#revenge in rubies

[mercerislandbooks]

Book Notes: Singapore Sapphire

Anyone who has asked me for help in the mystery section of Island Books knows that, with very few exceptions (Louise Penny and Ann Cleeves), I do not read contemporary mysteries. I prefer any bloody murder to be at a historical remove. But I also realized, after combing through my reading journal, I’ve primarily read mysteries set in Regency London. Or World War I London. Or post-WWII London. The common denominator apparently being historical London. So when I visited the meticulously curated Lopez Bookshop last fall, I took a chance on expanding my comfort zone with the delightfully titled Singapore Sapphire, by A.M. Stuart, a historical mystery set in turn of the century colonial Singapore.

This series focuses on the widowed Harriet Gordon, who has joined her brother in Singapore following a traumatizing imprisonment in England due to involvement in the suffragette movement. In changing scene to Singapore, Harriet is hoping to put her past behind her and move amongst people who don’t know her history. To earn a bit of money, she offers her services as a confidential personal secretary. Unfortunately she discovers her first client, Sir Oswald Newbold, dead in his home only a day after their first appointment. When the police arrive, Inspector Robert Curran realizes that Harriet is an asset to the case with her keen eye for detail and a practicality honed by years living at the far reaches of the British Empire. He finds himself drawing more and more on her observations, and after another death is connected to Sir Oswald, Curran can’t help but lean on Harriet to help him untangle a dangerous web of deception.

Branching out to colonial Singapore from London felt like I was pushing myself a little, even though the main characters were still Brits. Stuart does a wonderful job of evoking her setting and describing the variety of people from around the world trying to make their way, however unsavory, in Singapore. Mystery series that hold my interest tend to contain central characters with an engaging partnership. With Harriet and Curran, their friendship and trust in each other slowly evolves while they put together the pieces of the murder. Stuart also lays the groundwork for longer character arcs, leaving me eager to start the next in the series.

I raced through the subsequent books, Revenge in Rubies and Evil in Emeralds, The final book in the series has a title, Terror in Topaz, but sadly no publication date yet. For those of you who are fond of historical mysteries like I am, give the Harriet Gordon series a try!

— Lori

[menheim]

The cast of Descendants: The Rise of Red 🤍

via TikTok

[inksplit]

[thelibraryofalexandriastillburns]

no but RTD2 era doctors are 0 for 2 when it comes to recognising their companions when something is meant to be impersonating them. like Fourteen almost left Donna behind to be exploded and Fifteen was about to send Ruby into a barren dimension with the Chuldur. I think we might need a crash course for them called, “How to not kill your companion by being just a bit more observant”

[thefiresofpompeii]

i hope ruby gets a well-that’s-alright-then-style notdeath. on the one hand it will make haters mad because oh no not another companion with an impermanent end (and i like to see haters mad) on the other it would require creativity to depict this in a new way + i love all the implications i love the dark fairytale quality of these companion exits i love my un-undead schrodinger’s women

with the way the legend of ruby sunday is titled… legends aren’t usually told about living people. legends are stories of the bygone past, of an age long since over, fictionalised and overgrown with folklore like barnacles sticking to an abandoned shell. there is such a thing as a living legend, but they’re exceedingly rare. the unmistakeable raven’s call in the 73 yards teaser, the trailer’s cut to fifteen crying alone after promising to cherry he’d protect her daughter… the foreshadowing is clear as day…

and yet. there’s one massive HOWEVER. ruby appears in s15: millie’s been spotted on set filming it. which leads me to believe — the doctor isn’t one to take the time travel route and revisit companions that in his future are genuinely dead. that would hurt too much, it would cause unnecessary trauma and could break the timeline. that must mean ruby stays alive in some way. ish. she’s alive and a legend and a mystery. girl-ballad girl-song girl-paradox

here she is, fading out.

p.s.: thesis statement on moffatgirls from the tags i left on somebody else’s post about charley pollard.. well it belongs here since it’s basically the semiotic hurricane swirling around ruby at the moment :)

[ch0colatec0ff33-art]

My Scary Godmother hyper focus came back full force after reading the Omnibus!!

I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

[yuseirra]

basically their dynamic (for the past 100 chapters or so)

[penguinkyun]

finally got to read onk 136 and wow. okay.

love the understanding we're slowly getting of just how bad things were in first gen b-komachi! that fight is incredibly real and heartbreaking to witness

nino, in her own way is trying out of sheer desperation and a whole emotional cocktail to reach out to ai, to find something, letting loose all her bottled up feelings in one go but all she's getting back are practised perfected smiles and deflecting answers in response to the emotion shes pouring out because ai has no idea how to handle this because shes never had friends nor any major fight before so she's falling back on the "smile and please everyone" tactic but it isnt working here because that isnt what nino wants to hear so she gets even more hurtful but ai doesn't know that so all she can do, all she can try right now is smile and its a slow suffocation of everything that could've been because they were friends but now the cracks go too deep and can't be patched up at all because ai is now dead and nino is left with a bunch unresolved feelings that still affects her more than a decade later

its just so heartbreaking and frustrating to witness just exactly how everything culminated into what it is now because no one who could have did anything about it either, not even their manager which pushed the singular star - everyone else is just a side actor narrative even more

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

continuing on, kana's detachment yet empathy with nino as she observes from a distance while ruby is very much embodying ai, being her instead of keeping herself separate. kana knows herself and now she's able to sort out her hidden feelings easier now that she has an outlet in form of nino (she uses her own emotions for acting after all) but ruby with her years of grief and the sudden understanding of ai...yeah she is Not handling this well at all someone please get her out of there

this movie in terms of Ai Potrayal is getting worse and worse by the second oof

[rubysundaey]

yesterdays artfight attacks + one from today :3

ocs in the second, third, and fourth image belong to @raystarkitty , @novaazurite , and @xxrubyda-alien89xx respectively :3

[animeaestheticsthings]

Because today Taylor officially released her version of the album"1989",I decided to make a post dedicated to her and to include characters that have huge hugeeee Taylor vibes and that are Taylor coded.🥹🥹This is album is literally my all time favorite,it had a huge impact on me and now that she finally owns it it's even more better!!!It will never get out of Style no matter!!!🥰🥰💙🤍☁️💫

[rubywolf0201]

I’m probably gonna start posting pics of the precious sunshine puppy boi regarding the countdown of Episode 9.

We can all take a moment to remember his smile before it gets taken away. 🥺

[menheim]

Joshua Colley as Hook 🤍

Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024)

[sunsetsmakemesad]

Aka needs to stop glazing ruby while writing nothing to back it up

[pixelwishess]

I’m trying to have a coherent thought here about Ruby and Neo parallels. I’m getting on my tinfoil hat here bare with me.

In Roman Holiday Neo doesn’t really have motives aside from wanting someone to understand her. She finds that in Roman who is the first person to acknowledge her abilities and treat her like an actual genuine friend. Her only goal in the Fall of Beacon was to stay with Roman. So much of her identity was tied to him because she was able to comfortably be herself around him.

We already know that Ruby’s identity is also tied to someone important to her, her mom. That doesn’t need much explaining. I think in order for either of them to move forward they would need to let go of the metaphorical ghosts they’re chasing which is easier said than done and I’m not entirely sure that Neo would be able to as spiteful as she is.

Basically what I’m saying is Ruby VS Neo but add in some Ego Death.

[aerithisms]

you know i was going into this episode thinking man i loved the start of ruby's breakdown in chapter 7 but they need to go harder. 6 seasons of spiralling repression and self loathing and despair has to amount to more. but i honestly didn't expect that they would go so far as to have her be explicitly suicidal and even less that they would have her essentially commit suicide.

i do think that having her be suicidal is a good choice because the whole point here is that her mental problems are so much more severe than anyone realised, and they cannot be solved with another hug and a pep talk (as we saw with little in the beginning of the episode). it would've been cowardly and unsatisfying not to show the depths of her depression. but i'm not sure how i feel about how brutal and violent it was, i think i need to get over the shock and sit on that

[penguinkyun]

ive got a better review of 137 coming but before i pass out, im incredibly happy to see a theory of mine confirmed! in the end where ruby tells kana she doesnt want to be an idol like ai (i have my own thoughts about how aka wrapped that thread up but i digress) i had said previously that while aqua did tell her she didnt need to follow in ai's footsteps (c. 123) she actually believed it in c. 134 in that brilliant moment of empathy with ai, when she saw the suffering her mother went through and decided she wouldn't go through that as well