#oh wait you do also get a copy of the book. i was just re-reading the page

[jawsplitter]

my brother is a real one for helping me cook a short story idea

[luffyvace]

Helloooo! I saw ur request open and writing for saiki k! I see so little context of him 😭

May I request where saiki is dating his favorite author(she is an anonymous writer) and he didn't know (like she Naver though to tell him about it and she Naver really think of her work when w him or when in school) and maybe finding out through his dad that she is ? And how would he react and think after he found out ?

(sorry if my request was long 😭)

Yeah me too !! 😭

ohhh wow! What an interesting and fun request! Thank you :}

(you used ‘she’ so reader implied is fem but I won’t mention you being a girl just in case <3)

Don’t worry it’s not too long at all~

☕️🌷

Everyday you get home after school and write, as a comfort and to make some change to buy things you like :)

You do publish your work, but your an anonymous writer

your sales have been doing really good and everything! Your forever grateful!

it makes you happy seeing as though writing makes you happy and is your comfort!

so the fact that you could be doing that for others makes you joyous 💓

there’s also your boyfriend Kusuo!

he’s a reserved and genuine guy who treats you very well :)

you’ve been an item for a while now and your really happy in your relationship!

man you’ve really got it going for yourself!! 😋💪

this company has been loyally publishing your work for quite some time which makes you satisfied to see they like your writing!

school’s good too! You and Kusuo have a friend group who you go out with pretty often

(alright that was a little bit of some reader POV now here’s the fun part! 😆)

Kusuo finished his coffee jelly and was going down stairs to put the dishes in the sink

until he spotted his dad reading his favorite book/manga!!

”hey dad what book is that?”

his dad’s inner dialogue: “holy crap my son is talking to me!”

“oh uh nothing son just uh (book/manga title name)—I uhh, brought a copy from work home”

”they have that series there?”

”yeah! We do! We have every chapter! Actually, we’re the ones publishing them! Do want me to get you the set?…..if I lick my bosses shoes a couple extra times I’m sure I could pull a few strings..”

”thanks.”

his dad’s inner dialogue: “holy crap I just had a conversation with my son! He was wanted to talk to…me! I can’t believe it..!”

saiki’s inner dialogue: “goodness..😒🤦”

”n-no problem son! Heheh..”

He was gonna go back to his room but stopped at the stairs

“hey dad..the author uses a pen name..do you know who they are?”

“Huh-! Oh!- yeah I do! I’ve met them in person actually- do you wanna meet them?”

Kusuo nods and walks off

his dad then proceeds to dance in his living room, as he’s had a successful conversation with his son that Kusuo started 🕺🕺

Later that week, saiki and his dad wait for you to show up at his job with the latest chapter

he was indeed able to pull a few strings…by licking some shoes..

when you walk in Kusuo’s dad came up to you and (re)introduced you to his son

”Kusuo this is (Name), the author you asked me to introduce you to. (Name), meet my son Kusuo”

you looked surprised to see Kusuo and that he wanted to meet you?? I mean you know your anonymous but he likes your work?! You had no idea he was buying!

Kusuo has a slightly amused expression on his face

“Kusuo? You…”

..were at a loss of words at such a funny situation! (LOL)

you two ended up explaining both sides of the situation

you said you love to write, but anonymously and you never got around to telling him

he said this is his favorite series from you and your his favorite author, he’s been buying for a while to be frank!

ohhh!

this may be the way his parents found out you were a couple and let me tell you he was less than pleased..(not that he wanted to hide it but his parents…..:^ yeah 😃)

Saiki got the privilege of getting the first copy of the latest chapter before it was even published! :)

and now he always does <3

he also has the perk of getting it for free!

horray! Now he can save his money for coffee jelly- 😚

LOL not that he doesn’t wanna support you

you simply give it to him and he accepts ♥︎

he also gets the honors of helping you decide things for the story!

He gleefully reads the parts in which his opinion was inserted

however he doesn’t want to influence any major plot points- he doesn’t like spoilers :P

(It is possible he persuades people at school to buy your books so you can have the funding to keep going and make you happy simultaneously—but we’ll never really know 🤷‍♀️ )

your actually my first saiki k request! Thank you! I appreciate it love!

hopefully you had a good meal out of these headcanons cherished anonymous~ ☺️

[variousqueerthings]

watching this Paul Gross thing he did in the 80s (chasing rainbows) and ive been enjoying it despite the knowledge that there'd be some kind of a het love triangle thing going on and that the other two characters simply aren't that interesting, but. oh boy. is... is the woman in this constellation meant to be read as a villain???

(ME DOING A BREAKDOWN ABOUT A SHOW NOBODY WATCHED AND NOBODY WILL WATCH ✌)

PG character -- a working class man who is fundamentally good to everyone in trouble he meets, to the detriment of himself more often than not, but scraping by until he gets his big break (which he also works very hard for) and becomes the owner of a relatively successful nightclub

other two characters -- come from rich backgrounds and sort of suck him into their lives by the coincidence of the two men having been at the front in WWI and PG saving the other guy's life and consistently don't realise he's got way more working against him than they do

the lady in this situation initially dumping said other guy "to find herself" when he comes back from the war, which, fair, it's 1919, she's going to college, she wants to be sure she can make informed choices, chill enough

said lady imprinting on our working class heroic character, because he's working class. i just. cannot read it any other way. she clocks him as such at a party (that he was invited to as a veteran) straight away, insults him, throws water in his face when he doesn't take it, but simultaneously is into the whole idk... rugged unpolished nature of him

discovers a diary written during the war with poetry in it that she presumes was written by him -- steals the book and reads it out loud to her college friends and is offended that he's not flattered by this

despite numerous protests that he didn't write the poetry (and he didn't, it was written by a kid he tried to save who was later shot in front of him for desertion), she just doesn't believe him, because she desperately wants him to have the "hidden depths of a poet" or some nonsense. never mind his actual good traits -- his kind-heartedness, his tenacity, his savvy, his sense of humour, nonono she wants a Poet

also, she is a failed playwright. she writes terrible plays about things she doesn't understand (including the war), asks his opinion and is offended when he (under duress) admits he doesn't think they're very good

and now she fucking... copied down the poems without his knowledge and published them under his name with an article she wrote about said hidden poetic depths!!!! gets incredibly offended when he is upset about this, first of all with a "I thought you'd be pleased" then with a "you should be happy for me for getting an article I wrote published in a major newspaper!" (because at the end of the day it's about her)

he initially -- not knowing how to handle the situation -- goes along with it, because what do you do now? go to the publishers and say it wasn't you? out yourself in the news?? I mean??? but pretty quickly re-emphasises He Did Not Write Those Poems!

the plot then mysteriously seems to pivot into saying it was his fault for "stringing her along" because the "hidden poet" bit was the only thing she really liked about him... and she vehemently denies this (but girl, tell me one other thing that draws you to him, and you can't say because he's pretty!) and says he's hurt/betrayed her by lying. i just... don't know... if the plot... is writing her like this because she's meant to be a self-absorbed college girl who has her working class dream-boat fantasy get broken, or if it's meant to be presented as him having betrayed her. it is. unclear

and now she's threatening to write a new article about how he's a fraud. im just. waiting for the plot to point out that she's done all of this herself and she also won't suffer for any of it in the way he will...

this boy can do better than these rich kid tourists 😔

[doctorstethoscope]

Fluffy February Day 15 || Quality Time

pairing: hotch x reader

wordcount: 722

contains: food consumption, mentions of alcohol

Aaron’s morning routine was 73 minutes long. He woke up, took an 8 minute shower, then spent 11 minutes getting dressed and waking Jack up. While Jack dressed himself, Aaron would make breakfast for all three of you (17 minutes), and you’d eat as a family at the table (22 minutes, but sometimes longer if you or Jack was having a particularly sluggish morning). The three of you would pile into the SUV (6 minutes, or longer if Jack wants to tie his own shoes), drive Jack 9 minutes to his school, and then head into the office. 

Aaron was regimented with his time, yes. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t also generous with it. 

“What do you mean we’re going away for the weekend?” You asked Aaron that night when he produced a mystery go-bag he’d packed for you without your knowledge.

“I mean that the soccer season is over, which means no more 7am Saturday wakeups, and I wanted to commemorate the occasion by being lazy in bed with you all weekend with no distractions. Jack’s spending the weekend with his cousins. We all technically exceeded the FBI’s maximum working hours on the last case, so no one is calling us in. It’s you and me and a big comfy bed above a vineyard,” he insists as he shuts his computer down. 

“When did you have the time to plan this?” You ask, the grin on your face assuring him that you’re not upset. 

“I made the time. You and I need this— some time just us,” he reminds you, ducking down to kiss your cheek. “Do you want to see pictures, or do you want to be surprised?” 

The pictures, as it turned out, didn’t do the place justice. It was a small little bed and breakfast, set right up on a vineyard, as Aaron had said. There was a wine bar nestled into the small library off of the library, and your room had a spacious sitting area and a jacuzzi tub that you couldn’t wait to take advantage of. It had taken you a couple of hours to get there, so by the time you arrived all you had the energy for was room service and re-runs. You were determined to make the most of it on the second day.

When you wake up, Aaron’s already awake, his cheek propped up on his elbow as he gazes down at you. 

“Morning,” you mutter. “What time is it?” 

“Quarter past ten,” Aaron whispers back, leaning in to kiss your cheek.

“Why’d you let me sleep?” you ask, rousing awake at that. “We missed the vineyard tour.” 

“There’s another one in an hour, hon,” he reminds you. “There’s no rush.”

You’re perplexed by his statement, and get up regardless, changing out of your pajamas and into the casual outfit Aaron’s packed for you. “Do you want to go downstairs, grab a coffee and check out the library?” You ask. 

“Sounds perfect,” he agrees, changing quickly and following you down.

The inn seems to be empty except for you both  and the two owners, so Aaron pulls you into his lap on one of the vintage loveseats in the library after you’ve pulled a copy of Pride and Prejudice off the shelf. Aaron plucks the books from your hands gently, opening it up and reading it softly to you. You can feel the rumble of the words in his chest as he does so, and it’s enough to practically soothe you to sleep. 

“You are too generous to trifle with me,” Aaron reads aloud. “If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged—” 

“Oh, Aaron,” you interrupt. “We should probably get going if we want to make that vineyard tour. I’m so comfortable here though,” you lament. 

“So, let’s skip it. We can get a tour later tonight or tomorrow before we have to leave,” he assures you, pressing a quick kiss to your temple.

“Who are you and what have you done with my perfectly scheduled husband?” You tease. 

He chuckles down at you, shaking his head. “There’s no schedule. Just you and me, that’s what this weekend’s about,” he insists.  “As long as you and I are spending time together, I got what I came for.” 

tagging: @spacecowboyhotch @honeybrowne @angelfxllcm @rousethemouse @infinite-tides @gspenc @anlin2058 @zetasaturno99 @realdirectionx @witheldclouds @sbeno22 @el-vs94 @hausofwhores

[mcchipisfried]

do you have a note taking system somehow? i want to start annotating my books but i never know what to mark down

oh Oh OH OHH OHHH you do not know how long I have been waiting, longing, for SOMEONE to ask this. You are now my favorite person ever and we are now besties :D

Okay so I do and don't have a system but tl;dr Do whatever you want and mark what comes to YOUR mind and what you WANT to recall if you decide to re-read a book!

Long info dumping on how I do my notes under the cut!

So lets get one thing straight, I have not a single clue as to how to "properly" annotate a book in any sense of the word. So fuck it we're doing shit MY way.

So I started by noting that I wanted to mark quotes in my book without writing in it or highlighting [this is personal preference you do whatever you want its your books and they're for YOUR enjoyment] so I got these really cheap side tabs from Amazon

As you can see they're all sticking out because I actually like the whole "messy but organized" look but you could take some scissors and trim them up a bit.

Okay so what do my side tabs mean? Well, I originally didn't know what I wanted to see. I had done Dracula Daily before with the emails but I wanted to make this experience much more enjoyable for myself so I thought of marking quotes or scenes I liked which turned into:

The only time I actually wrote on my copy (this was before I got my sticky notes) I know. I am a genius and my wordplay is unparalleled. So the multicolored tabs mean I ran out of that color and needed a new one. You can see that some of them are different lengths and that's because I cut them so they can properly fit in my book (and it doubles the amount I have) Also here are the "meanings" of each tab:

Ayo that's kinda sus: Each and every time someone (Dracula) does something that reveals their true nature or that something weird is going on. Works well if you're reading mystery and coming back to see all the clues you had since the beginning!

*Women*: Every time a woman does something that surprises me, intrigues me, or makes me smile. I often find these instances can be rare in some books so I decided to mark these in Dracula. I was pleasantly surprised to see how often I was using this tab (when the woman gives Jonathan her crucifix even though she's probably terrified of Dracula, Mina being the devoted wife and woman of my dreams that she is, Lucy being Lucy, etc.)

Ayo that's fucked up: Every time something that breaks my heart or is needlessly cruel happens. The first scene with the baby saw a lot of use from this tab.

Ayo that's gay: C'mon. We're on tumblr. We all know what characters I'm using this tab for.

Quotes I like + Food: I have a soft spot for when characters info dump about historical places or things they like. Stoker has a way of describing certain settings and scenes that honestly makes me smile so I want to mark them. Also I like food. Yeah

When I found my sticky notes I realized I also wanted to write down things (but not on the book) and draw things. I had a lot of fun looking up the recipes that Jonathan mentioned in the beginning of the book as well as drawing them. (I have the preparation instructions on the back) (you can also see the side tab for food on that page)

I also think in memes or at least I process information as jokes a lot

Sometimes I get more detailed with my drawings or even write theories I may have about what is happening in the book. Trying to capture my emotions and thoughts in small blips (even though I have read the book before and know exactly how it ends)

At the end of the day you can take everything I just said and defenestrate it and do you own thing. Which honestly, I would do because this is just a mess. But I hope I have at least provided a small base from which to build upon. My own advice would be to take into consideration how committed you are because I do think just tabbing you book is sufficient enough but who knows maybe you're more of the power point presentation about the books you read kinda person.

Either way, a good time zone to you, and hope you found this at the very least amusing!

[brainddeadd]

Oh to have your motivation to write 😍

oh nonnie !!

ok so here's my way of breaking a writing slump because i fully understand and i've gone months without writing before.

i usually curl up with a good book (i typically re-read something i know makes me giddy) or a favourite cheesy romance movie (how to lose a guy in 10 days normally works for me) to get the brain thinking.

i let them kinda wash over me for a day or so and i try to write scenes based on those characters, or even just re-write it - like i'll write the "you can't lose something you never had" scene for whichever hyper-fixation man i've got that day and i will literally copy it like word for word, action for action, just so i can get into describing things. it's never really posted or anything, but it just sits in a doc on my laptop and waits for the next slump to hit.

or sometimes i write like a 'scene analysis' for a scene i really like (this is probably one of my favourites I've done of this). it's just writing what you see and thinking about why that's something you liked so much or why you really didn't like what that character did/said.

basically, it's just all about doing simple things that don't really require you to come up with the ideas, but rather build on something already made because starting the idea is often the hardest part.

i also find it's helpful to start in the middle sometimes. if you have this quote or line or action that you know you want to use, write it and build around it rather than building to it.

and finally, sometimes it's just letting yourself not write. sometimes, all you need is to just.. not. and that's ok. sometimes you just need to let yourself come back to it slowly and on your own time.

good luck with your writing and i hope to read it one day!! 🤍

[readingoals]

Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag (2024)

I know I'm a bit late with this but I figured I might as well still do it 🤷‍♀️I wasn't tagged but hey if you also haven't done it and want to consider this a tag, feel free lmao

This is hard to narrow down because I've read some absolute crackers and nothing is like super standing out from the rest. Maybe The Next Big Thing by James Colley just for how fun and Aussie it was, or maybe Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie because it was a clever mystery with some really great Poirot/Hastings banter.

Another toughie because though I've not read many sequels, the ones I have picked up have all be great. Recently I caught up on the last two The Adventure Zone graphic novels and god I just love that series so much. I loved the podcast and I think they're done a great job of adapting them.

Also right up there are Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson and The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling, both of which I adored.

I've surprisingly not re-read all that many books this year (yet anyway, there's a couple I wouldn't mind getting to). So I think it has to be The Shadow of the Wind. That's been one of my fave books for years now and it had been a while since I last picked it up so it was so great to revisit it again.

As it has been for the last few years, the genre I've been reading most is mystery. Most of those are Agatha Christie's since I try and read one a month.

Oh theres a few of these. A Botanical Daughter was probably my most anticipated release of the year but it took aaaggggesss for me to get my hands on a copy because the place i pre-ordered it from went into voluntary administration so my copy was never shipped. I mean I probably wasn't going to read it until October anyway but while waiting for it to arrive I also read some reviews that said it kind of missed the mark so I'm a little less excited now. The other book I still havent got around to picking up is Kill Your Husband by Jack Heath even though I was really excited for it too. And then there's also Clairmont by Lesley McDowell which I hadn't known was coming out but I saw in store and immediately bought and then also didn't read it.

Definitely Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio. I think Ben Aaranovitch also has something new coming around September but I'll admit I'm a little behind on all of the rivers of london novellas and stuff. The Benjamin Stevenson has a Christmas book coming and I think the next book in the Ex Hex series is also due out and I'll probably pick it up pretty quick.

Hopeless Aromantic. Huge disappointment. I was really interested in a queer nonfic book that focused on aromanticism rather than asexuality and it just missed the mark by so much. It was poorly researched and cobbled together and frankly not worth anyone's time.

The Mysterious Mr Quin by Agatha Christie. I've read a few of her short story collections before so I went in expecting the usual sort of thing and it definitely felt like it was going along similar lines to start. But it got weird. In a good way. It feels as if the stories flirt with fantasy elements, and the last one even crosses over maybe? almost? Mr Harley Quin came off as kind of creepy too. It was definitely not quite like her usual stuff and I really really enjoyed it.

I've read from I think 9 or 10 authors that were new to me and yet I'm not really sure how to answer this, no one super stands out. Maybe Erin Sterling? I've read two of her romances this year (tho does she really count since it's the pen name for rachel hawkins and i've read one of her mysteries?), the book I read from James Colley was also really good and I'd probably pick up whatever he wrote next, so maybe him? From a nonfic author, Carnage by Mark Dapin (an Aussie true crime book) was very interesting and I liked he way he handled such difficult topics, so maybe him?

Probably Alex Easton from the T Kingfisher novellas?

I don't think anything I've read this year has really made me cry. I thought Loveless might but it didn't this time around. I guess I did get a bit blurry eyed during The Adventure Zone: Eleventh Hour graphic novel and same with Carnage, but not full tears.

Oh, so many lmao. The TAZ graphic novels, Ghosts: The Button House Archives, The Thread That Binds, Everyone On This Train is a Suspect, Cain's Jawbone (happy that I got it solved though I never got confirmation I was right lmao).

Okay this one is easy. My Folio Society edition of The Shadow of the Wind. Also, since I answered this last year I've also got the Folio Society edition of Frankenstein and I know I got it last year but I couldn't not mention it.

I also found some of Georgette Heyer's mysteries in a great edition at the lifeline book fest

I have 6 more Agatha Christie books to read (I'm partway through one of them now). Then there's also the copy of Northanger Abbey that Lauren annotated for Christmas last year, that'll be coming up soon, and whatever book we decide to annotate and swap for this years present. I'd like to spend October reading at least a couple of Frankenstein/Mary Shelley inspired books so I'll probs try and get to A Botanical Daughter then, maybe Clairmont and maybe Chicano Frankenstein or any of the others I have. I'd also really like to get to Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies but I'm saving it for like the end of the year when it's summer.

[recurring-polynya]

I love Temeraire! What did you think of it?

Oh, I love the Temeraire novels a lot! For starters, I read them originally as they were coming out. I was in my mid-twenties, and it was one of two extremely formative media periods for me (I also read the Abhorsen series and watched Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist for the first time in this general time period). I even got to hear Naomi Novik do a reading at a local Barnes and Noble. She was wonderful, and she signed my copy of His Majesty's Dragon. I also ended up lending my copies to my dad. He enjoys Star Trek and other occasional mainstream sci fi and fantasy, but is not the sort to read a book about dragons. He does love aircraft and War and an excess of details, tho, so he loved them. I made it about five books into the series--they get real depressing in the middle, and I had to wait a year or two between books and it was the time period where I was getting married and moving houses. That's probably about when we dropped Bleach, too.

Anyway, I have since very much enjoyed Novik's standalone novels Spinning Silver and Uprooted, and I decided I wanted to do a full Temeraire re-read-to-completion (my dad actually loaned the later books in the series back to me). I started last November, and then Mr. P decided he wanted to re-read them, too, so he's been a book or two behind me throughout, but it's been a blast to talk about our favorite parts. Anyway, they are wonderful novels if you love worldbuilding and details. Couriers! Supply lines! Philosophical disagreements! I non-ironically love that they don't have a particularly strong plot structure, they play out more like episodes of a prestige television series. They'll get on a boat, and by God, Naomi Novik will tell you about spending four months on a boat. The stories have a good balance of Thrilling Battles of Global Importance and, y'know, shitting around, like I like. Traveling. Training. Gong Su's amazing improv cooking (love you, king!). Half of one book is about Temeraire working through some grief by starting a beef with the breeding ground equivalent of a homeowner's association. The cast is a sprawling collection of delightful weirdoes, human and dragon alike. There's a good balance of the side characters having interesting backstories or personal motivations that enrichens, rather than distracts from the main action. The dragon personalities are amazing, both as individuals and in broad strokes--my favorite aspect of this is that whenever there's an egg, they're all "💖 Egg! 💖 ~precious baby~ I would die for u 🥺" and the second it's out of the shell, it's like "Fuck you. Why do you eat so much? Don't touch my cow. I'll see you in Hell." This happens, like eight times.

The one single complaint I have is that Laurence is explicitly heterosexual, which I just choose to ignore, because dating both Jane Rowland and Tenzing Tharkay at the same time is the bisexual dream.

[wolffyluna]

Homeland by RA Salvatore Liveblog

Help, I have fallen back into the Drizzt pit and can't get up.

Under a cut for child abuse and attempted sexual assault.

I'm copy-pasting this from discord. Ellipses differentiate liveblogs that were done at different times.

I'm rereading the first Drizzt novel. It was one of the book series I loved loved loved when I was young. I am simultaneously going:

oh my God, this world building. Your legal system cannot run on vibes, sir. The implied gender ratio is hilarious (drow nobles want lots of kids, but every son after the second is killed, so a family having four daughters and two sons is pretty normal. Oh, and it's implied that polyandry is a Status Symbol)

oof ow argh, man hands misery onto man! It deepens like a coastal shelf! 😭

I'm still at the beginning, but drizzt is being raised by his older sister, and she is heavily encouraged to physically abuse him. There's a point where she thinks "wow, what could this kid achieve if we weren't breaking his spirit. ... wait, that's a blasphemous thought, I should punish him for making me think that." And Drizzt is taught to believe that surface elves are the source of all of his problems, to the point that whenever he's whipped he "cries out for the death of a [surface elf]" These people all could have been fine if they lived in a reasonable society! 😭

The book is divided into parts, and at the beginning of each part there's a section of Drizzt monologing as if he's giving an interview

And in the one where he's talking about his childhood, he both talks about PTSD-flashbacks-in-so- many-words and also "presumably things happened before I was sixteen? I remember basically none of that though" which. Baby. Let me scoop you up into a hug even though you are a century(?) old dark elf who is presumably taller than me.

...

The only way the drow gender ratio doesn't fall flat is a) the implication that commoners don't do that, so maybe their gender ratios are less of a disaster and b) it looks like only the female heads of the family can take consorts/have children, so polyandry is a little more possible

Though this does, like, raise the question of "so, you are the daughter of a matron mother, and you fall pregnant. what do you do?"

...

It's legal for a drow house to attack another in secret. It is illegal to do it openly. The justification is that Lolth likes it that way (This is a logic that underpins a lot of the drow legal system) And it could be made sensible with just one small change: Every drow house wants to be able to attack another, but wants no other house to be able to attack them. So they created norms where you can't just attack people, if you did that the whole city would fall on you ...but if you can do it with plausible deniability...

...

I have now re-witnessed the beautiful, beautiful scene where a wizard panics* and casts fireball at his own feet

*he would say he was very tactical, I do not believe him

[Seriously, I have remembered this scene fondly for years. It's Such A Scene.]

...

Oh my God Masoj just encouraged someone to take the identity of someone he [the other guy] just killed. Masoj completely failed to mention that the dead guy was his brother.

...

DRIZZT QQ

His dad just tried and failed to kill him to try and maintain his innocence.

I have so many feelings about Zaknafein.

Just. The combination of "Zaknafein was a major role model to Drizzt and is a significant part of why Drizzt is good" and "Zaknafein is Not A Very Good Person." Man.

...

Lov Drizzt

He just nearly got murdered, but he doesn't care, because KITTY!

Drizzt is this xkcd comic

...

I remembered the sex pollen scene, but man did I not remember/parse how much it was a dub-to-non con sex pollen scene

...

Something that is also getting to me on this re-read: the amount that the men of the Do'Urden family 🐛 assist with their family members whipping them, or literally taking them as a sacrifice. Because resistance would only make it worse, and this way at least you have some control

There's a really telling passage where Briza is torturing Dinin for no real reason, and he's just like. okay. i'm not going to get in the way of this process. And he actively positions himself to make it easier.

...

Help, I'm combining my love of "what if popular but misapplied blorbo song, but correctly applied?" with the Legends of Drizzt series: Eat Your Young is a valid Malice/Zaknafein song

There is no capitalism, but there is a lot of zero sum resource fights, and a lot of the conflict between these chatacters is their children being used in those zero sum resource fights.

Zaknafein has a lot of conflict about whether it's better for his son to be eaten by drow society, or dead And there's a thing where both Zaknafein and Drizzt are/are meant to be sacrifices to Lolth, at Malice's hands

Skinning the children for a war drum Putting food on the table selling bombs and guns It's quicker and easier to eat your young

And there's also the whole thing of-- Zaknafein and Malice's life is luxurious, but that's at a cost. There are no skeletons in the closet because they are displaying the skeletons openly as part of the decor

...

The Drizzt He destroyed his cage Yes YES The Drizzt is out

...

The thing about Homeland in particular is how it is simultaneously man hands on misery onto man, it deepens like a coastal shelf and how it is so much about it's opposite (it ascends like a volcano?) Drizzt could not be who is he is, could not be good, without Zaknafein.

But he's. Better than Zaknafein. Because of Zaknafein.

And there's the tragedy of the fact that if their roles were reversed, it would be Drizzt bring Zaknafein up into the light.

But. Well. Drizzt would still have to die down in the dark

...

...hmm.. I'm encountering a tempting bad idea: 50 books in a year is a doable challenge. There are 40 Drizzt books. Ergo, one could hypothetically read all the Drizzt books in one year.

[ladyinbooks]

i just devoured all of ur works and they’re AMAZING (like ‘i’m seriously considering learning how to book bind so i can have physical copies’ level amazing). i can’t stop rereading them. i just had a four hour flight and all i did was reread icarus burning on it. also your love in chains au (jay being a prisoner but STILL in charge? chefs kiss) and anything to do with samiel/jay/pallas (i get it pallas) are especially interesting to me with how they change the main story dynamics while still keeping true to the core of the characters. your writing is honestly incredible and ill read anything you write forever. i can’t wait for more of rarely pure and going down (hades and persephone references?? hello)

Ahh, oh my gosh - what a lovely message! Thank you! ❤️❤️❤️

Firstly, I'm sorry but I was grinning so much when I read that you'd spent your four-hour flight re-reading IB. I mean... honestly, that's just so lovely. (And the idea of someone loving it enough to be reading it on a plane just makes me mind-bendingly happy - you have no idea!) I have a similar length flight tomorrow, and now I'm going to spend most of it grinning to myself thinking someone chose to spend their time travelling by reading something I wrote. (Sorry, I can't explain it, but it just has really made my day to know that.)

The Love in Chains AU still sits frequently in my head, and the dynamic is exactly as you described. I've had a rough little draft in my 'random stuff' folder for a while now, that I think I need to tidy up and post. Basically a tiny sequel where everyone thinks Samiel is the most dangerous man in the room and... mm. No. It's the man who comes in halfway through the meeting, distracts 'the most dangerous man in the room' and then quietly derails the whole operation. Jay vs. Samiel in this scenario is... well. I have a whole lot of thoughts about Jay weaponising affection against Samiel in a viciously calculated way, purely so he can continue to undermine Samiel's rule. (And, let's be honest, there's also a part of him that very much loves the idea of having that power over the 'most dangerous man in the room'.)

I'm glad someone else is on team Pallas! (I have such a soft spot for him. He's such a poor bewildered sweetheart! 😂)

The good news is that there is - at last! - more Rarely Pure. I've got another 30k written, so I'm happy I can start posting again now. Which means there will be a chapter up this Sunday.

As for 'Going Down', it's still next on my list, and I'm quietly picking away at all the angst and drama in an outline. (Poor Jack. I'm enjoying making him suffer!)

[rattyshipss]

Rewrite of one of my favorite few pages including Stanley in Ggbb💖 (To clarify this isn't all my original work, this is a page I'm copying from the book and including parts in) ⚠️Spoilers warning⚠️

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"Is Stanley Forbes in?" asked Pip. "He should be." The woman finally located the correct key and slit it into the lock. "We've got the write-up of the memorial to sort out before we print today, so Stanley asked me to come in and help." She opened the door. "After you." She said, and Pip stepped over the threshold into the small front room.

"I'm pip." she said, following the woman as they passed two tired sofas and headed for the back office. "Yes, I know who you are," the woman said, shrugging off her jacket. And then, in a slightly less frosty tone: "I'm Mary, Mary Scythe." "Pleased to meet you, again." Pip said, which wasn't exactly true. She figured Mary was one of those people who blamed Pip for all "The Trouble" last year in their nice, quaint town. Mary pushed the door, revealing a small, square room, four computer desks lining its walls, as tight and claustrophobic as Pip remembered it. Guess that's what you got for a tiny town newspaper that ran mostly on donations from the family living in that mansion up Beecher Road.

Stanley Forbes was sitting at the desk against the far wall, his back to them, his dark brown hair in unkempt clumps, presumably from where his finders had tunneled through. He paid them no attention, leaning towards his desktop screen, which, judging by rhea white-and-dark-blue stripes, was on Facebook.

"Hi Stanley," Pip said softly. He didn't turn. In fact, he hadn't moved at all, still scrolling down the page. He hadn't heard her. "Stanley?" she tried again. Nothing, not even a flinch. He wasn't wearing headphones, was he? She couldn't see any. "Honestly," Mary scoffed, "he does this all the time. Has the most selective hearing I've ever come across. Tunes the whole world out. I have no idea how (y/n) likes him or can even stand to be around him as much as they are. Hey Stan!" She barked that last part, and finally Stanley looked up, spinning in his chair to face them. "Oh sorry, were you talking to me?" he said, his green-brown eyes jumping from Mary to settle on Pip, head perking up at the mention of that name.

"No one else in the room," Mary said irritably. "Wait (y/n) likes me?" Stanley said swinging from side to side in his chair with a coy smile on his face watching Mary as she walked away dropping her handbag against the desk farthest from Stanley's. "Hi," Pip said again, walking over to him, crossing the distance in just four large steps.

"H-hello," Stanley said, getting to his feet. He held out his hand apparently to shake hers, but then evidently changed his mind and drew it back, then changed his mind again and re-extended the hand with an embarrassed laugh leaving Mary holding back a laugh across the room wondering if this is how he flirted with (y/n). He probably didn't know how the appropriate way to greet Pip, given their fraught history and her being eighteen while he was at least in his late twenties.

"Sorry," Stanley said, returning the awkward hand to his side. It wasn't just the Singhs he'd apologized to; Pip had also received a letter from Stanley a few months ago. In other he'd apologized for the way he'd talked down to her and for Becca Bell taking Pip's number from his phone and using it to threaton Pip. He hadn't known at the time, but he was still sorry. Pip wondered how sincere he really was. "What can I...," Stanley began. "What do you-"

"I know the memorial will probably take up a lot of room in tomorrow's paper. But could you make space for this? I'm trying to spread the word to everyone in town." Pip dropped her backpack so she could take out the reserved Missing poster. She handed it over, watching Stanley read, his eyes furrowed and a hollow burrowing into his cheek as he chewed it from the inside. "Missing is he?" He looked down again. "Jamie Reynolds."

"Know him?"

"Don't think so," Stanley said. "Might recognize the face. Is he from Fairview?" "Yep. Family live on Cedar Way. Jamie went to Fairview high, with Andie and Sal."

"Missing since when?" he asked. "It says there." Pip's voice rose impatiently. Mary's chair creaked as she leaned closer to listen in, interested in the different than normal (y/n) rambling topic. "Last seen around eight o'clock at the memorial, until I learn more about his movements. I saw you taking photos, could you email those to me?" "Er, yes OK. Police?" asked Stanley. "A missing persons report has been filed," Pip replied "Polive response is nonexistent right now. So it's just me. That's why I need your help." She smiles, pretending like she didn't resent having to ask.

"Missing since the memorial?" Stanley thought oloud. "That's only, like, a day and a half, right? "Thirty-seven and a half hours," Pip said. "That's not very long, is it?" He lowered the poster. "Missing is nissing" she countered. "And the first seventy-two hours are critical, especially if you suspect foul play." "Do you?" "Yes," she said. "The family does too. So will you help? Can you print that notice tomarrow?" Stanley looked up for a moment, eyes spooling as he considered it. "Suppose I can move the article about potholes until next week." "Is that a yes?" Pip said. "Yes I'll make sure it goes in." He nodded, tapping the poster. "Though I'm sure he'll turn up OK." "Thank you, Stanley." She returned his polite smile. "I really appreciate that." She pivoted on her heels ro leave, but Stanley's voice stopped her before she reached the door.

"Mysteries always seem to find their way to you, don't they?"

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LOOK AT MA BF😭👉👈💖 Comments and reblogs are appreciated but not expected!💖

[firendgold]

Since I saw that you're doing the violence ask game can you answer 22, 25 and 7??

I sure can.~

This one got long af though, so another readmore.

(still choosing violence)

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

This is another one I've answered already, but tbf... it was yesterday. So I can pull my second favorite part of canon instead so you don't have to re-read an older answer.

There's two moments that tie: one in year 5 and one in year 6. Year 5's moment is a nice warm-and-fuzzy "the trio are such good friends" scene, in the midst of Umbridge torturing Harry with her quill:

It was nearly midnight when Harry left Umbridge’s office that night, his hand now bleeding so severely that it was staining the scarf he had wrapped around it. He expected the common room to be empty when he returned, but Ron and Hermione had sat up waiting for him. He was pleased to see them, especially as Hermione was disposed to be sympathetic rather than critical. “Here,” she said anxiously, pushing a small bowl of yellow liquid toward him, “soak your hand in that, it’s a solution of strained and pickled murtlap tentacles, it should help.” Harry placed his bleeding, aching hand into the bowl and experienced a wonderful feeling of relief. Crookshanks curled around his legs, purring loudly, and then leapt into his lap and settled down. “Thanks,” he said gratefully, scratching behind Crookshanks’s ears with his left hand. “I still reckon you should complain about this,” said Ron in a low voice. “No,” said Harry flatly. “McGonagall would go nuts if she knew—” “Yeah, she probably would,” said Harry. “And how long d’you reckon it’d take Umbridge to pass another Decree saying anyone who complains about the High Inquisitor gets sacked immediately?” Ron opened his mouth to retort but nothing came out and after a moment he closed it again in a defeated sort of way. “She’s an awful woman,” said Hermione in a small voice. “Awful. You know, I was just saying to Ron when you came in . . . we’ve got to do something about her.” “I suggested poison,” said Ron grimly.

Just seeing the trio bounce off each other is soothing (especially after reading days or weeks worth of fanfics where they all suddenly hate each other or were never really that good of friends or whatever). Harry's gratitude and stubbornness, Hermione's caretaking and forethought and plotting, Ron's voice of reason and necessary dash of humor... all perfect. Also, just... Harry is so used to going things alone, toughing things out by himself. It's heartwarming and sad that he still doesn't expect Ron and Hermione to do something as simple as waiting up for him to get back from hellish detention. Also also: Crookshanks curling up with him. ^^

Year 6's moment is just between Harry and Hermione:

Hermione stopped dead; Harry had heard it too. Somebody had moved close behind them among the dark bookshelves. They waited and a moment later the vulture-like countenance of Madam Pince appeared round the corner, her sunken cheeks, her skin like parchment and her long hooked nose illuminated unflatteringly by the lamp she was carrying. ‘The library is now closed,’ she said. ‘Mind you return anything you have borrowed to the correct – what have you been doing to that book, you depraved boy?’ ‘It isn’t the library’s, it’s mine!’ said Harry hastily, snatching his copy of Advanced Potion-Making off the table as she lunged at it with a clawlike hand. ‘Despoiled!’ she hissed. ‘Desecrated! Befouled!’ ‘It’s just a book that’s been written in!’ said Harry, tugging it out of her grip. She looked as though she might have a seizure; Hermione, who had hastily packed her things, grabbed Harry by the arm and frogmarched him away. ‘She’ll ban you from the library if you’re not careful. Why did you have to bring that stupid book?’ ‘It’s not my fault she’s barking mad, Hermione. Or d’you think she overheard you being rude about Filch? I’ve always thought there might be something going on between them …’ ‘Oh, ha, ha …’ Enjoying the fact that they could speak normally again, they made their way along the deserted, lamplit corridors back to the common room, arguing about whether or not Filch and Madam Pince were secretly in love with each other.

Very, very cute scene showing Harry and Hermione getting along casually, something we're not often treated to even in canon. A frankly disturbing amount of fans (particularly fans of A Specific Ship I Will Not Mention Here) have bought into the propaganda that Harry and Hermione aren't really that good of friends just because during GOF, when he'd just experienced his first ever schism with a close friend, Harry privately confessed to missing Ron and enjoying the things he did with his male best friend more. The trio is not "Harry and Ron, then Ron and Hermione". It's "Harry, Ron, and Hermione"; all three of them are necessary pieces of the whole. Harry and Hermione's friendship is different than Harry's with Ron, but it's no less valuable, and not any weaker, or else Hermione wouldn't have stayed in that damned tent.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Every bit of discourse about Sirius not getting a trial. We know. The injustice is the point. The cruelty is the point. The POINT is to show that wizarding Britain is glitz and glamor and not all that fair to its marginalized peoples and underclass, you nimrods. Frankly, the fanfics that purport to 'fix' it by giving Sirius his "restored Lordship" or a bunch of seats on the Wizengamot or immediate "wizarding guardianship" over Harry or some unnamed hot babes for him to fuck on or off-screen are very... shallow and unsatisfying. Either that or they give him a bunch of money, though this would at least be on brand for the Ministry. But like... yeah. I'm tired of this complaint always going in the same direction and not being a gateway to Greater Commentary On The Series and the World. Because it's not like Sirius and/or Harry become the type of people who rebel against this ideology. If anything, they embrace the pureblood nonsense in a lot of these fics and are just mad that Sirius was the target that one time. Gaaaah.

And, and. Every bit of discourse about Dumbledore leaving Harry at the Dursleys and/or the sacrificial lamb throwaway line by Snape, especially because 99.9% of people discussing it either haven't read the books, haven't read them since the first time and desperately need a re-read, have only seen the movies, are parroting opinions from some other wrong person on the internet, are all read-up but blatantly ignoring what Dumbledore and Harry say (and don't say) over what they THINK they mean, or some other lovely form of ignorance that leads to the same long-debunked takes being re-introduced as GASP-DID-YOU-EVER-CONSIDER soundbites over and over and over and OVER again. I'm so sick of it.

I get it, JKR's a TERF, you don't want to re-engage with her work, and you don't have to. You don't have to give her any more money. Hell, you shouldn't, ever again. But please, fucking make sure your knowledge is correct and not fandom telephone when it comes to Harry's childhood and Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. I'm not-even-lowkey sick of some of y'all at this point.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts about them?

I... don't have an immediate answer for this, so I'm going to have to think about it. To you it's only going to take me one line, but for me it'll actually be like... an evening or something.

...

Okay.

This is difficult because (to use the exact terminology) I can't think of a character I've come to hate because of how the fandom acts about them. I definitely have characters whose most popular fanon versions are so irritating or repulsive that it has caused me to look more critically on the real versions of them, though. I guess maybe I'll list those here.

Fleur came to mind first. She seems (and can be) very shallow and haughty in canon at first, but shows compassion and hidden depths in all three of her appearances. She has some veela hair in her wand from her grandmother, and a deep devotion for her younger sister. However... many fanfics (especially harem fanfics or flowerpot fanfics) paint her as either this femme fatale who uses her "veela allure" at will and Cannot Fathom the idea of a man who can resist her (and is thus more vulnerable to falling in love with such a man) or as a super-powerful witch whose family is basically running Magical France (since of course, she is the only French character we know, so why wouldn't she be the most influential person there? /s). Basically, the "foreign" version of what people do to fanon Daphne Greengrass. Ironically, the best fanfic portrayals of Fleur I've seen are the ones that keep her shipped with Bill (with a few flowerpot exceptions, see A Beautiful Lie by MaybeMayba as the prime example), or ship her with Hermione or Ginny... which is sad because I love me some ship variety. (And I still think Bill/Tonks would've been rad as hell.) So I don't dislike canon Fleur, but fanon's "over-attention" to that possible veela heritage and the weird implication that Harry was just "forced" not to notice this perfect woman in his life, rather than just noticing her beauty and not being interested, rubs me the wrong way and disinclines me from including her in many of my own works.

The Bones family is next. Yes, both Amelia and Susan. Susan isn't as bad (I think she has... two lines in Order of the Phoenix? maybe?), but as with most "mostly undefined" HP girls, the personality the fandom has given her (the super sweet politically-savvy Hufflepuff girlfriend of "just do independent!Harry with Lordships and pro-Ministry propaganda and plenty of Wizengamot meetings between Hogwarts classes") is one I've seen so many times it has come to negatively affect my view of the real girl, even though I think the way she calls Amelia "auntie" in canon is adorable. As for Amelia, fanon likes to make her either the Only Sane Man in the Ministry or the leader of the sane faction, who magically is able to fix or ignore all the corruption in said Ministry and can railroad through whatever decisions Harry needs done once he needs to Do Political or Pureblood Stuff Outside of Hogwarts--provided, of course, he's been nice enough to Susan recently.

The closest actual answer to this question I have is Tom Riddle. I didn't like him in canon by any means--I'd probably say I was neutral toward him, just seeing him as "the young Voldemort before he did his magical girl transformation". But fanon kind of acts like he and Voldemort are... two different people? There's these pervasive ideas that either Tom could've been "saved" if Certain People Just Did More (to stop him sneaking around and bullying and murdering???), or that Tom wasn't really so bad when he was gathering up supporters, murdering his family members and the few people who trusted him, and generally going around Becoming the Dark Lord--it was just when he made the switch that he became bad. And like... no. I can't buy that. Even in fanfic, I can't get fully behind the idea of a sane Tom Riddle who was Doing Good until he got sidetracked Oh Nooo. He wasn't. I believe Voldemort was saner before he tried to kill a baby and it backfired, but I don't think there was ever a point where he could have been saved. At every fork he made the wrong decision--to soothe his ego, to feel powerful, to feel special, to feel better than others and make them feel that way too. Tom Riddle's a prick. If anything, we should've seen him squirm a little more before he died.

The last one stings, because it's a character I adore: Hermione. Hermione is a very polarizing figure in canon and always has been, I get it. But what particularly hurts me about her fanon portrayals is that they are VERY SELDOM accurate, or even balanced. Either the author sees her as Their Wife and so she is perfect and never does any wrong and basically becomes the main character of the fic (even if she is not actually the main character), or they overinflate her flaws and use it as a reason to hate on her and bash her to oblivion. There's rarely an in-between. I'm not sure which one is worse. If you held my feet to the fire, I might say the former because a character without any flaws or one who takes over the entire narrative and doesn't let other characters breathe is not fucking interesting to me in the slightest.

This especially hurts because I am a huge Harmony fan and like 60% of bad Harmony fanfics are always the same fucking tropes/plotlines. Hermione is unironically referred to as The Brightest Witch of THE Age (incorrect, not what Remus said. he said "the brightest witch of your age I've ever met", basically meaning she's unusually smart for a fourteen year-old girl). She's treated like the next female Dumbledore who has all the answers (even about stuff she wouldn't know) and often guides Harry's every move.

And speaking of Dumbledore--the same girl who is supportive of him in canon and (after Harry) is MOST likely to recognize Dumbledore as a human who can make mistakes is ALWAYS turned into a Dumbledore Skeptic Who Has Been Suspicious of His Motives All Along, and who will do whatever it takes to get her boyfriend away from his manipulations... by taking manipulative!Dumbledore's place. That's right. This version of fanon Hermione ALWAYS becomes the same thing the author is supposedly railing against, because Harry becomes her mouthpiece, spends all his time with her to the exclusion of anyone else, and can't have a single meeting or meaningful scene with any other character unless she is also present.

Haphne fics do this too, but I swear they got it from bad Harmony fics and it makes me so mad. For once, I would love to read a Harmony fic where Dumbledore is portrayed accurately and both Harry AND Hermione are equal, independent partners who don't have panic attacks if separated for more than five minutes. Especially because as a child Hermione never struck me as the kind of person who even would get married or have a serious relationship distracting her from her Great Work!

But yeah. That last one hurts the most because I love Hermione as an individual, as the very important third of the trio, as a potential partner for Harry (though this isn't the right blog for that!), and just as an iconic character.

I... think that's all? Yep. Thanks~!

[zmtn]

Some very rough and belated hourly comics

[Feb. 1 2023. 7:30 am. (in bed) Wake up, spend a bit playing games on my phone. 8:00 am. (still in bed but sitting up, doing Arabic homework. ) "My dog... كلبي! كلب?"]

[9:00. (Me with book in hand looking tired) "I need to finish my Arabic homework but I also need to eat breakfast... 9:30. (standing in front of a vending machine in my winter clothes with my bag) I did not get a 'real' breakfast.]

[10:00. I had missed 3 classes after being sick. (my Arabic instructor, at her desk) "Oh, you're back" (me, holding out paper) "Yea. Here's the assignment." 10:30. Arabic instructor: "I'm extending the due date to Monday." Me, thinking: "I could have had breakfast..."]

[11am ish. Geology, in lab instead of lecture. Geology instructor in classroom: "Zoe! How are you feeling?" Me: "Tired." Her: "You look it." Soon, me looking at a very large nautical fossil, thinking: "THIS FOSSIL IS HUGE..."]

[12 pm. I love geology. Me, in front of a very small square sample with a couple of dots in it. "This TRILOBITE IS TINY...". (drawn beside is an approximate life sized version smaller than 1 centimeter. 12:30. Lunch. Quote unquote fajitas (in theory.) two badly drawn tortillas with black bean and chicken toppings and a few vegetables. There's also a chocolate chip cookie.]

[1pm. The uni has a fish tank. Me, in front of the fish tank with one fish labelled as my fave: "Fishies I missed you." (Me, sitting.) Reading Hippocrates on the bench in front of the fish tank.]

[2pm. (a barely imcomprehensible drawing of me with my legs up on a chair beside a vending machine, my arms on my legs and my head on my arms.) Folded up like an accordian is me. napping (awake). 2:30pm History of Western Medicine. (me, raising hand in front of professor.) "This guy needs an ancient Greek editor."]

[3pm. (Me with my copy of the hippocratic writings.) Literally being schooled on Ancient Greek analogy re: that long ass bit about trees. "Oh." In the Nature of the Child. 3:30. (A drawing of my drawing of a uterus with legs and a suitcase on my notes.) Me, thinking: "They did think the womb roamed the body though." Doodling in my notes.]

[4pm Pirates Class. (Just a drawing of some students including me and my instructor in front of the board reading "Barbary Corsairs".) (Then, more drawings of my notes.) "Christian pirates - the Knights of Malta - Doesn't sound very christian... though I guess the Roman punishment for piracy WAS crucifixion... wrong time period though." Being impudent in my notes.]

[5pm. (Rough drawings of other students.) A student in class wears a witch's hat. rad as hell. I have literally no room to judge. 5:30 pm. Drawing of the description: waiting for the bus in the cold. Then, I just wrote "Nothing interesting happened after that."]

[declanfs]

Granny got you this fabric copy of The night before Christmas at a craft show and this was your first time reading it. You LOVE to read lately. And by that I mean you love to be read to, but this is how it starts. We started this challenge at the library to read 1,000 books before kindergarten on November 6, (today is 11/20) and in 14 days we have already read 66 books. Some are duplicates but I rarely initiate reading, Unless its the pre-sleep time routine. You love to read during dinner, and once we read one book you keep getting more and more books. You the the If you give series right now (mouse a muffin, pig a party, mouse a cookie, etc) and also Biscuit and Friends. Plus Llama llama. We have 22 books checked out right now and that’s only because you chose to renew the books we got the previous library visit and we only returned the two that had people waiting in line. I will never so no to reading you a book and will never complain about reading the same book twice or 10 times. I might offer an alternate idea, but if you say no, we will read if you give a mouse a brownie for the 11th time.

Lately you are also a fantastic helper around the house, sincerely. You might unroll almost the whole entire toilet paper roll, but you work really hard to roll it back up for me. Most of the time you do this unasked, but the unrolling and re-rolling, but its like you cannot resist unrolling it, and then realize that’s not right so you fix it pretty much right away. you also are helpful when it comes to sweeping things up, putting your toys away (sometimes, but you are only 2.5), feeding the dogs, putting dishes in the sink, throwing trash away, retrieving various objects when the location is specified (shoes, my water bottle, a book, etc.), and watering plants. You will also sometimes clean up spills or messes by yourself, but if you don’t, you at least tell me when there is a spill or mess so that I can clean it up before it sits too long or gets bigger, which i do really appreciate. Oh, and you put dirty clothes in the laundry room. Sometimes you put them in the washer, sometimes in the dryer, and sometimes just on the floor, but I will never complain about how you try to help. Any help is appreciated!

Our family photo shoot last weekend. I’m sad that the photos you took with dada you were both being blinded by the sun and so squinty, but here’s a cute one of you two sharing ice cream afterward. This was at Chatham manor, and you loved this tree tunnel. I definitely want to take you back, but especially in the spring when the flowers are blooming. I think you will really love it, especially because there is like a labyrinth of flower beds and high hedges and its just right up your alley.

This is you being a walrus at your willow tree. Not that any explanation is needed. With your chocolate milk. Up until November 11, it was a BATTLE to get you into a shirt with sleeves or a jacket. You would cry and fight and pull at the sleeves and tell me to take it off. I calmly explained that it is too cold and that you have to wear sleeves to keep your body safe. You cried and fussed for like 10 minutes, and then we went outside and played. Ever since, you have not minded putting them on at all, which is a major relief. But, upon re-entering the house, you immediately want to take your sleeves off. It seems that the contrast of the cold outside with the warm inside is too much and you get too hot. But as long as you wear appropriate layers outside, you can strip as soon as you come back inside, no problem!

November 20, 2023

Declan, you are just the coolest and most fun kid ever. I *might* be a little biased, but I really enjoy spending my days with you. You are so funny and see the world in such a unique way. I can see the little gears turning in your head as you figure out the world around you, and it is such a joy to bear witness to. You seem to enjoy sleeping a little more these days which seems like a silly thing to note, but even if you protest initially, you’re eventually giving off like “oh, darn” vibes. Like oh, darn I guess it’s time to go to sleep even though I’m not tired *yawn.* Like you’re maybe seeing the link between naps and bedtime and how they seem to occur when you are feeling tired and that you might actually need to rest your body. You say you don’t want to, but you actually do and find comfort in the routine and consistency. My sweet boy, it only took us 2.5 years to reach this point <3

Anyway, we got a pretty fish for the fish tank. He is a tangerine koi beta and is beautiful. You named him Daring Danny X because that’s your favorite paw patrol character, obviously.

Which reminds me of another thing I wanted to share with you. You have started to show like an awareness of what we already have and that we do not always need things at the store. Example, at target today, the woman offered you stickers and you said “no, i already have stickers at home.” And you kind of shrugged your shoulders and lifted your palms up because that’s something you do now too. You are ver emphatic and use hand gestures when you are sure of something. And sometimes when you aren’t. But anyway, last night before bedtime, I asked you if you hoped Santa would bring you a bike for Christmas. You said No. When pressed, you said something like:

I have a little bike and a big bike. I don’t need a bike, I already have two bikes.

So i said, well what if Santa brought you a tricycle, like the bike you rode with dada at that little park one time, and you were very sure that you do not want a bike because you already have 2. Never mind that the little one is now too little, and the “big” one is a strider bike that is legit too big for you even at the lowest setting. And you also really haven’t expressed an interest in the strider bike so far / haven’t figured out how it works. So yes, you have two bikes, but they are different kinds of bikes. So we will see if Santa gets the memo at such late notice. And maybe I will remind you that Daring Danny X has a tricycle to jump off his ramps over the canyon.

<3

You may also be mid-separation anxiety revival, which is really poor timing considering I have my Portland trip coming up in just a few days, but you have been attached to me like a barnacle overnight lately. It’s very disruptive to my sleep, but it also hurts my neck. It’s very comfy and cozy and I love that you find so much comfort and safety in my arms, but just after 1-2 hours you usually stir and wake me up and/or you squeeze me tight to you again which also wakes me up. This is why I’ve started drinking Alani Energy drinks and getting monthly massages. You will not have to sleep alone until you are ready, because I’m honestly not ready for you to sleep alone yet anyway.

This morning when we woke up, I said “Declan, last night it was like i was a big magnet and you were a little magnet. Whenever I moved, you followed me!” And you said “I am??” And then you touched my nose and said “I’m stuck to you, mama magnet.”

I call you my little sugar plum, lightning bug, cutie pie, pumpkin head, etc. You call me Mama monkey or mama mouse or whatever other animals we are pretending that day. It’s so funny that you can toggle between little terms of endearment. But sometimes when I say “goodnight my little lightning bug,” you’ll say “I’m not a lightning bug, I’m Declan!” So there’s definitely a time and place for this little nicknames and sometimes you want to be called Declan.

Another sleep time related thing is singing songs. I’m amazed by how many songs and tunes you remember all on your own, and just how hungry you are to learn more songs. Your brain is a sponge absorbing all these nursery tunes, but you can also identify them when I hum them and sometimes if I try to sing with you, you hold up a hand to let me know that it is your turn to solo a song. So now before bedtime we take turns. Before your nap just now, you sang ABCs pretty much 100% correctly, Twinkle Twinkle, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. Last week we went to circle story time at the library and the group sang I’m a little teapot and head, shoulders, knees, and toes and you seemed intrigued by the group singing with the movements too, so I sang those today. I repeated the eyes and ears and mouth and nose part a few times because you were trying to sing it on your own for the first time and I don’t think you could remember all the words just yet. I’m sure you will spontaneously burst into song later and have them mostly right once your brain processes them during this nap. You just pick things up so quickly and I’m trying to keep up to expose you to things that will build on what you already know and are interested in, its like the funnest quest to embark upon with another person.

Tumblr is not the most user friendly but at this point I am committed. Okay, your nap has now run over by 16 minutes, so no time to edit!

[alpha-kid-au]

Chapter three, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V.

The library is filled with different people walking around, Dust sits in the corner by the window, as the sound of birds is heard outside. Nightmare stands behind the counter talking to the customers as G walk out of the back,

"Hey sleepyhead! Have you cleaned around here yet? You always seem to forget, things might get all dusty!" Nightmare asked, as dust chuckled to himself

"Huh? OH! I'll get on that!" He said, as he picked up his broom and cleaned,

- After -

The forest is filled with the rustling of the wind, the howling of wolves is heard as G goes to Hunter's place,

"Hey G! Wanna hang out with the dogs for a bit? We were just about to have a break before we go out hiking!" Hunter said, smiling at G as he is surrounded by the hounds, looking for attention.

"D'awww how could I say no to that face?" G said as one of them looked right up at him with the biggest of smiles, tail wagging excessively

- After -

The library filled with a silent echo as nightmare finished closing and G goes to his room

"Finally, I can rest." G said with a sigh,

"Wait, weren't we gonna hang out for a while? We were gonna go to a party tonight!" Killer

"Oh right! How could I forget!" G said as he got ready for the party.

- over time -

"G! Come on!", "G! Wanna hike?", "G! There's a party tonight!" G, G, G, G.

G Is tired, to the point it's noticeable by now, as his movements slow.

"G.. are you all right?" Dust asked with a concerned expression.

"it's just, I've been so busy lately! It seems like everyday I have things planned but it goes on so late I'm just progressively more tired!" G said exhausted, as he.sat on the floor next to dust.

"You should really take care of yourself more, y'know, relax?" Dust said crossing his legs

"I just… wish I could be everywhere all of the time! I want to help all of my friends! Get to hangout! But also do my own things." G said as he leaned back against the windowsill

"Too bad you can't just copy yourself like Error 404 can." Dust said drinking his tea.

"Copy myself?" G asked, leaning forward

"Yeah! Just summon a bone, do some magic, crush the bone and poof." Dust explained as G copied the instructions to seemingly no avail. "And then some skeletons pop out." He finished.

G looked to his hand sad that he seemingly can't use that power, and the dust from the bone blew in the wind, spinning in a circle before suddenly coalescing into a heart shaped object, as panels surrounded it and after a few seconds, a copy of G appeared. Confused at how he even exists.

"Whoa! It worked!!! I can be everywhere!" The G's said in unison as dust seemed concerned by the possible hundreds of G's he may have unintentionally unleashed on the world

"Thanks dust! Couldn't have done this without you!" G said going outside

- later -

"G! Have you-" nightmare was saying as he was cut off by a G running by with the broom

"well, not used to you being so energetic for cleaning. But it's nice you seem to be more rested." He said smiling

- later -

"Hey would you wanna hike-" hunter was saying as a G sprinted over,

"HIKE! you wanna hike? Sure!" It said as it ranto get everything ready

"Well, I'm glad you can be as happy about the wilderness as I am" hunter said stretching out

- later -

"C'mon let's go!" Killer said grabbing a G's arm

"RIGHT behind you!" It said running extremely fast.

However at the party killer can't find him, that is until he hears a loud ring as over speakers he hears

"Everybody havin' FUN?" The G says, with a pink feather boa and sunglasses, as it starts playing music at the dj set

- over roughly a day -

The library is empty with the sound of running, as nightmare re enters the library,

"Where is everyone? Why are the books not on the shelves!" Nightmare said, confused.

Only for him to then notice Dust, who is hanging upside down from his usual corner, tied up to his waist in rope while reading his book.

"Oh! Nightmare! You're back!" Dust said spinning slightly.

"What happened here! G where are you!" Nightmare said looking around, as from above him he hears

"Oh? Nonononono you'll track dust! Get the floor dirty! We can't have that!" As he looks up to see a G clinging to a net of strings as it descends and wraps him up to the roof, as the original G walks in the library

Dust covers his face with his book as he sees G walk in, and Nightmare says "W- G?!? But…" he says as G seems surprised by the state of the library

"Let me guess. Magic error business?" Nightmare says very annoyed as he spins on the ceiling.

The G copy walking on the net of strings looks at the original G, As G asks,

"Uhh dust??? How do I fix this?!?" As the copy creeps closer

"Uhm… I don't know? If this works like the language of computers… try casting Ctrl-X I guess?" He suggests, not knowing how to help the situation perfectly

"I- sure, why not?" G says as he focuses and summons a panel to attempt dusts idea, as the copy jumps at him he moves the panel in its way, and as it passes through it, he casts and the copy disappears into the bone it was made of.

The strings dissipate as the copy does and both dust and Nightmare fall to the ground, and dust asks "Ugh… how many.. did you make?" As G seems shocked and responds

"OH SHIT- I've gotta go, no specific reason related to your question BYEE"

- with hunter -

"C'mon! Let's keep going!" The copy says, carrying hunter and the hounds on the trail, as G runs over in their way and says

"Slow down bud!" As he summons the panel in front of them and the copy attempts to stop but slides into it and turns into its source bone.

"Ugh, we're exhausted.. hey G! Magic error business?" He says nearly passing out.

"Oh God yeah, I'll bring you back to your house but- OH shit I've gotta do this quick" as he sprints as fast as possible back to Hunter's, lays them all down inside and runs off to killer

- with killer -

"Ugh, G shouldn't we stop? It's been forever!" Killer says, who somehow, for the first time in his life, is exhausted.

"Ayo, chill out bud! This party ain't stopping any time soon!" It says smiling obnoxiously l,

"Well yeah, but it's been eighteen and a half hours! I need to sleep sometime" he says falling forwards, as the Copy picks him up and says "this party ain't stoppin' "

And in that moment, G kicks open the door and says "it may not be stoppin', but it can be CRASHED!" As he summons his strings.

"Oh hey G… magic glitchnuiss?" He says as the copy drops him saying

"HAHAHHAHAA betcha' weren't expecting me now were you?"

"What? You are quite literally why I'm here" G says confused as the Copy says

"Well, were you expecting, THEM?" he says as the doors shut and a dozens of G copies are illuminated as a light turns on and they all laugh as they jump at him

"WHY DID YOU MAKE SO MANY G'S G?!?" Killer yells on the ground as the main copy sits back and says

"gettem Bois" it says as it plays music

G runs to dodge the clones, and as they turn to chase him, he jumps over them. They all summon blasters so he summons bones to block.

Seeing the perceived vulnerability they all jump to hit him with bones, and in response he de-summons them to reveal he prepared the panel, and as the main copy notices it's glasses fall down a bit. And all Twenty-Six clones get one by one dissipate.

And as G walks closer to the clone it desperately says "D-UHH, killer how do you know I'm not the real G Brah-" and then he stops and realizes and says "d'aw, played m'self."

G sighs and dissipates the clone as he sighs, and picks up killer, who's completely exhausted.

They both relax on G's bed and sleep the rest of the night away.

[zealoussy]

2023 Midyear Freakout Book Tag

It is time to look back to all of the books I've read for the past 6 months (!!!). I just want to do this for myself but anyone who wants to join, consider yourself tagged!

Best book you've read so far in 2023. This is a difficult one because I have never been not indecisive all my life. But. I think I will settle with No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. I love how Dazai slowly working through Oba Yozo's mental deterioration. Obviously he's not likeable, but you'll be able to empathize with him from following the turbulence that is his mind. This book is the best way to show people the "ugly" side of mental illness. People need to realize that mental illness isn't only about the most instragammable things you can do, but it is also being the worst version of yourself. Other than that, how the narrative makes its way to connect to the title is cleverly done. It feels so seamless.

Best sequel you've read so far in 2023. I'm not a series reader, tbh. So I will go with The Sandman Vol. 5: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman. Although not my favorite of the series, I did enjoy reading that. In this volume, we meet Barbie! Turns out she's a princess some lifetime ago?? It's really interesting and surprisingly poignant.

Favourite re-read. Easy question, it's White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. How is it still heartbreaking, even though I know what comes next in the story? That's Dostoevsky's specialty, I think. Making stories that's so painful no matter how much you reread it, it still gives you pain.

Genre you've been loving/reading the most. I've been having a lot of fun reading graphic novels this year so far! Reading graphic novels is the most magical form of experiencing work of literature. For fantasy especially, it feels like I forget I ever existed on Earth when reading them. Most of them are fast-paced and medium-paced so I'd recommend anyone to pick any title up if you want to read when waiting something, or not in the mood to digest books slowly.

New release you haven't read yet, but want to. Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova. It just came out last month so I still have a lot of time to read it. The summary sounds intriguing and I've seen a few of my book-ish friends wanting to read it too. Hopefully I can read that before the year ends!

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year. I don't have one, honestly. I'm not the type of person that follows news release that much, so yeah that's my answer.

Biggest disappointment. The Stranger - Albert Camus. I was so excited for this book. I have been saving that title since last year. Thank god I didn't buy the physical copy. Like, I get the book. But its' SO boring. I don't enjoy it.

Biggest surprise. Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin. Oh, this is an interesting one. Because I started this book last year impulsively, but then it was kinda rotting in my piles of CRs. But one day I decided, you know what, let's finished this book. And I was surprised that I like it. I even teared up a little at the end. I never thought it will be a profound book that shines light to what religious trauma can do to a person. The story is told in ironic and darkly humorous way, which is very funny if you're mentally ill. Yet it's also crushing, how the main character describe her despair. Such a marvelous read.

Favorite new author (debut/new to you). Oliver Jeffers. He's an author, illustrator for picture book fiction. Last year I read The Heart and The Bottle, which absolutely broke me to pieces, and this week I read What We'll Build and it makes me want to cry a river. So I'll definitely check out his other books.

Newest Favorite Character. Oh, God. I have two answer to this but I think I'll pick Jean-Baptiste Grenouille from Das Parfum for this one. Reason? Because he's a sopping wet little meow meow.

Book that made you cry. Uhh I don't know how it happened, but it's The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger got me sobbing???? The last part of the book, yeah. Just. I don't know. I'm just so fond of Holden Caulfield, I want to give him a hug, the best hug, making him soup if he's sick, staying all night if he want to talk, like I want to protect him at all cost.

Books that made you happy. My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonders by Nie Jun. It's free time travel to my childhood and free therapy. I need that child-like wonders and excitement dose if I want to survive this year.

Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year. Most of my reads are digital, but I'll mention Mamo by Sas Milledge as one of the most beautiful book I've read this year so far. The art style is so breathtaking. It added the whimsical story line even more alive.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year? So much books, so little time. I'll be happy with myself if I can manage to read any of Toni Morrison's books. I've been wanting to read her books but I'm just kinda intimidated lol.