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theastrophilearchitect · 4 years ago

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March TBR/W.

Every book, audiobook, tv show and movie I want to consume in March 2021.

-Hence ‘TBR/W’ - to-be-read/watched.

I’m not usually a fan of pre-planning my media for the month - I plan out all my media obsessively, but doing it by month seems a little too much like setting deadlines for my taste, and I’m sure I’ll somehow manage to turn watching tv into a chore. Regardless, it’s worth a shot, so this is going to be a rough guide - I’m going to pick four of each category, one per week, because I’d rather underestimate and surpass than overestimate and have to defer things to the next month. So let’s go.

Books

1. Skyward and 2. Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

Skyward is set in a future where the human race is on the verge of extinction, trapped on a planet constantly attacked by alien warriors. Spensa, a teenage girl stuck on the planet, wants to be a pilot, but it seems far-off. Then, she finds the wreckage of a ship that appears to have a soul, and she must figure out how to repair it, and persuade it to help her navigate flight school.

In truth, I mainly want to read this because of how highly it’s been praised by Hailey in Bookland on YouTube. I actually tried reading Sanderson’s Mistborn series a couple years ago, and just didn’t click with it. I love fantasy, but I can pretty confidently say epic fantasy just isn’t for me. However, Sanderson’s work is adored by many, and Skyward and its sequel Starsight appeal so much more to me, and I can’t wait to get to them.

3. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas

This is Maas’s first technically-adult book; Throne of Glass is young adult, ACOTAR being classed either as young or new adult. I’ve been a fan of Maas for a long time, and, though I enjoy her books less now than I have in the past due to how seriously they tend to take themselves, I’d still love to read this one. Where her previous series were both fantasies, this sits somewhere between that and a sci-fi, but I can’t say as-of-yet what I think, because I haven’t read it yet.

Bryce Quinlan finds herself investigating her friends’ deaths in an attempt to avenge them after they were taken from her by a demon. Hunt Athalar is a Fallen angel, enslaved by Archangels, forced to assassinate their enemies, when he’s offered a deal to assist Bryce in exchange for his freedom.

4. Scythe by Neal Shusterman

I listened to this as an audiobook in 2019 as part of BookTuber Book Roast’s Magical Readathon, and didn’t hugely get along with it in truth. The audiobook was excellent as an audiobook, but the story Ian’s I just didn’t really vibe. I think I just want to like this book, so I think it’s worth a reread to see if my opinion changes.

This follows Citra and Rowan, a reluctant pair of apprentice Scythes - in a utopian future where humanity has the means to live forever, it is the job of the Scythes to control the population by essentially reaping the souls of those they choose to die. Neither Citra or Rowan want it, but I don’t remember enough about this book to say any more.

Audiobooks

1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This is the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy, and you either already know what this series is about, or you’ve been living under a rock for the last thirteen years. I read this book for the first time nearly seven years ago, and it’s stuck with me. It sent me into a phase of only reading dystopian books (The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken was part of this, and was the series that really got me into reading), but this was the main one that stuck with me.

It contains a powerful message about capitalism and discrimination, and this is the second time I’ve listened to the audiobooks, though the god-only-knows-what time I’ve read the series. I listened to The Hunger Games and Catching Fire in February, which automatically puts this on my to-listen for March.

2. Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link and Robin Wasserman

This is a novella bind-up set in the Shadowhunters world, that I would imagine has quite a bit to do with the Shadow Market, an aspect of the Downworld introduced in The Dark Artifices, which I finished in January.

In truth, I’m mainly planning to listen to this audiobook because it’s the only Shadowhunters novella bind-up with an audiobook, and I’d just rather read additions to the main Shadowhunters series in this format rather than physically.

3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

This is a Hunger Games prequel that was released early last year, and I just wasn’t going to read it. I heard several reviews, the general consensus of which was basically that it’s not as good as the trilogy and is somewhat unnecessary, but, in truth, my curiosity’s got the better of me, especially since I started listening to the trilogy’s audiobooks again.

This prequel follows Coriolanus Snow as a mentor in the Games before he became President of Panem and the wonderful villain of the original trilogy.

4. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

I mentioned this in my physical TBR post a couple weeks ago, but have decided to listen to the audiobook instead. A few weeks ago, I’d started to run out of audiobooks I wanted to listen to, and didn’t want to read anything on my regular TBR in this format, including this book. But, I went through a load of audiobook recommendations, and this was one of them, so it joined my to-listen.

I’m not hugely into contemporary books, but I’ve wanted to get more into the genre for a while, and this was the first one to join my TBR.

This novel follows Eliza Mirk, your typical high school outcast, who publishes a hugely popular web comic under the pseudonym LadyConstellation. Then Wallace Warland, the biggest fanfic writer of her comic transfers to her school and begins to draw her out of her shell.

TV Shows

Before I go into my list, I’d like to mention that I am currently watching WandaVision and am definitely planning to watch Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+, but both come out on a weekly basis, so aren’t being included on this list. Also, I’ve been watching way too much YouTube recently, so I’m not sure I’ll get through all of these this month, especially since I’m watching the Arrowverse shows, which have such long seasons.

1. Love, Victor Season 1

This Love, Simon spin-off follows a character named Victor at Creekwood (I think that’s the name?) High School. I saw Love, Simon twice in cinemas when it was released, and, miraculously, it made me cry. I love that movie.

This series was released last year on Hulu, which is only available in the US, but as of February 23rd, it’s one of the shows that came to Disney+ as part of Star.

2. The Flash Season 1

As mentioned, I’ve started watching the DC Arrowverse shows. I watch tv shows through alternating seasons - as in, I watch season 1 of show A, then season 1 of show B, then 2 of A, etc., then when I finish one, I start watching show C - but I’m treating the Arrowverse as one show (even though it isn’t) so it’s not the only thing I’m watching. So this is technically Arrowverse S3, preceded by Arrow S1+2 (though I haven’t actually started S2 as of writing this because of how much YouTube I’ve been watching, so I’ll be finishing that first).

I genuinely don’t know that much about most DC superheroes, Flash included, but I’m going into this having been assured it takes itself less goddamn seriously than Arrow. It’s my sister’s favourite Arrowverse show, and I can’t wait.

3. Dare Me Season 1

I added this Netflix show to my watchlist when it came out, and my basic understanding is that it focuses on the cheerleaders at a high school, and begins when a new coach arrives. It focuses on the psychological damage behind competitive cheerleading, and I’m not convinced I’m going to love it, but I think it’s worth a shot.

4. Arrow Season 3

I’m so confused by this poster. This is specifically the season 3 poster, and I’m so confused, but I’m sure it’ll make more sense when I watch the season.

I explained the weird way I’m watching Arrowverse (named as such because Arrow was the first show in it) already, but Arrow follows Oliver Queen, the son of one of the billionaires of Starling City upon his return after being stuck for five years on an island when a cruise ship carrying him and his father sunk. His father left him with a list of names of the people ‘corrupting’ the city, and Oliver takes it upon himself to assume a vigilante identity and take them down.

Movies

I’m not a huge movie-watcher, but I end up compiling so many to watch that, to ensure I get round to them, I watch a movie every time I finish a tv show season. I’m also currently re-watching the MCU movies in chronological order.

1. Instant Family

This is just something that came onto Netflix recently and I thought might be entertaining, and so it joined my list.

This follows a couple who decide to adopt a teenager, only to find out she has two more siblings.

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

This is just a continuation of my MCU re-watch - I love this movie. I love Guardians of the Galaxy, full stop (on another note, I just generally don’t understand why British people call it a full stop and Americans call it a period. Neither name makes particular sense).

3. Avengers: Age of Ultron

And here we have another continuation of my MCU rewatch. I honestly think this is my favourite Avengers movie, because the whole teams actually together, and Wanda, Scarlet Witch, is introduced - I love her. I really didn’t like Vision until WandaVision came out, though.

4. Behind The Try: A Try Guys Documentary

Not technically a movie, but still. (Are documentaries movies? I tend to think of them as separate categories, but I guess they’re both movies. Hm.) I’ve been watching the Try Guys for years, which means I need to convince my sister to give me her Google password so I don’t have to pay for this.

I’m probably not going to stick to this list, and even if I do, I’m either going to also consume things not on it, or just not finish it. But, you’ll have to wait for my March wrap-up to find out.

#tbr #book #books #reading #reader #bookblr #marchtbr #tv shows #movies #review #films #movie #tv show #writerblr #march tbr

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ladyreapermc · 5 years ago

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Fic: A Wish Your Heart Makes (Keanu x Reader) 2/3

Author’s notes: part 2 from Cinderella AU. Catch up on part 1 here!

Wordcount: 2294

Warnings: none that I can think of.

As Keanu headed down for breakfast that morning, he could swear that he still felt the taste of her on his lips.

Rationally, he knew he was being ridiculous, but it just felt like every aspect of his night with her was lingering. Her taste, her smell, the feel of her soft skin under his hands, the sound of her voice and laughter… Keanu couldn’t remember the last time he felt this smitten for someone, but this woman had caught him completely off guard.

Despite what tabloids liked to publish about him, Keanu wasn’t a womanizer, he just went out with friends. Were some of them gorgeous models? Yes. Did that mean he was sleeping with all of them? Of course not.

As a matter of fact, it had been quite a few years since he had an actual relationship. Business kept him busy and he preferred that way really. Business didn’t break his heart.

Though Keanu had to admit it felt really nice to spend time with her. The party had been so boring, and he was considering taking his leave when he crossed paths with her at the catering table and then again by the stage.

She had been honest and sweet. Keanu felt a spark he hadn’t felt in years. And the best thing was that he knew there hadn’t been any ulterior motive behind it, because he saw in her eyes, when his mask fell, that she had no idea who he was until that moment.

However, she ran away before he could say anything and he never asked for her name. Now here he was, watching everyone that crossed his path at the hotel, comparing them with his memory, wondering if she could be in the room with him.

As he surveyed the restaurant for a place to sit, he greeted some of the guests with a smile and a quick nod. Keanu knew several of his guests, most of them had been at the gala, but he didn’t feel in the mood to socialize. So, he picked a table tucked in the corner, occupied by a young woman dressed in the hotel’s uniform.

Keanu was almost sure she was one of the girls from the front desk, but his hotels had hundreds of employees each and even he wasn’t that good with names.

As he approached he noticed she seemed oblivious to the world around her with her headphones one and book in front of her. So, it wasn’t until Keanu stopped right in front of the table that she actually looked up, her eyes widening almost comically as she recognized him.

“Mind if I join you?”

For a moment, she just stared before she seemed to shake herself out of it and nod.

“Thanks,” Keanu replied taking a seat and noticing her book cover. “Emma, huh? Hopeless romantic?”

“I, uh, actually a big fan of how her protagonists defied societal norm and expectation for women at the time,” she said taking a quick glance at her own book and sighing. “Most of them at least.”

“Writer?” Keanu asked with a chuckle and she ducked her head, hiding her smile, which was a shame because from what he could see, it was beautiful.

“If I manage to finish my masters, maybe,” she said, glancing at her watch and letting out a small wince. “I should get going. Have a nice day, Mr. Reeves.”

She was hurrying away before Keanu could manage another word. Nearly running into Lawrence in the process. She apologized quickly and continued on while Lawrence took her seat in front of Keanu.

“Was it something I said?” Keanu asked, glancing at the path the girl had taken. What was it with him scaring all women these days?

“It’s Friday, she’s rushing off to class.”

Lawrence signaled a waiter who seemed to know exactly what he wanted because next thing Keanu knew, there were two cups in front of them, Earl Grey for Lawrence, cappuccino for him. Another moment and a different waiter brought them croissants.

“She’s a great kid. polite, hard worker, but was dealt a terrible hand these last few months.”

“What happened?” Keanu asked with a curious frown.

“Car accident four months ago. Parents died and insurance isn’t being forthcoming with the money, so she’s struggling.”

“Anything we can do?”

“Keanu, you can’t go around paying all of your employee’s bills. You’d go bankrupt,” Lawrence warned, eyebrow arched as he watched Keanu.

“I highly doubt it,” he snorted.

Keanu was quite aware of how much all his hotels earned a year. He was very far away from being bankrupt for helping out every once in a while.

“Just make sure she’s alright?”

After a moment of hesitation, Lawrence relented with a nod, drinking his tea.

“I couldn’t help but notice you were suspiciously scarce at the party last night,” he commented with a small smirk. “Anything you’d like to tell me?”

Keanu just huffed a breath, breaking his croissant in half. Of course, Lawrence noticed it. He noticed everything. So, he quickly told his friend what happened, watching as his smirk turned into a soft, knowing smile.

“That’s quite the tale, my friend. And you didn’t catch her name?”

“She ran off before I could.” Keanu let out a long sigh.

“Would you like me to check the guest list? Find out your mystery woman?”

“Are you trying to play matchmaker, Larry?” Keanu chuckled.

Lawrence had always been a little overly invested in his very inexistent love life.

“Well, you’re obviously not doing all that well by yourself,” He replied with a snort and Keanu gave him a mock glare.

“It wouldn’t do you any good. She was crashing the party.”

“Ah. No wonder you liked her,” Lawrence said in a teasing tone, making Keanu laugh. “What are you gonna do to find her, then?”

“I have no idea,” Keanu said, finishing the rest of his cappuccino before he stood up. “But I’m sure we’ll cross paths again if it meant to be.”

Keanu spent most of his day at the office, going over the hotel’s books and in meetings with his marketing team. Unlike most of his other properties, the New York Continental wasn’t doing as well as expected and they to come up with a solution or risk closing doors.

And even though he was quite aware of the importance of those meetings, Keanu couldn’t help but be distracted, his mind wandering to last night again and his mystery woman. Sure, he told Lawrence he would let fate take care of it, but it didn’t hurt to give fate a hand every once in a while.

So as soon as his last meeting of the day ended, Keanu headed down to the lobby, eyes scanning for the porter he had seen taking care of security for the gala last night, but even though all the faces were familiar, they weren’t the man Keanu was looking for.

He started to head back to the administrative areas to look for Lawrence or Adrianne when he saw a familiar head disappearing inside the staff’s break room and grinned. He would rather not resort to Lawrence just yet and the last thing Keanu wanted was to deal with Adrienne. The woman was very efficient but too nosey for her own good.

“Hey Austen,” he called out as he walked in, making the girl he met this morning look up startled.

“Mr. Reeves?”

“Keanu is just fine,” he asked, taking a seat across from her. “I need your help.”

“Sure,” she replied, a little hesitant, setting her pen on top of her notebook. He couldn’t help but notice the way she made sure her arms were covering whatever she was writing. “What can I do for you?”

“Were you working last night? Do you know the porter who was doing security at the gala?”

“Sam? Yeah,” she nodded, her face drawing into a frown. “It’s his day off. Did something happen?”

“I just need to talk to him about something,” Keanu replied as vaguely as possible.

It was one thing to tell Lawrence about his crush. Another thing to admit it to a complete stranger.

“You’re not gonna fire him, are you?” Panic flashed over her doe eyes. “You can’t! He has three kids and he’s the best porter around here. Ask any of the guests!”

Keanu couldn’t help the grin that appeared on his face at her quick defense of her coworker. He liked this girl already. Anyone willing the talk to her boss like that to defend a colleague was worth having around.

“I’m not gonna fire him, Brontë. I want to talk to him. That’s all.”

“Good,” she said with a tentative smile, her cheeks red almost as if only now realizing the way she talked to her boss. “Also, Brontë?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled awkwardly, gesturing to her and her notebook “Aspiring writer, right?”

“Emphasis on the aspiring.” She sighed, her gaze shifting down. “Not that I’m doing much writing lately.”

Keanu’s smile dropped, reminded of what Lawrence had told him about her. Having lost loved ones himself, he could imagine quite how much she must have been hurting right now.

Without thinking, he reached over, taking her hand. She had such small hands compared to his. Her palm soft and smooth against his calloused fingers as he squeezed lightly. He watched as she took a deep breath before pouring her heart out to him.

Once upon a time, writing came to her as easily as breathing. There wasn’t a scrap of paper that could escape her assaults. But ever since her parents’ accident, she had been completely blocked.

She knew it was part of her grief. That she was still processing the entire thing and should give herself some time. It didn’t make it any easier though. Or her any less angry with herself. Because writing had always been the way she coped with the world. Not having it now made everything feel even worse. It was yet another thing that damn accident took it from her.

And to make matters worse, since she hadn’t delivered any of her assignments, she was dangerously close to failing her master and then the loan her parents took to pay for tuition would go to waste.

They had been so proud of her for choosing to do it, get a master in fine arts instead of taking the safe route of being a teacher and now they were gone and she was completely ruining it.

Keanu didn’t even know at what point he moved closer, gathering her in his arms, letting her cry against his shoulder. He just realized he had done it after he was already hugging her and rubbing soothing circles on her back.

After a while, she pulled away, sniffling, eyes red-rimmed, cheeks streaked.

“I’m so sorry, sir.” Her voice came out raspy from crying. “I made a mess on your shirt.”

“It’s fine,” Keanu assured with a smile, looking at the mascara stains on his shoulder. “Let me grab you some tissues.”

He moved to the employee restroom, hearing the noise of the breakroom door opening and Adrienne’s grating voice.

“What do you think you’re doing? Amber is at the front desk all alone! Why aren’t you helping, instead of sitting here on your ass?”

“I’m in the night shift,” the girl replied, still sniffling.

“You’re already here! Might as well start!” Adrienne declared and Keanu rolled his eyes, stepping out of the restroom.

“I was under the impression night shifts started at six, Adrienne.” No matter how efficient the woman was in her job, Keanu wasn’t about to let her get away with being rude with other employees. “And it’s 5:30 right now.”

“Mr. Reeves,” she gasped, eyes going wide. “I didn’t know…”

“That I was here? Clearly,” he said with a dry voice, before turning to look at the younger woman. “Here you go, Shelley.” It dragged a tentative smile from her as she took the tissues.

“I just thought…” Adrianne trailed off when Keanu shifted his gaze back at her. He knew how terrifying he could be whenever he wanted to.

“That you should look for whoever was supposed to take care of the front desk with Amber and talk to them? Yes, I agree.”

“Yes, of course, sir,” Adrianne replied, her face so red Keanu was sure she was gonna pop a vein any minute. “I’ll do that right now.”

He watched as Adrianne took off, heels clicking on the polished floors before his attention shifted to back to the other woman, his serious expression dissolving as Keanu noticed she could barely contain giggles.

“What?”

“It’s just…” she started, her face opening into a smile and he had been right. It was beautiful and he smiled too. “She’s the one supposed to be out there with Amber.”

“Good to know,” Keanu replied. “Do you feel better?”

“Yeah, thank you, Mr. Ree… Keanu,” she corrected herself once he gave her a pointed look. “Maria from housekeeping has this really good stain remover. For the shirt.”

“Well, I do like this shirt,” he said with a goofy smile. “Lead the way.”

He followed her down to the basement where the Continental’s laundry room was located. Keanu waited outside, not wanting to startle any of the employees. Administrative people didn’t really come down here all that often.

As Keanu waited, one of the housekeeping staff pushed out a rack of recently laundered clothes. To his surprise, among the clothes was the red dress his mystery woman was wearing at the gala last night.

He moved closer, checking the tag on the plastic wrapper. Now he knew her name and her room number.

Fate must be on his side after all.

tbc

Tag list (give me a shout if you want to be added)

@poisonedjoinery @ringa-starr @curly-minnie @i-cant-remember-my-old-login

@caryled @beyond-antares @kathorax @krazycags01 @meetmeinthematinee

@red-pill-blue-pill @baphometwolf666 @soarocks @imagine-the-fanfics @moonlit-raven-haven @cumberbatchbaps @coolbreezeinkeanureeves

#keanu reeves fanfic #keanu reeves imagine #keanu reeves x reader #keanu reeves x you #request #fanfic #cinderella au #alternative universe #a wish your heart makes #fluff

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writingonjorvik · 6 years ago

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If I Could Ask the Devs 10 Questions: A WOJ Interview

I think if you’ve known me for a while, you probably know I would jump at the idea of getting to interview the SSO devs, particularly because they tend to have internalized or cherry picked interviews that only focus on what they want to tell us, and not on the questions the players tend to have about the game. So if I could have an interview with the devs, these are the 10 questions I would ask.

Sidenote: I have 10 core topic questions with some brief follow-up questions for clarity. If you counted, yes, there would be more than ten, but there are ten core areas.

What kind of updates can we expect for this year; in terms of new areas, horses, features, etc.?

When can we expect the return of bigger area expansions with full side quests prepared for them and secrets like in the Harvest Counties and Valley of the Hidden Dinosaur launches?

Speaking of updates, about 80% of SSO community wants to see the older Gen 1 & Gen 1.5 models updated across the board like with the update to Gen 1.5. Considering that this is a super majority, and these horses are paid for content, what does SSO intend to do to meet this request from its player base?

Again, since this content is already been paid for, would an “upgrade” feature for purchased old models require additional payment, making player pay to make already purchased content playable again?

If opposed to updating earlier gen models, why does SSO ignore something a super majority of their players want that seems it would also benefit the devs work load?

How does SSO plan to counter price bloat, like what’s happened on the upgraded pets?

Expected counterpoint: SSO has said that the walking pets are more expensive because of “all the hard work that went into them.” This is both a sunken cost and false equivalence fallacy. It’s the developers’ job to continue to make SSO better, and make better content for the game. That should not result in bloated prices for players, but rather more product that they can spend their money on. Saying that “all that hard work” just went into making expensive content diminishes the rest of the work made on the game and it trivializes the job the devs are supposed to be doing. It’s your job to make content for the game. We should not have to pay extra for something we already paid for, and certainly not at a bloat of 4-5x the initial cost for a few bonus animations.

On the note of purchased content, over 70% of SSO’s player base thinks that the game is overpriced, but 90%, regardless of their opinions on fairness, say they would buy more often if the prices were lowered. Is there any intention to lower the prices around SSO to make it more accessible?

Is there any intention is making supplementary content, like more unique items in the merch store that aren’t simply designs with your logo on them?

Would SSO be able to release the comic in English any time soon?

Are there any plans to rerelease the Starshine Legacy games on Steam or the teams merch store?

SSO prides itself for being a narrative oriented story. Are there any plans to establish an official writing team on SSO?

What about a canon wiki about the series?

One of the things the devs have stated about the genderlock on SSO is that it’s to create a space for women in gaming. Does SSO donate to any charities that support girls to play video games like Child’s Play, Code Liberation, or Games For Change, or charities that help women in general like National Women’s Law Center, Dress For Success Worldwide, Girls Not Brides, or Futures Without Violence?

What actions outside of having female leads and job equality is SSO pursuing to promote gender equality?

Can we expect the ability to get magic powers that we can use outside of cutscenes?

Would this involve the “power-up” system the devs have discussed before?

What kind of new customization can we expect in the future of the game?

Would this include the return of the housing function?

Will this provide more options for other gender presenting players besides femme?

Would SSO consider letting the player input their own pronouns into the game without changing the story in any other way?

Would SSO ever consider switching to an expansion based system over the weekly release schedule?

If not, why is the weekly release better for the game than having larger, less frequent updates?

If they would, what would this mean for daily content, in terms of daily quests and achievements, as well as the payment system for an expansion?

Would SSO ever bring back more fan generated content, like the T-Shirt contest?

With SSO branching out to more unique types of story telling, would SSO hold contests for writing companion short stories or producing audio stories like Texas Bluebells?

Will SSO release a public list of community guidelines, so both players and moderators know what is correct behavior, and so also ensure that moderators are upholding SSO’s rules and not personal ones?

What about an internal reporting system to simplify reporting?

Question I Think Would Be Asked Of Me

1. Why are you so critical of the game?

Ok. Here’s the essay.

I suppose it would be easy to say that it’s out of spite. And there’s probably some of that in there. Some innate bitterness over the fact that the PR team, for a period, actively deleted anything critical, regardless of content. The fact that they outright lied about empirical data the players were giving the devs (see the AQH release). Sure, there’s the fact that I’ve seen and had SSO’s dev team do a 180 on me from offering me a space on the mod team for trying to promote a better community to having their devs and outreach insult and demean me on the basis of my comments being “critical.”

And it does drive me a little nutty to see the devs so successfully have turned their player base on anyone who might critique the game. To see my hard work trying to get players to be decent people in the game turned on its head when I say one word crosswise about something that might make the game better. And I’ve be wrong to say I don’t get frustrated when I talk about changes SSO could apply with after being a gamer for way longer than most of the people debating me, with enough research done on my own to be the basis for a master’s thesis, only to be told by someone who SSO is their first video game telling me how the industry works. But that’s really not it.

So, here it is:

Star Stable is one of the only non-combat MMOs in the world.

Let me repeat that; Star Stable is one of the only non-combat MMOs in the world. And I imagine that invokes a sense of pride, like you’ve hit some kind of niche. But that’s not a truth because of some lucky chance.

Non-combat MMOs survive on small niche markets, before consistently dying off because of failure to expand beyond their initial targets. And it’s not for lack of trying. People love non-combat games; Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Nintendogs, Roller Coaster and Zoo Tycoon, the Myst series, so on. But when those games refuse to look passed their niche, to expand and improve, they have historically failed as MMOs because one niche cannot fund an MMO.

And where SSO has survived on the niche market of “horse girl fantasy,” it is most certainly not expanding. SSO talks about its overall player count being in the millions, but ignores that fact that for every unique player there are five duplicate accounts, which is a metric that continues to bloat. That out of 12 million players, only 3% of those players are regularly active, compared to most MMOs which will hit 15-25% of their player base regularly between expansions. And no matter how you swing those numbers, no matter how much more you bloat the prices, that is not a long term lifespan. You can’t survive on that niche.

I genuinely believe SSO could help influence the industry. And I don’t mean that in a “if you follow all my ideas, everything will end up perfectly.” I’m not always right, and I’m willing to admit that. But the fact that SSO has been so resistant to any criticism results in a mob mentality with its core player base and it ostracizes anyone who can’t put up with that attitude any longer. Not only does it put the developers into an echo chamber where they can’t improve, it continues to push away the people who care enough to sit down and explain why they’re frustrated. You tighten that niche. You limit your market. You run out of resources.

And I do think SSO has already made leaps ahead for parts of the industry. The number of people who say SSO was their first MMO, their first game, is amazing. It’s great to see a game helping young people get into gaming, particularly girls who, when I was their age, were bullied for even liking video games. So for SSO to make that platform is amazing. But they cannot abuse that by taking advantage of new gamers who don’t know any better about how games are made or sold. I feel, and I feel this of every company, not just SSO, that there is a moral obligation to do right by people, and not to take advantage of their ignorance. And with such a powerful platform to invite young people into this sphere, into making new games and telling new stories, it is imperative that SSO does right by people.

I’m hard on SSO because I care, immensely. You could say I have a fixation on the game, really. I am invested in the survival of this game. But you can’t survive without getting better. Not to mention, the criticism SSO gets is free! From thousands of people. When I edited my book, I paid over $2,000 for my two editors I worked with, and that’s not even getting into beta readers and reviewers. I would love to be able to get feedback for free like SSO does. Because it’s an opportunity to improve because we are never going to be perfect. And if SSO wants to survive the trends surrounding their genre, then they can leave no room for quarter to people like me. Not out of oppression of people’s voices, but by listening and making a better game.

Thanks for your time.

#woj analysis #star stable #starstable #star stable online #starstableonline

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carryonsimoncarryonbaz · 6 years ago

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Birthday gift fic for @penpanoply! Hoping you have a lovely day tomorrow! It’s a giggling while kissing fic but more the nervous laughter kind! Read on Ao3. Just Another Kiss Simon I’m glad Baz insisted we visit Penny over the holiday break. I’d been missing her this term but I didn’t want to suggest making the trip. I know Baz treasures time with his family, especially with the little ‘uns. He’ll never admit it, of course, but I’ve seen how he is with them and how they adore him. And I’d wanted him to have a chance to get some rest over the holiday. He’s been stressed about uni. I don’t know why he’s so bloody driven to finish early. I do know why. He’s Baz Pitch and he likes doing those sorts of impossibly challenging things. So, it came as a complete surprise on Boxing Day, when Baz took me for a drive, that we ended up at the airport. He’d packed my bags in secret, the wanker. Worked it all out with Penny, he had. We’ve been in Chicago for a week now. It’s fucking cold. I don’t think Baz thought that part through very well. The timing of this visit. The snow is pretty and the frozen lake is impressive but the wind is a fucking nightmare. Even I’m cold. I don’t know how Baz is managing. Well, he turns the heat all the way up in our hotel room, piles on enough extra blankets that we practically can’t turn over in the bed, and plasters himself to me every night. It would be almost comical if it weren’t so bloody arctic here. Baz actually broke down after the first day and bought a real winter coat at one of those outdoorsy type stores. I’ve been trying to get him to buy one forever but he’s always just sneered and growled that he wouldn’t ever wear a puffy coat. He’s wearing a puffy coat now. It’s black, of course, and expensive and posh and all that rot. He looks just as good in it as he does in his leather jacket, which is downright infuriating, if you ask me. Not that anyone is asking me. He looks so damn enticing in it, with his stylish black beanie. Baz was the only one of us who ever looked good in the bloody boater hats we had to wear at Watford, so the sight of him in a beanie as almost more than I can tolerate. I want to snog him senseless. Which I can’t quite do in below zero weather on a random street in Chicago, now can I? I mean, I suppose I could, but Baz and I don’t really do public displays of affection. Not that we’re not affectionate. I’ve discovered Baz is a keen cuddler and has no reservations about being the small spoon when we snuggle in bed (the wings make me the default big spoon) (I don’t care) (I like the sensation of having him in my arms). Penny would disagree, I’m certain. She says we’re far too affectionate in the public spaces of our flat but I don’t consider the flat public. It’s home. But we don’t do much more than hold hands in public or a quick peck on the cheek when I walk him to class or he meets me for lunch. It’s probably a good thing. It’s hard to stop snogging Baz once I’ve started. He’s got a similar problem. He starts kissing my moles and there’s no end to it. I like that. We’ve got two more days before we go home. We’ve been to every museum, I think. Baz is daft for museums. I think he would have found more to visit, if we’d had the time. He’s just like Penny. Micah and I finally gave up and found an unoccupied bench at every place we went and let the two of them wander. And bicker. We’ve had Chicago pizza and ribs. We’ve gone to the top of that bloody tower with the glassed-in ledge. Made me queasy it did and I’m the one with the bloody wings. We’re at an ice hockey game tonight. Micah’s idea. I know there are a few teams back home but I’ve never seen a match. Or a game. Or whatever they call it. I’m in awe of these players. I’m shit at skating. Baz took me once before Christmas. To the Tower of London ice rink, because he’s such a melodramatic git. I loved it. Even though I kept falling down. It was stunning with the Tower as a backdrop. And Baz’s hands on my hips to keep me steady. I’m not sure if I kept losing my balance because I’m shit on skates or because I kept getting distracted by Baz’s proximity. Probably both. Baz was quite keen to come to this game tonight. He’d probably be good at this too, the tosser. I don’t think there’s anything he’s not good at. I don’t know how they do it. Move so fast, stay so balanced and chase that tiny puck around the rink. It’s graceful and ruthless and fast … Fuck, Baz would be bloody well-suited for it. Except he’d object to the helmets mucking up his posh hair. I notice the cameras during the first period break. There are event staff with bloody huge cameras wandering through the stands. They stop every so often and train the lens on the crowd. “What’s up with the cameras, Micah?” He turns to look in the direction I’m pointing. “Oh, you know. Shooting live footage of fans during the commercial breaks and between periods. We might see ourselves on the jumbotron tonight.” I’ve never actually been to a live professional sporting event before. Not much of a chance when I was in the homes. The cameras seem to focus mainly on attractive girls drinking beer, cute little kids, or older couples who are oblivious to the fact they are being filmed and projected onto the big screen. It isn’t until the second period that the kiss-cam makes an appearance. “Alright, Pen, maybe this’ll be our chance to do a movie make-out scene on that big screen.” Micah laughs as he points at the huge video feed above us. It’s an older couple, laughing and exchanging a kiss. I feel a rush of apprehension tingle through my skin. There’s no chance they’d aim the camera at us, is there? Not two blokes. But what if they do? I can’t imagine Baz would be fine with it. He’s so prickly about his privacy. Would I have to kiss him on camera? Would he kiss me? Would it be better to laugh it off? I’m making myself anxious just thinking about it. My heart’s beating faster. I don’t like attention on me like that. Never have. Hated it at Watford.  This would be worse. The camera picks out a young couple. They laugh too and enthusiastically kiss each other. I swear I see the bloke’s tongue. I rub my hands on my jeans. My palms are sweating. Baz gives me a look, eyebrow up. “You alright, Simon?” I’m not going to talk about this with Baz. It’s stupid. There’s no chance of it happening and I’m getting myself all worked up for nothing. He takes my hand. His touch calms me a bit and I lean into him. And that’s when it happens. “Simon!” Penny’s high-pitched yelp from Micah’s side jolts me. She points to the screen. “Look!” Fuck. The camera is centered on me and Baz. Fuck. I can literally see myself blush on the giant screen. My moles are the size of dinner plates. I look like a complete nightmare. Baz, as usual, looks fucking perfect. Not a hair out of place. One eyebrow up and a hint of a smirk on his face. The crowd’s cheering. I’m the worst under pressure like this. I can’t help it. I can feel the nervous laughter bubbling up and then I’m giggling uncontrollably. I can’t keep a straight face and I know I’m squeezing Baz’s hand far too hard. “Simon.” Baz’s voice seems to be coming from a distance, even though he’s right next to me.  I turn to look at him and find the calm in his deep grey eyes. “We don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to.” I gape at him. “You … you’d do it?” His eyebrow arches higher. “Snog my delectable boyfriend in front of a few thousand people? Why the hell not?” And then he’s doing it. He’s snogging me senseless and it’s all up on a big screen for the world to see. I hear a roaring in my ears and I’m not sure if it’s the blood rushing to my face or the crowd around us. Baz pulls back, smiling. He’s a bit flushed and I’m completely gobsmacked. I don’t dare look up at the screen. I struggle to find my words again. “I thought… I thought …” “Thought what?” “Thought you didn’t like public displays of affection?” Baz pulls on my hand to tug me closer to him. “I’m not a fan of them under usual circumstances. But I’m also disinclined to turn down an invitation to snog you, even if it’s in front of a thousand people.” He leans closer, his breath tickling my ear. “I’ve no objection to the world knowing you’re mine, Simon, and that I’m yours.” He leans back with an utterly self-satisfied expression but he’s still blushing. Baz I could tell Simon was getting agitated about something. When the kiss-cam lit on us I could see him start to panic. I know what he does when I get that way. It’s always been damn effective. I’m going to frame that photo Bunce took of us kissing on the big screen.

#carry on #simon snow #baz pitch #kissing fic #birthday gift fic #one shot #my writing #my fic

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happyhealthycats · 6 years ago

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Seymour

This story feels a little weird to tell, because it’s so new. Seymour is still only seven months old. He’s not fully grown. He still is very much a kitten. But he’s a little dude that completely blindsided me when we found him.

My local shelter was having a really hard kitten season. It started early and ended late in our area this year, and there was no room in the shelter. It’s a county shelter that doesn’t turn animals away. Any animals. When I went in to foster, they had a pig, a pigeon, and rabbits, not just your usual dogs and cats.

We had fostered before, but it had been a single kitten through a different rescue that I was no longer keen on using. At least with this shelter, if the cats got sick, I could take them to the shelter’s vet and have them seen by a professional, not the back of the van diagnosis I had experienced with my previous foster.

I told the shelter workers that my husband was still on the fence. I wasn’t working at the time, so the work would fall entirely on me, but he was still hesitant. So they said “Okay, we’ll start you out with something easy. Here’s a litter of four, almost five week old kittens. They’re all healthy, all weaned to wet food. They just need to be brought up to weight to be fixed, and that should be about three to four weeks.” (I am taking the briefest moment to mention as an aside - this is not the post to argue about the age of spay/neutering. This is the shelter’s policy and that was that. I could either comply with their policy or I could not volunteer with them).

I took home this litter of four beautiful kittens. Three girls, one boy. They were unnamed, so I got to decide what they would be called. A friend suggested naming them after Steven Universe characters, so I did. They were Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven.

The kittens honestly were hardly work for me. They were so young we handled them frequently, inviting people over so they could experience as many different people as possible. Their little personalities flourished and I felt so, SO honored to get to know these amazing little animals. Garnet was confident, willing to rough house, explore, approach new people without hesitation. She was a little more afraid of dogs (unfortunately without dogs in our house her only experience with them was adoption events). Amethyst was a little more shy. She would play with her siblings and with humans, but wound up getting bullied out of her food bowl if I didn’t give her a separate dish. She learned to push back and make sure she got what she needed, and went from the skinny little “we’re not sure if she’s going to thrive” threshold to feisty little girl. Pearl was a cuddle bug. We would pick her up to give her medicine, and I always had to do her last, because she would fall asleep in my arms every time I held her.

Then there was Steven.

Independent, confident, curious, played beautifully with his sisters. If they had too much, he learned to walk away instead of pressing his luck with them, and was able to entertain himself with nearby toys or people.

He had no fear, and when their two week quarantine period was up, he met the household cats and absolutely meshed with them immediately. Keeping him separate from the rest of the house in the “kitten room” was darn near impossible, and he made his best attempt to escape and explore the house every time we opened the door.

As spay/neuter-day came closer, kittens began to get spoken for. Amethyst was first. A friend of mine messaged me and asked to meet her. It was love at first site. Amethyst is still Amethyst. Next was Pearl. Funny enough, Pearl now lives with my previous foster, Chainsaw, who is now Alice. Pearl also kept her name. Garnet was next, after a long push on social media to find a loving home. Garnet is now Widget. I still get updates on all three girls, and they are amazing and I’m so proud of them. (For privacy’s sake of their new homes, I can’t share current pictures).

But Steven, for all our socializing, was so attached to me that it was tough to imagine not waking up and seeing his wonderful little face. Simcoe and Citra had also taken an IMMENSE interest in the kittens. Every single morning, we woke up with a mountain of toys laid in front of the kitten door, gifts for the babies they knew were on the other side. We became concerned that Simcoe would grow depressed with the absence of kittens. Normally, yes, cats can get over these things, but as a semi-feral and fairly sickly young cat, we have to keep Simcoe’s stress levels down as much as possible. And oddly enough, Simcoe is less stressed when she can take care of other cats.

I had the moment when I had to start taking Steven to adoption events, and knowing he would have to leave, I was sad, but knew I would get over it. The girls were sweet and wonderful, but they were never mine. Steven would come to me no matter who was in the room. He would climb on me and sleep on me, and while I did everything in my power to socialize him with as many people as possible, he still loved other people, he just preferred to be with me. Removing myself from his life for the sake of his care and his ability to be adopted out would be negligent to him, so I had to continue caring for him.

So my husband said, “He really gets along with the other cats, doesn’t he?”

He did.

“You’re going to be really upset when he leaves, aren’t you?”

I was.

So my husband paid Steven’s adoption fee as an anniversary gift. (Steven, mind you, was not the gift, we discussed his adoption prior and both agreed we could realistically home him here).

But what to name him? We considered “Mosaic”, and would call him Moe for short, to keep with the theme of hops since he got along so well with Simcoe and Citra. But it didn’t fit. He already had an S name. We considered keeping Steven, but without the girls the naming convention wasn’t quite right.

A few other names fell by. Zevran was a tempting runner up, but my husband wasn’t terribly fond of it, and try as I might to call him that, he didn’t FEEL like a Zevran (Sorry, Dragon Age fans).

Remembering one of my favorite movies/musical productions, Little Shop of Horrors, I laughed and thought of the name Seymour. My husband liked it, but not for the same reason I did.

“Seymour Skinner, from the Simpsons!” He said. “Or Seymour Asses, like from Futurama...” I let the fact that Seymour Asses had been a dog slide, because as I called “Seymour”, over he ran, meowing happily. We didn’t name him. Seymour picked his name.

We did our usual slow introductions, but as always, the resident cats pleasantly surprised me with how easily they allowed Seymour into their group. Within a week they were allowgrooming and sleeping together. When they would play, Seymour could understand who he could play rough with, and who didn’t like to play as rough. Citra took a shine to him immediately, and Heimdall began caring for him like the nurturing big dude he’s always been.

Seymour is my little shadow. He comes when he’s called, he almost always needs to be in the same room as me, and if I’m sitting on the couch, he’s near constantly on my lap. That being said, he’s also the absolute friendliest cat in the house. While Heimdall is a relaxed and easy going cat, Seymour seeks out new people and will rub up to them and meow at them for attention within moments of someone walking through the door.

He’s also photogenic as anything. He just loves the attention he gets when I take pictures of him, so he’ll sit there and just let me snap countless photos because he knows it means I’m looking at him.

I adore all my cats. Each one has a piece of my heart for a different reason. Seymour was the final piece to our family to make our home and lives so wonderful and full. He’s comic relief. He’s a wonderful foible for every single cat in the house. He’s best buddies with Heimdall, a playmate for Sif, a partner in crime for Citra, and a snuggle buddy for Simcoe.

And I couldn’t imagine my life without every single one of them.

#happy healthy cat #cat behaviorist #feline behaviorist #cat behavior #feline behavior #foster fail #foster #adopt #cat #kitten #seymour #cat story #cat stories #my cats #my cat #the gems

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kob131 · 6 years ago

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http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/175385877264/savior-mom-raven

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/176137740129/savior-mom-raven-2-continuation-of-the-first

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/176568358797/savior-mom-raven-3

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/176882491272/savior-mom-raven-4

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/177623054713/savior-mom-raven-5

One of my friends notified me that there’s FIVE entries of this shit now.

So since my original posts on this have been lost to the ether-

Let’s do this shit.

“Ozpin’s stable at least.” Qrow said as he exited the school infirmary, “I don’t know what my sister was thinking, but she’s going to pay when I see her again.”

“count me in on that action.” Glynda muttered, “I haven’t forgiven her for what she pulled at the dance.”

“You hold a major grudge.” Qrow replied, “Anyways, we have to figure out where Raven went.”

*Buzz*

“What’s up Tai?” Qrow asked as he answered his scroll.

“Qrow! The Kids! They’re gone!”

“WHAT?” Qrow couldn’t believe his ears. First Ozpin had gotten hospitalized, and now Yang and Ruby had disappeared.

“I just got back from the meeting, and they were gone!”Taiyang cried, “i don’t see anything suggesting a struggle, no points of entry were forced. Some of their stuff is missing, Qrow! What the hell happened?”

“Raven…” Qrow realized, “But how did she convince Yang and Ruby to…”

Yeah, how the fuck did Raven convince Yang and Ruby to leave their house with some rando?

After the meeting…

Yang and Ruby were quietly napping in their beds. The memory of finding out that their mom had died was still fresh, and they were trying to feel better about it.

*ZWOOM*

A red portal opened up, waking Yang up as a woman clad in red stepped through.

“It’s okay Yang. I’m here.” She soothed.

Yang had no idea why, but this woman telling her that everything was okay made her feel… comfortable.

“Who… Who are you?”

“Figures your father never told you…” The woman sadly trailed off, “I’m Raven. I’m…” She took a deep breath, “I’m your biological mother. Do you know what that means, Yang?”

A. How is Yang feeling comfortable around Raven? The bitch left before Yang could even remember her and this CLEARLY takes before Taiyang told her so for all she knows, Yang should be yelling for an adult.

And B. Gee, I wonder why Taiyang didn’t tell his young daughter that she wasn’t relate to the woman she called mom but rather some random douche who ditched her?

Yang shook her head.

“I’ll try to explain it later.” Raven replied, “But for now, I’m here to get you to safety.”

“Are we in trouble?” Yang asked as she moved to shield her sister from a threat she didn’t know the location of.

Am I really to think Yang is stupid enough to believe some random woman that appeared out of nowhere at face value with no questions asked? Even as a child, I would have known better.

“No… But, I’m here to keep you safe. You’re going to have to come with me. Can you carry your sister?” Raven asked, “It’s okay if you can’t, but I want to know.”

Lady, if you’re so strong pick her up yourself, especially if you think it’s urgent.

“I… I can carry Ruby.” Yang replied.

“Okay. You make sure you have everything. I’ll get her stuff, then we have to get going.”

“You’re not staying here to protect us?”

“I…” Raven looked solemnly to Ruby’s sleeping form, “I can’t keep you safe here. People will want to use you. For their own gain.” Raven tried to figure out a good analogy to help explain to a toddler but Yang managed to beat her to it.

“Like how the Mad King used Mogar on X-Ray and Vav?” Yang asked.

Raven looked away for a moment, “Okay, one: You’re a bit too young to be watching that, and two;” Raven trailed off, “Yes? It’s close enough.” She found a travel bag. Big enough to carry Ruby’s clothes in it (not that there was much to pack), and a diaper box or two. Raven made a mental note to potty train Ruby as soon as she could speak and walk.

And we’re suppose to believe Qrow and Taiyang would allow this...how again? You know, aside from ‘shut up, it’s my headcanon’?

Also where the fuck is Raven getting off on kidnapping Ruby? With Yang, there’s the bare bones excuse that Raven pushed her out but she has no right to take Ruby. This is inexcusable no matter what. Especially since Ruby only exist because Raven ditched Yang and her dad in the first place. Oh and since Ruby is effectively a baby here, she won’t even remember her own father. Imagine a father losing both of his kids right after losing his second wife where he already had a depressive spell from the first time round.

Fuck, Raven might just have Taiyang’s blood on her hands.

Also: X-Ray and Vav is a comic in the RWBY universe, not a show.

“What about my clothes?” Yang asked.

“I’ll find another bag.” Raven answered as she went off to do so, “You grab anything that you and your sister want to hang onto. Stuffed animals, toys, books, or anything that you want to hang onto.”

“Is there anything you want?” Yang asked as she set Ruby down gently.

Raven looked at an old picture of team STRQ together. Back before everything hit the fan. She carefully slipped the photo out of the frame and tucked it into her pocket. “I have everything now.” She said in a sad tone, “Now hurry up. I don’t know how long we have.”

And now she’s stealing Taiyang’s memento of his old team, probably the most valuable thing he has. Fuck, is she trying to get him to commit suicide?

And if she actually cared about Team STRQ: why doesn’t she have her own damn picture? Either she’s stealing for fun or she never cared about STRQ in the first place.

Have until what?”Raven didn’t answer. Instead she simply replied, “When you’re ready, come back here. You can drop off anything if it gets too big or heavy for you to carry. Call for me if there’s something too high up for you to reach.” Raven replied as she sat on the bed and started to think.

What the hell was she getting into? Yes, she wanted to get Yang and Ruby away from Ozpin, but she felt like she was getting in over her head. She had the Spring maiden to think about, and now she was going to take on two kids? - One of them wasn’t even old enough to talk.

She looked over at Ruby and saw her squirming. She looked like she was having a bad dream. She hesitated for a moment before placing her hand on her head. Affectionately rubbing Ruby’s cheek until the smaller girl calmed down.

Yang walked back in with a few books and a small stuffed cat and a plush parrot. “There’s a book at the top shelf of the kitchen, and a storybook in Ruby’s room that I want to take with me.”

“We can get the storybook on the way out.” Raven said, “Show me what book in the kitchen was please?”

Yang led the way, and Raven estimated that it would be about an hour until Tai got back to check on the kids. When they arrived to the kitchen, Yang pointed to the book that she was talking about and Raven raised an eyebrow.

“Sweetie, that’s a cookbook.”

“I know. I just want to learn how to cook yummy stuff like mommy did so that Ruby can feel better.”

Raven’s heart felt a sting when Yang said the word ‘mommy.’ She knew that it was selfish, but she also know that she shouldn’t replace Summer. She’d have to remember to instruct Yang to not go any further than ‘mother.’ She didn’t deserve anything more affectionate beyond that.

Bitch if you cared about Yang you wouldn’t have left her in the first place!

“Okay, Yang.” She ruffled Yang’s hair a bit, “I’ll see if I can’t find someone who can give you a hand.”

“Can we go then?” Yang asked.

Raven took one last look around to take in the surroundings.

“Let’s move. Say goodbye to your house Yang. I gotta keep you safe from Ozpin.”

“Why?” Yang asked as she hurried along to catch up to Raven, “What did he do?”

Raven looked down at her eyes. No. She decided. She wouldn’t put the desire for vengeance into someone so young.”I’ll tell you when you’re older sweetie.” She said softly, “But just know that him and everyone who works for him can’t be trusted.”

The two found Ruby still sleeping where Raven had left her.

Raven put her mask back on as she pulled her sword out and made a portal with it. She took one last look at the house before shifting the bags that were on her and gesturing to Yang and Ruby to follow her.

They stepped through.

And the portal closed.

And Raven just committed kidnapping. All because, in her own words, ‘vengeance’. And she’s suppose to be the good guy here.

Great.

Raven looked at the small bed to see Yang with her small parrot plush. She chuckled to herself a bit. A small colorful bird was something sentimental to her, and now this old blackbird was taking care of her.

No doubt Summer made the parrot for her. She could tell by the patchwork. Summer always seemed like the kind of mother that would make her kids the stuffed animals she wanted rather than buy them.

Yeah, because Summer gave a shit about her kids. She didn’t ditch Ruby the instant she got scared and then come back and steal her and her sister from their home to live among murderers and thieves because of her own hang ups.

Raven sighed again. It had been about four months since she had taken the kids, and she was well-aware about that Qrow and Tai had placed a bounty on her. She’d like to see them try to take Ruby and Yang away.

Me too since you don’t have Maiden abilities and Qrow is stated equal and your camp could barely handle V5 Yang and Weiss, let alone two fully trained Huntsmen.

Changing the tribe’s goal of finding a permanent place to live helped, but there was not many places that they could go. Vale was out of the question, Mistral was too obvious, Atlas was… Atlas, and Vacuo would have too many possibilities for someone to rush in and try to attack them. The only other option was Menagerie, but she knew that she and her tribe wouldn’t be welcome there due to them being human.

And her tribe of mass murdering thieves would give two shits about the lives of two kids because..why again?

If Summer were here, she’d have reasoned that it would have been because they would stick out like a sore thumb. She had more faith in other people than she did, that’s for sure.

She’d also wouldn’t be a self centered egotistical asshole ad would give the kids back to their family.

Shaking her head to try to keep the tears she shed for her partner away, Raven was well-aware that Menagerie’s desserts were the best bet, despite everything. It wouldn’t be easy, but there wouldn’t be any potential ambushes to worry about, they could find an oasis and build a small villa around it, and if they needed to, they could try to find some animals or other wildlife to make clothes and other supplies they’d need.

Meangrie’s deserts are stated to be hospitable and the wildlife incredibly deadly. So at least Raven’s lack of actual intelligence is intact.

The big problem would be the discomfort and getting there. There weren’t many ways to get to Menagerie without going through the main port, and a group of humans traversing the dessert of a faunus-populated area would raise several alarms.

She looked at the moon. They weren’t that far away from a relatively small village. Maybe they could stock up on supplies while there.

Time for Ruby and Yang’s first mass murder.

Damn, reading those storybooks to Ruby and Yang made her soft. She actually went in and defended them… Though, she had to admit: When she started slicing through the grimm to keep the villagers safe, she felt… good. It almost felt like Summer was right there. By her side.

Then why did Raven leave in the first place and if so, why didn’t she reform the tribe BEFORE this? Also ‘Grimm’ is a proper noun.

The village had thanked her and her tribe by giving them food, ammunition, and other supplies that they needed.

Needless to say, it had been a bit of a shock to Raven. She had forgotten how actually being a huntress could benefit a person… And how nice it felt protecting others.

This sounds more like Summer than Raven Branwen,

... You just tore out Raven’s character and shoved Summer’s into Raven’s body didn’t you Dudeblade?

Some of the other tribe members found it refreshing, and some saw it as going against their original code. A divide was made, and half of the group became defenders, while the other half continued to raid villages. Raven held some sympathy for them, but she made it clear that if they crossed her path while she was defending a village, that there would be no mercy.

How is this character Raven Branwen again?

“Mmm!” Some whimpering caught her ear, as she turned and went back inside the tent to see Ruby squirming in her sleep again. This was a regular occurrence. Ruby had trouble sleeping, even with her plush cat, Ruby would have the occasional bad dream at best, or a full-on nightmare at worst. It was those nights that Raven crawled into the cot with her, and held her tight while stroking her hair.

Probably because you took her from her home to be surrounded by strangers in the middle of nowhere.

‘Yang was a bit stronger. A bit too independent for Raven’s liking, but she knew that it was selfish to want to take Summer’s place.

Yang spent most of her time with the Spring Maiden- Robin. That was her name. The two had formed a bond that let Yang have an older sister figure in her life, and gave Robin motivation to become stronger to protect her surrogate sister.

Raven smiled at the memory. Sure, it was just a few days ago, but she could never forget the smile on Yang’s face when Robin had used her powers to make a small statuette of a recent exploit together. Two days prior, Robin had reported that Yang had beaten her first grimm without any weapons.

At first, Raven nearly had a heart attack, and was ready to draw her blade at the girl for letting Yang do something so dangerous.

But then Robin explained herself. She and Yang had been out gathering some firewood when a beowolf pack had appeared. Robin managed to beat back most of them, but got caught off-guard by the alpha. S

he had shut her eyes, thinking about Yang’s safety, and how she failed her when she heard it.

A scream of rage.

Yang had launched herself at the beowolf and started punching and riding it like it was a bull. Robin couldn’t believe her eyes. Within a minute or two, Yang had managed to defeat the beast, and Robin was simply stunned.

A. And yet you stole Taiyang’s place.

B. Sure sounds like Yang got over the whole ‘Never going to see he father and uncle ever again’ thing pretty quickly. Very quickly. Unrealistically quickly.

And C.Great. A fucking toddler killed an Alpha Beowolf. So Yang’s gonna be a Mary Sue.

Oh and D. So Taiyang leaving his kids alone for an hour is bad but Raven letting her daughter go out into openly Grimm infested woods is a okay huh Dudeblade?

After having to do some harsh chores as punishment for allowing Yang to be put in danger and not doing anything, Raven had to admit that she was slightly ashamed and a bit jealous that she wasn’t there to see it herself.

Robin said that it was almost as if she was on fire, and that if she were to die, that she would want Yang to have her powers.

There was a small debate of burdening Yang with the powers of the Spring Maiden, but Raven had conceded. Robin trusted Yang with everything, and if there was anyone that she felt was deserving of the power, the two agreed (albeit, begrudgingly on Raven’s part) that Yang was the best candidate. Yang had seen Robin in action enough times that she knew what the maiden was capable of.

Raven couldn’t wait until the day when Yang would surpass her.

Raven looked down to see Ruby nuzzling her chest. “It’ll be alright, Ruby. I won’t let anyone hurt you or your sister. I promise.”

In her soul, however, Ruby heard the voice of both Raven, and of Summer. Whom she felt embracing her aura.

Raven paused for a moment. In that instant, she had thought she had felt Summer’s embrace for herself.

She should sleep.

Perhaps then she wouldn’t hallucinate her partner’s warm hugs.

Yep, Mary Sue route confirmed.

And great, Raven is fucking delusional too now.. Because I’m pretty sure Summer wouldn’t be embracing anything regarding what Raven’s done.

“This has gotten harder.”

“Agreed. Ever since Raven changed tactics, people are less willing to out her. She’s really changed. I’m pretty sure that Ruby should be about four by now. Not that Raven would know when her birthday is.”

“You’re not suggesting that we actually let Raven keep Ruby and Yang, are you Qrow?”

“Tai, relax. There’s bound to be some people willing to tell us her location.”

“As much as I hate to agree with Qrow here, he has a point.” Glynda added, “The reports we’ve gotten keep talking about a smaller group than before. There’s no doubt that some members likely didn’t like where they were heading, and bailed out.”

“The few we captured seem to be more afraid about displeasing her though.” Ozpin agreed. He was using his cane more often as an actual cane ever since he was discharged, “In addition, some of them mentioned that Raven has the Spring Maiden. We cannot allow someone so powerful to be with Raven of all people.”

“That is also a big problem. Raven could be putting dangerous thoughts into her head.”

“Not to mention Yang and Ruby’s heads.” Tai said, “What if she’s teaching them that it’s okay to steal?”

“Tai, stop.” Qrow tried, “You’re just being paranoid.”

“What if she’s putting them through some kind of dangerous training?” Taiyang cried out.

A. Still don’t buy that Raven would change.

And B. Pretty fucking understandable reasons considering Qrow OUTRIGHT DESCRIBED HIS TRIBE AS ‘MURDERERS AND THIEVES!’

“Now where has Ruby gone?” Raven looked in her large tent. There was a bit of giggling coming from her cot, “Is she under this rock?”

There was more giggling coming from her cot.

“Maybe she’s… under this table!” She looked under it, while keeping her ears trained on her cot.

“She’s not under here either. Maybe she’s turned invisible?” She asked as she made her way to her cot.

“Huh, my cot seems to be pretty lumpy today, I wonder-”

“BLARH!” Ruby jumped out of the cot and put on her best ‘scary face.’ Had she not been three, it would have been considered more intimidating than adorable.

“Oh my!” Raven feigned surprise rather well, “there you are! You nearly gave me a heart attack, little rose.” She picked up and nuzzled her surrogate niece.

“Did I really auntie Raven?” She asked. Raven smiled fondly as she nodded.

There was that small voice in the back of her head that kept telling her that Summer would be fine if she took up the role of mother in Yang and Ruby’s lives, but she kept up her efforts of keeping that voice quiet.

That voice was selfish. It wanted her to replace Summer.

She say as she replaces not just Summer but Qrow and Tayang as well.

“Auntie Raven?”

Ruby’s voice snapped the Mercenary leader out of her thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Can we watch Yang and Robin train?”

Raven smiled softly as she readjusted the toddler in her arms, “Alright. Have you used the bathroom yet?- We don’t want you wetting yourself.”

“That was one time!” Ruby replied. She was pretty smart for a four-year old. Or so Raven assumed. She wasn’t around kids enough to know what was going on. She remembered having a small party for Ruby’s birthday not too long ago. A village let them have a small celebration.

Yang had went out and found some flowers, and Robin had made a small stone statute of a rose. Yang would be turning six in a few months. Maybe the two of them could start talking about weapons. Robin has been teaching Yang a little hand-to-hand.

Raven felt a presence when she and Ruby arrived at the place where Yang and Robin were training. It almost felt… familiar. She looked at Ruby, and felt that her aura was warmer.

After a long while, Ruby started dozing off, and Raven decided that it was enough excitement for the day, and started heading back to her tent.

Tucking Ruby in, she felt that warm aura again. She knew that it felt familiar. She knew whose aura it was. And maybe… Maybe now it was time to accept it.

Summer was- is with her. Watching over her. Her and the kids.

At least, that was what she felt she had to accept.

Perhaps she was hallucinating.

Again.

Yes, yes Raven is hallucnating.

She isn’t some misunderstood, tortured loner. The moment Ruby reminder her of Summer, Raven nuked her in the face. She gaslighted Yang and tried to manipulate her into turning against her own sister and uncle. She ditched Yang FOR A THIRD TIME to save her own hide.

She;s a selfish bitch.

“It’s not your fault auntie…”

Raven didn’t try to respond to Ruby at this point. It was a hard day for all of them. Despite it being her blade, Ruby didn’t blame her. Raven felt that she should be blamed though.

Robin was dead.

It was a hard decision to make. Raven had brought Yang with her on the hunt, and Yang was busy keeping an eye on Ruby. That’s when they attacked.

A group sent by Ozpin had came in and tried to not only take away the girls, but also tried to take away Robin.

Since there was nobody that Raven trusted to help heal her, Raven had tried to rush back to the camp, or a village.

But Robin’s wounds were too great. Too severe. If she went to Tai, the girls would be in danger of being taken away from her, and brainwashed into being Ozpin’s puppets. Qrow was the same story.

So she cared so little about this person that instead of sucking up her pride and getting some help since it might result her crime being undone, she lets her die in agony.

Wonderful.

She had been an idiot. She should have left Yang and Ruby at the camp so that she could have portaled over to them.

Robin had asked- begged for Raven to end the pain. She had reached for the blade, and before Raven could stop her…

Robin was gone.

Yang was the Spring Maiden now.

And despite all of it… Ruby didn’t blamed her for not being able to stop Robin.

Raven needed time. And she knew that she couldn’t take long. It was only a year ago when Yang and Ruby had lost Summer, and now…

Raven needed time. She had said so. She had a person that would take care of them.

Yang and Ruby had gone to their tent. It wasn’t too extravagant. But it was nice. It was close to Raven’s.

“Summer… What am I supposed to do now?”

Raven had long given up fighting the hallucination of Summer that had haunted her. It wasn’t going away, and Raven had come to accept it. There were times when she almost believed that it wasn’t a hallucination. But her rationale wouldn’t let her believe that her partner’s spirit was actually there with her.

Why? Why couldn’t she save those she cared about?- She could only do it one time. Every time she tried, it only worked the first time.

It was too much. Maybe she was only capable of saving people once, and that was it.

How about,you know, acting in the interest of others and not yourself?

Also: Raven is officially mentally ill. She outright admits it.

“No it isn’t.”

“What took you so long?” Raven looked at the hallucination. Summer was still as beautiful as she remembered. A little transparent, but she could still see her.

“I wanted to make sure you wanted me.” Summer replied.

“Robin’s dead, Sum…” Raven muttered, “She… I… I couldn’t save her.”

“How is Yang taking it?”

“She’s with another member. I’m not sure how she’s handling it, but…”

“-Raven?” Another tribe member started, “May I come in?”

Raven looked to her side and noticed that Summer had disappeared. Sighing, she looked back, “Yes. What is it?”

“It’s… It’s Yang. It’s her eyes… They’re-”

“Let me see for myself.” Raven got up, “I should be able to handle it, and she could probably use someone to help her get through this.”

Yeah, this is just another reason why Raven shouldn’t be allowed to raise kids.

Raven had found Yang on the edge of a cliff nearby the camp. The girl was staring off into the distance.

“Yang?”

“What do you want?”

Raven had expected this. She knew about how much Yang looked up to Robin, and how much the two cared for each other. She didn’t know how to handle a situation like this. First Summer, then her home on patch, and now Robin. Raven didn’t want to know how Yang would react if she lost anything else.

“I wanted to check up on you.”

“So you do it now, huh?” Yang replied.

Raven sighed, “Yang… You’re strong. A lot stronger than me. I guess… I guess I thought that you didn’t need me as often as your sister. I was wrong. I want you to know that. And I know how much Robin meant to you. If you’re angry at me, then-”

“I’m not angry at you for not saving her.” Yang cut off.

Raven was surprised. She had understood why Ruby had forgiven her, but Yang?- She was a bag of emotions, nobody knew what they were getting when they grabbed one.

“You aren’t?”

“I’m mad at you for not killing those huntsmen that killed her.” Yang ground out, “Why?! Why couldn’t you just make them suffer? Just a little bit…” She started crying.

So under Taiyang’s care Yang was an altruistic woman with abig heart and tried her best to be a good person.

Under Raven’s she’s now a sadist. At age 6.

Fucking wonderful.

Raven was stunned. She had done her absolute best to make sure that Yang wouldn’t fall to the talons of vengeance, and now she had failed. She reached over, and embraced Yang, who had stopped crying for a moment only to start crying harder.

“Yang… revenge is hardly worth it.” Raven explained, “Don’t make the mistakes I did.”

“I don’t care.” Yang choked through, “They took her away from us… from me. She was like a sister to me, and now…” Yang shook her head.

“I want them to suffer.”

“Yang, there’s an old saying,” Raven started, “Before setting out for revenge, you should dig two graves-”

“We already dug one. It was Robin’s.” Yang snarled, “What’s one more?”

“Yang. One grave is for the person you want to kill. The other is for you. Revenge is a never-ending cycle.” Raven chastised, “What you really need is justice.”

“You never felt vengeful?” Yang accused.

Raven looked on to see Summer’s ‘ghost’ trying to comfort Yang. It was a sweet gesture, even if it was just a hallucination of her doing so.

“Every day.”

And look at the result.

If Raven actually cared about Yang not being vengeful, she wouldn’t have STOLEN her and Ruby in the first place as her revenge.

When Ozpin had gotten the report, he was dissatisfied. The goal was to rescue Ruby and her sister and get the Spring Maiden on their side. It wasn’t to mortally wound said maiden.

The war against the grimm was a difficult one, and what he needed to end his curse was a Silver Eyed Warrior to defeat Salem.

But Raven had been selfish. She had taken them away. Not only was his best chance of defeating Salem gone, but Tai and Qrow were constantly pushing themselves to their very limits to try to find the girls.

It was likely that the Spring Maiden had been trained to think of a certain person when in near-death situations, so the Maiden had to still be in the tribe.

Ozpin wanted out. He wanted to be free from this plane of existence.

Pretty sure Ozpin would care more about the innocent children being kidnapped from their family than his own bullshit.

“Professor Ozpin,” Glynda’s voice came over the intercom, “It’s Taiyang and Qrow. They wish to speak with you on the progress on finding the girls.”

Ozpin sighed, “Let them in.” he said, as he sat back down in his chair.

After a few seconds of waiting, the T and Q of team STRQ finally wandered into the room.

“I understand that you two are aware why you’re here?”

“I just want to see my girls again.”

“And we will do that. But first, there’s another matter to deal with. The Spring Maiden died when we sent the Huntsman Team out there to find and retrieve her as well as find Yang and Ruby.”

“And?”

“The Maiden was with the tribe. While it’s likely that she had a bond with someone there, that tribe wasn’t as close to each other, so the Maiden might be out there somewhere. We can’t dismiss the idea that the Maiden might be among them.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with getting my girls back.” Tai pointed out, “I want to find them now!”

“Qrow, do you have any contact with your sister?”

“I don’t have a sister. Not anymore. Not after she took the kids.”

“Qrow.”

“Yeah yeah. I’ll see if there’s some way to contact her.”

“Try to get the kids back.”

“I doubt Raven would be so willing to give them up so easily. She gets some bargaining chips with them.”

“At least try.”

Not even gonna try to show Ozpin calming and reassuring Taiyang like he’s ALWAYS done? Or Qrow giving any kind of shits about his brother in law’s emotional state? Yay...

And here’s a man whose hysterical at the loss of kids who were taken from him after losing his second wife and I’m suppose to side with the kidnapper?

“You wanted to see me?” Raven asked as she settled into the bar that Qrow had requested they meet at.

“Yep.” The place was pretty sparse. Raven had insisted that Qrow come alone, and Qrow had requested the same.

Both of them had their weapons on them as well. No matter what, Raven and Qrow both wanted to keep the battle limited to a one-on-one fight.

“I’m not giving them up.”

“Then I guess visitation rights are off the table then?” Qrow snarked.

“I’m not against it.”

This took Qrow by surprise, “Really?- I thought that-”

“You thought what, Qrow?- That I was using Yang and Ruby as living weapons?- That I didn’t care about their safety?”

Considering you took them back to your bandit camp which regularly attracts Grimm, let Yang wander around in Grimm infested woods and stole them which SHOULD leave Yang with psychological an emotional scarring-

Yes.

“If you did, then you wouldn’t have taken them!” Qrow accused.

“I did that to make sure that they wouldn’t be turned into living weapons!” Raven snarled.

Bull fucking shit. This is the same woman who tried gaslighting Yang in Volume 5.

“Oh here we go! Just because Ozpin was the one who gave Summer the mission, doesn’t mean he treats everyone like a living weapon!”

“No. He treats them like pawns.“ Raven clarified, “Like pieces on a chess board. Some pieces more valuable and useful than others. And I won’t let you, or Ozpin make Ruby and Yang into pieces in his deranged chess game against the goddamned Grimm Queen. I’m giving them the chance to avoid being placed on the board, a thing none of us got. Not you, not Tai, not me, and… not her…”

Except if that were true-

Why doesn’t he just declare open war on Salem? I mean, a person who sees people as pawns doesn’t care if a few thousand pawns get killed. And he’s always shown to respect the autonomy of other people. So I call bullshit.

Especially coming from someone whose a mass murderer AND a gaslighting emotionally abusive parent.

Raven barely whispered that last part, but Qrow knew who she was talking about.

“You don’t get to use that excuse. What if Yang and Ruby want to become huntresses?- Are you just going to stomp out their dreams like that?”

“As far as I’m aware, Yang would likely rush Ozpin, and start beating him while demanding the names and addresses of the hunter team that killed Robin.” Raven replied, “I’m doing that old bastard a favor by making sure that he doesn’t start assimilating a new body in the near future. As for Ruby… She can attend any school that isn’t Beacon. I hear Shade’s a good academy.”

Yeah because you’re brainwashing her. Great job, proving Qrow right. Also, apparent RUby can do whatever she wants...so long as you approve. Nice freedom. What’s wrong, scared Ruby would learn that you’ve been lying to her and stole her and her sister from their family?

Also he doesn’t assimilate jackshit, you manipulate bitch.

“You would say that. And who’s Robin?”

“Of course you wouldn’t treat her as a person. You work for Ozpin.” Raven muttered, “Robin was the Spring Maiden, a dear ally, and the closest person Yang had to an older sister. And the team Ozpin sent got her killed. It took me a month to find the paperwork proving that it was him and not you or Tai.”

You killed that ‘dear ally’ for power in canon. I don’t believe that for a second.

“I take it that that Robin chick didn’t like Yang so much, so the power didn’t go to her?”

Raven glared. She knew that if Yang had heard that, Qrow’s feet would be encased in ice while he would be taking a beating.

Funny how Yang’s anger issues have only gotten worse compared to her canon counterpart. Almost like you’re a shit mom.

But she couldn’t reveal that.

“Did I touch a nerve, Rae?” Qrow taunted.

“Once we get to our intended destination, I’ll portal over to Tai for discussions on visitations.”

Raven looked behind her brother. She saw ‘Summer’ motioning for her to go in for the metaphorical kill.

“And now, I’d say that you go back to your feather-crested journal. I’m sure you’d complain all about your murder in it.”

Qrow paused for a moment. Summer had given that to him as a gift, and he had never shared it with anyone outside of her.

“How did you…”

It was too late.

Raven had portaled away.

“Dammit, Branwen! You were supposed to give us the signal for when she was going to use her semblance! What happened?”

“Sorry.” Qrow said into his communications device, “It looks like Raven went through my stuff, and caught me off-guard or something.”

“Great. Y’know Ozpin is still on our case about not getting that girl back alive. Dunno why he wanted that specific girl, but now we have no idea what to do now.”

“Cool your ass, Avel. I’m sure you and team APLE are on edge as much as the next. But you killing her means that we don’t know where a… certain asset is. Oz is just worried.”

“He sounded more angry and enraged than he did worried.”

“Then you probably weren’t good enough.”

Funny because between the two of them, Raven’s the immature whiny bitch.

Also Raven is still delusional as fuck.

“Radon, how is Yang holding up?”

“She’s been training with a variety of weaponsss. I’m rather scared of what kind of weapon she’ll ultimately end up making.”

“Any favorites so far?”

“She seems to favor a lot of swords and blades, but she also practices with gauntlets.” The beaver faunus rubbed his side, “She managed to knock me around with those gauntlets of hers.”

“Just the gauntlets?”

Radon nodded.

“Where is she now?”

“She said she wanted to do some exercises in her tent. Are you sure about this Raven?- You said that you wanted to keep her off the path of revenge, but right now-”

“I’m trying to keep her from getting killed. I can’t do that if she’s not prepared. I tried so hard to stop her from this, but now…”

Raven shook her head, “I’ll take a look. Where’s Ruby?”

“She’s off gathering berries with the other kids. This tribe is becoming more and more like an orphanage.“

“Is that a problem, Radon?”

“Not at all. After all, I heard from some of the elders that that was how you came in.”

“Hmm.” Raven went off to find Yang. Hopefully, she could keep her off the path just a little bit.

Hopefully.

So great, Raven brainwashing MORE kids. At least it sounds like she didn’t kidnap those kids...

And so that’s the story of Kidnapping Not-Mom Fake Summer if we were to give this an accurate title. Because in honesty, Raven kidnapped RUby and Yang, she isn’t a mother and this isn’t even Raven but rather Summer Rose transplanted in Raven.

And this is why I hate Raven Stans.

#dudeblade #taiyang xiao long #qrow branwen #professor ozpin

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speckeh · 6 years ago

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My 2019 Garbage Book Dump

It’s 2019! I’m tired, I’m hella gay, and I’m still reading books as much as I can with my busy life! Enjoy this book list with reviews!

1. Thunderball: 5/5 stars. Mormon jokes. Making fun of dietary changes? A young Italian woman (girl) who controls the island with her beauty. It becomes a mission against nuclear threats against the Europe and the US? Not exactly the MOST thrilling James Bond book, but I had a lot of fun reading it. I’m glad this was my first read of the year!

2. The Lydia Steptoe Stories - Faber Stories: 4/5 stars. I found these short, tiny books in a local bookstore. There were 6 of them on the table and I bought three. Sometimes I wish I bought all of them, but not all of them spoke to me. The Lydia collection was interesting as it held three stories with: a young man being “seduced” by his aunt, a young girl wanting to be a dominatrix, and a woman who wishes she could be youthful again. While I didn’t find the stories awe-inspiring, I did find them extremely entertaining and nice to think about.

3. Emma Cozy Classics: 5/5 stars. I have the pride and prejudice one. While it might not be as fabulous as a full book, but the pain-staking skill of felt art is entirely impressive. It went on my Jane Austen book shelf.

4. Come Rain or Shine - Faber Stories: 3/5 stars. What would you do if your friends thought you were absolutely insane and their lives are falling apart worse than yours? What would you do if your friend asks you to play absolutely stupid to his wife to make him look better and for her to realize her life isn’t so bad that she got lucky enough to not marry you? I for one, would drop these fucking friends and never look back. The story was a fucking train wreck and absolutely insane to the point where it wasn’t even humorous to me. Several authors state it’s Ishiguro’s step into comical writing and I wish he wouldn’t.

5. Passionate Minds - Women Rewriting the World: 1/5 stars. I found this book at my Uni’s free bookshelf. I was super excited to read this book but it’s one of the dullest and full of biases book I’ve had the displeasure of picking up. I got to read about my girl Gertrude Stein but I was expecting more female writers, not actors who the writer obvious gets off on. There’s nothing wrong with that, and this book has rave reviews, I just couldn’t stand the writing style and obvious fawning she had (and not in the academic/historically reserved way authors should be).

6. Wandering Island Vol. 2: 4/5 stars. It’s been two years since the first volume came out. I found myself reading it in record time which has me both disappointed and a bit confused (not because I read it fast, but because of the strange editorial ending). The art is impeccable with a few questionable “obviously a man drew this” moment, the story has kind of been a bit muddled up and didn’t necessarily go anywhere this volume. It felt more of a build up for Volume 3 which I don’t know when will be released. The editor wrote this strange 6 page essay that started off they were going to postpone Wandering Island 3, then went on a long rant about how the manga editing world has changed with ^-^ faces all throughout, only to then write fan theories of where they think the story is going to finish with: “We’ll translate the pages as soon as they come out! ^-^” what the fuck?? Haha

7. Fun Home - A Family Tragicomic. 5/5 stars. I bought this book today and I finished it this evening. I’m still processing everything that happened but one thing I know for sure is that I found one of my top 5 books of 2019 as well as a new favorite already. Alison approaches a hard topic of coming out, learning about her father’s secret life of being bisexual, and coming to terms with the strange person with anger issues that was her father. While my father wasn’t gay, there were several elements of her father I saw in my own. The volatile anger, learning more about his life after his death, hearing shattering truths from your mom, the regret of not having conversations sooner and him not seeing who you truly are before their passing. It struck a chord with me and I’m going to be thinking about this comic book I feel like for two months.

8. The Real McCoy: 4/5 stars. This is like a small wikipedia pamphlet book about the famous names, phrases, or lyrics you might know. I wasn’t necessarily impressed with the booklet, but I found some of it entertaining. I gave it a high rating because it served its purpose but I’m totally gifting it to a friend who loves random facts.

9. The Heart Affirming: 5/5 Stars. Epic poems about the Greek Gods, the universal feeling of appreciating nature, the wondering of the cruelty of humanity. This is a rare find of a poetry book not popular and one I found at my local library book sale that was signed by the author. If you have the pleasure to pick up this 1939 poetry book, please do! It’s a treat from the past that shows we still yearn for the same poetic romanticism we did then to now.

10. Bloom: 4.5/5 stars. I’ve realized I’m going to graduate college in the fall and this weird depression hit where I realized my life is really finally going to change forever. So I’m having a mixture of senioritis where I don’t want to do any work when I’m done with school by Wednesday, and I’m having a mid-century life crisis where I don’t know what to do with my life (I mean I do, but it’s terrifying). So I went on a LGTBQ+ splurge on amazon, something i haven’t done in awhile, Bloom was one of those books. Bloom is a fast paced comic about a high school graduate who wants to move out and move on, but his friends are dicks and his parents want him to stay. Welcome the new hot boy whose grandma just died and conveniently loves to bake. Ari wants to leave the bakery and this new hot guy is just his ticket to leave, or is it? I really liked this comic for the art and the story line was refreshing. But there were several instances where the book moves really quickly and the development was… meh. HeartStopper has great, slow pacing that lets you feel like the characters and story moves in a believable way. Bloom is rushed in some parts, but still.. So cute.

11. Spinning: 5/5 Stars. 2/4 of the LGTBQ+ books I ordered have been read! I read this book the day before valentine’s day and I’ve already been in a weird mode/crisis of being a university senior. I, loved this book for all the reasons why people gave it 3 stars. Everyone stated the story didn’t wrap up, that i jumped, that it felt fragments, but if you read the very end the author state not all books should make sense or follow a timeline or be accurate and these followed her own recollection without revisiting anything. I really appreciated and I loved the style. It’s a heavy book with sexual assault, manipulation, child abuse, and a very unhappy protagonist who isn’t likeable. But at the same time, finishing this book I just felt such grief that I didn’t pursue an art career. That I didn’t just join an art program or give my art career a chance. I think when I’m in the end of my career, retirement, I may go to art school again or maybe I’ll splurge money on lessons or maybe I’ll just accept my art as is. Either way, this book made me fiercely jealous of a 21 year old. It reminded me of a famous story of my dad reading a book about astronauts and crying in the bath because he should have been an astronaut, and how this book made me want to cry because in some form I should have been an artist. But like my dad, we’ve both chased careers that really inspired and gave us amazing opportunities. But I think it’s natural to miss over those childhood passions you didn’t follow through with because you felt like you weren’t enough.

12. My Solo Exchange Diary Vol 2. 2.5/5 stars. I read the first volume last year due to prompting from one of my precious friends (Ramona). My loneliness with Lesbianism was AMAZING. I bought it. My Solo Exchange Diary felt like the author was rambling in circles, completely mentally unwell, and had no ideas of how to properly take care of herself. In Volume 2 she was able to search for some help and she was able to deal with some introspective thoughts about how her viewpoint might have been wrong and how she was toxic to herself and her family. Volume 2 still left a taste in my mouth that felt… weird? She’s moving in the right directions but I think she’s desperately trying to follow the hype of her lesbian hit manga and she’s failing due to her wants to surpass herself. I laughed and felt bad as she mentioned how people slammed her for Volume 1, so it felt very meta to read how she reacted because my comment was also criticizing her: read here. But if you’re reading it in a bookstore or a library, do it. It’s nice to see how she’s slowly making progress with herself.

13. Sputnik Sweetheart. 1/5 stars. I picked this up in Brussels in the select few english section because the cover was intriguing and the back cover claimed it was a lesbian story. I was so excited, and imagine my absolutely hatred when I realized a straight cisgender man had written a “lesbian” story through the eyes of a straight male who is lusting after his lesbian best friend. He proclaims he gets boners at looking at her breasts and how her eccentric style only makes her that more beautiful just to him. I hate everything about this book. I wish straight cisgendered men would leave lesbian narrative stories alone unless you’re going to write them right. Get the fuck out of my books.

14. Fortunate Beasts: Letters to Lucardo Vol 2: 5/5 stars. The long waited and anticipated sequel to Letters to Lucardo!!! It’s been two years since I read the first volume, supported it on kickstarters, and I’m going to keep funding each release until the quadiology is complete! This had a lot less background building, exciting sex scenes, but you now understand the two lovers and get to see them develop their budding relationship. While it wasn’t as smut riddled as I expected, I was very happy with the continuation!

15. The little Lame Prince: 2/5 stars. DNF. Did not finish in case for those who don’t know/can’t remember (I hardly remember what DNF stands for myself). I’m torn as I want to eventually finish this book but I’m just not in the mood for it. It’s a sweet story but is very slow and from what I can tell, repeats itself a lot. It’s a old book from the early 1800s which explains the somewhat hard language and problematic moments, but it’s still charming. I’ll debate when I’ll try this again. For now, it’s returning to my shelves with a bookmark in the pages.

16. Shounen Houkokusho. 5/5 stars. A shounen-ai soft, wholesome gay family about a little boy standing up for his dad’s long time partner and asking them to get married. Very sweet. So precious. I love.

17. Same Difference and Other Stories: 4/5 stars. This was a reread from my friend Mark who gifted this to me back in december of 2014. It’s been 5 years since I picked up this book and I decided to see how its changed. As an adult, this comic speaks to me a lot louder than it did nearly half a decade ago. Struggling to find your way through life, seeing all your high school “friends” getting married, having jobs, meanwhile you’re just.. Here. Definitely a story I needed to revisit again in the future and also I still appreciate Mark’s notes he left in here for me!

18. Amazing Women: 101 Lives to Inspire you: 4/5 stars. This was my gift after finally being cut loose from the cancer clinic. I never had to go back there again and so I decided to pick up a momento. This was the book I chose that they offered. I really appreciate how they cover diverse women from all over the world rather than American-centric. They don’t go further than 1826, keping mostly within 200 years which is a bit of a bummer. There were also some choices I felt were questionable, like Zoe Sugg (who had her book ghost written and scams her viewers) and that they didn’t have Alison Bechendel was a huge disappointment. But this book is opinionated as they did have to narrow it down to 101 women, so I’m never going to be happy unless I pick my own. I also appreciated that if a diplomat was assassinated they mentioned it in the book.

19. The Epic of Gilgamesh: 5/5 stars. I learned about the Epic of Gilgamesh back when I was a itty-bitty sophomore in high school. I remember being so intrigued and would draw my gay ass characters as the Harlot and Endurk. I think I still have the drawings somewhere and they’re cringey. I bought the book and it’s been sitting on my shelf for YEARS. I did a deep clean of my bookshelves last night from 11:30 pm - 4:30 am, and this morning I just wanted to read since I haven’t been able to for months. I loved it! I love creation myths, old myths from “lost” cultures, plus the language was hella gay in this story. It’s a short 61 pages, so if you have like an hour or two and are in the mood for some myths baby, pick it up!

20. The Making of Pride and Prejudice: 4/5 stars. This book is chalked full of interviews from staff, actors, photos of the sets, and a bit too long section on the director and writers moaning about a script. I loved the photos of the behind the scenes and reading Colin Firth’s reluctancy to take, arguably, his most iconic role because he didn’t care for classical movies. Thought they were boring. Really a cool book to have if you’re a big Pride and Prejudice 1995 fan.

21. Greek Myths: 2/5 stars. I love the artwork in this book, but the author shows a lack of research when he writes the Roman names for the greek gods. I’m all fine with showing a Roman cultural story, but if you’re writing a Greek Myths story, BITCH use the Greek names!!! If it wasn’t for the artwork, this book would be traaash.

22. Wicked: 5/5 stars. I’ve been in a reading rut for almost a month where I’ve felt unmotivated to do anything. Since going back to brief counseling and getting my head on straight again, I’ve felt the motivation to read. I’m also doing the 2019 OWLS for a Wandmaker and this was one of my assignments. I absolutely loved Wicked. The musical came in last month and it reinvigorated my love for the show. I’ve been wanting to read the book, it’s been haunting me for awhile and I found a back of the Wicked series for 5 dollars at my library sale. Snatched that bitch up. I read this 408 pages in two weeks, probably would have in a week but school. God, I related so much to Elphaba. Not so much the whole, feeling like she has no soul, but taking school seriously and not making friends, coming from a religious family and rebelling, feeling like she’s responsible for her whole family, (not feeling like she’s attractive) and seeing her growth and becoming more comfortable with herself really made me feel better about myself? It’s a super dark book, but it’s great. It’s really great.

23. A Children’s Guide to the Night Sky: 4/5 stars. This was essentially the condensed and easier version of my Stars and Cosmology course I took two years ago!! I sped read this and some of the greek myths they described were dumb down/removed the queerness of it. Which is why I took off a whole star.

24. The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: 5/5 stars. Hello Marie Kondo. Everyone is on a cleaning kick/obsessed with Marie Kondo. I liked this comic because it was short and also made her book in a bite size, story drive style. I liked its simplistic form!

25. Julian is a Mermaid: 5/5 stars. I’ve had my eye on this book for a year, ever since it was announced in Goodreads’ monthly list. I found the last copy and snatched it up. I like the muted colors, the art style, the different bodies, and letting little boys know it’s ok to dress up as mermaids or anything feminized. A great message!!!

26. Kiss Number 8: 5/5 stars. This is one of those random comics I saw in the new releases and the cover caught my eye. I read the first few pages and decided to buy it. I loved it as it’s a coming out story but the main story isn’t revolved around coming out. It’s about the complicated nature of family, coming out through the years, and trans themes. I know some people say this book and the characters are transphobic due to misgendering and dead names used, but the main character is catholic. Her family are mega catholic. She’s going to a catholic school. Of course there’s going to be misgendering and dead names used! It’s how people naturally react to news. If you’re super sensitive, I wouldn’t read this book, but I loved it to bits. I held it to my chest like I do rarely with those books that give you the warm feels.

27. Elephi - The Cat with the High IQ: 5/5 stars. This was a book I grabbed at a close down sale. It’s about Elephi who sees a small fiat car abandoned in the snow outside and decides to use his brains to get the car inside the fifth story apartment. The author really knows how cats act and I felt like all the mannerisms were perfect for a year old cat(kitten). Really a cute book that I read in 40 minutes??

28. One Happy Tiger: 4/5 stars. A book about a tiger counting friends. Cute. It’s a children’s book. Not too substantial in anything.

29. The Language of Thorns: 5/5 stars. Ok WOW. I bought this about a year ago during B&N’s signed deals where they just had a ton of books signed by the authors. I’ve seen this book floating around on BookTube for awhile and I decided to check it out at the bookstore. The illustrations sold me and I bought it. Imagine the already dark Grimm’s fairy tales, but darker. More context for the characters: Ursula, the Nutcracker, Hansel and Gretel but if Gretel was the only one at home. Really amazing stories and if you’re interested in dark, pretty illustrations that change with each page, pick it up!

30. Satoko and Nada vol 1: 5/5 stars. Ramona and I went to B&N yesterday, just sitting around like two useless gays reading a bunch of manga. This is one she picked out and told me to read it. You know me, as a white academic I am constantly on the lookout for narratives that aren’t white and can educate me. This was one of them! Satoko is from Japan while Nada is from Saudi Arabia, both are exchange students in the US. Their friendship, learning about each other’s cultures is so fucking cute. ;0;

31: I Hear the Sunspot vol 1: 4/5 stars. I docked this down from a 5 star rating because it just jumps into a established plot. I had no idea if this was a continuation from another series or if the author purposefully just threw us in the mix of an established gay relationship but they’re not really (they are but they’re confused) with some flashbacks that looks like it came from another volume? But despite those factors, the art is gorgeous. The characters are well developed and have complex background and stories to tell (one of the main characters has a degenerative hearing issue and will eventually become deaf).

32. Building Writing Center Assessments that Matter: 4/5 stars. This was a required text I had for a independent study I was a part of where I created a assessment of the climate of where I worked. This is a great resource in learning how to build assessments from scratch, and if you’ve never conducted one. I found the information they gave was limited to assessment of students who use the a writing center, while my assessment was more focused on how safe, valued, and heard those who currently work in the space feel. A great way to step into assessments!

33. Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom: 4/5 stars. This was the first fictionalized piece of Slyvia Plath I’ve read. I can understand why it wasn’t published at first. There’s a lot of loose ends. Why was Mary going to the Ninth Kingdom? Why is everyone so placant in going to a “hell” type place? Also what the hell was the ending and her running away? This story left a lot to be answered, but I also love that about this short story.

34. Momo to Manji Vol 2: 5/5 stars. Volume two of one of my favorite historical yaoi mangas. It’s still hasn’t been fully translated just yet but I love it all the same!! So many complex characters, relationships!

35. Sweet Blue Flowers Vol 1. 5/5 stars. The first edition of a 5 volume series. Ramona told me to read this and I devoured the first book! Wholesome young girls falling in love with each other! Boyish girls who are heartthrobs! Unrequited love galore! Definitely going to check out the rest of the volumes!

36. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me: 5/5 stars. Man. This comic took me through a roller coaster of feelings. First it kind of made me miss the constant interactions I had with people in junior high and high school. It also reminded me heavily of my first gf and I wondered if she and her friends viewed me as Laura Dean (in terms of being too cool. I never cheated lmao. And always just out of reach). It made me melancholy for a younger me who was also hopeless in love with their best friend. It was a wild ride, but one I recommend wholeheartedly!

37. Lovable Lyle: 5/5 stars. I’ve been looking at this little crocodile for awhile and I’ve come to the conclusion he is me. This book was silly but heartwarming as Lyle is beloved but suddenly receives letters from his sworn enemy. They try to ignore it, but they are persistent until they catch the culprit. Fucking ridiculous story but I loved every second.

38. The Great American Pin-Up: 5/5 stars. It was really cool how they sectioned off each famous artist of pin-ups. Some of them were tasteful nudes, semi-nudes, or lingerie teasing moments. As someone who is both gay and used to draw pin-up girls, this is a great reference!!!!

39. Drawing the R.A.F.: 5/5 stars. This book is one of those rarer finds. A british artist was commissioned to draw the officers of the R.A.F. in the middle of World War II. Some portraits are far better than others, but the worser ones are attached with amazing stories. Such as a 6”6’ pilot having to be physically shoved in a spitfire. These are fantastic and the art work is really beautiful.

40. Where’s Will? 4/5 stars. Where’s Will is a William Shakespeare version of Where’s Waldo. The art is beautiful and the hidden characters are extremely clever. However, I remember so often spending hours upon hours trying to find Waldo and the extreme satisfaction of finally finding him. Where’s Will I could find him within 5 minutes. It never went long enough to the point I feel worn and frustrated and finding several more interesting characters. He stood out more than he should and I flew through this book that Waldo would find insulting! But the illustrations are beautiful!

41. Carr’s Pocket Books - Florence Nightingale: 4/5 stars. This mini collection of Nightingale’s journals throughout her life is really interesting. As a woman who revolutionized what it meant to be a nurse and nurse practices, it was nice to see her own words from age 9 to 90. She was an elegant little girl with her writing and she showed wisdom beyond her years. Did I learn anything substantial about her work? No. But I did come to know her on a far more personal level that I appreciate.

42. Carr’s Pocket Books - How Horatius Kept the Bridge: 5/5 stars. Another one of these small pocket sized books I bought in Oundle, England. I don’t know why, but I’ve just been desperate to go through my books and get rid of any and all that don’t speak to me anymore. I also just want to read, a lot. This was part of my kick this week, trying to get through as many as possible. This poem story is about Roman soldier Horatius and how he single handedly took the Bridge against the Greeks. It’s a military triumphant, silly, and mystical, but I really enjoyed the structure of it. It was short and sweet.

43. Echoland: 3.5/5 stars. Echoland follows Arvid, a 12 year old Norwegian boy who visits his grandparents in Denmark for the summer. However, he’s growing up and he’s realizing that his parents are strained for some reason, his sister is too grown for him, and his grandparents are getting older. This book was confusing. It was short, quick, and I think younger children would enjoy this book more than me. It deals with more adult themes but through the eyes of a 12 year old. However, I found a lot of the storyline to be confusing: Why does Arvid not want to be touched? Why are his parents fighting?? Why does he hate all the men in his family? Why is he pushing everyone away? Why are his parents putting up with his attitude? There are a LOT of questions I have and there’s no real answer to be found. Maybe it’s the author’s style, but I found the story to be not as believable, but still enjoyable.

44. Mathilda. 2.5/5 stars. Mathilda was an audiobook I listened to as I suddenly got a migraine at around 6 pm and it didn’t let up until around midnight. The last three hours I’ve been listening to it. I thought this was Matilda from Roald Dahl but was instead by Mary Shelley herself. This was a very bizarre story. I really enjoyed the first half of the story which is about Mathilda writing a final letter to her best friend upon her deathbed. She’s retelling him her tragic story and how the death of her father was her fault. Her childhood was very bleak, touch starved as her mother died and her father abandoned her to his half sister. Her half sister wasn’t warm to her and saw her as a pest, which had Mathilda growing up til she was 16 without a father. Suddenly her father decided to return and within 2 months of his return her aunt dies, and now she’s in his custody. At first everything is fine, until her father starts to lash out at her and is very distant. He at first wants Mathilda to replace her mother and then rejects the idea. They go for a walk and Mathilda presses her father to tell her his deep secret and why he hates her all of a sudden. He refuses until she presses on and then he tells her that he lusts for her. She freaks out, he almost dies in the woods from shame, and then he leaves the next morning. Mathilda is then angry because SHE wanted to leave her father, but because he’s abandoning her again she chases after him. She finds him dead in a hotel room and then Mathilda begins to resent life and living. The story was great up until she decides to chase her father after he leaves her. It became a jumbled mess and Mathilda herself says her mind is a little mad with her decisions. The story started off as an intrigue with beauty descriptions, intense, and then just went bat shit crazy. The story ended on beautiful reflections on nature and how death is not beautiful for those living, but it really lost me. The last hour was a drag. I would definitely suggest listening to it if you have a migraine!

45. Megume to Tsugumi: 5/5 stars. Gay comic, lmao.

46. Golden Sparkle: 5/5 stars. I don’t remember the plot but it was cute.

47. Maltese Falcon: 2/5 stars. I was forced to read this for a film and literature class. Everyone was ranting and raving how the main character should be a male role model but that’s extremely stupid. Look, I love bad male representation (looking at you James Bond), but he was just trash. I get this is a famous crime novel, but GOD. It’s bad.

48. Maiden & Princess: 5/5 stars. This was about a maiden going to a ball who everyone thought she would marry the Prince. Except she and the Prince are best friends and she really fell in love with his sister. We love pride month books!

49. Prince & Knight: 5/5 stars. A gender-swap of Maiden & Princess except this was a Prince who goes off to slay a dragon to save his kingdom only to fall in love with a knight and marry him. SO GOOD.

50. Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 1: 4/5 stars. My friend Ramona told me to read this volume since she read it and loved it. While I loved the art and Komi, the story line was just a tad flat for me. It’s a really fun series if you like high school semi-romance but mostly heavy on friendship~!

51. What was Stonewall? 3/5 stars. This was one of those children informative books where they retell a piece of history. I thought this was great for children who know nothing about Stonewall but are hearing it from Drag Queens or in June for Pride History Month. I thought the information about Stonewall was short and concise and also good for children, however the book did verge off point and talk about other points of history as well as random actors who are gay. This is good, but it isn’t Stone wall, you know?

52. Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag: 4/5 stars. I watched Milk and I cried at the end. I’ve been wanting to know more about how Milk created our Pride Flag and this was another one of those books where it’s curated for children. So I appreciate the run down version it gives us, but they had to “modify” what the stripes mean, such as purple being Sexuality. Let kids hear the unfiltered truth!

53. TBH #1: TBH, This Is So Awkward: 4/5 stars. This was in the teen new released section and it’s a book of text messages. I hated this book, but also was way too invested in it when I was reading it out loud to my date. It’s just a bunch of middle school people sending love notes, getting the Valentine’s Day dance cancelled because they won’t stop using their phone and their principal said “Social Decency.” And then it ended by one of the girls bringing the valentine’s day dance back by creating a Task Force to enforce no texting during school. It was fucking wild and I loved every page I flipped through and wrote in.

54. Adaptations from Short Story to Big Screen: 4/5 stars. I liked it well enough, it was a textbook so I didn’t really read the stories in-depth. However, there are two stories I absolutely love which are Field of Dreams and Smoke Signals.

55. Our Father Who Art in a Tree: 5/5. I loved this book. It’s very true to the experience of what it’s like to be depressed and the first few months of deep grief. While I didn’t lose my parent until my teenage years and my brothers were older, but the strained relationships grief causes is so fucking poignant.

56. Little Miss P: 5/5 stars. I know it’s strange, because it’s a man writing a book about periods, but this was an excellent book. It really showcased the love-hate relationship women have with their periods and also sometimes accurate representations of what it feels like.

57. Ginza Neon Paradise: 4/5 stars. I don’t remember reading this manga! (I’m updating my book list after some months)

58. Na Leo I Ka Makani/Voices on the Wind: 5/5 stars. A book of history and photos of native Hawaiians, royals, and other cultural aspects important to the island. Some really cool photos.

59. Satoko & Nada vol. 2: 5/5 stars. Satoko and Nada are back again, continuing on with their studies and friendship. This book still continues to teach westerners some cool Eastern values while the main characters are learning about each other as well. I think the 3rd volume will come out soonish and that might be the end!!! I love this little series!

60. Annie on My Mind: 5/5 stars. One of the first lesbian novels to show a happy ending with the characters. It’s very much a high school love story and first real love. There were some parts of the story that were absolutely aggravating, painfully embarrassing, but also really heart warming. It’s a queer foundational book in literature, and if you’re interested in the history of queer literature, this should be on your list.

61. Killing Stalking: 5/5 stars. The comic finally ended. I started reading it in 2016 and finished in 2019. God was it a ride. It was full of conflicting feelings, creepiness, and an ending that leaves the reader confused, fulfilled, and also not fulfilled at the same time. I wouldn’t suggest reading it for those who are squeamish with gore, violence, and dark sexual themes, but it’s a fantastic read into what it’s like to experience stockholm syndrome and intense violent trauma.

62. Go for it, Nakamura!: 5/5 stars. A high school student falls in love with his popular classmate, but his classmate doesn’t know he exists! A cute gay book about falling in love, making friends, and pushing yourself to achieve your goals!

63. The Great Gatsby: 4/5 stars. The next two books are books I listened to while deep cleaning my room. It took me two days to fully clean my room, and this was also a challenge for my N.E.W.T.S 2019. I remember reading this book in high school and liking, and I think I lent out my copy and never saw it again. I bought it recently and decided to give it a re-read/listen. I think reading the book would have made it more engaging to me, but I found the themes to not be as impressive as an adult. Maybe it’s because I can’t relate to the characters or their choices are so dumb that I just can’t believe it anymore, but it was still entertaining to listen to. The narrator was great!

64. Emma (Narrated by Emma Thompson): 5/5 stars. This feels a bit like cheating because this rendition was not only abridged, but also had live actors. I’m very familiar with Emma, and Emma Thompson as the narrator was a genius move. However, do I feel like I read/listened to Emma? Not really.

65. Fresh Romance, Vol. 1: 4/5 stars. Half of the stories were very confusing and not very good. However, I really loved two stories about a Regency marriage and a spin off of Beauty and the Beast. I would read this volume just for those additions.

66. Pilu of the Woods: 5/5 stars. A cute story about emotions, friendship, and the woods. It even has a recipe on the back I want to read it!! The colors and characters are adorable. The storyline might not be as solid, but it’s a great read!

67. Ou-same to Puppy Love: 5/5 stars. A foreign prince falls in love with a neat-freak government official. Queue stupid boys in love!

68. Sugar Days: 5/5 stars. Childhood best friends, one small and manly, one tall and feminine, both love each other without having the courage to tell the other!!!! Very cute!!!!!

69. The Tea Dragon Society: 5/5 stars. I remember seeing this book a year ago and how everyone was ranting and raving about it. However, I never bought it or saw it. My best friend brought it over the other day for me to read and I could finally see what the fuss was about. QUEER CHARACTERS, LITTLE DRAGONS WITH TEA LEAVES GROWING OFF OF THEM, MULTIPLE REPRESENTATION!!!! IT’S SO GOOOOOD!

70. Luminous Animal: 5/5 stars. A jazz poetry book. It’s interesting how Tony Moffeit can write the same theme over and over, with the same lines but in different poems with different perspectives. It was really cool!

71. Still Mostly True: 5/5 stars. A weird poetry book that has philosophy and deep meaning poems with also weird ass drawings. However, my poetry book had inscriptions from someone else to their friend. The inscriptions were sometimes very annoying, but also kind of heartwarming how this friend made sure her friend knew she was thinking of her and loving her.

72. Sky, Wind, and Stars. 5/5 stars. A poetry book that was a Korean activist who was murdered by the Japanese through medical experiments for his radical poetry. We watched the movie in my Korean History through film class, and I loved it to bits I wanted to read his poetry. The movie downplayed just how radical his poetry was. Even as a English speaker, I can clearly see the activism, Korean pride that was written during the Japanese occupation. It was a wonderful poetry book, and an important one to Koreans at that. If you have the chance to read it, please do.

73. Memoirs of a Geisha: 5/5 stars. Haley (one of my bffs) recommended me this book like 3 years ago. It’s her favorite and I kept saying I would read it. August was the N.E.W.T.S. challenge and this fit the category of “audiobook” as I listened to a fan read audio of it and then had to read the last 7 chapters. I completely see where my friend finds inspiration in her writing from this book! I really loved the sad story, the harsh reality of Japan, even if this book was more on the idealized version of WWII in Japan and how Geishas were. Some of the thinking of Chiyo I feel could be chalked up to white men ideal sexualization, but overall I really enjoyed this book! Plus the fan who read it was really into her characters and she made the experience really fun.

74. Be Prepared: 5/5 stars. When you’re poor, Russian, and have the All-American-Girls as your best friends, life is extremely hard. No one likes your Russian food, the smallness of your home, and listening to a language not their own. VERA NEEDS SOME FUCKING NEW FRIENDS. As someone whose best friend is Russian, has a sister-in-law who is Russian, and a nephew learning to speak Russian, some people are really insensitive and it drives me nuts. I know a lot of people are upset with this book because it’s not a “full memoir” and yet is described as a memoir. I’ll just pose the question, can you remember 1 month straight at 10 years old, from people to dialogue? No? Yeah, cut the book some slack. This has great representation in terms of Russian culture and learning through it from little Russian eyes.

75. Kiraide Isasete: 5/5 stars. It’s another gay manga.

76. I married my best friend to shut up my parents: 4/5 stars. While I appreciate this story is light-hearted, it seems a bit far fetched for my taste. Also the main character doesn’t believe she’s gay, so I find it hard that a) she would actually get married and b) would just readily fall in love with her friend when she’s literally had no sexual desire for anyone. But other than that, it’s a ridiculous love story and it’s to the point!

78. Heartstopper V.2: 5/5 stars. I already read this awhile ago but I finally got my copy! So I’m just putting it in my list!

79. Raven: 5/5 stars. Raven is the first installment of the origins of the Teen Titans characters. I really loved this novel since Raven has always been a dark character in the original show. This book explores her experience with death, coming to terms with her birth origins, and New Orleans with ancient magic. A great start to a series I’m looking forward to reading the rest of!

80. Heartless. 4/5 stars. A child is taken care of by a succubus (male) after a religious cult burns down a hospital to get rid of the succubus. This story is intense in the gore and horror, but pretty light in plot. There’s no real driving force behind the characters and what they do, no explanation, it’s all just there for the reader to assume it just happened. But the characters were dynamic and interesting with superhuman powers and abilities.

81. The Adventure Zone Vol. 2: 5/5 stars. Every time I see Madame Director I sigh in relief because she exactly looks how I envisioned her while listening to the podcast many years ago. The story line is short, I feel like some of the build up jokes are lost or the frustration Griffin has with his brothers and dad that make the podcast so hilarious are missing, but it’s a really beautiful comic and also a great way for people to start listening to TAZ and MBMBAM

82: The Wind in the Willow: 4/5 stars. An audiobook I listened to. I had the paperback but it was too much reading for my mind for a classic children book. When I found the option on Libby, I listened to it as I started my preparations for the start of my final semester as an undergraduate! It went by fast, the actors were in their characters and there were some songs performed. I really enjoyed it, even if Mr. Toad is ANNOYING AS FUCK. Would recommend for those wanting to kill 2 hours of their time.

83. Classmates: 5/5 stars. High school sweethearts? Can’t express their feelings well? Uh, sign me the FUCK uP.

84-108. W Juliet: 5/5 stars. I haven’t read W Juliet since I was in 7th grade. I remember that I loved it so much that when I was in high school I began collecting the volumes and proudly put it on my shelf. I used to have two bookshelves worth of manga, and when I grew older I sold them but only kept two series: Marmalade Boy and W Juliet (I’m gonna read Marmalade Boy next). I’ve been wanting to reread W Juliet recent and revisit Mako and Ito’s silliness, and with the long weekend I did. I was not prepared for the analysis it would give me to my own life. Like, holy shit. This manga series was so important in developing me who I was as a kid, (some of them very mild kinks that my rp friends are subjected to), the loss Ito has and her issues with gender and like 100000% me and how I don’t like masculine guys at all with their toxicity (hello Mako, you summer child boy). I honestly want to do a fucking research paper on this series with an analysis of myself because of how much I love this series and how I connect to it. You can bet your ass this manga is coming with me for the rest of my life.

109-117. Marmalade Boy: 3/5 stars. Marmalade Boy was the manga that started it all. I remember being 8, having found the manga section with my best friend, and we decided to share reading Marmalade Boy. I was so captivated by the story that I made her wait in the car at her house, refusing to let her have the book until I finished it. It was the final of the volume, and it wouldn’t be another 3 years until I read the series OUT OF ORDER. I kept rereading this series, picking it up, I remember it felt like watching a movie. As an adult? God this series is really awful. The characters are very annoying, the teacher is very creepy, the plot moves WAY too quickly, and no one knows what consent is. It’s fucking insane. 1-7 volume is trash, but the 8th volume really put to life in the characters. For one, they’re older, it's been a few years, and they can step back from the crazy lives of high school. If it wasn’t for the sheer nostalgia, I would be giving these books away. But you gotta pay respect to those books that introduced you to life changing moments.

118. Ouji to Kotori. 4/5 stars. An art student, a prince who buys him, trying to escape, foreign lands, a story that has a “romantic” but is open ended. I liked the flow of the story, the art, and the characters were actually believable.

119. Mean Girls Club. 3.5/5 stars. Mean Girls Club is a 1950s tale of girls rising against the patriarchy through sex, survivor, drugs, and murder. The art style is amazing. But the story line is flat and feels rushed. Not a favorite, but still pretty enjoyable.

120. Grumpy Monkey. 5/5 stars. Grumpy Monkey is the story of a monkey who wakes up grumpy. Despite everyone not believing he can be so grumpy on a beautiful day, him denying that he’s grumpy, and getting angry at people telling him HE’S grumpy, is such a goddamn mood. Nothing pisses me off more than people telling me my mood. You don’t know me. Fuck off. Anyways, this also felt like a mental health book for kids, letting them know it's ok to NOT feel ok. As long as someone is willing to listen and not wanting to fix your grumpiness.

121. Dia de los Muertos. 4/5 stars. A children’s informational book about the Day of the Dead. Short, simple, great education.

123. Wild Cherry. 4/5 stars. Wild Cherry is a poetry book I’ve been totting around for 2 months but have had no energy to pick it up. I’ve been very depressed that I haven’t had time to read, and despite me falling asleep right now, I forced myself to read it. It felt very repetitive after a while with her constant calling back to long lost love, death, and April, but I appreciated the 1923 themes that were NO doubt soo popular.

124. Through the Woods: 5/5 stars. A horror comic book that reminds me a lot of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” I lent it to my co-worker since he loves these types of stories!

125. Dancing with Mr. Darcy: 1/5 stars. I read the first story which was Jane Austen crossing the River Styx and facing her judgement and then I tried to read the rest and it was all so fucking boring??? I put the book down and will not be continuing.

126. The Night Diary: 5/5 stars. So this was an audiobook I listened to during the week I had awful vertigo. I couldn’t go to work or university and I laid on the couch, glasses off, just listening to this story. If it hadn’t been read to me, I don’t think I would have loved it as much. It follows Nisha who is forced to leave after WWII when India is split into New India and Pakistan. All muslims are allowed to stay, but all Hindus must leave for New India because of territorial wars. It follows the dreadful path during the desert, the violence they faced, and the child’s innocence slowly being robbed from her. It’s all told through Nisha’s diary who pens it to her mother. The voice actor did a wonderful job.

127. We Contain Multitudes: 5/5 stars. Tiny twink nerd falls in love with Giant Jock football star. And then he falls in love with the nerd and they’re hormonal and coming out and angst with love. I understand why people are upset with the novel: the plot twist seems like a total cop out that the author placed and a 15 year old dating a 18 year old can get borderline statutoary rape. However, I absolutely loved this book. It was refreshing to have a “coming out” narrative that wasn’t focused on coming out, but rather these two boys falling in love through letters, reading the cringe of HS romances, and desperately following these boys through it all. It’s definitely a favorite I read this year!

128. Lovely War: 4/5 stars. This is the third book I read while going through vertigo, and my second audiobook. It’s set during WWI, following two love narratives but told through the perspectives of the Greek God. It was really refreshing, the voice acting was excellent, and I really enjoyed listening while dizzy constantly. I would have given in a 5 star rating, but near the end, Hazel’s pixie-manic girl stereotype was getting out of hand and her hypocrisy was really fucking annoying. However, up until that point, I really enjoyed it and recommended it to several friends!

129. The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge: 4.5/5 stars. I really struggled not giving this book five stars, but I thought some of the narration and story-telling could have done a tiny bit better. This was a great audiobook to listen to while I packed and finished projects before my plane ride to my first ever work conference. I was bummed out that I couldn’t listen to this audiobook on the plane because Libby requires wifi, but I really enjoyed the fantasy comedy of this book (even though fantasy tends to be a topic I don’t dare approach because it just through you into a world with no explanation). 10/10 would recommend to strangers on the street.

130. Aaron and Ahmed: 4/5 stars. I read this books during my great “aaaAH I’M GRADUATING TIME IS UNREAL” So these will be short. A story about after 9/11 and the brutality American soldiers went to gain answers, even if there were none.

131. The Tea Dragon Festival: 5/5 stars. Dragons? Tea? LGTB+? Who could ask for more??

132. Roadqueen: Eternal Roadtrip to Love: 5/5 stars. Lesbians calling out how trashy other lesbians treat girls who generally like them. “Fuck Boy” was used a lot and I loved this.

133. Skull-face Bookseller vol. 1: 5/5 stars. A skeleton tries to sell manga and explores the crazy customers who come in, the social mistakes foreigners make with Japanese booksellers, and Honda-san doing her best to survive in her job.

134-136. Beastars Vol 1-3: 5/5 stars. I saw a bit of the anime and realized there was a manga. I bought the two volumes I could and then the third one from amazon. I really enjoyed this series and look forward to reading it more!

137. I hear the Sunspot Vol 2: 5/5 stars. It’s nice to see the couple going on, even if its GUT-WRENCHING and stupid how they refuse to communicate!!!!! But it hits hard topics of the community for the hard of hearing and functioning in a world where signing is considered not important enough to teach.

138. Pink: 5/5 stars. A sex worker who spends all her money feeding her alligator and the trouble she gets into. Weird art style and at first I opened this book and didn’t buy it. 3 months later, decided to buy it and I adored it.

139: Restless: 4/5 stars. I don’t remember much about it, but I think it was cute. Maybe boyfriends find each other again?

140. How can one sell the air?: 5/5 stars. I’ve had this “calling” to start really reading native american stories and heritage. This is a controversial book with Suquamish people as they either see their leader finally giving up or instilling courage to stay firm even as the world does their best to destroy them. I really enjoyed reading his speech.

141. Skull-face Bookseller Vol. 2: 5/5 stars. Honda-san comes back again with her friends and exploring working in the shop with more crazy customers but also with her new found fame being a manga artist.

142. Gold Rush Women: 4/5 stars. A lot of white women with these narratives, which was disappointing since most of the Gold Rush Women were indegenious or came from other areas of the world rather than just Europe or East America. Wish there were more stories on the black, mexican, indegineous, or chinese women who were forced into slavery or abused or helped create the west.

143. No one is too small to make a difference: 5/5 stars. Greta Thornberg amazes me. Here we have a 15 year old with aspergers who is doing her best to inspire scientists, politicians, and anyone in the world to take charge of our climate change issues. It also amazes me how many people are threatened by a 15 year old and she’s forced to repeat herself in her speeches because people refuse to listen to what she has to say. She’s amazing.

144. Ookami he no Yomeiri: 3.5/5 stars A bunny and a wolf get married. What more can I say?

145. Monody: 3/5 stars: Monody is a strange poetry book. The lyrical writing leaves lacking in terms of uniqueness and deep thought, but aesthetically it is beautiful. Blue font paired with geographical maps of Reno, Nevada, the poetry book comes off more of an art piece.

146. Usagi no Mori: 3/5 stars. Uhmmm. Don’t remember…

#2019 books #2019 book reviews #2019 book list #book reviews

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quilloftheclouds · 6 years ago

Text

11/11/11 (... x7???)

You guys really love this tag game, huh? XD Tagged by @madammuffins, @bigmoodword, @shadeshadow234, @writeouswriter, @bookenders, @kaisha-writes, and @penzag.

Rules: Answer 11 (77 in this case??) questions, tag 11 people, write 11 new questions.

Taggin’ taggin’ @scottishhellhound @i-rove-rock-n-roll @capricious-writes @writerlyclaire @bookenders @kidsarentallwrite @inexorableblob @vieliwrites @abalonetea @runningonrain @candy687

Oof. It’s my own fault for letting these gather dust for so long. QUICKFIRE QUESTION ROUND. (And super duper long post below the cut.)

Okay first up I’m gonna post up my 11 questions for tagged people to complete up here so y’all don’t have to scroll all the way through my nonsense:

1. Put yourself in your wip(s). Are you dead? Why or why not? 2. What is your favourite kind of scene to write? 3. What genre is your favourite to write in? 4. What genre do you want to/wish you could write in? 5. Which of your ocs outfits would you consider wearing yourself? 6. What’s the worst thing you’ve done to your ocs (out of context if spoilers)? 7. What’s the nicest thing you’ve done to your ocs? 8. Does your writing style have any characteristic traits? What are they? 9. What are three things you think you’re good at in writing? (NO SKIPPING OF THIS QUESTION ALLOWED) 10. Do you listen to music/white noise while writing? What kind? 11. Come up with joke titles for your wips. What are they?

And now let’s get started!

Do you title your chapters, why/why not? Do they pertain to what happens in the chapter or are they random? I do! I may actually post them all up at some point, I had a lot of fun coming up with them, and I find them clever? A lot of them are puns, it’s great. All except the first and last chapter are titled with one word, related to the ocean or ships, alluding and symbolizing something that happens in that chapter. I made it a sort of word search, too, since every chapter title appears somewhere important in that chapter! As for why? I think it adds to the reading experience, especially with the way I employ them!

Do your main characters seem to have common traits or characteristics? Uhhhh, uh? Huh. Lemme see. I tried to be pretty creative and use a lot of variance in my characters, but sometimes they just... end up that way, whether I want them to or not. Dione and Phoenix are both tall? Both Phoenix and Colin can be pretty friendly and have the same sort of attitude towards certain things. Other than that, I’m not sure!

Why do you think this is? Honestly, it’s likely more coincidence than anything. Also because Phoenix and Colin both work on a ship’s crew, and they have to work well with other people because of that.

Do you borrow real life people or parts of real life people to insert into your novels? Why/why not? Yes. From me especially. Probably subconsciously from other people. It happens! But also, relatability. Accuracy.

Do you stick to a word count in your novels/chapters? Why? Used to, don’t now. It can really add to the tension if a chapter is very short. It can hold the reader in suspense if it’s very long!

What do you want your book to say to those who read it? What do you think your book says about you? Uh. I mean. I’m a simple writer who just likes sharing my worlds with the world, yunno? Maybe when I get further into writing it, I’ll realize what. (But I hope it shows I’m an interesting person that cares about representation and sharing exciting stories??? Mebe?)

If your WIP gets published and goes far would you sign over your rights for a movie adaptation, even if it means it gets butchered like the Eragon (or similar) series did? Ohhh gosh. Yeah no. I’d wait until I was sure it wouldn’t be. I’m not in this for the money or fame, I’m here for the enjoyment of it and the helping others through sharing stories with people they can relate to. Especially those that don’t have much to relate to already.

What is your favorite kind of character chemistry to write? Sexual tension, anger, resentment, jealousy? What about it do you like so much? I really like softness. Someone trying to cheer someone up, nice caring-ness and encouragement through humour and inside jokes. Gives me warm feelings. Oh. That sounds a lot like Colin.

Which settings are your favorites? Chill cafe, Gorey battle field? Why? I like natureeee. A lot. IRL and in writing. I especially enjoy fascinating, eccentric and magical seeming places even if they’re not magical! Think the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, or the Ice Caves of Baffin Island. That sort of thing.

What element represents your main character and why? HAH SPOILERS. Elements play a major part of OSS, my friend. How about I just put the elements, and you decide who’s who. Earth, Fire, Storm, Forest.

If you could pick an AU for your WIP (alternate universe) for a fan work, what au would you choose and why would you choose it? AKJHKDJSH I’VE ALREADY PLANNED OUT MY OWN AUs, MY FRIEND. My fave at the moment is magical modern spies. Because a lot of my characters are immortal and I love to imagine what they would be like in modern times! ...Oh wait, that’s not what au means. -u-

1. Who was your first OC? Of One Siren’s Soul’s cast, Celestine! Overall, that I can remember... a German scientist/mechanical engineer named Suin Omera. Ah, so many memories. 2. What was the first story you ever wrote? That I can remember... a little short story for school about a girl who lost her dad and discovered he had been secretly living in the arctic for a long time so she goes to try and find him? I don’t remember much about it. ^^’ 3. What book (or other piece of media) has most inspired you? AH. Most??? Literally the unpublished books of my two closest friends. @waterfallwritings, I’m looking at you. >u> 4. How do you fight writer’s block? Badly. 5. What is your favorite genre to write in and why? Fantasy and sci-fi! Or a mix. You can find a more full answer here. 6. How would you describe your writing style? Uhhhh, I have a very action-y writing style? Unless the sort of mood requires, I don’t tend to use a lot of description and I more often focus on action and dialogue and character thoughts/narrative. It’s fitting to what I write, I suppose, because it’s an action packed pirate adventure, with a lot of focus on character. 7. In general, do you think you’d get along with your protagonists? Phoenix and Colin are nice. Dione maybe after a long while, since we both like literature and plants. Celestine... no one ever gets along with Celestine. 8. What do you love most about your WIPs? Oh. I uh. Wow. I only have one right now, but I like characters and their interactions and their thoughts on each other. But mostly I just love how far I’ve come already. That the wip even exists. ^^’ 9. What is your favorite character trope? Ah. Not good with tropes... I reblogged something on this a while ago, but that scene where someone spends forever taking out a comically massive amount of weapons from unexpected places on their person? That’s fun. 10. What is your least favorite character trope? Mmmm hmm. Hm. Mostly ones that discriminate or are based on negative stereotypes. Some of them can be done well, but not... many. 11. What’s an upcoming scene you’re excited to write? Someone’s gettin’ STABBED.

What was your first character like? See in an earlier question ^^^

What’s your most recent character like? Oh, this is neat. Who’s my most recent character? Uhhhh, um. I think it’s actually... I don’t have a name for them yet, but it’s a young siren that appears in book two that helps our main cast on their adventure!

Out of all of your characters, who’s the least human in appearance? Hehe. HEH. Oohhhh, this would definitely be Light. You don’t know who that is yet.

Who’s your worst character, and what would you do upon meeting them? Worst? The Scientist. Punch to the face.

If you could meet any of your characters, who would you choose? Uh. It’d be really cool to meet Forest! You don’t know who that is yet, either. ^^

Two of your characters from different WIPs meet! How do they get along? I don’t currently have another wip, but from my prospective wip at the moment, meeting... Celestine. Surprisingly it wouldn’t be the worst, because both would just start nerding out about each other’s technology.

Which out of your OCs just wants to live life out peacefully? George is so done with this trash.

Which one of your OCs is most definitely not living their life out peacefully? I want to say George again for the jokes, but the worst off at the moment is probably Dione. Sorry, Dione!

Is there any songs that make you think specifically of any of your characters? Ohhhh yeah. I’ll likely be making a full post for that at some point, and that’s also on each characters part of the wip page, but to save time, have this.

Which one of your OCs actually had a pretty good childhood? Dione had a relatively normal childhood, for the pretty-near equivalent of a princess. That is, of course, until she turned 24.

Who would have a fistfight with god out of spite? This actually happens. This ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN MY WIP. It’s Celestine.

1. What’s the weirdest thing you were ever inspired by for one of your WIPs?

Hmmmm, I mean tardigrades are pretty weird, right? Also awesome. They’re one of the most resilient known animals, able to survive both some of the highest AND the lowest temperatures known to have ever been survived by an organism? Awesome.

2. Do any of your OCs have famous face claims? If so, who are they?

Colin’s face claim is Booboo Stewart! He’s pretty famous?

3. What’s your favourite season and why?

Autumn. Pretty colours, perfect temperatures with a small jacket/sweater, and you get to experience the whole range of seasons from early Fall to late!

4. Do you have any superstitions?

Despite being a very logically, scientifically minded person... I am a Maritimer, and superstitions are huge. Never ever say before you go fishing that you’re definitely going to catch something. You’ll be skunked.

5. Rural, suburbs, city, in which do you live and which do you most often write about?

I guess I most write about rural, since... wait, what does the open ocean count as?? Anyways, I live in the suburbs.

6. What’s your favourite book series?

I dunno ‘bout favourites, but I like The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.

7. Is there a book/series that ever left you intensely disappointed? (Or one that left you pleasantly surprised?)

Uh... I mean, The Hunger Games was actually really good, but I was disappointed by the public’s focus on the love triangle?

8. What’s one of the weirdest/funniest out of context lines from your WIPs?

“Don’t tell me the boatswain has got ‘imself into the rum store again.”

9. A movie/show that made you cry? (Unless you’re dead inside)

AHHAH I AM DEAD INSIDE AND TRULY A FICTIONAL SOCIOPATH. But, I think Simon Birch is one I can recall getting misty eyed from.

10. What movies or books or shows do you think are criminally underrated?

Uuhhhhhh Treasure Planet is one? I’m not good at this one. OH. You wanna know some shows I loved way too much from my childhood? Hot Wheels: Battle Force Five, and Storm Hawks. I was a terrible nerd.

11. Which fictional character would you like to steal borrow from any world for a crossover with your own WIP?

Ehheee, honestly, I could work with anything, pretty much. But the magic system colliding with the Avatar from The Last Airbender? Ehehehe, that would be hilarious.

Do you own and fun socks? What are they? My best friend love fun socks, and for my birthday she got me some: I have two pairs, a black pair with colourful gardening tools on them, and one with little labelled garden herbs on them. They’re adorable and I love them. ^u^

How many notebooks do you have? What do they look like? How full are they? HAH. SO MANY. Most are sketchbooks, but out of notebooks, I have... three? One’s for schoolwork, one’s full of old writing, and one is for OSS notes.

Grab the book nearest you. Turn to page 70 (or 16 if it’s a tiny book). What is the 8th line on that page? How do you feel about it? Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson: I haven’t actually had the opportunity to start reading it yet, but here: “She’d never seen him at work, never experienced him as the type of person who could tend to another’s needs.” Considering I have no idea what’s going on... I have no idea?

Have you read any short stories? What’s your favorite? I’m not much of a short story reader, but there was a really cool one from a sci-fi compilation (that I can’t remember the name of). It was about time travelling and how it had already been invented, but because no one could ever go back in time, they could only go forward, no one had realized. It was kind of sad, now that I think of it, since the MCs ended up trying to travel back to their time when warned against it and they end up alone in the far future. Whoops.

Have you ever tried knitting? Do you still knit? What about other crafty things? What do you make? I tried it when I was back at home, but at the moment I don’t have the materials! As for crafts, I’m trying to get into bookbinding, card making... other sort of paper crafts. ^^

Of the books in your living space right now, which has the coolest cover? I’m sad now because I basically have no physical books here... aw. Um, The Cloud Collector’s Handbook by Gavin Pretor-Pinney is really pretty. Pastels and colourful skies and clouds are my favourite~

Do you know any camp songs? What did you used to sing in school, or at recess? Oh stars. I’m a Cub Scout Leader, my friend. OF COURSE I know camp songs. What did I used to sing in school? What’s the one with the “That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh/I like it, uh huh, uh huh” with the special clapping? That one. What’s that?

What’s your favorite fairy tale? How would you twist it? Well technically OSS includes some twists from The Little Mermaid, so does that count?

Are there any cool local events where you live? Ah, well daily we have the highest tides in the world. That’s pretty cool, huh?

What’s your favorite sea creature? Sea snakes. They’re deadly and pretty.

Do you like turtles? Why? Yes! YES! Turtles are adorable. Don’t put your finger near a Snapping Turtle’s mouth though.

1. If you could meet one author for lunch, who would it be?

Ooh, I’m bad about this. Say time travelling is an option: Roald Dahl. That would be amazing.

2. What are your thoughts on visual stories? (apps like Choices: Stories You Play, Episode, etc.)

Ah, I don’t really have much experience with them at all, so I can’t really say anything!

3. What was the first book to make you cry?

Have I ever cried at a book? Uhhhh... I may not have. Whoops.

4. Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

I mean, subconsciously probably? But I don’t typically think about other people when creating characters.

5. Name the worst book you’ve ever read, and tell me why it was bad.

Iiiii did not like Divergent. Sorry, that’s just a personal opinion. I guess it was too... dependent on a system that didn’t really make sense to me? I dunno, mate.

6. Do you have a trademark writing ‘quirk’?

I like short sentences in action-y scenes. Maybe that? I also really like using way too many em dashes and double line breaks to emphasize something.

7. Do you have any (un)helpful pets? (I couldn’t resist asking this one. Also, if the answer is yes, please send me photos.)

I don’t have any pets! I have planties though. Cute lil’ succulents.

8. What advice would you give to a person who is new to writing?

There are going to be times when you’re not happy with your writing! But any writing is helpful, because no matter what you write, you’re improving your skills to be better the next time. Plus, a first draft can be edited later! You can’t edit what’s not there~

9. Tell me your ideal writing environment.

My family partly owns a lake cabin out in the woods which we go to every summer. It’s so peaceful to sit in the hammock chair on the porch and write to the gentle lapping waves on the beach, the birdsong, and the swish of the tree branches around me. On a day with a perfect not-too-hot warm temperature, it’s very nice.

10. Sad endings: realistic, or unnecessary?

It depends how it’s executed! I prefer bittersweet ending to sad ones, since those tend to give me the most effective emotions. Certainly I tend to seek out happier endings instead, though!

11. You’ve decided to write under a pseudonym. What is it?

Ooh. Oohhhh, well. I’m actually thinking of changing my name legally. So that’s a thing. For a pseudonym, I think I would love to go with... hm. Gale Silver. Because I love puns and that hits on two major nature aspects I’m a nerd for.

what’s your favorite movie from your childhood? has this movie had an impact on your writing at all? have any movies had an impact on your writing? Hands down How To Train Your Dragon. I am a nerd who loves dragons and the music and scenery is gorgeous. Also just... so many of its themes snuck into my wip and I didn’t even realize until just recently. Whoops.

do you struggle to write for any ocs? why? are any of your ocs really easy to write for? Io is a little hard for me to write sometimes just because she’s so darn cold. Just. Apathetic towards everything, and super formal, yet at the same time very curt and to the point. I’m used to writing either a “formal” through super flowery language or a “cold” through Celestine’s mean snark, not just... Io.

do you have any big milestones coming up for your wip? (or blog? or work? or whatever?) I’M LESS THAN 2,000 WORDS AWAY FROM 50,000 IN MY FIRST DRAFT. YEAH MATE

what are your favorite writing resources for face claims, picking first names/surnames, etc? (feel free to just pick one resource to share but you’re welcome to share as many as you’d like!) Oh! I’m still pretty new to finding face claims and what not, but naming wise Wikipedia can cover all your bases sometimes. As I’m writing a historical fantasy, to find names that fit the time period, I’ll sometimes use this site.

if your ocs had a name for their group of friends, what would it be? (for example, most of y’all have noticed by now that the friend group for b’tzelem elohim is nicknamed “shalomies”) Okay but I still have such a love for that name. XD I call my group simply The Crew! Since, you know. They’re in a pirate crew by the end of the book. (My creativity knows no bounds.)

on a similar note, would they have a groupchat? (if your world doesn’t have technology, pretend it does!) Modern times, yeah prolly. Dione and Celestine would just have it muted except for emergencies, and Phoenix and Colin would just constantly be sharing memes and terrible puns.

how many languages can you speak, if any? how many can your characters speak, if any? I speak English and (Acadian) French! Trying to learn ASL at the moment. As for my characters? Hoo, boy. Without spoilers, Celestine is multilingual with four languages, Colin is almost trilingual, Dione is trilingual, and Phoenix... I think Phoenix can only speak English. Yeah that may seem like overkill, but in context it makes sense. ^^’

how much time do you spend planning/researching before starting your wip? Fun story about that! For one of my first serious wips, Soul Tied, I first came up with the ideas perhaps... six years ago? And I have yet to write a single thing. ^^’ For OSS, the story took maybe a month to completely plan out and outline, though I still do a lot of research and planning ahead as I write the first draft, too!

do you have a preferred area to write? (ie your bedroom, the coffee shop, the library, your kitchen, etc.) My desk in my bedroom!

what’s your favorite writing snack or drink? Ohh, I don’t eat while I write ‘cause I’m actually incapable of focusing on something while I eat, but I normally really like having apple spice tea or some other kind of herbal tea!

lastly, what should you be doing right now instead of this tag game? (ps: stop procrastinating even though, as i type this, i’m currently procrastinating) HAH. STUDYING FOR MY CHEMISTRY MIDTERM. IT’S FINE. NO.

Well that was long!

#oof #this is why you shouldn't procrastinate so much Quill #will i ever learn my lesson?#no #it was fun tho #oss #one siren's soul #tag game #writeblr #11 questions #11 questions tag game

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dappercritter · 6 years ago

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You have been granted the oppurtunity to recast your favorite animated movie! The only catch is that each of the characters in said movie are animated characters from different shows/movies (X from show/movie is Bob, X from show/movie is Larry, ect.)

Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boi. You have no idea what you’ve just unleashed, my friend!

Once long ago, before the Cringe Ages, I loved recasting my favourite and sometimes least favourite movies with characters from my favourite shows. But then I started taking storytelling more seriously and sentimentally and… art-y, and I started acting as if I was above the stuff somehow. To this day, I still don’t know whether to blame the masses or my own hubris.

But now! Now, the floodgates of my childish, innocent mind are open once more! And I have just the idea: The Nightmare Before Christmas but with Villainous and Batman* characters! (With a few CN villains on the side.) So, I guess you could call it…

The Villainous Nightmare Before Batman!

(No, wait. Uhhhhh…)

The Dark Knight Before Villainous!

Ok, yeah, that should do.

Now you’re probably asking yourself, “Dapper Critter, what are you doing this? Sure, Batman meets Villainous could work, but why are you bringing The Nightmare Before Christmas into this? It’s not even Halloween or Christmas! What are you thinking?!” Well, first of all, Christmas and Halloween aren’t just holidays, they’re states-of-mind. Second, I think it’s time you guys learned something important: I’m a big ol’ lowkey goth baby, baby! If it’s spooky or gothic, I’ll soak it up like a sponge in sink full of soapy water. And nothing says gothic like the hero of a city literally called “Gotham,” a show with a grotesque monster hiding behind the guise of a well-dressed man, and the classic story of Jack Skellington himself! What’s more, all three of these hold a special place in my heart, as they all played a huge part in helping me develop and realize my interest in gothic culture. Lastly, I can see the worlds of these three stories coming together quite easily. Behold, this plot pitch I just made!

“Another Halloween has come and gone in CN City, and another cheerful Christmas is on its way. Black Hat, unofficial master of all that is dark and evil, is thoroughly disgusted that the multiverse will soon be returning to it’s obnoxiously cheerful and wholesome state. He morosely tears a hole through time and space to talk a walk through reality, miserable that he’s stuck living in such a wonderful place. That is until he stumbles upon the city of Gotham, where no matter what time of year it is, the streets are filled with misery and malicious mayhem. Delighted, he sets out to celebrate Christmas his own way: by taking a certain caped-crusader out of the picture and making Gotham his very own holiday vacation home! Little does he know, there’s one special girl who thinks he can celebrate right where he is, as well as a certain clown who’s got his own sinister Christmas party in mind…”

So now that I’ve convinced you, I think it’s time we got down to the actual recasting! Let’s begin, my darling children of the Hot Topic night…

Black Hat as Jack Skellington: This couldn’t have been easier—they’re both creepy gentlemen with excellent taste in fashion. Yes, I know Black Hat is a lot less nice than our dear Pumpkin King, but let’s just say this story takes the odd liberty here and there. Not to mention, Black Hat could easily match Jack’s enthusiasm, intelligence, style, and obsessive inquisitions. Plus, he could totally pull off an evil Santa suit. (Though to be honest, I’m not sure if his snarling, slimy, cockney-accented voice could match Danny Elfman’s melodious singing.)

Demencia as Sally: A devoted, mildly ghoulish, and totally cute fangirl who’s always pining after their darling idol, and who may or may not have been made in a lab? It’s like this fancast is writing itself! Demencia might be a bit more proactive—and scary—in the plot, but I can see her a lot Sally’s dilemma in her as she tries to get Black Hat to notice her and not to abandon them in pursuit of a crazy dream. (Well, that I’m filthy Lizardhat trash.)

Dr. Flug as Dr. Finklestein: Flug, being the only mad scientist who’s employed by Black Hat, as well as the only to survive this, seems like a good pick. Sure, he’s not in a wheelchair and, no, he’s not as creepy as the bugger, but he could still work as our horrid hero’s right-hand man. Plus, since a big part of his canon character is putting up with Demencia’s BS (tell my family that means “baloney-sandwich”), he’d also do great as the one trying to keep the free-spirited love interest under control. Only here, it would be because he’s trying to keep Dem out of trouble so she doesn’t make his boss mad and try to kill him, as opposed to… whatever Finklestein’s problem is. And of course, he can still be menacing if need be. (Just watch the Lost Cases of Townsville and The Tree House…)

5.0.5. as Zero: A cute animal sidekick is a cute animal sidekick, I always say! And 5.0.5. was basically designed to be the ultimate cutesy animal sidekick. Therefore, he can be basically do anything Zero did. Try to cheer up Black Hat? Check. Pull Black Hate’s sleigh? Why couldn’t he? Yeah, he can’t be a flying ghost dog with a glowing nose, but I could just throw bedsheet on him (it was just after Halloween after all) and maybe say he swallowed that anti-gravity device.

Batman as Santa Claus: For Santa Clause, I needed someone who could be the absolute good guy in a world filled with bad guys and weirdos, much like Santa was in the movie. Likewise, since Jack kidnapped Santa to take over Christmas, Black Hat would need to kidnap the guy in charge of Gotham in order to take it for himself. So, of course he’s going to go after it’s #1 protector. I can also see Batman being the voice of reason in this madcap story. Not to mention that he could pull off a Santa suit even better than Black Hat! (In fact…)

The Joker as Oogie Boogie: This one I had some trouble with. I kept asking myself stuff like, “who would be brave enough to usurp Black Hat?,” “who could match Oogie’s siz—er, presence?” or “who would want to kidnap Santa Claus?,” and “Who would be into gambling and crazy funhouse stuff?” And then it came to me: The Joker. I mean, he’s got charisma, a sense of menace, he’s a cutthroat who loves to play with his enemies, and almost always has a big ol’ amusement park deathtrap on hand. Sure, he wouldn’t have the creepy demise like Oogie, but he could get a good beating and traumatizing from Black Hat and/or Demencia (who’d really hate being a damsel in distress, I imagine).

The Delightful Children from Down the Lane as Lock, Shock, and Barrel: At first, I thought of using other Batman villains or Shannon, Darrell, and Ernesto from OK K.O.!, but then I thought it would make more sense to have child villains from a CN show who could do bad things for slime-balls like Black Hat and Joker with pleasure. I instantly thought of these scheming, little monsters from Codename: Kids Next Door (an old favourite of mine). Although they’re usually talk and act in unison, they could have some comical bickering now and then. (After all, “Lenny is an idiot.”) Likewise, I can see Black Hat using Batman’s affinity for young people to get him while his guard’s down. They could make for great trick r’ treaters as well!

Lord Boxman as The Mayor: The mayor wasn’t a very important character, but he was definitely a memorable one, and the first character I thought of who could match his dual personality was Lord Boxman from OK K.O.! They both act like leaders but are really terrible at their jobs, suck up to better villains, and throw a whimpering tantrum like nobody else. (Also, I get to imagine Jim Cummings singing lines from The Nightmare Before Christmas songs, so that’s nice.)

Various CN Villains as The Citizens of Halloween Town: Like with The Mayor and the Trick R’ Treaters, I like to think that the various CN villains who cameoed in the Villainous Orientation series would show up as the denizens of the seedier side of CN City which—as you probably guessed—would be standing in for Halloween Town. Unfortunately, I do not have an encylcopediac knowledge of either Halloween Town residents, nor CN villains, so I’ll just list the ones I can remember and am the most proud of without offering any real justification.

Nohyas as Mr. Hyde: I couldn’t think of anyone besides Black Hat with a fancy hat or smaller versions of himself. Nohyas just so happens to have a suitable villain’s hat, and Handre (his hand puppet) could work in place of tiny clones living under his hats. (And yes, I like Mighty Magiswords. Deal with it.)

Zombozo as Clown with the Tear-Away Face: I don’t believe all creepy clowns look the same, but a ghoulish clown could easily stand in for another. Plus, I used to be a big Ben 10 fan, so I thought I ought to work something in.

Donny as Behemoth: This grass ogre from Adventure Time was more of an outright jerk than Behemoth, but he has a softer side so that would make him a great candidate for a resident gentle giant.

Loony Toons’ Dracula, Billy and Mandy’s Dracula, and Count Spankula as The Vampire Brothers: Do I really need to explain this one?

The Red Guy as Devil: I sure don’t need to elaborate on this one.

The Gangreen Gang as the Zombie Band: The Gangreens were basically based off edgy bands of the late 90’s, and thanks to Gorillaz, we know Ace can play the bass like a boss. Also, I can totally hear Ace saying, “Nice work, bone-daddy.”

Earl (AKA Dopey Black Hat) as Igor: Earl doesn’t get enough to do, inside or outside of Villainous canon.

The Beast as The Hanging Tree: Yeah, I know, I’m messed-up.

HIM as Harlequin Demon: Seriously, this one cast itself!

The Queen of the Black Puddle as Undersea Gal: I don’t watch Courage the Cowardly Dog much, but I remember seeing this villainess once before and I instantly thought she’d be a dead-ringer!

Morbidia and Gateaux as The Witches: Another natural casting derived from my soft spot for Mighty Magiswords. Although Gateaux is a male and a tall one at that, he’s perfect for being a huge suck-up. (I originally considered Miss Endive from Chowder and Duchess from Fosters’ Home for Imaginary Friends, but then I remembered that no matter what they dressed-up as, they’d be unlikeable.)

Monstrous Black Hat as The Monster Under the Bed: Like Earl and the other Black Hat clones, he doesn’t get enough love. (Though this may be a good thing, since he seems too nasty to receive or return it…)

Rob as The Melting Man: There aren’t a lot of CN villains who are melting, per se, but I figured this poor bad guy from Amazing World of Gumball and his unique media-mixed malformity could work.

Biowolf as The Wolfman: Because they’re both well designed wolfmen and I refuse to forget Generator Rex.

The Robins, Batgirl, and Alfred as the Elves: If Batman’s going to be Santa, then his support staff/family might as well be his helpers. Not to mention, they’d look great in cute little elf outfits happily working on Batman’s gadgets in preparation for the big Christmas crime wave.

The Justice League as The Army: Someone needs to show up to shoot-down Black Hat and his idea of Christmas at the end, and since he’s kidnapped Batman, I think it only makes sense that the Justice League would retaliate and come to clean up Black Hat’s mess. He’d also get a reminder that he isn’t just in Gotham City, he’s in the DC universe.

Unikitty as The Easter Bunny: I have my reasons. Them being, Unikitty is good at being sweet and innocent, the episode “Batkitty,” and her world is one of the few Black Hat has interacted with so far. I like to think that’s because he’s too repulsed by her cuteness to touch it. So imagine his reaction when the Delightful Children bring him to her by accident while she’s cosplaying as LEGO Batman or something.

And there you have it! I had a lot of fun making this recast. It was a great way to step out of my comfort zone and to have some fun. Not to mention, I had an excuse to listen to the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack early. I sincerely hope you like it as much as I do, @good-guy-is-alive!

Now I just need to make sure Black Hat himself doesn’t see this, or else he might find me and—

Oh no.

No, please, Mister Black Hat, sir, you don’t understand. I just was doing this for fun. I wasn’t trying to make you look—

OH NO.

NO!

NOOOOOOOOOOjglkajgflkjdshGH;LJF’W abfklghlfuGFARGTADS!!!#%RQ#@!

…

*Since DC changes their Batman shows like people change their socks, we’ll just say that this is your standard DCAU/Bruce Timmverse Batman.

#goodguy #goodguyisalive #critter asks #critter answers #the nightmare before christmas #villainous #batman #dc comics #cartoon network #self-indulgence #recast #fancast

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