#pick the least spooky book on the list

[pricesprincess]

#14 Kyle picking up reader from her job at the library on a dark stormy night...perhaps it's Halloween and she has to get off later. Maybe he wears that Ghostface costume you wanted him to so he can chase you around inside and maybe fuck you on a chair or table?

smut mdni | fear/blood kink | cnc | prompt list

rain came down in heavy sheets, forcing everyone to stay later for the yearly halloween party the library hosted for the entire town.

no one wanted to take their kids outside and ruin their makeup.

there weren't many people but enough to fill the place with shrill laughter and excited chatter along with parents getting pictures.

it was mostly for the children who came dressed as superheroes and princesses, amongst other characters.

they enjoyed it, going around the areas like a maze which was marked off by the crepe paper streamers you and your coworkers put up earlier before opening up.

you took pictures for the newspaper when your phone dinged, an attachment with a text from kyle. making sure no one was looking, you opened it feeling your jaw go slack.

he stood in front of a mirror wearing a dark shimmery hooded robe with a ghostface mask on his head, his eyes trained on the mirror.

it felt like he was staring back at you through the phone, making you feel warm all over as you smiled and exited the message with a permanent grin as you continued to watch everyone.

however, all you could think about was kyle.

you had mentioned once or twice that you wanted him to chase you wearing that after watching a few horror flicks for movie night.

"are you paying attention?" an elbow was suddenly digging in your ribs causing you to jerk away from them with a frown.

your coworker and friend amelia looked back at you. "don't be such a witch and do your job." she hummed referring to the outfit you wore and the hat you wore with a fake spider hanging from the tip.

tucking your phone away you rolled your eyes and laughed flatly. "original. it's almost over anyway." you murmured and headed over to where they were handing out the goodie bags at the end of the line.

fifteen minutes of helping the rest of the ladies and making sure everyone made it safely to their cars you stayed back to clean it all up.

it was the least you could do for taking a week off for vacation, which consisted of lazing on the couch and rotting away after being so busy.

work kept you on your toes with the actives that kept everyone close together, a tight-knit community that always helped each other.

sometimes it was nice to decompress after all of that so you made mental plans for that when you got home, the witch dress became itchy anyway and the heat being blasted didn't help.

placing your hat on your desk, you turned on some music and began cleaning up the rest.

a few books were out of place from the patrons who wanted to check something out and forgot where they pulled it from, in turn placing it wrong.

thunder and lightning tore through the dark sky lighting up the big window where the kids corner is, the thunderous crack rattling the glass panes making you shiver in slight fear.

being by yourself in a storm in the library on halloween isn't how you envisioned to spend the holiday but it paid good money.

turning away from the window, you focused your attention on the back area when the music changed and the bright lights were dimmed.

blood rushed to your ears in a sudden flood of panic and fear as you twirled around, your eyes darting left and right as you grabbed a heavy book knowing it could do some damage.

the upbeat music you had playing was now taken over by spooky sounds. whoever knew your password could only change it. kyle.

you stepped forward and turned the corner only to see him standing there fully dressed as ghostface at the end of the aisle with a knife.

"you scared me! why did you change the music?" you asked, placing the book down.

kyle didn't say anything as he came closer, causing you to step back. It was getting weird now, and all your hair stood on end.

"i'm serious. what are you doing?" another clap of thunder made the lights flicker, giving you the opportunity to turn around and run away.

he was giving into your fantasy and already told you the safe word is always book since you both love to read, and since kyle loves you, he loves making it all about you plus it's your job too.

heavy footsteps followed after you sending a chill down your spine as you followed the taken-down maze you set up earlier feeling the fear.

there weren't many places to hide since the building wasn't big and he's been here enough to know all the spots anyway but it was still fun and thrilling at the same time.

adrenaline pumped hard, your chest heaving with ragged breaths when you heard him close by knowing there was a room where you could hide, and he'd never find you.

how foolish to think so.

just as your fingers grazed the knob you felt kyle snake his arm around your waist from behind tugging you into his chest.

thankfully, there weren't any cameras to capture this. "you caught me mr. ghostface, what are you going to do?" you whispered.

kyle chuckled under the mask, which was muffled as he pressed his hand against the middle of your back as he opened the door.

he pushed you inside shutting and blocking the door, rough hands tugged at your dress showing off your ass as kyle bent you over the desk kicking your ankles apart while retrieving his knife.

"if you're a good girl, you can keep your life." his accent and voice were muffled by the modulator he wore under the mask.

you nodded feeling your eyes widen when he showed you the gleaming knife, the silver tip glistening as another clap of lightning zig-zagged through the sky bathing the small room in a quick light.

a soft second heartbeat drummed between your legs as kyle slid the knife under the band of your panties cutting them with a quick precision that made you turn to look at him with a soft pout.

a hand shot out and pressed your head against the table while his other fingers busied themselves with rubbing your cunt working you up until his palm was slick with your arousal making you whine.

your fingers gripped the edge of the table as you pressed against kyle in a silent attempt for something other than him teasing you, a squeal ripped through the room when he slid two fingers inside your cunt.

kyle finger fucked you while his thumb circled around your clit adding to the sweet pleasure that racked your body, he knew how to make you crumble and make a mess for him. "cum for me." he deamaned.

that's all it took for your pussy to squelch as your orgasm washed over you like a warm wave of bliss, you sighed and ground your ass against kyle. "please fuck me." you begged him with a small cry.

"does your boyfriend know what you're doing letting another man fuck his cunt?" his question made you feel hot all over as you furrowed your eyebrows listening to the rustling fabric.

before letting you give him an answer, he slapped the head of his cock against your clit while moving his hands down to thumb your pussy apart to watch himself slide inside your wet and tight heat.

kyle hung his head back as he bottomed out, his sack slapping against you when he found a fast pace with short shallow thrusts that kept you on edge as he pinned your arms behind your back.

each rut of his hips had the table legs scratching the floor feeling the hot rush of pleasure that saturated your spine giving your body a hazy feeling as you met each one of kyle's thrusts with eagerness.

you both were lost in each other, him feeling your cunt squeeze him and his cock hitting all the right spots. "pretty little toy you are."

his words caused a chain reaction, first, you came again then kyle was next making sure to bury himself as deep as he could inside before emptying his sack inside you. "a treat for my good girl."

as you lay there kyle rubbed your back as he pulled his softened cock out and helped you stand while pulling your dress down as you clung to him with glassy eyes and small giggles. "happy halloween, i love you."

"i love you too doll." kyle murmured taking his mask off to properly kiss you with his hand holding your jaw.

comments and relogs with tags are really appreciated <3

[thetempleofhades]

hello my pookie wookie spookie dookie kitten bear i hope you are doing splendidly. i have a request of you my little pookie wokieie spookiie dookie 🥺🥺🥺 what would you think of making a part 2 of the wratg writing 🥺?? (on a serious note its so fuckinf fire and i want to devour it but theres not enough to eat)

my name is pookie wookie spookie dookie kitten bear now. i had to dig out my laptop for this so fast so yes, i can give you a part two my beloved muah muah <333

It had been a month since the day you disappeared from the three archons' view but the storms persisted. Relentless winds that knocked over stalls and people alike. Rain that turned into thunderstorms, that then turned into hail. It was clear your rage was still ever-present and Teyvat was responding to your rage as the creation most connected to you.

You'd spent most of your time holed inside a cave as you slwoly cooked things you had picked during the slow times, just to be sure you'd never run into anyone but you knew it was only a matter of time before someone found you.

Of course, having to see Venti again was on the bottom of you list of things you wanted to see. Seeing him kneel before you, tears in his eyes only made the rain turn into hail as you stared coldly.

"Your grace, please forgive me. I.... committed a grave injustice against you." He sounded as tearful as he looked but you could only concentrate on your rage.

"You consider hunting someone down like an animal for the slaughter an injustice? I consider that inhumane, unforgivable, a crime is the least I consider it. At most, I consider it a testament of the hate you hold for me." Your words are angry but you face remains neutral as you stare at him coldly.

Books, Ancient texts and tales all recounted about your kindness, about how you would create things in order to bring happiness to your creations. But you had been so hurt, so betrayed, so.... so exhausted that all you could feel was your own rage.

"NO!" Venti protested in a panicked tone, scrambling up from his kneeling position to somehow convince you. "I could never-! Your grace, I would never hate you... I was... I was misguided, I was wrong. I could never hate you."

"Whether you do or don't matters little to me. You hunted me for months in order to kill me. How many times did I plead with you in tears to listen to me, to not kill me? Dozens. I pleaded until I coughed up blood. I ran until my legs gave out. I bled gold once in front of you and suddenly, you're sorry?" Your rage was quiet even as the storm raged on outside.

"Barbatos...." Your voice was quiet, tinged with disappointment. "I don't recognize you anymore. You are no follower of mine. Nor are you my creation." Your words severed the connection that existed all throughout Teyvat, the one that connected you to all your creations and them to you.

You turned and walked away, ignoring his sobs of anguish.

[sagan-starstuff]

What's the origin of your blog title? "We are made of starstuff" - Carl Sagan

OTP(s) + Shipname: Mulder and Scully, good old MSR. The one ship to rule them all, no one will ever do it like they did it.

Favourite colour: Basically all shades of blue

Favourite game: I don't really game much but I am playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild right now and it's pretty great.

Song stuck in your head: "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton thanks to my brother taking me a trip down memory lane

Weirdest habit/trait? I am pathological about keeping my nails short. It's not even a sex thing, I just haaate the feeling of having them more than like...2mm of overhang.

Hobbies: Reading, gardening, baking, slowly getting back into writing fic. I also have like....a dozen crafts/arts that I pick up for a month and then abandon

If you work, what's your profession? I'm a medical doctor. (IYKYK)

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? Astrophysicist but somehow without all the math and computer science that seem to be required. I just wanna look at pretty pictures of space all day.

Something you're good at: I'm a pretty decent baker.

Something you're bad at: Talking coherently about my feelings.

Something you love: My husband and son. Chocolate. The feeling of the sun on my skin. The X-Files. Looking at the night sky. Walking around art museums.

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: The X-Files. Also microbes!

Something you hate: Anti-intellectualism. Unfairness or injustice. Hypocrisy. The current state of American politics. Raisins.

Something you collect: X-Files stuff! And Terry Pratchett books. And books in general.

Something you forget: Biostatistics. I re-learn how to do the calculations before exams, then immediately forget.

What's your love language? Quality time and touch.

Favourite movie/show: The X-Files, always forever. I also love Contact, The Princess Bride, and basically everything Studio Ghibli, 30 Rock, most Michael Schur shows (not The Office, though)

Favourite food: Seafood. I'll eat anything that swims/scuttles/clings to the side of a boat.

Favourite animal: Cats, owls, Highland coos. My specific dog.

What were you like as a child? Smart, shy, generally well-behaved, awkward around my peers, made furious by injustice or unfairness. Basically like now, just less well-behaved.

Favourite subject at school? SCIENCE!

Least favorite subject? None, really. I was decent at math, I just lost interest once I got past Calc I.

What's your best character trait? I like to think I have a sense of personal integrity. If I think something is unethical, unfair, or unwise, I refuse as much as I can to go along with it.

What's your worst character trait? Limited patience. The above traits also can make me a little rigid, and I've had to work a LOT on not just flat out telling people I think they're wrong, I've had to work on developing a sense of compromise and diplomacy.

If you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be? UGH my commute, there's so much construction and the roads in my city were laid out so poorly that it should NOT take a long to get to/from work as it does.

If you could travel in time who would you like to meet? Carl Sagan or Ida B. Wells.

Recommend one of your favourite fanfics (spread the love!): Shine On by @cecilysass, the whole time it was coming out I'd drop everything I was doing when a chapter dropped. One of the best Revival fics I've read. An AU, technically.

I stole most of this list from @randomfoggytiger because I'm laaaazy but participate if you like!

@baronessblixen, @dd-is-my-guiltypleasure, @welsharcher

@agent-troi, @amplifyme, @laurencem, @illaisland, @halfali3n,

@virtie333, @television-overload, @brenayla, @nachosncheezies,

@leiascully, @catharsisxf, @numinousmysteries, @frogsmulder,

@suitablyaggrieved, @loubetcha, @storybycorey, @rachg82,

@spooky-jordan, @borogirl, @jessahmewren, @skelavender,

@unremarkablehouse, @thefinalpaperheart, @redteekal,

@sigritandtheelves, @lesbianagentofnothing, @kiivitaja,

@unremarkablehouse, @freckleslikestars, @pianogirlxf,

@justice-for-queequeg, @scullysmywife, @xf-cases-solved,

@muldersfingers, @is-on-its-way, @sarie-fairy,

@lilydalexf, @thescullyphile, @teenie-xf, @touchstoneaf, @ellivia,

@trusttnno1, @settle-down-frohike, @thursdayinspace,

@sagan-starstuff, @b0oker18, @singeart, @bakedbakermom,

@slippinmickeys, @pookie-mulder, @thatfragilecapricorn30,

@deathsbestgirl, @calimanc, @goodshipsmulder, @vincentsleftear,

@aloysiavirgata, @pennyserenade, @dreamingofscully,

@xxsksxxx, @writingwell, @trans-spidey, @scullys-scalpel,@daynascullys, @precedex-files, @bakedbakermom, @msrafterdark @cecilysass

[alwri-tes]

2024 Wrap Up Post!

It feels like just yesterday that 2024 was a brand new year, and yet, here we are, just a day away from its end. So, without further ado, here's just a short list of things that happened to me in the writer world in 2024.

-I published my second novel, Splintertown, in February of this year! It was an absolute dream come true and I will always cherish the memories of how it felt to finally see this story come into the world. Splintertown also sold very well, and very quickly, copies of this one flew out of my hands significantly faster than that of its predecessor. It was so impressive and wild, and I am so grateful.

-A copy of Shadow's Hidden Blade was sold for the first time ever to a customer who lives outside of the U.S.

-I donated copies of Shadow's Hidden Blade and attempted to get it circulated in a local regional library. I was unsuccessful, but at least I tried.

-A copy of Splintertown was sold for the first time to a customer outside of the U.S. (What?!)

-I received many comments from readers over the course of this year that absolutely filled my heart with joy.

-I read a lot of books this year, several of which were written by my fellow authors on Tumblr! J.G Martin's (@jgmartin) Crooked Antlers was the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy night and will likely be a spooky season favorite, Apolline Lucy's (@apolline-lucy) The Silver Birds had me struggling to pick my jaw up off the floor, Alina Capella's (@alinacapellabooks) The Tengu and The Angel was a strikingly emotional summer read, Gabriella Buba's (@inkcurlsandknives) Saints of Storm and Sorrow had me on the verge of losing it on an airplane, and Estella Mirai's (@estellamiraiauthor) The Stars May Rise and Fall made me stay up way too late while desperate to find out what happened next.

All in all, wow, what a year!

See you all in the next one, and hopefully many more years to come!

[astra-dark]

Trigun fanfic recommendations!

I made a list of Trigun fic recommendations over on Twitter so I thought I’d share them here too! Some of these are spicy so mind the ratings and tags!

Echoes between stars by @faindri | Vashmeryl | Rated M

This fic is so amazing! You’ve got cat boy Vash, Meryl being a badass, action, plot twists that already have my jaw on the floor. Go read this immediately!

Sea foam by @noaafishfieldguide | Vashmeryl, Millywood | Rated T

Absolutely love this fic! If you like mermaids, small towns with big secrets, and the occasional spooky vibe, this fic is for you!

Thirty pieces of silver by @hashtagcaneven | Mashwood | Rated M

One thing y’all need to know about me is that I’m an absolute sucker for fantasy AUs and this one ticks all my boxes! It’s romantic, action packed, and beautifully written, GO READ IT!

Through the deep dark forest long by @dingusttmax | Mashwood | Rated M

Princess mononoke AU! This fic is absolutely fantastic and I love it so much that I’m currently working on binding it into a physical book

Reporter’s notes by @museqmeg | Vashmeryl | Rated M

Reporter’s notes was the first Trigun I ever read and I still love it to pieces! It’s sequels, Sheets and Snapshots, are also fantastic! Definitely a must read 💕

Separate the head and heart by Inkpot_gods | Mashwood | rated T

Did I mention I love fantasy AUs yet? this fic is absolutely fantastic and hits the fairytale vibes just right, I reread it at least once a week

Sometimes it’s heaven sent by @dingusttmax | Mashwood | Rated E

Have I ever watched pushing up daisies before? No, but I read this AU anyway and I’m so glad I did because it’s incredible and I think about this fic all the time

Fire on the mountain by Yuka_laylee | Mashwood | Rated M

This fic is SO good! I’ve never seen a Jurassic park themed AU before but it work so well and I can’t wait to see where the plot goes!

Get your hopes up by Shinzouing |Stryfewood / Mashwood | Rated E

I love me some post July Mashwood flavored Stryfewood and this is definitely my favorite one! I’ve reread this fic 4 or 5 times now and still find new things to love about it!

Heart on ripped sleeves by inkpot_gods | Mashwood | Rated E

This fic y’all, this FIC! It’s made me laugh at points and it also made sobbed so hard I had to take walk because of it, it’s so good. I haven’t got to read it’s sequels yet but I can’t wait to!

Runaway roots by starcrxssed | Mashwood | Rated E

This fic a bit heavier than my other recs so please mind the tags if you decide to read it but it’s still fantastic! I’m not usually one for strangers to lovers but this one is just 👌

The Lighthouse by EloFromMars | Vashwood | Rated E

I love me some spooky creature/ crypid Vash and this fic delivers just that and then some! I love all the Millywood friendship moments we get in here, it’s so nice to see how much they care about each other!

Hold me like a grudge by Lenipez | Mashwood | Rated T

I absolutely love fairies in fiction so this fic was already right up my alley! I love the how each side of the relationship has a different dynamic so far, I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. My favorite part of the fic tho? Meryl calls Wolfwood kitten

Till forever falls apart by @chaoticbuka | Vashwood | Rated E

Or the alternate title “Buka hits me specifically right in the heartstrings” the fic lol but seriously I love this fic, the way that Wolfwood’s Vash haunts the narrative like the ghost that Nick originally should be is so good! As a side note, Vash has freckles here and I need more of that in my life 💕

A multitude of sins by DespiteWhatShouldBeOtherwise | Vashwood | Rated M

I’m only half way through this fic rn but it’s already so amazing! The romance might be slow burn but the plot is so engaging that you’re never bored and wondering when the romance will pick up. As a Meryl lover, I absolutely love that she’s so important to not only both Vash and Wolfwood but also the story itself.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #338: Taisui Xingjun

if I can say one nice thing about taisui xingjun, it’s that lasengle went out of their way to make him feel very cursed. sometimes waiting for a servant to pop up in their event gives you cool new abilities to work with that aren’t part of their in-game kit, and sometimes they show up at the last second, throw out a vague party buff on for the last fight, and then fall asleep immediately. this time’s the second one.

thankfully, taisui’s not all that difficult a build, at least on the surface. he’s a Divine Soul Sorcerer, and that’s it! though to be fair, that class alone is really kind of mashing together two classes as-is, so he’s still not that simple.

check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

next up: make sure to like, comment, subscribe, and turn on notifications to see this build first!

Ancestry & Background

if we were being more objective taisui’d probably be a custom lineage, but it’s our build and I want him to be able to turn into his big form at will, so he’s a Changeling. with that, he gets proficiency in performance and persuasion, and his plastic presentation makes him a Shapechanger as well, so he can turn into any small or medium race as long as they have the same number of limbs, and you can’t turn into anyone specific without having seen them first. on top of all that, you get bonuses of +2 Charisma and +1 Dexterity.

finally, your background. you literally just sit there the whole event until like three deus ex machinas pile on top of each other to summon you into a vaguely human body, so that sounds like the Book of Many Things’ new background, the Rewarded, to me. that nets you proficiency in Insight and Animal Handling, as well as the Lucky feat for literally free. why anyone would ever pick a different background ever again, I don’t know, but now you get three luck points a day, and you can spend them forcing a reroll on any d20 roll directly affecting you and pick the better option of the two. whomst’d’ve the fuck thought putting that on a background was balanced.

Ability Scores

your highest score is your Charisma, because you’re basically skating by on your good looks and hoping that’s enough to make people farm the ungodly number of Cons needed for all your ascensions and NP levels. it is, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. second highest is your CON. yep, there’s a buncha them in there. third is Dexterity, because you don’t wear armor. like, at all. honestly this should probably be lower considering how easily you get eaten, but I’m trying to make a build that’ll survive level 1. after that comes your Intelligence, because the Con are quick studies at least when it comes to construction and video games, so they’re at least a little above average. that means your Strength is nothing to write home about- you’re a god, but you’re a kid, and your arms are kind of noodly. finally, we’re dumping Wisdom. as the Con you’re easily swayed, and as a god your tired ass isn’t helping anyone on watch duty.

Class Levels

1. as mentioned before, you’re a Divine Soul Sorcerer, which gives you Spells you cast using your Charisma. before we go into those, you also get Divine Magic, letting you pick spells from the cleric spell list as well as the sorcerer’s. you also get Inflict Wounds for free for your spooky shadow hands. I know taisui is technically true neutral, but his god form’s a god of curses and retribution, so I’m saying at the very least his powers are evil-leaning. speaking of, you’re Favored by the Gods, so if you fail a save or attack, you can add 2d4 to it once a short rest. whether being favored by this god is a good thing or not is anyone’s guess.

so then, spells! for cantrips, Blade Ward will keep your body in once piece for now, Morgan worked hard on that, while Chill Touch is another kind of spooky hand that prevents people from healing, which is pretty cursed in my book. you can also whip out your bell and Toll the Dead, dealing extra damage to injured targets, your you can curse someone with an Infestation, forcing them to move in a random direction if they fail a constitution save.

for leveled spells, Bane is a light cursing for a first level spell, forcing up to three creatures to make a charisma save. if they fail, every attack or save made for up to a minute gets a d4 taken away from it. we’re also giving you Mage Armor for +3 AC because we’re not that sadistic. even if taisui is.

oh, speaking of saves, you have proficiency in Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as Arcana and Religion. you kind of are a god, after all.

2. second level sorcerers become a font of magic! rn that just means u can cast another first level spell every day, like your new one, earth tremor! most of you is still down there, after all, just twitch a lil.

3. congrats! you survived long enough to get second level spells! now you can feed your party parts of yourself to aid them, giving them a bigger hp bar for the day! you also learn metamagic this level, so now your font of magic actually does stuff that’s important! you can spend your sorcery points to make a spell heightened, giving your target disadvantage to their save, or careful, automatically making the save for some of your friends! taisui’s got kind of a yin-yang thing going on between his feeding and his cursing, so this is the best of both worlds!

4. since ur kind of a nega-jupiter, you’re now a scion of the outer planes! yaaaay! since your god’s evil, you get resistance to necrotic damage, and you get chill touch again!

you can also cast mold earth to cover yourself up again, and you can cast wither and bloom! with this spell, every creature you choose takes necrotic damage, and one creature you choose can roll a hit die and gain hp back! it’s literally everything you do in a single spell!

5. fifth level, you have magical guidance, spend sorcery points to reroll checks, whatever! the important thing is now you can bestow curses! the phb gives some suggestions, but really you can do anything your dm lets you get away with!

6. sixth level divine souls have empowered healing, so whenever you or someone next to you heals someone, you can spend a sorcery point to reroll some of those dice, once a turn! i’m not sure if that works for life transference or not, but either way this spell makes feeding yourself to someone a lot more visceral. you take damage, and then someone else gets healed for twice the amount of damage you took!

7. you can now give urself an aura of purity, making friendly creatures in it immune to disease, resistant to poison damage, and they get advantage on saves against a buncha common status effects too!

8. at eighth level you get another ASI, so now you’re a Baleful Scion. that rounds up your Charisma and lets you pull people into the Grasp of Avarice- once a turn, you can add some necrotic damage to the damage you deal, which also heals you for that amount. your best healing spell so far uses your HP, so you need to fill that back up somehow.

you can also summon a Spirit of Death for an hour, making a floaty medium boy you can ride around on! you don’t even need to spend any actions commanding it or nothin’. it can only attack one creature at a time, but it’ll lock on to them and let you know where they are the whole time!

9. you can now make an insect plague! don’t misspell that, trust me. now you can make a 20’ radius sphere of locusts that obscure the whole place, and everything inside it has to make a constitution save or get piercing damage!

10. tenth level sorcerers have another kind of metamagic like extended, doubling the length of a spell you cast, up to an hour. you can also cast resistance to protect someone from a saving throw-related dangers.

speaking of saves, you can cast the most messed-up spell in the game, Contagion! if you hit your target, they have to make a constitution save at the end of each turn, working like death saves. after three successes, the spell ends. after three failures, you can curse them with a terrible disease for seven days.

11. at eleventh level, you can cast sixth level spells like Heroes’ Feast! after casting this, you can feed yourself to up to twelve creatures, curing them of all diseases and poisons, immunity to poison and being frightened, and they had advantage on all wisdom saves! on top of that, they gain extra HP, and all for a full day! just… maybe don’t tell them what the feast’s made of.

12. twelfth level, another ASI! bump up that Con for more Cons! it’s health, you’ll get more health. this is retroactive, remember, so you get an extra 12 HP this level.

13. thirteenth level sorcerers get seventh level spells, and its time to get real curses! with Divine Word you can hit any number of creatures within 30’ of you, forcing a charisma save on all of them. depending on how many HP they have, they’ll become deafened, blinded, stunned, or even straight up dead if they fail a charisma save. this also banishes any celestial, fey, or fiend if they’re not from around here, so that would make Dagon a real cakewalk. also, on the “instantly killing people” front, this gives you more than enough room to take out some poor bastard’s whole extended family.

14. your Angelic Form is a lot different than most people would expect, but you can still use your bonus action to fly around on your curse lump, with no limit on flight time!

15. eighth level spells! you can now Regenerate your allies by forcefeeding them a whole Con, giving them a healthy amount of HP immediately, with a trailing 1 HP per turn for an hour afterwards. two minutes into the spell any missing limbs grow back, though they can also instantly be reattached by just slappin ‘em back on if you got ‘em.

16. another ASI, another Con for more HP.

17. you can now use twinned metamagic, turning a single-target spell into one that hits two creatures!

speaking of single target spells, Power Word Kill’s a hell of one, ain’t it? if the chosen target has 100 HP or less, they die instantly! no saves, no nothin’.

18. you spent so much time putting Cons into other people, we almost forgot to get some Cons into you! with Unearthly Recovery, letting you spend a bonus action to regain half your HP once a day! big heal energy.

19. one last ASI before the build finishes! with the Tough feat, it’s like you ate two Cons at once, giving you an extra 38 HP now, plus another two next level.

20. at level twenty you get the sorcerer’s capstone, Sorcerous Restoration! every short rest, you get four extra sorcery point!

…yeah there’s a reason we usually multiclass.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

you have an amazing Con-stitution for a caster, giving you way more HP than most would expect of you. having a healer that doesn’t die easy is super helpful. this also means you have great con-centration. your more powerful spells don’t need it, but dropping a spell always hurts.

not only are you a great healer, you’re great at making other people heal too! you also have access to some strong defensive buffs like heroes’ feast, aura of purity, and resistance. also, being able to grow back limbs can be pretty useful!

you also dish out devastating debuffs, destroying enemy defenses with divine words, curses, and disease.

Cons:

yep, there’s a lotta them in there.

(but seriously, a lack of direct attacks drags fights out, the sorcerer capstone sucks)

[berrypass-de-murdler]

3 - 28 Murder by the Books

neww update!

I finally got into Toyhouse, and will be moving suspect bios there. I'll still keep the sta.sh open as a basic list, but the Toyhouse will be more detailed and also feature other artworks.

It's far from complete at the moment and it's gonna take a while but I'm working on it :3

DON'T READ THE EPISODES WITHOUT READING THE BOOKS!!

The passage through the maze leads right into a hidden library underneath the Institute.

LOGICO: I didn’t know you had this! I thought the Institute had a library already… IRRATINO: It does, but it’s not as hidden as this one! Having a campus full of secret passageways is aesthetically wonderful, buuut from a safety perspective, I have to admit I’ve made some. Poor decisions.

He picks up a librarian corpse by the collar and shows it off to Logico. 

IVORY: Ugh-uh! What are YOU two doing in MY secret library?! LOGICO: It’s not YOURS, it’s IRRATINO’S!! IRRATINO: Calm down- The library is open to all who find it.

A red blob is darting across the room - Cardinal Cinereous is back. Logico forgot about him, or rather, wanted to forget about him.

CINEREOUS: Well, well! Now THERE’S a face I never thought I’d see ‘round again. LOGICO: Same to you, bucko. Now go do bird things - this is a job for actual people.

Cinereous sneers at the unusually racist comment. The third suspect is Gainsboro, but he looks a bit off-color.

LOGICO: B- Gainsboro, are you feeling alright…?

The person looks up, and is in fact, a different book-winged butterfly. 

BUTTERFLY: Excuse me? LOGICO: OH. Sorry. BUTTERFLY: It’s- it’s fine, I just moved here, and I’ve been confused for some author a few times… My name is Russet.

Logico shakes her hand, and is pleased to meet such a friendly person for once. Then he takes a second glance, and figures out she’s reading ‘How to Murder’, Dame Obsidian’s self-help book. He does a withering sigh. Russet moves a skeleton off the reception desk chair and sits back down. 

Statement time is Logico’s least favorite time.

CINEREOUS: Well, as God would say, Editor Ivory broughta fount’n pen. LOGICO: What does God say about this?

He holds an open book behind the bird and is about to slam it shut, but Irratino gets in the way. 

IRRATINO: Logico, look - there’s wax on this book. LOGICO: …Kay.

He notices a room in the back that’s boarded up.

LOGICO: What’s back there? IRRATINO: Nononono you can’t go back there. It’s been Institute staff-only ever since the Epochalypse. LOGICO: The fuck is wrong with- IRRATINO: I DON’T… want to talk about it.

Editor Ivory has a key she shouldn’t have…

IRRATINO: You! IVORY: Pffff-uhh. The librarian REFUSED to stock any of the books I’VE published, even the ones SPECIFICALLY MARKETED for spooky places. What else could I do?

Logico rolls his eye so loudly. But the Tekkies come knocking on the door!

TEKKIES: COME WITH US.

Irratino grabs Logico and runs. But Logico was just about to ask Ivory if she knew who the Bossman was…

The end!

The people chasing them being Turquoise, Eggplant, and Olive isn't canon, but it looks funny so whatever

Fletch is in charge of Russet, she doesn't make many designs anymore but I love the ones she does make

Time for the long and treacherous toyhouse upload

The power of Goat Lord compels you!

See you next time murdlers!

[tlbodine]

Overthinking: Go Eat Worms

Go Eat Worms is Goosebumps #21, and often cited as one of the worst or a least-favorite in the series. (I think the others I hear complained about even more are Chicken, Chicken and Monster Blood IV). I never read this one as a kid, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it (even if it does have, I think, one of the weakest covers).

So what's in this worm sandwich of a book? Is there anything worthwhile?

First, the Plot:

Todd loves worms. He keeps a worm farm in his basement and digs up new ones for his collection all the time. He's equally scientifically fascinated by them and also relishes using them to prank and gross out his sister and other people, using his best bud Danny as co-conspirator. And, hey, sometimes when they go out by the baseball diamond to dig up more worms, the ground shakes with an earthquake only they can feel...but that's probably fine, right?

Todd has a worm project planned for the science fair, but is dismayed to learn that class pretty boy and rich kid Patrick is also doing a worm project. He tries to go spy on it, but his sister pranks him by giving him the wrong address and sending him to a spooky abandoned house instead. He pranks her back by sabotaging her science fair project by filling it with worms, which backfires.

Now Todd is suddenly finding worms everywhere. They're in his baseball cap. His cereal. His lunch. His bed. Wherever he goes, there are worms showing up in unexpected places. His sister tells him maybe it's revenge for the time he cut a worm in half in front of them...but worms can't seek revenge, can they?

After escalating paranoia eventually drives him to holding overnight vigil in the basement, watching the worm farm, his parents decide to put a stop to things and make him get rid of the worms once and for all. Todd is devastated but begrudgingly agrees.

And then he finds out that it was his sister tormenting him THIS ENTIRE TIME in a bid to get him to get rid of his worms and stop pranking her.

Now intent on pranking her back good and proper, Todd and Danny go to collect more worms from the baseball diamond...and the earth erupts, a GIGANTIC mama-worm comes out and nearly eats them, and they barely manage to escape. Nobody believes them, but they're not so interested in worms anymore.

Todd picks up a new hobby: butterfly collecting! the butterflies are so pretty and gentle and not at all gross and he's not pranking his sister anymore. Everything is fine...until the giant moth flutters into his room with a big pin to skewer him....

Overthinking It:

This book is the synthesis of a couple of Stine's favorite themes: escalating prank wars, and gaslighting. Stine himself says he's unhappy with how this story turned out, listing it as one of his least favorite books, and Jacobus has said he wishes he could have redone the cover -- so they're not blind to the story's flaws. But I do think discounting it completely means missing some great bits, because when this story hits, it hits pretty hard.

I really enjoy the building paranoia, and the dream sequence of worms in the bathtub -- like the nightmare scene in Scarecrow -- goes on too long, trapping you in its slimy waking nightmare. It's really compelling stuff.

And what sells it for me, I think, is the surprising complexity of Todd's character. I think if Todd thought rationally about what was happening for five minutes, he'd realize that his sister was lying and clearly responsible for all of the things that are happening. But he doesn't think that, because his own guilty conscience won't let him.

Because at the end of the day -- Danny is a practical joker, but Todd really genuinely loves his worms. He wants to study them scientifically. He puts care into them. And I think there's a part of him that is a little reluctant to hurt them, that feels a little guilty for sacrificing them on the altar of his pranks, while at the same time not wanting to surrender what identity he's built up around them.

Idk, man, I just think there is something really relatable about being a kid and trying to define yourself and figure out who you are, and finding your niche not just in being Weird, but in being a specific KIND of weird, and how you can build yourself an inescapable prison of reputation.

By the end, sure, his sister is happy that he's moved on to a less-gross hobby, but the problem was never the grossness of the worms, not really. The problem was the cruelty. And now, however much he appears reformed, there is still cruelty in his new hobby.

At the end of the day, Todd's undoing is his own guilty conscience. It just takes a little push to send him into a terrifying spiral of his own making.

If You Liked This, THESE Will Really Give You Goosebumps:

This book is kind of the wormy love-child of Night of the Living Dummy and You Can't Scare Me, so go check those out next if you haven't read them yet.

In a literary tradition, this book fits in well with Poe's Tell-Tale Heart, in which a murderer would have gotten away with it if not for his own guilt driving him to paranoia. The idea of harassing someone through a series of pranks to run them out of town is also reminiscent of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Shout-out too to Stephen King's 1922, where a man murders his wife but the rats around her body threaten to expose him.

I'd also recommend Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, which really nails the creeping horror of "what if animals kept showing up where they're not supposed to be, and they're real angry at you." There's also the 1972 film Frogs, which is a sort of eco-horror about frogs who are real mad about climate change (we should have listened to them then).

[mysticsparklewings]

Obscutober 2024 Day 10: Rampike 🥀

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Rampike (n.)

a broken or dead tree, especially the bleached skeleton or splintered trunk of a tree killed by fire.

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Maybe the most October-appropriate word on the list so far! 🎃

This one came out more simple kind of by accident, but it works because I’m still pleased with it & have some IRL things to work around today.

Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk more about my thoughts/process for this piece—Simple or not, I still have plenty to say! ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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After a brief break from the nouns yesterday, we're back with what I would say is one of the more "useful" words that made the prompt list. In nothing else, this is almost certainly the most "October-appropriate" word so far.

Also, Fun Fact: There actually two trees in my yard that if they're not "rampikes" already, they probably will be in the future. It was a dark and stormy night (literally!) back in July, and around 3 or 4 in the morning, there was a massive CRACK of thunder—easily the loudest I've heard in my life—and I legitimately thought at the time that it felt like the lightning had struck our property specifically. Sure enough, the next day when we went outside, there were very visible scars scorched into the upper halves of two dizzyingly tall pine trees that stand together, like twins, in the backyard.

And believe it or not, that didn't really cross my mind when I picked this word out for the list. I did have the passing thought, "Oh hey I guess we kinda have one of those," and that was it! My main motivation for putting it on the list when I was going back through the word candidates I'd picked and making cuts was actually the spooky/October connections.

But hey, it made for a fun story! 🤗

As for the art: I kept things simple for today, but that was actually mostly unintentional for a change. But it does work out because (as I believe I mentioned yesterday) I have some other IRL things I'm having to balance today's Obscutober around. And I do kind of prefer having more simple results but feeling like I covered everything I wanted to vs. having a super detailed mandala where I'm still not sure I accomplished everything I wanted to.

I started with, of course, the split trees, because it was kind of essential they be included and be very prominent (at least in my book). The rest of the mandala was built around them; squiggles to represent the roots, a bit of grass-like representation near the base of the trees, then the larger triangles can either be more vegetation or maybe distant mountains—you decide!

I did pause for a moment after that, unsure of what to do with the empty space that was left and definitely did need something for filler.

Fortunately, the definition helped me out—I opted to do some swirls that are meant to be either wind or a representation of the storm clouds wind strong enough to break big, old trees would come with.

After that, the color scheme was easy. I went for mostly stormy blues, but also I tried to get kind of a lightning effect—but intentionally still abstract/loose—to highlight the splits in the trees, and I did let the tree trunks and the "grass" have touches of color just to help sell the imagery a bit better. It was at this stage that I decided I'd previously added too much hatching to the trees and the dotted triangle borders. Since I have a lot of thinner (white) lines here and was going for a stormy look, the extra white was just competing too hard for visual attention and made the whole thing look way more crowded than it actually is. You can see I left a little hatching on the trees for texture, but that's alk the hatching that survived.

...And that was it! And I don't feel like I really left anything out or missed anything! Unfortunately this is one of the words that I think maybe would have benefitted more from my usual mini-magnet shenanigans more than this mandala one. That's not to say I'm unhappy with how this art turned out—I like it a lot, actually! I just think the concept of broken trees brings out more of the poet in me than the artist, so I'm left wondering what I could've come up with in that other format that might have been deeper/had more substance to it.

Maybe that's something that could be properly explored at another time, but you Sparklers know how I am with hypothetical future projects like that. 😅 I'm going to focus on finishing what I've already started here first!

And I do think that finishes up what I wanted to tell you Sparklers about this piece today. Simple and more to-the point, which is kind of a nice change. They don't all need to be super complex!

So you Sparklers enjoy, and now I get to see how much trouble I have trying to do the cross-posting between those IRL things I mentioned working around. Somehow, I doubt that process will be as simple as the mandala itself was...🙃

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See the Prompt List

Artwork  © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[veliseraptor]

April Reading Recap

so apparently I read a fuckton in April. I put that on the week off for Passover and also a number of very fast reads last month. here goes

The Spite House by Johnny Compton. Might be the best horror book I'd read in a while, and I did not see the twist coming for a long while. Good and very spooky on the whole, but the "creepy kids as ghosts" thing took some of the luster off it. Still, some good and original ideas here and I'll be watching for more books by this author.

The Nine Eyes of Lucien by Madeleine Roux. Not very good writing and a good third of the book was rehashing the events of the end of Campaign 2, which I just watched. It was fine, I guess? But I didn't find it added much.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I've had this one on my list for literal years - it's a retelling of the Biblical story of Dinah, Jacob's one daughter. I kind of wish I'd read it sooner, when (a) I was less burned out on retellings/reinterpretations of familiar stories, and (b) when I would've been less bothered by the flavor of gender essentialism of the text and could have appreciated other things about it without getting stuck in feeling iffy about that. I am trying to work out why it bothers me so much that Diamant chose to change the reading of the text from (an implied) rape to a consensual love affair, and I'm not quite sure I can explain that.

It's an interesting book and I'm glad I read it but I don't think I'd recommend it without disclaimers; I think in some ways it's more interesting as an artifact of the cultural movement it comes out of than anything else. Would analyze in a class about Jewish feminist responses to stories in Tanakh (or Talmud, tbh).

Six Myths of Our Time: Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts and More by Marina Warner. Fascinating collection of short essays originally given as lectures on the BBC, apparently - the one essay about the way the West conceptualizes the simultaneous purity/monstrosity of children was particularly interesting to me. Interesting piece of work I picked up totally by happenstance because it was short and looked interesting and it lived up to both qualities.

Gallows Hill by Darcy Coates. Good spooky horror recommended by @cigaretteburnslikefairylights and actually legit scared me in places, which doesn't happen all that often to me anymore when I'm reading horror. (I'm still a weenie watching it.) I actually...liked this one start to resolution and am going to be looking up more of Darcy Coates' writing, because if it's not, you know, doing something super ~innovative~ it is good spooky reading and that's really what I've been craving.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester. Reading this book was a weird experience. I went into it just thinking "ooh, book about an interesting natural disaster, I love volcanoes" and came out of it going "whoa, surprise Islamophobia," checked the publication date, and learned it was 2003, whereupon I was miserably unsurprised. I don't know why the author felt like he needed to make colonial apologetics and blame the post-eruption upheaval on Islamic fundamentalists manipulating the natives into uprising against their Dutch masters but apparently he did. (I'm exaggerating. But not that much.)

The geology stuff was interesting. Mr. Winchester should've stuck with that and the reportage of the eruption itself and left politics out of it.

Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation ed. by Kavita Bhanot & Jeremy Tiang. This might be my favorite book I read in April, honestly. It's a really good collection of essays about the concept of decolonizing translation, and what that means, and whether it's possible, and the uneasy and uncomfortable relationship between translation and imperialism. I didn't agree with all the essays in here, and they didn't necessarily all agree with each other, but all of them at least had something interesting to say. I would recommend this one to people who can find it - it's by a small press - who are interested in translation or who frequently read in translation. The writers have a lot to say that I think is worth thinking about.

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thahn Tran. I think I just need to give up reading YA books with the realization they're generally not for me, though this one almost had me. It's something about the...I know there's a range of styles, I can't generalize style across the genre, but there is a texture to YA writing that doesn't quite work for me.

I love the concept - diaspora horror, colonialist horror, some really fucked up body horror stuff that got surprisingly gruesome - and would love to read a slightly different book about it, but alas, that book wasn't this one.

American Midnight: Democracy's Forgotten Crisis, 1917-1921 by Adam Hochschild. Another contender for favorite book I read this month though I think this one loses out to Violent Phenomena and possibly Gallows Hill, though comparing horror fiction to historical nonfiction feels kind of unfair. Anyway, I knew some of what this book was digging into - the Sedition Act and the intensely violent repression that was going on in the United States during World War I - but I learned a lot more here.

The depressing thing about reading this, though, was watching (so to speak) the brutal crushing of a once fairly robust American Socialist Party such that it never recovered. Not to mention the grinding down of the labor movement, which I think was at its most powerful during this period of time and hasn't been as strong since.

Just looking at that and wondering what might've been if Woodrow Wilson wasn't such a fucking dick.

Elektra by Jennifer Saint. I feel so funny about this book. I read another mythology retelling even though I swore not to because a Tumblr user I respect mentioned it being good; my experience was that it wasn't bad and it didn't actively bother me like some other retellings I could name, but I don't know that I'd actually call it good. Mostly I'd say I wasn't annoyed, just uninspired.

Of the three narrators, Elektra was definitely the best, and I really did like the construction of her relationship with Clytemnestra, which really felt like the meat of the book. (Perhaps, considering the House of Atreus, that's a bad turn of phrase to use.) The Cassandra sections felt like a distraction, mostly a way to keep the reader up with what was going on across the sea and provide some action in between the familial drama. Ultimately I just felt like those sections took away from the Elektra/Clytemnestra dynamic, leaving insufficient meat.

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach. I went through a period of time where I was reading all of Mary Roach's books, and was kind of obsessed with them, so this was sort of returning to an old and familiar friend. I found I wasn't quite as enamored with this one as I remembered being of some of her others (I think I remember Stiff being my favorite), but it was an interesting look at the intersections between human and animal - which is really more what this is about than law, per se. It's about what we do when animals cause problems for humans, from monkeys to bears, and the questions that are raised about the best way to handle those issues.

Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt & Roddy Ashworth. I'm so confused by this book. From the insistence on referring to Nero as "princeps" throughout the book, to the random dropping of French in places it really didn't need to be, to the frankly credulous approach to the sources, particularly when it comes to sex, even when the author mentioned how sex is often a proxy for politics in Roman historical writing, the weird sideways digression into "did Rome have gay marriage?", the weird "maybe she got what she deserved" aside about Messalina's death...

I learned a fair amount, I can say that, I'm not as knowledgeable about this period's Julio-Claudians. Frankly I think Agrippina (the Younger) was the real star of this book, despite Anthony Everitt's heroic efforts to make Nero the protagonist. Buddy, I see your point, but you're pushing a little too hard here.

Anyway. Weird reading experience, I'm tempted to recommend it just so someone else can either validate it or go "what are you talking about, this was a perfectly normal history book."

---

woof long post, but hey it was a lot of books. currently reading A Fever in the Heartland for more American racism in the early 20th century. I have a stack of library books that are waiting for me and I think the next one is probably going to be The Social Lives of Animals, which will either be really enjoyable or annoy the hell out of me, possibly both.

[the---hermit]

end of the year book tag 2023

I did this tag last year more or less at this time. This book tag was created by Ariel Bissett over on youtube, and I recently heard her talking about it again in her podcast, which is how I got the inspiration of doing it again this year. As I think I have also mentioned last year when doing this, I tend to be a mood reader so planning my next reads never really works, but it's fun to sit down and reflect a bit on what is coming next into my reading life before the year is over.

Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

As I am writing this I have three main books I am in the middle of: Hell Followed With us by Andrew Joseph White, Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson and Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker. I have technically also started reading Walden by Thoreau a while back, but I don't have a plan to finish it quickly, it's more one of those books I read a little bit every once in a while when I feel like it, because I want to grasp as much as I can and while I am also taking classes and studying for exams I always struggle a bit with enjoying non-fic on my own.

Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?

I am once again doing this tag in the middle of autumn, so idk how much it counts, but I don't think I have a proper autumnal book on my tbr/wishlist. I am still waiting to get the sixth volume of Something Is Killing The Children, which is an horror graphic novel so that might count as a spooky season book. But I don't really wait spooky season to read horror books.

Is there a new release you're still waiting for?

As I mentioned the sixth volume of Something Is Killing The Children has very recently came out here in Italy and I am desperately waiting to find a copy of it. I am also waiting to get Bookstores And Bonedust by Travis Baldree which is coming out at the beginning of November. There are a couple of other 2023 releases I still haven't got my hands on but I don't know yet if I'll get them before the year ends (mainly He Who Drowned The World by Shelly Parker Chan, and The Land Of Lost Things by John Connolly). I am also waiting for the release of the final book in the locked tomb series but I don't think a release date has been set yet? (and regarding that I have yet to decide what I want to do because I would like to get physical copies of the English editions, but it will be a future me problem to solve).

What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?

One of my goals for 2023 is the read all the books I have bought this year, or at least as many as I can. I must say I have been very good with this goal, but I do have a couple of books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while. I don't know if I'll get into the right mood to read them before the year ends but I will add a couple of those to this list. The first one is Nel Buio Della Casa by Fiore Manni and Michele Monteleone. It's an horror novel of the hauted house genre which is one of my favourites but for some reason I haven't picked it up yet. Next is a book I cannot wait to pick up The Ballad Of The Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde, I love this author and after reading De Profundis earlier this year I have been really intrigued by this poem. Finally I bought a prose edition of The Odyssey and I might end up picking it up before the year ends.

Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favourite book of the year?

Not really? I expect to love a lot of the books I'd like to read before the end of the year but there's a couple of books I read this year that I doubt can be topped (Gideon The Ninth being at the top of that list alongside The Priory Of The Orange Tree).

Have you already started making reading plans for next year?

I actually have, weirdly enough. I was thinking about goals for next year and I think I will definitely keep the goal of trying to read all/ most of the books I buy during the year. I certainly need to find a way to read more of the books that have been on my shelves for years, so I will have to think of a more structured plan to reach that goal. I am also considering to create a goal to finally complete my Neil Gaiman collection since this year I have read all of the books by him I own. That could be a fun goal I think. Lastly I'd like to try and get as many books as I can second hand. It's not really super easy for me to do, because where I live there are no second hand book stores, and generally what I look for is quite difficult to find in regular shops, but there's a few exceptions, like classics for example are easier to thrift. Again these are more brain dump thoughts than an actual plan, but it's more than what I had last year at this time.

(no pressure) tags: @just-a-cup-of-anxietea, @fluencylevelfrench, @dreamofghosts, @upside-down-uni, @la-galaxie-langblr

[annegirl13]

Back to Books!

I really fell off the reading goal bandwagon after, what, January? Let’s blame the ADHD for that hyperfixation fizzling out. But! I’m back to reading now. I’ll call it a combination of long car rides, a need for background noise while cleaning and doing tasks on my own, and a desire to be a good example to my new students.

So what have I read in the past month? (I’m no particular order, and it might have been more like 6 weeks…)

I finished:

The Ramona Quimby Collection by Beverly Cleary - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Technically this was 8 books (?) I have read all the Ramona books in the past. I think my favorites are Beezus and Ramona and Ramona’s World, so the start and end of the series. It’s interesting to see Ramona and Beezus grow up through each book. These books bring back a lot of memories for me. I give them a collective four stars.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An absolute classic and a masterpiece. Picked this one specifically because I want to read it to my third graders. Absolutely beautiful. If you haven’t read this one, do it! The full cast recording was pretty good. (As a kid I think I had the tapes with E.B. White reading it himself, which was also fantastic if you can find it.)

Redwall by Brian Jacques - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An old favorite. Brian Jacques was a wonderful world builder and this is the one that started the series. Four stars, with one just for the full cast recording. Jacques was the master of those!

Mattimeo by Brian Jacques - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sequel to Redwall so I had to follow up with this one. More lovely world building, fun characters, and amazing performances.

Taggerung by Brian Jacques - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My favorite Redwall book. I love all the characters and the plot, and I get songs from this stuck in my head! Absolutely gorgeous.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A modern classic, in my opinion, but I had to stop listening to it until daytime. Something about listening to it at night on my own was too creepy! Neil Gaiman’s voice is one I could listen to no matter what he read.

The Losers Club by Andrew Clements ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A new (to me) book by a favorite author! I really connected with the main character, who is a book lover to the point he gets in trouble at school for reading when he’s not supposed to! I so relate! The story was really fun and had a great message. I might do this one as a read aloud for my kiddos. Alec (the main character) is in 6th grade, but I think my kiddos could understand. It has a list of recommended books at the back, many of which I have not read (yet!)

I’m currently reading:

High Rhulain by Brian Jacques - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another good Redwall book. I like the character and all the riddles. This one is a comfort read. It gets stars because I’ve read it before.

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Just checked this one out from the library and then thought, “Oh! I haven’t done a reading update. I should do that!” I’ll let you know how it is. It looks a little spooky!

Not sure if I’ll dig out my tracking blanket project, but I at least wanted to share these. I want to teach my class to share what they’re reading and how they feel about books, so like I said, I’m setting a good example.

[madame-ellunas-moonlit-readings]

May 7 - Stranger In A Strange Land

Re Dracula/Dracula Daily

I think from now on I will continue to read Dracula Daily as I listen to Re Dracula. This time it was not a line that was skipped, but 3 paragraphs. It's an understandable thing to skip, just very specific details on the house Dracula wishes to purchase. Honestly, I'm glad they skipped it. I'd rather not listen to them prattle on about the houses walls and the streets it lies on. Reading and Listening are two very different experiences, treating them as such was a good choice. But it is good to know what was missed. Especially as I'm new to the story and would rather not accidentally skip something important.

But I'll go into the missed parts when I get to it, for now, the story.

When Jonathon woke up to find a note from Dracula excusing him from dinner, I couldn't help but wonder how many excuses the man has up his sleeves. They can only go on for so long, surely. It is interesting how the author shows things to be suspicious through absence. Whether it be the Count himself, the lack of mirrors or there being no servants at all. I guess that driver was him then.

Jonathon's finally gathered himself to exploring the place too. First his room, which was filled with precious things centuries old but extremely well-maintained. Is Dracula taking good care of his belongings, or are there some practical uses to his magic? Then out of his rooms to locked doors. And of the first unlocked room he finds is a library which immediately captures him. A man after my own heart.

It is curious how many of those books are English and clearly new. Has the Count been visiting the bookstores. There are some that are clearly new(ish) by the titles.

I'll list some of the books down below, including those mentioned later.

London Directory (now known as the white pages), a telephone system was already well established so he access to both their numbers and addresses

Red & Blue Books (government briefings, if modern terms match), so he's getting a feel for the lay of business and authority too

Whitaker's Almanac (facts, figures and statistics relating to the UK and the world), to help him understand the wider and more minute facts of the world he plans to venture into, I would guess

The Army & Navy Lists (lists of army and navy soldiers)

The Law Lists (I'm not sure, maybe the laws?)

Bradshaw's Guide (railway timetables and travel guides), he was actively reading this one

A marked Atlas open to England (an iffily marked marked, not spooky at all)

It's a bit eery, considering the genre of the story. But not as much as what comes up in their following conversations.

Dracula showed up while Jonathon was browsing and was glad to have found him there. He insists that he doesn't know English fully but would like for Jonathon talk with him more so he can learn. He goes far as to request he picks up any mistake, any off intonation, anything mismatched at all. I guess to better blend in and not get caught in his violence. He himself states that,

But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one; men know him not—and to know not is to care not for.

It contrasts well with how Jonathon was treated by Carpathian citizens on his arrival. How hard they work to send him, and failing that, protecting him.

He goes to say that even still he would be a master, or at least master to none. So he definitely isn't looking to live among them when blending in.

At this point Dracula officially allows Jonathon into any unlocked part of the castle (adventure, anyone?) and moves onto the cultural differences. Considering how he directed Jonathon to his questions of his strange experiences thus far, focussing on the treasure marker blue flames, I'd say he's decided to kick the gaslighting into gear. And even in these explanations the Count has focussed on violent histories and speaking lowly of the citizens here.

His character isn't just shown through disdain and violent interests, but also his strong focus on the house and surrounding areas. He questioned Jonathon on various aspects of the house and location fiercely and had gone into his own research as well, startling him at how much more of the place he knew. Dracula says he obviously must as both Jonathon and his boss, Peter Hawkins, would be in Exeter, miles away.

Dracula is good at saying things that aren't odd or are easily excusable. But when added up, 😬. There was no need for the 'I know where you live' comment, really.

Here's where the podcast skips. In between "So!" and "I am glad that it is old and big".

In the missed bits Dracula signed his lease and other necessary legal documents, and Jonathon got them ready for mailing. Dracula asks how him came across a place so suitable, so Jonathon reads out notes on the place he had found. And yeah, it's suitable all right.

"At Purfleet, on a by-road, I came across just such a place as seemed to be required, and where was displayed a dilapidated notice that the place was for sale. It is surrounded by a high wall, of ancient structure, built of heavy stones, and has not been repaired for a large number of years. The closed gates are of heavy old oak and iron, all eaten with rust.

"The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of the compass. It contains in all some twenty acres, quite surrounded by the solid stone wall above mentioned. There are many trees on it, which make it in places gloomy, and there is a deep, dark-looking pond or small lake, evidently fed by some springs, as the water is clear and flows away in a fair-sized stream. The house is very large and of all periods back, I should say, to mediæval times, for one part is of stone immensely thick, with only a few windows high up and heavily barred with iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an old chapel or church. I could not enter it, as I had not the key of the door leading to it from the house, but I have taken with my kodak views of it from various points. The house has been added to, but in a very straggling way, and I can only guess at the amount of ground it covers, which must be very great. There are but few houses close at hand, one being a very large house only recently added to and formed into a private lunatic asylum. It is not, however, visible from the grounds."

I agree with Dracula. How did he come across a place so well suited to him? I'll leave a link on what a Carfax is down below.

But this is where we get back to the podcast.

Jonathon's observational skills are serving him well. Dracula goes on about how he is old and weary and likes the shadows and time to to myself, but to Jonathon his expression doesn't match at all. To him his smile seemed "malignant and saturnine", meaning malevolent and gloomy. Even worse, when Dracula left and Jonathon piled together his papers, he found an Atlas opened to a map of England. It was marked up with circles at the east side of London, on Exeter (the area where he and his boss lives, very creepy, very ominous) and on Whitby on the Yorkshire Coast.

Seriously, just run.

When Dracula comes back to chat until the rooster crowed, his instincts kicked back into gear as well. I get that you feel "under obligation to meet my host's wishes in every way", but kick that duty or social anxiety out of the way and leave. Even you thought the chill you were feeling was something reminiscent to turning of tides when one meets death. Listen to your instincts and just go already.

At least he was able to rest after after this journal entry. Probably. But we can definitely see the Count testing more and more of his bounds, slowly pushing Jonathon into a corner.

It was another good chapter.

My thanks to Re Dracula and Dracula Daily.

[dragontamer05]

Was looking around at the Demonata books online and found one store that had a box set listing as being good for '10 and up' and I'm just??

Excuse me?? Does the warning printed right on it saying Warning: Seriously Scary mean nothing? Because that is very much a genuine warning. We ain't talking Goosebumps level of kid scares here either.

I'm not saying there aren't kids that age who couldn't handle its content but I'd still be very very cautious, because it is graphic and gory, it does touch on some pretty heavier things and just look if this was made into into a visual medium of any kind it would minimum be slapped with either T for teen or Mature rating.

(I can't imagine a movie not being rate R)

Hell even the Graphic Novel version of Vampire's Assisstant series which is much tamer in its graphic novel/manga adaptation has a T rating which I do agree with.

But where as I'd gladly hand that book to any one idk 11-13 in age if they seemed interested I sure as hell wouldn't let them at Demonata at least not with out being sure they could handle the material and won't be traumatized by nightmares

All I'm saying is if someone is young enough to be given frights by the likes of Goosebumps and similar things that are aimed at kids of that age they shouldn't be touching the Demonata at all yet.

Absolute minimum I might recommend it to 13 year old at youngest if they really like horror- and properly warned in advanced about the possible content of the book.

Personally I have no idea if it would have given me nightmares or not cause I only got into it when I was in my teens so while certainly frightening I was able to handle the content.

Again this isn't me trying to say that No kid that age would be able to handle it or like idk gate keep reading books, just that it doesn't feel a great idea to market it in the same way as you'd do for Goosebumps.

And I want to make it clear that the Seriously Scary warning isn't like say being used as a tag line like Goosebumps "reader beware your in for a scare" where sure it serves as a reminder these are spooky books but come on it's also something of a hook to get someone interested while reading the back.

Nah it's a genuine warning and to my knowledge at least out of the books I've picked up is the only Novels that have ever had a warning on- which I'm not sure if it was by design and a choice by the author or if it like had to be there, legally / by request of the publisher or something.

[icarusthelunarguard]

 This Week’s Horrible-Scopes

It’s time for this week’s Horrible-Scopes! So for those of you that know your Astrological Signs, cool! If not, just pick one, roll a D12, or just make it up as you go along. It really doesn’t matter. Better yet! Check out “Heart of the Game, Fredonia” and see if they can sell you those D12’s with the symbols on them. Tell them “Shujin Tribble” sentcha. And “Hail, Hail, Fredonia!” Home of the Blue Devil!

Continuing the Spooky-Month theme, we’ve generated a random list of horror movie titles and are going to make up a new plotline for each one. If you already know these movies, just know that we’re not sorry in the least.

Aries 

In your movie titled, “Ginger Snaps”, you find yourself in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NY in the mid-1950’s. Two groups of young men with slicked back hair are approaching you; They're all redheads. Suddenly music by Leonard Bernstein sings out of a window adorned with the Puerto Rican flag. Can you sing and dance your way out of this rumble in the concrete jungle?

Taurus 

The year is 1986 and you find yourself in a musical recording studio. You’re the engineer working on the album, “Fore!” by Huey Lewis and the News. The band members are in isolated rooms when an overhead waterline breaks, spilling over the high voltage circuits for the building. Can you escape without being electrocuted? Can you get the band out too? Find out at the end of the 93-minute feature, “Jacob's Ladder”!

Gemini  

Your movie is, basically, just… “Being John Malkovich”, but set in the early 80’s with a new musical soundtrack. Can you pilot a John Malkovich bio-mech suit while listening to Ska music in the musical-thriller feature release, “In the Mouth of Madness”. Let’s watch it at the drive in and find out.

Cancer Moon-Child 

You and your friends have driven out to an old wooden shack of a house in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee. The trees surrounding you whisper in the breeze. Dead leaves keep splattering against the door and windows. There’s an old, creepy book with a face on it and a trap door to the cellar, chained and padlocked shut. Suddenly everything goes quiet! Deep footsteps can be heard on the wooden porch just before a shotgun blast tears off the lock. As the door opens, the silhouette of the most glorious chin in the world is revealed. Can you overcome… “Cabin Fever”? Opening Halloween Weekend. 

Leo 

You find yourself crouched behind a wooden crate in a blocky world with footsteps around you. You’re wearing dark military gear with a matching headband. A muted green glow on your wrist tells you what you’re needed to do: sneak into this facility, find some highly secretive intel, and bug out before you’re spotted. Will you avoid all the patrols and CCTV cameras in the world of…. “Whisper”? 

Virgo 

This is more of an Art Piece than a Horror Movie. Think “Saw”, but with the snobbiest wine taster you’ve ever known. Duct Tape them to a chair; ankles to neck to wrists, and have them watch in horror as their glass of wine sits on a table, out of reach, about to have the most vile desecration done to it. Because suspended over it, on a string, is a brick of ice - moments away from dropping into it. Welcome to…. “The Cube”!

Libra 

She’s out there. You know she is, but you can’t know where. Flitting from tree to tree, mocking you. Daring you to find her. Imitating people’s voices that almost sound like people you knew. Even making comforting sounds to distract you. Your only weapon of defense… a pocket full of corn kernels and raisins. Welcome to the terror of… “The Crow”. 

Scorpio 

A first-person view’s Coming of Age story. You’re terrified, looking back and forth wildly. You know where you are - you’ve seen all these landmarks before when your mom drove you to the bowling alley with her for league days. But now you’re on your own. Your Huffy 5-speed bike under you as you look for the right road to get there… or will you chicken out and try to find your way home? Can you find your way without a map before your classmates find you? How will you survive… “A Nightmare on Elm Street”?

Sagittarius 

It’s April. You’ve put off all the math until the last minute thinking you’ll be able to get everything done in time. But Midnight is fast-approaching and you don’t know where your tax deductions box is. You need to make it through, “Friday the 13th”! Released direct to video because no movie theatres would screen it!

Capricorn 

Poor fifth graders, trying to grow up and be the Top Dogs of the school. They thought it’d be easy. They… Thought… Wrong. They’re outnumbered Ten-to-One with littler students who intend to make their last week of classes Hell on Earth. Welcome to the next chapter in…. “The Frighteners”!

Aquarius 

Join us in a mild-mannered office, with a mild-mannered man, doing a mild-mannered job. Meet “Carl”, lead animator on one of the most popular childrens’ Saturday Morning Cartoon Series of 1969. But he’s trying to hide secrets from his Quality Checker. Smeared motions, missing facial features, wrong character placements from wide to close shots… Will he get paid this week, or lose his job? Follow Carl’s terror as he is… “Haunted”, by Hanna Barbera Studios.

Pisces  

You were paid last month, but something’s wrong; you’re running out of time for your monthly auto-payments. The New Year’s party time was great, but now you’re literally paying it off with your life. Welcome to March as you try to survive… “28 Days Later”!

And THOSE are your Horrible-Scopes for this week! Remember if you liked what you got, we’re obviously not working hard enough at these. BUT! If you want a better or nastier one for your own sign or someone else’s, all you need to do to bribe me is just Let Me Know! These will be posted online at the end of each week via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Discord and BLUESKY.

(Calling out @scoobydoomistakes specifically on this one!)

[miniaturemoonheart]

13 Things to Do On Friday the 13th

Celebrate Friday the 13th With a Friend

Friday the 13th is one of those days you either think is kind of fun or you fear in some way. There are friends who believe the day is bad luck. But I believe it’s just another day, one that you can use to celebrate a good time with friends. Plus, the cultural lore around the holiday is quirky and interesting.

Why Is Friday the 13th a Big Deal?

There is no real evidence that bad things happen on Friday the 13th more than any other day. Some folks attribute the belief that Friday the 13th is unlucky with the lore surrounding the number 13, and the superstitions that follow it, which have really only taken hold in this latest century. Some believe the bad luck of that number is associated with the betrayal of Jesus and others think it might have come from a book published in 1907. The book, Friday the Thirteenth, sold lots of copies and was made into a movie, so it seems that people were willing to belief the myth that the day would eventually represent.

There is even an official name for the fear of Friday the 13th called friggatriskaidekaphobia, which is a combination of the derivatives of the name Friday and the fear of the number thirteen. It is estimated that between 17 to 21 million people fear the day, or at least claim to.

Forget Superstitions! Celebrate Friday the 13th

This can be a day you turn into harmless fun for you and your friends. Make it a positive. First, find out when Friday the 13th falls. Some years have more than one occurence, so you could use some of the following suggestions for one of the dates and do the rest of them on the next date, or just completely change it up. No matter when this fateful day falls in any given year, it at least kicks off a weekend. You could do a theme night (horror movie marathon anyone?), or just use the day to tell a few friends you’re thinking about them. Most of all, have fun with it.

In keeping with the theme of this day, I’ve given you thirteen (13) ideas for ways to celebrate. Most of these are inexpensive and take virtually no planning or time so they’ll be easy to do.

Call up a friend and ask if you can pick up a few items for them (like maybe, thirteen or so) from the grocery store on your way home from work.

Write an “I’m grateful you’re my friend” message on their Facebook wall. Or, in keeping with the theme here, write on thirteen different friend’s walls.

Bake a batch of thirteen cookies and drop them off at a friend’s house.

Write a note to a friend and include thirteen things you love about them.

Make a friend a baker’s dozen of their favorite cupcakes.

Play some Friday the 13th games.

Meet them at the coffee shop and find out how lucky you both are.

Invite friends over for a Friday the 13th movie marathon.

Learn more about feng shui together, by taking a class or just hitting up the information available at your local bookstore. Feng shui is believed to help you attract more luck in your life.

Have a Friday the 13th theme party, complete with black cupcakes, spooky decorations, and punch. Just for fun, try to figure out whether you have Triskaidekaphobia or Paraskevidekatriaphobia.

Change up the traditional thoughts about Friday the 13th and enlist a friend to help you develop a lucky attitude. Make a list of things you could do together, like take a class on being positive or building your self-esteem.

Adopt a black cat.

Buy a friend lunch and ask them what they feel has been the luckiest moment of their life.