#sorry for the lack of chapters

[personallysunny]

For @geminiskylight !! ;3

[rox-of-iu]

ayoo guess who finally sat down and caught up with cultivate B)

is me. so you know what that means.

spoiler warning for cultivate ch 30-37

there was actually.... more things i wanted to draw but I already did so many I had to physically restrain myself hfsjkkdh anyway yes can you tell i love this fic very much

yet once again. cultivate by the wonderful @neonghostcat

[annamationsart]

was going to make a doodle sheet related to my library au fic but it quickly turned into oops! all martins. not that i’m complaining he’s very fun to draw

[aroaceleovaldez]

Romantic in nature or not, I always just looked at that scene in MoA with the notion: Annabeth is convinced that Nico, a gay man, has a crush on her in this exact scene (or you know, a different scene in MoA, I don't remember), and since we know that Annabeth isn't the best on the emotional front, she read Luke's intentions incorrectly, and Percy did, as well, due to his jealousy of the guy.

(Now, I know that neither of these are the case, especially since I doubt Nico was thought to be gay until HoH, and this is around the time that Annabeth was starting to be characterized as Never Wrong About Anything Ever, but it's always been my go-to regarding the whole Luke-Annabeth debacle. What I mean to say is that I like your interpretation of the scenes, too)

Oh i actually believe Nico was fully intended to be gay starting around MOA at least (though I do believe Rick claiming he had figured that out about Nico earlier than that), because Rick was absolutely acknowledging queer topics in his writing at that time. Jason's arc particularly in the latter half of HoO is extremely bi-coded and there's just straight up a canonical polyamorous relationship in Serpent's Shadow, which came out several months before HoH.

Which does make Annabeth's line about that in MOA funnier, especially considering by that point Nico has held maybe one full conversation with her in the entire franchise thus far, maybe two or three if you wanna push it. I cannot emphasize enough how little they had spoken to each other - and tbh, continued to not speak to each other. Just in general. Like the most notable interactions the two of them have prior to the high-five scene in BoO are literally both in BoTL and it's one line and then one off-screen scene of Nico breaking up a fight between Rachel and Annabeth (where they were fighting over Percy) entirely for the purposes of going to save Percy. They barely interact in HoO. Nico and Annabeth have a chronic case of their plot lines being in different locations because only one of them is allowed to be active at a time due to their narrative roles. Annabeth is kidnapped for most of the TTC Nico scenes and Nico is at camp when they get to Annabeth, and then in TLO Nico's busy with all the Underworld stuff and flirting with Percy so he never interacts with Annabeth. Then Nico is off at Camp Jupiter when Annabeth's at CHB and then busy being kidnapped for the first stretch of the Argo II mission and only shows up when Annabeth is busy on her Arachne quest. And then Annabeth FALLS INTO TARTARUS when Nico gets there (and proceeds to pine at Percy) and then IMMEDIATELY after Annabeth gets out of Tartarus, Nico skips away with Reyna and Coach to drag the Athena Parthenos to camp. And then FINALLY they interact and it's not even Nico speaking directly to Annabeth really, just high-fiving her after insulting Percy to his face. He literally only says one word directly to her.

Like. I cannot overemphasize the absolute comical degree to which these two avoid interacting. They're like magnets repelling each other. And yet Annabeth is like "I think he has a crush on me - he spoke to me once, allegedly." Like ah yes, sure, HoO. Next you're gonna tell me you retconned them into having a FOURTH conversation! Don't get too wild!

[kyouka-supremacy]

WAIT WHAT??

akutagawa apologized?? when????

Giiiiiiirrrllll you won't ever believe it

[fromtheseventhhell]

One major factor missing from most debates on Arya and Lyanna's beauty is that they're being judged by their society's extremely patriarchal values. In both looks and personality, that context is essential to understanding how others perceive them. George explores the misogyny experienced by non-conforming women, especially with Arya, and it's interesting how he plays with that regarding their physical beauty.

Her mother used to say she could be pretty if she would just wash and brush her hair and take more care with her dress, the way her sister did. (The Blind Girl, ADWD) "You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert," Ned told him. "You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath. She would have told you that you have no business in the melee." (Eddard VII, AGOT)

These two quotes offer a nice summation of this idea. With Arya, her supposed lack of beauty is defined by her being a non-conforming wild child. Her hair is messy, her face is dirty, and she's often in "lower class" clothing while engaging in unladylike activities. None of this says anything about her physical beauty but it tells us everything about how she's perceived. Arya could be pretty...If she conforms to society's standards for a highborn Lady. With Lyanna, however, we get the opposite. Where Arya is judged based on her personality, Robert's romanticization of Lyanna is rooted solely in her looks. He doesn't know anything about the person she really was. There is an assumption that, because she looked a certain way, her personality must fit and Robert imagines her much softer and more passive than she actually was.

That Arya isn't pretty or Lyanna wasn't wild are two perceptions that George specifically pushes back against. This is where people miss the brilliance of them being linked as literary mirrors; it is largely about us learning more about Lyanna, but it touches on more than that. The significance of them being written as wild, willful, and with their own beauty is that George isn't writing his female characters around patriarchal expectations. When people debate their beauty, that's often the trapping they fall into. Beauty and non-conformity are treated as mutually exclusive factors when the story itself never makes that point; this is also the logic that leads people to the (incorrect) conclusion that Lyanna and Arya aren't meant to be similar. Arya's self-esteem issues around her looks and being a Lady make this a topic certain to be addressed in the future; George has made it a part of the story. The conclusion shouldn't be that "looks don't matter", but that looks aren't indicative of a character's value, personality, or morality.

[daily-bipper-brainrot]

[corvid-ghost]

Mike and Bill just talking about who knows what. It's been hours at this point, Bill asks"What did you think of my book? I heard people didn't like the ending." Mike goes quiet a bit, still smiling. "You wanna know what I thought? Hold on, I'll be right back, i need t get something" and he comes back with Bill's book and hands it too him "Your giving me, my book? Why?" "Open it." Every page has writing on it, annotations everywhere. "Everything I thought of your book is in there. I wanted to make sure everything was in there. Either in case I ended up forgetting too, or... or maybe i would see you again to give it to."

When Bill goes through it later he finds a letter taped to the back.

"Dear Bill,

I know I'll probably never see you again, but if you get this, I just want you to know eveything. You were always an exceptional person, and an even better writer. I miss you and the losers every day. I remember you showing us your writings when we were younger. They were always great. Always with flaws, like with everything, but those made the story wonderful and exceptional. Just like you. I think this tory hs been your best so far. I don't even know if you remember your old ones. I can see some inspiration taken from them in this one. I don't know if you knew, but it's there. Now, I know you want to hear what I think of your ending. Honestly, it's a bad ending, but not in the way most people say. No other ending would have worked. Your ending followed the themes of the book. It's just that the themes aren't what people want. I didn't enjoy your ending, but I don't think we were supposed to. I did however understand it. I hope to see you again. I hope you get to know this. I miss you Bill. I miss everything about you. I hope some day you will remember me. I feel terrible for saying this. Knowing the only way this would happen is if It comes back again. I don't want that to happen. Im sorry. I honestly dont even know why im writing this. I know we're probably never going to see eachother again. Even if we do, theres no telling what will happen. I dont know, Bill. But I know I love you. I love eveything about you Bill.

Love,

Mike"

Bill looks over to Mike sleeping on the couch. Wondering if he knows what he wrote, or if he knew it was still in here. Did he mean to give this to him?

[tenthousandyearsx]

I suddenly wondered what kind of comments Killer King would have left. [The exclusive skill 'Readers' Comments List' is activated!] ID: killer_king Platform: Sirius, Paper Books Total Comments: 491 Reader Level: 99 Number of Reads: 99.8 times *You can use coins to view the comments written by this reader.* Number of comments currently available for free: 3. I clicked on [View Comments] without hesitation. I am Yoo Joonghyuk. —Upvotes 0 / Downvotes 1 (Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Chapter 1) I am Yoo Joonghyuk. —Upvotes 0 / Downvotes 1 (Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Chapter 23) I am Yoo Joonghyuk. —Upvotes 0 / Downvotes 1 (Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Chapter 77) I doubted my eyes. Feeling my gaze, Killer King frowned at me. "What are you looking at?" "Nothing, just…" "If you keep looking at me like that, I'll kill you." "You really sound like Yoo Joonghyuk." With a light groan, Killer King pushed himself up and pretended to look away.

– ORV Side Story – Chapter 583: Episode 5 - Villain (8)

[kaurwreck]

it really fucks me up that dazai got a raw egg in meursault and fyodor didn't because that implies that meursault, which is functionally a blacksite, curates their incarcerated population's meals to their cultural backgrounds (assuming the egg was for tamago kake gohan). dazai's chopsticks imply the same.

or maybe fyodor told a guard that fyodor believes like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened. so the guard took his egg privileges.

[sskk-manifesto]

Next time we should just skip over ep 3 and do a chapters 84-87 reread

[captainhysunstuff]

A reactionary comic about rereading a fic that I recently recommended that was way darker than I remembered, lol. I still love it for how they pretty much drive each other crazy, but that word choice and the consent issues... *cringes* At least there are valid warnings beforehand, and the first fic was pretty PG. Sorry. *laughs sheepishly*

[wonder-worker]

are there any books you'd recommend for Isabelle of Angouleme?

Hi! I’m really not an expert on Isabella of Angouleme so I'm probably not the best person to ask for recommendations for her. Here are some I've heard of, though I haven't read all of them:

"Isabella of Angouleme: John's Jezebel" by Nicholas Vincent (King John: New Interpretations). I haven't read it myself but I've heard good things!

“Maternal Abandonment and Surrogate Caregivers: Isabella of Angoulême and Her Children by King John” by Louise J. Wilkinson (Virtuous or Villainess? The Image of the Royal Mother from the Early Medieval to the Early Modern Era). It focuses more-so on Isabella's tenure as queen, the period shortly after John's death, and her decision to leave England. Despite what the title may imply, it's sympathetic to Isabella and analyzes her situation in detail.

“Co-Operation, Co-Rulership and Competition: Queenship in the Angevin Domains 1135-1230” by Gabrielle Storey, her PHD thesis which collectively focuses on Isabella of Angouleme along with Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Berengaria of Navarre. You can read/download it here, it's an excellent piece for all four women.

Sally Spong has written/is writing:

Isabella of Angouleme: The Vanished Queen (Norman to Early Plantagenet Consorts). You can see her conclusion here. It's nuanced and sympathetic, though not without its issues and pre-conceived notions.

Isabella of Gloucester and Isabella of Angouleme: Female Lordship, Queenship, Power, and Authority 1189-1220 (PHD thesis University of East Anglia).

“Isabelle d’Angouleme, By the Grace of God, Queen” by William Chester Jordan. You can read it online here, though I will say that it's ... very very questionable, accepting the sensational claims of lot of unreliable sources (including the idea of John abducting Isabella in a fit of uncontrollable infatuation) entirely at face-value.

“The Marriage and Coronation of Isabelle of Angouleme” by H.G. Richardson, available here on JSTOR.

Isabella has also been the subject of two complete French biographies till date:

"Isabelle d’Angoulême, reine d’Angleterre" (Aquitaine: 1998) by Sophie Fougere.

"Isabelle d’Angoulême, comtesse-reine et son temps (1186-1246)" [Actes du colloque tenu à Lusignan, 8 au 10 novembre 1996] by Gabriel Biancotto, Robert Favreau and Piotr Skubiszewski.

There are also a few blog posts about her (here and here) which may help if you want a brief overview of her life, though they can get a little sensationalistic sometimes.

Hope this helps! If anyone knows any others, please feel free to add on!

[spiderin-space]

Next chapter up!! Things are getting angsty 👀

Also deepest apologies for the lack of sketches for this chapter

[hyunteru]

okay it’s time to lock in because i’m behind on my update schedule which i said i would do before 2025 and im behind on reading BUT !! trust i’ll get to it because i’ve seen so so so many updates that ive been itching to read but i haven’t had a moment to kinda sit down and relax and have free time

[crystalkitty1220]

Man I wonder where the leader of the fear realm could've gone, it's alMOST LIKE NEVIN HAS AN