#like it's just mostly been writing for Me. which I'm thoroughly enjoying. but also. the Need To Share is so strong

[beck-a-leck]

I need to go to bed. I have to work tonight and I need to go grocery shopping before that so I can eat lunch.

But the writing... the STORIES. They demand to be told.

[pastryland]

f1 completed fic recommendations

Lestappen | Landoscar | Maxiel | Dando | Charlos | Brocedes | Carlando | Piarles | Galex | Sebchal

F1 fics are the main reason I got into this fandom and I figured I should share some (or so so many) fics that I like. While I do primarily follow Lando/Oscar and Charles/Carlos, I do read fics from other ships especially if they're from an author I like or the concept is interesting.

I have way too many fics (100+ though not all are completed) bookmarked so I'll just share my absolute favorites on this post and link posts of individual ships on their own posts. Also, I will continually keep updating this post and the other ones as fics complete and I read more.

If any of the authors of the fics mentioned here or are tagged and don't want their fics to be here, please let me know and I'll remove it!

❤️ = favorite

⭐️ = I love fics by this author in general

❌ = triggering themes

🔥 = explicit

Absolute Favorite Fics:

the trials of 2022 - 33k - Charles Leclerc/Carlos Sainz Jr - ❤️ ⭐️ 🔥

A partial summary of the 2022 season, as told by Charles or Carlos, following each race.

This would be my all-time favorite F1 fic if I had to choose, only rivaled by its currently unfinished sequel and the second fic here. Charles's and Carlos's relationship in this fic is so organic and realistic and the chemistry is incredibly tangible. The angst, tension, the emotion in this fic is delectable, beautiful writing by @/f1-stuff. Even if you aren't into this ship, I implore you to try this fic out.

the end of the strain - 19k - Lewis Hamilton/Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton/Sebastian Vettel - ❤️

They didn't end up together in the end, which he had already prepared for in his heart.   Lewis, in seven parts.

For the first time ever reading any fic of any fandom, I had to lie on the floor for a couple minutes to process the emotional damage this fic gave me. The characterizations of all the people are on point and the relationships are heartbreaking and devastating in all the right ways. If you want to cry or lie on the floor and contemplate love like I did, this is the fic for you.

Negative Splits - 10k - Lando Norris/Oscar Piastri - ❤️ ⭐️

So officially, Oscar Piastri, pretty good steepler and pretty bad pacer, was now a professional runner. They wanted him to steeple, mostly, though he’d be doing cross country in the fall, and Lando had pinky promised him, mid-distance guy to mid-distance guy, that if he wanted to get into the 3k flat indoor then he would get him in. Oscar didn’t really want to ask how he planned on doing that. Felt safer not to ask.

@/ocontraire is the queen of Sports AU's for the F1 boys (go check out her other fics too! They're also incredible). As an athlete myself, the mentalities of both Lando and Oscar are relatable to me, though I'm also fascinated by the differences in various sports. This fic is certainly on the more lighthearted side (emotionally at least) and I thoroughly enjoy Lando and Oscar's friendship/relationship and its development.

induction, consolidation, maintenance - 6k - Pierre Gasly/Charles Leclerc - ❤️ ❌

In which Charles is sick, Pierre is desperate, and he wishes he didn't have to do what he's doing to pay for Charles to have a chance.

Piarles is certainly not a ship that I read often, but this fic caught my eye and I'm certainly glad that I read it. Pierre's and Charles's relationship is quite cute, though I mainly love Pierre's desperation to save Charles no matter what. He is willing to do anything, the world could burn for all he cares, to make sure Charles is healthy again and it got me heavily in the feels.

glitch - 26k - Max Verstappen/Charles Leclerc - ❤️ ⭐️

Max hums. “Well, at least that means I won’t bump into Charles Leclerc again.” “Bummer, really,” Daniel says, moving back to his own seat and drinking the little bit of coffee that was still in the cup. “Could’ve been the start of a great love story.” Lando snorts. “Kids, it all started when I told your father, who had won two World Driver Championships at that point, that he sucked at driving.” Max sticks his middle finger up at them, and pulls his noise canceling headphones back over his ears. Only two hours left to go, he thinks, wistfully, and goes back to work.

I mainly read @/nyoomfruits's fics because of Landoscar, though this Lestappen fic took me completely by surprise. I adore the romcom vibes of this whole fic and Daniel and Lando are so hilarious and chaotic. Max's personality fits so well in this fic as an unbothered IT guy, but completely loses his composure when he meets Charles, his favorite F1 driver.

[bearratic]

Get to know the mun ! repost, don’t reblog.

——— BASICS.

NICK[NAME] : Benjamin. [Benji/Bear.]

PRONOUNS : He/Him.

ZODIAC SIGN : Aquarius - Feb 7th.

TAKEN OR SINGLE : Single.

ANYTHING ELSE? : Real fuckn dutch. Made of stroopwafels.

——— THREE SERIOUS FACTS.

Writing gives me the time and space to gather my thoughts. I use it as a practice in conveying emotion, which makes it easier to do so and thoroughly explain reasoning. I use writing as a base for learning human psyche, soul, mind and spirit which interests me deeply. I try digging deeper into feelings and actions - reasons why some are done and linking them together.

I pick muses based on some hint of personality trait I see of myself in them. I find myself often asking what I want so having muses that at least correlate to my thoughts are a better fit for me than just a choice at random. It can be big as the way they think or it can be as small as sharing a favorite drink. Exploring their interests based on their world and adding on to it makes it way more enjoyable for me to write, story and world building is important to me.

I fucking love everyone I have ever written and will ever write with. This has been nothing but a warm and loving experience for me.

——— THREE RANDOM FACTS.

My nickname is thanks to my father, who even though he named me one thing, found it often too long and switched it to another lol.

I go to at least 3 concerts every month. Mostly rock in genre if I get to chose but I never say no when friends ask. I will always be your +1 to any event.

If I had to pick a country to move to it would be Scotland, sorry but I have a light obsession with that place.

——— EXPERIENCE.

Zero dude. Literally none. I just picked it up as a hobby and passed my blogs one year birthday last august. I have been truly active in the writing community for only half a year in total.

I go with the flow, I enjoy coming up with things on the spot. Diseccting my muses and throwing them into any type of situation just to write myself out of it. Or-... make it worse for them. Keep it interesting you know?

I write through and together with music, I let it guide me often. This is kind of the reason I am a slow replier, I have to really feel what I want to put down and then I can stick to it. Besides that, English is not my first language so I have to switch back and forth in my brain real often. It can be a bit tiring but I gladly do it for my writing partners. Much love.

——— MUSE PREFERENCE.

Give me anything with a background we can explore and me and my muses are in. I thoroughly enjoy talking to you about your muses and mine, from their favorite pairs of socks to their family drama, idc I want to know.

I need a lot of building together, plotting and anything to truly write my muse closer to yours if you want anything deeper. I build through writing together. From something silly to movie scripts. Let them get to know each other to their deepest point.

——— FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT.

FLUFF : Yeah definitely, I’m a sappy dude. I like to daydream.

ANGST : Also yeah! I enjoy making problems for my muses, it makes me understand them more. Dread is and can be intense so be sure to be in the right headspace and let me know.

SMUT : Sure, though with my lack of writing experience bear with me on this one. I really have to know how you write and your muse for this to work, I do not wish to overstep boundaries either yours, your muses or my own. Which I am unable to know if we do not at least have a talk about it.

——— PLOT / MEMES : Thanks to you I know how much I enjoy plotting. I know I'm rather slow with DM replies but please don't take it personally I am just truly busy and can only do one thing atta time. Memes! Starters! Send me them all day everyday, I might not get to them immediately but I will and I will love it.

TAGGED BY : @sanctissimx I adore. Thank Yououou.

TAGGING : Cool ppl but no pressure. @cherriedrage @penandswords @patronsxints @carminewill @heterochromatica @ofcursedenergy @modeinthemiddle @huntershowl & You.

[knockyasocksoff2022]

Some quotes from the actual Edgar Allan Poe that I think really fit BSD Poe.

This is just me rambling so it's all under the cut.

"From childhood's hour, I have not been. As others were, I have not seen. As others saw, I could not awaken. My heart to joy at the same tone. And all I loved, I loved alone."

This would refer to BSD Poe's isolation from being an ability user and a person of great intellect. (I feel like people don't talk about how actually smart he is enough because he's constantly compared to Ranpo. But if he could even challenge Ranpo that means he must be way smarter than the average person, not to mention to create mystery plots that stump most ordinary people.) When he found Ranpo it must have been a relief to find someone like him, who shared his passion for crime mysteries, only to be humiliated by him.

~

“I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind.”

“I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.”

“I do not suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.”

“And being so young and dipped in folly, I fell in love with melancholy.”

These remind me of the six-year period he spent obsessing over his rivalry with Ranpo and plotting vengeance.

~

“I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched"

“Sometimes I'm terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it wants. The way it stops and starts.”

And then of course, these give me Ranpoe vibes.

~

“The believer is happy. The doubter is wise.”

“Science has not yet taught us if  madness is or is not the sublimity of intelligence.”

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality”

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”

These are just the ones I think fit his general personality. I really like the one about madness being the sublimity of intelligence for him because I feel like many people characterize him as just a really stuttering and shy person (and he is, sometimes, especially around Ranpo) but he's also more than that. He's smart and creative and a lovable dork. I wish there were more Poe-centric fics.

He's very aware of how intelligent he is. And he's proud, maybe even more so since his defeat to Ranpo because he feels being smarter than most people is all he has and that he must cling to that to become superior to Ranpo. He has great confidence in his novels, only worried about what Ranpo thinks of them, not the general readers. (I'm thinking of the scene of him on the roof after Ranpo uses his novel to trap Chuuy in the cannibalism arc.)

Not to mention that, six years ago, he dared to challenge Ranpo, who by that point was already probably well-known for being a genius detective (as the agency had been around for six years by that point). He most likely knew that Ranpo was very smart, though maybe not the full extent of his skills, and was confident he could best him anyway. His defeat thoroughly surprised him, meaning his confidence wasn't based just on arrogance. He actually thought that with his great intelligence, he could beat Ranpo.

Another thing (which mostly stems from my personal interpretations of the characters) is that he and Ranpo have slightly different types of intelligence. Ranpo is skilled in detective work, but not much else (like riding the train or navigating), but Poe I think has more broad intelligence. It makes sense because he has to be very aware of the world and what goes on in it to write convincing stories. 

Both are skilled at reading people (Poe would have to be, to write characters that seem authentic and engaging) but I feel like Poe is more eloquent (he's totally an overthinker), whereas Ranpo just says exactly what he's thinking with no filter, he doesn't bother with fancy words. Ranpo may be able to read everyone in a room and know pretty much everything about them, but he isn't as good at reading the room in the emotional sense, he just says the truth and doesn't care if he upsets people.

So while Ranpo is more skilled at detective work, Poe is a very creative person, who is more socially and emotionally skilled. He's aware of the people and world around him, (despite his being an introvert) not only specific scenarios, like crime scenes. 

He has a galaxy brain that's always thinking of new and increasingly intricate ideas for his novels. But he isn't as skilled in detective work.

Same for Ranpo, for all his skill in crime solving, he would have a hard time writing a novel because he understands how people think logically, and what motivates them to commit crimes, like money, anger, or other criminal motives, but not socially. So he'd have difficulty writing dialogue for characters that weren't exactly like himself or the people he's very close to. (This is based on my reading of Untold Origins, namely his first encounter where he explains to Fukuzawa why he was kicked out of his job and seems not to understand at all why the boss got angry at him for revealing his secrets and kicked him out.)

I love both Ranpo and Poe, and both are very smart, equally so when you compare them in their specific skill sets (Poe is just as skilled at creating new and captivating mystery worlds as Ranpo is at solving crimes). Neither is smarter than the other on the whole, just in specific areas.

My point is I just want to see Poe being shown in fanworks as intelligent as well. Like him helping Louisa with strategy maybe or him being at the agency when they get a job that Ranpo deems boring, and he helps Atsushi solve the case. Maybe one of the guild/ada members reads his book and is really impressed. Or He traps a criminal inside and it takes them days to get out

Oooh, it'd be so cool if someone wrote a fic about one of Poe's victims getting trapped in his novel and slowly going insane trying to escape the complex mystery, one based on their own regrets, just to torment them with guilt, and eventually starving, dehydrating or killing themselves. And imagine it being in the original Edgar Allan Poe style!

Sorry, for my rambling, I hadn’t intended for this to get quite so long. I was so nervous to post this. I'm always nervous about posting my opinions about things.

[edai-crplpnk]

Hello (:

Mind if you share some list of KankuKiba favorites fics of yours? Or where can I find some recommendations? Suddenly I wanna read about them but I don’t wanna filter them by kudos or # comments on AO3. Feel free sharing of your own jobs.

(You can omit this of course) Thank you! Have a nice day.

Of course! I haven't been reading a lot lately so all the fics I have to mention are a bit old, and maybe you know them already, and also maybe there are more recent gems that I don't know about, but I've got those.

Thirst, by kranquro

60k words, canonverse, action and pining

Kiba and Kankurou work on a joint mission in the Land of Wind and pine for each other while Kankurou is meant to be arranged marriage very soon. Lots of tension (sexual, but really not just that). I really like their dynamic, it's funny, it's angsty, it's hot, it's nuanced and real. The more plot and mission part is really well built too and intersects with the pining in a very well balanced way, love it.

(Note: There's also a little sequel in the series that is nice!)

20 Tracks - Kankuro collection, by shadowstrangle

65k words, canonverse, a bit of action and a lot of romance

Our little internalised homophobia and alcohol abuse Kankurou treat. I can never turn down one of those. Kankurou's very far into the closet when Kiba sort of busts the door open, I suppose. It's a lot about Kankuro figuring that out and the two of them being cute, but there is also some political plot around the political consequences of Kankurou being gay. There are some scenes that have really stuck with me hard.

If I had a criticism it would be that I'm not wholly fond of the trope of Konoha being super liberal and Suna being super conservative and that the political side of things is sometimes a bit simplistic in that area. But it's still nice, it has still surprised me in good and subtle ways in its development, so still a fic I love.

(Note: It comes with read-along songs that are great, and that's what made me want to do the same thing for Haemorrhage!)

Blanket Retrieval Arc, by HelloThereGhoul

25k words, modern college au, mostly fluff

Kiba and Kankurou live in the same college dorm and stumble upon each other. Classic meet cute. They're sweet and funny and crushing babies. Very soft, I thoroughly enjoyed it, several times.

(Note: The fic is technically abandonned? The author said they had plans for more and stopped, but it's written up to the point when they get together and it doesn't feel like it's lacking an ending to me.)

Time to heal, by Lycka

110k words, modern au, figuring out relationships and trauma

Kankurou and Kiba meet at a time where Kankurou is looking over Gaara who is in rehab. They start dating a bit but Kankurou initially identifies as ace and it causes a lot of doubts and questions about how that could work out between them.

It's not in the tags and there's no warning so I feel like I need to add it: there are mentions and non-graphic memories of incest and one other instance of sexual assault in it.

This one is a bit of a wild card. The author's note mentioned that it was their first time writing in English and that the first chapter was not representative of their current writing. So I decided to give it a go and trust that it would improve over the course of the fic, which it really did. This fic has really good scenes that I've reread a bunch of times, but : 1 It's true that the first chapters are really not at the level of the ones down the road so you have to be willing to work with that. 2 It becomes quite KankuKiba centric, but it starts GaaNaru centric, there is also a bit of SasuNaru and a bit of SakuTema. 3 It's abandoned, but the author left a last chapter to summarise the plot that they didn't write up until the end and the KankuKiba part of the fic is not what is left hanging.

Overall, some interesting and good things, but a lot of variety in both quality and content. I've read it once whole, and I'm very happy I did, and then several times just the (KankuKiba) parts that I was really involved in.

While I'm here I will briefly do a little self-promo recap of my own KankuKiba stuff but let it be know it's almost exclusively smut. They're just like that.

I have a series of KankuKiba kinky T4T smut. Canonverse. Shino is also involved in some. I hope to write non-smut in this AU eventually (mostly just pregnant Kankurou fluff), but I have none yet.

I have a modern AU with KankuKiba in a polycule (KankuKiba, KibaShino, ShinoHina). There is a bunch of smut, and a long fic about them getting together that I have yet to finish. I started it two years ago so I too am a bit insecure about my old writing in it, but I love this AU a lot so I still hope to finish it eventually. I update sporadically.

And finally, I have a KankuKiba hook-up fic in my beloved other modern AU. I have ideas to write them again in this AU, maybe not even smut, but I don't know when that'll happen.

That's it for this time I think! Thank you for asking, I hope you will like them. (Anyone passing around this post please feel free to reblog with your own rec!!)

[fandomsbyladymelodrama]

No pressure on this, but I wanted to ask if you'd like to tell me about one of/some of your favorite Christy scenes, and the things you like most about it/them? I can't singlehandedly revive the fandom on here, but it's such a joy to talk over this show with other fans!

I didn't realize until recently how thoroughly the Neil/Christy relationship informed my romantic preferences in all the media and writing I've done since watching it in my teens. Older, scholarly man/younger, determined woman, some kind of angst in the man's past, a need to change things for the better as an intrinsic part of the woman's character, a taboo element that stands in the way of the relationship... Even in the slash pairings I love so much, there's still so many elements of it!

Hey filmmakers, don't think we don't notice that you frame these two with Christy on a step/incline half the time to de-emphasize the height difference...

Oh my, oh my. Okay, first, let's be real. I've been waiting for an ask like this since 1994 (baby Tumblr wasn't even born yet 😂) so get ready for some major Neil/Christy feels that I've been suppressing but also diligently-tending-in-the-background for 30+/- years. THEY. ARE. PERFECT. Top-shelf OTP bottle, for sure. You understand, right? Of course, you do. We've discussed. But yeah, I feel the same way about this show/book/pairing influencing and informing both my writing style and romantic preferences in fiction over the years. Happy to admit it. Yes *raises hand* 1000 times yes. Hello, my name is ladymelodrama, and the fact that CBS so cruelly stole resolution for Neil/Christy from us forever (I'm not counting the PAX movies, I'm just not) is a crime against good television everywhere and will haunt my Christy-loving bones until I'm dead and buried in the ground deep enough so's the critter's can't find me, as Little Burl or Creed Allen would say. Anyway, you asked about Neil and Christy and favorite moments and since I can't just pick one...

I have a proposition to make :) Let's trade fave moments until we run out of them, maybe? No pressure, of course, but this is me mostly unwilling to commit to my Top 5 Scenes until I finish my rewatch, and even then I'll probably change my mind a couple times 😂 But here's one that I'll discuss in detail today and which I like to call the "Will This Do?" scene aka "and then they both smiled their little smiles at each other and lived happily ever after. The end." <3

(Credit to @heatherfield for this gif, and bless you, friend, for continuously shipping the same pairings as me - makes my gif-hunting so much easier haha <3)

So why do I love this scene so much? Oh, you know. Margret's dress. Objectively, it's gorgeous (the woman had style, even if she had no heart). And hey, it only coded Neil/Christy as endgame from the first episode, no big deal. Plus it was one of the softest moments in the whole show and THE WAY THEY SMILED AT EACH OTHER. Ugh. Soffffffft. I'm mean, you're seeing this too, right? ;) Meanwhile, I'm sure David is over here in the corner...doing what David does best XD Lurking. Always lurking.

(and, based on the pic I chose, maybe taking notes on how to have better chemistry with Christy? - "Dear Diary, Neil MacNeill is kinda the worst, have I mentioned?" 😂) But in all seriousness, what I love about that scene (and the exchange of smiles, in particular) is how there's an honest-to-goodness, my-spirit-just-spoke-to-your-spirit bit of humanity happening there. I die for those moments, little and quiet as they may be. It's just so...SOFT. They don't know each other yet. Not really. There's no romance at play (other than what I assume might be mutual physical attraction, even if Christy would never let herself go there. Not on her first days in the Cove) so it's more a budding friendship that we're seeing and friends-to-lovers is one of my favorite things? (Jorleesi, Jisbon, Siegfried/Audrey, Obidala, Red Cricket, Dickon/Mary much?). I also really enjoy when she comes down the stairs looking all pretty-in-lavender with her hair down (still lolling at your comment on that detail btw because...c'est vrai 😂) and "Oh no, David, it's so late...how will we ever get to Lufty Branch in time?" "Not we, Christy." (exactly, David, you're getting it). Too bad she has to spend all afternoon in this rustic cabin with a plaid-shirted, barrel-chested, brogue-speaking, moody mountain man with inside pain for dayssssss. Oh the everlasting horror XD

So yeah, so much to love about this scene (and the entire convo in the cabin afterwards and him plucking her from Theo prior to the whole dress thing - guy helps girl down from horse = I'm in love 😍). To witness the very beginning of their arc (okay, Part II of the beginning, but the doctor was busy with brain surgery during Part I, so you know what I mean) and to have the actors play it so, so beautifully and in an Appalachian setting that's just misty and magical and to die for all by itself... Mmmm *chef's kiss* Your turn, @darsynia <3

[ironwoman359]

Taylor Reads - July WrapUp

So I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of all the books I read each year, and I also keep a scrapbook style reading journal where each month has a spread of all the books I read that month, and I'm going to start putting my wrap ups here on tumblr, because I can :3

I had a unexpectedly fruitful reading month in July; I only read three books in June, but the League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk comic here on tumblr made me want to read some classic victorian sci-fi, which pulled me out of my reading slump and got the ball rolling on some of my reading goals.

Here's everything I read in a glance, and beneath the cut is a little blurb review for each book!

The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark - 4/5 Stars This is a fantasy novella set in a post Civil War alternate history steampunk New Orleans featuring street urchins and sky pirates. Need I say more? P. Djeli Clark became an auto-read author for me after I read Ring Shout, and while this didn't have quite the punch of that story, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells - 3.5/5 Stars My first classic of the month, I went back and forth on whether to rate this book 3 or 3.5 stars (I think it's rated 3 on my storygraph, actually), because while there were parts that were slow/boring to read, some of the prose was very memorable, and the ending was excellent. I find Dracula to be a bit more readable, but if you're interested in these early sci-fi classics, I still definitely recommend it.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne - 2.5/5 Stars This book, on the other hand, I found mostly frustrating. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more in a serialized fashion similar to Dracula Daily, because the long descriptions of travel to a place where nothing much happens and lists of fish and mollusk species that our main character saw quickly became boring. These moments were interspersed with genuinely interesting character moments and scenes of adventure, but reading the whole book in one week really detracted the impact of those scenes for me. Maybe read an abridged version if you're interested in the story but have more trouble with older books.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - 4.5/5 Stars This was by far my favorite of the classic sci-fi (or would this be classic horror?) books that I read this month. The book is presented as a mystery that, as a modern reader, it's hard not to know the twist to, but even then, the execution keeps you engaged the entire time. This is by far the most readable of the classics I read this month as well, and is also very short, so there's nothing holding you as a modern reader back from checking this one out! I dinged it half a star because I found the ending to be a bit abrupt and unsatisfying; I wish we'd gotten to see our pov character react to the final explanations and truths instead of him just vanishing from the story. But still, this was very very good!

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron - 4/5 Stars Do you want a sapphic YA fairy tale retelling where our black lesbian protagonist decides to attempt to single-handedly overthrow the patriarchy? Yes, yes you do. While not a perfect five stars, this book still felt absolutely tailor made to my specific tastes, and if I had been a teen myself when it came out I probably would have been obsessed with it. Kalynn Bayron just had a snow white retelling come out last month and if it's anything like this then I need it in my hands yesterday.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells - 3/5 Stars Reading the book that is credited for popularizing the idea of a time machine as an avid fan of time travel stories today was an interesting experience. I have a few more books of his on my tbr to go before I can make a final judgement, but I'm not sure if Wells's writing style is really connecting with me. I found this to be a little more readable line by line than The Invisible Man, but there were more striking character moments in that book than in this one. Still, seeing the arguable origin of one of my favorite sci-fi subgenres was very cool.

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer - 2/5 Stars I started writing a stand alone review for this book and it's already over one thousand words long. It seems I always have more to say about a book that I thought was bad than a book I thought was good. Suffice it to say, this book had a good premise (if you're into that sort of thing) but it needed several more rounds of editing. It felt like I was reading an unpolished manuscript that had been sent out on submission, not a finished product that I paid money for. Very disappointing.

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson - 4.5/5 Stars There's not much you can say about this book on its own, as it's the third book in a trilogy, but suffice it to say it was a perfect ending to said trilogy. I have so much love for these characters and this world, and I can't wait to start reading era 2!...after I start Stormlight. And Warbreaker. Why am I trying to read the entire cosmere before Wind and Truth comes out why is this my life-

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan - 4/5 Stars So this is a book that I started on audio back at the end of May, and for whatever reason I listened to the first 60% or so in a few days and then just...stopped. Had no desire to pick it back up, not because it wasn't good, it was, it was really good, I just had some kind of mental block on it for some reason. Then in a burst of inspiration after finishing the Hero of Ages a few days ago, I put the book back on and listened to another hour of it, then finished the rest on ebook during a slow couple hours at work. Again, not much to say about this if you haven't read the first book, She Who Became the Sun, but I highly recommend this duology, it's incredibly written, queer as hell, and the ending was extremely satisfying.

Abeni's Song by P. Djeli Clark - 5/5 Stars Beginning the month where we started it with P. Djeli Clark, this time with his middle grade debut! I love middle grade books, I usually read at least one per month if not more, and this was an absolutely stellar example of the genre. A great coming of age story based on West African mythology with lovable characters and the type of plot that will keep even adults hooked, I highly recommend this and can't wait to read the sequel when it comes out next year!

[adracat]

So I have a feeling I'm gonna ramble on here, so tl:dr is basically I love your writing, thanks for sharing. With that out of the way:

I started by reading your G Witch myth analyses here on Tumblr. TBQH a lot of it went over my head, but I enjoyed them all (went through a mythology phase in like elementary school, so it's been a minute, but I still casually enjoy learning about myths). Then I saw you have fics on AO3. And as a millennial on the interwebs I am aware of the site, but as someone generally in the ace sphere of things I haven't actually spent any time over there. Anyway, I found your Law of Causality series and because my Sulemio brainrot is boundless I read As Above So Below. And boy howdy did I enjoy that. Like, read it a few times. The story telling is really good, and I love the little notes you stick on at the ends of the chapters. Now I am not a Prospera fan, so I didn't read Chaos and Night for a while. But eventually I decided I liked your writing enoughto give it a try. What can I say, I truly enjoy the world you concocted and wanted more of it. I'm glad I did, because I think that may be my favorite of the three stories. Still don't like Prospera as a person in general, but you wrote her so well. Like, girl, don't go making those stupid-ass choices. But obviously I see why she did, because her characterization comes through so strong in your stories, so she really had no choice in her decisions (tragically, yes). But, not to state the obvious or anything, Notrette is the one who steals the show. My favorite of your characters. The times where she is so open and honest and vulnerable in sharing her feelings with Prospera kills me every single time. She gets the best lines due to those situations. Like there are at least three times where she bluntly asks Prospera to stay in the garden, and that's not even counting the handful of times she asks for them to be a family. Damn. We all know what's gonna happen, but it doesn't make that knife's edge any less sharp. I have many favorite lines of hers, but up there is when she come back from Delling and tells Prospera she was only able to do it by thinking of her. Man, that whole interaction gets me every time and I gotta take a moment to pause and reflect. Absolutely heart wrenching. Anywho. Their toxic, tragic relationship is just so dynamic. Plus, again, all your mythology easter eggs were delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed looking up the different names and stories as I came upon/recognized them. (I'm actually naming a new character of mine in an upcoming ttrpg I'm joining after one of the gods I learned about and then did a deeper dive into late one night.) I'm sure there was quite a bit that slipped past my notice, which is a testament to your vast knowledge of a wide variety of deities across different cultures. Theophany was like a sweet afterwards/gift when it came out. Loved how it ties in the two stories, and how the two relationships mirror each other. Devastatingly so, and also in a beautiful way. I will never get over Prospera always being so firmly rooted in the past that she kills off so many healing futures she might have had. And how Suletta refuses to do the same, even without knowing her mother's tragedies, and is able to focus more on her present with a certain amount of forethought as well. Ugg, cycles indeed. I have, of course, read your other G Witch fics (the finished ones anyway, will get to the last one when it's completed). Those are great as well, but I mostly wanted to gush about your Law of Causality. I have read each story multiple times now. Just last night I finished reading all of them, in order, in their entirety. I can't get them out of my head (kinda want to go and reread my favorite parts again already) which is what lead me to reaching out to you. I'm not sure if this is poor etiquette or whatever, and I'm not an elegant writer like you, and it's certainly obnoxiously long, but I figured I've gotten so much enjoyment from your writing I ought to let you know. So. Thanks.

This made my day! Thank you so much for the gushing praise. Law of Causality possessed my soul while writing it, and I honestly think it may be the best thing I've written purely on a cohesive and thematic level. I wanted people to dive deep into everything I was doing there and think about why certain references were chosen. I'm looking for a moment to actually do a lengthy write-up on the stuff that may have been too obfuscated lmao. The two pairings are complimentary and contrasting tellings that I loved bringing to life. Prospera I knew would be a hard sell for people, but I'm glad you gave it a chance! Notrette's lines were a treat. (Ngl I reread too for them) I'm glad I wrote her saying the wildest off-the-wall shit to contrast Prospera's self-inflicted misery brainhole. It's incredible to know my work is seen and appreciated <3

[quiet-nocturne]

Hello! First of all, I've been thoroughly enjoying seeing your content on my dash. 💕 For someone who is discovering your Royai fan fiction, what pieces are your favorite? Which ones would you recommend to people? Do tell us more! Thanks!!

Hi there! Thank you so much!! 💓

I would say my favorite is cause I'm lovesick (I ain't even ashamed) - which was my first royai fanfic. It basically wrote itself (it literally flowed out of me), and it's my baby. I'd definitely recommend that one for people looking for a smutty, fluffy post-promised day fic.

For a less smutty, more emotion-focused fic, I'd recommend you're all that matters to me anyway, which takes place directly after the promised day. I also loved writing that one, and having roy/riza discuss where they stand after everything. It also has a sequel called hopeless, breathless, burning slow. And for a long, super soft, fluffy, hurt/comfort fic, I'd recommend my newest fic (you are my home) my home for all seasons. Also post promised day because I am a broken record, lol.

In general, I just really like writing fics where Roy is just like... utterly simping for Riza, lmao. She deserves it. 😏 I feel like Roy is definitely a romantic, and Riza's feelings are equally as strong... but she's just more subtle about it. That's the general headcanon I have for their relationship and the vibe I try to present in a lot of my fics. It's mostly self-serving, because I enjoy both reading and writing wife guy Roy haha. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[luckyfluffy-ccs]

Hi hi! It's me!!

First off, happy happy anniversary to you and your amazing story! I was new to the Obey Me fandom when I discovered it while I was searching for Leviathan x Reader fics, and I'm so happy I did! It's such a detailed and wonderful story <3

Here are some of my questions to you! I'm sure others may have written similar ones lol.

How much time do you dedicate to writing and research for your story in your daily/weekly life?

When you're not writing or doing school work, what else do you do during your free time?

In general, which of the seven deadly sins describes you best? Does it correlate to your favorite brother in OM?

Of the OM characters, which one do you relate to the most?

How did you get into reader inserts? Have you played any other dating sims/otome games before getting into OM?

What other, if any, fandoms are you a part of or just like enjoying content of?

Depending on your answers, I wouldn't mind continuing the conversation for some of these questions (especially #5 hehe).

Take care as always and I look forward to you answering these questions, seeing your anniversary art, and reading more chapters! <3 ~Kkat

Hi Kkat!! I sincerely thank you for all your love of my silly story. I still can't believe it my fic you found when you were new! (I hope the occ never put you off back then HJSJH)

As you have asked a lot of (original!) questions, I have answered them under the cut! and I definitely don't mind you continuing to ask more in-depth ones. as long as I can keep it spoiler-free!

(I'm also very flattered there were questions about me haha!)

How much time do you dedicate to writing and research for your story in your daily/weekly life? It varies wildly per week if I am honest. Sometimes I can't write more than a sentence for three weeks straight and another day I pump out 3 spell-checked chapters. The research took up a LOT of time in the very beginning, especially figuring out how I wanted the cast to work out. Now it’s a whole lot less and I barely have to do it. Only when new characters appeared. Or now more commonly when a fact gets revealed about them I tend to thoroughly research it. Last time I had to study for a new fact I had like 7 tabs open on Ley lines and how they worked/their origins. Only to not use it at all lmao (well it's used but only if you squint) However, despite this the story is on my mind 24/7. Thinking about what I want to happen or cute/interesting character interactions. It is often a lot more difficult to put it down in words

When you're not writing or doing school work, what else do you do during your free time? …Well… I mostly uhm, read. Big AO3 fan here. Beyond that, I am a very creative soul. I draw! I used to have an art blog with like 500 followers, but that is in the long past- I'm also trying to make a Bullet Journal atm but I haven't done a whole lot. If I am not busy being so incredibly creative/lh I am usually playing games. I'm not a huge gamer like Levi, but I have a few games that I have quite a number of hours in! (Slime Rancher) Recently I became a huge fan of The Witcher 3 and Cult of the Lamb. If not any of those, I watch anime/read manga, regular shows or movies, talk or hang out with my friends. And I try to go to the gym! Although that's only like 2 hours per week since my stamina is utter garbage lmao

In general, which of the seven deadly sins describes you best? Does it correlate to your favorite brother in OM? This is not even a biassed thing. But my deadly sin would 100% be Envy I am such an incredibly jealous person, even since I was young. Not to trauma dump but all my life I've been compared to my siblings or other family members and now I get envious super easily. Now that I am older I can manage it a lot better than when I was little. But unfortunately, I have my fits. Also yes it correlates to Levi LMFAO Not asked, but if I had to make a tierlist of the sins that describe me. I’d have to say Envy>Wrath>Sloth>Lust>Pride>Gluttony

Of the OM characters, which one do you relate to the most? Extremely difficult question- I relate to so many of them, all for different reasons. Without naming Levi since I spoke about that in a different question, I'd have to say either Lucifer or Satan. Mostly Lucifer as we struggle with those delicious oldest sibling angst and responsibility. Ironically I really hated Lucifer at first, only to realise I was looking in a mirror. While I do not suffer from my pride in the slightest, and without doing a character analysis- I relate to the way he is perceived by others, many new fans think he treats his brothers so roughly. But if you take even 3 seconds to observe him closer you can see he holds so much fondness and love for his close ones. And I feel that. Satan is a similar case. When people don't see him for who he is they tend to quickly fall for the ‘he’s such a gentleman’ or ‘he’d murder you for a sprinkle’ guy. And I love the way Satan is complex because he IS a sweetheart, but he also is the sin of wrath. And people also tend to dumb me down to just one of my character traits so I relate to that so bad. And we are also both obsessed with books!

How did you get into reader inserts? Have you played any other dating sims/otome games before getting into OM? Have… have you heard of Mystic Messenger- that truly was my first otome/dating game. From there on it all went to hell with me- (Beyond Obey Me I actually haven't played that many other dating sims. Dangerous Fellows, LoveUnholic, HUGE fan of The Arcana. Got addicted to Character.ai for a while) Funnily enough, it wasn't that what truly got me into reader inserts. It was… it was Hetalia… while at first I only read their canon ships. I remember a 2p!Italy x reader that made such a huge impact on me, that I suddenly began reading a lot more fanfics with the trope I at first found cringe. (this fanfic has sadly been deleted) I still read a lot of ship fics, but also a big fan of my lovely reader inserts

What other, if any, fandoms are you a part of or just like enjoying content of? Please don't ask for my fandom list. It'd be worth 82 pages long. I’m a huge multi-fandom enjoyer. But if I had to numb it down to just the ones I am most active in then I’d have to be: (in no particular order) Obey Me(duh), FNAF(all media), Video Blogging RPF/Minecraft, Bungo Stray Dogs, Genshin Impact, Enstars, BNHA, Black Butler, Twisted Wonderland, MDZS/Grandmaster of demonic Cultivation/Founder of Diabolism, Dungeon Meshi, haikyuu, ect

[navigatorsghost]

Frooooots, froooooots, get yer froooots here! :D 🍉🥭🍈

Thank you! I'm sorry it took me a bit to answer this, I got brainjammed on the final question trying to decide what to ramble about. >_>

🍉 Do you prefer to write short fics or long fics? Multichaptered works or single ones? Why?

Uh, this is a bit of a trick question, because honestly, what I have is a lot of ideas for longfics but all I ever manage to get finished are the short ones. XDDD I would prefer, strictly speaking, to be able to write long/multichapter fics because I always have so many ideas and so much worldbuilding I want to do, but sadly my brains just won't buckle down so I have to settle for the mostly short fics they give me...

🥭 Rank from most enjoyable/fun to write to least: Fluff, Smut, Angst, Crack.

I actually have written and enjoyed writing all of these so this is really difficult to answer! All of them are my favourite in different moods. I write fluff when I'm feeling emotionally battered and want comfort, I write smut mostly when I want to pamper my muses, angst just happens when someone in headspace drops random tragic backstory on me, and usually I do crackfic when someone says something silly in Discord and then a whole plot falls out. XD So I really can't rank in order, I love them all!

🍈 Who’s your blorbo and what are some of your favorite headcanons/ideas about them that repeatedly show up in your fics? Free pass to rant about blorbo opinions.

I have an ever expanding lifetime list of blorbos so here's a couple of my current active ones from Naruto:

- Sasori is autistic as. fuck. Uncomfortable inhabiting a living organic body to the point where he turned himself into an imperishable corpse puppet, detests and fears change, gets anxiety when he thinks things aren't being planned thoroughly enough, hates scheduling disruptions and/or having to wait, cares intensely about inanimate objects but struggles to relate to living people, likes to hide in very small enclosed spaces, noticeably flattened affect despite clearly having actual emotions underneath, cannot contain the need to infodump about his special interest even in a literal life-or-death battle... one of us, and I love him for it. I feel sure he would've been so very much more Okay if someone had been willing to keep him safe in a nice quiet predictable place and give him lots of supportive attention on a consistent schedule.

- Hidan, slaughter-happy devotee of a dark god of suffering, secretly has a villain origin story that's basically "was born and raised in customer service". In a world where ninja are generally hardbitten career soldiers, he grew up in the one village that's renounced war in favour of catering to tourists. Consequently he has witnessed and endured horrors of a kind most ninja couldn't even imagine (can you imagine dealing with a stereotype Karen who's also heavily armed and can throw magic at you?) which finally drove him to go on a chaotic killing spree just to get out of there. He's secretly an expert in a dozen different embarrassing "soft" skills - he can write haiku, play the shamisen, run a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and more - but had to teach himself how to, like, throw a kunai. (And he can't even talk to anyone about his trauma because they'll just think it's funny.)

Thank you for asking! ❤️

[sukunasun]

I finished the "Say It's Here" sequel and gosh, I'm bowled over! I feel like your understanding of each character's psychology has been heightened since the original was published and It's so impressive! I particularly enjoyed how economical you were with the descriptions according to each character's personality, motivation and dynamic with the protagonist

Also, my god, not higuruma hiromi being the highest quality rebound ever???? Currently obsessed with him and it's kinda funny/sad how many parallels people draw between him and Nanami, understandably, but I LOVE that you flesh out their distinctions here too. Not quite a cameo but he feels more fully realised and real(?) in his short scene than in some entire pics revolving around him that I've read! I quiver to consider what you'd unleash upon the world with a full fledged fic for him (with a different reader character ofc)

But Srsly how does she keep hooking such hotties

Higuruma's "ruthless" rationale and observations is rather kind in its own way, and I thoroughly enjoyed how accurate it felt and also that the reader doesn't mistake it for anything affectionate or coddling. I find that clarity extremely appealing about him, plus it must feel so ridiculously refreshing to the reader character after all the guesswork and her ordeal with nanami

I also think that's one of the more satisfying distinctions you make with their portrayals; nanami (initially) employs logic as a coping mechanism, whereas it's hiromi's basis for functioning, a bit like a bug versus a feature?

At least in accordance with canon events, I think that mindset translates well, nanami's response to traumatic incidences in his formative years whereas hiromi had this rationality inform his life's work?

Especially when ambiguity is often the fulcrum for romantic tension (will they/won't they), my mind short-circuits and a little shiver goes down my spine at the thought of Hiromi instead bluntly telling someone: Us? Sure, Why not?

And then calmly proceeds to decimate every excuse one tries to tank their own dating prospects. You can't filibuster flirting with this man, he's so fucking direct (and vice versa 🤭, sometimes a gal just wants a classic Dom yknow. God, i need help)

A N Y

W A Y

Nanami feels more than he lets on in this story, Hiromi is exactly what you expect - which is such an interesting lesson or refraction for the reader character in managing her expectations and self-doubt

Nanami's grovelling feels mostly earned, maybe because it's been a while since I read Say It's Here his interiority is a tad more obscured, or cause the sequel more heavily focuses on reader's POV, which is really well assisted by suguru's commentary/probing/ribbing. Special shoutout to satoru's point blank shit stirring (he and hiromi would be fabulous frenemies)

Also love the open ending because ironically it feels better than emotional closure??? Or probably the finality of her rejecting nanmi again, oof. It's such a satisfying coda oddly i (almost) don't want this story to continue. What a magic trick!

There's such finesse in all the characterisations here, even without my massive bias for higuruma I'd be rereading this a dozen times!

;__; im so sorry this response is so late but thank you so much for sending this in. i'm so glad you got to read the piece!

i care more for the opinions of nanami stans for being able to write/understand him and his appeal in a way i can't. still, i try my best to offer something worthwhile. the open ending was more because i couldn't decide the best outcome for the reader and nanami. there were moments i thought about writing an epilogue to hint at the possibility of them getting back together but i've decided it's best to leave it up for interpretation. after all, nanami comes off to me as someone who wouldn't need a 'yes' right away.

also re: higuruma— gahh i was so uncertain if i did him justice, so thank you for noticing that distinction. often i'll write and delete and write again because i worry if it wasn't clear enough. to me, he's very different to nanami. not even the same sides of a coin. still, i get the comparison. both have been strung into the dilf narrative so often i forget that nanami is literally three years older than me.

[revvethasmythh]

tagged by @utilitycaster!

last song listened to: If I Had A Heart by Fever Ray. Very moody, very cool song off my durge playlist

currently reading: A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft. Was wary but hopeful going into this because I have little to no luck with any books labeled as "romantasy." I'm about halfway through and thoroughly relieved to be enjoying it a lot! Solid worldbuilding in fantasy world just left of irl early 1900s, great characters, and an interesting magic system. Tbh WAY more than I was expecting going into it and I've got another of her books lined up to read after

currently watching: numerous things, but mostly making my way back through c2. with a couple of friends, we're currently watching 911 Lone Star (for the second time, for one of my friends who didn't catch all the episodes), and with another friend we're rewatching Charmed, which I haven't seen since I was like. ten. Watching it back has been a wild ride, let me tell you.

(We are also watching reality tv show Farmer Wants A Wife--the American version--and we put it on initially as a joke, but it was surprisingly good? Honestly the least offensive piece of reality television media I've ever seen? It was a pleasant surprise and we're watching it week to week now after CR on Thursdays)

currently obsessed with: I was given a very pretty, very satisfying mechanical keyboard as condolence gift for the sudden and untimely death of my beloved laptop (may her memory be a blessing), and honestly it's pretty fantastic. I think I'm writing more now just for the joy of clicking the keys.

Also rather obsessed with the aggressive horse girl energy that is happening on the top of my desk rn (they were Christmas gifts. My mom and I visited a bona fide toy shop in early December and she saw me experience ~whimsy~ at seeing the Breyer holiday collection so now they, and also that clear unicorn ornament, have a permanent place on the top of my desk)

tagging: @mapleandgingeroatmeal, @tin-cant, @undead-knick-knack

[imsocialshit]

Spoilers for The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins

CW/TW: Mentions of ED, Mentions of child murder, Coma Mention

Screaming and crying and going insane. This is unorganized, do not care.

Although it seems kinda strange for Sota (blonde haired new dad) to just reveal all of this, if he's telling the truth there's got to be a reason Tsubasa's brain is inserting this. Especially considering it's right after Tsubasa says he thinks his camera is important. Considering the (very small) view we get of the person holding the camera in the flash back, I'm pretty sure it's Sota.

I really enjoyed the most recent chapters. I'm not typically a fan of "it was all a coma" plots but this one feels nice to read. Especially taking into account how Minako and Kakeru are apparently having shared dreams taking place in Tsubasa's brain.

If anything I'd say Sota *is* lying about the true purpose of Tsubasa's dream world. Like Minako and Kakeru having shared dreams with identical scenarios is weird. He was super adamant on the idea that it would be better for Tsubasa to not remember anything and just let himself live out a fantasy, but then the second Tsubasa is like "oh the broken computer in my room is important, I don't know who but when I was super young someone took a picture of me with it." I don't necessarily think Sota is like some kind of evil dude, but I'm sure he has something to do with this in the real world.

Drawing attention to the new newspaper image we see, it mentions (I believe) 5 being injured and 1 [text covered/blurred]. I'm sure that this is either referencing Tsubasa being in a coma or one of the family members dying. I've seen all of one person say they think it's the Grandma, but I don't fully agree. We have very little going on with her currently, so I don't think it would really hit as hard if she died. My bet is more on Shiori, but I do doubt any of the family died in the crash.

I'm obsessed with Minako, just genuinely think she's so interesting. From what little we learn about her she was a very high-class woman, she had a good job and enjoyed the finer things. But she still chose to marry Kakeru with his silly ass proposal. I also wasn't expecting for the eating disorder to be genuinely canon, I had assumed because of her room and her eating habits, but I didn't think it was going to be clearly stated. I do doubt she actually killed Kenta (the child of the woman that she thought Kakeru was seeing), mostly because I feel like she would've gone to jail for that. If anything I think her diary entry refers to Tsubasa specifically, not Kakeru or Kenta. Which could tie into her flashback asking him to not tell anyone something. This makes me think Tsubasa either found out she was literally planning to kidnap and murder a child or found out Kakeru was cheating. I do think it's interesting how this seems to frame her as expecting to get caught or expecting something bad to happen. (My note about why I don't think she killed Kenta is that it's been 4 years since the incident, if she was planning this before the incident and then went though she'd probably have been fund out by now)

Anywayz I love Ichinose Family's deadly sins. Very fun, and I thoroughly enjoy the writing and art style. The pacing is a bit strange though

[sing-you-fools]

Where should i start with terry pratchett? I also dont know if im going to read all of his books, so what would you recommend as a good hook into his writing?

Hey, so apparently where i have been looking for my asks is... not... where they are? I don't know what I've been doing wrong but I have no idea when you sent this, I'm just seeing it now! Sorry!

My default recommendation for a starting point is Monstrous Regiment - it strikes the right balance of giving you a really good snapshot of Pratchett at his best (with the disclaimer that his best is quite a solid chunk of Discworld), standing alone better than almost any of the others (they all stand alone well to one degree or another, but MR's main plot is completely separate from Ankh-Morpork or any of our usual protagonists, while still giving us a solid introduction to Vimes and some of the Watch, and it's fun to go back from there to see them develop).

I went: one Rincewind book in high school that I found completely forgettable and may not have finished (probably the first), the Wee Free Men in high school which I enjoyed but the guy who had recommended both didn’t think I'd like the rest of Discworld if I liked Tiffany and not Rincewind (lmfaooooooo this kid was my high school academic nemesis frenemy sorry I have to laugh at how terrible that take is in retrospect). I don't consider these first forays particularly important. When I really got into Discworld, I went: Pyramids, Small Gods, Monstrous Regiment, Going Postal. (The Truth would have been a good addition to this reading order, right before Monstrous Regiment, and you see a lot of the same characters there in those two, as well.) At the time, they were all standalones - Making Money wasn't out yet - and that introduction gave me a really good snapshot of Pratchett's range, so if you're only looking to dip a toe in at first, I might try that. Pyramids and Small Gods are, I think, around where he really starts to hit his stride, so I got to go from "yeah these are really good!" to "wow these are INCREDIBLE" and that got me excited to read more.

From there, I went to the Watch series, which is what I often recommend if someone wants a specific series to start with, but you mostly can't go wrong. The Watch is very parody-noir, the Witches are more parody-fantasy retelling, Tiffany Aching is the best YA on Earth, and Moist is a fucking blast. I wouldn't recommend starting with Rincewind, personally - I'm only reading those ones now - and I don't think I would have enjoyed the DEATH books nearly as much if I hadn't already been thoroughly familiar with Discworld, though I know a lot of people love them as a starting point. (Now that I think of it, I feel like I may have read one of them among the ones I listed when I started and just not remembered it at all. I read them more recently and loved them, and I don't know if it was the book or me. They're much quieter than the others, in some ways. They're good comfort reads.)

Anyway, I hope you got to Discworld before I got to this ask, but if not, I hope it helps!

[withingerly]

dramas I watched in 2023

I'm more of a reblogger/lurker here and I don't really post much (at all), but I was looking at my spreadsheet of dramas last month and realized I was about to hit an insane, personal record number of dramas watched in a calendar year. So I decided to write up a recap post, mostly for my own sake because I have a terrible memory.

I am closing out 2023 having watched 92 dramas. What the actual fuck. I thought watching 67 dramas in 2021 was a cry for help, but I really have no excuse for what happened this year. (To be fair, 43 of the dramas I watched in 2021 were c-dramas, whereas this year, 65 of the dramas I watched were BL, so by total hours watched [which is not actually a metric I keep], I did probably watch more in 2021.)

So, if you care to read about which of the 92 dramas I enjoyed the most this year, along with other random categories like favorite lead characters, favorite ships, and favorite drama with X trope, read on.

Favorite C-Drama: Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Okay, this was the year I finally got what all the fuss was about with Cheng Yi. He's honestly a little weird looking to me, but damn the dude is charismatic and magnetic and I could watch him spit up fake blood all day long. (Maybe someday I'll finish Immortal Samsara, but also I'm finally beginning to make my peace with the fact that xianxia just isn't really my thing, so maybe not.) Although Cheng Yi played a huge part in my love for Mysterious Lotus Casebook, it wouldn't be my number one c-drama of the year if everything else about it wasn't excellent too. This show gave us unhinged queen Jiao Li Qiao, Qiao Wan Miao finally cutting down Xiao Zi Jun as he deserved, actually interesting cases to solve, the best shiniang and the most pathetic shixiong. And oh yeah, a truly fantastic polyship. Pretty much every single thing about this drama was perfect to me, which is a rarity. This one is definitely going up there in my top 5 c-dramas of all time.

Runner Up: Love and Redemption

They really don't make dramas like they used to anymore – literally. I would love to rewatch this one, but I don't currently have the bandwidth to make it through all 59 episodes again. And the way they genderbent Xuan Ji in the final arc but still kept her love line with Si Feng as a central plot point regardless? Currently airing c-dramas wish they could (but no seriously, fuck censorship so hard). This one might also deserve all-time top 5 status, but I blazed through my first watch so fast and furious that I think I'd have to do a more reasonably paced rewatch to confirm. In any case, this was the drama I couldn't binge watch fast enough (only a Neo from the Matrix moment, where I literally upload the drama into my brain in an instant, would have sufficed), which is a testament to how thoroughly I enjoyed this one.

Favorite K-Drama: Revenant

It seems like every year there's a k-drama that makes me go against my own taste, and this year it was Revenant. I am pretty firmly anti-horror, but the gifs of Kim Tae Ri in this show got me so intrigued and she was an absolute beast. Her performance alone would have carried this to favorite status, but then my pathetic little man Hong Kyung showed up and I don't even know why I shipped them so hard but I really really did. 

Runner Up: Alchemy of Souls

I'm cheating and putting both seasons here because even though I've probably rewatched more bits from Light & Shadow, the second season wouldn't have any of the emotional weight it does without the first season, so I'm not picking between them and you can't make me. At first, I was so disappointed that Jung So Min had been recast, but I ended up loving the second season anyway. Actress switch aside, Light & Shadow feels like a very different show, but I loved the way they handled the repercussions of the first season in a way that felt both consistent and earned. 

Favorite K-BL: The Eighth Sense

Absolutely no question here. The Eighth Sense ate my brain while it was airing. It was the strong Shelter vibes at first, but then Seo Jae Won and Kim Ji Hyun totally won me over on their own merits. By the end of episode 9, my heart was in throat. 

Runner Up: Cherry Blossoms After Winter

When I started writing this out, I was not expecting Cherry Blossoms After Winter to be here at all, but it really snuck up on me. As soon as I finished the drama, I binge-read the webtoon, and then I ended up rewatching the series more than a couple times, so yeah, I enjoyed the hell out of this one, with all its old-school vibes.

Bonus Shout Out: Our Dating Sim

If Our Dating Sim had been a little angstier, it might have given the above two a run for their money, but regardless, I have to give it a shout out because "Have you been well, without me?" is a line that just lives in my brain rent-free from now on.

Favorite Tw-Drama: Oh No! Here Comes Trouble

This could just be the recency effect, but I might go so far as to say Oh No! Here Comes Trouble is my favorite Taiwanese drama of all time. The mysteries were engaging, it's funny, it's emotional – don't get me started on how many tears I shed. The acting and writing were just top notch, and if they bless us with a second season, I will be first in line to watch. 

Runner Up: About Youth

I don't think I hear many people talk about About Youth on here, so I feel pretty justified in calling it an underrated gem. It was basically, for me, a perfect drama all the way through. The main couple and the side couple were all wholesome babies and I wanted to protect them. Ye Guang's struggle in particular really resonated with me. I often think I'm getting too old for high school and college dramas, but when they hit that nostalgia factor just right, I am sold.

Favorite J-Drama: Utsukushii Kare: Eternal

Cheating a bit here because Eternal was a movie, but it was the final installment to the Utsukushii Kare series and it was perfect. We finally got the character growth I wanted, that made me believe these two crazy kids would actually make it. 

Runner Up: Tokyo in April Is…

My best friend pointed out recently that j-dramas are great with obsession, and yeah, I do love my j-dramas a little fucked up. Not only does this one feature obsession, but it also has another of my favorite tropes: second chances. Ren had my whole freaking heart, and the way he finally got his happy ending left me on the floor. That chase scene was one of my favorites.

Favorite Thai BL: A Tale of Thousand Stars

(Fun fact! Prior to this year, the only Thai BL that I had watched was Kinnporsche. RIP to me.)

This was definitely my hardest category, because it was my most-watched category (33 dramas), but I gotta give it to A Tale of Thousand Stars. Solid execution of some of my favorite tropes and it just ticked all the boxes: good pacing, good acting, good plot, good chemistry. And lucky me, we got Our Skyy 2 this year. I'm usually not that bothered by proposal scenes, but this one got me hard. It was exactly the kind of epilogue to Tian and Phupha's story that I didn't realize I needed.

Runner Up: Lovely Writer

On the complete other end of the spectrum, upending all our favorite tropes, is Lovely Writer. I rewatched this after watching a dozen more Thai BLs, and I have to say I enjoyed it even more. During my first watch, I hated the first half, only stuck with it because I liked Gene so much, and loved the second half. Upon rewatch, the first half was not nearly as unbearable, and I think it was because I could see that Sib was intentionally playing into a BL archetype. But still, the second half has all of my favorite moments. Once their shared history is revealed, Sib stops being a cardboard cutout and becomes more human, and the entire storyline picks up and I am much more invested in his and Gene's relationship. That dinner where they come out to their families is excruciatingly awkward and I love it (and the episode that follows) so much – those scenes alone elevate it to favorite status.

Favorite First Half of a Drama: Destined

I love both Bai Jing Ting and Song Yi, so my expectations for this drama were very high, and the first half of Destined absolutely delivered. Just sheer perfection, no wrong steps, everything I didn't even know I wanted. Unfortunately, that kind of means the show peaked when they found themselves in the wilderness, trying to get the other to survive out of sheer willpower purely because they believed in the other's goodness. THE BLOOD FEEDING!!! Ahem. So yeah, the second half was okay, it had its moments but was generally a little boring and predictable, but dear god that first half was incredible. 

Runner Up: The Blood of Youth

It may seem strange to have The Blood of Youth in this category, since I ended up giving it a 5/5 rating, but I just loved the Xiao Se x Wu Xin x Lei Wu Jie dynamic so much and as the show veered away from that, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

Favorite Drama That I Wouldn't Actually Recommend to Other People: Love in the Air

I know some people loathe everything MAME touches, but Love in the Air worked for me on every level. Well, I wish the acting for the couple in the second half had been a little better (ducks and runs), but I loved the first half and still quite enjoyed the second half. I really wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but it speaks to my little lizard brain. 

Runner Up: History 4: Close to You

I absolutely get why this show is controversial and why people hate it. I also don't care. This show had some delicious angst, and I was emotionally invested in both couples. Just a thoroughly enjoyable watch, but yeah, unless you're familiar with certain BL tropes and know you like them, I wouldn't actually recommend this one.

Favorite ML: Li Lianhua / Li Xiangyi (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)

Look, was it really going to be anyone other than this broken and silly man that feels the weight of the world on his shoulders and thinks his own life is worth less than everyone else's? It's been 4 months since I finished this drama, and I am still so emotional about Li Lianhua.

Runner Up: Xie Wei / Xue Ding Fei (Story of Kunning Palace)

I love an unhinged bastard, okay? When you realize that he loved her all along, her suicide in the first timeline hits that much harder. But I do love that he (albeit unknowingly) gets a second chance, and the man just goes for it. Never ever over the scene where he stabs his own hand, through the table no less, despite his obsession with playing the qin, to protect her. Romance storyline aside, I also love a good hidden identity trope (yes, there's a theme to this category). Xie Wei's revenge quest was delicious, and I freaking loved his scenes with Yan Mu and Yan Lin, all the meaningful looks and things unsaid until Yan Lin finally knelt in front of his cousin and acknowledged him.

BL Shout Out: Ai Di (Kiseki: Dear to Me)

It's hard to compare MLs from shows that run for 40 episodes vs. 12, but I have to shout out my favorite feral gangster Ai Di. I love me some good pining, and not only has this man pined for nearly his entire life, but he makes it everyone's problem. 

Favorite FL: Xu Hongdou (Meet Yourself)

Xu Hongdou was just so cool and kind and gorgeous, and okay, yeah, I had a big crush on her. I've never seen Liu Yi Fei in anything before, I didn't even realize she played Mulan in that recent Disney live action production until my sister pointed it out much later, but she's one of those actresses that can make me cry just by tearing up. Xu Hongdou felt like a real person, kind but not a pushover, strong but still vulnerable, and I somehow want to grow up to be her even though I'm older than her.

Runner Up (tie): Shim Woo Joo (Call It Love) / Gu San Yeong (Revenant)

This one is a tie because I loved both Woo Joo and San Yeong for the exact same reasons: they were just so fucked up but trying so hard, and more than anything, I just wanted them to be happy. While the ships in both dramas were great, for me the real otps were the FL x happiness.

Favorite Supporting ML: Wu Xin (The Blood of Youth)

Every time Wu Xin was on screen, it was just a breath of fresh air. I get that he's totally overpowered, so for plot reasons it made sense to remove him, make him mind controlled, etc. But every time he wasn't on screen, I missed him. Even though the casting was a bit of an odd choice (they gave us a man in his early 30s playing a teenager), I can't imagine loving Wu Xin as much as I did if it hadn't been Liu Xue Yi. He doesn't really manage to look like a teenager, especially next to Li Hong Yi and Ao Rui Peng, but he really pulled off Wu Xin's innocence and naivete and childish humor. He also gave Wu Xin a certain gravitas and realism that I don't think a younger actor could have pulled off.

Runner Up: Jin Fan (My Journey to You)

Jin Fan, my beloved. His backstory was delicious and made his relationship with Gong Ziyu even better. Also, the fact that he actually secretly liked Gong Zishang back the entire time??? My man.

Favorite Supporting FL: Yang Ying (A Journey to Love)

A YING MY GIRL. Her journey from neglected, unloved princess to capable and powerful grown-ass woman who marries a dude she doesn't love to protect her people was quite possibly my favorite thing about this show. I would 100% watch a drama just about her, and I so wish we'd gotten an actual glimpse of her and Li Tong Guang in that little epilogue in the final episode. Their alliance/marriage is fascinating to me. He Lan Dou better be a FL in some dramas asap. She was equally convincing as both a meek, terrified princess, helpless to the whims of bigger political machinations around her, and an icy cold princess in enemy territory, actually playing the game instead of just being a game piece, determined to not only survive but to also protect everyone she loves.

Runner Up: Yoon San (The Eighth Sense)

Shout out to the only person who was actually Jae Won's friend in this show. Yoon San was a total scene stealer for me, don't even get me started on that bit when she was singing by the fire on the beach (swoon), and I found her friendship with Jae Won really sweet and believable. I think this actress is super talented, she nailed the funny moments, she nailed the heartfelt moments, and I would love to watch her in another drama.

Favorite Non-Canon Ship: Gong Shangjue x Gong Yuanzhi (My Journey to You)

I did not go into this drama expecting to be so into these cousins/sworn brothers, but Gong Shangjue and Gong Yuanzhi's relationship as it unfolded throughout the show became the one I was the most invested in. I fully admit I'm a sucker for a dynamic where one party is wholehearted devoted to the other and also wholeheartedly believes the other is not nearly as devoted, so as soon as we got their tragic backstory, I was solidly on board.

Runner Up: Na Na x Da Mai (Meet Yourself)

I know Chinese censorship blah blah blah, but Na Na and Da Mai should have been girlfriends, cowards. I guess at the very least, neither of them ended up with a real love line of their own, but still, they should have been girlfriends. It just makes sense.

Technicality Shout Out: Li Lianhua x Fang Xiaobao (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)

The only reason this pairing isn't at the top of the list is because I, personally, don't consider them non-canon. They read to me exactly the same as the pairings in The Untamed and Word of Honor, thus they are canon.

Favorite Friendship: Pu Yiyong x Chen Chuying x Cao Guangyan (Oh No! Here Comes Trouble)

Watch the last episode of Oh No! Here Comes Trouble, and tell me this friendship trio didn't make you cry buckets. You know each of them is wondering how they ended up with the other two as friends, but somehow they're also totally ride or die and I love them all so much. 

Runner Up: Lom x Yiwa (Wedding Plan)

I loved Lom and Yiwa's long history together, the sacrifices they made for each other, their deep love born out of a bond of shared family pressure and mutual understanding. Their friendship actually drove the plot, and even when I was hollering at Lom to just be honest, his actions (and inaction) felt realistic once we got to know how important Yiwa is to him and why and once we had the context to understand how he had lived his life up to that point.

Favorite Found Family: Liudaotang (A Journey to Love)

If you've seen this show, I feel like it needs no explanation. These spies and scouts and murdery people with big ass swords and spiked shields and automatic crossbows were too good for this world. And the way their little family just kept getting bigger and bigger (spoiler: UNTIL IT DIDN'T) was so much fun to watch (spoiler: UNTIL IT WASN'T).

Runner Up: Rainbow Premium Taxi Service (Taxi Driver, Season 2)

I loved the way they addressed the end of season 1, by showing that these people are all a little messed up and they belong together and they really need the revenge business just as much as their clients do. When Kim Do Gi got roofied and he had his little housewarming hallucination, where they all wore matching slippers with hearts (!!), it honestly made me wanna cry a little.

Favorite Drama Featuring Friends to Lovers: My Only 12%

I don't know if it's because I missed it when it was airing, but I don't think I see many people talk about this show and I don't get why. This is to me quintessential friends to lovers. Seeiw and Cake's friendship felt absolutely real and lived in and honest, and the episode when Cake's family moved away had me bawling. Seeiw's pining physically hurt me, and Cake's confession scene in English could have been cringe but it was actually so fucking romantic.

Runner Up: Fake It Till You Make It

I don't know if everyone else would classify this one as friends to lovers because from the moment these two meet, it feels like they're teetering on the cliff of a romance or at least an excellent one night stand. But I just loved the way they flirted openly and then talked honestly about why they needed to stay friends and nothing more. I'm not typically that into "will they won't they" romances, but here, their hesitation to get more involved made sense emotionally, but at the same time their chemistry was fire and their attraction to each other was palpable, so it all just worked for me. Also friendship rings instead of couple rings was so stupid and I loved it.

Favorite Drama Where Nice Guys Finish First: Light On Me

This is totally not to say that Shin Da On isn't also nice, I just have no idea what to call this trope, but it's one of my faves, where the lead character ends up with the person they didn't actually fall for first. I did not foresee Tae Kyung ending up with Shin Woo at all, which is some poor media literacy on my part because all the hints are there from the beginning, but that kind of made the ride even more fun. One of the reasons I enjoy this trope so much is the built-in pining, and Shin Woo had some excellent pining. "Yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow, I will continue thinking about you" was a freaking great line.

Runner Up: My Ride

You might think a drama about two actually decent guys would be boring and lack conflict, but this drama employed this trope perfectly by starting out with Tawan getting a shot at his first love, the seemingly wonderful Por. So instead we got some great pining, Tawan being an oblivious sweetheart, and Mork trying so hard to be a good friend and not overstep, even as he was dealing with his own sexuality crisis. Just delicious.

Favorite Drama About Soulmates: Until We Meet Again

Did I only watch two dramas with the soulmate trope? Maybe so, but it's my list, so I do what I want. Until We Meet Again was what I would call a pitch perfect show – it delivered on everything it set out to do. I thought I was doing okay with the whole tragic soulmate storyline, but then I got to the very last episode and cried pretty much from start to finish. From the start, that episode got me so good and did not let up for like the next half hour, and so I was basically just left leaking tears until it all wrapped. Damn you, Fluke.

Runner Up: La Pluie

God this show was interesting. Smarter people than me have written a lot more nuanced and thoughtful meta than I ever could, so all I'll say is that I thoroughly enjoyed that a drama based on the premise of soulmates was really actually about how love is work. It wasn't a perfect show, but it was so interesting and the cast was so great that it was definitely a stand out.

For a true glimpse into my insanity this year, here is the full list of dramas I watched, including my ratings, in the order that I watched them:

Alchemy of Souls (4/5)

Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow (4/5)

Unchained Love (2/5)

Hi Venus (2/5)

The Blood of Youth (5/5)

Meet Yourself (5/5)

Silent (3/5)

Big Dragon (3/5)

Love in the Air (4/5)

My Tooth, Your Love (4/5)

Moonlight Chicken (4/5)

Utsukushii Kare: Season 2 (3/5)

A League of Nobleman (3/5)

Lovely Writer (4/5)

The New Employee (3/5)

Be Loved in House: I Do (2/5)

Not Me (3/5)

Tharntype (3/5)

Roommates of Poongduck 304 (3/5)

Theory of Love (3/5)

Tale of Thousand Stars (4/5)

Wish You: Your Melody from My Heart (2/5)

Our Dating Sim (4/5)

Cherry Blossoms After Winter (4/5)

Call It Love (3/5)

To My Star (3/5)

Bed Friend (3/5)

The Eighth Sense (5/5)

Taxi Driver: Season 2 (3/5)

Takara-kun & Amagi-kun (3/5)

A Shoulder to Cry On (4/5)

About Youth (5/5)

Light On Me (4/5)

Minato's Laundromat (4/5)

History 2: Crossing the Line (3/5)

History 1: Obsessed (2/5)

Dark Blue Kiss (3/5)

Together With Me (3/5)

Oh No! Here Comes Trouble (5/5)

My Engineer (3/5)

Never Let Me Go (4/5)

My Only 12% (4/5)

Black Knight (3/5)

Love Mate (3/5)

Until We Meet Again (4/5)

Love By Chance (4/5)

Bad Buddy (4/5)

Between Us (3/5)

Here We Meet Again (3/5)

Secret Crush on You (2/5)

Love Tractor (2/5)

My Ride (3/5)

Star in My Mind (2/5)

La Pluie (4/5)

2gether (3/5)

Destined (3/5)

Hidden Love (4/5)

Tokyo in April is… (4/5)

Revenant (5/5)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook (5/5)

Sing My Crush (3/5)

Bad Guys (3/5)

Love and Redemption (5/5)

Oh! Boarding House (3/5)

Stay By My Side (3/5)

Jun & Jun (3/5)

Fake It Till You Make It (3/5)

The Legend of Zhuohua (3/5)

My Lovely Liar (3/5)

My Journey to You (4/5)

Second Chance (3/5)

Lost in Translation (3/5)

My Personal Weatherman (3/5)

Wedding Plan (4/5)

Laws of Attraction (3/5)

Bon Appetit (3/5)

Oxygen (2/5)

Why R U? (Korea) (3/5)

Kiseki: Dear to Me (4/5)

Hidden Agenda (3/5)

Behind Cut (3/5)

History 4: Close to You (4/5)

Destined with You (3/5)

Dangerous Romance (3/5)

Story of Kunning Palace (4/5)

Perfect Marriage Revenge (3/5)

My Dear Gangster Oppa (2/5)

A Breeze of Love (2/5)

I Cannot Reach You (4/5)

Be Mine Superstar (3/5)

A Journey to Love (5/5)

Ai Long Nhai (3/5)