#simply outweigh the ones i don't vibe with. then that's that

[frankensteinmutual]

the top advice on how to make a crush go away is always "concentrate on what you don't actually find all that great about them/stop idolising them" but you would not believe how good my bpd brain is at holding multifaceted views of people in my head. I will literally love people to death that bother me every fucking day of my life. this does not work on me

[daemon-in-my-head]

I think my main issue with existing in fandom and engaging with it comes down to the narrative dissonance I've somehow established with fanon.

Cuz while fanon and the canon overall (durge a lot less tbh) is pretty positiveish and badass my approach simply... Isn't.

I'm not going with the banehold rescue missions or the 'maybe love did end up being enough' vibes.

My fucks aren't happy. They have their moments but at the end of the day durge never got over losing their purpose and eventually returned to Bhaal semi voluntarily and Gortash just, never changed. Grew even more bitter perhaps but he's always been a manipulative idiot with the emotional intelligence of a breadcrumb and continues to exist and act that way, eventually fucking up yet again because his ambition and need for control outweigh the desire for human connection.

I simply put them in a different, more comfortable situation than their past, but never allowed them to have that fundamental change they would've needed to attain legitimate happiness. They could've been happy if they had realised that they weren't in the same place anymore but they didn't. Couldn't. I mean heck my durge quite literally removed one of his eyes himself that's how hard they're fucking shit up for themselves.

And that isn't for everyone, which is valid, but it also makes it hard to interact with the fandom cuz if I do there is a chance of my overwhelming desire for tragedy and fucked upness leaking to people who don't enjoy it. Or we'll gothic horror ig cuz the gods still exist and fuck around (and dear lord am I making them fuck around) but at the end of the day the haunting isn't the supernatural or divine, it's the mortal idiots who can't seem to realise that yes, indeed, everything's changed.

So I just try not to.

[leslutdepointedulac]

im 4 days late but if you’re still accepting character ask game questions 9, 13, 20 for louis! -aunteat<3

Of course!! I'm always ready to accept asks for my favourite soggy ferret :soggyuwu: Thank you for this ask 💞 :boop:

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

This is an interesting question, because in some ways I think I could be, but then in other ways I'm like absolutely not 🤧 I think we need to pro/con this lmfao

Pros:

We're both quiet, relatively solitary creatures who will grace people with our presence on our own terms - we won't feel the need to be constantly around each other, therefore are lessikely to get on one another's nerves

We both love to read so we could read together and compare/talk about books

We can make a mess and won't really be bothered by it (mainly because I can rarely motivate myself to tidy up after myself but still)

We can both (affectionately) make fun of Lestat and not so affectionately if needs be

We just generally have similar vibes that I think would compliment each other nicely

Cons:

We both have similar vibes that could also clash horribly e.g. wallowing in despair to the point where we would create a never ending black hole of soggy doom and gloom

Louis' snobby, pretentious nature is only tolerable because he's fictional and I don't have to put up with him. If he was real and we lived together, I couldn't deal with that and would probably call him out on it in a hopeless, failed attempt to get him to shut up with his snobbery

All in all, if we were to judge it based on this list alone, the pros outweigh the cons and therefore I think I could be roommates with Louis. The Black Hole of Horrors™️ and pretentious snobbery is a small price to pay to live with him, I think 🤧

13. What's an emoji, and emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot?

So funny you should ask me this when I have the perfect emoji 😌

It's our very own :louwee: 🤧 I couldn't possibly pick any other emoji when I specifically made this with Louis in mind lmao.

As for an emoji I think Louis would use, I get the feeling he wouldn't really get the concept of them initially 😭 Benji might try and teach him what they are and how to use them, but I feel like that would just lead to Louis misunderstanding and using emojis 'inappropriately'. Like using 😏 after telling Lestat he can't wait to see him later, and Lestat thinks that means he's gunna get laid but Louis intended for it to just be a general smile. Plot twist: Louis actually does know exactly what he's doing but he's just playing dumb to to mess with people 😭

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

I won't lie, I don't know if this is much of an 'ideal best friend' type situation as such, and it might be kinda obvious, but the friendship I keep on coming back to is with Daniel.

I just think that Daniel is someone who could simultaneously respect Louis' boundaries, while also trying to gently nudge him out of his comfort zone. Say for example, Daniel's the one trying to convince Louis to attend the next ball with him, convincing him that he wants a familiar face (even though Armand and Marius will be there too), and how it won't hurt to get out a bit and interact with other people. But at the same time, if Louis did go and eventually had enough, Daniel wouldn't stop him from seeking out a little hideaway somewhere. He may even join him, if Louis lets him, in the event that the ball has become Too Much for Daniel for one night.

In turn, perhaps Louis would be a source of comfort for Daniel. If he was having a rough-ish night and didn't want to go to Armand or Marius in case they worried too much, but Daniel still wanted a familiar person to turn to, Louis could be that someone. Louis might let Daniel vent to him while he listens, or simply lets him hang out in silence, just co-existing in the same space until Daniel feels better.

And I think as well, their shared history would give them a relationship that's unique to them. How many other vampires can say they met with one of them as a human through an interview, ending with one of them almost draining the other dry? Maybe, in some weird way, that event would bring them closer together?

I just really love the idea of Louis and Daniel together and I think they would make really good friends. They could be good supports to one another while also being able to genuinely enjoy each other's company.

[destinyc1020]

What a truly weird comment from that Robert Daniels guy (and he is someone who hasn't even seen the show to decide for himself). To say that Tom's only 'life experience(s)' have happened in show business. That is a really callous, to act like he hasn't lived like a human in love and loss and disappointments and achievements outside of his work, like we ALL do. To dismiss him as just some one dimensional product of the industry with no life is just gross to me? And the same critic replied with laughing emojis to someone who said it was generous to even call him an actor. Just a huge, huge yikes. I am really getting just a nasty, nasty vibe from some of these critics. Even IF Tom was someone who acted as poorly as someone on a soap opera (which he certainly doesn't, he has turned in some truly fantastic performances in his career and thats just a fact), no one deserves to be spoken about like that from people who are supposedly professionals. People seem to take a really disrespectful kind of joy in insulting him, I know that people can be absolutely vicious to anyone in the public eye, but this just seems truly WAY too much.

The positive reviews from actual publications outweigh the negative. Someone did a review roundup where the count was 17 that had 4-5 stars, 5 with 3 stars, and 3 with 1-2 stars. The narrative I'm seeing on twitter just does not reflect the reality of the reception - it was received WELL. Anyways, sorry for the rant Destiny, but I expect this kind of behavior from trolls, but from professionals living their Twitter mean girl fantasy it gives me a big ick. I'm just glad the audience reception and the majority of critics have appreciated him and Fran's performance and Jamie's production, and I'd just like to see more clickbait about THAT instead of this strange negativity that's cropped up.

Also, am thinking about you and sending you lots of love and condolences, I hope that fandom can be a positive distraction for you in a tough time. Thank you for your discussions on this blog, and I hope you take care of yourself first and foremost

Also, am thinking about you and sending you lots of love and condolences, I hope that fandom can be a positive distraction for you in a tough time. Thank you for your discussions on this blog, and I hope you take care of yourself first and foremost

First of all, thank you so much for this.🙏🏾 I really appreciate it 🥰❤️

Re: Robert Daniels....

I assume you must be referring to this comment he made on Twitter?

Yea girl, I felt like his critique of Tom was just kinda cruel?? 🥴 Like, it's one thing to critique someone's acting, but when you start making all kinds of ASSUMPTIONS about someone and what kind of life they've had, etc, I'm sorry, but that's hitting below the belt imo. 🤨

And I usually don't resort to going in on people's looks and outward appearance when I'm trying to do a rebuttal to smthg I didn't like that someone said, but whew chiiiiilllle..... 👀

Talk about a face only a mother could love lol

Anyway....

I really do hope that Tom just doesn't even pay any mind to the critics and just continues on to enjoy doing this play as simply a passion project for himself and himself only.

Idk what people's obsession is with hating on him on Twitter (I guess he's become Twitter's new "Whipping Boy".... it happens to MANY actors 🙄), but whenever I see ppl en masse hating on someone for seemingly NO GOOD reason, my spidey senses start tingling and I figure that this person must not be as "bad" as people claim, cuz if he were, you wouldn't need such a mass mud slinging and hate campaign against this person. Everyone would be able to see with their own eyes how awful this person is. Jmho 🤷🏾‍♀️

You don't need to convince people so hard when there's actually smthg to really hate about a person imo.

Tom's acting is fine. Don't worry, the stans came after that Robert guy lol 😆 😂

If he's a real, valid, professional critic, then he was kinda unprofessional imo.

But, then again, that's not uncommon for critics. Critics can sometimes go for the jugular if they don't like you, or don't like your work.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time a critic has been harsh about an actor. 😔

Thankfully, Tom has a HUGE fanbase (just look on IG!), so we don't have to worry about the people who don't like him or his work.

[moomoomooing]

same anon as before (you already know who i am but i'm shy to slide into your dm's :3c)

same tho!! i love mamamoo but i don't really stan any group outside of svt. i used to keep up with tbz too but it's tiring, i can barely can keep up with svt nowadays. and was also there when skz and atz debuted but i was never too interested in them? because i'm not that into dark concepts but there are a few songs that i like. i just happen to have a friend who is a rlly big fan of those two, and she's trying to get me into them while i try to get her into svt and twst haha.

i also recently met someone who also likes twst and svt and we were discussing wich dorm each member would go to, what do you think about that? i've already started drawing a few, i want to do all but 13 is a lot of people q.q slowly but surely...

as for lolita fashion i like to wear it but it's expensive so my wardrobe is very small,, so yeah, meanwhile the best i can do is draw it fjkskd.

anyway you don't really have to answer this sorry aa i kind of just rambled abt myself so maybe you don't want to have it in your blog, if you want to chat we can move to dm's but !! idkidk

ID LOVE TO CHAT!!!!! and youre so big brained the svt members in twst dorms simply MUST BE DISCUSSED (feel free to slip into my dms anytime~~~)

hmm without thinking too much abt it- here are my assignments

cheol is in savanaclaw LOOK AT HIM? my competitive bby

hannie is in octavinelle OR pomefiore cause lord is he beautiful- but i think leaning octavinelle (im not double checking my spellings lmao)

shua is pomefiore imo, hes tricky but also def has the pomefiore vibes that outweigh octavinelle yk?

jun i feel more savanaclaw but he also has kalim scarabia vibes going for him

hoshi same as jun but im kin assinging him to kalim, hes also pp cunning when he wants to be (dont lie) so scarabia it is

wonwoo hes big diasmonia vibes, hes vv mysterious exclusively to ppl who dont know him lmao, hes a big fan of the rain around diasmonia, real vibey

woozi, now i wanna say pomefiore for some reason but hes gotta go to scarabia to match hoshi, the jamil to kalim is you will (without all the murderous intent)

mingyu absolutely savanaclaw. no doubt abt that

minghao, pomefiore for sure, the boy loves his fashion!

dk a ray of sunshine who competes with the kalim status hmmmmmm truthfully i can see him in both savanaclaw or scarabia (ill necer recover from when he got buff)

vernon he also has diasmonia vibes, less serious tho and more silly

seungkwan HES EITHER POMEFIORE OR HEARTSLABYUL (NO ONES IN HEARTSLABYUL YET)

dino- if seungkwans in pomefiore or heartslabyul dino is also there with him, theyre a pair do not separate pls

honestly i cant reallly think of too many of em being in heartslabyul, but reallt vernon could also follow kwannie and dino into whatever dorm and it still fits www

[universeofchirai]

I am constantly drifting away from my uni friends and I've started to think that I just don't really belong in this. I see a rather lonesome path ahead to be honest and I am not sure how to feel about it. I have good friends that I will continue to have but that's my childhood/school friends - you know what let's give aliases to these people. So there's salt and mist, these are my very best friends in fact. There's also pretzel who I am not really close to at all but they're up there being a strange person that I'm rather comfortable with in general.

These people I know I can rely on and they have my back, I can always fall back to them. But, as the days pass, I feel the distance between me and my college friend group just increasing. I've tried to patch things up but at the end of it all, it all seems very forced and just I'm sort of tired of all of this. This isn't working out really well and it really feels like too much effort to keep this up as a whole. It's this person Monte that I cannot simply go well with. We just don't vibe well. Then their partner Sirrup is someone I can vibe with somewhat but I just don't feel as comfortable or close to them at all tbh. There's Endor who I'm probably the closest to among the college friends and I probably would remain so. Not really the most comfort person but you know what, it's actually still pretty nice to stay w them. Aside from that there's Luke, who I can vibe with somewhat too but not really close either. There's no other people I am even remotely close to here.

I have questioned this to myself multiple times already, whether it's even worth keeping my relations with Monte and I can't quite decide. It's not like we haven't had good times but whenever I try to remember about my moments with them, it's the negative ones that keep outweighing and engulfing my perception.

I don't know man I really just feel rather sad and pretty isolated in a way. I don't know if I'm the one who's incompetent or is it valid to be disappointed and feel the way I described above.

All of this is so messed up I want someone to just hold tight and dear and just be myself with them without worrying about anything. Yea not happening I know but a creature can hope, and die with the hope really.

I want to just be happy with someone for a while, happy from inside out, not just happy about something specific for a while. I want to learn to be able to happy and enjoy vacations. I want to not feel existential every time I get some time off of my work.

[jack-kellys]

since just so many of you have demanded that i talk about it (3), here's my elevator pitch

to preface, superheroes are a medium of storytelling. there’s a billion diff stories you can tell within it. like yes there are powers and fights etc but it's never really about that. unless its shit!

this au has everything: blackmail, college financial woes, gossip, hacking police radios, cooking gone wrong, high school memories, “science” gone wrong, actions scenes and confession scenes! and of course. radical self-identity issues, as all good superhero narratives have. let’s get into it.

superheroes and villains are an established norm. some are more praised than others, some are better at their duty than others, and some are bought out more than others. no one superhero is all and no one is none.

there will always be people who believe in some supers' work as heroes, don't believe supers should have to be heroes, and some bigots who downright hate supers (anyone with powers, or anyone with certain powers that do not correlate to the image society wants to project.)

davey doesn't believe supers should feel a responsibility to be what society, and especially commercial manhattan, deems 'heroic'. if people have powers, it's their choice as to what they do with them, and superheroes have created this societal expectation for anyone with powers. if you're not a hero, then somehow your abilities are automatically hurting the community.

davey doesn't have powers like strength, or durability, or forcefields, which the public adores. he's a pyrokinetic, and after an incident that nearly got his family evicted, no one will ever know he has them again. he hopes.

jack agrees with davey- it's always a choice, but that's why superheroes are just as valid as those who choose not to be one. there are villains in this world, those powerful enough to destroy others, and superheroes are necessary to combat threats that jeopardize the wellbeing f those who cannot protect themselves. Heroes are there to help with good intention, and outweigh the ones without it.

(so we got a fun “the precedent shouldn’t be for all people with powers to become obligatory heroes, like their lives are only meaningful if they’re constantly risking them” vs. “everyone’s power is theirs, and it’s their choice in how they use them- people can choose to be a supe, and people can choose not to be. there isn’t a right or wrong thing to do.”)

and jack has grown up idolizing heroes as they’d protected his city, his home, and when he started developing powers at 17 he did everything he could to harness and control them enough to feel comfortable defending people from powered threats!

his name is safeguard, and he can create force fields and energy shields and shards and whatever else he pushes his limits to, all while jack kelly goes from high school to college courses.

he meets davey in college, and they are simply two friends with different views with no idea of what the other is capable of.

davey is a senior writer for the most credible student paper on campus, while jack has planned his courses to exist around his chosen duties as a superhero to uncover a new plot he’s uncovered— older superheroes’ “retirement” is being used nefariously, and jack’s worried it connects to the surgical dissection of supers of the past, heroes or not. but davey's a journalist, and when he runs into safeguard's investigation, there's danger that jack can't allow himself to panic about. (because jack doesn't know.)

and then. racetrack higgins literally superspeeds his way into safeguard’s life. and both of them are left with no choice but to help each other.

also charlie’s in it since he’s jack’s for-lifer, kath’s in it as senior editor to davey’s paper and is davey’s bestie, and you can bet your ass we got snyder and pulitzer as some. like seriously. awful people.

self-identity, -deconstruction, and -reconstruction are the major pieces of the vibe, and it is like. absolutely perilous LMAO like the absolute danger of this would be so fun to write. feel more than free to ask me other things about it!! i've had an extensive planning doc for like two years now 🥲

hi loyal followers :) who wants to hear abt a very precise superhero au i have

[burningblake]

ok i just finished my 8-hour long marathon of the witcher and I have opinions to share, some bitter some good, so let's start with the good:

I absolutely adored the yennefer-jaskier bonding scenes, especially when she hugged him and he was so surprised asdfgh and then how she saved him, my lovely girl has such a big heart and love to give. also bonus jaskier later defending her actions to geralt omg adorable

the moment tissaia sees yennefer after she thought she was dead 😭😭😭

the yennefer - geralt reunion I freaking replayed it so many times!! And then when Geralt introduced her to Ciri and that talk they had, asdfg found family united at last. (Would have loved the "dear friend" letter but I understand it wouldn't fit the pace and the vibe of the show to suddenly see geralt and yen writing letters)

The dessert!!!!

The unicorn reference!! 🤭🤭

I loved that Ciri's training is slow and gradual and she didn't like get all perfect and fearless at once

Ok that about sums up the good things, now the bad things, well!! I have a lot of complaints and quite honestly I am salty, if you don't want the negativity, don't read further but I need to express it so..

Why oh why the fuck did they change the plot so much?! What was this absolute shit with the hut spirit? Why???????? I am so pissed!!!

Listen!! Yennefer met Cirilla because Geralt ASKED her to take care of her and help her control her magic and YENNEFER was so different from Geralt in her teachings that Cirilla instantly made her her role model and thought of her as a mother figure!!!

THEY FLEED WITH THE HORSES FROM MELITELE BECAUSE YEN WAS PROTECTING HER WHAT THE ABSOLUTE HORSESHIT

yennefer would have never sacrificed an innocent life (much less CIRI!) no matter the cost, she valued life more than anything, SHE FREAKING RISKED HER LIFE TO SAVE A RANDOM BABY and you're telling me she would steal Geralt's baby and give her to the wolves?! EXCUSE ME but I call bullshit. Like sorry for the all-caps but I'm feeling strongly about this, they destroyed the perfect mother-daughter relationship from the books and I AM BITTER

why spend an entire episode at the beginning with that meaningless non-canon plot about yen fringilla and francesca finding some ancient spirit that determined their paths for the entire show WHEN WE COULD HAVE HAD AN EPISODE OF YEN TRAINING WITH CIRI WTF!!!!!!!!

Why the fuck is tissaia with vilgefortz? Where did that freaking come from?! LISTEN! TISSAIA IS EITHER A LESBIAN OR ASEXUAL LEAVE HER THE FUCK ALONE

The Geralt-Rience fight scene was supposed to be like this: Rience finds Geralt and he insults Yennefer in his face and so Geralt pretty much tells him that that insult just determined his fate and killed him on the spot because no one insults his wifey. INSTEAD Yennefer somehow freaking led him to Geralt?! As a distraction to take away Ciri?! HONESTLY FUCK THE FUCK OFF

Also why all that queerbaiting? Like excuse me but I am fairly certain that when Cahir asked Fringilla about her relationship with Francesca and he said "is she just a friend?" and that look fringilla made?! Yeah that was gay and then they twisted it to "she is your plan" yeah I'll tell you what plan her freaking wedding plan!

Even though I understand the cost Yennefer paid for her heroism at Sodden, I still think it was too far-stretched for her to only get her magic back at the very end and only to perform a small healing. My girl should have been able to join the final fight and save Ciri single-handedly along with Geralt and not be like "oh I made a potion"

Which leads to another thing I am bitter about, how did her "making a potion" serve the plot? Such a lazy writing ugh!!!

I HATE NETFLIX

All in all the bad things far outweigh the good for me - they changed so many freaking things without freaking reason!!!!! Ugh I am so annoyed and dissapointed! Truly sorry for the negativity, you can block me if you want, I am simply having a moment and I can't help being so salty about this

[ticklepinions]

10+ people that have all experienced the toxic friendship or simply seen how they treat most people are wrong then? That’s lovely to know that you know them so well considering how many people a 26 year old is disrespectful to.

Listen. Whether or not you agree with me being friends with them quite frankly is none of my concern. And I absolutely hate the passive aggressive pettiness I'm getting from you. Imagine if we all stopped associating with people the minute they make a mistake or slip up. We'd be lonely af because there would be no one to call a friend.

You don't vibe with them. Okay sorry to hear that? Just leave it alone then???? Like damn people can change and get better too you know? Not saying that they're bad people cause they are not. They're just humans just like you. Capable of both good and bad things. I'm not abandoning the friendship because of the bad. Like yes they're limits and boundaries to that but for the most part no. Sorry to hear that your experiences were bad but why spread this hate around. Like honeslty why.

A lot of my friends do things that I don't agree with or like. But obviously the good outweigh the bad which is why I still see them as friends. If that changes then I can end the friendship if I want to. And if they mess up or cross my boundaries I can address it and communicate that issue. One person's trash is another person's treasure. I have 0 problems with both of them so why would I resort to this hate train that you're on? Just move on, heal from the hurt they may have caused you. I can be friends with "problematic" people without it having to mean I'm terrible by association. I just hate giving up on people because I would hate it if that were done to me. Why are you so obsessed with what I'm doing with my life bro lol? All this drama for what? And ofc this is an anon.

My thing is, you might as well go big or go home. Since you choose to spread hate why not just send the ask off of anon. You'll probably get a lot more clout that way.

I feel like maybe a bit of projecting is going on because its quite toxic of you to come on my blog. Fully knowing they follow me. Knowing that if I post the asks you send, they'll see it. What was your end goal here? Did you want me to join the hate and then blast them and make them all miserable? Cause honestly that's quite sad if you ask me. You could be doing so many other things that are actually beneficial but instead you're wasting your weekend on this...

[kimikotsuki]

Fandom discourse and culture has changed a lot over the years and I always try to err on the side of caution whenever possible.

The reasons writers create and share their work are varied and diverse: maybe they're trying to improve their writing and welcome advice, sometimes it's all about the ~ S Q U E E ~ because you loved the show/character and wants them in more situations, sometimes the reason is the ~ R A G E ~ about the direction canon took and you plan to murder it and use it's blood to re-write the story; this is more an illustrative than exhaustive list and sometimes there'll even be multiple reasons at once of course.

And sometimes, those reasons do not match or go well with any type of criticism, even well intentioned, constructive ones.

I saw an post on Tumblr that ilustrated very well another reason why one shouldn't simply assume that con-crit is welcome: if you go watch an amateur performance (in the most literal sense of the word of non-remunarated, regardless of quality of performance), one won't immediately presume afterwards to go to the artist and start critiquing it.

At the same time, I wholeheartedly think that one of the most wonderful, unique possibilities of fandom is the capacity for collaborative work between the authors of a story that is being posted as it's written and it's readers, culminating in an end product with quality that ends up being more refined than otherwise it would've been.

That type of interaction is even sometimes one of the main reasons people write fics, to not only create something, but also to share the act of that creation.

That works almost like making all the readers of a fic into beta-readers and can be a wonderful thing, but the post argued that the work done by betas is analogous to editing in published works, and that such a relationship is based on built trust, so while yeah, that dynamic between writer and all their readers could work, assuming and simply barging in is generally more harmful than productive.

When I adopted that new reasoning, I debated whether or not I should then mark all my bookmarks on AO3 as Private and make them inaccessible to anyone else, but in the end opted not to, mainly because even though I mainly write them for my future self, I also feel other readers can benefit a lot from knowing how the experience of someone who liked a work enough to rec it went, specially if while reading that fic they stumbled upon things they didn't like.

If there's one thing I learned from over 15 years of reading fics is that my tastes change over the years, and sometimes it's not even about the quality of the writing itself or even the progression of how polemic subjects are treated at any given time, but rather the moment that I am in changes how I receive the same work, such that tagging a certain work as one worth reading again later with no contextual information on the vibe I was riding when I did that will inevitably lead to a disappointment that is frankly an overreaction on my part.

That happened somewhat recently with a Frostiron fic I read a long time ago, in a moment where I was squeeing like crazy over the pairing (and it was a work of squee, so we matched really well) and it got on my list, but years later, when I was feeling nostalgic over the pairing and went to read my list of besties, the expectation I had was so great that the dichotomy between my experience back then and the one in the re-read were terribly big, even though it was a well written fic, squee and all, and the only real difference was that *I* wasn't squeeing over the pairing anymore.

And at the same time, I found that, in a way, this managing of expectations I do primarily for myself when I create a rec with the bad points of a fic that I loved can also be helpful for others, because even if it doesn't fit 100% since we're different people, I always thought the best recs I've always found were the ones that stated what were the cons of any given story, because those cons might not be something that bothered me like it bothered them or it even might end up being somewhat bothersome to me, but the pros outweigh them and, because I went in expecting to find those things, there's no disappointment in it, so they end up bothering me a lot less then it could've.

The other reason I eventually settled on not making my bookmarks private was actually because of those authors that seek improvement and welcome constructive criticism from all the readers who are invested in their story and value their thoughts and experiences while reading their work, because while yes, better to err on the side of caution and not go offering advice and opinions were those are not wanted, if we let that completely rule everything we do in fandom there will be a lot of loss in regards of this constructive, dynamic and interactive aspect so characteristic and wonderful to this type of media.

I know authors can have access to the bookmarks made of their fics, but unlike comments, it's not quite a space exclusively dedicated to them or even for interactions between reader/author.

In a lot of aspects, I'd even go as far as saying it's a space primarily for readers: it's not something that will culminate in a email sent to the author's mailbox, it serves mostly for filtering and ordering purposes (like when you're looking for fics to read and apply a filter to show only fics with a certain number of bookmarks or to order the fics shown from the greater to the least number of bookmarks) and also so readers can, reading these bookmarks, have a better idea on what's to expect from a work from different readers with different personalities and world views and ways to pereceive what was written.

And since it's a space the author *can* have access to *if* they want, it's possible for them to look at that place to see that con-crit while, at the same time, not being a place where that con-crit will get shoved in their faces if they *don't want it* and as such it seemed to me to be an overall respectfull and good compromise between those two points that seemed very important to me, and one of the only way I've found of making it known if that type of interaction is welcome, I'd be happy to head over to their comments and talk there.

If I'm marking it as a rec and commenting, I'm doing it because I think that fic absolutely is one of the best stories that I had the pleasure to read; however, the number of characters allowed in a bookmark rec are limited, so if I end up putting into it anything besides an incoherent keyboard smash, those things are going to be whatever points I feel are very important to keep in mind whenever starting to read it so that reading experience is the most enjoyable possible both for my future self who's going to look at that besties list and decide on what to read again as well as first time readers who might have seen the rec and will go in knowing somethings that, by their nature, don't tend to be things we tag for; they will have mostly what amounts to con-crit, so if you welcome this type of interaction or if the rec I made is bothering you in anyway, I urge you to get in contact with me through the fic mail I linked in my AO3 profile.

This post is getting linked there because the profile section doesn't allow enough characters for everything that I had to say about the subject.

As soon as I see the email, I'll either be happy to either tag the bookmark as Private so it won't be visible to anyone but myself if it bothered you or head over to your comments section so we can talk better about the points I raised if this type of interaction is something you welcome.

[morphedphaseblog]

The starless sea by Erin Morgenstern

Goodreads version

The introduction

This is just to warn everyone that I'm not a literature student, an English major nor a native English speaker, so I'm sorry in advance if this is a jumbled mess. I tend to ramble a lot but I've really tried to keep this as short as possible. (Short meaning a little bit over two thousand words for one review, I've never written a review this long.) I wrote this for self indulgence and for my lovely book club @readerbookclub

The first impression

This book pleasantly surprised me, it was like a very long dream that you don't want to wake up from. The moment I finished it I wished that I hadn't because I couldn't part from it just yet. It would feel almost like cheating, I wanted the intertwined stories to continue and for me to remain in its trance, lost in the beautiful writing and bizarre world.

I will be the first to admit that when someone says the story is written almost poem-like, in prose, and similar, I will immediately think of meaningless quotes that are there just to look pretty. Characters saying things just to sound deep, frilly writing that leads nowhere, and dragged on descriptions that had no place being that long and boring. Those are the first things I think of when I'm confronted with someone explaining those kinds of books to me, and that's completely my fault. This book was none of that, it was captivating from the first page to the last.

"There is a pirate in the basement. (The pirate is a metaphor but also still a person.) "

I can tell you, when I first read this, on the first goddamn page, I was hooked. This book has a strong bizzare sort of setting, one that almost reminds me of Neil Gaiman, distinctively Neverwhere with its underground society and twisted perceptions of reality, and yet this book stands out on its own as an individual. It's definitely a unique book, one that I'm still hesitant to part from.

The writing

This book has a very unique writing style, one that is extremely consistent throughout the book. There's nothing I hate more than an inconsistent writing style that changes without a reason. The author plays around with words and describes things simply yet poetically. There were only maybe two instances where I thought the writing was a bit pretentious, but ultimately the good outweighs the bad.

I don't know what exactly it is, but I will try and explain through the next few quotes:

"The book is mis-shelved in the fiction section, even though the majority of it is true and the rest is true enough"

(This really gives you the sense of vague foreshadowing in the book, where even though the description tells you sweet sorrows is mostly true you don't realise how true it actually is. I never saw the fact that the characters in that book would be actual people that interact with our main characters. Plus the writing is really pretty)

"It's binding has been cracked a handful of times, once a professor even perused the first few pages and intended to come back to it but forgot about it instead."

(Is it just me but these small detailed descriptions really give you a sense of real world happenings and that the story is really set in the real world. You can imagine people passing their fingers over the spine of the book before glancing around and getting distracted with something else. The professor taking it into his hands and skimming it but ultimately forgetting all about it later, and finally Zachary reading the whole book from top to bottom.)

"His dark hair is grading at the temples, framing a face that would be called handsome if the word rugged or unconventionally were attached to it."

(Now I'm in love with this kind of mental visual, it's fun and it almost plays with your expectations. I just really like small things like these, they immediately make my reading extremely entertaining.)

"Someone in the corner is dressed as a highly recognizable author or, Zachary thinks as he gets a closer look, it might be that highly recognizable author."

(Again as before, this is the kind of writing I like. It plays with your imaginary visuals of what's happening and making them ten times more fun, especially when we confirm a bit later that that had indeed been that highly recognizable author.)

"He walks over bones he mistakes for dust and nothingness he mistakes for bones."

(Yet another example of those fun visuals, I didn't even realise how many of these I had marked until I had to go through them for this review. I just adore this writing style.)

I have so many more of these so here are just a few more to really make this review even longer:

"A portrait of a young man in a coat with a great many buttons but the buttons are all tiny clocks, from the collar to the cuffs, each reading different times."

"His face is so much more than hair and eye colour, she wonders why books do not describe the curves of noses or the length of the eyelashes. She studies the shape of his lips. Perhaps a face is too complicated to capture in words."

"There are dozens of giant statues. Some figures have animal heads and others have list their heads entirely. They are listed throughout the space in a way that looks so organic that Zachary would not be surprised if they moved, or perhaps they are moving, very, very slowly."

"The figure in the chair is carved from snow and ice. As her gown cascades down around the chair the ripples in the fabric become waves, and within waves there are ships and sailors and sea monsters and then the sea within her gown is lost in the drifting snow."

"Allegra watches him with studied interest from the other end of the table, the way one watches a tiger in a zoo or possibly the way the tiger watches the tourists."

"It sounds strange and empty now, in her head. Rhyme can hear the hum of the past stories though they are low and quiet, the stories always calm once they have been written down whether they are past stories or present stories or future stories.

It is the absence of the high-pitched stories of the future that is the most strange. There is the thrum of what will pass in the next few minutes buzzing in her ears- so faint compared to the tales layered upon tales that she once heard- and then nothing. Then this place will have no more tales to tell." .

(Probably one of my favourites, it really highlights everything I like about this style of writing.)

Another kind of writing style I noticed in the book was an abundance of making things literally feel alive, giving human emotions to objects, personification. I don't come across this too often in other books, and when it happens it isn't repeated as often in that same book,since it tends to get old, but as we have already learned Erin Morgenstern never makes this boring. She plays around with this and never seems to stop, adding another layer to her writing cake. I love how she gives these characteristics to even the smallest of crevices hidden in shadows, something just people wouldn't even think of.

"He takes his torch and explores the shadows, away from the doors and the tent, among jagged crystals and forgotten architecture. He carries the light into places long unfamiliar with illumination that accept it like a half-remembered dream."

"Outside the inn the wind howls, confused by this turn of events. (The wind does not like to be confused. Confusion ruins it's sense of direction and direction is everything to the wind.)"

"The wind howls after him as he leaves in fear of what is to come, but a mortal cannot understand the wishes of the wind no matter how loud it cries and so these final warnings go unheeded."

"If the sword could sigh with relief as it is taken from its scabbard it would, for it has been lost and found so many times before and it knows this time will be the last."

One more thing that caught my eye in the writing was also the composition, where we technically start with in medias Res. We find out by the end of the book that everything that has happened was one big ass story wrapped in stories and overlapped with other stories. So Zachary literally comes in not even in the middle of the story, but at the very end that has been overdue for quite some time. This makes for a very interesting storyline as all the other storylines intertwine into eachother, it makes for an even more interesting read as our MC comes in only when the plot is at its end, tipping over the very edge.

(I also got the feeling that the entire book is almost told through the perspective of the story, if that makes any sense whatsoever. It's almost like the story, that is bound together like the most complicated twister game, is alive and is smiling over our characters smugly waiting for everything to run its course. Like an omnipresent god, that's at least the vibe I got reading the book. )

The world building

Now in my opinion the world building goes hand in hand with the writing in this book. Every detail I mentioned before builds the atmosphere and the base of all the world building in this book. The way the plot is written is written also contributes to the world building, as all the stories overlap and meet at the very end. The looping plot line is actually my number one favourite thing in the entire book.

There isn't that much to say except 'what the hell is going on?' in the best way possible, to the world building, because as confusing as it can be it's amazing to read and I think that it's one of my favourite aspects of the book.

The Characters

Now is time for the weakest part of the book, its characters, who even though I think are amazing, are definitely flatter than everything else in the book.

In my opinion most characters personalities I just can't pinpoint, and even though this personally doesn't take away from my enjoyment too much, I know a lot of people love well defined character personalities.

For some characters I can understand the constant change in character, like Mirabel, whose multiple lifetimes make it so it makes sense why her personalities overlap and make little sense. She constantly felt a bit inconsistent to me, but again I personally didn't think it ruined the book.

The most well developed personalities I could feel were Kat and the keeper, and at times Dorian. Zachary is a weird gray area for me, because even though I loved his character, I can't really tell who he is besides the son of the fortuneteller. I think that most of the character building was sacrificed to make the plot and the world feel alive. As I said before, it feels like the omnipresent god and the world is more developed than any of the characters personalities.

I usually love marking all 'character moments' where I feel like I can understand what kind of person the character is, their sense of humour, friendship, socializing, thinking and so on. But I found myself marking basically nothing of that kind in this book, just the beautiful descriptions of the world. The story was just more alive than the characters in it.

I liked all the romances even though they all lacked some depth, but the fairytale style writing of the romance definitely made them extremely enjoyable. If it weren't for the fairytale vibe all the romance would have been just flat, and I  wouldn’t be invested at all.

The Conclusion

I wouldn't reccomend this book for everyone, as I think great many people wouldn't be fans of the writing, and so the lack of character depth wouldn't help either and there would be no good to outweigh the bad. I truly think this book is a perfect 4 starts but to me personally it is 5 stars. I am just such a big fan of the looping storyline, I still haven't gotten over that. To finish it all off here are a few extra quotes that I liked:

"No one takes responsibility. Everyone assumes someone else will do it, so no one does."

"It is critical to steep the tests in ignorance to result in uncorrupted responses."

"They all have similar elements, though. All stories do, no matter what form they take. Something was, and then something changed. Change is what a story is, after all."