#sorry for the long monologue
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It just occurred to me that fanfiction and fanart can basically be described as such:
A certain person at the end of a story/book/movie/whatever said "Yeah, no, I simply don't vibe with that" so they created an entire alternate universe inside their head, changing canon events at will, killing characters, making others come back from the dead or fall in love with their sworn enemy, all of this without batting an eye and giving zero fucks. They then proceeded to share it to thousands of strangers on the Internet for FREE, and eventually those strangers joined in on the fun, creating a community that celebrates important characters birthdays and such that communicates in a language only people in a fandom can understand.
Like, if I went to my mom and suddenly said: "I just read a beautifully written, 100k words fanfiction, enemies to lovers, mutual pining and fluff fanfiction, had no beta tho" she wouldn't understand a word.
We all probably sound crazy to the rest of the world.
#sorry for the long monologue#but I had to get it out of my system#seriously tho#do you realize what I'm saying#fanfiction#fanfic#fandom
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Giving your (short) Oppy a flower for Valentine's Day :3
Opportunist very much appreciates your kind gesture! Well, you can see his reaction for yourself :]
(Thank you for your ask, and happy Valentine's day!!! This was so fun to doodle :])
#ask#slay the princess#stp#stp fanart#stp voices#stp opportunist#art#fanart#sorry for so many posts from me!#just wanted to make sure this was posted before Valentine's Day ends for me (in about 3 hours or so)#also i cannot stop with my yapper Oppy HC - every time i draw him talking - he ends up going on a long monologue#it's not even intentional at this point#but it keeps happening
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How did you come up with roleswap Elfilis' design? It's really cool!
Hi! Thank you so much! :D I'd love to share my thought process! Gather round the armchair by the fireplace, friends! It's story time!
I've said before that the Forgotten Land Roleswap started off as a doodle that swapped Dedede and Bandana Dee's roles as Player 2 and the Brainwashed Beast. But when I realized how fun that one little change was, how about EVEN MORE changes? That's how my one-time doodle turned into the full AU story. I swapped Meta Knight and Kirby, Clawroline and Leongar, and Sillydillo and Gorimondo- and because the story is so Waddle-Dee centric, I promoted Dedede to "Player 1" since the stakes would be higher for him as their King.
So now I had a story that had a lot of opposite traits to canon and I wanted to explore that further! When it came to the matter of Elfilin, I thought he would probably behave too similarly towards Dedede and Meta as he did to Kirby and Bandee. He'd be friendly and trusting, communicative, optimistic, knowledgeable, and cooperative. So how about providing them a travel companion who is defensive, has trouble communicating, a little wild, uninformed about themselves and the world around them, and has a bit of a temper?
But working with all these opposite traits didn't feel in-character for Elfilin anymore. So my natural next step was to swap Elfilin with Elfilis and make a new version of the Forgotten Land's lost little pup!
Enough yapping about the context behind my decisions, tho. How'd I come up with Roleswap Elfilis' design?
I see you out there, Fecto Forgo fans. Maybe somebody out there's thought, "Roleswap Elfilis does not look like them! Why not? That's what the other 50% of the Ultimate Life Form looks like! I demand justice for the angry glowing rat fetus!"
Maybe nobody has ever thought this. But I wonder sometimes lol
Your feelings are valid, friends. Please lemme explain my reasonings.
This fella, to me, is the abandoned wet specimen left to float in a jar for who-knows-how-long after a forcible physical and mental separation via spatial teleportation shenanigans. And I think part of their appearance is due to their role as the trapped and forgotten half.
The role of the half that got away fully formed his own body and inherited some traits from the complete being-
For Elfilin in canon, he got ears that are proportionally huge compared to the rest of his body, blue eyes that sparkle with the light of a thousand destroyed planets, a tiny bit of pink fur for his adorable blushies, and a really long fluffy tail. Maybe becoming a being free of chaos gave him those sweet eyes like Kirby and the Waddle Dees have.
My reasoning is that whichever half ends up escaping the Lab and fully forming their own body, they would carry the major physical traits the other wouldn't inherit.
Anyway, that left Elfilis with the horns, colorful and expressive eyes, whiskers, beige chest fluff, opposable thumbs, and pink tummy fur.
Elfilin gets the long tail in the bodily divorce so Elfilis has a short stubby little cotton tail like a bunny. Like if he ended up with just the very tip of the Ultimate Life Form's tail.
Behold this diagram above I came up with two years ago! Disclaimer: the canon Elfilin is the one in the chart. And I draw him a little differently these days lol. I ain't showing anyone how he ended up in the Roleswap yet tho!!!! >:0
But Roleswap Elfilis is more than just "baby version of the Ultimate Life Form..."
All the differences in the Forgotten Land Roleswap from canon stem from one event in the timeline. One change that I added to the events that were already supposed to take place. It's why the Ultimate Life Form split differently. Why the Beasts have different roles and aesthetics. Even why the portal took Bandana Dee and Kirby before Meta Knight and King Dedede.
How did that saying go again? The flap of wings somewhere can influence a bunch of huge changes somewhere else down the line...? What was the name of that theory again....? Hmm. Not important, I guess.
Anyway, the end!! You sly dog, you got me monologuing!!1! /lighthearted
#roleswap bonus features#Thanks for reading today's episode of Jojo's monologues HEHEHE#I really do put a lot of thought into these things and I can't help spilling whenever I'm asked!#I'm just really happy and excited about all of this building I'm doing!#And of course most of this is my own personal theory and conjecture#in no way am I saying “MY THEORIES ARE THE ONLY RIGHT ONES”#or claim that my roleswap au about the Forgotten Land game can be the only one just because I thought about it a lot#I love seeing different conclusions and interpretations in this series. especially if they're wildly different than mine#it's why the Kirby series feels so special to me. I genuinely just want to have fun and experience others' fun too :3#elfilis#elfilin#forgotten land roleswap#headcanons#ALSO I'M SORRY ANON it's been literal months since this ask.#I'm sorry for the person that I am lol sometimes it just takes a long time for me to get these things out#I love asks and questions and cherish them! I promise <3
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Statement of Erica Liu, regarding the mold infestation in her apartment.
#my art#the magnus archives#tma oc#she came to me the other day while i was washing dishes (along with another guy)#and she came with a monologue attached. so have this#she works at the magnus institute in seasons 1 and 2. goes missing s3. shows up as an antagonist for a bit in s4#or something along those lines idfk man…. shes an avatar of the corruption#i’d love to draw her properly i just wanted smth to accompany the text so it’s a bit messy. and not very relevant to what shes saying#maybe i’ll remake this. i just wanted it out of my head so it’s a bit wonky. i havent even listened to tma in so long#anyways thats enough tag rambles lol sorry for not posting in a bit#sometimes you replace human connection with the mold in your carpet. it be like that
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Came here because of your FMA Post-Canon GreedLing series and now I want to read/watch/idfk what this is SVSSS now. You've infected me and now I need to do research

YESSS READ MY SICKOS NOVEL!!
my very basic pitch: SVSSS is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, a Chinese transmigration novel! the premise is that Shen Yuan is the #1 anti-fan of a trashy stallion novel -- he likes the monsters and the little crumbs of plot and loves the protagonist, but fucking hates literally everything else about it. when he finishes it, he's so overcome with rage about the ending that it literally kills him, and his dying thoughts are "dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel." much to his surprise, he wakes up as the central villain of that novel with a transmigration system essentially telling him "you think you can do better? just fucking try it buddy"
it's a hilarious series, and a very quick read! the characters are really fun, the two main characters are completely deranged (a classic example of "I can fix him" *makes him worse*), and the balance between ridiculous humor and genuine emotion is excellent. also, as a loving satire of stallion novels/BL novels/webnovels in general, it has a lot of interesting things to say about the tropes embedded in those stories, as well as interesting things to say about being a writer and being a reader!
there are official print translations in English, so I recommend checking out your local library/bookstores, but if that doesn't work for you, it's also available on the Internet Archive and Anna's Archive! it's fairly short, only four books (three for the main plot + fourth book of plot-relevant extras)
enjoy!!
#asks#frostfire425#sorry for the long response i just get very excited when i get to pitch this series!!!#it is DERANGED and i love it so much#I would categorize it as like. 80% comedy 20% every other genre#like mostly very very funny because sqq is a hysterical pov character whose inner monologue is a complete mess#and then the other 20% is a mix of romance and tragedy and horror#I call it a loving satire because while it is criticizing a lot of common tropes (mostly those found in male power fantasy novels)#it also very clearly is coming from someone who loves webnovels and reads a lot of them and understands them well enough to critique them#my beloved ridiculous dick joke novel that has genuinely interesting things to say about gender and power and consent and agency and trauma#slkdjfdlksjf anyway. i need to stop before i go off on a tangent#I suppose I should give a quick warning before you start it: this is technically a teacher/student romance#HOWEVER!! trust me. that is not an issue here.#I usually do not like teacher/student stuff and so I was very hesitant to start this series#so trust me when I say that most of the issues with teacher/student romances are not present here#the teacher is completely oblivious to his student's feelings until said student is like 25 and hasn't been his student for like 7 years#the age gap is also irrelevant because. well. you'll see sdlkjflksdjf#by the end of the novel they're only like a year apart. it's stupid <3#but yeah i went into it cautiously because i'd heard it was Problematic™#but turns out most of the problematic things i'd heard about weren't even ultimately relevant#and the main couple were actually even weirder about each other in ways i could never have predicted sdlkjfdlksjf#they are FREAK4FREAK and i love this for them#okay i need to stop talking about this stupid novel#GO READ IT!! IT'S FUN
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The reason I got dragged back into Haikyuu were these bits hitting me back to back in the Dumpster Battle movie. They reminded me of exactly what I loved about this, and added on new reasons to love it now that I’m even just a bit older, maybe even a bit wiser.
A personal note, when I first watched Haikyuu, I really related to Kenma. More than just “smart introvert gamer”, his overall apathetic nature and lack of understanding for passion, though he was fascinated by it and was drawn to those that illuminate like the sun. Watching the movie where he finally got to feel as intensely as his teammates took me back to when I felt that too. I had to tenderly nurture the feeling to make sure it wasn’t squashed, but that club isn’t in college. Then I rediscovered art and how fun it can be. I hope Kenma gets that too
#haikyuu#haikyuu dumpster battle#dumpster battle haikyuu#karasuno#nekoma#haikyuu karasuno#haikyuu nekoma#side note when Kenma’s going oh we need the big guns#and INUOKA COMES BACK FOR THE END OF THE 2ND SET AND THE 3RD AND DOES SO WELLL#I WAS STARVED FOR SO LONG AND THEN FED#also sorry for personal ramble I just needed it out there#roommate does NOT need a midnight monologue#anyways I hope everyone has a nice sleep/nice day#depends on when you read#also wanted an explanation for theme rehaul#for those that don’t know Haikyuu#ifykyk and if you didn’t this isn’t even a fraction#it’s so much more than gay volleyball and whenever someone outside of the fandom says that a crow loses its wings#hq#hq thoughts
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How did you manage to handle not one, but FOUR separate accounts in fl? I recently made the account for my HD little guy but having to do the tutorial again just seems miserable
there's... weirdly several answers to that question, actually??
a HUGE part of it is due to the way FL is structured. the 10-minute action timer is a core part of the game on a fundamental level, and the fact that i can very easily run out of stuff to do on one character and thus have an excuse to quickly and easily swap to another is just... convenient? satisfying? i'm not entirely sure how to explain it. the fact that i can make progress even while i am fundamentally simultaneously Not Making Progress is like pure dopamine for my freak insane awful little brain. there's just something really pleasing about spending all of my actions pursuing The Goal Of The Day™ on one account before casually swapping to another and doing the same without feeling like i'm wasting time or acting to the first account's explicit detriment. the downtime helps! the recharge time helps! the structure really really works!!
i'm technically only actively playing three, maybe two accounts minimum. the only reason the fourth (the one that'll be my future BaL playthrough) currently exists at all is so i can get his earlygame completely out of the way now and not have to waste time running through it all later, when what i actually want to do is play the ambition i've made myself wait a full year to play. and also getting free goodies as seasonal stuff happens,, something something surprise tools to help us later. the only two accounts i'd say i'm really "actively playing" at the moment are caeru and lark- and of the two, lark takes the most priority, since his ambition is the one i'm currently pursuing in earnest. for a couple months now- despite being My Main FL Character- the scoundrel has actually been pretty inactive on a gameplay front outside of the occasional progression in TLC and discordance content. purely by virtue of having Very little left to do outside of Very long-term grinds and vanities. they're in their "now what?" "now you can start playing the game" era. they've graduated to previous protagonist background cameo in a sequel anime series. they're like the yin FLPC equivalent of red at the top of mount silver. they're Literally just vibing rn. i only keep posting about them regardless because i'm insane and i will never ever ever ever ever let that bat go. but yeah, big TLDR, outside of doing the bare minimum to keep making waves/notability up every week, i'm not actually spending that much time on accounts i'm not currently actively interested in playing. and that accounts for way more gaming spoons than you might think.
i have a virtually lifelong history of playing MMOs, especially and specifically world of warcraft. i was born in the endless grind for useless video game pixel vanities and/or bragging rights. molded by it. you all have merely adapted to doing the same piece of content a pointlessly excessive amount of times for literally no reason besides whimsy and folly. me? i've done my time. i've served my sentence. i've spent weeks doing the original burning crusade netherwing dailies. i've devoted days to running praetorium over and over and over again, back-to-back, nonstop, long before square enix cut it in half and made it NOT take at minimum an hour and a half per run. i've perfected my silverwastes + auric basin goldfarming strategies. i've (almost) crafted dragonwrath tarecgosa's rest. i've killed the sha of anger so many times its dying scream of agony is embedded into the very fabric of my being. ""only"" doing making your name content four times over? that is nothing to me. it means nothing to me. it is so infinitesimal i can do the persuasive seduction quests in my sleep. it's not a matter of handling misery, or having the capacity, or even sighing as i remember the brass embassy raid segment of the watchful questline seriously i don't know why i keep forgetting that exists or what even is my problem with it i just am so consistently mildly inconvenienced by it and its highly specific resource requirements and it is the worst thing ever. maybe i'm just so used to the scoundrel's near-infinite money and troves of disposable items that i've completely forgotten what being poor is like. despite having done that step 3 fucking times now. ahem. anyway. i have transcended the feeble mortal bindings of my resistant-to-grinding flesh and ascended to a higher plane of enlightenment, they may call me insane but they will be the ones left laughing when they see what that "insanity" has wrought, i've usurped them, i've usurped them all-
hacks and coughs and awkwardly clears my throat. i mean. uh. um. Ahem.
the empress' court artistry + tales of the university nerfs helped too.
#and yes#before you ask#i have forgotten which account has which items/has done which content many a time#i think the most painful incident was forgetting to keep up the scoundrel's making waves while i was still playing nemesis with caeru#given that im trying to build it up to 12 and reset their specialization... that was uniquely painful#then again they have like 40 BDR so it wasnt actually that inconveniencing lmao#fallen london#ask#long post#sorry for the infodump + sudden villain monologue.#all jokes and personal accounts aside i totally get the apprehension abt doing that stuff again#it's not for everyone. not by a long shot.#im only doing this because im genuinely invested and in love with this silly little browser game#and way back when i started i made a (only half metaphorical) solemn oath to experience all of its ''main stories''#and truly see everything it has to offer#(bc i like. physically cant do hyperfixations by halves. i need to consume Everything abt the thing or i'll explode)#(and even then i'll probably explode anyway. it's either completely drop it or go All In until it stops taking up so much space in my brain#(and. given the track record. that is not happening with FL for a while yet)#but like. that isnt actually normal behavior. just. just to clarify.#from what ive seen a VAST majority of people do not go out of their way to play literally every ambition#and that is so valid. it is so overwhelming. you have to juggle so much.#you have to play the earlygame So Many Goddamn Times.#(as i said. served my time. did my sentence. i am my scars. etc etc)#the best advice i can give as someone who's so completely desensitized to that repetition it doesnt even phase me anymore?#the same advice i can stress to all FL players. legitimately just take ur time with it. play when you want to.#dont when you dont.#sometimes you have to grit your teeth and bear things. and when it comes to alts you Will have to grit your teeth and bear it all again#but the beauty of this being a game that one plays for fun is that unlike. say. crushing deadlines or annoying coworkers in real life#you are completely within your power to decide when where and if you want to grit and bear it all#..wow this is ADVANCED yin rambling holy shit. i actually reached the tag limit. i think this ask should be put on some kind of list
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Ridonculous Race but Noah is friends with Owen part 6: I'm sorry, even when I don't say it.
This was so clearly supposed to be a turning point in their relationship and the status quo. Why they wrote this episode just to return to said status quo I will never understand. Aaaanyway, in my perfect little world (this series), this is a turning point that gives leeway to Noah trusting and caring more about Owen going forward. He still likes Emma of course, but that doesn't mean Owen is any less important to him, and I'm sure he'll learn to show it :]
Transcript:
Image 1 Owen: How did we go from first to LAST?
Image 2 Owen: Woah, buddy. Are you alright? ...Noah?
Image 3 Noah: ...
Image 4 Owen: (Sigh.) Alright, listen. I can appreciate that you have a crush on Emma- and believe me- I know how strong that feeling can be and how it can mess with you...
Image 5 Owen: ...but racing with you has been the most fun ever! It'd stink if we had to go home because your head wasn't in the game! Owen: Not to mention you might end up losing Emma for good. Owen: I know you, dude. And I know that's not what you want.
Image 6 Owen: I know you want to win this thing! So... at least for now... Owen: Stop trying to be some girls hero... Owen: and be my hero.
Image 7 Owen: Okaaaay?
Image 8 Noah: ...okay.
#im so sorry this took so long owens monologue intimidated me for months#you dont know how long ive mulled over what exactly owen should say in this part#I hope the mulling was worth it and this came off as a nice dialogue I really really hope so#Im so happy this part is DONE and I can keep watching ridonculous#hasta la proxima#total drama#total drama ridonculous race#total drama presents: the ridonculous race#tdrr#total drama noah#td noah#total drama owen#td owen#I should proooobably make a tag specific to this series seeing as theres six parts huh#noah is friends with owen#yup thats the one#Starry makes art
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heyyy don’t mean to bother you but did you know that um. You, now - the ones listening to my idling progress from back home in Glottage - you’re telling yourselves; Val cannot possibly be growing angry over something like this. How dare she? The hypocrite. How can this thing, this monster, this battle-saint, possibly find any kind of righteous anger in her twisted and repurposed heart for the lives of the fallen foe? How does our terrible Val think she can justify any kind of anger at the sight of the flattened and buried corpses of enemy civilians and enemy children, when we’ve already been listening to her murder police officers, soldiers and townsfolk single-handedly in turn? How can she be furious when we’ve heard her butcher her way through the little old ladies of the CLS in the hopeless effort to murder her own faraway mother? (Mockingly) See? You can be sacred and yet self-aware. Yes, I am culpable. I am dreadful. I have been responsible for great atrocities and I will commit a great many more before I’m done. And still - I am growing furious, as I walk through the devastation of this town. Because the wound of Sutler’s Weald is not like any wound I would make. It’s clumsy, it’s crude. It’s thoughtless. I begin to tell myself, as I walk - I wouldn’t have murdered them like this. I would have been kinder. I would have killed them quickly or gracefully, and there would have been beauty and strangeness in the manner of it. And even that’s all deception, even if I had been cruel and slow and lingering in the massacre of these innocent people, upon my whim - I would at least have looked them in the eyes, and I would have borne the weight of my cruelty. If they’d asked me to, I could have killed this town beautifully. And I’d have borne witness to the horror, and I’d have rejoiced in it - and it would have been considerably less vile and ugly than this. The ones back home, the ones who are listening in, I don’t think they know what they’ve done here. The line of connection between the victim and the victimiser, the sacrifice and the god - it’s long, and tangled, and indistinct. A god should not be able to avert her eyes. What a terrible thing it must be, to be monstrous and not even know it. And even if all of this is lies, even if I am just as bad and just as careless as the people back home who did this to Sutler’s Weald… …well, then, let me hate them, pure and simply, for being just as bad as me, because people - -people should be kinder than the gods that eat them. The town square is largely intact. A few burning cars, a single shrine and statue to some goddess of victory, her snapped-off arm raised in imagined triumph. I sit down upon the pavement in the ruined heart of the town, and I tell the dead people of Sutler’s Weald beautiful lies. I tell them that they survived, in their hundreds - miraculously and inexplicably, dodging the bombs. Not a single victim, not one death. An act of divine mercy. When that doesn’t work, I tell them that they were buried properly, according to whatever rites or customs they happen to cherish. When that doesn’t work, I try and turn them into my mother again, in the hopes of making the dead people hateful to me. When that doesn’t work, I tell them that I’m sorry. I tell them I wish they still had ears to become all the wondrous imaginings I had in store for them. I tell them… …that all things considered, they deserved a better avenging and foreign god, a better tormentor, a better oblivion, than the one that was forced upon them. (With cold fury) I tell them- I will find a way to give them something better.
#SORRY for the wall of text but i thought about val siltverses for to long and felt blood slowly begin to leak from my ears#you understand. anyways pov i show up in s3 i have absolutely soul-crushingly devastating worldbuilding implications attached to everything#i do i inflict twisted body horror and mommy issues on the citizenry i do a whole bunch of war crimes like actual for real war crimes not#in a hahaha joke way like actual for real on screen war crimes and i’m also kind of a walking war crime/act of state-sanctioned violence/#victim of the system/perpetrator of the system myself and i get the best monologues in a show that’s made up of 80% monologue by volume and#then you think about me for the rest of your life.#‘If they’d asked me to I could have killed this town beautifully.’#‘What a terrible thing it must be to be monstrous and not even know it.’#‘people should be kinder than the gods that eat them.’#ALL BANGERS ALL THE TIME SHE LITERALLY NEVER ONCE MISSED!!!!!#one day i will attempt actual valnalysis but it will not be anytime soon i fear because i literally cannot think about her for to long.#silt verses chock full of the characters of all time bc i don’t think she’s even my real favourite out of all of them that honour goes to#carpenter or paige depending on the day. and yet she absolutely haunts me.#*stares in podcast rambling*#tsv#the silt verses#tsv s3#val tsv#tsv spoilers
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(Malware's POV)
"I used to be someone different..lovable..but I had a single flaw and was killed... not in a literal sense but... the closest to it. I woke up here in this digital void and had most of my memory, everything but my name was clear... I still don't remember my name. I didn't choose to look like a villain...a bad guy...i had to to protect myself from being deleted fully..."
"there's only so much I can do... I never wanted to kill those kids...i was upset...angered... Blinded... They were there with me before my disappearance from the database... They know who I am... I forgot when I was blinded by emotion... I still feel bad to this day..."
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this is the same anon from justttt previously with the end of book asks. hiiiii. i have also been slowly getting into sff short fiction (and made the plunge and added a few magazines websites to my rss feed so i can be Locked In) and i want this NEXT year to be my year of sff short fiction….do u have any fave stories to rec? also some more end of year book ask: 12 and/or 13?
omg… hello again! And sorry this ask ended up taking me so many days to get to, but, you know how it is with the holidays: time isn’t real. Also, my response ended up getting, like. REALLY long. So, sorry about that! I’m putting it under a cut to be considerate, but if interested, please read on for a List of some of my favorite authors for sf/f short fiction, and also a few other specific stories I read this year that I’ve been thinking a lot about! And also my fun little Hater Rant in response to your ask game prompts!
[The referenced end-of-year book ask game is here, by the way]
SF/F Short Fiction Recommendations
Starting with some authors who I consider Masters Of The Craft:
1. Isabel J. Kim.
If you’ve been on this blog longer than a couple months you’ve probably seen me casually gush over her stuff at some point, but if not… well, you really can’t go wrong with any of it! It’s pretty much all free to read on her website. (Incidentally, this is a great time to get into her work, because she had a huge three-book deal go through with Tor earlier this year and she’s going to have novels start coming out probably by 2026 which I predict are going to do VERY well—start with her short stories now and you’ll be able to say you were into her before she really hit the big time!) A few personal favorites of mine include:
Homecoming Is Just Another Word For The Sublimation Of The Self (doing some really interesting things with diaspora! This one is also her debut publication and the basis for her forthcoming debut novel, so maybe a good place to start)
You Will Not Live To See M/M Horrors Beyond Your Comprehension (this one is quite short, only like 1k words, and also quite funny if you’re an Online sort of individual! What if Achilles went to see the Oracle of Delphi and the Oracle had an ao3 account, basically.)
Why Don’t We Just Kill The Kid in the Omelas Hole (basically, it’s about the title. A take on Omelas (have you read the original Omelas story by Ursula K. Le Guin? If not, definitely start there) with the premise: what if the Omelas universe had social media reactionaries in it. VERY darkly funny.)
Zeta-Epsilon (possibly my Favorite Of Favorites. FANTASTIC meditation on What It Means To Love Things You’re Not Supposed To Love, and also a very well-written non-linear narrative, and also, there’s a heist; truly, I love this story so much)
Day Ten Thousand (WEIRD (positive) story, I would not start here with IJK, BUT if you end up liking her stuff this one will give you a lot to chew on. Some real “I will find you in every universe” vibes going on. Lots of thinking about wheels and cycles. Also lots of thinking about suicide, so, know that going in maybe)
2. Rich Larson.
This man is like, probably the most prolific writer of speculative short fiction currently active. He's written SO MUCH. A lot of it is REALLY GOOD. Some favorites of mine:
Ice (cool Arctic-world vibes off the charts (they have a thing called FROSTWHALES) but the real highlight is the deliciously complicated relationship between the protagonist and his younger brother. It's full of jealousy and love gone sour and misunderstandings, and it makes me insane whenever I think about it. They made an episode of Love Death + Robots out of this story which is also pretty good—it ends differently than the original and isn't as impactful in my opinion, but the animation goes hard)
Last Nice Day (A bit of a Winter Soldier vibe with this one. Very moody. IS it possible to make peace with the things your body has done?)
Travelers (this one is... heavy. To say too much ahead of time would be to spoil the impact of realizing what's going on in my opinion but it's a lot. Don't read it unless you're in the right mindset to tackle some serious topics but if you ARE in that mindset it's very good)
Not actually short fiction, but if you end up liking the three short stories I listed above, I highly recommend his novel Ymir. It's got a lot of common elements with them, especially Ice.
3. Kelly Link
The undisputed queen of the SF/F short story. Everything she's written in her 20+ year career is spectacularly creative and absolutely haunting. Again, you probably can't go wrong, but my personal top three are:
Valley of the Girls [not online so I can't link to it unfortunately but it's in her collection "Get in Trouble"—you could see if your library has it?] (this story fucks me up to the MAXIMUM possible degree. It's like. Hm. It's like. What if Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh was about the teenaged children of, like, Elon Musk. And in their desperation to be noticed and remembered by a world in which literally none of their actions have any consequences ever due to the isolation born of their privilege they all became obsessed with a bastardized version of ancient Egyptian funerary culture and started building pyramids to get up to their teenaged antics within. Well okay so that's the setting. As for the plot. I'm going to leave it to Link to unfold the plot, because she does it so, so, SO masterfully. The way crucial information gets slowly revealed as the story creeps along to its ending... and the ending itself... seriously, I get SO fucked up over this story every time I think about it. Read it please!!)
The Summer People (extremely classic Link vibes on this one; might be a good place to start with her work, especially since it's online. Very atmospheric, featuring deals with fairies and prompting some interesting discussion on class within vacation destinations)
Skinder's Veil [I read this in the 2022 Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy anthology volume edited by Rebecca Roanhorse and John Joseph Adams; not sure if it's available elsewhere] (not sure what to say about this one tbh besides OOOOFF. VIBES. It was my first Kelly Link short story and the first time I'd ever read anything quite like it, and it will thus live in my heart forever <3)
Moving on to some other miscellaneous stories that I read this year and liked a lot!
Selkie Stories are for Losers by Sofia Samatar. I got recced this one by the good people of Wyrmhole (are you signed up for the Wyrmhole newsletter yet? If not, you SHOULD be - it’s a project started by Isabel J. Kim and a few other short fiction authors. Their tagline is “a terminally online newsletter for speculative short fiction”. You’re on Tumblr, you’ll probably like a lot of what they promote at least as much as I do!) It's beautiful and tragic—the story of two kids whose parents have failed them and how they find each other.
Binomial Nomenclature and the Mother of Happiness by Alexandra Munck. This one from the first 2024 issue of Clarkesworld does great work with first person POV/unreliable narration, and the tone is so quietly, profoundly sad that reading it broke my heart a little. It's about the tragically doomed attempts of the narrator to rigidly and scientifically categorize emotional responses, and letting that work blind her to the ways her actions are causing emotional harm to herself and others. Very well done!
If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak by Sam J. Miller. Devastating supernatural take on addiction and the way it impacts loved ones. Really just gorgeous.
I'll stop there for the sake of brevity (lmao, as if) but there are plenty of other stories I've read and loved, and would be happy to recommend also! Anon (or anyone else!), if you'd ever like to swing by my dms and discuss—if you read anything I mention above, what your feelings are on it, if there's anything else you particularly enjoyed that strikes you as similar, etc.—I'd be really happy to chat short fiction further! I'm always looking for new recommendations myself, as well.
With that I'll move onto part two: the hater half of this love/hate saga!
Books That Suck 2k24
12. Any books that disappointed you?; 13. What were your least favorite books of the year?
As far as disappointing books go… I read this non-fiction book called “Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles” which was… well to be honest my feelings are a little complicated! Because on the one hand the subject matter is inherently interesting to me (coming-out of the closet as a Beatles enjoyer on Tumblr dot com) so I was personally pretty invested in it the whole way through and I’m on the whole glad I read it because I did learn some more Fun Facts And Minutiae. However. I don’t really feel like the information, as interesting as it was, was very well presented? I mean the thing is. Come ON. It’s literally the break-up of the Beatles. There surely must be a way to spin a bit more of a proper NARRATIVE out of this rather than presenting it as just a collection of trivia and fun facts which is sort of what I felt it was when all was said and done. And also I took issue with the spin the author gave some of said facts in the “unbiased” narrative voice but whatever, I’m a Paul girl so I’m always going to be dissatisfied with any male author’s take on the breakup lmao, so I guess that’s kind of a non-factor.
Really I think the primary reason I felt disappointed coming out of the book was its failure to live up to its title! Like. In addition to falling a little flat on the “Story” side of things… You call your book “Solid State” and I’m gonna want to see some TECHNICAL DETAILS on those consoles, baby. Tell me about the inner workings! But instead it was just very. “The new desks meant you could have more tracks which was cool 👍. George bought a Moog. Anyway here’s why the other three Beatles breaking with all precedent and overruling Paul 3-1 on the Klein issue rather than waiting until they had reached a unanimous agreement to make a major business decision means that it’s PAUL’S FAULT that the group wasn’t speaking with one voice anymore 🙄” (Side note if anyone seeing this DOES have any resources on recording technology of the 60s-70s that are a little more technical in nature PLEASE send them to me! I would really like to learn more about this!)
I don't think Solid State was my least favorite book of the year on the whole, though. That honor probably goes to Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, which... God, I really wanted to like it, and in principle it sounds like it should be a lot of fun, but I don't know. I just felt the pacing was off, I think. I didn't enjoy reading it very much. That said, I don't think it's bad, and it would probably work for a lot of people—it just didn't for me. And I didn't read that many books I disliked all the way from start to finish this year, but I did finish Shigidi just because it was such a fast read (took me less than a day to get through), so... unfortunately that's a mark against it here, I guess.
#truly i am sorry that this is so so SO long but you gave me the chance to be a hater and a lover in the same post! how was i to resist a bi#of monologuing?#if you actually read all the way to the end here: thank you! <3#answered asks#reading recommendations
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almost finished with the zero draft of this fic 👍
#stopped calling it an outline bc it's too long to be an outline 😭 my process involves a zero draft and i accept that#also this isn't an odyeury fic on purpose however. eurylochus could never be normal about odysseus im sorry.#im reading his inner monologue which I WROTE and im like 🤨🏳️🌈⁉️
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Previous
In reference to
#Chapter 2 Part 2: The Shift#???Fraxure#???Hitmonlee#We will be getting ONE of their names here so no more of this ??? nonsense soon#And sorry but we have to venture into this mess AGAIN#I can't promise that we won't run into South Town backstory if/when another survivor pops up#This isn't me implying another might pop up#Time also for an abridged version of this flashback that I've had in mind for a long time#Sadly it's from the wrong perspective so no inner monologues from them~ ;D
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personal rant incoming
#i haaate when ppl coming with this money can't make you happy monologue#when they clearly never had to worry about not having money#not having worry about food bc u don't have money for it#or paying bills#and he can just do whatever he wants go on a year long vacation to travel around the world#like how stupid do you have to be to think that??? not having to work for a year guess what thatade you happy I bet#so none of this bullshit#if I had enough money to pursue what I like to go to uni I'd be so much happier if I had more money to help my sisters I'd be so much more#happier#fck these ppl honestly#money can solve so much of my problems#fix probably all of them#but whoever says these just a boring ass person who can't do anything with their money#bc they have no interest or literally anything to live for#I'm angry sorry 🙄😡🤬
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Tim: "So maybe it's my fault./ When bruce asked me to start training Paul -- preparing him, it turned out -- I designed a costume for Harold to put together.../ I figured it was a good cross between the Azrael and Batman outfits.../ ...but maybe I made it too similar to a bad guy Bruce had just put away./ Looking back, aside from Metalhead's nasty spikes, the two outfits were almost identitcal./ Maybe it gave Paul subliminal cues -- and combined with all the weird stuff hidden in his head.../ Maybe it triggered some stuff from "The System" and made him--"
Dick: "No-- it's stupid to blame yourself."
Batman (1940) Issue #500
#sorry dick. I made him and outfit that was kinda similar to a criminal so he got confused and turned into a criminal. this is all my fault#ignore the assassin programming btw.#I loooooooove how long his monologue was.#I trimmed it down. Tim is going through mental gymnastics to make this HIS fault.#I found this so endlessly funny that I typed this all out with a sticky keyboard.#the stuff I trimmed down was Tim explaining The System when Dick asked.#dc#panels#<kinda? don't have a better tag for this.#tim drake
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(@ask-diane) Sammy @Silas: "North.. and a ghost... Peculiar... So who are you exactly? I mean- Are you a thief of the sorts? You did say something about stealing from a North, person and a ghost??"
Silas's laughing and amusement however quickly melted away, it seemed the little zorua was quite serious. He looked almost offended by their comment when he realized it wasn't a joke.
"Am I really supposed to believe a GHOST TYPE in EAST MOUTH doesn't know me?" "Look. Every ghost knows who the fuck I am. Every ghost runs in the other direction when they see me."
"I'm the Zoroark everyone fears so greatly. THE SPECTER that haunts this town's past. You wanna know what I did to earn that fear?" He gave a smug look.
"And you know what? She fuckin' deserved it. 𝐖𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚 was a massive bitch that stole everything from me. She stole 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐬 love, she stole my life." He huffed in anger. "So I just returned the favour. She was a dumb ghost."
"Ugh. I didn't realize that thing would come back after a while." "If I knew that I would have destroyed her soul completely. I was hoping... I don't fuckin' know 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐲 would just fucking eat her or something. Of course, my own Deity would spite me." "So, no, I'm not just some fuckin' petty thief that steals things, I did much more than some childs pastime crime. Single handily,"
"She made it painfully clear she didn't want a zorua son when she ditched me in another universe with a batshit crazy Braixen."
"Maybe she'll actually do it this time. She never learns, Peace isn't always an option. I'm not going to make it an option." "It's not like she's a pacifist. I've seen her kill in cold blood before. She should have no problem with it, she's just stalling."
-> Relationships page has been added and updated.
[Ask from @ask-diane]
#TNI: Chrono#TNI: Silas Rune#tw: death#*taps mic* your daily reminder silas is not a good person#Only you can change this fate🎶#really though i would have gotten this one out faster but im sorry sammy you put a coin in the slot and got him monologuing#long post#Chapter 1: The Introduction
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