#nonbinary James my beloved

[vinylfoxbooks]

June 23 - Brain | @jegulus-microfic | wc: 554

“Jamie.” Regulus says, walking up to his partner. They’re both nursing cups of whatever drink is being served right now but James’ eyes are clear when they meet Regulus’.

“Hi, love.” James smiles, tilting their head towards Regulus so their voice can be heard better even despite the noise of the party around them, “What’s up?”

In lieu of an answer, Regulus reaches up with his free hand and pulls James into a kiss. James smiles into it, pulling away after a second, “What was that for?”

“I can do that now.” Regulus hums, resting his forehead against James’, “I like being able to kiss you. I couldn’t do that before.”

James’ smile widens even more, “You’re so sweet, love.”

Regulus rolls his eyes, “Shut up.” But it’s true. Regulus grew up reading romance books in secret and it very much permeated within him. He loved whenever the couple would kiss freely while laughing or just because. But he never thought he could do that, growing up in the household that he did, and he decided that pretty much every and all chance of being able to do that like the couples in his books because he liked men. 

Specifically, he liked James Potter. 

But now he has James Potter. Now he is able to walk up to his partner and kiss them whenever he wants since he’s no longer under the will of his parents. Now he can kiss James’ lips for any reason, even if he just thinks that James looks cute at the moment or if they’re being too annoying to shut him up. 

Regulus has that.

He never has before. 

So he’s going to abuse that. 

He surges up to kiss James once more, making the older laugh. Nonetheless, James puts the cup in their hands down on a nearby table and wraps one arm around his waist and the other reaches up to rest in Regulus’ hair. 

It’s a sweet kiss, intense but not steamy and Regulus practically melts at the spot when he feels James start to card their hand through his hair. 

Then they gasp and pull away. 

And when Regulus makes eye contact with them, he furrows his brows, “Is everything okay?” 

“You have an undercut.” Is their answer, their hands tracing along Regulus’ hairline, fingers running over the shaved hair, “Why didn’t I know you had an undercut.”

“Because most of the time my hair is down.” Regulus hums, reaching up to feel at his undercut, “And Barty just refreshed it a couple days ago so it’s freshly shaven. I honestly thought you knew I had one.”

James shakes their head, “No, I didn’t.” Then they give him a dopey smile.

“Why are you so fascinated by this?” Regulus asks, mirth evident in his tone.

“I-” they shake their head, “I don’t know.”

“What’s going on over here?” Sirius slurs, throwing his arm over both Regulus and James’ shoulders, “What’re you two talking about?”

“I think I’ve broken James’ ability to use their brain.” Regulus huffs.

“What’dya do?”

“Have an undercut.”

Sirius laughs, “Oh! They love those. Makes them weak in the knees. None of us know why.”“I’m right here, y’know.” James grumbles. Regulus just laughs, pushes Sirius away from the two of them, and pulls them for another kiss. Because he fucking can.

[reggies-fake-horcrux]

dor "make death proud to take us" lene

[headmasterseverussnape]

If you find it absolutely necessary to intrude upon my solitude, consider this your begrudging greeting. Listen carefully for I won’t be repeating myself.

Name: Severus Snape

Identity: Masc Nonbinary | Autistic | Sleep Deprived

Relationship: Not of relevance. However, if you must know.. @sneppu and @sevsbestfriend are my beloveds.

About Me

➤ I have a particularly keen interest in Potions Making, Dark arts, and Criminology, though I doubt these pursuits would captivate those of lesser intellect.

➤ Main Fandoms: Harry Potter, Supernatural, Gravity Falls, Good Omens, Lord of the Rings, Loki.

➤ This blog is primarily centered around Harry Potter; I do not support the insipid views of J.K. Rowling, whose opinions are as tiresome as they are misguided and long since lost their merit.

Favorites

Characters I can tolerate:

— Lucius Malfoy, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Xenophilous Lovegood, Rubeus Hagrid, Minerva McGonagall and a couple others.

Characters I hold in utter contempt:

— James Potter and Dolores Umbridge.

Ships

Ships I Can Endure:

— Snucius, Snupin, Snack and a couple others.

Ships I Find Patently Absurd:

— Honestly, just don’t ship me with Umbridge. I will block you. (Unless you’re @sneppu or @sevsbestfriend)

A Word of Caution

— Although, my first language is English; you can still expect the occasional grammatical error. Corrections may be offered, but do so at your own risk

— My patience for ignorance is limited.

— If my opinions offend your delicate sensibilities, I suggest you take the more prudent path of blocking me rather than engaging in futile disputes.

If You Dare to Approach

— Should you wish to engage in discourse with me that requires a modicum of intelligence, you may join @ollywander’s discord server. I also have my own discord server.

Until our paths cross again, remember: Even the most insufferable among us can occasionally display a shred of civility, though it is seldom expected.

[radio-ghost-cooks]

my gender/pronoun headcanons for doctor who

yes this includes both classic and new who (save for 13 + 15 bc I haven't seen their episodes)

1st: agender, he/him, time/timeself

2nd: demiboy, he/him

3rd: bigender, he/they

4th: demigirl, she/he, stripe/stripeself

5th (beloved #2): cis but in the same way that James from Pokemon is cis, he/they, leaf/leafself

6th: nonbinary, they/them

7th: not sure but you can't tell me xe's cis, xe/xer

8th: genderfluid, it/they

9th: agender, they/them, grey/greyself

10th: genderfluid, she/they

11th (beloved #1): demiboy, he/xe/they, star/starself

12th: genderfuck, anything

14th: demigirl, she/they

[nerdyenby]

Heartstopper 3.5 reaction (spoilers)

[first] [previous] [next]

Tori <33 the siblings of all time

HENRYYYYYYYYY 💗💕💕💗💕💗💕💗💕

Me when I fist fight Charlie and Tori’s grandparents

They made Olly a cousin? I’m glad he exists now lol

Nick tells David to shut the fuck up, hallelujah and merry christmas!!!!!

Darcy’s gran telling them they’re handsome, what if I cry?? I will, don’t test me (- a nonbinary person who has never once had a family member give me a gender affirming compliment or even use my fucking pronouns)

Me when I strangle Charlie’s entire extended family (except olly, of course)

Tori out here breaking my fucking heart, I really do gotta read solitaire

“I take it this is the boyfriend?” Aunt Dan my beloved

Charlie feeling so at home with the Nelsons warms my heart and heals my soul

Oh David….

“I think family are the people who actually give a shit” Nick out here spitting facts!!!!

I’m so glad we’re finally getting some Elle trans feels, we need happy trans people who are comfortable in their own skin, yes, but most trans people have complicated relationships with their bodies and it’s important to talk about that too

Tao just earned so many brownie points, love that guy but he doesn’t always say the right thing, he really nailed this talk tho

The Henry scenes make me miss my dog, I was coddling him like two hours ago but it’s not enough

Genuinely stellar advice for people questioning their gender: don’t rush, don’t pressure yourself to label yourself, and have fun with it

Taoelle dancing together makes me unreasonably happy actually

Are they really gonna make it through a New Year’s party while keeping the year ambiguous?? If so that’s equally impressive and infuriating

Omg communication????

Michael!!!!!!

James is an absolute W

(Probably) sober Imohar kiss!!!!!! Massive dub for sapphics everywhere

Best ship is Tori/juice actually, change my mind

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

Random ask, cause you have finished tgcf, what if the yuumori cast got into the tgcf universe? Who do you think fit into the cast? Like who do you think fit as xie lian, hua cheng, shi qingxuan, etc....

Sorry not sorry but Albert's feelings about William are the closest Yuumori comes to Hualian vibes RIP. Sherliam doesn't translate to Hualian, but AlWill could with a little tweaking.

That being said, Xie Lian just has such utter next level trauma that it makes the Moriartys' childhood look like a walk in the park. I don't think any character in Yuumori is really a close mirror of Xie Lian. William is a lot like Xie Lian was around the time of his first ascension and his first banishment and the famine in Yong'an, right at the point where he was determined to defy even heaven itself with the intent of saving the world.

But that's the thing. William's whole plan has an inherent immaturity to it. And Xie Lian was at that same point when he was a beloved god-child prince. But mountains of trauma and hundreds of years leave him outright cringing over his younger self. He's still kind, he still wants to help, and (though I have not actually read the final volume yet), presumably he (and love) DO save the day in the end. But he comes at it from a much more realistic pov in later years. So. Idk, give William immortality and maybe he'd grow up to be Xie Lian eventually. 😅 (this is only a Liam diss in the silliest lightest-hearted of ways. He's my precious babygirl.)

The problem with doing comparisons for the rest of the characters is that everyone abandons Xie Lian at one point or another, except Hua Cheng. William's followers are a lot more determined and dedicated. Moran could be Feng Xin, maybe, or Pei Ming? But I don't know, the rest gets too complicated.

Most importantly, however: Shi Qingxuan = James Bond. They're basically the same character, except the Wind Master seems to lean more nonbinary. But they've both got the same fun, clever, badass sidekick who provides comic relief thing. Fortunately, Yuumori is a kinder universe, and Bond will hopefully stay our happy boy. 😭

[unganseylike]

 Hi y’all! As promised, here’s my 2023 reading wrap-up – my reviews and thoughts about some of the books I read this year :) As a heads up, some of these reviews may contain very very vague and mild spoilers just because I personally feel like it’s impossible to give a good sense of my thoughts on media without that; so I’ll list the books I’m going to include in the order mentioned above the cut in case you want to 100% avoid any potential spoilers. Another disclaimer- these reviews are each quite different in content; my goal was to give a synopsis (except for a few I didn’t feel were worth my time), give my thoughts and mostly-non-spoilery takeaways, and connect to an overarching theme of this post. My initial goal was to write like 2 sentences for each book, but that definitely is not what happened. This is a long post. A long post where I gave into my inner booktuber and wrote like I was doing a video. I enjoyed writing this, but. It’s a lot. You might not enjoy reading it.

If you’ve read these books, I’d love to hear what you all thought…Since these are all books I read this year, I haven’t gotten to re-read any yet, and I’d love to have some new things to think about when I do! Please tell me if you check out these books after reading my list <3

Also…let me know if you have any books you’d recommend. I think this list might just give a sense of my picky taste. 

I’d like to give a shoutout the love of my life, Libby, for making this possible.

Books, in order of mention, with numerical ratings: 

What Moves the Dead- T. Kingfisher: 5/10

The Hollow Places- T. Kingfisher: 6.5/10

The Hacienda- Isabel Cañas: 9/10

The Honeys- Ryan La Sala: 7/10

I’m Thinking of Ending Things- Iain Reid: 7.5/10

The Ruins- Scott Smith: 3.5/10

The Cabin at the End of the World- Paul Tremblay: 4.5/10

The Beautiful Ones- Silvia Moreno-Garcia: 4/10

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau- Silvia Moreno-Garcia: 6/10

Where Ivy Dares to Grow- Marielle Thompson: 5/10

Beloved- Toni Morrison and The Turn of the Screw- Henry James (brief discussion, no ratings)

Paris Is a Party, Paris Is a Ghost- David Hoon Kim: 8.5/10

The Fragile Threads of Power- V.E. Schwab: 4/10

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue- V.E. Schwab: 4/10

When the Angels Left the Old Country- Sacha Lamb: 6.5/10

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes- Suzanne Collins: 8.5/10

Project Hail Mary- Andry Weir: no rating because didn’t finish (bad)

Station Eleven- Emily St. John Mandel: 7.5/10

Severance- Ling Ma: 9/10

Annihilation- Jeff VanderMeer: 9.5/10

The Archive of Alternate Endings: Lindsey Drager: 8/10

Ok, let’s kick this off with my first category: horror and/or I read this because I thought it was horror but it wasn’t. Over the last two years or so, I’ve gotten into reading horror–ish books, because I like the genre expectations, and it freaks me out less to read it than watch it.

Over the summer, I decided to check out T. Kingfisher. I’d heard good stuff about her as a horror author. I first read What Moves the Dead. This is an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Both this book and the new Netflix show are pretty different from the original and each other, but of the two adaptations, What Moves the Dead is probably closer in tone and setting (19th century countryside, gothic elements), but that’s mainly because the Netflix show has barely anything to do with the original (thanks Mike Flanagan!). Like the original, the plot kicks off with the narrator receiving a letter from the Ushers asking for help, leading them to travel to a crumbling manor. On the other hand, Kingfisher’s book does casually take place in what must be an alternate reality; it’s set in the fictional country Ruritania, and the narrator, Alex, is from another fictional country Gallicia. This world building mainly functions to normalize nonbinary identity and unique sets of pronouns. This does play into the plot, but I feel like it wasn’t necessary to create a fictional culture just for this, or otherwise it should’ve played more of a role in the story…like the narrator could’ve just said ka uses neopronouns and it would’ve been more straightforward than creating whole new countries. This worldbuilding aspect was probably my biggest issue with the book (though of course I love cool linguistic discussions about pronouns and gender!), maybe along with the random cameos by Eugenia Potter (as in, relative of thee Beatrix Potter, of Peter Rabbit fame). There are some great creepy bits with fungus, rot, rabbits, and corpses. There are some similarities to the fungal horror in Mexican Gothic (which T. Kingfisher actually discusses in the appendix), but it’s not quite the same – either way, we love the crossover between fungus and gothic lit! Overall, certainly a far better adaptation of Poe’s story than Mike Flanagan’s, but some of the original content seemed out of place, while other original aspects needed more fleshing out. 5/10. 

I decided to try another book by T. Kingfisher, The Hollow Places, which I had heard really good things about! This one’s an adaptation of the novella “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood, which features some sinister willows and cosmic horror (fun fact: I read the novella because Algernon Blackwood is where Martin Blackwood of TMA gets his last name) (fun fact 2: read “The Willows” it fucks. it’s free on project gutenberg). Unlike What Moves the Dead, Hollow Places takes place very much in the present, following a recently divorced woman who moves into her uncle’s museum of oddities. She and her GBF (okay, actually, he’s the eccentric middle aged neighbor who is a barista at the cafe the narrator goes to get wifi, but he does feel a bit gay best friend cliche to me) slip through a hole in reality to an in-between dimension full of willow-y islands…and hungry eldritch beings beyond their perception. Please appreciate that full sentence. I really liked the times while the duo was in this other place, but some of the moments in their own dimension felt a bit discordant; I honestly think it’s because their present was so modern. Like it felt weird to read them discussing memes after exploring a deadly pocket world. But maybe that’s the point of setting horror/fantasy in the modern world instead of a vague past. Despite this complaint, I actually think this a better adaptation in comparison to What Wakes the Dead, with original content nicely expanding on aspects of the novella. I did kinda hate the climax, but I’ll ignore that and rate this 6.5/10. When you fear getting torn apart by terrifying otherworldly beings, it really does put your ex-husband’s annoying texts into perspective. 

Before I get back to mid books, let’s talk about one I really liked: The Hacienda from Isabel Cañas. I actually wrote a few notes about this right when I read it because I knew I wanted to share something about it eventually. Those notes were: “cinematic, especially in flashbacks, not so typical final girl or just female protag period.” Which was not that helpful for writing this review because I don’t remember wtf I was talking about, but I’ll try to interpret past-Julia for you all. The book takes place after the Mexican War for Independence, during which the father of the main character, Beatriz, was executed. So, with her and her mother dependent on the goodwill of their cruel estranged family, Beatriz happily accepts a proposal from a hacienda owner and is ready to prove herself a capable homemaker. But, there’s something deeply wrong with the house, something that wants Beatriz dead. The only one that believes her is the priest Andrés, who has recently returned to the area, where his beloved grandmother had taught him witchcraft and had been a pillar of the community. He struggles to keep his witchcraft secret, while protecting Beatriz and trying to take on his grandmother’s mantle. I think I enjoyed nearly every moment of this book! I got a little stuck on the beginning, but once I got through the first few chapters, I was so invested in the story and was really following the ups and downs as Beatriz tries to solve the mystery and escape some evil shit. I loved the main characters, especially the women and Beatriz’s role as a gothic/horror heroine (hence the “not so typical final girl” note?), and I remember being surprised by the actions of characters I thought I was rooting for! Also, it must be said. Hot. Priest. I’m not generally a big fan of romances, but it worked for me lol. And, as I said in my notes, some scenes were so cinematic- I could picture exactly how they’d play out in a (good) movie. 9/10! I need to reread this, it was one of my favorite books I read this year! 

Around the same time, I read The Honeys by Ryan La Sala, and also had written down some terrible notes (adding some punctuation to make it semi-readable): “the horror of hypermasculinity, hyperfemininity, and the gender binary, bees, mean girl cliques, superorganisms like bees and aspen and rot. Actually very similar to midsommar in terms of grieving protag and sunlight horror and uhhhh joining a cult. Also I learned the term social horror.” I think that says it all…but I’ll give a more clear summary. When Mars’ twin sister dies terribly, he decides to attend her preppy summer camp in her place to reconnect with her memory and learn about her strange violent death. Mars is genderfluid and has always struggled in his political and public-facing family, thus resulting in his parents placing their hopes and confidence in his sister. But at Aspen Conservatory, Mars finds himself drawn away from the traditional gender roles of the camp and toward his sister’s elite and insular female friend group, the Honeys. They seem to accept Mars as one of their own, but what exactly does that mean? Overall, I really enjoyed the book, especially for all the creepy stuff that happens by daylight. It’s a great example of social horror; the gender binary sure is sinister in this book! I had a few complaints though. I thought Mars was a fun protagonist, but I didn’t always understand his motivations and occasionally he felt a bit annoying to me…but he is a teenager who has just witnessed his sister’s horrific death, so perhaps that behavior was intentional. I wasn’t a fan of the mystery reveal/conclusion, it felt a bit out-of-left-field to me, but maybe I just missed something. Also, it was a little too YA for me at this point in my life (though I wouldn’t actually classify it as strictly YA, if that makes sense), but I’m picky about genre, as you will see in these reviews. 7/10– after writing this review, I’m definitely considering rereading so I can see if I pick up on more foreshadowing!

I had a note saved for my next book I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Iain Reid), but it’s a spoiler for the entire thing so I won’t share. All I’ll say is, it was a joke about final girls…you’ll get it if you read it. I read this after trying to watch the movie on Netflix and giving up because it was boring in a discomfiting way (the stilted conversation and repetition was all intentional but it was getting to me), but I still wanted to know what happened and figured the things that bothered me in a film media wouldn’t be problematic in a book. I honestly don’t know how to describe this because it’s super surrealist and very easy to spoil with any of my personal takeaways. Most basic summary of all time: a woman questioning her relationship with her new boyfriend decides to go on a road trip to meet his parents. I actually recommend watching the movie trailer to see whether you’d like the book, because it gives a good sense of the inexplicable weird and tense vibe and atmospheric horror. 7.5/10 because reading this made me feel itchy. It was supposed to make me uneasy, and it sure did the job.

Ok, next are two books I don’t feel like describing in depth because they were mid/bleh. The first is The Ruins, by Scott Smith. I just learned they made a movie of this? I was thinking that it would actually work better as a movie than a book, but apparently it did terribly in theaters. Quick summary- four young American tourists in Mexico explore Mayan ruins in search of a fellow traveler, but become trapped on a hill covered with man-eating vines. The official summary mentions “a creeping horror” and “the terrifying presence that lurks there,” so I want to explicitly say that the big bad is man-eating vines because I was expecting something a bit deeper based on the blurb. I’d classify this as survivalist/nature/psychological horror and want to note it’s pretty gory. I’d give 3.5/10. It’s fine, but not what I look for out of the horror genre. 

The second book is The Cabin at the End of the World (Paul Tremblay). I saw really good reviews for this (btw there’s also a movie, which I haven’t watched but apparently is very different), but it also wasn’t all that interesting to me. I honestly don’t remember the plot very well/don’t feel like I have anything to write about it, so you might be better off looking it up, sorry. I’d give 4.5/10 though. 

Next, we have a few books that fit under the “I read these thinking they’d be horror” umbrella. This is my own fault for assuming Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s other books would be similar to Mexican Gothic. I would say I mainly didn’t like these books because I thought they were going to be a different genre, so take my word with a grain of salt. I read Moreno-Garcia’s The Beautiful Ones and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau over the summer. The Beautiful Ones is what I learned is called a “novel of manners,” where the quirky main character must navigate elite society to search for a suitor. The twist is that this takes place in a historical fantasy universe– the main character and her love interest have telepathic powers. I wish that the fantasy elements were more smoothly incorporated; I think this book could’ve been much better as magical realism. Even if the author didn’t want magic to be the main focus but for it to still be included in the story, magical realism would make that possible! I’d give 4/10, but that’s partially because I’m not really interested in the genre; if you like romance or YA fantasy with a twist, this might be fun, but I unfortunately do not! 

I somehow made the same mistake with The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. Okay, actually this one might’ve been a result of requesting it on Libby months before, then forgetting what it was by the time I got the book. This one I liked a bit better because the story had more interesting political meaning and is sci-fi/historical fiction, but it still wasn’t 100% for me. It’s inspired by H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, which I haven’t read, so I can’t comment on this as an adaptation. It takes place at a hacienda in 19th century Yucatan, Mexico, where Dr. Moreau experiments making human/animal hybrids and cares for his sickly daughter, Carlota; beyond their estate, a Mayan rebellion is mounting. The plot kicks off as the Moreau’s resources dwindle, and they hope to resolve their financial troubles with a union between Carlota and their patron’s son…but, of course, things are not what they seem at the hacienda. I enjoyed reading the book, mainly for the commentary on connections between colonialism and patriarchy, and was definitely invested in the story, but I think it just wasn't my taste– all in all, though, 6/10.

One more book in this category, but this one’s not actually my fault. This one actually mentions Mexican Gothic in the description just to fuck with me I guess. Where the Ivy Dares to Grow (Marielle Thompson) does indeed intentionally use gothic tropes and subverts them, which I guess is cool, if you don’t carry a sense of betrayal about getting gothic lit baited :/ Saoirse travels with her fiance to his family’s ancestral manor as his mother reaches the end of her life, but his parents have nothing but contempt for Saoirse. Plus, the passion has long since cooled between her and her fiance, especially as he has grown exasperated with her mental illness that causes her to disconnect from reality. Though the manor seems unwelcoming at first, she eventually grows attuned to its idiosyncrasies, and begins to slip back in time to meet her fiance’s charming ancestor. While I found a lot of this book frustrating (not just because of the genre betrayal…), I did like the incorporation of a protagonist with a dissociative disorder (specifically, Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder) into a fantasy genre. I think many times with fantasy, characters will question their sanity, only to be reassured with the realization of the truth of their magical reality. Here, the fantasy setting doesn’t negate Saoirse's struggle with mental illness, or vice versa. I think the conclusion was well done in this vein, and it increased my perception of the whole book. Despite my bitterness. 5/10. 

Before we leave the horror genre, I want to mention 3 books I read during my ghost fixation this spring, which don’t 100% fit as horror, but y'know, ghosts. I read Beloved (Toni Morrison) for the first time ever! There’s a million things online/in literature about Beloved, it’s a classic, nothing unique I can say, other than it’s so so incredible and who am I to give it a rating. My class read The Turn of the Screw (Henry James), which is the 1898 novella that “Haunting of Bly Manor” is based on (once again, Mike Flanagan is out here making wild adaptations…). We discussed it through a queer theory lens, and I recommend reading it with attention to sexuality and innocence, and how interrogating these things can be deeply violating. 

I read an excerpt of David Hoon Kim’s Paris Is a Party, Paris Is a Ghost for that same class, and I liked it so much that I read the whole book. Fun fact- half of the title alludes to the poem “Ghost Q&A” by Anne Carson, which I actually used in a web weaving post (here’s the relevant line: “A: have you been to Paris; Q: no; A: Paris is a ghost; Q: no it’s not”).  It plays with nonlinear time, since ghosts classically disrupt the progression of time and the definition of a “present;” us trc folks are quite familiar with that… The book follows (in the most ghostly use of the word) Henrik, a Japanese adoptee raised by Danish parents, an expat living in Paris. To top off the layers of identity and belonging, Henrik begins working for a blind physicist (i.e., someone who can’t see and question his ethnic background) as a translator between English and French, neither of which is his first language. The book is divided into three parts across Henrik’s life; the first centers around the implications of his girlfriend’s hikikomori. The third part focuses on Henrik later in adulthood, which I personally found less engaging than the other two (which I REALLY liked), but that may just be me and my interests as a young person, and that was my only issue with the book. I’d say this book is for fans of nonlinear storytelling, ghosts (of course), interrogation of identity, language and the art of translation, ambiguity, and weird shit. 8.5/10. Also I have a pdf of the first chapter (from when I read it for class), so DM me if you want to read a sample. 

Finally, we are done with horror (or are we? More on that later).

Next is a category I call “YA/YA adjacent/adult fantasy/gave me YA vibes sorry I know this is a controversial classification but that’s how I think of it.” 

I’ve already made two petty posts about the two V.E. Schwab books I read this year , The Fragile Threads of Power and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (here’s one post, can’t find the other now). They were…fine. First, Fragile Threads– it’s a spinoff series (?) from A Darker Shade of Magic, which I read a while ago and liked but forgot the details, so I think I’m a pretty good objective reviewer here. This new book takes place seven years after the original series and follows the original main characters and a few new ones. I think it was a good choice to have this fairly hefty time skip. The original characters are now in their late 20s/early 30s, which is unusual in the genre (or often post-time skip, the characters’ issues will be suddenly all solved and they’re all comfortably settled into adult life and domesticity). On the other hand, the new main characters are both tween girls, which felt like a strange choice and made everything feel kinda disconnected. I would’ve liked to spend more time with the new characters; the older set had pretty disproportionate screen time (perhaps Schwab felt readers who are big fans of ADSOM would be unhappy otherwise?). The major plot beats felt really rushed and unearned (especially the resolution of one of the major conflicts offscreen…if you’ve read it you know what I mean). When the next books in this new series come out, I’ll check them out, but I’m not that invested. 4/10. Regarding Addie LaRue, yea it was mid and I don’t feel like delving into it. readwithcindy has a video about the whiteness of the book  and books like it, which is worth checking out. Also 4/10. I still don’t believe that every person in the world would feel compelled to COMMENT ON ADDIE’S FUCKING FRECKLES WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT HAVING SEVEN FRECKLES I DON’T GET IT??????? Anyway. 

As per many tumblr recommendations, I read When the Angels Left the Old Country (Sacha Lamb). It’s a queer Jewish immigrant story that follows an angel and demon who are chavrusas (Talmudic study partners); they leave their shtetl for America to find and help a girl from their village. Along the way and through their time in America, they explore things like free will, gender, names and identity, labor justice, and fucking up rich people. I felt like this was a good historical fantasy, and I’m always up for Jewish fantasy! I’m not super into the angel and/or demon thing I know tumblr people like, so fans of those tumblr posts that are like “an angel is actually high tension wires” would probably like this. 6.5/10 - not 100% my taste, but definitely a fun read and I can’t believe this is the only really Jewish book I read this year. Someone tell me about more Jewish books please. 

There’s a couple other books I read in this category, but I don’t feel strongly about commenting on them (and we definitely don’t need to discuss the fact I read two game of thrones books in like a week for no reason), so let’s move on to my next set, sci-fi/apocalypse-y/dystopia. 

I read A Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds early this year. Obviously lots of people have been discussing it recently because of the movie, so all I’ll say is that I was pleasantly surprised. I was nervous it might be another pointless spinoff about a villain’s backstory (and trying to justify their actions), but this is definitely not that. This book had shit to say, and it was really well done. 8.5/10. 

I want to start the rest of this category with a book I didn’t like before getting into books in this genre that I felt worked so much better, at least for me. My brother sent me a paragraph-long text with a glowing review of Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir). He’s not a big texter, so I figured I had to check it out- I joined the long long waiting list for the book. And, I couldn’t get through it. I really tried, but everything about it annoyed me so much, despite the fact I had liked The Martian which is a fairly similar style. First, the narrator exemplifies the worst of scientist characters; while reading this book, I posted several times to complain about this problem. If you haven’t seen my many personal posts about my life, I currently work in a microbiology lab and ultimately want to become a research scientist. I regularly interact with truly incredible scientists, people I aspire to be like one day. But if I asked my supervisor to calculate a star’s orbit in her head, I think she might slap me. I really don’t think you can write a realistic scientist who is an expert in every subject, and the weirdly humble and immature attitude of the book’s narrator pissed me off more because of this. The fact he claims to be a microbiologist but seems to do everything but microbiology is beyond the point…It would be much more interesting to me to have the narrator find himself so out of his depth in a time of crisis and/or when alone in space. Of course, this would require some more creativity to move the plot forward, but that could be really cool! My other major reason for not finishing was the actual apocalyptic conflict. This was more a personal thing for me than a book problem; the conflict is a bit convoluted, but not bad in itself. Honestly, reading about an all-consuming response to a planetary crisis was just overwhelming and some aspects of their stopgap solutions made me physically nauseous (I don’t want to give specific spoilers but uh. I think the idea of what happens with the Sahara and Antarctica were what actually made me finally stop reading). On the other hand, it made me so sad to think about a reality where such a crisis warrants the appropriate response. We have a real planetary threat on our hands, and we can’t even mobilize the bare minimum measures because of the same capitalist and exploitative motivations that have driven climate change this whole time. This second unrealistic aspect gave me a good dose of climate doom. I can’t rate the book because I didn’t finish, but I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on this one, since I don’t understand why it has been so praised. 

I do think it’s possible to more realistically handle the idea of proportionate crisis response and normalcy/lack thereof in an apocalypse situation. We have all been living through a pandemic and have all personally experienced how quickly the definition of “life as normal” can change, as well as seen our world’s failure to raise a just and appropriate response when profit is in the picture. I’ve felt pretty sensitive to how fiction handles these topics, and I have a few broad  categories for pandemic media: pre-COVID and eerily accurate or pre-COVID and absolutely inaccurate; post-COVID and insensitive (it gives the audience a little elbow, like “hey we all remember THAT right, look, it’s been incorporated into this story lol!”) or post-COVID and tastefully incorporates some interesting insight or post-COVID and ignores the whole thing (though it’s a different question whether you can create something fully new without incorporating lived experience even subconsciously) (as another note, I want to add that before 2020, I was really into the science history of pandemics, but haven’t done much reading on that front since) (also, when I say post-COVID, I mean post-outbreak. COVID rates are soaring right now, let’s stop ignoring this. While we’re in a parenthetical, please get the new vaccine if it is accessible to you). 

Both Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel) and Severance (Ling Ma) were indeed published prior to 2019, and so they fit into category #1. Reading them this year actually felt really valuable and almost cathartic, rather than anxiety-inducing. Station Eleven loosely follows several people who are connected by their involvement in a production of King Lear immediately before the outbreak of a deadly flu. The fairly extensive glimpses into their lives prior to and after the outbreak round out really nicely. I like that we see such a range of ages of characters. One of the main characters was a young child when the flu started, and most of her screen time takes place twenty years after; only a small fraction of her life took place in what the older characters view as “normal” times. So what does that mean for people like her (or those born after the outbreak)? Should she be mourning something she experienced for just a few years? Her whole life has taken place during a period of apparent transition, but what is the world transitioning to? When does a transition end? After twenty years, there’s a sense of peace and predictivity to her reality- isn’t that a sort of normalcy? I also really liked the way all the characters were loosely connected to one another; there are lots of books with such setups, but I like that this connection doesn’t entail some great mystery or a climactic meet-up. Connection is just how the world works. 7.5/10; it left me with things to think about, but it was a bit of a slow read for me at some points.

While I read Station Eleven because I saw my lovely mutual posting about it, I read Severance because my coworker posted about it…but what are mutuals if not coworkers. It is similarly made up of pre- and post- outbreak scenes, but it follows only one character, Candace Chen (interesting quote from a New Yorker article about this choice: “...Ma flouts a trope of dystopian fiction, a genre that, with its fixation on the fate of civilization, has a tendency to produce protagonists meant to stand in for society at large. Rather than an Average Joe, Ma gives us a Specific Chen, conjuring an experience of the apocalypse through the lens of someone whose variegated identity is not an exotic distraction but part of the novel’s architecture”). These scenes of the past are less strictly cohesive flashbacks, and more snippets of Candace’s dispassionate existence. When the epidemic breaks out, she keeps working her corporate job in bible manufacturing in New York City, even as her superiors and coworkers leave or fall ill, even as the city’s infrastructure crumbles and she moves into her office, until she eventually is rescued by a band of survivors. Candace is a cog in a machine, otherwise adrift and lonely in late-stage capitalism. The Shen Fever isn’t a disease where the victims fall ill and die, leaving the sight of the narrative; the fevered linger, acting out loops of their daily/familiar routines until they finally wear themselves ragged and die. So, there definitely is more cutting, explicit criticism of consumerism and capitalist society in Severance than Station Eleven. It’s also more psychological (and ambiguous). While Station Eleven gave me a sense of peace and calm occasionally, I never felt that here, where the non-fictional aspects of life under late-stage capitalism is inseparable from the book’s fictional dystopian elements (perhaps the difference in tone between the two books is because Station Eleven is about connection, and Severance’s narrator exemplifies the disconnection wrought by capitalism). There’s not really a sense of urgency or stress, though. In my opinion, that’s because (as many of us have experienced) when crisis is happening all the time, people become exhausted and adjust their idea of normalcy to some level of tragedy. Between the symptoms of the fever and Candace’s commitment to work a pointless job through a pandemic, this book really did eerily reflect the world’s insistence on “life as normal” during the beginning of COVID. There is so much more to talk about with Severance (I was mainly focusing on how it compares in regard to a sense of normalcy in crisis, but there’s SO much interesting stuff in it- I didn’t mention at all, for example, the role of immigration), and I highly recommend checking it out if you don’t mind an uncomfortably realistic sense of impending capitalistic doom! 9/10.

These three apocalypse books all used scenes set before, during, and after the onset of a crisis, so it’s interesting to me that they have such different relationships with normalcy. I’d be super intrigued to hear what y’all think about these books (or other similar ones) and their very different treatment of the same themes.

Sorry for the mini book report there. It’s time for me to talk about one last sci-fi book, which was actually one of my top books of the year- Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer). I read this after I finished my last finals of my university career, and I finally had some time to myself. It was a strange and liminal sort of period for me, existing in this space for two weeks where I was just anticipating graduation and my move to a new city, a looming end to life as I had known it the last 4 years. I spent several evenings sitting on the quad, enjoying the nice May weather, and barely noticing as the sun set and it grew dark around me. I really expected nothing from Annihilation and couldn’t believe how much I loved it. For one, it gives me hope that scientist characters don’t have to be awful (unlike Project Hail Mary’s protagonist, the narrator here sticks within her field and even explicitly mentions being recently refreshed on the scientific topics relevant to the story). I don’t know what genre you would call this– it’s like 60% horror 40% sci-fi (but I couldn’t bear to add another book in the horror section, that’s why it’s in here, and also I wanted another jab at Project Hail Mary’s protagonist); it’s cosmic horror, where the incomprehensible thing is biology and the strange inhuman beauty of nature. The narrator is simply called The Biologist, a woman who is absolutely fascinated about the natural world; she’d be satisfied staring into a puddle in a parking lot for hours. I love her. She joins a mission, made up of women also referred to simply by their fields, to learn more about the mysterious environmental disaster zone called Area X. The movie’s description calls this a “mysterious zone where the laws of nature don’t apply,” but I think the Biologist would say the exact opposite. The story, told through her field journal, records the team’s investigation into Area X and the terribly strange and beautiful things she encounters there; meanwhile, she reluctantly reveals her not-so-scientifically-objective motives for signing up for this doomed expedition. You’ve probably heard of the movie and/or seen gifs of its beautiful visuals; this is one of the cases where the movie is pretty good (and Oscar Isaac is there), but it’s really a completely different piece of media than the book- I recommend reading the book as a separate entity than the movie. This one is a 9.5/10! Once I reread and better understand the conclusion, I’d probably add that 0.5 points back. Has anyone read anything similar to Annihilation they recommend? I need more of a funky scientist interacting with surreal natural horror. 

Ok, one last book that I would consider miscellaneous to my categories here, but theoretically could be scifi? 

I read The Archive of Alternate Endings (Lindsey Drager) after seeing a quote from it in a tumblr post. In fact, you might’ve seen the post I recently made with a different excerpt from it. I finished it just before the new year so that I could fit it in here and give it the honorary place of the last book :) Archive combines a lot of things I know y’all like: the circularity of time, folktales, web weaving, siblings, tragedy, nautilus shells, etc. Since we’re at the end of this post, I’ll give a better go of describing an experimental book: a natural history of storytelling, as traced through the tale of “Hansel and Gretel” and Halley’s comet. Not sure if that makes sense, but essentially, Archive reveals the human connections at each 74 year interval of the comet’s orbit, from 1378 to 2365, through revisiting the meaning of “Hansel and Gretel” to different pairs of siblings. Compared to other works that attempt to do the grand connections across time and space thing, Archive does this very well, probably because this structure is not an afterthought and it���s not a tool to build anticipation of the characters meeting- it’s the thesis statement. One thing I did have trouble with was the incorporation of real historical figures into this piece, especially considering its structure. I was able to more easily digest some of the historical liberties taken than others; I didn’t mind the historical figures and original nameless characters separately, but it was strange to see Ruth Coker Burks (though she’s not named explicitly) interact with a pair of fictional siblings. 8/10. Other than that issue, I think this book worked well and was a great last read for 2023!

I said that was the last book, right? Sorry.

I realized I’ve never posted here about one of my favorite books, and I want to use this as the chance to talk about it, if anyone’s still reading at this point. 

I read A Tale for the Time Being (Ruth Ozeki) in the spring of 2022. I learned about this book because someone had left it in a classroom I was teaching in, and I thought the title was great, so I took a picture of the cover and eventually searched for it at the library. How’s that for fate? Here’s a brief summary. A novelist with writer’s block finds a journal that has washed ashore. Alongside the novelist’s annotations, we read the words of Nao, a Japanese teenager. Nao has decided to kill herself, but first she wants to do something that’ll matter: write about the incredible life of her great-grandmother, a hundred year old Buddhist nun. Despite her best attempts to focus on her grandmother, Nao ends up using the journal as a diary, documenting the events of her own life that have led her to plan a suicide. While Nao’s life and her intentions are obviously extremely bleak, she writes with a delightfully bright and peppy voice that makes her journal both a pleasure to read and that much more devastating, as we quickly begin to care deeply for Nao. The novelist’s parts of the book are objectively weaker than Nao’s, but her role as helplessly studying the journal years in the future is definitely necessary for the book to work (plus she’s the framing device). I do want to note content warnings for Tale; suicide, of course, but also I was surprised by brutality of Nao’s bullying (I’d loosely define some of it as torture) and the escalation of events toward the end. So adding some less obvious CWs in case people wanna check it out: graphic depictions of bullying; sexual assault; racist fetishization of Japanese women; child neglect; and lots of discussion of suicide. Beyond that, I’d add that this book is just absolutely packed full of everything, which can make it seem occasionally a bit all over the place, but it’s all connected, so it’s worth it to try to follow the various threads. From reviews I see online, some people LOVE this book, others hate it, so it might be an acquired taste…but personally, I recall it as one of the best books I’ve read and am going to take this as motivation to finally reread it. 

Right, now we are done. So what are the takeaways of this ridiculously long post ? Here are few bits of wisdom I learned from my 2023 reading: You have got to read the originals that adaptations are based on because Mike Flanagan and co will fuck around with the source material, but also because knowledge of the source material can add a lot to your understanding of an adaptation you enjoy (and there’s usually a reason someone found them worthwhile of adaptation). Screwing with time can work incredibly well in any genre, but it will come off as cheap if the author doesn’t get the implications of non-linear time and just wants an excuse for excessive flashbacks. There is good pandemic fiction out there, you just have to avoid cringey COVID-derivative material. Stop making your scientist characters be experts in everything, and start making them obsessed weirdos. And take better notes than a string of adjectives if you want to write in-depth book reviews. 

Thanks for bearing with me through this post! Let me know what you think! Did you read these books? Agree with me or disagree with every word? Do you have any recommendations for me? Read something good with a ghost in it? Or do you want to share books from this year you hated? And should I channel my inner booktuber and do more posts like this?

Happy New Year!

Julia

[cherrypoison1889]

Ten fandoms, ten characters, ten tags (lmao no way)

Tagged by @aretuzagradschooldropout <3

Queen Meve - Thronebreaker (queen of my goddamn heart)

Muriel - Good Omens (my absolute beloved)

Jaskier - The Witcher (shh it totally counts as a separate fandom)

James Fitzjames - The Terror (*pinches fingers* it's about the gender)

James Flint - Black Sails (messy, bloodthirsty bitch)

Otabek Altin - Yuri!!! On Ice (wow, haven't thought about that in a hot minute)

James Wilson - House MD (gay motherfucker)

Dana Scully - The X Files (wife material)

Jack Aubrey - Aubreyad/Master and Commander (husband material lol)

Haruhi Fujioka - Ouran High School Host Club (nonbinary icon of my youth <3)

Tagging @olkoprorok @blessedsandal @focsle @codswallopia @dukeofdogs @fangirleaconmigo @jackironsides and whoever else feels like doing this!

[goose-books]

SPOTIFY ASKS YIPPEE: 15, 66?

15: i wanna be your dog 2 by ajj

songs that scratch my brain so so well. i first started looping this one on the playlist for scylla and charybdis, godsong's local insane codependent lesbians, but then i ended up finding a MORE fitting dynamic for it in julienne carron & ash pyrris. who are. dear god how do i explain carronash

imagine that julius caesar from roman history was a milf. and a decorated general beloved by her city. and marc antony from roman history was her nonbinary boytoy and a ruthless hedonist. and also an ex-pyrotechnics-expert who blew ximself tae fuck up during the war that made milf julius caesar famous. and now xe just gets drunk and causes problems on purpose but she's the only person in the world xe cares about and she keeps xim around even though xe's an optical nightmare which must mean something even if she never says the words i love you. that's julienne carron and ash pyrris. let me just find the fucking lines

“If I want a soldier," Julienne says, "there are dozens who would beg to polish my boots. And if I kept you around for your fuseblowing, I’d be rid of you by now.”

You want to believe that. You want it so bad it hurts. You would beg to polish her boots, too, if she ever really turned her back on you.

anyway.

i wanna be your dog oh, to be completely at your beck and call i wanna live in your laundry how i long to be your dog

66: dear sons and daughters of hungry ghosts by wolf parade

james how are you managing to find the most loaded songs on here. this is also a godsong song and i could explain the music video that plays in my head at length but i also won't because it's spoilers so. just trust me

i gotta get a new bell to ring a new song to sing a steady hand to ring a readiness of things a new plan to bring to the people people, i can trick 'em into thinking anything 'cause you know, when the rust hits just right in the light it's gold, it's golden

[riverdamien]

#Following Jesus on the Journey!

Sloughing Towards Galilee!

In loving Memory of Nex Benedict!

First Sunday in Lent

February 25, 2024

"Practicing the Cross!"

Following Jesus Is A Journey!

Mark 9:2-10

2. Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain on their own by themselves. There in their presence he was transfigured:

3. his clothes became brilliantly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them.

4. Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus.

5. Then Peter spoke to Jesus, 'Rabbi,' he said, 'it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.'

6. He did not know what to say; they were so frightened.

7. And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and from the cloud there came a voice, 'This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.'

8. Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.

9. As they were coming down from the mountain he warned them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the Son of man had risen from the dead.

10. They observed the warning faithfully, though among themselves they discussed what 'rising from the dead' could mean.

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

The time Jesus spent in the wilderness was a needed time of preparation. He needed to get his mission clear in his own heart so that he wouldn't be captivated by the expectations of adoring fans or intimidated by the threats of furious critics.

The Transfiguration is Jesus presenting to the disciples his glory, as a means of strengthening them for the journey they will encounter in the days ahead.

If we dare to follow Jesus and proclaim the radical Reign of God, present here and now, as the good news, as he did, we will face the same twin dangers of domestication and intimidation.

We can not just sit on the roadside and call ourselves followers of Jesus. We must do more than praise him for his generous love and sacrifice. We do not hear Jesus grumbling about the challenges and demands of his way of life. We do not see him "talking a good talk" but doing nothing about it. He describes his vision and then encourages others to join him moving those teachings of love into action. The Transfiguration is presenting to the apostles the glory, and the divinity of Jesus for them to come down and truly "Set their faces towards Jerusalem."

Nex Benedict, a sixteen-year-old, died on February 7, from serious injuries at school.

Nex was a "non-binary" or "gender-fluid" teen which means they did not see themselves as either male or female, identifying outside the gender binary.

Nex was brutally assaulted in a bathroom by their classmates. Nex had bruises all over their face, and eyes, scratches over the back of their head, and severe head injuries and school officials did not even call for medical help or an ambulance. This is completely unacceptable for they would be alive today if that had been done.

Nex will never get to draw, read, play video games, or play with their cat Zeus ever again.

What happened to Nex is a result of disgusting violent rhetoric and legislation. Simply because of prejudice and judgment, most of which was religious.

It is difficult for many to understand the different categories of gender roles. We have been indoctrinated into two gender roles, male and female for centuries. But it is time we take our blinders off and see how these roles around gender and sexuality are outdated, primarily because it has only been in recent years that individuals could be their true selves and scientific evidence has been available.

As a result those of us who keep our "blinders" on encourage discrimination and violence. In turning our heads away, in our discrimination we are just as guilty as those who harm our brothers and sisters who are nonbinary.

The word "Christian" is more familiar to us today than the word "disciple" . These days "Christian" often seems to apply to the kinds of people who would push Jesus off a cliff than it does to true followers.

Through the years as a result of being queer, I have been beaten up, rejected, and persecuted by "Christians" .  Baring the name, "Christians" proudly have taunted me on the street, and have told me I am going to hell giving me various scriptures to read. I prefer the word "disciples" to that of being called Christian.

Perhaps the time has come to rediscover the power and challenge of that earlier, more primary word "disciple"(which occurs more than 250 times in the New Testament, in contrast to the word "Christian", which occurs only three times. Maybe those statistics are trying to tell us something!

To be alive in the adventure of Jesus is to hear the challenging good news of today, the good news of the love of Jesus, a love that transcends all of our differences-- gender, sexual orientation, and race, and tells us that sin is not who we are, but how we treat each other. Jesus tells us simply to Love our neighbor!

Rewording Paul's words to modern times we hear:

 "There is no longer Jew or Greek, straight or queer, gender,  slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for you are all one in Jesus (Galatians 3:27-29).

Today let us remember Nex Benedict and her family, and commit ourselves to work towards living discipleship our lives in a way where this tragedy will not happen again!

So let us heed the thrilling invitation to follow him. . as a disciple in love!

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

Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration

October 5, 2024

6:00 p.m.

Victor's Piazza pm Polk

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

Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org

snap chat: riodamien2

415-305-2124

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

We will be having our Annual Good Friday Remembrance of The Haunting!" on Good Friday, March 8, 2024 beginning at 11:30 a.m. If you would like to participate by reading one of the Stations please let me know!

[himbodad]

rings a bell. come and get ur trans tma content everyone! skirt jon real

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33625093

[vinylfoxbooks]

James is a spiritual person and, when feeling anxious about their relationship with Regulus, they consult their tarot cards. They used them to gain courage to ask him out, to gain courage to kiss him the first time, etc.

For months, they've been using their tarot cards to ensure that Regulus does love them and he wouldn't react badly if they told him. One summer away from Hogwarts, with Regulus forever away in France and James up late at night, they consult the cards one more time.

They decide that they are sure, despite the cards giving them mixed messages this time and warning them not to be overbearing, that they want to tell him that they love him. They know they do. There's not a doubt about it. They've loved him for a month into their relationship, and it's going on a year now. They have to tell him.

So they text him in the middle of the night, a quick, "You don't have to say it back, but I need to tell you that I love you." And hope that their dear night-owl is asleep because he was telling them that they were exhausted earlier in the day. They immediately shut their phone off and force themself to go to sleep.

The next morning, they have a text waiting on their phone, just reading, "I love you too, you fucking idiot." And James feels like they could take on the world. But they also miss himself dearly and just want to hold and kiss their boyfriend.

[thedevotionaltour]

if you show me a fictional man and i like him he won't be a man anymore once im done with him

[lilyevansgf]

thanks m @echo-beachh my beloved for tagging me in the “post parts of your writing that are basically just projections of yourself” thingie :) i tag @dduucckk @vaindumbass @biginnyweasley @hyperiius if u want to/haven’t done it yet!!

Marlene groaned. “I’m going to die if I don’t get a cigarette in the next five minutes.”

“Last week you said you were going to die if we didn’t adopt that kneazle you saw at Diagon Alley, but here you are, still alive with no kneazle.”

“Unfair comparison.”

this is from my fic miss you and i’m 100% marlene in this entire fic lol. the premise for this fic was basically dorlene hurt/comfort with marlene being the one getting comforted bc i was sad and wanted to project lmfao

James climbed up the ladder to the deck, his wet hair sticking to his face. “Hey mate,” he said, sitting next to Sirius. “You alright? You look down.”

Sirius squinted into the sunlight. Were they alright? They weren’t sure. For one thing, James was shaking out his hair and the water droplets were getting Sirius even more wet.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” they shoved James to the side playfully. “Eugh, you’re getting the slimy lake water all over my jacket.”

James rolled his eyes. “It’s thirty five degrees out, Pads. Take that stupid thing off. You sure you’re good?”

this is from is that even allowed? !! aka part one of my nonbinary sirius series hehe i’m sirius in this scene bc i will always sacrifice comfort for the sake of fashion

Sirius grabbed Remus’s hand and linked their fingers together. “That’s why he’s the dad friend,” they said.

“For sure,” Remus agreed. “He’s the dad friend, but I’m going to be the dead friend if I don’t get some breakfast right now.”

from who you are, not what you are aka part two of the nonbinary sirius series lol. i’m remus i love breakfast and bad jokes

Remus ducked his head. Harry could tell she’d embarrassed him, after seeing him do that same gesture every time someone complimented his teaching.

from my fic memories of us !!!!! this fic is basically a “missing scene” type of thing where remus and sirius left harry memories for the pensieve of his parents & the marauders for harry to watch. it’s basically a bunch of little drabbles all tied together and this scene is me bc i duck my head when i’m embarrassed too hdhfk

He’d always been the most deliberate of the three of them, even if not on purpose. Is it not an oxymoron to be deliberate by accident? James had thought about it before, during sleepless nights when the existentialism really started hitting in. He didn’t think so. Subconsciously, he always knew what he wanted, and he always tried to get it. James wasn’t one to deny himself indulgent pleasures. Sirius and Remus were different in that regard. He had to coax their feelings open gently, holding their hearts in his hand. They were more fragile, more unsure. Where James was assertive, Sirius was insecure, and Remus was in denial. His ego certainly wasn’t helped by this revelation.

FROM MY WIP “ricochet” !!!!!!!! I AM JAMES JAMES IS ME!!! this entire passage is shameless projection i’m not even sorry about it

[nerdyenby]

Heartstopper 3.3 reaction (spoilers below the cut)

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Darcy gender moment!!! I’m so glad Tara’s been so supportive that Darcy doesn’t have to worry about her gender potentially being an issue considering Tara’s orientation, but it doesn’t seem like they’re going that route which is nice (tho I’d also be down for them to explore that anxiety)

The girls!!! So happy Imogen and Sahar are properly friends with Tara and Darcy, like they hang out just the four of them

GAY PEOPLE W!!!!!!!!

Isaac and Charlie gotta stage an intervention for Tao soon, this is unhealthy my dude, you’re allowed to have a life outside of your girlfriend, she’s not going to disappear the moment you look away buddy

JAMES W OUT OF LEFT FIELD!!!!! I KNOCKED OVER MY SNACKS I WAS SO EXCITED

Tori is so worried about her brother :((

TarDarcy clocking Imogen and Sahar, finally lol

Charlie refusing to be in pictures is such a red flag actually, he is not doing okay guys

Wait are we actually getting canon nonbinary!darcy????? For realsies?????

Yikes

Tao my beloved is the most ridiculous man ever, I love him but what even is his stance here?

His face when he realized Elle (and by extension Isaac) were right lol

I feel for Isaac so much, it fucking sucks feeling like everyone you care about will eventually find someone they love more than you and then you’ll be left behind, never to have that sort of relationship for yourself. Even if you don’t want a romantic partner, it hurts like hell being confronted with the reality that some people stop putting effort into their friendships once they start dating

Tao and Nick interactions mean so much to me, sometimes love is mean and ugly and angry and they get to be that around each other, they care about each other but more importantly they both love Charlie, they don’t always get along but they trust and respect each other both to do what they think is best and to be able to handle them at their ugliest (aka Nick needed to blow up at someone and Tao’s the best choice because he won’t hold it against Nick (at least not in any way that matters))

I’ve only read through the comics once so there’s a lot I don’t remember until I see it referenced in the show but the sweater regift!!! Iconic

Nick is so clever, he notices everything when it comes to people he cares about and you really see that in his relationship with Charlie

This scene hurts so bad but it’s also really cathartic, the way Charlie’s dad’s face instantly crumbles as soon as he starts reading the note breaks my heart

[toixxx-ace]

HP Kinktober Day 5 - Spell Play

Nonbinary Teddy Lupin, my beloved.

Pairing: Teddy Lupin/James Sirius Potter

Content tags: bondage, pain play, praise kink

AO3 Link: Day 5

@hpkinktober