#i think about rereading and even rewatching and just...lose all hope for it

[sokuly419]

I don’t typically make posts like this myself, but maybe some others would like to hear it. This is something of a stream of thought so sorry if it seems choppy and whatever.

I’m not going to sugar coat it. This election was absolutely awful. I know we’re all fucking terrified. We’re all grieving. Famous show hosts to politicians on both sides of the aisle are in tears with us.

I bawled before they called it. I cried once Trump broke 100 electoral votes well before Harris. I knew it was over by time I went to bed. My best friend tried to talk me out of it, telling me it wasn’t over until it was. I absolutely bawled when I saw 210. My wife held me while I just sobbed in a way I haven’t in a very long time.

I am terrified. And heartbroken. And pissed.

Now… we have to live. Trust me, I’m having those thoughts too. Many of us are. But the biggest middle finger you can give to them is to stay alive. They want us dead. We know that. Don’t make it easy for them. Don’t make any of this easy for them.

Take your time to cry, scream, lose control for a moment. But don’t kill yourself. You will have a place in fighting back that no one else can take. You don’t have to be on the frontlines. Just simply staying alive is fighting back and if that’s all you can give, we’ll take it.

Listen to your favorite song one more time. And maybe again after that. And again. Rewatch your favorite show or movie. Do it a few times so you don’t forget your favorite scenes or lines. Read your favorite book or fanfic. Escape for a bit. Make your favorite comfort food.

Are you looking forward to a new show? A new season of a show you like? A new movie maybe? Is one of your favorite musicians releasing new music soon? Do you have pets? They won’t understand and they’ll miss you.

I don’t care what you have to do to keep seeing the next day, just do it. I know it’s hard. I really, really do. I’ve been there. I’ve tried more than once. I still have those thoughts. And those thoughts got bad again with the outcome of the election. We’ve already lost so many people because of it, there’s no denying it.

I hope this can reach at least one person who needs it. If this can save even one person from taking their life, I’ll take it.

Right now, I’m looking forward to season 2 of Arcane. I rewatched season 1. A She-Ra rewatch is in my sights too. I’ve been listening to new (to me) music. If you have Spotify, the daylist is a good way to get new music through the day. I have pets and they wouldn’t understand. I can’t do that to them. And it would devastate my wife. And my family. I have yet to reread a couple of my favorite fics.

Take it from someone who lost a best friend to suicide. The grief… it’s not something that can be explained. You will be missed. Your best friend will scream and cry and cuss out every deity there is. They will feel like they failed you in every way. I don’t wish that kind of grief on anyone. If I didn’t have the list of things I’m pushing through for, the experience I went through definitely would make me think long and hard about it.

Now is the time we organize and fight back. And we can’t do it without you. You’re fighting back by living, so live. And keep living. Stay as safe as you possibly can. I love you, stranger reading this. I see you. Let’s hold hands or hug or whatever and just breathe together for a minute. We’re alive. And we have to stay that way for as long as possible.

Don’t forget: the first Pride was a riot.

We got this. We’re going to do it terrified. But we’re gonna do it. We have to. We owe it to those before us.

[cloud-somersault]

Hey, how are you doing? I hope you’re alright. 💕 I’ve been reading your status updates on Constellations and the Epilogue, and I just wanted to let you know that I think you’re amazing. Your writing is incredible and I love it. Your stories are so well thought out and the characters are ✨on point✨, and the plot is complex and detailed and aaahhh! It has me hooked! 🤩

And I understand how it hurts when you put so much effort and love into a story, only to post it and not see others be anywhere near as excited or invested as you are. I know how discouraging it can be. And it may be a little silly, but I do want to apologize for not commenting lately—life took some difficult turns for me healthwise around the end of last year and I haven’t been able to catch up! I’m still on Chapter 4 of Constellations! 😭 BUT Chapter 5 is open on my phone, and I am READY to read it as soon as I have the time (and mental energy, but that’s a whole ‘nother issue 😩). Don’t worry that your writing isn’t enough, or be discouraged if some readers don’t catch hints while others are figuring it all out seemingly too easily. Everybody reads and comprehends stuff differently, and it’s not a sign that your writing is bad if they don’t catch it! Honestly, I’m pretty bad at catching hints the first time I read a story unless they’re pretty darn obvious. I don’t usually notice subtle hints until the second, or third, or even seventh read-through, haha! (on the bright side, rereading stories and rewatching TV shows is always fun!) 😅

I guess what I really wanted to say is… don’t give up hope. Don’t lose your love and enthusiasm for your works, or feel like they aren’t worth writing because others don’t seem interested in them. At the heart of it all… at the end of the day… write because you love to. Because it makes you happy. And know that it doesn’t have to be “perfect”—the main goal should be that you enjoy it. That’s something I’m trying to teach myself, too. 💕

Thank you for taking the time to write this message and send it. I appreciate you're very kind words 💕I'm doing okay, I just had to take a step back for a bit from socials and stuff. I'm gonna keep that up for a while.

Please don't apologize for not commenting or taking your time reading. Your health always comes first, and I'm sorry if I came off as childish or needy, that wasn't my intention. Two things just happened that set me off and the timing of it was incredibly poor 😓

Please take your time reading; none of it is going anywhere, and don't feel obligated to leave comments either. i'm realizing that, even if chapters are short or long, finding the time to finish things is difficult, and everyone lives different lives. And I'm sorry about all the spoilers on this blog, I'll tag that better from now on.

But I really do think I got confused or disjointed in my perceptions; everyone here knows so much because i've been asked questions and given answers and people have interacted, so people following me here have more context than the average ao3 user. But I've kinda been expecting everyone to be on the same page, which will never be true.

I'm also the same way where it takes me a while to pick up on hints. I actually changed my writing style to prevent this. I got tired of reading books in college where you had to dive into every little thing. the hints and clues weren't obvious to me. I decided then that, when I wrote, I wanted things to be bold, obvious, but beautiful. I didn't want to make readers feel like they're missing something. I wanted them to trust that every answer, every clue would be answered in time. I made that promise to myself a decade ago, and being reminded of how different people interpret things just...made me remember.

I take writing really seriously, probably too seriously, but I've been doing it for so long and I love doing it. I want to be good at it. When it feels like I've gone back on that promise to myself, I get frustrated. I think of ways I could've fixed things. But I also remember that those books and those writing styles just weren't for me. I wasn't the target audience.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I wanted to explain why I got upset. I still love Constellations and I'm posting it on ao3 out of convenience, really. It's easier to reference and search there in one "Entire Work" than to have 5 documents open. The fact that others can see and read and have fun is a bonus. But I'm committed to telling this story, and I'm gonna finish with a bang.

Thank you, I won't forget why I'm doing this and that my thoughts/feelings come first! 😤I hope your health concerns are taken care of soon. Take it easy, and thanks again! 💕

[alphaofdarkness]

Okay Dany, convince me to ship Kidge. What is the appeal of this ship? (genuinely asking because I've only watched season 1 and I'm curious)

⁉️👀⁉️

Not gonna lie anon, your question caught me off guard at 2am on a Sunday,, I was like 😳

“Oh shit someone's asking me?? About a ship?!” The intimidating question was so real and all I could do was literally go on a feral tirade on why I love Kidge so much and legit made no sense and just kept wondering in between moments of clarity on how I can properly defend myself on why I like the ship 😩 (not that I need to or have too, enough time has passed where I can say,,, just let me ship and be blissfully happy UwU, I do not car e anymore lol)

I will say that I want to keep this brief (as best I can, because heck I went feral just talking to myself on why I like the ship), I’m not the best at explaining things like some other amazing people might in the ship tag. But take what I say with a grain of salt and hope I don’t scare you off with whatever I do type.

**Note: This is not entirely brief liike how I wanted and I hate myself,, feck,,, I failed step one immediately**

Imma do bullet points, thoughts and prayers y'all cause I did my best to explain my chaotic thoughts lol ;;w;;

First and foremost! I definitely recommend that you watch the show in the general scope of a viewer and not just focusing on a ship. I think everyone should and would be aware of that~ but much like my initial watch I wasn’t paying much attention to the show and lore and story because I was distracted~. It wasn’t with Kidge at the time, but it definitely impeded my watch in the beginning as well as me falling off the fandom for a while into season 3-5. Plus, me rushing through those seasons when season 7 was coming around like, blood hell Alpha.

I think it goes without saying because the show is really good and love the found family aspect of it most importantly 👏🏼👏🏼 I am a sob and a fecking mess about this trope and I will forever cry over it.

I highly recommend watching the show in increments too instead of just binging it because you will lose information much faster 😭 and also it is just so fun to look forward to watch it the next day. I had so much fun this month just rewatching the show and am kind of depressed that it’s over lol 😔

Don’t cry because it’s over be happy for the journey (and all the fanfics you can reread again with full, understanding knowledge 😌)

Additionally, it is fun to reflect on the episodes re-watched, to better retain the info, at least for me, I can be slow with digesting new information (especially after so long), but it also made me giddy just talking to myself about the silly or serious shenanigans happening in the episode.

Second of all! I don’t want to convince you to ship Kidge 😩 I want you to convince yourself on why they would be good and cute together from your perspective! 👏🏼👏🏼

I personally think that they just work so well together, and while their initial interactions are short and brief, I love seeing them just standing next to each other or sharing panels during the fight sequences through much of the early seasons! I will say liike season 7 (even season 8) is like a holy grail for Kidge shippers because— 😩👏🏼 AH, took a while to get there, but we made it besties!!

Considering you’ve only seen season 1, I won’t dive into too many spoilers! To the best of my ability, I will say, I tended to focus on where the two stood by one another a lot and how they interacted in their lions and as Voltron and outside of it! ~

1. They both have family members/familial others on the trip to the Kerberos mission and just the whole concept of them looking for their respective familial figures.

Like that’s is the first part of the whole “WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL 😩” the way the two of them are shown to fight tooth and nail to save and go out of their way to figure out where their family members are is just 🤧✨ I truly believe if there was an opportunity to grow and develop them together it would have been over this.

I also find it incredibly fascinating that they are two of the most prominent characters that dive into their backstories in flashback sequences through the seasons ahead (we got a glimpse of Pidge's backstory in season 1 with a few more down the line). And how similar the two are in some of their experiences like school and being bullied and how their familial figures guide them (Shiro to Keith and Matt, and her father, to Pidge).

Hell, all of this could have been played as platonic all the way through or something more. Like I was there for it 👏🏼 I feel like this is a strong cemented stone on why I ship them a lot and keep me going on the potential their relationship could have been if they knew one another before the pilot episode. I just think it would have been cool, two conspiracy theorist bypassing the government to search for the truth!

2. They are literally the right and left arms of Voltron; the sword and shield ✨

I sincerely wish so much that again their relationship could have been developed more in the early seasons with this aspect, especially since we see how developed both Lance and Hunk are with each other (I mean they are literally best friends at the Garrison, I needed most of that with Kidge especially since they would be the opposite to them so it would have great to see them develop together as the arms of Voltron 🤧).

I just think it would have been nice to see it play out on how well they work together on the field and off it. I will say! It isn't all lost, especially into season 3 and like late season 6 and onwards! I say the dynamic of Shiro and Pidge in their lions and as Voltron currently is what kind of develops in Keith and Pidge later! I hope you can make sense of that later on as you keep watching 👀!

3. Other general things about their tropes and personalities just give me more fuel to ship them, such as:

Them both being introverted to heck in their respective ways; the techie nerd and the emo loner like,,, sillies!

I am always someone who loves looking at character color palettes and how they mesh well together; so believe me I lost my mind when Kidge shippers literally came up with Kidgemas cause of their red and green colors and I just *screams* 🌿🔥

I love both their personalities and how similar, yet different, they are to one another in that respect; they both have a drive and fire in them, their sarcasm and jibs to the others is so funny.

I'm not over season 1 episode,,, 2? Of the team training together and like,,, first of all, the two's small spat because Pidge couldn't concentrate during the mental exercise, but literally leaping to her defense when Allura threw food goo at her like,, Ah I just love her sarcasm to Allura then "The princess of what, your not ours--" and i just like go off queen, but also please no fighting 😩 y’all are going to be family ah,,, i love my dysfunctional family so much ya'll

Keith making a face at the action and immediately "Go loose, Pidge" LIKE AH! 👏🏼👏🏼😩😩

But they also have their calm moments of serene clarity and peace that is heighted with their interactions with the other characters as well!

I also noticed how they both tend to be the mature ones in some cases and some situations when around the other or a shared mature figure like Shiro; Keith by like a lot, clearly, but I was increasingly surprised by how Pidge maintained some serious temperament during missions, especially when around Hunk and most definitely around Lance lol (It is funny tho how serious and mildly annoyed she gets to his flirtatious ways, but can also immediately just let her guard down and have giddy fun with him when something catches her interest, it's so cute and hilarious 😌).

I also just love their development through the show of just letting their guard down around the others overtime! Especially with Keith and how his lone wolf personality melts away (believe me I lost my mind at how many sweet moments were between him and Hunk and IM just here crying at how Keith was able to smile and have fun around him 😭 💛❤️ got me all emotional i fecking criED). As well as Pidge with the others, especially after she told them about her true identity and how she wants to be able to work with them better without any secrets (On a side note, I wish there was more moments with Allura and Pidge earlier on ;;;o;;; SHE LEARNED ALTEAN FOR HER AND CORAN AND IM JUST,,, sweetie I love you! YOUR HONOR THEY ARE SISTERS! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼).

Ah shit, is that season 1 or 2? ;;w;; well, she learns it a nice fact! My girl is such a genius like how did she not like,,, move up grades in school, she is so intelligent , i could never. Not gonna lie, I feel like the team wouldn't be as successful with intel if they didn't have her and her tech wizard skills because DAMN.

Also how Keith was so up and arms when Pidge wanted to leave initially like!? Please ;;w;; sir has abandonment issues, please don't leave sweetie (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀); but also a similar scene occurs, very briefly, later on in reverse :) so take that as you will! It is very small, almost negligible if you aren't paying attention to it.

It is made better by a concluding panel that Kidge shippers just lose their minds over ! (Me, I am kidge shippers and I lost my mind over and over because they are just — *cries and sobs* perfecto!)

Very minor thing, but the height difference (in general im weak in the knees for this) always gets me crying, screaming, throwing up, going feral on the ground. My dearest Pidge, she may gain some legs later in life, but like she is definitely still tiny and I sob, give us short queens some representation because it is so hard out here, and we will kill you (not Allura bending down to her height in that episode she was planning to leave; how NOT to talk to a short person Allura lol 😩)

I think it goes without saying that the whole team, including Keith, are protective of Pidge like as they should be and I just *grins mischievously* can say with confidence that he do 😌

Definitely more of a personal headcanon, and there is a Kidge art of it floating around somewhere in the tag, if they actually had more moments and trained together, but I love Pidge being taught on how to defend herself, especially one on one and like her managing to take down Keith in training and he's just like "⁉️⁉️😳⁉️⁉️” God, I love a woman that can kick my ass trope *chokes*.

I am a sucker for hearing their voices and tone and emotions, so you know for damn well I am listening to them just say the others name in a soft or sarcastic tone lol (I love Steven Yeun's voice, my Glenn 😭, I am a mess for not appreciating Keith before in my initial watch of the show).

Ah, I can go on and off about them, especially about the later seasons but like you're just going to have to take a look of it yourself as you go into it 😌

Once again, I definitely recommend you watch the show for what it is in its storytelling and lore and character development; you can keep a close eyed view of Kidge in the background, but definitely rewind for the moments or stop and pause or rewind for the information given in story.

I hope you enjoyed my nonsense speak and take something away from it or ignore it altogether. I don't mind, I want you, overall, to convince yourself on why you would like to ship Kidge as you watch the show, if at all! We are all here for a fun and good time after the show's initial debut 😌🌿🔥

Have a small doodle of Kidge! My first time drawing them after like 4 1/2 years and I am just,,, yelling at my growth in art and how cute I made them look; mild spoiler, I suppose, of their older selves appearances~ Hope you like! 😌✌🏼

Enjoy your day anon!

[paperstorm]

The recent anon about fandom recovery after controversy made me want to ask something I’ve never been brave enough to but feel like you’ll give me an honest answer even if you don’t agree you’ll be respectful. Is it ok to like (love) Harry Potter? I know JK Rowling is problematic these days but those books, the films, the world she created meant (still mean) a lot to me but people say I shouldn’t be giving her money by buying merchandise and I shouldn’t like Harry Potter because she’s a terrible person etc. What do you think?

As for the Tarlos/Lonestar fandom I hope it will be ok. The majority of people I saw seem to be able to separate actors and characters so there is still a lot of TK love out there. As long as it doesn’t affect the acting and chemistry, and thus the characters we love then I think we’ll be ok. I don’t think it will (people have speculated they hate each other for years, or they’d lose the chemistry after Ronen got married and none of that has come to pass) so fingers crossed.

PS it would help if they went back soon. Has anyone been able to find out when they’ll start filming. I got hopeful when Ronen posted about getting in shape for S5 but that’s disappeared so I don’t know if they are still months away from going back. Natacha seems to be in the UK.

I am not any kind of authority on whether it's 'okay' to like anything honestly, I have my opinions but that doesn't mean I get to tell other people what they're allowed to like. Personally, as someone who grew up with Harry Potter and loved it to pieces and still has so much fondness for the story and the characters, I think that what matters in a boycott is not giving new money to the thing. The BDS movement as an example is very clear about like, if you already own an HP laptop (which I do), it doesn't make any sense to throw it out and buy a new one made by a different company. You already have it, you can't un-spend money on it. I think the principle holds for something like the Harry Potter franchise. I own the books, I own DVDs of all 8 movies. I have owned them for years, rereading them or rewatching them is not giving Joanne anything that she doesn't already have. That's very different from purchasing the new video games, and that, for me, is where I draw the line. I see no problem in continuing to love something that you already loved, my boundary is giving new money to it.

I do think it's important also to be able to recognize problematic content within media that you love. Again, I'm nobody's mother, I have no right to demand that everybody do this. But an important step that I take in my media consumption is looking with a critical eye at the things I'm consuming and recognizing where there are elements that are problematic that I need to be able to identify so that I don't let harmful ideas creep into my brain and make themselves at home without realizing it. Her portrayal of the goblins is incredibly antisemitic. Other problematic things exist like naming the Chinese character Cho Chang and having a 'race' of slaves that only one character seems to have an issue with. Harry Potter isn't the first medium to feature harmful tropes and it isn't the last either, and part of being an ethical consumer of any show/movie/book is putting in even a bit of work recognizing that and understanding that nobody is immune to propaganda. I still love Lone Star even though there is an element of copaganda to it. It doesn't mean you have to only consume content that is ethically pure - because that doesn't exist. It just means being willing to put in some work recognizing the harmful parts.

[sillyunicorn]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers 💫

thank you @mostlymaudlin for the tag <3 tagging @facewithoutheart @martsonmars @cutestkilla and @you-remind-me-of-the-babe

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

68! Which is…wild. Six of them are songs though.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

126,027 - dang!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Primarily the simon snow series and all for the game. I recently got into young royals so a few there as well, plus one each for a couple other shows I like.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Like rory my top 5 are all andreil! aftg has a large and voracious readership. Better than Sex (4k, T) / Eating Well (1k, T) / Needing/Getting (3k, T) / Friendly Neighborhood Vamp (.5k, T) / Soak up the Sun (.5k, T)

Rest under the cut!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Usually yes! Sometimes I go through spells of not replying…but I’m grateful for every single kudos and comment, it’s amazing and wonderful <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This is tough bc i love me a happy ending and i don’t really do angst anyway lmao. My joke answer is my crack andreil fic Monday, but maybe the real answer is my snowbaz fic+song Breakable bc I left off before things get fully resolved (but it is clearly hopeful imo).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

The happiEST?? Hmmm. I think my overall Happiest fic might be like, Mon Chou? And Better than Sex. both of those are just like, gooey with happiness. And both have happy endings so I’ll say one of them. Actually from a different approach I’ll say my time loop fic has the happiest ending bc it’s probably the angstiest thing I’ve written haha so the ending is such a relief. 

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have not!! Super grateful for everyone who leaves lovely warm positive comments on my work <3333 

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not on my own LOL. i do have some M/E fics in my works though thanks to some collabs (see Q13 lol) <3

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have not! I think about it sometimes….it’s just usually hard for me to imagine a world where all my blorbos live, even though I almost only write AUs…a mystery

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, which is wild!!! I think several of my Vandrew fics and BtS have been translated into russian. Thank you translators, you’re incredible. 

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes!! This was one of my most fun and treasured early fandom experiences with @facewithoutheart and @martsonmars <3 published results include The Chain (i was really just losing my mind in the doc while christina wrote tbh) and The Muse’s Waking which is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever (partially) written hahah

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Making me chooooooose ugh. Idk man i reread a snowbaz fic today and almost cried and they were my first fandom love so today i’m going to say them <3 

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I recently picked up a fic i abandoned 2 years ago so now i’m like well never say never! But one that’s in my “this is in the past now” pile that i was just thinking about is my andreil Alex Rider (TV) AU. i actually had an idea for how to get around the bit i was stuck on while rewatching Alex Rider the other day sooo…. But likely still abandoned

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think, somewhat incongruously, 1) writing concisely and 2) setting a mood. I think both these things are true in say Weightless (andreil, 1k, T).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

PLOT. plot is so hard. That’s too broad of an answer so i’ll say, keeping multiple storylines/arcs progressing at once. I don’t do it much. It’s a fun challenge though. I usually write little one-shot, single-conflict fics bc that comes easier for me. 

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Love it. Not fluent in any other language enough to really do it justice but i’d like to.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I think i wrote some hp and some jane austen fic before i ever got into Fandom Proper lol. First published fandom was for the Simon Snow Series <3

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I think the one i’ve gone back to the most is Weightless. I set it in one of my favorite IRL places and it has tender blood drinking so. How could I beat that, really?

[things-things-bd]

I’m rewatching and rereading bleach and I have a lot of thoughts about the tybw arc.

My thoughts about this arc can be summarised as: “Bleach is a tragedy that forgot it is a tragedy”

To explain, the story of bleach is built upon tragedy. The death of Masaki Kurosaki is the start of Ichigo’s journey. Everything since then, every relationship (with maybe a few exceptions ) ends in tragedy.

@littleeyesofpallas made post that listed some tragic relationships in bleach (link)

Even outside of relationships, every (major) action in the series results in tragedy too. These are the ones I can remember on the top of my head:

Rukia giving her powers to Ichigo leads to her execution

Aizen betrayal leaving the Soul Society in shambles

Orihime going to Hueco Mundo willingly leads to her being branded as a traitor

Ichigo trying to rescue Orihime leads to him dying and losing his humanity

Gin trying to take back what Aizen stole from Rangiku leads to his death. And he wasn’t even able to give her back that piece of her soul or keep his promise to never make her cry

In fact Gin’s actions made Aizen essentially immortal and almost undefeatable. Ichigo has to give up all his power and leave behind all his newfound friends and allies in order to seal Aizen away

This theming of tragedy even continues in the Lost Agent arc. I have my issues with this arc, but I think the way it handles Ichigo losing his powers is great. He’s depressed, desperately tries to regain them and ends up playing right into Ginjo’s hands

In the tybw things take a turn. Not everything ends in tragedy anymore. And the things that do, feel downplayed to an extent that it make me wonder if there was supposed to be any impact from those moments.

I’ll list a few things that should’ve changed or given more of an impact in my opinion:

Byakuya should’ve died.

It would’ve continued this cycle of tragic relationships in bleach. He finally built up a bond with Renji and Rukia and now he’s leaving them behind.

It also could’ve served as a good way to end Renji’s character arc if he was the one to defeat As Nodt

The death of the soul king should have more impact.

We are talking about Ywach killing his father here. Why does it feel so glossed over? Whether you think these characters are blood related or if it’s more metaphorical, it still should have more impact.

In line with that. What’s up with Ukitake’s death?

I have nothing against him dying, but it happened way too quickly and it feels like almost everyone forgets about it a few pages after it happens.

Especially Kyoraku should have more feelings about this. He just lost his father/mentor figure. He had to take on the burden of leading the entire gotei 13. Now he loses his best friend. And what? Nothing?

Ichigo should’ve become the new soul king

He already is basically. He has the powers for it. People already look up to him almost like a god. They already had it completely planned out until it suddenly isn’t necessary anymore? Where did that come from?

This list isn’t complete, but these are the main things that this arc got wrong. Bleach is a tragedy and ending it on a peaceful and hopeful note almost feels like a betrayal of the story itself. Give me that angst Kubo. Give me that agonising feeling of injustice in a way only a true tragedy could.

I guess having the ending completely contradict the story also gives me that agonising feeling a betrayal, but not in the good way.

I don’t really know how to end this. I’ve just been rambling about this. I probably could’ve made a better, more comprehensive post if I wanted to, but I’m tired. Also sorry if this is awkwardly formatted, I typed this on mobile

[dandylovesturtles]

14, 19, 41, 65

14. how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

I mean, I draw from the general sort of experience of being a person who has emotions (especially because I cry really easily lmao), but I think usually my focus is more on what I want a given character to feel for the story and how to best convey that to the audience. So idk if this is really a helpful answer but it's all vibes? I'm just going off vibes man idk lol

I usually don't really feel what they feel as I'm writing it... Usually I've turned it over in my brain too much by then and all the emotional juice has been sucked out of it. When I reread later though it might hit me harder.

19. What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

Pre-canon with 31 uses

WOW HOW INTERESTING LOL

the next one is Established Relationship with 25 uses and then Hurt/Comfort with 12 uses

41. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

Oh I reread fanfics all the time. I'm a repeat customer in everything lol. I watch movies over and over and I rewatch tv shows and I replay video games and I definitely reread fanfics.

65. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Well I'm really excited to get to the big climax for IMBI! I hope you all like it, even if... there's something everyone seems to want me to do that I'm probably not going to do lol. I hope everyone has fun with it anyway though!

And for future projects, I have some new chapter fics I want to write and some BTHB I'm excited to get to. I put the poll up so I'm going to work on Lost Voice From Screaming first, and I'm excited about my idea for that, but I'm reeaaally excited to write my idea for Shattered Confidence because characters losing confidence in their looks and then regaining it through h/c is a guilty pleasure trope of mine >.>

[memento-morri-writes]

Hi, Morri! I'm sorry about your mom testing positive, hope it's not serious <3

If you'd like, we can chat a little about books and stuff!

I know you've Six of Crows (my beloved), but did you also read the Grisha Trilogy? I've been rereading it and I'm currently about 2/3 into Ruin and Rising, and I'd forgotten how much I liked it. SoC is objectively better in terms of writing, but I think the trilogy is a bit underrated, and—big unpopular opinion—I personally prefer the trilogy's ending to CK's.

I'm in a big phase of rereads and rewatches, as I'm also rereading Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, one of my favorite romance novels, and rewatching the rewatchable. Currently hyperfixating on Disney Channel telenovelas (as demonstrated by all the shitposting lol), but I'm also about to rewatch Attack on Titan for maybe the millionth time and The Dragon Prince, so I can then watch the fourth season.

Hi Rose!!

I have read the Grisha Trilogy!!! I actually own the whole grishaverse, hehehe. (Including the trilogy as a boxed set.)

I agree with you that SoC is better written. I actually have said before that it's like Ms. Bardugo took a few years off and learned how to become a 20x better writer. Not that the trilogy is bad, cause it isn't. But I feel no attachment whatsoever to Alina or Mal. (The only person I really care about in the trilogy is Nikolai. And also David.) (also people continually forgiving the darkling for so much horrible shit so fast and shipping him with a teenager grosses me out.)

Ah yes, the ending debate, lmao. I like the ending of the original trilogy!! I've seen some people who don't, but I think it's really fitting. Alina never wanted to be pulled into all that shit, and she deserves her happy ending. Plus, she can make a difference in kid's lives, which is awesome.

However, I do also love the ending of CK. Not the death, but I do think that the ending it well-written, and overall fitting for the story. Like, it fits. It's not a happy ending, but it's a bittersweet one, and I love it for that. It fits very well with the story as a whole, and the foreshadowing / details surrounding it blow me away every time I reread it.

Have you read King of Scars / Rule of Wolves??? If you haven't, I won't talk about them, cause I don't wanna spoil you, but I have some Opinions about that ending. (though I love 99.9% of that duology, and there are parts that made me lose my shit (both positive and negative) in a way even SoC never made me do.)

I'm also a big fan of rereading and rewatching things. (as evident by the fact that I just bought a copy of a book I've already read 5 time, hahaha.) I've seen some of my favorite episodes of TV shows 5+ times, and same with reading some of my favorite books.

[desolateice]

hi, i just wanted to let you know that you have spoiled me. every time i try to read a different lawrusso fic, i don't like it because it doesn't really have the same amount of effort.

I watch the KK movies and im like "where's Johnny and the cobras?" and i realize that it was just in your story. And the same thing goes for other stories too! sometimes they'll have the cobras no longer that close, or they'll just have bobby, and I'm very confused because it obvious they all care about each other.

What i really loved about Root Beer Floats and Green Tea was.. everything. I love how you were practically able to deconstruct the character and make them different, but with the same roots. I loved the effort that you put into it the research, the date ideas, the crisis' that they got through that hit a little too close to home. The fact that they get married! And i absolutely love how long it was, it felt like there was so much passion in that story.

I know you're currently working on some more fics, but i really do hope that you keep writing for as long as it makes you happy. Because it truly is an amazing way of writing. I kind of want to bind the story into an actual book (if that's okay!) just so i can have it in person.

Thank you, so much for putting your artwork out there!

Hi Anon! I'm going to start with yes, totally fine to bind any of my stories. Just please share them :D I'd love to see them. (I know Root Beer Floats and Green Tea has a lot of...errors in it. Grammar/spelling/accidental formatting issues. At one point I mispelled and merged some cobra names and thankfully was able to quickly fix that when someone pointed it out but it makes me worry about how many more of those are hiding in the forest that is that fic and my others, so feel free to fix those or reach out if you've got questions because something seems wrong but your not sure.😅I always find a new error every time I open it 😭) I feel like this should go out in general. If anyone wants to bind or create or feels inspired to create because of my work, please go ahead and just share with me the thing. I love them all. So much. I also want to say thank you. That you enjoy my work, my writing, my writing style, and that you've taken the time to send me a message. I greatly appreciate it which feels to small of a thing to say for how I feel. Honored? Happy? Neither feel quite right. But thank you nonetheless. Effort for some reason made me write a lot, so that's under the read more. I will say sometimes I get confused myself. I spent so much time working on it that I'll be like right Johnny was homeless and then nope that's not canon. 😅 So when I write other fics I have to remind myself. Really I need to do a rewatch and reset what is canon and what's in my fics.

I say this gently and with love, that writing no matter whose doing it is a huge effort. Writing is, even without meaning to, sharing a part of yourself with the void. There's this idea that you should write what you know. Which as a kid drove me nuts because I wanted to write grand adventures. But as I've gotten older and as I've written more and especially while I write my fics lately I've realized oh. Because there are pieces of me that when I'm chatting with people in the comments or elsewhere about it, or rereading it I realize oh that's something I know that's inherently personal that I didn't realize I'd shared or was working through. I mean it's not like I know karate or have a secret rivalry that's spanned however long the ones in Cobra Kai and the Karate Kid have. 🤣 I think one of the reasons I fell so hard into Cobra Kai and The Karate Kid is because it has echoed with things I feel. There's some loneliness in the pandemic and also just in life in general that stings when you watch the series. When you see Johnny Lawrence with all his friends grow up to be a lonely mess at the start of Cobra Kai. Or the fact Daniel makes friends only to lose them all by the next film, a clean slate of loneliness with the only constant being Mr. Miyagi. Not even his own mother stays by his side throughout the series.

And grief.

There's a lot of grief bubbling below the surface, touched on like a sore bruise from time to time. And I just can't seem to leave that alone. What people write varies to what interests them and who they are in the moment. I'm grieving, so I want comfort so I'm writing comfort. I grew up a scardy cat and yet when I got a little older and started writing and wrote for classes my classmates who'd been assigned to read my work would come back in horror and tell me how they had to leave the lights on that night after reading my work. (I delighted in that, one of my favorites because it stayed with them after the story ended, though I did apologize for ruining their evenings) But right now I just can't delve that deep into that same darkness. Grief sort of is preventing it. So I've circled back around to being a bit of a scardy cat. I'm fascinated by that and when I eventually expect to take a breath, take a step back and look at my old work, my original work in progresses how I will handle them? When the ground beneath my feet solidifies, what will I change? Will I knock through things that I hadn't been able to before or will I have changed so much that I don't know what to do with these things I worked so hard on for so long? I am in hiding using this karate soap opera to move forward a day at a time, to distract. So I'm grateful for it knowing that I'm also burrowing. I already love to research, already know I will lose forever googling things like bugs and random things. But when I wrote RBF&GT I thought I'd include some of them in the after chapter box because a previous fic I'd written for a different fandom once asked, can I have the recipe for this? And I thought oh. I'm already looking up stuff I might as well share it. Because it's how I separate my original work from fics, they're all food based and I research a recipes for the title food and the food included. (Not that there's not oodles of food and food research in my original works I just don't title them after food. 🤣) Then people enjoyed seeing my research so I started sharing some of it. I didn't keep all of my links. I didn't want that final box to be just the world's longest bibliography for every single chapter. Root Beer Floats and Green Tea had me double checking everything because in a way it's historical fiction. I was googling slang, I was googling what existed in that time, I was researching fashion, digging around for cosmetics used at the time, all sorts of stuff. And I shared some of it. My point here is that you never know the amount of work that goes into a fic. I share maybe a fraction of my research just because it's usually I'm trying to research for like a sentence or a word or a phrase and then I'm back to writing and I don't keep the link. And I know other writers do too. Most of my other work, my older fic work had about the same level of googling and research and no references at the bottom. So a reader would never know. Or I'd lose my links. One website I was using for flower language at the start of Root Beer Floats and Green Tea was gone by the end. Just poof. It's also because I started RBF&GT in a journaling app and there was no place to put links. I couldn't even title them. 🤣 And there wasn't an undo so occasionally I'd hit my keyboard wrong and like erase a whole paragraph or lose everything I worked on. But I liked it because I could add pictures and it's where I kept my other fics and short stories and my journaling. And I could just scroll through the pictures I'd picked and remember like all these memories. Anyway I've moved onto Scrivener. Which has like all this space for things so it's a bit easier. And also it could handle my 100K chapters without crashing unlike Google, so it wins. 🤣 I can also do stuff like this:

Which essentially means in one file I had a lot going on 🤣 (Please ignore the fact I spelled Nariyoshi wrong.) And it was so cathartic to finally close it yesterday when the last chapter went up. Anyway, you never know the amount of effort a writer is putting into their work. Writing isn't easy. A lot of the time it's staring at a screen. I've started and cut my next wip that's the Dutch/Johnny route like...a ridiculous amount of times because I haven't hit a groove yet, I haven't figured out what I want which means it's a good time to take a short break and thing about it since I haven't figured it out. And this fandom is one of my favorites. I only know the smallest amount of hard work everyone puts into the fandom. There's so much that goes unseen. Like how many drafts of the beautiful art do we not see? How many sketches? How many conversations about ideas for events, let alone the work that goes into them? The videos? The meta? All the different ways to look at the characters and relationships and how those can inspire or change the way someone else looks at them? Comments that change the writers idea? Gives them new insight or just cheers them along to continue forward? What about all the stories that get shared and then because the writer doesn't see an audience, can't hear the quiet applause walks away or takes it down and with them? I know I have quite a few things in my history that are just...gone. And I don't know what they were, but it makes me a little sad that that hard work is just gone. Writers and artists will leave for anything from big things to small things to and I really wish I could find it again, but there was a post here on Tumblr that essentially there was a quote about a writer/poet? who got laid and stopped writing 🤣 to pursue getting laid more. Which good for you dude. 🤣 But it's kind of like a whole bunch of cats chilling together and enjoying the same sunbeam and if there's any reason to leave they might just wander off. Or they might get scared off. I like to cherish this time we have together in this shared time. A cross of our paths seen or unseen and acknowledge that volunteering to get up on stage (in this case posting writing) and to share something you worked hard on for who knows how long, and who knows how much of you it contains whether the creator is even aware or not, is a vulnerable action and for a moment sharing things they love is something so absolutely wonderful. Even if it's not everyone's cup of tea. No matter what it is, it's terrifying. It's easier for some, harder for others. Heck, that Valentine's day event I did, I really wanted to do, and I sat back and second guessed myself so much. I have a little pile of cut pieces and start-stops. It's not my first work in the fandom. I requested it, and yet I got timid before sharing it. So I'm honored that you love Root Beer Floats and Green Tea and my work that it's spoiled you a bit. I love that it's echoed, hit a chord with you, that the things I decided to include, that desire for those friendships not to fade is something you also enjoy. I appreciate it. And I hope you don't mind this long...I'm not sure what it is. I just also appreciate and love the effort of everyone in this fandom. Because I never know when something will strike a cord with me, open my mind to new things or ideas and I'm grateful to everyone. It's made the world feel a little less lonely when I've needed it the most. 💖

[ultyso]

Considering you already made a long post about Lawtsuda I’ll go ahead and ask how you feel about Lawlight instead (love your art!)

Some days I really like it others I’m a little more eh about it. I’ll go into detail about both:

I personally enjoy Lawlight in the Drama, the most. They felt extra fruity and shippy to me personally. Now why I like that adaptation more than the anime/manga? They moved them closer in age, Light already being in college. Just a little weird to me with the pairing when Light is still in high school. The drama I like because the subtle little kiss on the cheek, the way Light dodged outta having to be handcuffed, the flirtatious looks they continuously give each other, the playful little banter they always are having. AGHHHHH. It’s just good stuff.

Now on for the general!

Like I mentioned in my Lawtsuda post, I like pairings where it’s a give and take. It is no different with Lawlight. They both cure each other’s boredom, they bring thrill to each other’s lives because finally they met someone on the same wave length as them! Light also I feel brings out the sillier side to L, which I find amusing ^^ As for the reverse, I think L just brings Light a sense of comfort and more openness that he hadn’t had as much before. (Cause he’s so incredibly gay)

In the story, I don’t think anyone (yes even my Lawtsuda shipper heart can attest) can match how in sync and strong their bond is. They fit together with each other perfectly. Also them both being great at tennis, both having similar level of intellect to always have engaging conversations, both engaging in their mind games. They just genuinely seem to enjoy being in the other’s company too if you ignore all the Kira stuff. The L Change the World movie’s book with L absolutely moping about Light not being around and WEARING his watch for a sense of comfort! As L was close to dying, he went to LIGHT’S HOUSE ahhhh. Him hoping they will meet again in death to walk in the nothingness together like ughhh. He’s so poetic with him. Then there’s Light who is just absolutely losing his mind after ridding of L. The immediate regret, the extra hate to Near. The bittersweetness of it all! L was his equal but he had to get rid of him for self-preservation. Yet he cannot SHUT UP about L. Always on his mind. That things would have been better if they were still togetherrr. Then the creators saying if Light wasn’t Kira that they’d probably still work together. Aghhh they just have to be apart of each other’s lives!!!

Light always showing his concern for L is always 🥺 Even if it ends up leading to fights cause their both stubborn af, it’s cause they love each other okay? :,,,)

Even though L is a notorious liar, it still seems sweet when he seems a little sad at Light being Kira because he’s his first friend. Ahhhhh. Light, I feel, has brought L out of his shell a lot on the case and gehshsjsjskks

Also the fanart? GORGEOUS? The memes of them? HILARIOUS. But fanfics? Eh I’m not actually that into it. There’s enough ig in canon that tickled my fancy enough with the pairing that I don’t really feel like the fanfic would bring about anything that doesn’t feel kinda repeated? So I don’t really read them 🙈

Now why it gets EH. It’s just talked about so much I guess it kinda just bores me sometimes. Like we get it. It’s great. What’s new? 🙈 It feels silly but sometimes when I just see Lawlight over talked about it just kinda looses my interest. When I rewatch/reread stuff tho I still like it and definitely feel they had something going there. Also I personally don’t like Light as much. So I’m just not as big a fan of shipping him with L in just that regards. When I wanna do fanart/fics of my fave ships, I like it more when I like both characters equally. Feels kinda one sided for myself ig otherwise lol (which is why partly, Lawtsuda, even with its lack of canon content, intrigues me more.)

Overall I feel a pretty solid ship ^^

(All pairing opinion asks are solely my own thoughts on a pairing. If you like/dislike it, power to ya. We all have our faves and dislikes ^^)

[deathberi]

Hello hello dear Eri!!! Coming late here, my week was crazy and busy as hell! How was your week? Hopefully a peaceful one 🥰 weekend work duties sounds terrible, i hope you can get some rest as often as you want despite that! Yesss you're right, it's more pleasant to go out during your days offs when it's during the week instead of weekends! There really is less people in the streets, and i'm living in a big city, it's really more enjoyable! But i can't see my family as often as i want because we have different schedules and weekends! that's the most annoying thing...

Ohh yes it's always sad to notice little things that we dislike in series we really really like! I'm more the kind of person who likes so so much a serie and will act blind about things I dislike :') honestly I think i should rewatch/reread bleach before watching the last season, it's really been a while since I read the end

I do not have any patience too, recently I'm I thinking about reading blue lock so bad, but I love watching the anime, and I know if i'm starting to read i will lose interest for the anime ; that's also why I havent started to read Kaguya yet because i really enjoy the anime, also I already have watched 3 seasons so I guess I can wait more and no read 🤷‍♀️

Gosh I saw all the hate about the end of tokrev, and even before, when the last arc has started to be published. It's astounding. People absolutely didn't get it, and they were spreading hate on twitter and elsewhere, before and now! I was almost 100% sure it was gonna end well for mikey, at least ; i desired to see everyone be saved but I wouldn't have imagined how it would have became possible and I'm very glad how the end has turned unexpected but good! And yes I feel the same, those who spread hate about tokrev are those who haven't read the manga, properly, they were just here because it was popular or something. Because if you properly read it you can easily guess that it will end happily? It was the goal of Takemichi!!! Ngl the rushed part it's something sad to me, but I wonder if that didn't happen because of the editors? Same for bleach i think, it was very popular so the editor asked for more and then it has lost in popularity and wanted Tite Kubo to end his manga? No sure about it tho

Dhjsjs i totally get what you mean!! And it's working in the other way too, I can like a serie more than characters from it themselves, idk if it makes sens bdbsjs

Oh i guessed right about ichiruki, i mean fortunately ; i dont know much about dragon ball/ and digimon but as I can see, seems like you adore these ships a lot!! 👀👀 I totally get it!!! Deuteragonist, the best type fr, i like main characters but if they're at their best it's essentially thanks to the second mains isn't it? 💁‍♀️

Actually i haven't, i've only checked your fav but not your watching/reading list shsjs oh so I'll definitely recommend you to give a try to sakamoto day, I'm pretty sure you'll like or at least i hope so!! Ousama ranking is definitely a cute one ; I've watched it during a sad period of my life during this year and idk, it has cheered me up somehow

Okay okay okay I totally get it for one piece ; tbh I've started it something like 10 years ago and I paused it nearby chapter 600 (like you) FOR YEARS, before I caught up a year ago after rewatching everything! If by chance, even the tiniest, you desire to follow one piece again then, then I'd love to talk about it with you djsks 👀💖

Have a good weekend Eri, next time I'll try to come earlier here🧡

hi santa!! omg dw about it i understand life can get crazy busy on the most random moment. i’ve had pretty chill weeks lately and yep totally get you with enjoying big cities during less peak days and hours but also sacrificing the usual common sched with the fam and friends. i actually live away from most of my fam and now i’m answering late cuz they called me for a month long vacation (not that i’ll be really entirely free, i’m working remotely so i can go anywhere if i wanted to without taking much leaves, but this time theres lotsa travel involved plus it’s too long to leave my pc so i had bring stuff and set up here and there) and it started with a long beach trip!

ah i wish i could do that but no, i’ll be hating every single thing i dislike about it…while still consuming every single piece of media lmfao. i would suggest you at least reread some stuff if you plan to watch this latest one. i get annoyed when i see people over glorifying this latest season without even remembering shit from manga and everything that happened before this arc 😂

the top of my mind says anything comedic and not too plot heavy, i can stay anime only/first! i can see how that works well with kaguya. blue lock stuff is everywhere but still i havent started watching it 🫣

yeah they were just on tokrev for its popularity. tokrev twt is too loud you just know majority never looked at the source content and just out there for the clout lol. and each time wakui kills one i just go “ok youve done it again but if they dont end up happy im burning your house” 🤣 cuz how can it not end that way that’ll be like basically throwing away everything takemichi did. ahhh, editor issues. idk if there was any of that in tokrev as i stayed away from tokrev twt aside from a few fanartists, but yeah so much with bleach things were a mess

thats totally possible true! i can like this one for the overall stuff that it is. hehe if someone calls this a ship blog i wouldn’t deny it 🤣 my solid shipping shenanigans happen when theres a resident grumpy boy i can perfectly pair with the best girl (and picking girly favs does not happen as often as simply picking best boy deuteragonists). thats true!! in my kid and teen years i’ve auto focused on the second mains without batting an eyelash but now my appreciation for sunshine protags have gone up but that also means i’ve paid much attention to them now to enforce they couldnt be whatever they are without the grumpy babes 😂

they do sound great! thanks for the recs im definitely taking them. for op i feel like i just need the right push to pick it up fully again as we all know it would take some effort and commitment? 😂 (ack maybe cuz i have no ship in it and no one’s grumpy enough for my tastes 🤣)

thank you santa! you too have a great week ahead! til next time~ ^^

[gentil-minou]

Does anyone else just think about the game of thrones ending and want to cry about how it failed cause I do

[tiktaalic]

so i was rewatching supernatural with a buddy actually it was his first time watching and the first season he loved sam and as SOON as season 2 hit he already started saying they were messing up sams character. he went in to describe how he would have thought sam would be the angry one in this situation after he had the colt and the chance to kill yellow eyes despite the fact it would have killed his father. which you could say sam wouldnt kill his father and i completely agree (tbh it would be kinda fun if he did) but it was moreso after the fact when john trades himself and the colt to save dean. basically my friend was getting to the point sam should have been WAYYY more pissed at himself and not dean. hell why the hell was dean more angry than sam? he was described to have this hole in his chest due to having supposed to be dead so why that turned into dean being the one to bottle up anger and let it out by smashing the impala doesnt really make sense. idk i just saw you were talking about samgirls and i assumed you were a sam fan when talking about seasons 1-5 and my friend and i think thats when they really started to lose sam as even a main character when they decided to make him react to the whole situation like that. im not rereading this i hope this all makes sense

I am not a sam girl god bless. As far as I’m aware there are three different Points where people say sam stopped being sam. S5 is the most popular one but there’s also the normcore answer (s8) and the avant-garde answer (s2). I don’t remember enough about his early characterization to make a call. I do of course remember “I worshiped the man talked like him dressed like him but you’re more like him than I ever was.” “I’ll take that as a compliment.” “You take it however you want.” But I don’t remember the circumstances at all. I have the vague notion that he stays pretty impulsive and angry through season 4 and it’s only 5 where he starts settling down which makes sense to me due to the Events. But he’s never really a one to one with John. I think dean and John are easier to compare because as the show goes on John’s characterization is less about how he hunts and more about how he treats his family. Season one it’s really easy to compare sam and John because they’re biting each others heads off every scene while dean is like stop the violence. But later john is dead so he doesn’t actively irritate sam so sam just kind of acts Like Sam. While dean’s the one who keeps trying to make a family so the circumstances line up better for compare and contrast of how john treated his kids how dean treats his kids

[carriagelamp]

Art of Aardman

I found myself a cheap copy of the Shaun the Sheep movie, so I was rewatching a bunch of Aardman films earlier this month and decided to hunt down some books too. For anyone that doesn’t know, Aardman is a British stop-motion studio that does fantastic work like Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run, Early Man… tons of cool stuff. They’re always quirky and funny and warm-hearted. This was just a very nice art book for anyone that’s a fan of Aardman stop motion and wants to see a bit extra; it shows some cool concept art and blows up the neat details in Aardman work, especially in their intricate stuff like The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

Asterix and the Picts (Asterix and the Chariot Race, and How Obelix Fell Into The Magic Potion)

I decided to try a couple of the new Asterix comics that were done by the new team, just to see if they stand up to the old ones (that and How Obelix Fell Into The Magic Potion cause I’d never read that one before). They were pretty decent! Asterix and the Picts was my favourite of the two though I wouldn’t say either are going to contest for my favourite Asterix comic... but still! The art looks good and the stories felt like what I would expect, they made for a pleasant couple evenings of reading especially since it’s been so long since I’ve read a new Asterix comic. If you’ve never read Asterix it’s one of the biggest name French comic series in North America, as far as I know and very worth the read. It’s about a single Gaulish village that’s holding out against the invading Romans through sheer force of will, slapstick hijinks, and a magical super-strength potion brewed by their druid. Lots of fantastic visuals and cute wordplay, even in the English translations.

Bear

I found out about this bastion of Canadian literature via tumblr post that was losing its collective mind over the fact that some bizarre bear-based erotica novella somehow won the most prestigious literary prize available in Canada. Since I too found this hilarious and unspeakably bizarre I had to give it a read, obviously. And yes, the flat surface level summary is... a librarian moves out into rural Ontario and falls in love with a literal for-real not-supernatural-not-a-joke bear. And I have to say… it is actually worthy of an award, which I was not expecting given that I was there for a laugh. It has beautiful writing, and the subtextual story is pretty interesting… it kind of makes me think of The Haunting of Hill House actually in terms of themes. (Womanhood, personhood, independence, autonomy partially achieved through escaping the male gaze by claiming non-human lovers... listen if I were still in university I would right a paper comparing the two novels).

I dunno man, it’s fucking weird. Actually a well-written book, but sure is about a woman falling in love with a literal bear. Give it a read if you want something bonkers but like… high-brow bonkers.

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites

Best book I have read in like… a while. A long while. I am not a fast reader, and I consumed 90% of this book over a weekend. It’s not at all like Terry Pratchett, but at the same time it scratched an itch for me that I haven’t had satisfied since Pratchett’s death. A very clever, hilariously funny poly romance between a disabled werewolf, an anxious vampire lord, and an incredibly powerful woman, with heaps of social satire, political commentary, and sinister undertones. The whole thing reads a bit like fanfiction and I say that in the most flattering way possible -- it is so easy to jump right in and be immediately taken over by the characters and the world and the plot, you never feel like you’re fighting to engage even though the world-building is fascinating and expansive. It welcomes you in right away, it was the book equivalent of a quilt and a hug which is something I sorely needed with all this pandemic bullshit. If you read any of the books on this list, go read that one while I sit here in pain waiting for the sequel.

Kid Paddle

I watched the cartoon of Kid Paddle as a kid and was thinking about it recently, so I decided to hunt down some of the original comics online. They’re fun and weird, with a cute art style and fantastic monsters designs. (My favourites are always about Kid either daydreaming or playing games that involve Midam’s weird warty troll creatures. It’s like a cross between Calvin and Hobbes and Foxtrot with the fun sort of quirks that I love in Belgian comics. Unfortunately, unlike Asterix, I’ve only come across these ones in French, but if you can read French it’s totally worth popping over to The Internet Archive and reading the ones they have available.

The Last Firehawk: The Golden Temple

The lastest Firehawk book. Despite being written for quite young readers, I did enjoy the early books in this series quite a bit. They’re about a young owl and squirrel who found an egg for a magical species that was believed to be extinct. With the newly hatched firehawk, the three of them head off on a mission to find an ancient firehawk magic that could save the entire forest. Very basic adventure story but a good intro to the tropes for children. Unfortunately the quality really feels like it drops with each subsequent book; this will probably be the last one I bother reading.

Lumberjanes: The Moon Is Up

I honestly think I enjoy these Lumberjanes novels even more than the comics just because it really gives time to delve into each story and examine how the camper are really thinking and feeling about everything. (Also I’m always weak for novelizations of anything.) The Moon Is Up is a book that focuses more on Jo, and takes place during the camp’s much anticipated Galaxy Wars, a competition between cabins that goes over several days. While the campers prepare for these challenges though, they also run into a strange little creature with a penchant for cheese and theft. Roanoke cabin needs to keep ahead in Galaxy Wars and somehow deal with the fearsome Moon Pirates that a closing in...

Lumberjanes v4 (Out Of Time)

One of the Lumberjanes comics, a cool, girl-focused, queer comic series. Honestly, this is just a fun series that I never got as into as I should have. My advice is honestly to skip book one because it gets better as it continues, and I’ve really been enjoying the later books now that I’ve given it another go. It follows five campers at Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types (Jo, April, Molly, Mal, and Ripley) as they handle all sorts of challenges, from friendship to crushes, camp activities to supernatural horrors, getting badges to not being brutally killed. Great if you liked the vibe of Gravity Falls but want it to be queer-er.

Mooncakes

Another queer graphic novel, but unfortunately not a very good one. It really looked appealing and I had high hopes, but the book itself really didn’t hold up… I actually couldn’t even finish it, the plot was just too… non-existent. The art is fairly mediocre once you actually look at it, especially backgrounds, and it feels very… placid. Not much conflict or excitement or even a very compelling reason to keep reading. If you just want a soft queer supernatural you may get more mileage out of it than me, but it didn’t really do it for me. There’s better queer graphic novels out there.

New Boy In Town

One of the worst books I have ever read. My girlfriend had ordered a very different book online but through a frankly stupendous error was sent this 1980s pulp romance instead. Absolutely nauseating on levels I couldn’t even begin to enumerate here. Naturally we read the whole thing out loud. Probably took us 10 times longer to finish than it warranted because I had to stop every two sentences to lose my mind. If you like bad decisions, baffling hetero courting rituals, built-in cultural Christianity without actually calling it that, and gold panning then boy howdy is this the book for you.

(seriously, you better have patience for gold-panning if you attempt this one, because I sure learn that I don’t)

Piggies

This was a picture book I enjoyed as a kid and had a reason to reread recently. Honestly it’s just very cute and simple, and the art is completely mesmerizing. Wonderful if you know a young child that would enjoy a simple goofy boardbook.

Shaun the Sheep: Tales From Mossy Bottom

Related to my Aardman fascination earlier this month. I tried reading a varieties of Shaun the Sheep books — most of which are mediocre at best — but the Tales From Mossy Bottom Farm series is genuinely good. Just chapter books, of course, but the illustrations match the series’ concept art and each story feels like it could have jumped directly out of an episode. They’re just cute and feel-good! Kinda like Footrot Flats but more for kids, and from the sheep’s perspective moreso than the dog’s.

[ruinsofxerxes]

nikki my dear id love to hear your thoughts on 03 vs brohood! i just finished rewatching BH & rereading the manga & am starved for more fma content so i started rewatching 03 & its like... so SAD omg i like that ed looks more like a kid & gets to cry like one too (the barry scene! when he has to jam his arm back in & its still mismatched when he claps!!!) & i also appreciate the fluidity of the animation (though i do prefer BH's way of drawing faces & hair) but DANG its sad (& gets weirrrd!)

OOOHOHHOHOHOO YES I'M ALWAYS READY TO GUSH ABOUT FMA AND FMAB VS. 03!! I totally agree with everything you said!! I love both series, but yeaH 03 is sO SAD and so gritty at points. I loved seeing Ed younger and that he was acting more like a kid, he cried more, things like that. That Barry scene--you're killing me over here just making me think about it again!! That was a GOOD episode that really showed that Ed is just a kid and is really in over his head. And I think that theme runs throughout 03 and I really like it (sorry Ed) like when he almost sacrificed all those prisoners for al, and he just looks SO TIRED and SO YOUNG it hurts!! Plus, the homunculi origins!! Ed having to kill his own mom (kinda)!!! Fuck!!!

I've always said how I find it interesting that fmab and 03 have such similar endings that are also vastly different. Al always gets his body back in, and Ed keeps at least one prosthetic in each but loses his alchemy either way. But they're still SUCH different endings!! It's crazy! I prefer brotherhood's ending because I'm a sucker for the happily ever after, the "the journey was hard but everything turned out better than we hoped" sort of ending, but CoS really does hurt so good haha One thing that saddens me about 03 tho was how Ed and Al felt like they couldn't depend on Roy and his team (rightly so tbh) but it was like...these were the only adults they could really rely on and they couldn't even rely on them in the end. It fit with 03's themes well (how the military sucks, how Ed and Al really only had each other), but I'm just a sucker for found family, so the brohood climax where everyone kinda teams up together is GOLD to me lol

But I agree!!! 03 has such beautiful, fluid animation. I prefer brotherhood's hair (like you said! lol) and the colors/style of brotherhood, but I think 03's animation is better. CoS tho......CoS got everything right when it came to animation lol Ed's hair and clothes looked great...the way our world had dimmer colors than Ed's.....SO GOOD

ANYWAY. I'M RAMBLING!! I actually watched brotherhood first! I saw someone here on tumblr talking about it and thought it sounded good! I actually hated it at first but continued to watch it out of spite and by the end, well, I was obsessed. I watched 03 and cos after that and that ending had me sobbing on the floor gripping my giraffe pillow pet for dear life. After that I read the manga and gOSH (I love the animes...but the manga will FOREVER BE SUPREME!!!) This all happened over one summer so when I went back to school in the fall, I was a Different Person lmao

Thank you for this ask!! It's been a while since I've gushed about fma and this was fun!! :D Plus I LOVE to hear about other people's fma stories

[summersun4youforever]

✨ Tag 9 people to learn more about their interests!

tagged by my fav @loulovehome thank you pu hope that this quells your curiosity! 

MUSIC

fav genre? not to be that person but i think i have a toe in most genres, i suppose my favorites have got to be anything taylor swift does, pop punk, r&b pop/new age r&b, and bluegrass

fav artist? again, not to be that person but i love so many artists! let’s do this based off of genre: taylor swift, 1D, 5sos, massive focus on ZAYN, the Avett brothers, and counting crows

fav song? fav song of all time (since i was young) is going to be come around by rhett miller but more currently i’d say you are in love by taylor swift and dRuNk by ZAYN

song currently stuck in your head? i have no idea how it got there but i have stressed out by 21 pilots stuck in my head??

5 fav lyrics? ok let’s do this kids. edit: this went in a “fav love song lyrics” way so sorry in advance.

1)  I hope that I don't sound to insane when I say / There is darkness all around us / I don't feel weak but I do need sometimes for her to protect me / And reconnect me to the beauty that I'm missin' (January Wedding - The Avett Brothers)

2)  Hands around my waist / You're counting up the hills across the sheets / And I'm a falling star / A glimmer lighting up these cotton streets / I admit I'm a bit of a fool for playing by the rules / But I've found my sweet escape when I'm alone with you (Disconnected - 5sos)

3)  This is the worthwhile fight / Love is a ruthless game / Unless you play it good and right / These are the hands of fate / You're my Achilles heel / This is the golden age of something good / And right and real (State of Grace - Taylor Swift) 

4)  What if I changed my mind / What if I said it's over / I been flying so long / Can't remember what it was like to be sober / What if I lost my lives? / What if I said "Game over"? / What if I forget my lies? / And I lose all my composure (Back to Life - ZAYN)

5)   I never said I was perfect / Or you don't deserve a good person to carry your baggage / I know a few girls that can handle it / I ain't that kind of chick, but I can call 'em for you if you want / I never said that you wasn't attractive / Your style and that beard, ooh, don't get me distracted / I'm tryna be patient, and patience takes practice / The fact is I'm leaving, so just let me have this (Jerome - Lizzo)

radio or your own playlist | solo artists or bands | pop or indie | loud or silent volume I slow or fast songs | music video or lyrics video | speakers or headset | riding a bus in silence or while listening to music | driving in silence or with radio on

BOOKS

fav book genre? murder mystery and young love!

fav writer? jane austen, lisa jewell, and rick riordan (nostalgia ok?!)

fav book? the way i used to be my amber smith, rebecca by daphane du maurier, and then she was gone OR watching you (both by Lisa Jewell)

fav book series? i guess the whole percy jackson situations? i have everything RR every wrote, and i liked it all but i havent touched the older ones in ages

comfort book? not one specifically but the nancy drew books

perfect book to read on a rainy day? bird summons by leila aboulela

5 quotes from your fav book that you know by heart? i hope i can name five...

1)  “The point is, life has to be endured, and lived. But how to live it is the problem.” “I am no traveller, you are my world.” (both are My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier)

2)  “And I’m terrified he’ll see through the tough iceberg layer, and he’ll discover not a soft, sweet girl, but an ugly fucking disaster underneath.” (The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith)

3)  "I cannot make speeches, Emma," he soon resumed; and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing. "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it. Bear with the truths I would tell you now, dearest Emma, as well as you have borne with them. The manner, perhaps, may have as little to recommend them. God knows, I have been a very indifferent lover. But you understand me. Yes, you see, you understand my feelings and will return them if you can. At present, I ask only to hear, once to hear your voice.” (Emma by Jane Austen) (sorry for the length, the shortened versions were not cutting it for me)

4)  “Read, read, read. That's all I can say.” (The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene)

5)  “...amazing how boring you can get away with being when you’re pretty. No one seems to notice. When you’re pretty everyone just assumes you must have a great life. People are so short-sighted, sometimes. People are so stupid. I have a dark past and I have dark thoughts. I do dark things and I scare myself sometimes.” (Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell)

hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | standalone novels or book series | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | listening to music while reading or reading in silence | reading in order or reading the ending first | reliable or unreliable narrator | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS | judging by the covers or by the summary (im a very judgmental reader) | rereading or reading just once

TV AND MOVIES

fav tv/movie genre? i like dramedies, mockumentaries, and procedurals 

fav movie? ive got a massive list on my phone but ill pick Doob (No Bed of Roses) and 3-Iron as my favs for today

comfort movie? 2000s romcoms, im talking clueless, 13 going on 30, how to loe a guy in ten days, ten things i hate abt you, legally blonde

movie you watch every year? mamma mia and all listed in prev question

fav tv show? too many, currently im rewatching arrested development

comfort tv show? new girl

most rewatched tv show? new girl

ultimate otp? shawn and jules from psych (ultimate bc ive been watching since diapers literally)

5 fav characters? winston bishop, stiles stilinski, bellamy blake, clarke griffin, lydia martin

tv shows or movies | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or binging | one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on or off | rewatching or watching just once | downloads or watches online

super fun even though it took me an hour lmao, I'm tagging @technosoot @hometothecanyonmoon @sassylilnoodle @sushiniall @rosegold-thorns no pressure and sorry if youve already been tagged!

edit: i somehow managed to forget what i consider to be one of the greatest opening verses ever???? so bonus lyrics:

Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog / Where no one notices the contrast of white on white / And in between the moon and you / The angels get a better view / Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right (Round Here - Counting Crows)