#i have the range lmao

[tododeku-or-bust]

☀️Raybearer, by Jordan Ifeuko

I am so full of emotion rn, having just finished this book. So I'm just gonna list off all the top great things I've found during this adventure:

The protagonist, Tarisai, is a Black girl. God knows I would have loved to have this when I was 13 bc I was (and am) a fantasy fiend. And she fights the status quo that is the unjust system she lives in, that wants to weaponize her in many ways? I'm seated! 🔥

Reading this as a grown Black woman, I feel the frustration at the world behind it. I feel the frustration, from a Black Woman Author, when I see the world around me making the same poor choices over and over and parroting it "unity", "justice", "peace" and "order", especially at the sacrifice (instead of the priority!) of those who need us most. That's what's filling me with the most emotion, though there are so many things I relate to in this story. I feel....seen. seen, heard, validated.

I read more characters of color in the first 20 pages than I have read in 27 years of fantasy books EVER. The countries are fantasy, but the characters' names show the influence. (Nigeria, China, Korea, West Asia, India, and more). The author is putting everyone's "brown ppl break the illusion of fantasy" bullshit in the DIRT.

The main romance is between an Indian boy and a Black girl. I've seen that ONCE! Very rarely do we get interracial romance where the Black person is the girl, let alone in pairings between different people of color! (Black girl characters deserve to be loved XOXO)

Queer people exist in this universe and it is no sweat. Like, they just do!

The plot of this book!!! It's some heavy shit fr! It keeps you on edge as you follow Tarisai. She's weighed down by so many expectations, and you want so badly for her to break away from it and do what is Right. I love a 'Sins of the Parent/Lineage' story, and I especially love a (thanks ATSV) "imma do me" story.

Imma reemphasize this bc it's my favorite: one point this book has that I REALLY appreciate is that it emphasizes the idea that those who want to change the world should be willing to do so at the risk of themselves. So often in our society it's always "things will get better but you have to suffer in order for us to get there, not Me-," and its frustrating bc a lot of those who speak a big game politically are usually never the ones willing to go First. The claim that things will get better is always at the cost of someone weaker and less heard.

The worldbuilding of this book is rich. You will be plied with visuals and information in this universe. And if some of the cultural concepts are confusing (given that we live in a White Western default world for writing)..... Learn it. Get comfortable with it. Kids should grow up learning new things in fantasy (I had to learn Irish to read some books and I'm better for it; you'll be okay!)

This is more personal, but I love reading about my hair in fic. Curls, coils, locs, braids, beads, afros like clouds. It's so nice. Our hair and skin are beautiful and I want to see more that actual effort put into describing us in writing.

There are a couple things that I think could be better/paced differently, but overall the experience is very, very good. I am absolutely going to buy this and the next one in the series. Jordan Ifeuko did an excellent job with this and I would highly suggest it.

[smarti-at-smogwarts]

I really made my first two mcs someone who's strength is the love her family gave her and someone who learns if your family doesn't show you love you can find people who do like

I didn't Plan it but it's truly both ends of the spectrum

[twistcmyk]

twitter's in flames so i posted a cartoon butt over there and figured it's only fair to share with the rest of the class

[turbo-tsundere]

*superglues them together*

Aka, eeeeh fok it. Here's some ougoku stuff I've been sitting on. Happy THOSE GUYS day.

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

---------------

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."

[festivating]

i do mourn glinda's wardrobe more than anything else the movies could possibly change. every one of her costumes in the musical is so deliberate and there's so much visual storytelling done with them. her skirts get progressively longer as the show goes on because she's growing up. she goes from warm colors to cool colors because she shifts from naive and sunny to melancholic and serious. her accessories go from little purses to actual jewelry and her wand and tiara as her "public persona" solidifies. green and blue are incorporated to signify her relationship with elphaba. you can trace her whole character arc with just the way she dresses.

in the movie she just wears pink. all the time. the same shade of it. a bit of lavender if we're lucky :/

[varpusvaras]

I'm sorry, but Jason being friends with Dick's friends entirely on his own accord is absolutely golden comedy material. It's not like they'd hang out in one big group all the time, no. A new person means new dynamics. Their friend group overlaps but it's not the same. Maybe Jason is doing something with Donna and Kory while Dick is hanging out with Wally and Roy doing something entirely else and neither of them is aware of it because why would they discuss it in a group chat with all the others. Garth is teaching Jason to surf while Roy is taking pictures and hollering at them under the sunshade because he isn't going to burn, no thank you, meanwhile Dick is having lunch with Babs.

It goes like this for a while until Dick asks Kory if she wants to hang out with him and Wally, and Kory is like sure! We're having a Musical Movie night! You can come down as well!

And Dick and Wally turn up with more snacks and walk into the room and Roy waves at him to come sit next to him, and just as Dick is about to do so, his eyes meet up with the person sitting on the other side of Roy.

"Jason?"

"Hi Dick."

"What are you doing here??"

".....having a movie night, that's what everyone here is doing. Did you get a concussion from the whiplash of Wally running you up here?"

"No, I mean, why are you here?"

"Watching movies with my friends, are you okay??"

"No! Why are you invited to our movie night?!"

"Hey! I was here first, you are the one who wasn't originally invited!"

Dick is appalled.

"You can come sit with us, Jay", Kyle calls from the other couch and pats the space next to him and Connor. "Dick can have Roy for the night."

"What? No!"

"What do you mean 'What? No!' Are you saying you would rather sit with Jason than me?"

".....well-"

"What the fuck-!"

[sorryimlatecapt]

happy six month anniversary to buck being kissed into bisexual realization to all who celebrate 🥰🎉✨

[gojonanami]

thinking thoughts about geto swallowing a curse that involves feelings of lust and suffering from unexpected side effects that leave him drenched in sweat and his boxers far too tight. and what can reader do except oblige in helping him…cool down

[evangelinee]

Evangeline tilted her head and frowned.

She supposed, really, no one had ever said they liked listening to her or what she had to say--at least, not in so many words. But she had lots of friends who did ask how she was feeling about things. And they listened. And they cared.

Her whole, long star-life, all Evangeline had been able to do was listen. It was frustrating sometimes, but it also made her very good at it. She was happy to listen. She enjoyed listening. It was even better now, because she could say things that could help--or comfort.

"I could understand that. I love the sun," Evangeline said. She'd marveled, and continued to marvel, at how warm it felt against her sun. Sweat, too, was a marvel to her. Just like everything else that had to do with having a body.

"It is so different. Going from one form to another. There will be things that you miss." Evangeline, even, sometimes missed the darkness. Her spot in the sky. Her own pull of gravity. The way she used to shine. "That's okay. It is a little sad and that's okay too." She smiled, like this was the easiest thing in the world to understand. "You just have to find the things you like about it too!"

@mighty-mitte

At This Time of Day || Mitte & Evangeline

[chappellnchill]

Is this normal? Cuckoo (2024) dir. Tilman Singer.

[rynli]

me: I should write the one-shot that lives in my head about Harry applying for a job

brain: you will write a whole casefic about Harry realizing being a cop already killed him once, acab applies even to Kim, and he needs to quit if he wants to get better

[homoautoerotic]

being a dom Armand truther but also an Armand hates minimalism and leading large groups of actual real life people ceo style and isn't some booktok notion of a super confident billionaire cool calm collected sugar daddy truther is so hard....we are truly the nuance havers

[fedoraspooky]

The downside of having an old west gunslinger type character for a dungeons and dragons 5e game is that now i have to learn how the heck to draw guns

[inquisitor-julia]

Me playing DA:V as a mage: oooh dragon fights are so fun! :)

Me playing DA:V as a warrior and fighting a dragon: *high pitched fearful screaming*

[unnonexistence]

one of my friends is a biologist & i was really amused hearing some of her stories yesterday because they put into context just how believable newt's kaiju drift is as Shit A Biologist Would Do. like my friend has personally met both a guy who got infected with a botfly larva and didn't do anything to remove it (because he just didn't mind), and another guy who identified a tapeworm species by intentionally exposing himself to it (he had it narrowed down to 2 species and needed to know if it was the one that would infect humans) (it was)