#shrew’s text posts

[pricklypanda]

I just love that the styling/costuming notes for shima in miu404 were just “hoshino gen whore era” like that’s so funny hdjfnfgdjgm

[anneslovegood]

“classic literature is so boring, why do high schools never change the reading requirements for kids? how can these books still be relevant?!”

oh, honey, if you only knew the amount of teen romcoms based on classic literature

[divineandmajesticinone]

"name two people who matched each others' freak"

[legendofshanks]

ya know, if i were to create a film adaptation for shakespeare’s the taming of the shrew, two songs that would have to be on the sound track are ‘can’t be tamed’ by miley cyrus and ‘nasty girl’ by tinashe

[isabelpsaroslunnen]

My best friend and I have continued to watch every single episode of TOS, recently finishing "Elaan of Troyius." I have many opinions on all of them, which I'll get to later, but I've got to say that I much prefer S1/S2 Kirk to S3 Kirk, and never more than in "Elaan of Troyius" itself. I realize it's Taming of the Shrew in space with a vague Helen of Troy reference, and while it pains me as an early modernist to reject Shakespeare In Space, my strongest opinion for most of the episode was that I could only wish Elaan's aim was better when she threw a knife at him.

It's a pity, because I really do like Kirk a lot in so many episodes, and for so much of the show, I really felt the validity of so many of the arguments trying to recuperate his character from the sanded down pop culture osmosis version. But his characterization has been so erratic this season and in this episode that it's become harder to hang onto the Kirk I was so attached to earlier on.

My best friend and I have been watching Star Trek: The Original Series for months, mostly because we're both sometimes busy and can't coordinate, but he does adore Star Trek (it is hard to overstate how much, except with regard to Picard) and even though I'm a TNG kid, I am almost always having a great time with it.

Overall: I love the stage-y Pepto-Bismol meets bisexual flag aesthetic of so much of the show, the actual bisexual vibes of so many characters (unintentionally? allegedly? I guess?), the effects that have aged remarkably well almost as much as the ones that have aged terribly, but are part of its charm, and of course, many of the characters. And I definitely have enjoyed the mixture of cheesy silliness with deeply earnest aspirations towards transcending its own era, even though it falls short (I'm an early modernist; I have a high tolerance for works that are ultimately of their times, but visibly trying to cut through the miasma of their eras' norms).

Anyway, some thoughts on each episode I've seen thus far!

[It's every episode up to "Metamorphosis", so there are a lot.]

1— "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - a pretty solid way to start the experience for me, and I see the religious skepticism has been baked in from very early, even though it's obviously still finding its footing at this point. I actually enjoyed seeing the wobbly character dynamics and world-building as it's figuring itself out.

2— "The Man Trap" - I really enjoyed this one! Despite some fundamental silliness, there's an interesting mix of horror and pathos (I support the salt vampire!).

3— "Charlie X" - a mixture of "oh God, poor Janice" (an impression that will repeat often) and an interesting take on the interaction of power and youthful masculinity. Charlie's outrage at his desires being stymied by literally anything or anyone at any time feels unfortunately timely, as does his petty vindictiveness against ... um, every woman ever, and Kirk's entirely correct lecture about it. I also found something particularly intriguing in the contrast between Charlie's admiration of Kirk's form of masculinity and how viscerally threatened he is by Spock.

4— "The Naked Time" - I adored this episode with zero irony. I particularly loved the revelation that Spock is ashamed of his feelings for Kirk (......) and the guilt he feels over his emotional distance from his mother combined with his understanding of how isolated she must feel in Vulcan culture. But I also laughed through the entire rest of the episode. Just a great time.

5— "The Enemy Within" - oh, hella yikes take on, uh, the inherent need for a good leader to have an anxious, violent, rapist side to his personality kept under control by a fearless, but vacillating and cerebral other side. (The premise seems even more egregious after "The Galileo Seven" makes a whole episode out of the idea that Spock's intellectual discipline and reserve undermine his leadership capabilities unless he behaves in a way that can be seen as fitting into human emotional norms.) I did cackle over the space dog fluffy alien creature and its evil twin, but poor Janice x100 :(

6— "Mudd's Women" - easily the worst episode to date, good God. Quite apart from "I guess sometimes you just have to be complicit in sex trafficking carried out by a lovable scamp who definitely hasn't gotten the post-capitalism newsletter" and the godawful ending, I am baffled by everyone on the Enterprise acting like they've never seen a beautiful woman. None of Mudd's women can hold a candle to Uhura (who I think isn't even in this episode?) and women getting obsessed by eternal beauty and devoting themselves to unappealing men is a tiresome aspect of ST that I wish had stopped here. Or never shown up at all.

7— "What Are Little Girls Made Of" - ah, the iconic phallic stalagmite! Nice to have context. I appreciate how smart and resourceful Kirk ends up being here. I liked Shatner's performance as the Kirk clone (he's actually been good in all the various Evil Kirk performances I've seen thus far), too. But I also really liked Spock's entirely justified annoyance at Kirk using racial slurs to communicate IT'S NOT ME.

8— "Miri" - this one is unfortunately dragged down by Kirk using his femme fatale allure with a girl framed as barely pubescent even if the actress was technically an adult. He's clearly not remotely attracted to her and working to save his crew, but it's still really unpleasant to watch, especially with a very young-looking actress. That said, the disease is creepy as hell, and it's a great McCoy episode. I was pretty fascinated as well by the concept of a drastically protracted childhood where the horror is not being trapped in the body of a child, but of actually remaining a child for enormous lengths of time.

9— "Dagger of the Mind" - this one would have been pretty mediocre, in all honesty, if not for the existence of Helen Noel. Helen is staggeringly beautiful, yes, but she is also better than everyone else in this episode, even my usual fave Spock. I like Kirk a lot and I still don't know what she sees in him.

10— "The Corbomite Maneuver" - it's a fun episode with some very good lines, but a bit like cotton candy.

11— "The Menagerie" - I had heard about this one, but didn't know all the details! The show-within-the-show only slightly strains credulity, and the plot is certainly more compelling than SNW (sorry to SNW fans; I watched a few episodes and it was fine, but too polished and heterosexual to feel like a true prequel to the boundary-pushing Candyland of TOS).

12— "The Conscience of the King" - this one was a bit over-theatrical in the most literal way, but I still really enjoyed it. The episode provides a genuinely fascinating backstory for Kirk, revealing that in his youth, he was a survivor of a terrible atrocity (and from what else we've heard, it seems he was moved elsewhere and became a bullied nerd for awhile before finding his true calling in space). The "real" villain of the episode doesn't really work for me, but doesn't need to, because her villainy is vastly and rightly overshadowed by the atrocity.

13— "Balance of Terror" - I can't describe this episode any other way: it fucking rules. This is maybe my favorite Star Trek episode that I can remember ever seeing. The revelation of the Vulcan-Romulan kinship is super compelling, and the intensity to this episode's take on the frequent Spock vs the Microaggressions subplot feels entirely organic and believable.

14— "Shore Leave" - fine, but rather a letdown after the glory of the previous one. The back rub early in the episode is as hilariously unsubtle as reported, and Spock's emphatic indifference to the sexbot ladies is, hmm, interesting. Otherwise, it is silly, entertaining-enough ST ephemera for me. I like these episodes existing as part of ST as a whole, but also don't feel especially invested in most individual cases of it. And God, Kirk's youthful nemesis Finnegan is so incredibly obnoxious and his little jig motif is so awful that (given "The Naked Time") I'm starting to wonder what gripe Star Trek has with Irish people.

15— "The Galileo Seven" - you know how I said that Spock vs the Microaggressions is a frequent subplot in these episodes? This one is "what if that was just the whole episode?" It's not terrible, but it's not terribly interesting, either, and the implications are pretty gross if you think about them.

16— "The Squire of Gothos" - I guessed the reveal a bit early in this one, but not in a way that made me feel like it was super obvious. The hints were there if you were paying attention, so it was rewarding to figure it out, but not obvious. Spock's speech about intellectual discipline and power really speaks to me right now, by the way.

17— "Arena" - the Gorn finally appear! Or a Gorn, anyway, and it's kind of wild that the 1967 episode's twist is that the real villain is colonialism, not the Gorn at all. Yet in 2020s Star Trek ... well, anyway, it's a good episode despite the incredibly dated monster effects.

18— "Tomorrow is Yesterday" - time travelllllll hell yeah, and it's quite a decent plot.

19— "Court Martial" - this one was tense and interesting, though I don't have much to say about it apart from really liking the lawyers.

20— "The Return of the Archons" - this was actually very effective, quiet terror for me (maybe extra for me as a queer person raised Mormon, lol). I think it also has one of the better instances of Kirk Fries A Machine With Logic.

21— "Space Seed" - an absolutely fascinating villain alongside absolutely dire gender politics. I did like seeing Khan for the first time.

22— "A Taste of Armageddon" - this had a very interesting war game concept, but I don't remember much about the episode beyond the concept tbh. It was fine.

23— "This Side of Paradise" - this one was interesting, especially given the allure of the "paradise" for Spock specifically (also for everyone else, but there's something especially bitter about whatshername's total indifference to his consent, and yet how complicated his feelings end up being about the whole thing). Kirk's fixation on his authority!!!!! in this episode feels unappealing and rather strange, but I didn't think it was really all about authority and The Human Need For Struggle(TM) that ST will keep returning to (don't like that aspect, though!).

24— "The Devil in the Dark" - an excellent episode IMO, including the incredibly dated rock alien special effects. Wouldn't have it any other way! I honestly appreciate how often the reveal in TOS has been that a scary "monster" is just some innocent person from another species getting screwed over by human ignorance and colonizing.

25— "Errand of Mercy" - Kirk is a patronizing asshole in this episode, can't lie, but given that he's being very obviously paralleled with the Klingon officer, it serves a function that's at least interesting. I'd like if that aspect of his personality went somewhere a bit more cohesively, but I'd rather have the episodic yet forwards propulsion of TOS as a whole, so it's okay.

26— "The Alternative Factor" - this has an interesting concept, but I remember thinking that it was forcing a bunch of usually competent people to make some very stupid decisions (though, tangentially, the fact that this is a change from the norm is at least something: I really enjoy that TOS in general avoids my beloathèd "our protagonists are the protagonists of the entire setting and every other character is an NPC who lacks moral vision and competence independent of the protagonists' influence"). I will say that the repetition of the alternate-universe effect is honestly pretty bad even when I'm grading on a 60s curve.

27— "The City on the Edge of Forever" - this is a very compelling, tightly-written episode that does good character work for Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, even if its underlying premise is a bit challenging to buy at points. I always enjoy getting to see McCoy's medical ethos at play, as we do here. Spock's jealousy is also amusingly transparent against all the high drama.

28— "Operation -- Annihilate!" - this is a hilarious title for a pretty good episode, actually. I enjoyed it and especially enjoyed Leonard Nimoy's performance as Spock here. It's not like I ever don't, but it did some substantial heavy lifting.

29— "Amok Time" - so it turns out, the Spock/Kirk fans have not been exaggerating all these years. I didn't think it was likely they had, just given what I've seen this far, but damn. This is a fantastic episode, it's got interesting world-building for Vulcan, it's incredibly homoerotic even by TOS standards, and despite my fondness for Spock and Kirk, goodforher.jpeg with respect to T'Pring. If Vulcan men don't want their childhood brides plotting their deaths, maybe they should legalize divorce! Just a thought.

30— "Who Mourns for Adonais" - so this episode relies on "actually, every broadly appropriated cultural detail from an exotic distant land was just given to its people by ancient aliens," only this time, it's targeting Greeks! It does get details about ancient Greek culture and religion very wrong, if anyone was wondering. In any case, I guess Star Trek's weird issues with "ethnic whites" is not only with the Irish, though given that my father's background is specifically Greco-Irish, it feels like a weird personal attack. That aside, while "ancient aliens did it all!!!" was not as much of a thing at the time as now, Greek people were definitely more racialized in the USA then, so the use of the trope here was not as trivial as I think it can "read" to modern audiences, esp in the USA.

Apollo's actor does a good job with some hard dialogue, I will say, but I really wish Carolyn had just been playing along and biding her time rather than obviously being a silly female swayed by flattery of her beauty and delusions of vicarious power. Kirk's speech to her is good, but really dragged down by how bad the writing for her is. I did like Kirk's "actually, I'm a strict monotheist" retort to Apollo, though. I know Kirk's characterization eventually goes down a different route, but given the heavy involvement of Jewish people including Shatner in Star Trek (despite Roddenberry's antisemitism), and the historical use of the Greek and Roman pantheons in the oppression of Jewish communities, Kirk's indignation at the idea of worshipping any other god feels apropos.

31— "The Changeling" - Jim Kirk DESTROYS another implacable machine foe with LOGIC!!!! I can just imagine the YouTube series now. Seriously, though, it's fine and a drastic improvement from the previous episode, and I always enjoy a solid ST:TOS episode while I'm watching it. But it was not exceptional IMO.

32— "Mirror, Mirror" - YESSSSS I TOO GET TO EXPERIENCE THE MIRROR UNIVERSE. I loved this episode, honestly. The Mirror Universe is terrible, but super fun both in concept and execution. I love the competence of the prime universe team in the brief cut to them immediately clocking Mirror Kirk's group as imposters (though I did want more from Mirror Uhura who is just kind of there, though...). I love Mirror Spock being this warped but recognizable version of the character. I love the concept of Mirror Kirk being the perpetrator of war crimes exactly like Kirk's formative trauma back in "The Conscience of the King." I love the evil cutthroat BDSM space Byzantines vibes of the Terran Empire (is there an unimaginably decadent and deadly Byzantine Empire in the history of the Mirror Universe? I hope so. We deserve it after "Who Mourns for Adonais" tbh).

33— "The Apple" - this is a pretty fun one. The protagonists as the sort of serpent of this "Edenic" garden, coupled with the awful god creature is super entertaining, and it works well enough despite the show's erratic approach to religion.

34— "The Doomsday Machine" - damn, the commander in this episode is such an asshole. He's clearly meant to be, though, and his Ahab campaign turning out to not be entirely in vain at least makes it seem like there's a point to spending so much time on him being the worst.

35— "The Catspaw" - by coincidence, my best friend and I ended up watching this not far into November, just a few days after Halloween. About five minutes in, I said to him, "Is it just me, or is that castle clearly just Spirit Halloween?" He delightedly said, "This planet is Spirit Halloween!"

There's a bit of racial essentialism about ALL HUMANS that would be uncomfortable if it were not so patently ridiculous. The idea is that human beings have a basic racial fear of cats that the tiny aliens exploit—yes, "cats" in this episode refers mainly to the human fear of the house cat, aka the most successful and beloved domestic species on Earth, not lions or even cougars. The alien terrorizes the cast by taking the shape of a fluffy black house cat of varying sizes, but never any other kind of cat. This concept is hilarious, just to be clear. I enjoyed every moment. Even a super-large house cat is just even more friend-shaped floof to your basic human, let's be real, so the deadly threat is impossible to take seriously even before the giant house cat is revealed to be an incredibly horny alien lady with illusion powers (this persona is also an illusion, but the horniness is real). But are not all cats at some level horny alien ladies with illusion powers? I feel pretty sure that Star Trek thinks so.

36— "I, Mudd" - and the award for Most Improved Character has got to go to Harry Mudd. My bff and I actually had a great time with this episode, in part because the entire cast seem to be having a great time with it. I especially loved the twist with Uhura seeming to fall to the womanly weakness of desiring eternal beauty and the easy life only for it to be a trick. Mudd is still a sleaze, but a much funner one to watch this time, and we've just started quoting Spock's "He didn't pay the royalties" at random moments. The stereotypical nagging wife is what it is, but I'm grading Mudd episodes on an extra curve.

37— "Metamorphosis" - and at least, we've reached the most recent episode I've seen, so my impressions of this one are much more fresh. Somehow, I had no idea we first met Zefram Cochrane in TOS and not in First Contact. Also, wow, the actors for him and for the Commissioner are really attractive—not quirky 60s attractive, either. Cochrane reminds me vaguely of Henry Cavill and the Commissioner is simply gorgeous despite the blinding color scheme of her costume.

The gender essentialism sure is something at this point, I've got to say, when the characters are blandly agreeing that of course a sentient electric cloud must have a fundamental gender that you can kind of tell by the color scheme. Uh huh, but it is genuinely interesting that Cochrane clearly cares about the cloud and tries to protect her from our heroes until he realizes she loves him, but is so affronted at the idea of the cloud being in love with him and his (very obviously sexualized) communion and companionship with her being part of that.

He projects his revulsion primarily onto Spock (Spock vs the Microaggressions strikes again!), but literally everyone finds his attitude narrow-minded and weird. The feeling is kind of like if you met an idolized long-dead relative only for them to use a homophobic slur you've never even heard of.

The resolution of this little drama comes from the cloud bodysnatching the dying Commissioner, a young woman who longs to be loved by anyone at all after a life of being a loveless career woman. She is, to be clear, a career woman whose job is all about preventing warfare and who is deeply stressed about it, which seems a kind of love to me. But she is mostly framed just as this super abrasive, loveless career woman because it's TOS (and they eventually conclude that any woman could do her job and they'll just find a different one to stop the war).

Anyway, all this results in the somehow-female cloud fusing with what remains of the Commissioner's consciousness, curing her body of some fatal disease. Now that the cloud is fused with an actual (hot) human woman, Cochrane is totally chill with her love for him, and decides he can have a very strange threesome love her after all, and they'll live out these bodies' natural lives together until they both die (since she lost her electric cloud powers of healing and immortality when she bodysnatched the Commissioner, I gather). It feels weird and low-grade shitty on his part, although I like his actor's performance, because it makes it so clear that his aversion was only about appearances.

I think the cloud should have moved onto someone who would appreciate her devotion and restorative powers, like, say, the dying Commissioner lady who actually has this whole speech about how badly she longs to be loved and how she doesn't get why Cochrane is being such a baby about the adoration of a cloud. Look, I'm just saying the cloud could be bi and deserves someone who would appreciate her.

I know this was never going to happen on a nationally syndicated show in 1967, but I think it would make more narrative sense and be much more satisfying! Cochrane would love space adventures 150 years in the future—he was thrilled and excited about the idea of seeing the reality of the Federation and alliances with other species! And the Commissioner would appreciate a cloud girlfriend and immortality so much more than him. Hire me, Paramount.

[gay-little-izzet]

Maybe no one asked for this, but i hope someone will enjoy seeing a few bloomburrow-ified planeswalkers

Featuring Narset as a Magpie, Quintorius Kand as an elephant shrew, and Dack Fayden as a black footed (and red handed) ferret

If anyone’s curious about why I choose these animals, feel free to ask, but I don’t want to bog this post with too much text unsolicited 😅

[craziestfangirl98]

It's been three episodes of The Heart Killers and we are getting into the story almost like quicksand. Slowly and then in too deep where we wouldn't even know how we reached there.

I guess it makes sense. I am liking how it is going so far. I love that around everything there is an under current of choices and what is in your capacity to change that is a big part of the story. I think it gives an interesting dimension to a story about questionable people (assassins, thieves, and (1) chaotic gremlin who probably has not revealed his true colours (immediately also thinking of @respectthepetty 's post on colours circa ep 3 just now)) doing questionable things (killing, maiming, drunk driving/texting and driving, crossing boundaries, drugging and questionable sex under the influence of alcohol). All the things each of them have done, within the context of the larger scheme of things sometimes feel like they come from a place of helplessness, some are character choices made with no thought about consequences but all in all, everyone of them so far has made awful choices on many occasions. But what makes it interesting for me is that these actions haven't been shown with a morality construct as such. Maybe it will come later on (I hope not) maybe it won't, either way, it becomes a point to note I think.

Another big big point it has made me question. To what extent are they gonna weaponise attraction. To what extent are they willing to use their body to get where they know the results for what they are hoping can be found. Once again, I don't mean it in a 'they need to be policed way'. Rather, the transactional nature of sex, attraction and lust (maybe love as well?) is extremely indicative of the power that it holds in deception and assumptions so far, and I find it extremely significant to the story. I know the running gag around the fact that it's a high heat bl from GMMTV that's been discussed so far. I've seen the discourse around whether or not it has a meaningful story or it is just a high heat series that sells sex without a story. I firmly land in the corner that says, the story lies, very integrally in the high heat scenes of the series so far. It portrays excellent commentary on what is lacking and why none of them are in a relationship currently or can be unless huge plot points around communication, honesty, trust, power, and truth get sorted out. All of the things that are necessary in a relationship. As far as I remember, the Taming of the Shrew, discusses or touches upon these elements implicitly or explicitly. I might not be exactly right here, it's been about a decade since I've read it.

All this to say, Heart Killers so far is a story that as it stands currently, pertains to power, control and the navigation and negotiation of that, when everyone is trying to be in control (in whatever way they want to.) As much as its sex scenes have so far been extremely dubious and questionable in nature, they are there to support the story. Love has not even entered the equation for these boys and it's probably going to take some time for the same. The only way to reach there is a complete surrender of power from all sides, which might or might not be detrimental to the characters. Something that is up to how things actually pan out and what we end up getting.

[uwmspeccoll]

Shakespeare Weekend

The Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakspere edited and published by Charles Knight (1797-1873) out of London in 1839 was originally issued in fifty-six monthly parts before being bound in an eight-volume set. Like earlier Shakespeare editors, Knight felt all previous editions of Shakespeare collections had been compiled by men who “had corrupted his text, and had never rightly appreciated his consummate art.” As an experienced publisher of encyclopedias and miscellanies, he set out to “humbly” correct their errors with an ambitiously illustrated collection.  

The wood engravings place Shakespeare’s characters and events within a historical context opposed to a theatrical one and are elucidated in subsidiary segments interspersed throughout the plays’ acts. Volume One of Knight’s collection includes Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most illustrations within the collection are unsigned, but British wood engravers John Jackson (1801-1848) and William Harvey (1796-1866) along with British painter G.F. Sargent are featured prominently among the titlepage and larger illustrations.   

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[ghostofbambifanfiction]

With Angry Shrew Lily I think it’s the combined urge to write her as a one dimensional Hermione stand-in, as a redhead stereotype, and as a “mother” figure and nothing more. Sure, it adds narrative tension, but it’s boring and frequently misogynistic. “Lily the nagging girlfriend who spoils the fun for her man-child boyfriend”…no thanks. And it’s annoying when the canonical evidence points to her being smart, funny, vibrant, a little mysterious, and emotionally and interpersonally intelligent. (Not that canon-compliance in and of itself a virtue; it’s just frustrating when she never has any of these traits, you know?).

Your Lily is spot-on and an absolute joy to read 🥰

Also also also, WHY would James be madly in love with someone who belittled, insulted, and borderline-disliked him all the time? What's in it for him then? I used to hate those Tumblr text/dialogue posts where James would say something a little bit silly (or was simply enjoying his life) and Lily would be all exasperated and dismissive about it. Where's the romance in that? Where's the fun?? Where's his self-respect, most importantly?

(Also thank youuuuuuuuu my Lily is my baby so I'm v grateful 😘)

[jmvore]

Jokes on You ➻ Prologue

» RATING › 18+ [M I N O R S D O N O T I N T E R A C T] » GENRE(S) › smut, angst, fluff » AU › infidelity, polyamorous, married!au » PAIRING(S) › jimin x reader, yoongi x reader, & jungkook x reader » WORD(S) › 700(w) » SYNOPSIS › It was supposed to be your annual Christmas date that you have every year. A chance to talk and to try to get an understanding of where you are within your arranged marriage but... He didn't show, leaving you sitting in the middle of a crowded restaurant and embarrassed about being stood up by your spouse. It’s okay though at least you have three other men who want to spend time with you. » WARNING(S) › no warning(s) to account for aside from your husband being an absolute shit-head. » SMUT WARNING(S) › none here. will put on each chapter. » ORIGINAL POST DATE › 12/26/2001 » RE-POSTED DATE › 9/9/23 » A/N › Thank you @/saradika for the divider(s)! they’re so cute. Anyway thanks for reading lovelies.

[11:23pm] dickhead: I won’t be able to make it, baby but I’ll make it up to you. I promise. I’m so sorry.

You’ve been staring at his text message for damn near an hour in utter disbelief. What pisses you off more is the fact that he waited until he knew you would be there to tell you. You would have been fine. There are other places you could have been spending your time. Other (deserving) people you could be spending your time on.

However, leaving you here with nothing to go on but this text message he sent an hour ago?

Frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe your mood. You’re trying your hardest not to break your phone or make a scene because what the hell? If this was any other type of dinner, you wouldn’t have cared.

But…

It’s Christmas Eve (soon to be Christmas) and it was his idea to spend the night celebrating. He was the one who made the reservation for the night. He was the one who said he had planned a night in the town. He was the one who told you to wear that red bodycon dress that shows off your assets and makes you look and feel pretty.

And it was him who had you sitting in this fancy-ass restaurant waiting like a damn fool.

You reached out to him to try and figure out where the hell he was but he didn’t even have the decency to call or text you back. It’s only when you leave him a shrew of messages cursing him out is when he shoots back with that half-ass apology.

No explanation as to where he is.

No care in the world of how him leaving you here made you feel.

Sometimes you wonder why you let your parents marry you off to him in the first place. You knew it was for their benefit. Something about their business being in debt and you being the one to (hopefully) bring their business back from the dead through this union. You weren’t truly paying attention. In the end, it didn’t matter because soon after you said your vows they went bankrupt, forcing them to give up everything they worked decades for. You never forgave them for forcing your hand. Especially after you learned the reasoning behind the marriage.

You were their wild child. Their problem child. They hoped you being married would force you to settle down. To give them the grandchildren they desired seeing as their only other child, your sister Eun-ji, had cut all ties (and now you see why honestly).

After a while, you found yourself distancing them from you and your life until you got to a point where you only talked to them every once in a blue moon. Which, wasn’t often. Maybe once every two or three months.

As for your husband… Over time you grew to tolerate his presence within the confines of your house. You could even say you grew to like him but you never loved him.

Not the way he used to love you.

And now, this whole sham of a marriage has been nothing but disappointment after disappointment. That feeling of ’like’ you had slowly dwindled into disdain and in return, you gave up. You're not as upset as you should be but it doesn't matter. You hoped that he would slowly realize how irrelevant he is because you realized it very early on. Honestly, you’re ready to take that next step to leave this burden of a marriage. It not benefiting you anyway.

The first step, however, is getting the hell out of here.

You stand to leave. Brain on overdrive because you want to leave this establishment as soon as possible. You flag down a waiter as another waitress makes her way toward you with what looks like a bouquet of lilies. She mentions he had them reserved for you before bowing and apologizing. You’re getting more pissed off as the time ticks by and the more you look at the flowers, the angrier you become.

All you want to do is go home.

You pay what little bill you had before bowing and apologizing. You hoped the walk to the valet outside wouldn’t be that terrible but, of course, nothing ever goes to plan. 

You turn to leave and immediately smack right into a waiter holding a tray of drinks. The tray crashes to the floor as the vase of lilies falls and crashing to the ground causing it to shatter. She apologizes profusely, trying to wipe off the remnants but it’s a little too late. Your favorite dress is ruined and you’re already growing sticky. It’s uncomfortable and it makes you feel repulsed. You know it’s not her fault, rerouting your anger to your soon-to-be ex-husband. You tell her it’s fine when she offers to get you another vase for the flowers but you refuse. You didn’t even want them in the first place.

Finally outside, you wrap your coat tighter around your body as the valet brings your car around. You thank the man and give him a small tip before settling, you let your tears of frustration fall. Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe how you feel. From being stood up to having drinks dumped on you (not intentionally of course), you wondered how could this night get any worse.

Glancing at the clock you realize it’s almost thirty minutes away from being Christmas and you’re about to spend it alone. Although, you don’t want to go home. You don’t want to see his face and you for sure, don’t want to be in the same house with him. You much rather spend it with someone you know who wants to spend it with you.

You groan, tossing the present (you wish you hadn’t had) for him to the back seat. You don’t want to look at it anymore, a reminder of a horrible night.

“I should call him…” You grumble and scroll through your contacts until you see the person you’re looking for. You dial his number and he picks up on the third ring. Excited that you had time to call. You shouldn’t be this thrilled to talk to another man that’s not your husband but… the would have mattered if this marriage was a complete farce.

“Hey…” You sigh in relief, knowing the night is going to be just fine and he leaves you in a much happier mood after the shit show you’ve just endured

You can skip chapters to who you want to read!💖

Prologue

Choice 01⇢ Yoongi ⇢ Bittersweet  ⇢  6k+

Choice 02 ⇢ Jungkook ⇢ You Make Me Better  ⇢ 5.6k+

Choice 03 ⇢ Jimin ⇢ You & Me ⇢ TBA

Epilogue

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Kengliwa

So, as it seems everyone made note of, this week's creature was exceptionally easy to guess. (To the point that a couple people did actually go ahead and name it, which I can't be that annoyed about because I don't think anyone missed this one.) I actually thought about not including it -- I cut a few that were particularly obvious like this one, but this entry was just so beautifully written that I didn't want to not post it. Maybe I should have done a separate post like with the dogs... live and learn, I suppose.

Anyway, previous entries and results can be found here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. And the entry everybody is working from is at the link below:

Art below the cut in rough chronological order, as per usual.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) decided to go a bit Beatrix Potter, and produced some frankly adorable shrew-like critters. (And her own alt-text, thank you.) They're dressed in these nice black coats and bowler hats so they can look like the "black column across the fields" described in the entry. I love everything about this. Also, if you want to see a version of this without the linework, check the link above.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) decided to work off of the assertion that Kengliwas prefer wheat to barley because "barley is food for beasts". Naturally this means the Kengliwa must not itself be a beast, and Silverhart reflects that by medieval definition that excludes pretty much everything but birds and fish. So here we have a very small mouse-bird (the results of this one are all very cute, I have to say). And of course it's a flightless bird, because the entry describes them as walking. I'm really struck by the general composition of this one; the tiny bird clinging to the top of a wheat stalk is so well depicted. The colors are great too.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) followed the same "not a beast" logic as Silverhart, though they also name "serpent" and "worm" as potential non-beast categories. They also picked "bird", because the Kengliwa brings grain back to its nest, and birds have nests, so there you go. I appreciate that they've continued with that connection by having the interior of the Kengliwa burrow lined in a manner reminiscent of birds' nests. (And also that they provided alt-text, thank you.) Speaking of which, check it out, burrowing birds! With a cross-section of their burrow! Delightful. They further speculate that the symbolism attached to this one must be pretty weird given the mixed feelings the author seems to have, so I went and checked...

... there's actually not a lot of symbolism on this one. The highlights are that the divided grain supply represents the division between the Old and New Testaments, and barley represents heresy which is why it is scorned. (Pretty sure lots of people in the Middle Ages ate barley, but I suppose they preferred wheat.) The symbolism is all "things we learn from the good example of this industrious creature", and the entry quotes Proverbs 6:6 -- I'm not copying it here, because even though I'm pretty sure everyone knows what the animal is, the verse in question does name it, and we have a procedure here.

Anyway, as always, I recommend clicking on the link to CheapSweets's post to see their detailed explanation of their design decisions.

@theforceisstronginthegirl (link to post here) has drawn some ants in their agenda book. I have to admit, I'm not fully sure whether this was meant to be an entry, but you know, there's a picture (with alt-text and everything!) and it's tagged "kengliwa", so in it goes. Honestly I think the highlight here is that they described the creatures in the picture as "scribbles with jobs" which I think is a fun way to describe bugs generally. Very dynamically drawn scribbles too; they're quite expressive.

@pomrania (link to post here) has drawn a strange and adorable critter. It's giving... lizard-squirrel. Squizard. Particularly delighted by the fact that multiple people decided that such an industrious fellow should be wearing tiny clothing. I think the bag with one (1) grain of wheat in it is a nice touch. You just want to root for this little guy, you know? Also it's worth checking out Pomrania's linked post and associated progress post for some interesting steps in the design process for this one.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) continues to deliver beautifully stylized art. They note that they considered rodents, but figured medieval authors would not be nearly this positive about rodents stealing grain, so instead they're lizards. Very good lizards, too! I love the patterning on them and the expressions on their faces. The one on the left scorning the barley is particularly delightful. Coolest-capybara also wonders what the original animal is classified under, if not "beast" -- to which I must say, oddly enough, this one is in with the beasts. I think. Right after this entry is the start of the "birds" section, and right before it is are some various mammals. So either this is the end of the beast section or it's, like, a palate-cleanser in between.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has also given their Kengliwa clothing, but for a very specific reason: as others have noted, the Kengliwa scorning barley because it's "food for beasts" implies that the Kengliwa are not beasts. Therefore, in Strixcattus's interpretation, they're people. Which is indeed the only non-"beast" category of animal that nobody else has mentioned, as far as I can figure. They're darling. Love the one on the right that appears to be chewing on a straw like your stereotypical farmer, except of course the straw is a single seed with like a bit of stalk attached. And I know I always say it, but you need to go read the linked post for this one. Maybe it's just because worldbuilding is my jam, but I'd happily read a lengthy TTRPG supplement about how Kengliwa society operates. They're like... medieval Borrowers who farm lichen and domesticate ants. I want to know everything about this.

Anyway, here's the Aberdeen Bestiary version:

That's right, they're scribbles with jobs!

Seriously, it turns out Theforceisstronginthegirl drew basically a dead ringer for the medieval version. Compare the two; the biggest differences are the medium and the fact that the Aberdeen Bestiary includes a nest.

But yes, they're ants. We all know they're ants.

Which should, as CheapSweets alluded to, be classed in with the worms! (Remember, that's a flexible term in the medieval era... especially since this is a Latin text, so it's vermis, like Modern English vermin.) There is a section labelled De vermibus, and these guys aren't in it! It could have really used them, too; I think the Ant entry by itself is the same length as the whole "worm" section.

Anyway. Hopefully next week's will be less obvious... okay, I just checked, it's barely less obvious. But I would put money on nobody guessing the one that posts on the 19th (though that's a pretty short entry, unfortunately).

[pricklypanda]

HIRAMASA TSUZAKI FEMINIST KING IDEC LIKE THATS THE ONLY MAN TO EVER DESERVE RIGHTS

[shrews-art]

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[wishcamper]

loving acovav and your family systems posts, it puts into words and pulls together so many problems that exist within the ic and relationships in the book xx

though i just have to say it absolutely KILLS me that sjm somehow accidently created such interesting and complex character dynamics (even though there is still a fair amount of inconsistency)

Thank you so much! I was glad to find I wasn’t alone in being baffled/infuriated by the books lol

I think sjm does have the ability to identify the conditions for conflict, but kind of all of us do. Blending families can be hard, involved power struggles. Entering a new world creates cognitive dissonance and grief. People react to trauma differently, and don’t always understand others’ reactions. Romance inside a friend group creates tension. These are things we all know if you think for a moment. But her weakness is that she’s often bad at predicting how people would react to these conflicts, and she definitely doesn’t understand why and how people change.

On the whole, the “themes” she explores are pretty universal. That’s why her premises have so much potential but don’t go anywhere emotionally satisfying. And universal stories are satisfying, that’s why we tell them over and over a la the Hero’s Journey. ACOTAR is Beauty and the Beast. ACOSF is essentially The Taming of the Shrew with more push-ups. But where a different telling like 10 Things I Hate About You says something new about that story- that we are more than stereotypes and can find authentic connections when we transcend them - her conclusions are straight up weird. Like, ACOSF says: be who everyone wants you to be and life gets better. Uh?? In what world is that a hopeful takeaway??

That’s why even her own characters seem out of character, because the inciting events and the reactions they elicit don’t make sense half the time. I think it’s because she doesn’t have equal compassion for her characters (some none at all) so the ones she likes get every motivation for their actions upheld as worthwhile, and the ones she doesn’t like are either two dimensional or have to suck up to the characters she likes for redemption. But she doesn’t recognize that this communicates something, even if it’s unintentional. It’s like she doesn’t realize there’s a subconscious story underneath the surface one, that we can see her thought process through the choices she makes AND the ones she doesn’t.

I know she’s talked about how she puts a lot of her own experience into the books and I think that shows but mostly through her internal and external biases, unfortunately. She only ever affirms her own beliefs through the text, and ultimately says something obvious or straight up distasteful without meaning to (I hope). Other people have detailed her misogyny more thoroughly than I can here, but the disdain for her female characters is so obvious. And that’s not even starting on the racism. There’s a very clear thread of personal responsibility that ignores all the systemic, identity, and cultural factors that make us feel, think, and behave in certain ways.

All this is to say: agree, it’s so annoying because it’s like she had all the ingredients for a cake and somehow made a pizza instead because she likes it more. It doesn’t make sense. I don’t know how you got from there to here Sarah, and you seem happy but I still want cake!

Anyway, thank you for the ask, and letting me indulge in affronted literary criticism, which is my favorite thing to do 🤓

[dancingwiththefae]

I’ve somehow made it onto the classics subsection of bookstagram (I don’t have tiktok but I imagine it’s similar) and a big problem I have with what I’m seeing is the lack of critical engagement with these books. Are the classics worth reading? Absolutely! Classics are full of rich textured characters and narratives. But they are also very much a product of their time and you will come across certain limitations. Reading and promoting classics without engaging with the racism, antisemitism, misogyny, homophobia etc that will be present is a failure to the genre. If you read a book from the 19th century you will find 19th century ideals and these shouldn’t be ignored. Go even further back and it will only increase. You need to engage with the context in which they are written as well as enjoying them in the present. It is part of the story. Please engage with it in a meaningful way. You enjoyed the taming of the shrew but won’t mention the misogyny? Or the antisemitic character in Dorian Gray? Or are you reading but not understanding the text that is in front of you? Are you actually reading the classics or just posting pictures for engagement? Think critically! It’s good for you

[zukkacore]

i can't. remember if i sent in numbers for the writer's ask already. if i did, crying ignore this but: 11, 12, and 30?

11. a wip you'd like to finish someday

Oh god i started so many just w/in the past few days. Jace hireling au obviously. jaceporter first time. Actually, the true honest to god earnest answer is i always felt terrible abandoning my multichap danganronpa talentswap. It's so old i really don't think its indicative of my current skill level but it was so much fun and it means so much to be and its so long and i did have a whole ending planned out but im just not that good at writing detectivework. I do think there's some good shit in there still tho.

The other answer that's kinda cheating is i have a fantasy based Taming of the shrew retelling i've been like retooling for like a goddamn year. It's such a fucked play but i have so many mixed feelings abt it. My feelings on taming are very similar to del toro's on pinocchio in that it's very pro domestication of the human spirit that i think is kinda depressing. Like im very centrist abt whether the play is irredeemable or whether its not meant to be taken seriously, but the themes are interesting. In my mind, there's like. all this stuff abt performance and palability and. Individiuality vs community. Acceptance vs ostracization. This tension between vulnerability n connection vs. power and control and how those are competing needs w/in people. Like. Kate n Petrucchio are both outsiders and petruchio could choose vulnerability and connection w/ his wife and instead he chooses social approval in a patriarchal society which he gains through proving how good he is at subjugating his wife. The themes are INTERESTING it's just the fuckin CONCLUSION (aka its morally good and just to gaslight your wife actually) are fuckin DIRE. On the other hand. Kate and Petruchio have mad chemistry and is it so wrong to think they should fuck nasty?

12. a trope you're really into right now

... 4 jaces? I feel like i have a weird stance on the clonefucking joke poll that goes around every few months (in that its not the same as masturbation b/c the minute their consciousness is different from yours thats like. a full person but not a person i would be compelled to be with but maybe im to arospec for that) so its never particularly compelled me before, like i thought that shit in Loki was kinda cringe. but just bc i don't find the idea particularly compelling for myself doesn't mean Jace can't be a little obsessed w/ himself. Tbh the idea of being a xerox of a xerox of a xerox in general is very interesting for me tho.

There's also something I think i keep returning to abt like. Having to renegotiate or reclaim power and love in a relationship that should otherwise be fucked and heartbreaking. By all intents and purposes, there should be one break at the heart of this that ruins everything, a moment at the beginning that should have ruined everthing from jump. but if we're stuck together, I'm determined to reconcile w/ myself that there's love there. It's very Jaceporter. It's very Kate n petruchio. Very hades n persephone I have another very old school ship that actually has something very similar happen. If you can figure it out based on this text i sent my friend then you were probaly on tumblr when a certain webcomic was updating.

30. share a fic you're especially proud of

I feel like me giving so many answers to these is a total copout. The truthful answer is that I have like a 10k togakure (hiro n togami for those curious) pwp fic thats on my google drive somewhere that i've never posted bc ive been too embarrassed and the ship is NOT that popular so i think like .5 people would read it. But it's like my favorite thing i've ever written. I might post it eventually. If i pluck up the courage. I have sent it to like 2-3 people in my lifetime. I'd cite a scene i like, but I like all of it. And also most if it is smut.

The half-hearted answer is my talentswap bc i am fuckin proud of it im just embarrassed bc i abandoned it. I'm legit so sad. I'm such a Hiro n Mukuro should be proxy siblings truther and im glad their scene was the last thing i posted but now it will never come into fruition.

So i guess. My default answer is my Sky High AU for It chapter 2. It's called Welcome To the Loser Track and it's reddie and in it Richie is the kid who glows and Eddie is the kid who turns into a guinea pig. I actually really like the movie Sky High a lot, I think it's a really good kids movie and it's got a lot of fun setpieces and cool design components and even some of the camerawork is pretty neat and cute stuff in it that's rly underrated. Its like one of the main Things i feel like ppl who are my friends or have been w/ me a long time know about me, and the silly thing abt me is that i really do earnestly like Zack/Magenta as a ship, but mainly bc i just think Zack gives off baby butch dyke vibes (and. I hate to use the phrase. but it's kinda black cat x golden retriever vibes). I actually like it so much that Sky High reddie is probably my favorite version of reddie, and i do think the other Losers in that mode are also very fun (Bill is strong n can fly, Mike controls plants, Stan melts, Bev is pyrokinetic, and Ben is a technopath). The main thing abt it is that it's COMPLETE (i have so many abandoned wips), but i am geuinely proud of it. I don't think the writing is like always the most polished but i think there is a lot of interesting queer subtext in that movie (in that there is basically a coming out scene even if the conclusion of the story is that he was straight the whole time lol) that i kinda picked at and did a good job elaborating on. There's actually a lot of underutilized subtext in that movie that isn't rly interrogated that i think is fun. I just think there's very romantic abt two people with "useless" powers seeing the beauty in each other.

I feel like some old school mutuals from my IT days already know this, but this is probably my favorite scene from the fic: