying for grad school! Scary but exciting.

9: What was your biggest failure?

My biggest failure of the year was probably whenever I applied and interviewed for that broadcasting job. I was really bummed that I didn’t get the job because of the following reasons:

1) It was “the perfect” job for me, I was perfectly qualified and it was in the perfect place, as close as I could get to my “dream job” without leaving the state.

2) There was three (3!) openings. The odds should have been in my favor

3) I knew someone who was already working there. Just embarrassing to me like, ok, so he knows I didn’t get the position. We went to school together our resumes were VERY similar ya know? How did I not get it?

But my biggest failure did lead me to self-reflect. The job search the last few years has been so hard. Getting this rejection was a very big “I can’t do this anymore” moment, so I was thinking, what has brought me satisfaction in all this? The answer was the TV show I write in my notes app.

And because I believe in that enough, I guess I’m going to go do that now instead. Either way, it’s been really fucking nice since then to have just completely given up on the job search. Just so nice.

10: Did you suffer illness or injury?

Yes, first I was sick... idk some time in Spring. Then I drank mold and became poisoned that way, so that was fun. And this last week I’ve had a stomach bug so wooo! I look forward to being well again.

11: What was the best thing you bought?

I bought the new tablet. It is really nice. But it would really only be useable thanks to Will, letting me borrow his computer all the time these days.

12: Whose behavior merited celebration?

I respect all my friends for their behavior and growth or dealing with challenges. It was tough ages 18-24 dealing with losing friends, but now the people I choose to surround myself never worry me, or shock me, or even come close to disgusting me. That’s not something I could have said when I was younger (sadly). But now all my friends are super solid and I am proud to know them.

13: Whose behavior made you appalled?

I don’t know... sometimes my coworkers do stuff but I wouldn’t call it outright appalling? At worst it’s petty drama or bootlicking. But I’m very good at leaving things at work so I don’t care.

14: Where did most of your money go?

They keep increasing the gd rent grrrrr

15: What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The ocean and the beach and the accompanying aura was really cool. I was so excited in general for summer and warm weather, which I think I’m just thinking about because I want it really bad right now.

Chainsaw Man anime! It’s been great showing it to Will, now he knows who tf I’m talking about.

16: What song will always remind you of 2022?

I really don’t listen to pop songs anymore but on our drive to the east coast we discovered Brick + Motar which has become a staple in our home, so pretty much all their songs.

17: Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?

I’m probably in all ways about the same. This is what I talk about when I say all the last few years have been a blur because things really don’t get better or worse they just stay the same.

18: What do you wish you’d done more of?

Focusing on finishing things I started. Running theme here, I know, lmao

19: What do you wish you’d done less of?

Play stupid little games on my phone. I seriously get addicted to these things.

20: How did you spend Christmas?

Went home. It was really brief this year. I'll make sure my visit next year is an extended stay.

21: Did you fall in love in 2022?

Never stopped.

22: What was your favorite TV program?

Some things I enjoyed this year: Severance, What We Do in the Shadows, Arcane, Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family, Jojo Part 6, Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space, Fringe, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Gravity Falls, and many docs.

23: Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Nah.

24: What was the best book you read?

I have been and should be finished reading “The Song of Achilles” soon. I enjoy it because before I played Hades, and as a former greek mythology kid, I hadn’t heard of Patroclus, and I enjoy learning more about him..

25: What was your greatest musical discovery?

I did a lot of musical discovery this year. Like, more than usual, probably not a lot compared to most people. First off, I discovered Of Montreal (not from Montreal sus) TV on the Radio, and of course my Spotify top song of the year: “Heart It Races” by Architecture in Helsinki (I have yet to listen to a single other song of theirs because I just know nothing can top this).

Will discovered Brick + Mortar, and Fish in a Birdcage, which I have coveted.

I have also enjoyed That Handsome Devil and Spoon. Although there is more diving to do with them.

26: What did you want and get?

New drawing tablet.

27: What did you want and not get?

New laptop. My tastes are just too expensive and so I ended up using the money for other things.

28: What was your favorite film of this year?

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE!

29: What one thing that made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Writing things for myself and then reading them off to Will. Oh, yeah, my TV show has a fan! Just greenlight me baby!

30: How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2022?

Visions from higher powers. But mostly I don’t wear pants at home. I’m not wearing pants as I write this.

31: What kept you sane?

Socializing. Going outside. Going for walks. Music. My notes app.

32: Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I don’t care about celebrities but I do care about Aki Hayakawa.

33: What political issue stirred you the most?

I lost rights this year so..... oof.

34: Who did you miss?

My kitty cat.

35: Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2022.

I learned not to compromise on quality of life? Life is filled with dreams. You gotta follow the string of satisfaction.

It’s easy to get caught up in a stream of “well I have to do this, and then that, and then I’ll be happy.” Which is pretty much how I have lived my life up to this point. I went to college because I thought it was a step to happiness. I wasn’t happy while doing it. I should have done something else, I think. It was unhappy times.

Like, I don’t really like my job, it’s not what I want to do for the rest of my life, or even a year more, but it’s something I can do now, while pursuing other things that DO satisfy me... and THAT’S the satisfaction I have in my life. Before, it was just a step while I waited for something better. But I realize that’s not a good way to live life.

36: Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

#lifeblogging #Tl;dr of this is that I wrote a script and didn't read any books lmaooo #year in review

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sirenascelestiales · 2 months ago

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So…I just gave lots of stuff to write down and think about and figured I’d do so on the public journal that is my tumblr.

been watching lots of tv lately:

Heartstopper season 3 (loved it! I’m glad younger gens have this very cute but still serious topic show that isn’t just like a drag about hardships)

I made it to s1e7 of sense8 and idk if it’s cause of how much cast there is but like I don’t find myself curious about their connection or much about their lives? I find myself caring more about Capheus’ storyline and wishing they fleshed it out more and about Kala and Wolfgang’s chemistry and wanting to learn more about that than any of the others tbh 🤷‍♀️ I mostly get annoyed at Sun’s and Nomi’s storyline but not like “I wanna know what happens” more like “this is too annoying to watch” I think I’m gonna give up on it as I stopped 2weeks ago now and haven’t feel like watching

I’ve made it to season 4 of Sex and the City, that show benefits from being 30 mins instead of the hour cause some episodes I’m like “no that’s not good in 2024” but also I don’t hate Carrie as much as everyone seems to? Don’t get me wrong the focus should have been on Samantha, I agree with that. But Carrie just seems like any other woman looking for love and gets blinded by that to me? She’s a better friend I think to Miranda than she is Charlotte and Sam. Despite all of them calling each other best friend I know some people our age back in like Middle school said that’s the title for 1 person not multiples. Anyway, it’s entertaining enough, idk how Carrie chose Big over 90s John Corbett but they’re both kinda terrible so they deserve each other?

besides what I’ve watched of SATC I only knew that someone has breast cancer (I think Miranda) and then a baby (I assume Charlotte who has a wet blanket for a husband, who should marry his mother so I hope she like finds another WASPy man to marry) and anyway I was going to say it does feel like a real friend group and that’s why I’ve stuck with it more than Sense8

A discovery of witches! Short about 8 episodes per season, 3 seasons and I’m done already! It’s been a super fun random little show! I’m on the waitlist to read the first book at my library and honestly the only gripe I have for this “twilight for graduate students” 🤣 is gallowglass’s love came out of NOWHERE and the demons are useless they should have had some semblance of power beyond “influential” and I had to Google why they were allegedly powerful. Otherwise it wasn’t even that clear if they were like immortal (I assume so cause of Hamish).

Watched Interview With the Vampire and obviously that’s been my favorite; best show, best acting, (Adow is probably the prettiest looking show cause of the locations but it’s also AMC so kudos to those ppl👏 ) no notes! Excited for season 3

onto life!

my doggo was sick last week. $800 later, vet told me he ate something bad and had a bacterial infection in his GI system. He is better now 💕 back to barking at the kids who wait for the bus in front of our house. 🐶

Work: I’ve now made like 5 massive typos across like 3 mass emails, one of them to our external community and 😩

logically, it’s not the end of the world. And everyone was cool about it (I discovered them all post-send but before someone could tell me 😅 so I was somewhat prepared) but I feel like a failure at my (new) job as it is communications. And even my boss was like “don’t be too hard on yourself, it happens” but like ITS EMBARRASSING

😭

Personally, I’m learning how to swim! Signed up back in summer idk when? Started late September and have 2 more lessons to go! I can’t breathe! I either hold my breath the entire time or when I move my head out of the water to breathe I move too much of my body (according to the instructor) and lose my not balance but it’s not swimming properly anymore.

I need to find a way to move my legs, arms and head in a rhythm that allows me to properly swim. However! I really enjoy being in the water! I’m learning at the rec center that only has 1 pool and it’s constantly booked for lessons but free most of the weekend midday to afternoon. But! There’s a local aquatics center that is almost a little bit closer but a bit expensive ($55/month what I used to pay for a gym back when I went during college) that holds Zumba and yoga in the pool and just lets you swim daily (no weekends tho 😒) so I’m debating! Bc I’ve never liked working out or the gym but I enjoy yoga and Zumba and being in a pool! So we shall see.

in other news, went to a cider festival in early September and haven’t had alcohol since (not purposefully just realized it last week) so I’m trying sober October and 😒 never has it felt more like there’s only alcoholic activities available than now just after committing myself to it! Didn’t tell anyone either and last night when I went out with friends they all were weird about me saying I didn't want to drink! Which huh 🤔 didn’t realize my friends were weirdos, we were at a bar and I said I’d be the DD (we have driven there before and ended up with Ubers when we realize we shouldn’t drive). Point is now it’s out of spite 😈

I don’t think my friends are terrible I just also don’t think we’ve ever had like a sober due to past abuse of alcohol or substance friend 🤷‍♀️ that I know of

also helped that weird sorta crush I had on a friend of a friend, since I stayed sober I realized he’s gunning for another friend of a friend and if she’s his type I am not (they’re both heavily tattooed and she’s very skinny and goth - I am 0 tattoos, chubby and not super girly but I wore a pink polka dot top! So not a match! 🤣)

Feels good to write that all down…

#illy talks #I wrote more about what tv I’m watching than my life omfg 😂

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shittatite · 3 months ago

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Shittatites Nonsense Junction

I have created hundreds of lists to keep record of the things i read, watch, listen, eat (basically all my core interests as anyone's) but i can never keep a proper tab because first i am lazy, plus there is no one app where I can put all my shiz but then i remembered of my core-existence-app tumblr where i can literally dump anything and everything, just for my sake and nobody else's I am going to journal everything here on my page. oh who how I love this app So, I will be calling this my - nonsense junction and I will be updating it every month (at least try) starting from September.

August - September Junction (I know it's not over and not even midway through, I was just excited to put something, i couldnt care less about anything)-

Stuff Read - works (ao3):

Deadly Match - (enemies to lover/revenge plot/super angsty/they hate eachother until they cant and they are super in love with eachother/my best best jikook fic ever) {5/5}

Nothing New - (closeted jk/out and proud jm/roomates-friends-lovers/jk confused by the beauty of jm quite literally) {2.5/5}

books (epub/paperback):

Beautiful World Where Are You? - Sally Rooney - (two best friends in their late 20's writing letters to each other on their lives, so beautifully written that I had a hard time not underlining the whole book) {5/5}

currently reading:

The Bookshop Woman - Nanako Hanada

Stuff Watched - movies - (on any media platform)

Longlegs {USA, some website) - I liked it, i liked the jumpscares, the eeries feeling that something is off throughout the movie, the plot twist, i think this movie was supposed to creep up on you and it certainly creeped up my body {4/5}

Sleepy Hallow {USA, some website) - liked johnny depp's acting ngl (still dont like him) a lot, liked the suspense, liked watching the movie and enjoying it, dont understand how the f they became a couple but to each their own {3.5}

Stree 2 (India, - loved how the director connected the universes together from stree to munjiya, liked the cameo roles, i love movies where there is a full circle, or where the universes connect existing in the same timeline, you know?!? {4/5}

series -

Goedam (Korea, Netflix) - The only reason I gave it a watch was that I was super pmsing and wanted to watch horror and this was short but oh my did I get scared? oh yes, those 6-8 minutes were so beautifully directed that I almost died shit you not

The Boyfriend (Korea, Netflix) - Ohhhhhh my fav boys ever, super sweet, super fun like such good show about a group of boys coming together to find a chance at love, only for them to end up finding so much more, its pleasing to watch and so comforting not only to eyes but it just fills your heart with so much love and fondness, the way they articulate their feelings, I am a dai-shun girl all in all, but can we really really talk about kazuto being one of the prettiest beings on earth? like that boy is beautiful

My Stand-In (Thailand, Telegram) - I loved it I simply devoured it in one go, i couldn't stop watching no matter how toxic it got, the messier it is, the better I like it, i love poomp and up together, give them to me in anything, I will take it.

The Boys S3 {USA, Prime) - I love the thrill, I am living for it, and I do get irritated by it but I like it, I love how weirder and weirder it gets

trailers - I am a girl who loves trailers, i love going to the theaters before to watch trailers, so hence a category, it is just things that i like

Sector 36 - I love crime, I have studied crime and it fascinates me, it's based on Nithari Killings and I know about the case but I am excited to watch the whole thing and I know it will be dramatized and all but it has pappy ji and vikrant in it like imma gonna give it a watch for the acting

currently watching:

The boys S4 - Butcher is going to die what?! nooo not before killing homelander

Jack and Joker - I am going down with this

Stuff Listened to (that i went gaga over)-

Neva Play by Megan and RM is here and oh my KIM NAMJOON, what in the world is that legal, what's up stallion should be injected in everyone's body

#shittatitenonsenseramblings #movie review #book recommendations #music recommendation #ao3 fanfic #series recommendations

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oldmanbayou · 11 months ago

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2023 Year End Survey

1. How did you ring in the new year for 2023? caught covid for the third time

2. Who did you kiss at midnight/your first kiss in 2023? Ames

3. What did you do in 2023 that you’d never done before?: drove a standard, lived alone, grew carrots

4. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? It looks like my new years resolution last year was to opt out of sibling birthdays, which yes, I absolutely succeeded at. Didn't shop for any of them, didn't worry or think about their birthdays coming up, I don't think I even bothered wishing them a happy birthday!

I can't imagine I'll be making any new years resolutions for 2024--I need a break from failure.

5. Did anyone close to you give birth?: God I hope not.

6. Did anyone close to you die?: My sister's cat Snickers was such a love.

7. What places did you visit?: Disneyland and Baltimore

8. What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023?: joy

9. What dates from 2023 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?: January 13 - Nermal Day March 14 - The day the sky fell September 11 - Grimey left Day December 12 - Grimey return day

10. What was your biggest achievement of the year?: Making it to the end.

11. What was your biggest failure?: Taking out the trash while Grimey was away. Giving Nermal a better life. Keeping the chickens safe from each other. Keeping the truck alive. Get a passport. Not panicking on a work trip where I had to god forbid, travel alone. Not panicking in the middle of the bread aisle. Not panicking every time I leave the house. Not dissociating for 3 months. Not just living off of goldfish crackers and popcorn for 3 months. Among a million other things.

12. Did you suffer illness or injury?: crippling depression

13. What was the best thing you bought?: an awl

14. Whose events required celebration?: Grimey fulfilled his life dream of wrestling in Japan.

15. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?: It's hard to be furious at others when I've paid no attention whatsoever to the world outside my own head.

16. Where did most of your money go?: Besides the boring american adult stuff like property tax and health insurance premiums -- My immune system seems to behave like a 90-year-old, so my doctor ordered a bunch of lab tests to rule things out. Since everything came back negative, my insurance company disagreed that the tests were medically necessary. I am severely phobic of needles--I don't just take blood tests for funsies, you chumps.

17. What did you get really, really, really excited about?: Grimey coming home

18. What song will always remind you of 2023?: probably David Teie's Music for Cats

Compared to this time last year, are you: a) Happier or sadder?: sadder

b) Thinner or fatter?: thinner

c) Richer or poorer?: poorer

19. What do you wish you’d done more of?: die

20. What do you wish you’d done less of?: exist

21. Did you fall in love in 2023?: no

22. How many one-night stands?: No.

23. How many people did you kiss? No.

24. What was your favourite TV program?: I think I've only tried watching one thing this year -- the Haunting of Hill House. I can't follow anything anymore but it was helping me sleep for a while until the characters seem to have gotten trapped in some funeral home for what felt like an eternity. I had to give up.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?: It's hard to hate anyone when you're not really existing in the physical world.

26. What was the best book you read?: I haven't read a thing this year

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?: I haven't really had time or energy to discover

28. What did you want and get?: Three things in no particular order - #1 I've been tearing my house apart periodically for YEARS searching for a copy of an old family home movie of peak sentimental value that everyone has thought was lost for good, causing some pretty serious grief in the Viola family. I remembered my dad had digitized it before the video was lost, but I seemed to be the only one with this memory and I was starting to wonder if I made it up and was merely clinging to false hope. Well, my sister's husband/my brother-on-law has achieved sainthood. He recently stumbled on, buried in the wrong case in their basement, the digital copy my dad had made years ago. So I am NOT crazy - not this time - and the Viola family can feel whole once again! #2 - New Zelda game #3 - Grimey came home

29. What did you want and not get?: a frickin break

30. What was your favorite film of this year?: I haven't seen anything this year that really managed to captivate me but I'm going to vote for Asteroid City.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?: I turned 39. It feels like an era ago and I can't remember a thing about it. Grimey says we went to the Brimfield Antiques Faire.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?: If our fence hadn't collapsed in March. I feel I need to explain because I'm NOT upset about the fence collapsing in a storm--it was due to collapse and before it even collapsed, "fix sketchy looking fence when the ground thaws" was high on our house project list for the year. But it is the timing of the collapse and the domino effect it caused that set off neverending chaos that I am STILL battling.

Cleaning up the damage took my time and attention away from Nermal, and completely destroyed a critical period of acclimating him to the other cats and the rest of the house. Now I'm left with a choice of either imprisoning Nermal in the office, where he quickly goes feral and creates a toxic work environment where I get hissed at if I need to move and feel like I'm encroaching on his privacy every time I enter the room. He also gets depressed and grieves because of course he has to be besties with Huffy, and with Huffy also besties with Tews, I can't like, imprison Huffy too so Nermal is kept happy because then I'd have Tews who's grieving and Huffy who is annoying and scratching at the door all day. OR I can constantly supervise two cats who literally try to murder each other and get blood all over the floor if I dare turn my back on them for two seconds because god forbid I might want to pee or get something to eat or check to see what the chickens are alarming at. I've had better luck introducing cats by NOT introducing them than I have had with these two--y'know the anti-Jackson Galaxy, "just let them have at it" reckless baby boomer method. They'd have been better off if I just did that than if I had tried. THIS is Kitty Hell.

The collapsed fence cooped the chickens up while their spring hormones were out of wack and set off a Great Hen War. I had to watch Redd get her comb torn off under my watch and Mini-Redd get most of her beak torn off. I'm not going to lie -- I'm traumatized by it.

The garden had a rough start because the fence collapsing caused the hawk net over the chicken yard to collapsed and crush everything underneath. I had to rebuild everything at the beginning of spring and lost March and April. Many of my seedlings died from neglect because I didn't have time to care for them, and a lot of things I planned to plant I never actually got around to planting. Meanwhile, Grimey got signed to a year-long contract in Japan and with both of our heads in completely different places, I don't feel like either of us were really emotionally available to each other for most of the year. With so much nonstop chaos to deal with through the whole year, I also didn't have room in my head to emotionally prepare for being on my own.

I wasn't just dealing with the fence dominoes -- it's truly been one thing after another this year starting from the very beginning, but without the fence dominoes, I could have better coped with the other shit and ended the year feeling like it was a more average year of shit rather than like....a year completely engulfed in flames.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023?: flannel

34. What kept you sane?: wandering around Hyrule naked

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?: Mr Trash Wheel and his family

36. What political issue stirred you the most?: I honestly don't even know what's happened this year outside of my own home. Is Biden still president?

37. Who do you miss?: Matthew Perry

38. Who was the best new person you met?: I have a new coworker, Wendy who is lovely.

39. Who were your closest friends in 2023? Ames

40. What are you doing to ring in 2024? taking this fine survey

41. Who do you plan on kissing to ring in 2024? Ames

42. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2023: No

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