#other reasons are that I’ve been focused on writing story/book

[lilypixels]

The audacity of some on here never ceases to amaze me, why do I even try giving benefit of doubt anymore 🤠

Anyway, I’ve been working on all my 100% free, no gimmicks involved, simblreen treats and a bonus gift by end of the month for your spooky babies 👀 and that’s part of why this blogs been pretty quiet

[stealingyourbones]

I don't really get the people who think reading the comics is such a radical idea. Don't they want to learn more about them? aren't they curious what makes them tick? what insane adventures they went on? what fears they have? what makes them laugh and smile? I'm from europe so I haven't seen any of the DC shows I see mentioned every once in a while (which means I really don't get the whole Clark hates clones thing... but that's a different thing) and it's only been this year that I have enough disposable income to splurge on comics, aka I haven't read that many just yet.

But I do think the ones I have read enhance the stories I'm trying to tell, which to me is a good reason to read them ;p but besides that, they are fun! they are just really fun to read

I’m glad you’re having fun reading comics man! It’s a shame that folks don’t read them as much but you know, I can understand it. I both asked some folks in the Haunting Heroes discord server and have some of my own points to make about this.

First of all I do still believe that you should consume some form of DC media if you’re in the fandom. It’s fun and there are comics, books, movies, tv shows, and every other form of medium known to man that you can take a peek at! Idk I’m just a bit DC enjoyer and think that looking at canon media to expand on your knowledge and help create ideas you wouldn’t have had if you hadn’t looked at said piece of media.

Now onto why reading comic books is hard:

Some folks simply prefer the fandom and not the official DC content. Whether they prefer fanon, find fics more accessible, or like the people in the fandom, they’d rather just stick to the fandom.

They simply don’t know where to start. Getting into comics can be INCREDIBLY overwhelming ( DC has done their best to fix this and has messed up more than once. My go to is to reccomend folks just start reading New 52 comic runs as it’s really good for new readers to jump into the comics with any hero that might intrigue them). Big comic events span multiple comic story runs and not a cohesive line of comics, some omnibuses for stories are out of print, the 80+ years of comics are daunting as hell, and everyone has their own opinion on the best versions of a character/where to start/what to read.

Money. Comics are an expensive hobby to have. They may cost $1-$5 each on average but that price adds up over time. I have a comic collection of roughly 1,300 comics. I’d estimate its value very roughly around the $7,800 range. It’s probably far more than that though and I know damn well reselling it I won’t get half of that value back. I’m very fortunate to be a college student with disposable income and for this hobby to be the only thing I ever really spend money on besides rent and food. Some people either can’t afford them or don’t want to buy a comic they don’t know if it’s good or not.

Varying quality. Comics are a very mixed bag thing where they can be incredibly written or some of the worst pieces of media you’ve ever read. With this being the case, it can be really hard to find a comic character or writer you like if that’s your first experience. It takes a while to learn about different writers and find out who your favorite writers are. What’s harder is some writers can make absolute masterpieces with one character and the next comic run they cover it can be absolute garbage. Not only that, everyone has opinions on what is a good comic run or not. It’s impossible to find a repeatedly stated and easily accessible list on the good comics to read.

Pretentious “Canon is God” fans. Experiencing “um actually this isn’t good because this isn’t how the canon character would act” responses from people can really fucking suck and diminish their want to experience anything that’s official DC writing. I’ve seen more than one person go into this primarily fanon focused space and insult people saying their writing isn’t canonical and therefore it isn’t valid. It’s Uber Pretentious, demeaning, and actively harms peoples interests in checking out canon content.

Timelines. I already kind of said it but DC’s timelines are a mess. hell, even New 52 has some fucked up timelines making all of Batman’s previous timelines canon but happen only within a seven year period. That’s WAY too short for how much history is packed in there. The amount of crisises that happen and fully change the lore and timelines of characters is bonkers, the comic runs that bounce between different comic runs are really confusing, and the fact that there isn’t a True Starting Point for reading makes it so hard to grasp anything that’s happening. It’s one of comics biggest issues and no matter what DC has done they have yet to find a convenient solution.

Sensitive Content. Comics from DC are littered with either intentional, badly aged, or ignorantly written plot points and writing choices that will turn away readers. DC has its fair share of sexism, misogyny, abelism, racism, abuse, sexual harassment, sexual assaults, or topics casually addressed that can be very triggering for some people. Especially since a large amount of that sort of content is handled incredibly poorly. One particular writer, Alan Moore, writes sexual assault scenes with absolutely zero tact or the delicateness that a topic such as that should be held in. It’s almost solely used as a “let’s make the bad guy do the most fucked up thing they could do” throwaway plot point. Comics of the sort dissuade a lot of readers because of both the heavy content within comics and how that content can be incredibly poorly handled. This is partially why some folks would prefer to read fics. Comics are a unknown mixed grab bag when it comes to content like this and things exactly like this is known to make PTSD symptoms worse while fics have tags and can warn you before you consume the content within.

Time. A lot of folks have busy lives and just don’t have the time to read them.

The ways they intake media. Some folks might have a better time watching a long commentary video that explains a comic or their brain can’t process the comic medium very well. I can read and retain comic knowledge but even I am unique in this aspect, my memory is frightening levels of bad and is proven by science to be absolute shit. I have to reread comics at least once a month to retain the basic bare bones plot. Just because one person can easily digest what’s going on in a comic doesn’t mean everyone can.

Comics are such a big part of my life. I love them so much and they’ve gotten me through so many things. My own experience with comics isn’t the same for others and my thoughts on reading comics differs with other people. A lot of people have equally as many reasons for why they don’t read comics as you and I have for reading them.

[jasmineandcedar]

The bigger picture | the poorly picked bonds

I’ve been memeing for days, so I wanted to write about something a little more serious. One of the main reasons why I'm excited for Elain's book is it's implications for the agency of the females of Prythian.

Sometimes I think our obsessive love for individual characters in the fandom leads us to not see the forest because we are so obsessed with the trees. But this can turn things a little smaller than they are sometimes, and we narrow down the stories to such small concepts as vibes between certain characters, maybe even individual lines or scenes. I for one am quite obsessed with Elain and Azriel’s dynamics and sigh dreamily at their individual scenes and lines.

Nothing wrong with that, fandom is the space for vibes. And the trees can be very nice. But I want to zoom out and look at the bigger implications of Elain and Azriel's love story, and why this is the story it seems SJM has been wanting to tell for years, has been carefully setting up, and which needs to be told (and why I’m excited to hear it told). The story about the poorly picked bonds.

Female empowerment is an overarching theme in ACOTAR. SJM has said as much, and we can see it in the books. Focusing on the spinoffs, Nesta's book opened up the title of warrior to females, in a social context where they had been excluded from it, despite their competence and willingness. Elain, the quiet dreamer and hopeless romantic, has been set up to grapple with the issue of females' choice in love in her book. 

The ugly side of the coin that is mating bonds

This has probably been pointed out before but since I'm still quite new here I hope you can forgive me if I'm beating a dead horse. The importance of telling the story of a rejected mating bond stretches far beyond just setting up a thrilling forbidden romance trope for Elriel. SJM has framed the rejection of a bond within the context of mated females being seen as the male's possession in Prythian, with the Autumn Court being seemingly the worst (as confirmed in Azriel's BC).

[Rhys, about mating bond rejections] For the females, it is usually easier to ignore, but the males … It can drive them mad. It is their burden to fight through, but some believe they are entitled to the female. Even after the bond is rejected, they see her as belonging to them. Sometimes they return to challenge the male she chooses for herself. Sometimes it ends in death. (ACOWAR)

[…] On the continent, there are territories that believe the females literally belong to their mate. (ACOWAR)

The last we heard of the mating bonds was SJM depicting Elain as losing her boldness around Lucien, and Azriel pointing out how the bond in Elain's case has given her to a male she does not want, asking, ‘what if the Cauldron was wrong?’ In doing so, SJM reminded us of what Rhys and Feyre said in ACOWAR in relation to Elain, Azriel, and Lucien: ‘Sometimes the bond picks poorly’, ‘Is there no free will’, ‘Why not make them mates?’

We have seen two stories told about mating bonds that worked out. But we’ve known since ACOWAR that isn't always the case. Yet we still haven't heard of a rejected mating bond. Certainly not a high stake one like Elain and Lucien’s. Rejecting a mating bond has therefore implications for every female in Prythian. Whether it is simply rejected by Elain, or if she, through her nature of being Made, finds a way to not just reject but actually break the unbreakable bond. 

A (high stake) mating bond rejection has implications for females like Rhys and Tamlin’s mothers, shackled to bad men because of the cultural and religious importance of the mating bond. It has implications for females like Elain, shackled to a male they never chose and do not want (regardless of if we might find the male to be good, because females owe nothing to males simply because they're nice and good). For females like Mor and others who are queer, and more/exclusively into women, and might still be shackled to a male. It has implications for all the females threatened with carrying the responsibility of driving a male they never chose mad should they reject him and refuse to succumb to being his possession. For females mated to Autumn Court males, threatened with the responsibility of their true love's death should he/she be forced to take part in the Blood Duel and fail. This is the ugly side of the coin that is the mating bonds of Prythian. The side which story hasn’t yet been told. The side which story SJM has set up across four books. About the poorly picked bonds.

The power of Elain's choice

As it appears, we are getting Elain and Azriel’s POV for the next book, and not Lucien's (as the spinoffs are dual POV of the love interests). Given Prythian's history and customs, I think there's a narrative strength in centering the female and her choice when telling the story of their rejected mating bond. Elain's POV, and the POV of her love interest, not because he is Azriel but because he is who she has chosen. And he has chosen her too, despite her being 'given to another' according to the customs of Prythian, a fact even Rhys and Feyre (however reluctantly) are using to their advantage when navigating court politics and try to maintain peace. Azriel is not wrong to question that this is how the mating bond is viewed in Prythian.

Aside from the minor detail we haven't gotten to Elain's actual story yet, it is understandable why SJM hasn't made Elain simply casually reject the bond yet. It is understandable why Azriel has been staying away even though it ruins him. SJM doesn’t have Elain and Azriel just playing forbidden romance for the thrill. And there aren't just short-term political implications of them pursuing each other, potentially resulting in the longer term loss of fragile peace. A rejected mating bond grapples with philosophical questions of agency and fate, as SJM pointed out in her TODAY interview. And as we see in the books, SJM has given it major social and political implications. This is the stuff for a long book. Because it's so much bigger than Elain. Her reclaiming her agency is also reclaiming the agency of the females of Prythian. That's the power of Elain's choice.

And it makes sense it should be the notoriously defiant Azriel who, at her side, defies fate and tradition over his love for Elain regardless of who fate has given her to, which could result in females as a whole gaining freedom from the poorly picked bonds. Azriel, who SJM so clearly has depicted as not only defiant but as uniquely supporting and standing up for the females in his life, and as hating backwards traditions and customs. SJM has tied this story to Elain and Azriel, weaved it into their arcs across several books so seamlessly and with such forethought it is sometimes missed. Because you really have to read all books to see this overarching bigger picture clearly. But when you do, I think it is very clear. 

I think this is the immense potential of Elain's book and Elriel's forbidden love story. It isn't just Elain going "ew, swipe left" in a paragraph. It is about the females of Prythian getting their freedom and agency back. It is about the other side of the coin that is mating bonds. About the poorly picked bonds. And I very much look forward to hearing this story told.

(and Lucien will very likely be just fine!)

[oceanfruitsstuff]

So, I’m in no way a professional here, but I’ve been learning more about writing and storytelling and all that fun stuff and one thing I love about Stranger Things is how they do love triangles—or more, love upside down V’s, that visual always helps me a bit more when I’m trying to make sense of them.

Stranger Things isn’t over yet, they still have a big chunk left to go, so I’m not going to act like anything is set in stone, they might go a completely different direction we know nothing about and that’s totally fine—but if we’re working with what we know up to this point, it’s always been pretty obvious to me what their intentions are if they’re following the normal structure of love triangles.

So let’s say Mike is character A, El is character B, and then Will is character C. Since Stranger Things isn’t a romance story and there is queerness involved, it’s going to be much more subtle then, let’s say, Steve/Nancy/Jonathan. But I’m getting off topic here, what I’m saying is Mike is not the main focus for both characters, in a show or movie that’s revolving around romance, both B and C characters would, usually, have their main focus be A (the character they want to be with) a big thing for me when I’m reading books with love triangles or watching shows/movies, is that if at any point one of the characters (besides character A) has an important arc of finding independence and learning about who they are, you can almost always rule that character out of being part of the “endgame couple”. Not everytime, but almost everytime. So, the second I watched season 4 it was a big “ohhh” moment for me when I saw what they were doing.

Also, if we’re gonna just follow the cliques of love triangles, the “obvious” or maybe first choice/couple, is very rarely going to be the final couple. Again, not always, but it’s extremely uncommon.

We can even do a comparison to the hunger games, it’s obviously a vastly different story, but there is a similarity woven in with the little love triangle they have going on. Katniss’ first choice is not Peeta, and we all know what happens—but the thing that is bringing me to this point, is that they still are almost always together, their plot lines are lined up. Of course it’s different since Katniss is the only POV, but still, no matter what, she winds up, usually, working with Peeta OR trying to find him once he’s taken.

Circling back to Mike and Will, they’ve never been separated, they’re storylines have been continuously woven together, they flew Mike out to Lenora this season just so he would end up working with Will. The only season they’re apart is season one—but, Mike’s goal the entire time and main focus is Will. They bump together because, a lot of the time, they’re focusing on one another.

A writer wants their endgame couples to be displayed together, the want people to like them together and root for them, or really just see them together. Every single other couple on the show (except for Jonathan and Nancy is season 4) are always shoved next together during the main plot. Joyce and Hopper don’t even start chatting about being together until season 3. We all kind of know where it’s headed, but most of their encounters aren’t romantic, there’s a depth to them that makes it somewhat romantic, but it’s not necessarily written to be that way. If you’re writing a story, you want the two characters you plan to be together to have a heavy background, a good rapport with one another, and to be seen together. Whether they’re currently dating or not, you want your audience rooting for them.

With El and Mike, it’s always been so odd the separation they have—because their arcs are not meant to intertwine, they love each other and hold an important relationship in the story, sure, but one of the reasons I’ve always felt strange watching their relationship on screen is because it doesn’t appear their stories are going in the same direction. There is this lack of romantic depth, or honestly even friendly depth, they hold each other at arms length. I think that’s for many reasons, but an important one is that El’s arc is not romance, I think for her character it would be insane if it was. The things she’s been through are crazy, and she’s only just learning who she is and who she wants to be—based on what we saw in the last scene where she’s practically ignoring Mike, we can assume she’s figured out what she wants.

Very very rarely does character A end up with character B. In real life, maybe, in stories, it’s pretty boring and not what people lean towards. Again, the show is not over, they could shift things around, it’ll be interesting to see—but I would be extremely surprised if Will and Mike don’t end up together or atleast are shown to have mutual feelings, purely just based on the simple storytelling structure they’re following.

Anyway I’m sure a million people have already said this, but the writing of how they’re handing Will and Mike is so interesting to me—and obvious if you’re taking away homophobia.

Characters that are meant to be together are usually shown together. If they’re not, that’s when you ask questions on what else might be going on.

Who knows if I know what I’m talking about, that’s just my POV on it all. I love Mike and Will, I’ve always thought they’d be beautiful together, but season 5 will be super exciting to see.

[asterias-record-shop]

Hello darling! I was hoping you’d write something I’ve had stuck in my head. Ethan Landry being completely in love/obsessed with the reader so much so that it started back in Woodsboro. Maybe Richie told Ethan his plan and he showed Ethan a picture of the friend group and he thought the reader was pretty. Richie told him that she has a boyfriend but he’d take care of it. And maybe the readers boyfriend wasn’t the best so she didn’t really mind him dying so when she meets Ethan and he’s so nice, it’s as if everything happens for a reason. If you decide to write this, that would be amazing! ❤️❤️

—𓆩[mine - sleep token]𓆪—

𓆩[main masterlist]𓆪 𓆩[request/ask me something!]𓆪 𓆩[song that inspired it (mine by sleep token)]𓆪

𓆩♡𓆪 CHARACTER - Ethan Landry x Fem! Reader

𓆩♡𓆪 TYPE - fluff, smut

𓆩♡𓆪 WORD COUNT - 2.8K

𓆩♡𓆪 SUMMARY - Ever since he saw that picture of you, he couldn’t stop fucking thinking about you. He’d find reasons to go where you were after he killed your boyfriend, your favorite coffee shop and bookstore or running into you at the store, he just… can’t get you out of his head, and it all comes together when a young girl trying to sell your school’s newspaper gets your attention.

𓆩♡𓆪 STORY WARNINGS - violence || foul language & cursing || obsessive! Ethan || timeskips sorry || you’re a journalist now || friends to lovers || loss of virginity (both) || unprotected sex || oral || fingering || marking kink || possessive talk || morning after pill talk ||

I have waited… 

“S-So… who is she again?”

Richie was so fucking annoyed already. Ethan had been asking question after question about you, especially after he killed your boyfriend. “She’s some kid, dude! Oh my fucking god, you want the picture? Here, take the picture! Her name is Y/N L/N, she goes to the same fucking school those other ones go to, I killed her boyfriend, and now she’s single and ready to mingle!”

He pressed the picture into Ethan’s chest, mumbling in annoyance as he continued walking down the hall. Ethan looks down, his fingers stroking over the picture of your face cropped out of a group picture with Tara and Sam. Richie met you a while ago, while he was still dating Sam, but Ethan hadn’t had the chance - yet.

He quickly went to his room, pulling out his laptop and quickly going to search up your school. It wasn’t surprising you were friends with Sam and Tara, but as soon as he saw you on the main slideshow for the school with the title ‘Our school newspaper’s Editor-In-Chief got a full ride to Blackmore University on a Journalist Scholarship’. How the fuck did you become friends with Sam and Tara while being a journalist?

He clicked on the slideshow, a large picture of you and some other people showing up with links to issues and how to get a subscription and such to the newspaper. What caught his eye though was the Instagram link, quickly clicking it and logging in to actually open it, your face in many of the posts. He clicked on one of the posts, your voice matching you perfectly as you yell out, “Come get our latest issue!”

He inhaled sharply, the tight shirt you were wearing and ripped jeans made a shiver run down his back. He listened to it over and over again, the only thing registering in his mind being come, come, come.

It didn’t take him long to lay back, getting ready to get himself off to the sound of your voice before staring at the caption. ‘Come see us at our monthly fundraiser at the Coffee Bean this Saturday!’

Oh he was definitely going that day, but he was focused on other things right now.

That Saturday, of course he attended. It was pretty full, not overly but enough, and he quickly got a drink before sitting in the corner. He had brought a book he wasn’t going to read, the only reason it was with him was because he was using it to hide his eyes whenever you looked anywhere in his vicinity. You were handing out copies, giggling and smiling with everyone you saw, and by fucks name he couldn’t stop staring at you.

“Hey!” A voice made him jump, looking over at a young girl who offered him a magazine. “You’re in high school, right? My cousin is the chief editor of this thing or whatever, you should read it and buy something!”

“Charlie!” A voice yelled, both of them looking back as you ran over. “That’s rude, you can’t do that!”

“Why not? He’s just sitting there pretending to read a book!” The young girl supposedly named Charlie says, flapping around the magazine as you shake your head.

“Charlie, go drink your frappe!” You take the copy of the magazine as she groans. “Go!”

“Oh! Her boyfriend was just murdered, you should buy it!” Charlie tries to play the guilt card, a smile on her face as you quickly push her away.

“Go!”

“I’m trying to get you sales, Y/N! Oh, hey, do you want a magazine?!” She runs after a bystander making Ethan laugh, a groan falling from your lips in embarrassment.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” you whispered, pressing your face into your hands as he laughed even harder. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ethan smiled at you before offering his hand. “I’m Ethan.”

“I’m Y/N,” you giggled, taking his hand and shaking firmly. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“So… your boyfriend was murdered or was it like… a tactic?” He asked with a smile, knowing full well he was dead.

“Oh no, he’s dead,” you say, eyes widening. “Sorry, I should sound more concerned! I’m not, though, he was an asshole. Do you go to Woodsboro-”

“No,” Ethan says quickly, shaking his head. It could’ve been a lie, you certainly wouldn’t have known that. “I just came to support a pretty girl.” He holds up his coffee, smiling at you.

Normally, he wouldn’t have done that not one bit of him would’ve done that because he’s a fucking pussy, but holding your hand made him confident. You paused as he stared at your face, your eyes flickering down at your hands as you smiled. “Oh yeah? That pretty girl here?”

“She’s real close too,” Ethan smiled widely at you, leaning down to maintain eye contact. “Real close.”

“What did you say your name was again?” You look up at him, biting your lip. “Hm?”

His face turned a bright red as he started to pull his hand away before your fingers moved around him. “Ethan. Ethan Landry.”

Your smile grew. “Well then Ethan Landry,” you tilt your head. “Can I get you another one of those drinks?”

Ethan smiled. “Why don’t I get you a drink instead?”

I know you can see… that you will be mine.

You and Ethan both got into Blackmore University, and while he roomed with Chad, you got your own apartment. You both hadn’t started dating just yet, but he was so close, so so close. He wanted to make you his before the murders started, so that he could… comfort you during the murders. Protect you with everything he had, he was so, so close.

“Y/N, can I talk to you?” Ethan whispered, tugging on your hand while the movie played loudly on the screen, the middle of a sex scene making his stomach twist and his dick hard.

“Hm? Oh yeah!” You paused it, smiling over at him as you raised a brow. “What’s up, E?”

He inhaled shakily, shrugging as he pulled you closer to him. You sighed, hugging him tightly as you laid against his chest. “You know I love you, right?”

You nodded, humming as you looked up at him. “I know, Ethan. I swear… you came at the most perfect, perfect time. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t meet you.”

“Well, we will never have to find out, right?” He smiled down at you, stroking your cheek. “We were made for each other, baby.”

You giggled. “Baby? That’s new.”

Ethan shrugged, leaning down. “You like it?”

You smile, reaching up to stroke his cheek. “I do.”

“Y/N, you… you came into my life at the most perfect time,” he smiled widely, stroking your face as you shifted to lay back. He moved to stay above you, leaning forward to tuck his face into your neck. “I don’t want you to leave… ever. I want to stay by your side forever.”

You gasped as his hands snake around your waist, pulling your body closer to his own as you wrapped your arms around his shoulders. “You promise? Promise to never leave me?”

You had gotten to the point where Ethan was next to you all the time, he was your support system - he couldn’t leave you. He promised you that, your fingers interlocked in a pinky promise whenever he got into Blackmore and followed you here. He couldn’t leave you, you both needed each other.

“I promise, baby, I promise.”

You looked up at him, moving your hands hooking behind the back of his neck as you pulled him down for a firm kiss. “Were you ever going to get to that part, or were you going to keep talking?”

He smiled, leaning down for another kiss. Your lips were soft and tasted like that cherry chapstick you always seemed to lose - even though he always took it from you - and you bought yourself another one the next time you went to a gas station that sold your favorite chapstick.

He always slipped it on whenever you weren’t looking, throwing it away whenever the layer you put your lips on disappeared.

The taste was addicting though, your taste and the cherry flavor he only subjected you to as he pushed his tongue into your mouth, trying to get as much of your taste in his own mouth. You gasped, back arching as his tongue pushed into the back of your throat, swirling around your own tongue and making mixed saliva gather at the back of your throat.

You choked softly making him pull back, lips shiny and swollen as you swallowed with a clearing of your throat. “St-Still need to breathe, honey.”

He laughs, his hands rubbing your sides. “Sorry. Got a little carried away, didn’t I?”

You nodded before sitting up, Ethan quickly followed as you started pulling at your shirt. He gasped when he saw your pretty bralette, black and lacy with chiffon underneath the only thin material covering your tits. “You did, but it’s okay. I want… I want you, but I’ve never done this before. Have you?”

He goes quiet, unable to answer as he stares at your tits and his hands twitching in anticipation to squeeze and grab at them. You giggled, leaning forward to instead cup his face while your other hand pulled at the hem of his plaid button down that you got him for his birthday one year.

It was easy to pull it off him, his body immediately at your mercy as you pushed him onto his back instead, hovering over his cock before sitting down on him. He groaned loudly, his cock pressing against his pelvis as you leaned forward, rolling your hips into his as his hands held your waist and pulled you closer. He groaned as you leaned down, kissing his lips softly. “Think that’s a no, right?”

He shook his head quickly, staring up at you. “N-No, I’ve never done this before.”

“Sex or seeing a woman naked?”

“I-I… does porn count?” He asked mindlessly, as though it wasn’t the stupidest question in the world, but you laughed as you leaned down with a firm kiss.

“Sure, baby, if you want it to.” You responded, bringing his hands up to your bra as you fixed yourself. “Do you want to take it off?”

He nodded immediately, smiling as you fixed your arms so his hands could slip behind your back and quickly unclasp your bra with a quick flex of his fingers. You giggled as it quickly slipped off, his hands going around the band to finish tugging it off of your body, sitting up to suck at your skin. You gasped as his mouth sucked against your skin, hot and slippery as his tongue dragged over before sucking and digging his teeth into your skin. You gasped as his hands pushed between the both of you, squeezing and cupping your tits as you pressed kisses to his head.

“This something you’ve seen in those pornos, baby? Hm? Playboy magazines?”

He shook his head, grabbing your hips and laying you back against the couch as he stared at your now hickey littered form. “No, honey. This is what I’ve thought about every night for the last year. Thinking about making you mine over and over again.”

You gasped as his hands tugged at your bottoms, slipping into the band of your underwear and pulling them down as you lifted your hips for him to take them off. He stared at the string of arousal that came from your cunt to your underwear, the floral cloth pattern being thrown to the side as he ducked down to press kisses against your thighs.

You gasped as his teeth grazed your skin, his tongue flattening against your cunt making you whine loudly. “Y-You’ve never done this before, right?”

He shakes his head. “No, but I’ll learn. You tell me what feels good.”

You inhaled deeply, nodding as he ran his fingers down your slit, experimenting. He leaned forward, licking down your cunt and letting his nose tap against the hood of your slit and his tongue curl around your clit and his finger push against your entrance. He hummed, watching as your entrance greedily opened up for him, sucking his fingers into you and clamping down almost immediately.

A gasp fell from your lips as he pushed it in knuckle deep, your walls clamping down on him as your thighs spread wider, your hands pushing down as you held the back of his head. He thrusted his finger in and out of you, twisting to push another  finger in and curl them to push into that perfect spot. Your eyes rolled back, mouth falling open as he sucked on your clit, teeth nibbling on the bud before your nails dig into his scalp.

He could feel your walls clamping down on him, the sensitive ring of nerves tightening around the base of his knuckles, his eyes watching as spit gathered against the sensitive bud before spitting against your clit. It must’ve pushed you over the edge, a loud scream leaving your lips as your cunt convulsed around his fingers and your fingers tugged on his hair, thighs shaking as he pulled away from your clit to watch the spit fall down your cunt.

He stared as your pretty cunt convulsed when he pulled his fingers out, a whine leaving your lips as you buck your hips, your entrance fluttering as he sat back. He stared at you, your hazy eyes and your hickey littered form, everything that made you feel good was from him - everything was from him.

“Ethan, do we need a condom?” You whisper, staring up at him as he starts taking off his pants.

“Do you want me to get us one? It’ll take time baby, can you wait that long?” He knew you couldn’t wait that long, there was no way you could wait that long.

“P-Promise you’ll get me a pill?” You whisper, making him nod, smiling down at you as he pressed a firm kiss to your lips.

“I promise, baby.”

You gasped as his tip teased your entrance, whimpering as your arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer to you. “Fuck baby, it hurts. It hurts, it hurts!”

“Did I not stretch you out enough? Do you want me to stop, I can find lube? You have lube, right?” He was asking because he knew damn well that you had vibrators, so you had to have lube too.

“Y-Yeah, bottom drawer in my room, dresser.”

He couldn’t have run faster to your room, quickly digging into your drawer and grabbing the pink tube before running back out. Your fingers were pushed into your cunt, scissoring and thrusting inside of yourself with both hands as you whimpered. “Fucking hell, you never said you were thick and long.”

He laughed as you threw a leg over the couch, sitting in front of you before spitting into his hand and rubbing it up and down his shaft. “Still want the lube?”

“J-Just a bit,” you whisper, staring up at him. “Not too much.”

He quickly opens the lid, squirting some into his hand and the smell of cherries fill his nose. He laughed, smiling. “You’re just a cherry girl, aren’t you?”

You giggle, nodding. “Yeah.”

He spreads it onto his cock, keeping some on his fingers to push it into you. You gasped, whining as he pushed them in a few more times before pulling them out and pushing his tip to your cunt. Your eyes rolled back before snapping his hips forward, wiping them against your clothes on the floor before holding your thighs around his waist.

“Fuck baby, you’re so tight. So fucking tight, you’re perfect for me baby, so perfect. Like you were made for me, remember when you said that? Did you not say we were made for each other?”

You laughed, nodding. “Yes! Yes, I was made for you… and you were made for me. All for me.”

Regular taglist: 𓆩[@lem0ns77]𓆪   𓆩[@cecepop15]𓆪   𓆩[@memeorydotcom]𓆪   𓆩[@your-favorite-god]𓆪   𓆩[@xyzstar]𓆪  𓆩[@just-my-shit]𓆪   𓆩[@your-mom21]𓆪   𓆩[@c78r]𓆪   𓆩[@dizscreams]𓆪   𓆩[@asrt5]𓆪 𓆩[@wenvierismycomfort]𓆪

© asterias-record-shop

[the-golden-comet]

✨Writeblr Interview✨

Thank you for tagging me @nczaversnick , @phynewrites , @mrbexwrites , and @foyle-writes-things ! Appreciate the heck out of y’all 💛✨

Short stories, novels, or poems?

Novels for sure, to read and to write! ✨

What genre do you prefer reading?

Same ones as I write—BL Romantasies, high fantasies, low fantasies, adult fiction, Slice of Life, Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Angst/Fluff/Smut 💫✨

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

Little of column A, little of column B. I think a healthy balance between the two makes for some great planned (and unplanned) adventures! 💛✨

What music do you listen to while writing?

So funny thing….I don’t listen to music when I write. But, my favorite writing white noise is gameplay of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dead by Daylight, or Friday the 13th without commentary, played at a very low volume. Something about a revving chainsaw sparks my motivation to write (or maybe it’s fear? 🤔)

Favorite books/movies?

Anything Disney +mutuals’s stories ✨

Any current WIPs?

So far finishing up YWIMC before I move on to something big….👀✨I have a lot of stories on the back-burner and am focusing on one at a time 💛

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you what would your standard outfit be?

Very comfortable gray-knit turtleneck or hoodie, comfy pants, stylin’ shoes, and my bag of holding (numerous things. Backpack I carry around that has all my daily necessities ✨)

Create a character description of yourself:

Okay picture Link from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Got it? Okay. Make him gay. Give him some cartilage piercings. Maybe a few eye bags due to the insomnia. There you go. ✨

Oh also make him chaotic good. Because the world needs more kindness, and I will give the world more kindness. The world does not have a choice in the matter. 🌏💫✨

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

Considering what I write? Absolutely not.

Are you kill happy with your characters?

Depends on the character and the narrative. I like happy endings, but sometimes a character must die. 🤷‍♂️

Coffee or Tea while writing?

While I write? Water. While I wake up? Coffee. While I get ready for bed? Tea.

Slow or fast writer?

Fast writer, slow motivator. Once I get on a groove I can usually go on 5-6 hour writing binges at a time. I just have to get there first with all of my projects….🫠✨

Where/who/what do you draw inspiration from?

Myself mainly, and my friends and mutuals secondly. I’ve been writing for myself since I started making fanfictions as a teenager, so I’ll never NOT make stories for myself. Gaining a supportive community on writeblr has given me an extra boost of motivation, because now I feel like I’m writing for myself AND for my friends and mutuals ✨

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

The person that somehow finds themself in harrowing situations only to stumble my way out of the problem through sheer coincidence and bullshit. Or a bard. Probably a bard. Maybe both of these things 🤔✨

Most fav book cliche:

Two dumb idiots (/positive) go on an epic quest and learn about each other in the meanwhile. (See: The Emperor’s New Groove)

Least favorite cliche:

One-trick pony characters that lack depth, or exist just to check off a box.

Favorite scene to write?

Anything involving the two main protags.

Reason for writing?

My own personal enjoyment, and to share my crazy mind with the world for entertainment and create joy and inspiration to a community of genius minds (You. I’m talking about you. Yeah, YOU. Keep writing, keep inspiring, and keep on keeping on) 💖✨

Thank you again! I’m going to tag (no pressure): @tragedycoded , @wyked-ao3 , @gioiaalbanoart , @sableglass , @words-after-midnight , @saturnine-saturneight , @marlowethelibrarian , @davycoquette , @lychhiker-writes , @glasshouses-and-stones , @aintgonnatakethis , @honeybewrites , @drchenquill , @theink-stainedfolk , @the-letterbox-archives , @ominous-feychild , @mysticstarlightduck , @finickyfelix , @autism-purgatory , @moltenwrites , @rivenantiqnerd , @thecomfywriter , @somethingclevermahogony , @authorcoledipalo , @houseplantblank , +open tag ✨

[yggdraseed]

Women in Jujutsu Kaisen

Let’s get this out of the way first: if you’re reading this because you enjoy reading posts by people who hate Jujutsu Kaisen, you’re going to be disappointed. I actually like Jujutsu Kaisen a lot, I have a lot of positive things to say about it, and I’m going to be explaining my reasoning here. You should probably move on if you want trash talk. But if you have a negative view point that you’re nevertheless willing to reevaluate or recontextualize by looking at things from a new perspective, please read on.

A lot has been said about how women are written in Jujutsu Kaisen. A lot of good, and a lot of bad. I think a lot of the bad comes from how Jujutsu Kaisen was praised so early on for how it’s women were written, only for people to either not see it or have their expectations not be met due to events in Shibuya and the Culling Games. However, while I try to respect diversity of opinion, I feel like a lot of people aren’t really grasping why the way GeGe Akutami writes women was lauded. I think a people have lots of different ideas of what makes for a well-written female character, and don’t find what they’re looking for in Jujutsu Kaisen, thus they get angry and they post online about how GeGe Akutamisogyny isn’t going to beat “the allegations.”

I’ve never liked the justifications put forth for that argument. There’s a lot of subtext to how the female cast of Jujutsu Kaisen are written that can’t fit neatly into the simple world of page and panel counts or win-loss ratios. And, fortunately, there are tools for feminist literary analysis that I am going to employ in what will hopefully be a short trilogy of posts, starting here.

When I see people criticizing how women are written in Jujutsu Kaisen, I usually only see them using one point of interest: the outcome of a fight. If a female character doesn’t win a fight, then some people in the audience take that to mean that GeGe Akutami hates that character, hates women, and doesn’t want them to succeed — or some variation of that, perhaps less extreme.

This is a product of Jujutsu Kaisen being a Shonen, and thus being on the radar of Shonen fans who — let’s be honest — are not known widely for consuming anime or manga outside of the Shonen demographic. Shonen is heavily focused on conflict and competition as storytelling, it’s why the term “battle shonen” is used so prevalently. And Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t try to deny its own Shonen heritage: it uses fights for storytelling all the time, sometimes even more than other Shonen seem to do.

I think this might also be a cultural thing. Anime and manga are written very differently from Western movies or comic books, with very different cultural background and different artistic sensibilities. However, that’s a topic that I’ll unpack another time, maybe not even in Part 2 or 3 of this post.

Point is, we need to step back and get some perspective. People who use the losses or deaths among the female cast as evidence that GeGe hates women, or sees women as inferior, or has some sort of passive, culturally-inherited sexism in their worldview are suffering from tunnel vision. You need to look at the story as a whole sometimes, not just the one subject in question.

Go back to the Goodwill Event, and the fight between Nobara and Momo. Their whole conversation is a huge part of why Jujutsu Kaisen was praised early on for how Akutami writes women, and I think the subtext of it really went over some people’s heads. It did mine, the first time around: to me, it just felt like a competent, if tired “girl power” moment for Nobara. But as I invested more time and thought into reading the series, and as I learned more since first viewing that scene, I started to realize what I wasn’t seeing in that scene.

Momo shares something in common with all of the Kyoto Students, Todo and Miwa being the exception. In addition to seemingly coming from a more-or-less established sorcerer pedigree, Momo shares the general pessimism that hangs over the Kyoto Students like a dark cloud. There’s this very morosely Japanese sense of “woe is me, but there’s nothing to be done” about Momo, Mai, Noritoshi, and Mechamaru, in one sense or another. These four are people who will complain about a problem, then just sit while it washes over them and batters them like a wave. They just accept the unfair hand they’re dealt in life, and while they don’t like it, they treat it as something no one can overcome. Furthermore, on some level, I think these four don’t necessarily want to overcome the misfortunes and injustices they face.

See, Momo pours her heart out at length about how hard it is being a woman and being a sorcerer. And the way she talks about it is a very different critique of society than you’d see in a lot of Shonen. She talks about how women are expected to be perfect: beautiful, graceful, exquisite, the model of femininity, while also keeping up with the macho “might makes right” sensibilities that dominate sorcery. In her words, “men have to be strong, women have to be perfect.”

This isn’t something that’s just being plucked out of thin air, this is a criticism of the girlboss culture that arose through the 2000s and 2010s up to now. Women are expected to battle sexism alone, in their own lives, by being exceptional: rather than reforming cultural structures that put women at a disadvantage to men, girlboss culture says women just need to always wear perfect makeup, always be fashionable, always work 2.5 times harder than men, and find time to raise children and have a side-hustle at the same time. Instead of fixing the problem, it’s telling women, “Just work harder. Just be better.” As if women haven’t been having to work harder for nothing in return for the past 50 years, holding down jobs that they have to go above and beyond to prove themselves in as compared to male coworkers for whom the job might as well be a guarantee by comparison, having a ceiling put on their promotion while men who didn’t put in as much work get to move up the company ladder, and frequently having to juggle having a child and taking care of housework in addition to the expectations of jobs that often don’t afford maternity leave. And then, on top of all of that, the expectation is then foisted on to have the time and energy to perfectly craft your hair, makeup, and outfit for the day, and if you miss a single step of the whole stupid dance, you’re seen as an underachiever. That’s girlboss culture, and that’s what Momo is indirectly criticizing when she laments the contradictory and unfair expectations women in the sorcery world have to uphold. They need to fight just as hard as the men, while wearing skirts and not getting a single scar on that pretty face.

(Just as an aside, I love the way this conversation comes about. Momo and Mai are pretty close to each other, to the point that it sometimes feels like nobody else in the Kyoto school likes or respects Mai like Momo does. And Momo targets Nobara with this whole speech because of the friction between Mai and Nobara, and because she wants to stand up for Mai. I like that element of both solidarity and conflict between women, about being a woman, and I’ve always gotten sapphic vibes from Momo and Mai, so I’m glad that she’s the one giving this whole speech and why she’s doing it. But I digress.)

And the thing is, she’s not wrong. Neither Nobara nor the story as an overall entity refutes anything she says. However, Nobara points out something else about Momo that she shares in common with the other Kyoto Students who were raised to be sorcerers: the way she treats her whole life like a job. Momo has internalized the culture she despises, and instead of trying to rebel, she just accepts all of it as “the way the world works.” She soldiers on, just as Noritoshi soldiers on with his family’s expectations, Mai soldiers on with her pain and feeling of being abanoned, and Mechamaru soldiers on with the isolation, unfairness, and general misery that comes with his Heavenly Pact. Soldiering on, as if soldiering on has inherent value when it leads nowhere and accomplishes nothing. Never addressing the problem, or trying to find a way around it; simply rolling that boulder up the hill, grumbling all the way. She and the other Kyoto Students have this sense of treating their own misfortune as a badge of honor. To them, they’re justified and validated because they have experienced more than their fair share of suffering. They’re always eager to flaunt the crosses they have to bear.

Momo treats being a woman as a curse. Funny how that ties into the rest of the narrative, huh?

For Nobara, being a woman is not some great burden she has to live with. Being a woman in general and being Nobara Kugisaki in particular is something she revels in, and it’s just the fault of everyone else if they think otherwise.

Let’s talk about Nobara, and let’s not reduce her to her death scene. When we meet Nobara, she’s immersing herself in the Tokyo way of life after moving from the countryside to the big city. She encounters a sleazy talent agency recruiter who’s pestering women on the street with his hand-rubbing, obviously nefarious ways… only for Nobara to stop him, turn him around, and say, “What about me?” He gets intimidated, tries to run, and she drags him back. From her perspective, he should be happy to have her, and the fact he isn’t means he’s ignorant of her beauty and wit and needs to be corrected. If he won’t convert to Kugisakism, then her charms are wasted on him, and he’s doomed to the dim world that is Nobaralessness. When she meets Yuji and Megumi, she introduces herself with a line that’s translated into English as, “I’m the only woman in your group.” But from what I’ve been able to gather, her line in Japanese is, “I’m the red mark.” The phrase “red mark” can mean “the one who’s different from the others” — like the one girl in a group of boys — or it can mean “the one who stands out.” So you can also read it as her saying, “I’m the stand-out of the group.” Nobara Kugisaki, everybody.

If you want to talk about how literary circles analyze how women are writing, let’s leave the topics of fight outcomes and feats to one side. One thing you immediately look for is motivation. What’s motivating a character? This is important for how female characters are written, and especially in Shonen, which revolves so much around characters with some goal or belief that the story pursues through fights and other forms of adversity.

Now poorly-written women will tend to be motivated by men. They’ll be attracted to a man, or trying to support or protect a man, or trying to find a man. This by itself isn’t a death sentence for a woman’s characterization, but it is a red flag. It’s also not as if women have to never interact with or think about men to be well-written. It’s not an on-off switch, a bad writing-good writing switch. It’s a meter, like Mahoraga steadily adapting to a technique. Just a little bit is fine, and can be even turned into good writing in capable hands. But if it becomes too prevalent and is never examined, then you get a situation where a story’s women are not permitted lives outside of being in a male character’s orbit.

How do we gauge this? Well, there are lots of ways, but one of the more well-known and simple techniques is the Bechdel test. The name is derived from Alison Bechdel, feminist author who penned such classics as Dykes to Watch Out For. Bechdel proposed a simple litmus test for how to tell an author’s seriousness about writing women, and it goes like this: 1.) Look for scenes where women talk to each other. 2.) In those scenes, check for how often they’re talking about things besides male characters.

This isn’t the only way to tell if women are written well or not, and some will say it isn’t even the best way, but it’s a good foot in the door to get us thinking about what divides well-written female characters from poorly-written female characters. I’m not going to go back and scan through the whole manga just yet, but let’s look at some examples.

— The aforementioned conversation between Nobara and Momo, where the two pit their different view of what it means to be a woman and a sorcerer against one another. — Maki and Nobara talking to each other after the encounter with Mai and Todo. Curious by meeting Maki’s sister, Nobara talks to Maki a bit about their upbringing. Having gained more insights into Maki’s past and personality, Nobara leans on her and tells her how much she respects her. — Miwa and Mai discussing the upcoming Goodwill Event in a flashback. Mai tells Miwa that Maki is weak, which leaves Miwa unprepared for their fight. — Maki and Mai arguing and coming to terms with what drove them apart. Mai just wanted a peaceful life with Maki, but Maki couldn’t be happy and authentic with herself if she just left things the way they were. She was forced to choose between herself and Mai, and Maki chose herself, knowing that Mai would suffer and that she’d shoulder some of the guilt for that.

This indicates that GeGe found it important to divorce the identities of the female characters from male characters. And this holds true in what drives and motivates the female cast.

Nobara is motivated by her own goals. She hates the countryside, and she loves the city; becoming a sorcerer is a way she can make a lot of money, live in the city, and pursue the kind of lifestyle she values. She wants to be a true blue Tokyoite, wearing trendy clothes and eating crepes and taking selfies by the statue of Hachiko outside Shibuya Station. She’s not doing this to avenge her dead brother, she’s not doing this to find her father, she’s not searching for a strong man to sire strong children — yuck. Nobara has aesthetic values and strongly held beliefs, and becoming a sorcerer lets her pursue those values and beliefs.

And if you really want to analyze the action side of Jujutsu Kaisen as an indicator for how GeGe feels about female characters, consider how Nobara takes to sorcery like a fish to water. Both Megumi and Yuji have their own internal dilemmas with being a sorcerer, but not Nobara. In a series where mindset is so important, Nobara has the mindset. Uro describes the model sorcerer as having “no concern for others and an overwhelming sense of self.” There is no one with a more overwhelming sense of self than Nobara. She’s loud, opinionated, loves to argue, flaunts herself, and demands other people give her more than what they think she’s due. She’s narcissistic, but that faith in herself makes her mentally strong.

She lacks experience, but even then, she learns and grows rapidly through the series. Due to running out of nails to fend off cursed spirits during the first stretch of Fearsome Womb chapters, she invents Hairpin as a way to reuse nails she’s already launched and embedded in a surface. She manages to land a Black Flash during the tag team fight with Yuji, and it’s her oppressive use of Resonance on Eso and Kechizu that turns the tides — a tactic which required her to hammer nails into her own arm. She takes it on the chin and gets her brain rattled around in her skull during the fight with Haruta, but even while borderline unconscious and suffering from a concussion, she forces herself to keep him talking in hopes Nitta can escape and manages to get to her feet and keep fighting despite the total disorientation and inability to summon her strength. While she didn’t win the fight, she showed more fighting spirit than half of the male cast tends to, and I find it kind of gross that people will ignore all of that and mock someone who kept fighting against the odds. That’s like laughing at Mumen Rider when he’s hopelessly trying to fight Sea King even as his body is breaking. I don’t exactly see what about either case is so funny or worthy of ridicule.

Even in the showdown with Mahito, people always fixate on how she dies, but never consider what led to it. She crosses paths with Mahito, and even knowing from Yuji what he’s capable of, she goes in — partially because he hurt Yuji, her friend, and she wants to make him suffer for it. And her technique turns out to be a worst case scenario for Mahito. She’s hammering his clone with Resonance and sending the blowback to the original while he’s fighting Yuji, dividing his attention and weakening him. Her only mistake was chasing him down, and even then, this isn’t the story punishing her. It’s the story being consistent with who Nobara is. She’s got a dangerous enemy on the ropes, her pride is bruised after the fight with Haruta, and she has a chance to get vengeance on someone who’s hurt her friend while helping said friend in the process. If she hadn’t followed Mahito into the subway, then she wouldn’t be Nobara Kugisaki.

And in her final moments, Nobara achieves something that’s considered to be out of reach of most sorcerers. She dies content, with a smile on her face. Nobara may not have realized her potential to be a great sorcerer, but she got what she, personally, wanted. Sorcery was a means to an end, and she got to live the Tokyo life and meet interesting people that she considers her friends. She got to fill out that finite number of seats in her life, and even meet a few people who pulled up a chair when she didn’t expect it. In her words, “It wasn’t so bad.” Nobody else but Toji and Gojo have gotten to die this satisfied — Toji because Megumi had grown up free of the Zen’in curse, Gojo because he was authentic to himself right to the end and left it all on the field. Nobara was authentic to herself right to the end, and that’s worthy of high praise. If she is definitely dead and not coming back, then she managed to accomplish what it was she wanted before dying. Not many get that luxury in Jujutsu Kaisen. It hurts because I liked her and admired her and appreciate the way she was written, and her dying doesn’t make the value of her character disappear from the story entirely. It’s the character’s death, it’s everything that led to that death and what that death means to them and to those who are left behind. And if it’s manga that explore death, nobody does it better than GeGe Akutami.

Lots of people will point to an interview where GeGe said that Nobara was not originally considered part of the cast, and they’ll use that as evidence that secretly, GeGe’s a big stupid misogynist who hates women and likes killing them in stories and blah blah blah blah blah. You know, first of all, I doubt that the editor held a gun to GeGe’s head and said “Put in a female main character or die.” Secondly, if GeGe really didn’t care, Nobara would just be a two-dimensional copy of Sakura who dies in the first arc or two. GeGe would not have put in the effort to set her apart from other female leads, or given her so many stand-out moments, or given her such an interesting motivation and world view. In short, if GeGe didn’t want to write a female character, they’d do what Kishimoto did: write Sakura. But that comparison is a can of worms I’ll need to pry open another time.

To sum up for the time being, no, GeGe Akutami does not hate women. Losing a fight does not make a female character worthless, and does not indicate a disdain for them on the part of the author. I don’t know about you, but I don’t read Shonen just to see who punches harder. I want to see characters be challenged, sometimes fail, learn, grow, and overcome adversity — and it wouldn’t be adversity if all the characters I like win and survive easily. I love Kashimo and will continue to love Kashimo, and Kashimo being super ultra dead doesn’t change that.

Look out for Part 2, in which I’m going to unpack some really contentious stuff when it comes to challenges and female characters in Jujutsu Kaisen. We’re gonna talk about the concept of screen time, we’re gonna talk about subtext, we’re gonna talk about great expectations and the great unexpected in Jujutsu Kaisen, and we’re gonna talk more in-depth about the narrative outside the narrative of Jujutsu Kaisen in a vacuum. If your sense for danger is giving you a bad feeling about this, then it should be: we’re talking about that. Switch on your Anti-Gravity System, it’s going to get messy.

[thetypedwriter]

Children of Anguish and Anarchy Book Review

Children of Anguish and Anarchy Book Review by Tomi Adeyemi

This book was so horrible. 

No one is more disappointed than me to say that. 

I’ve gone to two of Tomi Adeyemi’s book signings, including a recent one for Children of Anguish and Anarchy.

Tomi Adeyemi herself is absolutely wonderful. She’s so intelligent, hilarious, addictively charming, and can work a room like no other. The book signing was fantastic. Too bad the book couldn’t hold up to the event itself. 

Children of Anguish and Anarchy follows as the third and last installment of the Legacy of Orisha trilogy, but doesn’t read like that at all.

Other than having the same four main characters of Tzain, Zelie, Amari, and Inan, nothing about the book concludes any issue, plot story, or character development from the previous two novels. 

A completely new villain is introduced, someone we haven't heard about as a reader in the last two books whatsoever, and obliterates any of the conflict and tension that Adeyemi worked so hard to build in her previous stories. 

Gone is the tension and literally hundreds of years of in-fighting between the Maji and the monarchy, gone is the civil war and its repercussions on Orisha, gone is even one of the main characters from the last novel, Roen, who was a significant love interest for Zelie and who has been completely disappeared in this new book all together (like, what???). 

It was incredibly lazy writing to wipe away everything the first two books created in order to “unite” against this new enemy. The sentiment is nice, but it’s not the finale we wanted or needed. 

I desired answers to Amari and Zelie’s broken friendship, closure to the Inan and Roen love triangle, a verdict on how Orisha would rebuild and who would rule. 

We get none of that. 

Instead Zelie and the others spend half their time in the book on a ship with very strong slavery parallels, and the other half in the introduced land of New Gaia.

While I thought the descriptions of New Gaia were beautiful (albeit very similar to Avatar), I was dissatisfied because the whole series at this point has been focused on Orisha and Orisha’s problems, not New Gaia and not the Skulls. 

While the plot was bad and aggrieving, the characters were even worse. 

None of the characters were interesting. They were carbon copies of each other in which all they talked about was avenging their fallen Orishan people, killing the Skulls, and protecting loved ones.

Rinse and repeat. It was boring as hell to delve into four different characters’ minds only to find that they all sounded exactly the same. 

I often had to go back to the start of the chapter to tell whose internal thoughts I was reading because they were so interchangeable and self-righteous and dull.  It is never a good sign when you can’t automatically tell who’s POV you’re reading based on their internal dialogue and tone. 

Lastly, the pacing of the book was atrocious. Everything happened so goddamn fast that I felt like I never had the chance to properly digest or internalize anything.

Oh they’re on a ship? Moving on from that. Zelie got some sort of medallion shoved into her chest?? Moving on. Wait, Maji and Titans and the monarchy are all working together after two full books of them killing each other??? Five pages and it’s done with. 

It was outrageous and insulting. 

The pacing made everything feel shallow, unimportant, and unnecessary. More than most of the plot were action scenes, while difficult to write and interesting in their own right, in this book it was so repetitive that characters killing other characters 90% of the time became egregiously tedious. 

And speaking of the action, I also found it incredibly violent and graphic for a YA book. As someone who is not a fan of gore and blood, this book had so many explicit details for no reason other than being gratuitous.

For example, at one point Zelie shoves a chicken bone through someone’s cheek. I found it repulsive and it was also incessant. 

I know some people can handle brutality, but I can’t, and found it a huge turn off and made me dislike the book so much more, especially as this was a majority of the book to boot. 

Disappointment can’t even contain my full feelings for this story. For such a wonderful trilogy to succumb to such a terrible end is a tragedy. I wish the best for Tomi Adeyemi and success for her future, but I will not read another book by her again. 

Score: 2/10

Recommendation: Read Children of Blood and Bone, a magical story that will inspire and entertain you. Read Children of Virtue and Vengeance if you really need something else, but even this book I wouldn’t recommend picking up.

Do not, I repeat, do not read Children of Anguish and Anarchy. It will leave you feeling dismayed and disheartened beyond redemption.

Bonus: Here's me, my fiance, and Tomi Adeyemi at her book signing!

[13tinysocks]

The other day I was watching a video essay about the problematics of “dark romance” and their authors (ex: colleen hoover etc) and also their popularity among book-tok girlies. Although the video was heavily focused on novels I couldn’t help but have in mind fanfics like SYG and specially YCYD

So my question is, Do you think there’s a difference between those dark romance book-took books and your fanfics? (Specially the portrayal of men and women in them) And if there is, what’s the difference? I know that your fanfics, specially YCYD, have constant warnings and disclaimers but that’s doesn’t change the fact that the fanfic is being consumed for satisfaction.

I don’t mean to sound rude, I loved the fanfics, and that’s precisely why I question the dynamics in them.

P.S. I love how immersive your writting is xo

I’ve thought of this often considering I’m rewriting ycyd for the publishing market. In such, making it much darker and uncomfortable as before with beloved characters I didn’t want to make them “too much”. Whereas with these different characters I’ve reared from my teet? Sure, let’s get more explicit.

I think booktok has an identity problem. It wants to be dark and nasty but also classically romantic. Yes my alpha boyfriend kills people but he’s nice to me and I’m also tiny and feeble and he’ll kill anyone who looks at me. Book took often writes abuse but so badly, so unrealistically, they don’t think it is abuse. They think it’s kink but if you view it from a kink perspective it’s watered down slop. The romance is lacking, too quick, cheesy and without chemistry.

Our fics admittedly suffer from the same things. Part of it I addressed the first paragraph, the other well, I was 18 and plain shit at writing.

I think saying “don’t write abuse where the abuser is abused and obviously in a bad headspace” (as many YouTubers who don’t really write on the subject or involved in kink at all tend to say) is dumb. I feel that rhetoric makes people who have actually been abused see themeselves less and less in media. Save for the cliche my mom is a drunk that puts her cigarettes out on me- abuse.

It’s often unsaid but in SOME cases of bad things happening, these things can turn later in life for the victim: into kinks and fetishes. I think this idea is under-explored in “dark” romance novels. Because they’re not really dark at all.

You can not like it. You can be disgusted by these victims but still- they exist. Even non-victims for whatever reason develop gross fetishes. It doesn’t automatically make them bad just- sexually deviant. So long as these people have safe and sane sex I don’t care. But dark romance shouldn’t be safe or sane in my opinion.

To me dark romance at its truest is exploring your kinks to the deepest, nastiest depths with zero regard for character safety or sanity.

Do not misread me. I am not advocating for cp. cp is abhorrent. I would never include such in my work.

I won’t deny it. Syg and ycyd are both stories with abusive dynamics. It is bad on purpose. Ycyd more so. Because if you truly want a horror and romance story in one well- the horror IS the romance. In ycyd’s novelization I want the characters clash and romance to be sickening. I want you to pray to god Dianne gets away from these men. Finds a nice girl in Colorado and rightly fucks off.

But at the same time. I don’t think my style of dark romance should be popular. It is gross! It is bad! But damn if it isn’t fun for those of us into that kind of thing.

Anyway, ycyd is doing very well in writing. I’ll be able to rewrite ho1cs latest chapter soon, the first draft was uttter shit. The job market is bad, im broke, happy Valentine’s Day, go get fisted everybody

[m4iya]

ᝰ.ᐟ✮⋆˙ Matchup #8 @rinaland˙⋆✮ᐟ.ᝰ

Hello! Once more I’m trying to regain motivation for writing! That might be the reason why these have been coming out so slowly… lol

After a while, deciding and ‘analysing’ I’ve decided to match you to Oikawa Toru!

Let’s begin with the hobbies c: I don’t think we know a lot about his hobbies in specific (other than volleyball obv) but he seems like the type to play video games in his free time, or just do random things in general. I think the two of you might play video games together, linking with each other in games and playing over call, or in person. Maybe something cozy, or an RPG or maybe even a shooter game where the two of you are in a call and he gets mad, insisting the people are ‘hacking’. He’d either suddenly go quiet and stop speaking out of annoyance, or become so frustrated that he yells at the console. He might even mutter the occasional “Ppft, whatever. I’d probably beat them in volleyball anyways.”

In a similar fashion, I can see the two of you wearing matching jewellery; something you made or something he bought. Maybe even matching lock screens, or his would be a candid photo of you. 

Since you mentioned keeping your interests to yourself until you get close to someone, I think he’d be the type to find someone like you pretty interesting. At times, he's either an open book, or super hard to read, so if he met someone like you, who (I might be wrong here, ignore if me if I am) is quiet and reserved yet still polite, open up and become flowery, beaming with a bunch of different interests and hobbies, might really keep his attention focused on you. 

One thing we (kinda) do know about Oikawa is the way he struggles with his perception of himself and his skills. He might find solace in venting his worries to you, noticing how you listen and provide an environment that makes it easy for someone to feel understood. 

He might tell you something, worrying and expecting to be scolded, but get the exact opposite. Maintaining a level-headed perspective on his issues, you might point out his wrongs but in a way that’s easier to digest than a lecturing session. To listen, but not be ready to attack at any moment. Because of that, I can see him being the type to ring you up at random times of the day, (mainly late night) and tell you about his day even when he had no issues or complaints. 

He’d ring you just when you were about to sleep, whining that the bread shop near his house was all out of his favourite milk bread. 

“…and get this, I had to get red bean bread instead.”

“Couldn’t this have waited until tomorrow?”

“Nope, I felt like you should know right now.”

Soon, it turned from venting worries to sharing the smallest details about his day. You’d smile and listen, and he’d feel understood. 

Here is a short story I wrote regarding outfits, gift giving and what not:

At last, he was free from practice for at least a day and you were able to spend some time together. Even if all the two of you were doing was laying on his bed, chatting and watching videos.

“This is so cute, isn’t it?” Turning the screen towards him, he squints.

“I mean, it’s okay.” His attention shifts back to his phone as he scrolls through training videos.

“I’m gonna check it out.” Pressing a link which led to the website, you search for where the store is located “It’s close by, wanna come?”

“Can’t we just stay here?” He groans.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!”

Slipping your shoes on, you step outside his house. Joining you after closing the door, the two of you walk there with your arms linked. On the way there, he stops by a juice bar, buying something for the both of you to drink. Even though he placed the order, after trying yours he repeatedly hinted at ‘how much nicer it was than his’ until you gave in and swapped your drink with his.

Once you reached the store, you began browsing, looking for the dress you saw online. Once you found it, you took it along with a few other things to a changing room to try on. Instructing him to wait on a seat nearby, you told him that he’d be the judge. With a sigh, he gave in, assuring you that he’d ‘do his job properly’

Outfits upon outfits, he’d give you ratings. Not on how you looked, but on how the outfit itself looked. After a while, he tapped on the door and told you that he’d be right back, and to wait for him before trying on the next outfit.

A few minutes passed, and another knock sounded on your door. Cracking the door open, you peeked your head through. In his hand was a satin, pearly light pink dress. The hem flowed down to the floor, and it adorned an asymmetric, one collar design with a pleated bottom.

“I thought you weren’t really into this.”

“Well, I did say I’d do my job properly.” He smugly replied. Taking the dress from his hand, you slipped it on with ease. Looks like he knew your size pretty well. Maybe all these shopping trips eventually paid off..

The changing room had spare heels situated near the mirror, so you used them to boost your height so that the dress didn’t drag behind you.

Stepping outside, you held the side of the skirt with a hand, flourishing the dress design.

“What do you think?” Truth be told, you loved it. The way it hugged your waist, but wasn't too tight, and the elegant feel of it made you wonder how you hadn’t noticed it on the clothing racks before.

“Well..” He tapped his chin in thought. “The dress is.. alright.”

Crossing your arms, you shot him a glare. “Hey, I’m not done yet!” He chuckled, throwing his hands up in defence.

“The dress is alright, sure, but it looks better with you in it.”

Ignoring the warmth flushing your cheeks, you gushed. “Oh, come on!”

“I’m being serious! Like, it went from a 5 to a 10.”

“I take it you’ll be paying then?”

“Sure, sure.” He sighed. He secretly didn’t mind spoiling you from time to time.

The two of you left the store with the dress as well as the outfit you saw earlier on your phone. Though, he made you to promise to wear that specific dress the next time the two of you went to dinner together.

The pink dress is kind of what i was trying to describe. The rest of the pics are things I imagined as the aesthetic!

[zahri-melitor]

Newish Comics (22 January 2025)

It’s Black Canary week, so I’ll be buying that, but it’s not on the shelves yet. Here’s everything else.

Absolute Wonder Woman #3: Stunning. Gorgeous. The reason for Diana’s tattoos becomes clear. Diana’s internal strength and kindness for others comes through so clearly in this title (the way she talks to Pegasus as she sends him away. Her explanation to the news crew of what she does and does not want them to film).

But I am a simple person, and Barbara Minerva running straight onto the page and immediately crashing in Diana for a clinch meet cute? Followed by bestowing the name Wonder Woman on Diana, referencing the Amazons? Ahhhh. That’s lesbian vibes I expect from a Wonder Woman title.

Action Comics #1081: and we wrap up the 12 weekly run. Personally I thought Waid resolved the ‘recapture everyone’ part a BIT pat, but he used the rest of the story space for the story he wanted to tell, rather than big dramatics of tracking everyone down. I am interested in the interaction of the timing of this story with JLU, because Waid’s writing both and I’m trying to work out the details of what he does have in and out of J’onn’s power set right now.

The Tamaki story felt whole and complete, in how it wrapped up. I think I want to reread this one separately when they put it out in trade, because I want to see how the web builds up and admire all the early references. I’m excited for when they get around to slotting the new Supergirl title into the lineup.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #20: and we wrap up this title. In terms of story in this issue, the Maxine one was clearly the best. I didn’t mind the tattoo story but it hmmm needed something extra in the framing. Felt not quite polished for the point they wanted to make.

Overall in terms of book as a run: I’ve never really shifted from my initial impression, which was that it was caught in a difficult tension between being a book with Batman in the title and how much of a wider anthology it wanted to be. The biggest stumble was, for me as a reader, the concentration of how often the Bat stories in an issue were led by Bruce or exclusively focused on him, with the rest of the stories in the issue being wider picks, leaving the Batfam cast high and dry, rather than giving characters without ongoings some space for a story. They managed to shift out from that to a degree by the end of the run, but the title opening with a 5 issue, 22 page per issue Batman-and-Joker flashback story really did set the tone. It gave the same ‘this should have been a mini’ vibes that Cheer and The Long Con had in Urban Legends, but for even less payoff – it’s not like selling a Batman-focused mini is hard, whereas I can see why minis about Jason Todd and COLE CASH got absorbed into a new anthology book that started in the Covid cuts and retool.

I think the best story it had overall was Pygmalion, and as cute as that was, it wasn’t nearly as essential as some of the Urban Legends stories were (Cheer, Sum of Our Parts/A Carol of Bats, and the various Duke Batman and the Outsiders stories take it to the cleaners just for starters). The other thing I am glad it did have was a concentrated Nightwing and Deadman story, which is such an obvious angle to exploit but rarely gets done. Unfortunately for me it was written by Tim Seeley, but I know a bunch of people like Seeley’s writing more than I do, so I’m sure they had a good time. I appreciated the Black and White shorts; this was a good spot to pop them in.  

I also averaged about one story per issue that I was actually hanging out to read, meaning that I spent the entire run asking myself if I should drop it next issue, and if I had been buying it I would have pretty rapidly.

Finally this is probably a me problem, but I found Simone Di Meo’s covers made it incredibly hard to tell issues apart at a glance. His art style does not translate into visually distinct covers.

Detective Comics #1092: you know what? It’s been ages since Bruce actually had a proper short term girlfriend to date in a title, between all the Bruce/Selina and the Bruce & Talia Being Very Divorced arguments. I’m actually scrambling to think of examples since Julie Madison in n52. I think he took Deb Donovan’s daughter Caroline out for dinner before Caro tragically carked it?

So, good job, Tom Taylor. You’re simultaneously setting up a convenient excuse to point to over Bruce’s aging slowing AND we’ve got Bruce dating a civilian.

(Now all we need is the Azrael link in this plot to get followed up on)

The Flash #16: the dog (Foxy) is Dawn Summers ahahahahahaha. Perfect. I’ve already gleefully yelled about what the title is doing about Skartaris, but it looks like it’s doing something interesting with Travis Morgan on top of how it’s specifically shaking down the various West family members’ power sets. (I also need to stop mentally referring to Wade as Jack-Jack, but it’s getting hard)

Green Arrow #19: I have to say, Ollie, since when did you suddenly decide that secret identities matter again? Your entire family haven’t seriously cared about that outside of occasional editorially mandated attempts for at LEAST 40 years at this point.

(I will however note that the modern option of the ‘cover your nose and mouth with a buff’ style of mask does actually address the hoary old joke of ‘everyone knows because of your facial hair, Ollie’. Smart call)

Justice League Unlimited #2: In terms of the Justice League as a property, it’s actually hugely compelling that we’re going for a J’onn focused plot in the opening arc, because if there’s a character for whom Justice League is THEIR primary title, it’s J’onn. A good call from Waid.

Metamorpho: The Element Man #1: oh Ewing and Lieber went REALLY old school with this and it’s pure Silver Age nostalgia. I’m not going to continue with this, but if you’re a fan of modern tribute comics to the Silver Age like Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, it might be worth trying.

The Warlord #82: this week we are again barely in Skartaris - we catch up with Tara for Tara to miss Travis for a moment - but then we’re back to the future in the 24th century, where following a nuclear attack there’s been a military dictatorship imposed on America and basically all civilians have been enslaved. Travis Morgan, being Travis, is outraged that such a thing could ever happen in the United States and foments a slave rebellion.

(The remaining population of the US is small enough that apparently the President just stands around watching slaves work. There might be all of 300 people or so in America)

[nerves-nebula]

long ramble about books and genres and nonsense

I'm listening to/watching a really long video and a significant amount of it is focused on how genre conventions prime people to read books a certain way which can be a detriment when the book doesn't fit nicely into one single genre and i just realized, 4 hours into this, that the reason any of that was interesting to learn about is cuz it is completely unrelated to the way that I read books or even really engage with media in general.

I will often hear one or two things about a book that makes it sound interesting, or i’ll read a general synopsis, or on the other end I’ll be completely spoiled for a huge twist. And then go into it either nearly blank with little idea beyond the vibe or completely spoiled and excited to watch it unravel. Usually more or less blank and just doing it based on vibes.

Cuz like idk i wanna read and engage more or less with what the author presents to me. I might bring my own ideas of what the story might be but i’m more than willing to throw them out while trying to figure out whats actually going on. I’ve had times where I’m reading a book and i go “WOAH THATS SO COOL” at something near the start, and then I later find out that the thing i went WOAH at was explicitly stated to happen on like the dust jacket summary or smth. That it was something most people went into the book knowing. And I usually think “wow I would have probably been way less interested and way more annoyed if I’d come into the story already knowing that was gonna happen and had to read a bunch of build up waiting for it to actually happen”

And like that isn’t ALWAYS the case cuz sometimes knowing makes it better, but usually i’m glad that i didn’t know and had to suss things out. Anyway there’s no point to this it’s just jarring to know that ppl go into books in a certain way that i don’t. Usually if i'm disappointed in a book its cuz im either bored of it or because i feel like it didnt succeed in what it was trying to do, based on the terms it sets up in its writing. Not cuz i felt i was promised something and didn’t get it? I guess?

I understand conceptually being mad about that but i dont think that happens to me cuz im a little more interested in seeing if i enjoy the story this author wants to tell me, i guess. Im prolly just a little pretentious tho

[ddarker-dreams]

Hi Lock~ I wanted to ask you abt how you got into literature, and how you’d maybe recommend someone else to start? I want to expand on my reading (and also you’ve hyped up Dostoevsky sooo much I’m hooked but I KNOW I’m not at that lvl yet haha) but there’s so many different sources and stuff idrk where to start. I have seen your list of recommendations and other people’s lists as well but Im never sure if they’re a good place if someone is just starting into literature; I’ve been really interested in Picture of Dorian Gray, Jane Eyre and Frankenstein right now, do you think they’d be okay? Did you look at books you knew you’d be into? Or did you try out smth new entirely? Also did you look at any sources online that you could recommend? I know I’ve asked a lot so you of course don’t have to answer them, but please let me know what you think!!

I also wanted to ask, as someone who’s read many classics in literature, in your opinion, how would you define literature? And what do you think makes a book a classic?

From a very clueless anon, hope you and bun bun have a great day and stay hydrated!!!!

hello anon!!! there are so many interesting questions here, i'll try answering them to the best of my abilities!!!!

(how i got into literature)

i'd been neglecting published works for most of my life because i just preferred fanfic way more. it wasn't until a bit into 2021 that i saw this Discourse Causing Post that 'you can't grow as an author if you don't read published works,' or something among those lines. i thought this was really interesting because i'd never given it much thought. around that point, even though writing was a hobby, i felt really motivated to improve. i normally spent no more than a day or two on a story before moving onto the next. which is fine, because fanfic writing is a hobby, but i felt i'd be capable of more if i put in the extra time and effort.

so basically i got into it because i wanted to write my silly little yandere fics better jdfklgjsdg

(recommendations for getting into literature)

i focused on the genre i thought i'd be the most interested in: horror. then i branched out from there. i looked up what people considered must-reads for the genre because i figured that'd be a good place to start. if you know what sort of genres you like, doing some research into its most prevalent/foundational works isn't a bad idea. that's the approach i took. authors throughout the centuries influence and inspire one another, i wanted to be able to map those connections out. this also helps give some context to older books with references that'd be loss on a modern audience.

(how i went about looking into books to see if i wanted to read them)

i research everything like my life's on the line, so i do look into books before i read them. i go for a synopsis that doesn't include spoilers and consider if that's a story i'd get invested in. if not, i'll read some reviews for fresh perspectives. if i'm still kinda meh by then, the book gets passed on.

(defining literature/classics)

UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH literary theory is not my field of expertise ... i'd personally define literature as any written work such as fiction and nonfiction. it can encompass so many things that defining it feels tricky. as for how i'd define a classic, all art is subjective or whatever, but there are stories that just have the It factor. whether that is their cultural impact, or works that are pillars to the genre(s) they were written in. you can see the ripples that it made after its publication.

finally, as for the books you listed (jane eyre, the picture of dorian gray, and frankenstein), i'd highly recommend them!!! all of them are apart of the gothic genre, which is one of my favorites. they've all stood the test of time for good reason.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Normally, my meta is pretty focused on what happens in the story, and I bring things from reality to use when it’s useful. But I like pulling stories apart to talk about how the story works, and stories only exist with a thin tether to reality most of the time, and they have wildly different rules.

This one is a little different. This one is going to have a lot of outside information brought to bear to discuss Sherliam’s relationship, but they’re things I think are relevant: A Japanese word and its origins, how creating art and stories works, what being an artist is…and how that all impacts William and Sherlock, how they relate to each other as creations of artists and artists themselves.

Basically, stuff about how art is made and the context it lives in. I think that's more useful than comparing it to reality. It’ll be interesting, I promise! Just a little different than usual.

Let’s start here. I think you’ll see where I’m going with the Sherliam thing pretty quickly, but if not, don’t worry. I’m going to explain.

I saw this post on Bluesky during aro week, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since.

Basically, there’s a word in Chinese, that has actually carried over to Japanese (I’ll get to that in a minute) that means, basically, “person who truly understands your songs.” It’s based off this story of this musician would make instrumental music, as one does, and this person who understood immediately, without being told, what the song was about. And this relationship was so deeply important and meaningful that after the second person died, the first destroyed his instrument, because there seemed to be no point in continuing to create music without the person who got it.

Yes, I know, you’re all seeing the Sherliam parallels already, but give me a bit longer before we get there.

This word carried over to Japanese with a slightly different pronunciation (as happens), but the same kanji and the same meaning. My Japanese-English dictionary defines it solely as “an exceptionally close friend.” No other options are provided. So I looked it up in some Japanese dictionaries! They both started with the same origin story of the word, and then both came up with a handful of definitions: Dear friend, person who understands your heart, partner, comrade, eventually it got down to sweetheart, someone you can rely on. My favorite was “Peerless/unmatched friend.”

The word does seem to be fairly formal and archaic and mostly relegated to Literature™ and classic works. It’s not a word that’s canonically ever applied to Sherlock or William.

And yet. And yet.

I don’t know how common the word is in Japanese that they’d recognize or know it. Whether or not it actually influenced the story from background knowledge, intentionally or not. But knowing the concept now, and knowing the concept has existed in Japanese culture as…as an option does change how I think of some of the media I’ve seen before. The word notwithstanding, the concept exists.

As an artist myself, I deeply understand the need/desire/hope/longing/etc. for a person who just. Gets what you’re trying to do. The person who deeply understands what you’re doing and your intentions and the way you expressed yourself. Who understands you via your creations.

I am, as many of you know, looking for a new critique partner right now. I have one, but I need one or two others for Reasons. And one of them already turned up a dud because this person’s feedback had nothing to do with what I want the story to be or what I’m trying to write. It’s a lot of marketing advice. Advice on how to make the story more what they would want, or more like other books.

A good CP needs to see what the intention of the story is, so they can make that story stronger and help that story make that point to more people. They have to understand your art. Not to the degree of a 知音, but nonetheless.

Sherlock and William are, obviously, on the level of understanding each other this way. They just get each other, without explanation, and they both treasure that relationship dearly. So dearly that Sherlock, when faced with the prospect of losing the person who truly got him, would have rather died with him then survive without that connection.

Because what was the point of doing things, of making things, of being, without that person who got it. How to bear living once you’ve finally found that person?

And I think this kind of gets to what Louis was seeing in Sherlock and hoping he would do to validate William’s existence. Sherlock got William. He saw his intentions through his plans, and saw who he was and what his soul was even under all the masks and walls and machinations. He understood why William would want to die, and that he was actually trying to die intentionally almost immediately.

And because Sherlock actually understood William’s existence, he could actually validate William’s existence. The same way someone has to understand what my book’s story is trying to be to actually help it. The same way someone actually understanding what the fuck I was trying to write makes me feel…well, like writing and sharing it with people is actually worth it, because I can do this.

And, because Sherlock understood William’s intentions and plans, he made changes to the story William planned, because he saw the weaknesses from a distance, saw the intentions without drowning himself in what was already there the way William the Author did. Because he saw the intentions, but also the actual effects.

And William’s plan came out stronger and more effective and more beautiful for it all. Because Sherlock was there to see it, to understand it, and to help.

After all, Sherlock is an artist, too, even if we only see him with his violin on occasion. He knows what it’s like. And he knows William helped give him a stage to show off what Sherlock wanted to share with the world, too (forensics, etc.).

And I think it’s interesting, after all that, to remember that Yuukoku no Moriarty is created by not one artist, but two. Did they understand each other’s intentions the way William and Sherlock understand each other? Almost certainly not, especially given that we lost one of them from the series. But they had to work together, to understand each other’s intentions and art, in order to work together and create the story. To fill in where the other fell short, to give feedback and strengthen the story together.

We don’t know much at all about their working relationship or how the series came to be from the two of them. It’s really impossible to speculate if they felt in sync or they wished they were working with someone who Got Them better. But I think either way, Sherlock and William’s working together to create a story that was stronger, fuller, and better than either could have come up with alone is an interesting reflection of their story’s two creators anyway.

[skemford]

I like talking about bendy characters so it’s time to touch up topic of… Joey Drew himself

Doing it before fade to black release on purpose :)

Here’s my analysis of his behaviour and on the illusion of living philosophy

It’s a huge read and I’ve enjoyed writing it!

(Continuation under the cut)

1. Joey’s family situation was hard on it’s own

Joey doesn’t talk about his parents way too much and mostly focuses on story elements (his father being a shoe maker and how his parents affected his childhood) rather than on his parents as their own people.

They weren’t rich and Joey talks about their family earning a “honest living” but at the same time, he describes how hard it was for his father.

“We weren’t rich. There was an honest living to be earned and Father did that with Mother keeping the books” (TIOL, page 18)

“I definitely saw her (mother) more than I saw Father, who sometimes would only appear briefly at the dinner table, hunched, brow furrowed, silently eating his meal. He’d disappear downstairs right after, and I’d help Mother with the washing up. (TIOL,page 18)

He comments on his father creating fake scenarios (elves helping him to work) to distract from hardship of needing to work a lot to be able to feed their family.

Joey has hard time of understanding ‘why’ he does that and how fantasy can help to work but he wants to believe. He tries to prove to himself that magic can be real.

"I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it” (TIOL, page 19)

“I couldn’t see the elves. They must have been sitting on the table itself, hidden behind Father. I pushed the door open just a little bit and stood taller on my tiptoes.” (TIOL, page 21)

Joey switches between wanting to believe in illusions and not wanting to. He’s scared of not being perceived as normal by others.

He says that it’s not okay to be deep into the fantasy but notes on the fact that he can grasp the concept.

“I knew about make-believe. Played it all the time with my friends. But I didn’t know that adults knew about make-believe too. I nodded. (TIOL, page 23)

After he asks his father directly, he explains his reasoning and says that make-believe helps to feel less lonely (I’ll note on this part, it’ll come in handy later) which changes Joey’s perspective greatly:

"But the make-believe, the little characters, the songs, that changed his reality. What was reality except what we perceive it to be? Elves and magic? Well, why not? (TIOL, page 24)

It’s everything we’ve got to know about his family.

Hard working to earn money for living, using escapism to cope and distant from each other because of their struggles.

This distance likely has continued to grow with years, since for some reason he escaped his home when he was 15 y.o (+ signed up to army); no one seems to actually care and he was left on his own.

1.1 Stage name

Talking about Joey’s distance from his family, he doesn’t use his real family surname or full form of his name.

It’s not something that was explored a lot in Bendy (among all of its content) but we know that he doesn’t like to be referred this way.

'Joey’ was a nickname that he picked up for himself when he was 19 y.o.

"I’m Detective Adam Sinclair. You’re Joseph Drew.” “Joey,” I said. It was a new nickname I was trying out, ever since I moved to the Village. (TIOL, page 88)

Usually he’s referred as 'Joseph’ by his family members or people who are distant to him/don’t know him well.

But "Joey” is not the only one name he gave to himself.

'Drew’ doesn’t look like a real surname. He likely picked it up after getting close with Henry.

Imo Drew is a fun pun name that’s related to Joey owning the studio (and “Joey drew Studios” (literally) in the case of the cycle)

It has never sounded real.

Employees handbook mentions some “Dempsey” person who invests their own costs into the studio:

(Receipts: Investor Deposit, J. Dempsey)

Their initials are “J.D.” which makes it’s obvious who they are.

Joey’s house also doesn’t look rich which would make sense if he put all his earnings into the studio itself.

Bendy devs like to pick names that fit characters & “Dempsey” means “arrogant person” which does fit Joey perfectly.

1.2 Joey is deeply ashamed of the way his family lived.

Everytime someone mentions anything he associates with his past (shoes, for example) he overthinks and creates imaginary conflicts with these people.

His negative thoughts about them take whole paragraphs of text; he tries to make himself believe that he doesn’t care about looking “less” in someone’s eyes. He looks for reasons why they're worse than him constantly.

"Probably trying to figure out my past, and that was none of his business. Then I told myself it didn’t matter because I didn’t care what he thought. I didn’t care much for him in general. He might have been richer than me at the time, but that’s where his superiority ended." ( TIOL, page 26)

He often downplays people because he's deeply insecure and is scared of being outcasted, especially by rich successful guys.

After doing so,he switches toward praising himself and names reasons for why he's better (classic Joey Drew behaviour)

He was a year younger than me, hadn’t fought, hadn’t signed up like I had, hadn’t lied about his age to fight for his country like I had. What could he say to an answer like that?Nothing. Absolutely nothing (TIOL, page 26)

Не believes that they need to feel sorry for this because they have no idea how much he struggled in the past.

2. He's insecure & scared of things he can't control

I could've continues this in previous paragraph but it's a bit different.

You see, while Joey was insecure of his past (things he associated with it acted as "triggers") he still was full of himself.

It was an act but it looked convincing enough; with time it became harder for him to keep it up.

It easily explains his behaviour in batim tapes.

When Joey tries to reassure everyone that he knows what's going on, he actually doesn't. He's as lost as everyone else, he tries to act only when he's forced to do so.

He lies to people and runs away from responsibility because he's scared of abruptness, something out of his control.

Joey shows fear of everything that's unknown to him but he tries to play it off somehow: he tries to be on top and be unpredictable to others.

He treats himself as a human that lives around unpredictable fictional characters that he can't control or read intentions of.

"My father though was a real person. I knew that deep down. But in this moment I saw him not as a son looking at his father but as a viewer looking at a fictional character." (TIOL, page 50)

It's mentioned in the novels that Joey likes theatre and he expresses his thoughts about it to Buddy in dctl.

Theatre operates in "cycles":

Actors play their parts→ the audience applaud→ actors bow→ performance ends→ performance begins and so on.

It's has a pattern and won't introduce anything that will caught you off guard. It's "safe" and as a part of audience,you don't need to perform, you only watch.

Does it remind you of batim's cycle? Outside of holding grudges toward Henry and wanting to run away from everything Joey has performed with GENT, he also searches for control while not being included directly.

HE decides what will happen to the cycle residents. HE writes the story that other people can barely affect. HE blames other people for studio's downfall and makes them suffer for his wrongdoings.

Joey knows that he has failed but he can't process it. He doesn't know what will happen and he's scared of being put into situations he can't predict.

It's really shows how insecure he became with years.

3. Why Henry is important?

Why exactly Joey couldn't replace one man he didn't knew for a really long time? What made Henry so special to him?

We don't get a big insist on their friendship but it can be said that their short-lived bond was strong or at least Joey believed that it was.

Henry seems to be Joey's role model of sort even if Joey doesn't want to acknowledge it.

Joey notes on how Henry changed the course of his life without knowing about this

Henry is a determinated man who went for a career in art because he knew what he wanted & he stayed on this path no matter how hard it was to get any recognition.

Henry's the man who makes decisions and acts when he needs to.

Meanwhile, Joey feels lost his whole life. He searches for answers,purpose or a place with a "soul".

Henry gave him new meaning for life. Creative path with endless possibilities that Joey could build from scratch.

Joey was heartbroken when Henry left, doesn't matter for hard he tries to act like he wasn't.

"His presence was helpful, I can happily admit, but his absence was even more so. Not having him at the studio ended up being one of the best things that could have happened to it" (TIOL, page 138)

For some time his life was revolving around Henry. He knew what to do and what will happen, Henry always pushed him to the right decisions.

He says so directly in batim chapter 5:

"The truth is, you were always so good at pushing, old friend... pushing me to do the right thing"

With loosing Henry, Joey lost his newly gained purpose in life. It wasn't something that he was able to figure out by himself & it made him blind to the road that lies ahead.

He's angry at Henry for being like "other people" that he hates. For leaving him behind when he's scared of being alone.

We don't know about Henry's perspective much but he strikes me as someone who would be supportive of Joey at first.

He made some of Joey's ideas real and left only after a breaking point.

3.1 "Cartoon family"

Joey is deeply attached to main JDS toons that he "mutually" owns with Henry.

Especially, it's noteciable with toon Bendy who was called his child on a couple of occasions:

"Bendy was Joey’s child, and he felt just as strongly about Bendy as I feel about my flesh-and-blood son" © Nathan Arch (TIOL, page 5)

"He was my very first creation—one could even call him my firstborn." (TIOL, page 12)

Joey not only sees Bendy as his child but he also relates to him.

He draws parallels between them both, calls bendy manifestation of "the illusion of living" and shows some of his mannerisms (as he says)

Joey wants to see himself as Bendy.

A character who's loved by kids and adults alike and who always has friends around.

"I tell people that Bendy is the perfect example of my philosophy." (TIOL, page 12)

"To know that I needed a creation so perfect, so accessible to so many people, that it would help me change the way the world saw itself." (TIOL, page 13)

In Joey's apartment the only one picture in frame that he owns is illustration/animation cell of toons drawn by 'Henry Stein':

They're depicted holding hands with Bendy being in the middle of both; it's portrays closeness between them and Bendy's importance in the picture

But was it's actually signed up by Henry or Joey is the one who did it for himself?

We know from batim (and batdr notes) that Joey's signature is "your best pal" which makes this case...a bit complicated

Joey could've wanted to pretend that Henry is still close to him and decided to sign up drawing with his name

Or possibly it was signed up by Henry somewhere in the past. In this case, Joey could've adopted Henry's signature as his own.

Both speculations have place to be real and we can't prove any of them.

Joey's known for pretending (which would fit with the 1st possibility) but he's also stuck in the past and stole a lot of ideas that belong to other people.

Imo it can be interpreted based on the way you see him.

4. Why was Susie fired?

Joey's obsessed with everything that is related to Bendy which can be seen with him being angry about "crooked bendy dolls" or bendy expression sheet in batim ch 2.

We can speculate that Susie Campbell wasn't fired from the role of Alice's voice actress for any valid reason BUT because Joey felt personally offended.

As Norman says in dctl, Alice Angel was really popular for a bit, which possibly could have been unacceptable for Joey.

Bendy is the main character Joey relates to and he wouldn't have wanted to be overshadowed in any way.

Susie being fired and humiliated (for not knowing that she was in fact fired) is the consequence of Joey's insecurity.

Susie claims that "she was absolutely perfect for the role" at first so at some point Joey completely changed his perspective.

Any character getting attention would be good for the studio. Firing a voice actress that helps to get this attention lacks logical reasoning.

After Joey "calms down" he has a conversation with Susie about 'an opportunity' he has for her. This opportunity is Susie being the first (speculated to) human sacrifice. He believed that she'd have been a perfect Alice.

Joey puts Bendy above Boris and Alice (like he does with himself & other people) so him acting pitiful about any other character getting popular does makes sense.

But he still cares about them...to some degree.

"Boris was special, Alice was complicated." (TIOL, page 154)

Joey having complicated feelings with Alice as character is really interesting and it's perfectly reflects what he was thinking about Susie.

She was a perfect voice actress to others but wasn't to him. He thought that she'll be a perfect Alice (after the ink machine was created) but she failed to be.

"She was beautiful. And loved by all. She was perfect...No matter what Joey says." (batim chapter 3, Susie talking about herself in 3rd person)

In dctl he claims that he relates failed experiments to "people not being real enough" or says that they weren't pure.

At the end, Joey basically has decided to pretend that she never was real

Susie is never mentioned in his memoir and she's almost fully erased from studio's history.

In Batdr's studio tour (music department part) "Susie Campbell" was replaced with "Allison Pendle"; meaning that Allison is officially the only one Alice Angel voice actress according to him.

5. The ink demon

It's one of the most interesting parts here and I'm sure that a lot of people have talked about him better that I'll.

The ink demon is a "product" of mistreatment, Joey's unhealthy projecting and capitalism (duh)

Joey saw Bendy as his son

He wanted to be like Bendy, someone who's loved and can always escape from troubles

One of reasons to bring Bendy to life is his marketability. Joey wanted "alive attractions" he can get money from.

The ink demon wasn't able to fullfil any expectations that Joey had.

He was passive and harmless (at first) but to Joey, he's not a cheerful toon that he has always dreamed about.

One of main issues that Joey has with him is that he's off-model:

"Listen Tommy, i know you boys over at Gent are doing your best but I'm paying for living attractions,not walking abominations. Whatever that grinning thing was i saw walking around your office,you better keep it up locked tight! Might scare off investors!..." (batim chapter 5)

"Grinning thing" and "walking abomination." The ink demon is completely dehumanised because he's not marketable.

As it was mentioned earlier, Joey sees Bendy as a perfect being and relates to him

He doesn't want to relate to the ink demon; for this reason, he separates them both.

Joey has hard time with accepting "failures". They either get forgotten, dumped or he tries to change them somehow.

The ink demon is a mistake that Joey and GENT have tried to "fix" for years. "A monster" that has shattered Joey's dreams.

5.1 The ink demon's sense of self

It's Joey character analysis so this point won't be too big.

The ink demon was treated like a mistake for being different:

Closed off, isolated, put in the cycle,tortured.

He was in the place where no one would care because he's not "a perfect bendy". Most of it comes from Joey or is related to him in some way.

Everyone saw him as a monster and he has accepted this role.

We know how it went in batim/batdr.

Worth to mention that unlike Joey, he has never lied in batdr. It's either harsh truth or projecting.

6. Ink Children

Allison was close to Joey and had a good impact on him,as he claims.

Indirectly, she made him want to have a family with the help of the ink machine.

I doubt that this decision has come from the place of jealousy toward Henry (who has a family) unless future content will somehow prove that I'm wrong. Joey can have one good intention while failing everywhere else.

Joey could've wanted to have a family to prove that there's still something good in him.

He was scared of dying alone and being forgotten.

"I hadn’t known that at the time. It gave me chills. The thought of success only after death, now that terrified me. That was not the plan and would never be the plan" (TIOL, page 122)

We don't know how many children have perished until the final, perfect one. And we can't claim what exactly has happened to them.

We don't get much details about the creation process of artificial "almost humans".

The only one we heard (outside of Audrey) is "AD" (name of the file) from batim chapter 5

"Tell me another one,uncle Joey..." ("AD" in batim post credits)

And sadly,you can't say much based on this.

They could've been physically unstable and die on their own terms

(milk packages from Joey's kitchen table in batim chapter 5. All of them were stained with ink)

If they stained object with ink by interacting with them, it could've become worse with time.

Again,with lack of context,it's almost impossible to debate for or against this idea. Was that's a thing for other ink creatures?

Susie does brings up in batim that she was "a shapeless slug" at first.

Joey didn't changed much and dumped imperfect ones

Honestly this part depends on how much you believe that he could grow as a character.

(memo from batdr, GENT building)

The way Joey talks about "other versions" sounds... indifferent.

Which is weird, because he did spend time with "AD" from batim by entertaining her with stories when she has asked him to

Does he tries to justify them being dumped OR he's distracting from the fact that they didn't had a chance to properly exist?

It feels like it was left for interpretation on purpose.

6.1 Audrey Drew

Second and last artificial child after "AD" that we canonically know about.

For Joey, creating something perfect that will outlive him could've been a key to his definition of immortality. He wanted to leave something after his death that people could know about. A piece of "perfect art"

"...Of course, I intend to live forever, so that will never happen! Ha, a joke indeed, but in a way not a joke, for what is art but a doorway into immortality? The greatest Illusion of Living then, living on after we are no longer alive. What is more of an illusion than that?" (TIOL, page 219)

Joey makes jokes about living eternally even before the ink machine's existence.

After it's creation, it's wasn't something that he has planned but he was ready for this fate (for one reason or another)

At the end of his life, Audrey has became a thing he'll live through eternally. And Memory!Joey is here ig

Memory!Joey basically calls Audrey his magnum opus:

"...My Greatest creation" (batdr, final Memory!Joey custscene)

Which further established that Joey is more proud of Audrey than he ever was on the Bendy franshise (it's hard to be proud of the stolen ideas, peoples deaths or the cycle,eh?)

Audrey seems to share adventurous spirit of young Joey (in his early 20s) & determination

They both got dragged into events they didn't asked for:

Joey (when he was 19 y.o) by detective Sinclair who has blamed him for a murder.

Audrey by Wilson Arch who has wanted to murder her.

6.2 Audrey and the ink demon

Similar trauma, different outcomes and treatment.

How present Joey was in Audrey's life? Why did they got separated at one point even before he has died?

Is there's something Memory!Joey hides from Audrey on purpose?

Batdr archives mention that Audrey has repressed her memories but what and why exactly?

In batdr the ink demon interacts a lot with Audrey which holds huge significance on the story.

In his first interaction with her he says "ink speaks to me and whispers your secrets" so the ink machine (who seems to hold some sense of identity) does know too.

The ink demon heavily relates to Audrey through the game. They were both left alone (in different ways) and they share one creator.

"You are without the purpose. Your very existence.. was a terrible lie...you're a mistake. A monster. Just like me." (batdr, the ink demon, last playable segment)

He heavily projects on her through this last interaction. Audrey does has a purpose,she was created to be a daughter Joey did wanted and loved. As much as Joey Drew could love at least, if you see this part as debatable.

But there's one thing he's right about, her existence is a lie.

Joey put burden of "protecting the cycle" on her while she thought that she's an orphan.

Batdr archives also question how much agency she has, which i find interesting.

7. "The illusion of living" (or TL;DR for this analysis)

The art of lying masterfully and manual on how to justice God complex.

Joey describes his life from early childhood (when he was 5 y.o.) and to the point of him being 42-43 y.o., a bit before the ink machine was created.

This book is about a man who couldn't find his purpose in life even with the help of other people and decided to blame everyone for this.

Lies, accusations, insults, distorted information, searching for "a soul" (literally and figuratively) and never ending hidden sadness after he lost Henry.

He tries to replace this empty gap with letting their creations become his whole life but it doesn't end well... (the ink demon,dead employees and the cycle)

He tries to separate himself from this and focused on creating a family.

Artificial daughters are electric boogalo №2 (unexpected direct sequel) which has ended working somehow.

But still,i wouldn't trust this man even a pet rock and the ink demon & Audrey are a proof on 'why.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trivial facts (bendy employees handbook/the illusion of living):

>He loves mac n cheese

>Joey meet Sammy at a theatre when they were teens

>Joey loves throwing peanuts at theatre actors

>In Joey Drew studios you can celebrate only main toons birthday or Joey's birthday. Other birthdays are prohibited.

>Joey stole award that Sammy has earned

> Joey officially is an employee of the month eternally...

> Joey stoles ideas for cartoons from employees and they don't get even a couple of cents for this (woah! How surprising /j)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Special thanks to everyone who interacted with my Audrey analysis earlier!

[bluedalahorse]

additional shameless posting of fic snippets

I’m rereading Heart and Homeland to prepare myself to finish writing it after I finish grad school, and you know what? It’s delightful revisiting old writing. This story still delights me.

Anyway, I’m putting Sara and Felice’s first interaction (at least via notes they are writing one another) beneath the cut on this post, in case you want to experience it with me.

Background: It’s 1808! This is a regency-ish AU and there’s a war going on. Felice is the eldest daughter of a wealthy family. Sara has been hired by the Ehrencronas as a governess, and looks after Felice’s two younger sisters. Felice is engaged to August but isn’t really into it.

Oh, and F. Lind is the story’s mysterious translator and compiler. You have to read the story if you want to find out who she is.

Anyway, I miss them. I miss them all so much!

A note of interest: 

The following were written on scraps of paper that had been folded and creased, likely so they could be hidden among sewing supplies, between the pages of books, and underneath pillows. Based on references to the weather and other events, I can surmise that they were written in November of 1808. 

—F. Lind 

September 1831 

Fröken Ehrencrona—I believe I made a terrible error today and accidentally took one of your bridal linens. Your sisters had finished their lessons and were in search of a burial shroud. I saw the linens laid out in the parlor when you and your mother were talking there, and assumed somehow that it was freshly washed laundry. Only later did I remember that you and Fru Överstinna Ehrencrona were discussing your engagement. I cannot believe that I did not make the connection until now, but I was so focused on finding a shroud that was the appropriate size. This is one of my faults: that I sometimes become so absorbed in a task that I do not understand the words being said around me. Here is your linen back, only a little wrinkled, returned with my deepest apologies. I hope you can forgive me, although I understand if this undermines your confidence in my abilities as a governess.—Sara Eriksson

Fröken Eriksson—Thank you for returning the linen. If you don’t mind, I think we can keep this between the two of us and not tell my mamma what happened, as the error in question was minor. I can pass along the linen to our maid, and she will press the wrinkles out without saying a word. Please don’t worry over it too much. Mamma has collected so many bridal linens for me, that one wonders: is there any cloth in Finland at all? Must we bring everything with us? Of course, I am indebted to my parents for arranging my betrothal, as they have made an advantageous match on my behalf. Let us keep these notes a secret from my parents so that they do not think I am ungrateful or hesitant. I do not think I am either of those.—Felice Ehrencrona

Fröken Ehrencrona—I will not tell your parents of our notes. From what I’ve observed, you do not seem ungrateful or hesitant when you speak to them about your engagement, only brief and polite. You are their eldest and most perfect daughter; subsequently they adore you. Also, I believe you may have been asking rhetorically, but there is cloth in Finland. I have never been there but there is no reason they would not have cloth. I have no opinions on your match but I am glad for you that you will get to see other parts of our empire as a result of it. My younger brother has seen more of the world than I and it sometimes stings me with jealousy.—Sara Eriksson

Fröken Eriksson—I was asking rhetorically about the cloth. And didn’t Agata and Sofia tell me you lived in Göteborg for part of your childhood? Surely you saw glimpses of the wider world there. I should like to hear about Göteborg sometime, if you’re willing to tell me. Something else weighs on my mind as well. I must ask you: why were you in search of a burial shroud?—Felice Ehrencrona

Fröken Ehrencrona—I do not wish to explain to you about my time in Göteborg. I will answer your second question instead. To explain, the burial shroud was meant for a doll. Sofia and Agata were holding a pretend funeral. All was going well until they got into a quarrel about who made the better mourner. Still, a pretend funeral is better than the pretend executions they enacted on their dolls three weeks ago. I am not sure I should tolerate such play except that it is impossible to keep them focused on their studies all the time.—Sara Eriksson

Fröken Eriksson—How amusing that my sisters were holding a doll’s funeral. I admit reading your last note gave me the first laugh I have had in a while. I fondly remember my friend Madeleine and I doing something similarly odd and morbid with our dolls when we were children. Did you ever do the same? Don’t tell Mamma, but I miss being an odd little girl sometimes. —Felice Ehrencrona

Fröken Ehrencrona—I never played with dolls, only wooden horses. I never held pretend funerals for them because I cannot think of anything that makes me cry more than a dead horse. I am odd, however, and I did make my horses speak in human voices. Perhaps this is sharing too much, and my brother Simon would chastise me for it. (He would do so gently, at least.) I suppose I only have one more thing to say. Over the past few notes, I have reflected on using your bridal linens as a shroud, and I think they were a poor choice. You have embroidered them too prettily. I wish I could embroider pretty things of my own choosing, but I am so occupied with teaching your sisters to work their samplers during the day (when they are not executing their dolls) and at night my hands grow so cold. I imagine your hands must be far warmer than mine, for you to embroider such beautiful work! —Sara Eriksson

Sara Fröken Eriksson—First of all, please ignore what I have scratched out. I did not mean to address you as just Sara like you were one of the maids. In truth I wrote to you with your Christian name because for a moment I’d given myself over to the fancy that we were intimate friends. Forgive me. So… you like horses, do you? Perhaps you can help me with mine. He is somewhat fiery in temperament and I’m uncertain how he will be kept calm if the war goes well and I am able to sail off to Åbo after my wedding this spring. A boat seems such a confining place for a horse, doesn’t it? As for cold hands during the night, try wearing these old gloves of mine. They are two years old but still in fine condition. Moreover I think their style would suit you better than it does me. —Felice (You may call me Felice, between the two of us, in these notes.)

Fröken Ehrencrona Felice—My deepest thanks for the gloves. It is truly a kind gesture. I shall wear your gloves to sleep, if that is permitted, for my room is often beset by a noticeable draft. Not that your family does not provide ample blankets for me. Please do not get the wrong impression! In regards to your other request: what do you wish to know about your horse? When I write next, I will share whatever expertise I possess. (At the risk of being immodest, my expertise is considerable.) —Sara

Sara—When you write next? My new and dear friend, why not come across the hall to converse with me face to face? Consider this your invitation. It is an observable fact that your room has a draft that leaves it intolerably cold. My room, by contrast, is warm, and will be warmer if we lie two abed as my younger sisters do. (To tell the truth, I have always been jealous of them for being a year apart and having one another to talk to.) I would, in addition, love to hear more about you or perhaps your family. Agata and Sofia related to me a tale about your mother escaping a Catholic convent, though I wonder if the part with ghost nuns may have been exaggerated. Still, you do have such a tragically romantic expression, and I wonder what stories might be behind it. Please visit me across the hall so that we might become better acquainted? —Felice

Felice—No one has called my expression tragically romantic before. I pray that you are not secretly ridiculing me. People have teased me often because of my odd habits, and sometimes they tease with compliments. The girls who used to live on our street in Göteborg would pretend to offer friendship, but secretly write awful things about me in their copybooks in school. The boys, meanwhile, would dare one another to propose marriage to me before they’d run away laughing. It was so frightfully confusing, so you must understand that I do not mean to distrust you. I want to trust you, and your lovely gift of the gloves makes me think that I ought to. If you do truly wish for my company, then I would like to become better acquainted. —Sara

Dearest Sara—I am making a solemn promise to you that I will never tease you in such a fashion. Those children in Göteborg were awful creatures and should be ashamed of themselves. My door is open if you are inclined to visit, although I do understand if you’d rather limit our interactions to written correspondence for now. But do keep leaving more notes for me. I am longing for someone to converse with about something other than linens and bridal gifts, for that is all Mamma seems able to speak of right now. Rescue me and be my savior? —Felice