#the ink for the text is still not great but i'm working on it

[helyannis]

The Lay of the Children of Húrin

fol. 1v

[roosterforme]

A Love You Don't Find Everyday Part 12 | Rooster x Reader

Summary: Bradley is hoping your car is not repairable. And when you and he run into a fling from his past, it throws Bradley into an internal dilemma about his self worth. 

Warnings: Angst, fluff, smut, and swearing

Length: 4700 words

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female Reader

Check out my masterlist for more!

You finally felt well enough to head back to work on Wednesday. Since your car was still missing under slightly mysterious circumstances, you had to ride in with Bradley.

"My mechanic said he wants you to come make some decisions about your car. We can head there after work," Bradley said. You didn't appreciate the slightly giddy tone in his voice.

"Did he say what's wrong with it?" you asked, eating a bagel while he drove. 

"Just that they replaced the battery and the starter. I think he wants to talk to you about the next steps."

You glared at him. "Next steps? I better not have to replace it. I love that car."

Bradley just grinned as he drove. "I'll replace it for you, Baby Girl. You can blame it all on me."

It felt good to get back into the swing of things after being away and being sick. When Bradley texted to see if you were joining him for lunch, you sent him an angry face emoji and told him you were eating with Cam and Maria. That was the last you heard from him until the end of the day when he was knocking on your open door.

"Are you really mad at me?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe with his hand on his hip. "Because you shouldn't be. Your car has a personal vendetta against me, Sweetheart."

"My car is blameless," you said, pausing to point at him before you packed up your bag. He was wearing his short sleeved khaki uniform, and you could see his tattoo peeking out below the sleeve. It would have been impossible to be mad at him. "Take me to it."

He just shook his head and held your hand as you waited for the elevator. As you rode down to ground level, you wrapped your arms around his waist. "Remember when we listened to OutKast together in this elevator?"

He ran his hands along your back. "Of course. Then I played it at the Hard Deck, because it was stuck in my head after I knew you liked it. How embarrassing. I showed you all of my cards so early."

You giggled against him and slid your hand up his bicep and under his sleeve, stroking the inked paper airplane. "You're so sweet, Roo. Never made me second guess that you wanted to date me." 

"Marry you," he rasped, kissing the top of your head as you caressed his skin. "Just had to date you long enough so we didn't seem completely crazy."

The ride to the mechanic was filled with one of Bradley's playlists while he asked you a bunch of times if you were really feeling better. 

"I'll be feeling great once I'm driving my car home," you told him as he pulled up to a garage with a bunch of cars being worked on. You spotted yours parked off to the side right away.

"Please don't get your hopes up that it's even driveable, Baby Girl," Bradley was telling you, but you were already climbing down to find out what was going on.

You rushed inside the building with Bradley right behind you, and you were asking about the car before he could even get a word in. And after a moment, the mechanic was leading both of you back outside.

"I've gotta tell you, your car's been a little difficult," the mechanic explained as he led both of you to the car. "But I think after the new battery and starter, it might be okay. Doesn't start up clean each time though."

"It will for me," you insisted, glaring at Bradley over your shoulder. 

The mechanic handed the keys to you, and you got yourself situated in the driver's seat. It started up perfectly for you. Three times in a row. 

"I told you it would be fine!" you told Bradley, gesturing wildly at the interior of your car as you looked up at him. "No need to buy a new one." 

He just stood with his arms crossed, shaking his head. "I'm paying for this then?" he asked, a smirk hiding just under the surface. 

"Yes, pay this nice man for the repairs," you said, bestowing a bright smile on the mechanic who smiled back at you. 

The mechanic leaned down and pointed to something on your dashboard. "Actually, while I have you here, I wanted to point out a few things that you should keep an eye on."

Bradley shook his head and sighed. "I'm going to head inside and pay."

You shooed Bradley away and listened to what the mechanic had to say about your car. 

------------------------

Bradley was leaning against the counter, putting his credit card back in his wallet and looking over the detailed receipt of repairs. He supposed eight hundred dollars wasn't too bad, especially since you were so happy your car was still running. He'd figure out a way to replace your car eventually. The only issue was, he doubted you'd ever let him drive it again. 

"Bradley?"

He turned to his left to see a woman about your age standing there smiling at him like she'd just won the lottery. 

"Hi," he replied, desperately trying to place her. She was kind of familiar. Cute face, dark hair, nice smile. All things he liked. 

She was inching closer now. "I'm Whitney. Remember? From like a year ago?"

Bradley's shoulders sagged as he exhaled. A shameful feeling of discomfort filled him up; he'd slept with her. He could remember her now. They met at some stupid outdoor concert thing he went to with Nat right after he came to San Diego. He'd taken her back to the barracks that night. He'd actually let her sleep over. 

He felt sick. "No. It was more than a year ago." He knew that much for sure. He hadn't so much as flirted with anyone except you since he met you last August. Fourteen months ago. 

"Well, close enough," Whitney replied, running her fingers through her hair in a way that Bradley would have probably found appealing. "I can't believe I ran into you here. Feel like grabbing a drink with me? I could give you my number again," she said in a singsong tone before nibbling on her lip. "Or... maybe you just want to follow me to my place?"

Had he really been that easy? He supposed he had. Just a pretty face and some tits had usually done the trick for him. He was embarrassed. So embarrassed for himself and for you. It was almost unbearable for him when these feelings came to the surface. He was not good enough for you, and he knew it. 

You came strolling back inside, mid conversation with the mechanic before you thanked him and headed for Bradley.

"I told you, Roo! I told you my car would be fine," you said, laughing as you wrapped your arms around his waist. "Ever stop to think that maybe you're the problem?"

You were running your nose along the scars on his neck before you turned and saw how closely Whitney was still standing to him. Bradley held you a little tighter, but you froze and eyed the other woman cautiously. 

"Oh," Whitney gasped, taking a small step back.

"Whitney, this is my fiancée," Bradley said with as much confidence as he could. 

"Hi," you said politely before looking up at Bradley, eyes searching his for a clue as to what was going on.

But Whitney looked you up and down before focusing on Bradley with extreme agitation. "You said you never got serious. You made it a point to tell me that."

Now you seemed to understand what was happening here, because you stood a little taller, but kept your arm around Bradley. The fact that he knew you would stand here and defend him until you were out of breath made this painful ache inside him even worse. But he wouldn't let you do that for him today.

"I never got serious before," he told Whitney. Then he stroked his fingers along your cheek until you were looking up at him again. He gave you a small smile and kept his eyes on yours. "Because I didn't know this one existed yet."

Your eyes fluttered closed as you smiled up at him. He loved you so much, he hated that this was happening. 

Whitney scoffed sarcastically, and Bradley watched your face return to a neutral expression before you turned toward her. "Anything else we can help you with?" you asked blandly. When Whitney just shook her head, you waved to her and said goodbye. 

Bradley didn't know what to say to you as you watched Whitney walk away. 

You took both of his hands in yours and kissed his lips softly. "Ready to go home?"

Bradley just grunted in agreement. "I'll follow you," he said. "In case you have any issues with your car."

"Okay," you said, your voice soft and sweet. He would have expected more of an argument about how your car was the best thing you owned, but you just nodded and agreed with him. 

So he watched you get settled in the driver's seat, and he pulled out onto the main road behind you. He was glad you weren't in the Bronco to witness the emotional beating he was giving himself. 

----------------------

Bradley slept with that woman. You could tell almost immediately by the interaction, but you had needed him to confirm it for you. You knew it was before you and he were together. He made it a point to say that he hadn't known you existed yet when he was with her. 

You didn't care. It was obvious to you that Bradley had been with a lot of women before you. He had even told you as much. And you'd put Hangman, Payback and the other guys in their place when they tried to make Bradley feel bad about himself. You wouldn't let anyone get to him over something so dumb. But as you parked in the driveway and watched him pull in as well, you got the distinct feeling that he was already in his own head over this. And you weren't sure if you'd be able to protect him against himself. 

He walked around the Bronco and opened your car door for you. "Thanks, Roo," you said. He let you take his hand, but he remained silent as you led him to the front door. "Are you hungry? We still have some of the leftover soup you got to help me feel better." 

But he just shook his head and quickly unbuttoned his uniform shirt, leaving him in his white undershirt and khaki pants. "I'm not hungry," he said softly, grabbing Tramp's leash and hanging his shirt on the hook instead. "You should eat though. Don't want you to start feeling sick again."

He knelt down and clipped Tramp's leash to his collar, then he opened the front door. 

"Can we talk about it, Roo?"

You watched his broad chest rise and fall, but he didn't meet your eyes. "I just... I'll be back."

"Bradley," you said firmly, fighting the urge to stomp your foot and yell at him. "I do not care about that shit. It doesn't matter to me "

But he turned further away from you. "I'm embarrassed. I can't take you to the mechanic without running into someone I hooked up with, who I can barely even fucking recognize. It's bad enough that it happens at the bar or when I'm fucking deployed."

"Bradley," you tried again. "Please look at me?"

He did exactly as you asked, but his face looked pale and pinched. His eyes were guarded, and you hesitated even though you wanted to touch him.

The words, "I love you," slipped from your lips, but he just nodded and opened the door. Tramp danced around at his feet, getting excited to go outside. 

"Please, just let me take Tramp for a walk." He didn't wait for an answer, and soon you were standing in the entryway alone.

You didn't know how to reassure him. You thought about texting Phoenix for help, but what could she do? It would be a bad idea to text Jake, so you would just wait Bradley out. He had to come home eventually.

-------------------------

Bradley strolled up and down the beach in his combat boots while Tramp sniffed everything along the way. It was windy and cloudy, and nobody else was really out, which suited his mood. 

He was so embarrassed. He couldn't stop thinking about the fact that you must be embarrassed, too, even if you weren't admitting it to him. 

Bradley just wanted to be good for you. He wanted you to be as proud of him as he was of you. The wedding was next month, and it was pretty much all planned and ready now. Marrying you was the only thing he wanted for himself. 

Tramp started dragging around a piece of driftwood as Bradley led him further up the beach. He had everything he wanted; everything had changed so much in barely a year of knowing you. He had you and Tramp and somewhere to live that wasn't temporary.

You had to know all the other women were before he met you. He'd told you that. Bradley had told you there was nobody else for him now, just you. So why did he feel so shitty? 

He caught sight of his tattoo, and his embarrassment grew deeper. You wanted him to talk to you instead of stew, but he'd walked out of the house anyway. The sun was setting now, and he'd usually be showering or snuggling with you at this point in the evening.

"Fuck," he grunted, guiding Tramp up to the beach entrance trail. "Let's go talk to Mommy."

When he finished brushing the sand from Tramp's fur and let him in, it was getting dark outside. You appeared to be fresh out of the shower, wearing his old UVA shirt as you cleaned up the kitchen.

You turned to face him with wide eyes. "Cleaning the kitchen is my job," he said, trying for a teasing tone. 

"Yeah, you're better at it than I am," you replied with a hesitant smile. "How was your walk?"

He took a step closer. "I'm sorry I didn't stay and talk to you."

You just shrugged. "You needed a minute to yourself. I can appreciate that. But I don't know why you're embarrassed, Roo. I didn't learn anything new today."

He just shook his head. "I know you didn't. And just to be clear, there's nothing else to learn. It's just been you since we met. You know that, right?"

The soft smile that touched your lips could have brought him to his knees. "Yeah, I know that. It was the same for me. I didn't want to date anyone when we met, or have you forgotten that? I didn't even want to date you at first," you said with a laugh. "But that didn't last long."

Your hand connected with his abs, and when he didn't stop you, he felt you wrap your arms around him. "You don't think I'm a little embarrassed that I originally intended for you to be a hookup? A hookup, Bradley. I love you more than anything else in this world, and while you were trying to tell me you were falling in love with me, I was trying to keep it casual."

He laughed as you rubbed your cheek against his chest. "Yeah, that is a little embarrassing," he agreed, already feeling better. 

You looked up at him, eyes wide, demanding his attention. "You're not the only one with a past. You never make me feel bad about myself, and I never want you to feel bad either. There's a reason we both stopped hooking up when we met each other. We're supposed to be together."

He just nodded. "You know, I was embarrassed that I didn't recognize Whitney at first. Thought it was because I'd been such a manwhore. But I think maybe the reason I couldn't remember her or anyone else is because you've taken over my whole brain, Baby Girl." 

Your eyes flashed with something akin to anger. "Do not call yourself a manwhore. I fucking lost it on the guys when they made you feel bad, and I'll lose it on you just the same."

He swallowed hard. "Okay. I won't."

"And if I was somehow able to make you only think of me, I'm certainly not going to complain." You nuzzled your face against his arm and kissed along his tattoo. "You're mine."

Bradley let you make him feel better. He let you heat up some soup for him, and you sat in his lap while he ate it. He let you get him cozy on the couch and snuggle as you watched a show. He let you do all that magical stuff you always did that made his heart feel full.

------------------------

Thursday was better, but by Friday, Bradley had definitely perked up. 

"What time is dinner with Cam and Maria?" Bradley asked, getting changed into jeans after work. 

"In an hour and a half," you told him from the bathroom where you were doing your hair. 

He walked in and let his hands rest on your hips. "You look so pretty. Should I cancel golf and bar hopping with the guys tomorrow and spend the day with you instead?"

You glared playfully at him in the mirror. "Are you really golfing tomorrow? Or is that just a cover for another tattoo?"

"Don't test me, Baby Girl," he whispered, kissing your neck. "If it wasn't Coyote's birthday, I would be canceling."

"No, you should go, because I have some things I need to do tomorrow."

He kissed along your neck and you smirked. "Like what?"

"Well..." you said, turning in his arms so you were facing him. "I was hoping Daddy would give me an allowance to go lingerie shopping for the honeymoon." You looked up into his wide, brown eyes with as much innocence as you could muster without grinning. You didn't need his money for that, but you loved teasing him. 

You watched his head tip back as he groaned, his Adam's apple straining. "Fuck. How much do you want?" He started fumbling in his jeans pocket. "Here, take my whole wallet."

You started laughing. "You want me to buy a lot, Roo?"

"I want you to buy everything," he said, handing you his wallet and then pushing you up against the sink vanity. "Buy it all. Lingerie, dresses, bathing suits. Whatever you want."

You were giggling as he rubbed his mustache along your cheek. "Whatever I want?"

His hands were on your zipper as he kissed you all over your face. "Use my credit cards. Drain my retirement accounts if you need to. I'll take out a second mortgage. Get whatever you want."

You tucked his wallet into your back pocket, and it took all your willpower to grab his wrist and pull his hand out of the front of your underwear. "Bradley," you whispered as he hummed next to your ear. "We can't right now. Rings, remember?"

Bradley groaned as he zipped and buttoned your jeans for you. "Picking out wedding rings is the only thing that could deter me from a quickie right now. I hope you know that."

You wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed him hard. "We won't stay out too late tonight."

Bradley picked you up and whispered, "We'll skip dessert, and I'll bring you home and eat you instead."

---------------------

Bradley really wanted you to pick out whichever matching wedding bands you wanted, but you insisted on getting his input. 

"It's gotta be gold to match," you said, holding up your left hand which he kissed. "Your dad picked out the prettiest ring for your mom."

"He did, but that's your ring now. Pick out whatever you want to match."

He watched you look at seemingly every ring in the jewelry store before pulling out a few plain gold bands that you liked. The jeweler helped you try them on with your ring, and Bradley was already imagining slipping one of them on your finger himself. 

"I like these two," you finally told him, pointing out two pairs. "You choose."

Bradley slipped the first one on his finger and smiled. It felt good. It looked good. He liked it. He swapped it out for the second one, and he saw your smile grow. He liked this one even more.

"Put the matching one back on, Baby Girl." You slid the matching band on and held your hand up for him. They were simple gold bands, and yours looked perfect with your engagement ring. "These ones, yeah?"

You just nodded and kissed him. "Yeah. I'm paying for them," you said, handing your credit card to the jeweler before he could argue. "Don't worry Daddy, I'll run up a sizeable bill on your card tomorrow."

Bradley tilted your chin up with his fingers. "You better."

He couldn't wait to get you home. But first, Bradley had to make it through dinner. Luckily, he knew Cam and Maria well enough by this point to be able to touch you the whole time without them batting an eye.

Cam smiled across the table at him while he ate his salad. "So, Bradley, you ever planning on shaving off that pornstache, I mean mustache?" he asked with a smile.

Bradley chuckled and leaned over to kiss your cheek. "That's up to this one," he replied, looking at you.

"No, it stays forever," you told Cam. "Had him shave it once. Instant regret." 

"Should I be looking at bridesmaids dresses?" Maria asked. "You guys really need to pick a wedding date!"

You and Bradley shared a smirk. "Don't worry about that yet," you told your friend. 

"I want to worry about it!" Maria complained. "You guys could have gotten married last year, and I feel like nobody would have thought it was weird."

Bradley appreciated your friends for how much they really did like him, and how much they obviously loved you. But there was no way they were going to get any top secret wedding intel out of either of you.

"Oh, you know what we should do, Roo?" you suddenly asked him. "Let's host a Halloween party!"

You were giving him a look. He thought this might have been your way of steering the conversation where you wanted it. "Yeah, sounds fun," he agreed, looking across the table at your friends who both looked delighted. So he'd host another party with you. That sounded like something for married people. 

True to your word, you and Bradley ducked out before dessert. When Bradley buckled you into the Bronco, he pulled the wedding bands out of the glovebox and handed them to you. "Don't want to forget to take those inside later," he told you with a kiss. He watched you tuck them into your purse, and as soon as he was pulling out onto the road, your hands were on his jeans, unzipping.

"Oh, shit," Bradley groaned as you eased your hand inside his jeans and started stroking him, making him a little hard after just a few passes of your hand along his cock. "I get a handjob on the way home?" He was trying to pay attention to the road, but he glanced down to watch your hand pump him all the way to the tip and then move back down.

"Road head, Daddy," you said just before you started to shimmy yourself onto your belly.

"Hell yes," Bradley hissed as he felt your warm breath on his cock. You wasted no time, taking him deep, letting him hit the back of your throat. It took every ounce of Bradley's concentration to stay on the road as he hit the back of your throat again, making you gag. By the third time you started gagging, Bradley was panting.

You withdrew him long enough to ask, "Does Daddy like that?" Then he was gliding back between your perfect lips while you sucked on him.

Bradley ran his fingers along the back of your neck and grunted. "Daddy loves it. Just keep your seatbelt on, Baby Girl." He took the long way home, driving on backroads at a leisurely pace that seemed to match the movement of your mouth around his dick. You weren't in any hurry, and neither was he. "My God, you give the best head." 

He dragged his hand down your neck and along your spine until he was palming your ass through your jeans. When he rolled up to a stop sign, he landed a hard slap that had you suddenly jerking forward and moaning. 

"Fuck!" Bradley practically howled. He was seeing stars, you were taking him so deep now. He kept his foot firmly pressing down on the brake pedal and listened to the sloppy, wet sounds you were making on him. He was too close now, fucking up into your mouth. 

A horn blared behind him, and he let loose a string of curse words as he manually rolled down his window and waved the car behind him around. He was going to cum, he was right on the edge. The other driver was stopping next to him and asking if he needed any help. 

Bradley's head was tipped back against the headrest as the first tingles of his orgasm washed through him.

"I'm fine!" he hollered through the open window. "Oh shit, I'm so good."

"Are you sure?" the other driver asked.

Bradley just violently waved him on, saying, "My wife has it under control!"

He felt you moan, and that was it. He was filling your mouth with cum as you sucked with hollowed out cheeks until he couldn't feel his fingertips. 

Bradley ended up waving on two more cars before you popped his softening cock out of your mouth and smiled up at him. "Take me home."

"Anything you want," he whispered, and you carefully zipped him back up while he drove you there.

------------------------

"You called me your wife," you gasped. "In the Bronco."

"Mmhmm," Bradley hummed against your clit as you tipped your head back against your pillow. He was gently stroking his fingers along your tattoo and holding your right foot in place on his shoulder.

"It turned me on."

"I can see that," he said, grinning up at you. "I can taste it, too. You're so wet."

You propped yourself up on one elbow and watched him work you over. He was so sexy, and every time you saw his tattoo, you clenched around his fingers. You were so close now, and you wanted to cum, so you decided to push him over the edge. 

"We have wedding rings."

Yep, that did it. You collapsed back against the pillow as he went feral on you, making you cum on his face.

Bradley kissed your lips, hovering over you like he was about to do some pushups. "What did I do to deserve road head?" he whispered, nudging your nose with his until you were smiling. "Thought we would wait until we got home. Maybe make that video? But damn... you got me off good in the Bronco."

You ran your fingers gently through his hair. "You're the best. You're letting me throw a Halloween party. You're planning our honeymoon. You talked to me the other day about the stuff from your past that makes you a little embarrassed. Even though it shouldn't, Roo. But you didn't shut me out."

"I don't want to shut you out, Sweetheart. You always make me feel so much better." He eased himself down so that he was resting against your chest. "Now promise Daddy you'll buy whatever you want for our honeymoon tomorrow."

You giggled. "Promise."

"And promise Daddy you'll send some photos while you're shopping." He nipped along your breasts as your fingers wound in his hair.

You thought about what you could send to him while he was playing golf and drinking with the guys. "Promise. But it might mess up your golf game."

Bradley groaned against you. "My golf game is already bad. Just fuck it up more, Baby Girl."

-------------------------

Covered a lot of emotions in this one. Also making a lot of promises. Also getting closer to his deployment.

PART 13

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[inkprovised]

I am back🥳

Freshly married and ready to starrrrt!! (Continue)

Thank you for all the congratulations🥰 (not sure if you say it like that tbh the translator didn't help) haha

Hehe stuff goes flying

First of;

I don't know exactly how long till the next pages, I'm sorry. (Great start, Ink)

Aaaand at the side, I'm working on a timeline for this. I am trying to find all the story ideas I have ever written down for this story.... that will take some time. Those are everywhere 🤣😅 in text files, csp files, my sketchbook, some random note app on my phone..... 🥲 haha work. I don't even know what I wrote down and what is still in my head - threatened to be forgotten.... so I better do that soon! I still want the whole package!!!

Okay, this all sounds worse than it is!

So I'll just start then!!! Woooooooooo!!

Love you!!! ❤️‍🔥

[leveragehunters]

okay, I have to ask — how do you like your kobo ereader??

I’ve been eyeing one for a while bc I really *don’t* want a kindle, but also *so* many people have a kindle that it feels like it’s the only real option

Holy crap I LOVE IT. It's so much better than the Kindle. (Also: this got long)

I decided to upgrade my old Paperwhite (it was a second gen, so pretty old and small) and I almost got a new Paperwhite automatically (cause I felt much the same as you).

But the Kobos were on the same page and since I'm trying to be less impulsive, I started poking around and they are so good.

I went with a black Libra 2 and it's like the software was actually designed for human beings, unlike the Kindle software, which I think was designed for no one except the devil.

I side-load only and keep all my books organised in collections. The only way to do collections on the Kindle is manually, one book at a time, or jailbreak (and I'm not sure you can jailbreak the new Paperwhites, plus it's such a PITA).

On the Kobo, I can build collections from within Calibre, super fast and multiple books at a time. You can also do them manually on the Kobo, but even that is SO MUCH EASIER than on the Kindle.

The actual screen reading experience is basically identical (you can even side-load the Kindle font if you want it), since e-ink is pretty much e-ink, but it has few extra 'while you're reading' tweaks, like setting the all around margin size of the book (great if you switch between books and comics) and controlling the presence of, and info in, the top and bottom bar (pages left in book, pages left in chapter, percentage left to go etc). It also has a brightness and a warmness setting, so you can tweak those til they're just right for you.

I'm loving the physical page turn buttons so much - way easier than having to swipe the screen. I can hold the Kobo in one hand and just page forward with my thumb. It's also a teeny tiny bit lighter than my old Paperwhite.

I also love that you can 'archive' any books you've bought from Kobo, so they don't show up on the e-reader (you can still get them from Kobo later if you want), unlike Amazon where they're always right there unless you delete them forever. Like I said, I side-load everything, I don't want to see the Amazon-displayed copies. I don't want to see the Amazon displayed ANYTHING.

Kobo also doesn't advertise to you. Even in a non ad-supported Kindle, the home page of the new Kindle software shows trending and suggested books. It's bloody advertising. The home page on the Kobo shows you things about your library, with a discrete text invitation at the bottom to find new books or make a wishlist. There is a 'Discover' tab where you can see suggested books and such, but you have to actively go there, which means you're seeing it because you want to see it.

It's very intuitive to use - there's tabs down the bottom that do what they say on the tin and the settings are clear what they do. If it goes to sleep on 'Books' it wakes up on 'Books'. If you have authors sorted by last name it shows them all sorted by last name (this was endless aggravation on the Kindle which seemed to have an 'I do whatever the fuck I like' approach). It displays a cute little 'sleeping' when it's asleep along with the cover of what you're currently reading (you can turn that last one off).

It natively supports a decent assortment of file types: KEPUB, EPUB, EPUB2, EPUB3, PDF, FlePub, MOBI, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ and CBR.

I cannot recommend the Kobo Libra 2 highly enough. It's the damn bees knees and I wish I'd gotten one years ago. I can't ever see going back to the Kindle.

Some pics and Calibre details under the cut (which doesn't seem to be working, darn it).

(yes I have been rereading the Kitty series)

The Calibre plugins I grabbed are below, but tbh honest you don't really NEED any of them:

I also converted my library to kepub, which isn't necessary, but gives you some nifty extra reading features.

To create Collections on your Kobo with Calibre

Decide what Calibre column you want to use for setting your Collections (I use tags, because I don't use it for anything else, but you can also make a new column in Preferences or use one of the others).

Make sure your Kobo is ejected then go to Preferences in the toolbar, locate the Import/export section, then click Sending books to devices.

For Metadata Management, choose Automatic management.

Click Apply.

Remain in Preferences, locate the Advanced section, then click Plugins.

Expand Device Interface.

Scroll down and select either Kobo Touch Extended, or if that's not present, KoboTouch.

Click Customize plugin.

Switch to the Collections, covers & uploads tab.

Checkmark Collections.

For Collections columns, enter the name of the Column you're going to use for Collections.

Checkmark Create collections.

Click OK.

Close Preferences and exit and restart Calibre.

Fancy up your library by putting your books in Collections and when you're done, Send to Device and those collections will be there, all nicely and satisfyingly organised on your Kobo.

[levynite]

Context: some of you may or may not know I'm a hobbyist fandom bookbinder aka fanbinder.

Anyways, I'm pretty upset right now at the revelation that AI has just started poisoning fandom exchanges for us now, when one member of the bookbinding Discord I'm in talked about how they offered a typeset of a fanfic for a fandom exchange but was rejected by the other person because AI isn't allowed and we're all very confused because typesetting is a skill that has long existed since the birth of printing types aka those little reversed letters and punctuations you piece together to form a whole ass text that you then ink up and put paper on it to print.

Although these days, we use software to design the pages now, and depending on elaborate it can take from a day to months to finish a typesetting.

("AI? What the hell do they mean by AI?")

I digress, this is where someone went to Google and discovered that the very first result for 'typeset' is for an AI fucking chatbot that will typeset for you. 3 inches below it is the dictionary definition of 'typeset' that used to be the first result.

Are you fucking kidding me?!?!

So now there are fans out there who think fanbinders are fucking AI worshippers. Great. Just fucking great.

If only I have some way to tell the people who run fandom exchanges that when a fanbinder offers a typeset, It's Not Fucking AI, and they should be aware and I don't fucking know, say in the rules that fic typesets are acceptable and no, typesetting is not an AI. We spent days or weeks putting together that document, including any image elements, the formatting, the arrangement, the layering, the fanart that fucks up the whole document when you resize it, the acknowledgements......the book curse if you steal....

I'm just upset right now, I should go and poke the AI chatbot and see for myself how poorly it does at a good typesetting. But I'm still too upset for that. Especially now that there are actual people who didn't scroll down 3 inches to skip the paid advert and learn what an actual typeset is besides fucking shitty chatbot AI, and definitely are thinking badly of fanbinding now.

All those days of hard work negated by fucking chatbot AI. Gods.

Edit: actually I should go poke the AI chatbot and see whether it steals the text you upload to it, now that the thought has occurred to me.

[duskstarshine]

(just copy pasting the description on the video ^o^) Animation made for Jael Peñaloza !

This project was started as a "2 week" project the day of the original UV being cancelled announcement though as with most things I went a little overboard. Oops hehe. But I'm glad I did.

There of course has since been an update on the situation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC9Ob7pHUlA ); but never the less I was still determined to finish, especially when a lot of what was said in the update video was also brought up in the animation!

Thanks for being a wonderful inspiration Jakei! Whatever you do choose to do next, I'll be here to support it! Just take care of yourself and keep doing what you enjoy.

Everything in this was hand animated in blender, no mo-cap or phys engines, and since there are so many wips of everything from start to end, I'll probably be posting them here and there and right up a mini thing about it all on my site eventually! :D (like the time-lapse of 3 hours of animating hair physics condensed down into 2 mins o-o )

After 2 months straight of animation I'm happy it's finally done ^o^ Sorry it took so long to come out (to those that knew in the spaces I hangout in), especially since I paused all my other projects to put this on top priority! I'll be getting back to avi making soon after a er… A well needed break o-0 May be streaming a bit the next couple days when I do!

Thanks so much for reading this though (if you are reading this now hehe) and watching! Check out all the talented people below and their own work!! ♥ ----------------------------------------------------------

Credits

Ink played by: @MrAmazingVAOfficial https://www.youtube.com/@MrAmazingVAOfficial

Cross played by: @tehRogue https://www.youtube.com/@tehRogue

VA funding: LifeCraft https://www.youtube.com/@RegnoDub

Animated, written, directed, animation rigs, Ink!Sans model, and sound and editing by: Me! :D @DuskstarShine https://discord.gg/5YB99ueQyu ← My server https://www.deviantart.com/duskstarshine https://ko-fi.com/duskstarshine# https://duskstarshine.wixsite.com/maipetless

Cross model by: Jeaya https://ko-fi.com/mrjeaya/shop (Cross originally made as a VRC avatar; thanks so much for letting me use them! Ik ripping/art theft is SUPER prevalent in the 3D scene so thankyou for trusting me with them! ♥ )

All 2D art and backdrops by: CattyNatty https://www.youtube.com/@catty6151 https://x.com/CattyNatty999

Lighting by: MariGoId https://www.youtube.com/@marigoid337 https://ko-fi.com/maries_emporium/shop

Music used by: @Kalamity_Music https://www.youtube.com/@Kalamity_Music Song: Marcy and the King. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu7v8E7hhcA (Check out their other songs! They make great stuff!! ^o^)

Undertale by: Toby Fox https://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/Undertale/

Underverse, X!Tale (Cross!Sans), and METADORA by: @Jakeiartwork https://www.youtube.com/@Jakeiartwork (And I also can't not mention https://www.youtube.com/@NyxTheShieldOFFICIAL )

Ink!Sans by: @comyet https://comyet.tumblr.com

Programs used in making: Blender, Prem pro, firealpaca. Sound effects from: Sound Snap.

Reposting clips such as edits or gifs is completely fine! Just please:

Do not claim this as your own.

Do not remove my watermark.

Do not reupload (Reposting the entire thing with no changes) ((THIS INCLUDES OTHER PLATFORMS! I made a tick tock JUST to post this so there is no excuse to steal it onto there. Just post a clip and link to the original video ^o^ ))

Always credit me in text as and when possible (in title or description); don't try hiding my watermark then hiding the real credit berried at the bottom where no one will see, I see this a lot with a lot of animator's hard work ;-; . (credit can just be my name, but a link to my channel or the original video is much apricated! :D )

TLDR: Do whacha like, along as you're not stealing the video or claiming it to be yours! ^-^b

(never really used tumbler much before, but thought I should post here too)

[yellowhollyhock]

so. Roman writes a script for an episode that he knows is good. He's very excited. He feels like he finally did something right.

Shows it to Logan. Gets it back all marked up.

accidentally got long

It starts a big fight. Easy for us to imagine how this goes because they have this or adjacent fights all the time.

Janus is on Roman's side which would make Roman more angry. Virgil is on Logan's side which hurts especially (idk if there's new content but last I know Roman and Virgil were pretty much the only consistently getting along, maybe Janus and Remus idk). Remus is there for a good time (see Roman's ideas are not good you should use mine). Patton manages to hurt everyone's feelings by taking Roman's side but sounding unsure about it (poor little guy is trying so hard to take care of everyone).

Roman has some good points: why is Logan criticizing his work when it's going to be reviewed by the writing team anyway? Isn't the most important thing at this stage for Thomas to be excited about his own ideas?

Virgil probably gets a little defensive here, like okay wow I'm sorry that Thomas can't always feel great and excited about his creations all the time. Did you even think about how much worse it would be if it was the writing team making all these corrections instead of Thomas doing it within his own head?

And then something clicks for Logan. All these corrections? What do you mean?

And now Virgil's defending Roman as best he can and still be honest with himself. You did kinda rip into it, Teach. I know you're holding is to a high standard but geez, look at all this red ink

Logan: Huh. It sounds as if the two of you think that because I marked it excessively, I disapproved of the script.

Thomas, glancing between them: Well yeah that's usually what red ink means (?)

Logan: No--I mean, yes, but this isn't high school. We're working at a higher level here.

Roman: And now you're calling me a high schooler?

Logan *adjusts glasses*: I specifically said this isn't high school. It is true that, especially for beginning writers, revision marks are usually an indication of

m i s t a k e s

Logan: Wow. As I was saying, Roman is not a beginning writer. I marked the text so excessively because I was engaging with the text. Seeing as it is, in fact, a draft, and will be submitted to peers for review, it is important that Thomas i prepared to discuss the material.

And they're all huh wha? but he wrote it tho?

Logan: Yes, but it's my job to take it from a daydream to a plan. If you read my notes, you would find--

Patton: Red ink!

Logan, thrown off: Yes, that's--we've established that I've made marks--

Virgil, recognizing an Epiphany from the Heart when he sees one: What are you getting at, Patton?

Patton: I mean, this isn't high school anymore!

Logan: Okay, you're just reiterating what I've said.

Patton: Sorry, what I mean is--when Thomas was in school, revision wasn't really treated as part of the creative process--it was a judgment from an authority figure, like a teacher! Or a parent

Logan, now interested: What are you getting at, Patton?

Patton: Thomas has a negative emotional reaction to the color red in that context.

Roman: But that's ridiculous!

Janus: Red has more positive connotations than negative. That's basic color theory :3

Virgil: Don't.

Remus: BLOODY BODY DRAGGED ACROSS THE FLOOR OF THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

Patton is horrified

Logan, annoyed: Patton, you were saying?

Patton: Oh! Glitter pens!

Thomas: Glitter pens?

Roman: Glitter pens?! Now is not the moment for a consolation prize!

Logan: Oh, that's actually quite brilliant, Patton.

Virgil: What??

Logan: As I was saying, way back at (time stamp) before I was I N T E R R U P T E D, if you were to look at the notes I've made, you would find things circled that were phrased particularly well that I believe should go untouched to the final draft.

Roman: ... we would?

Logan: You would also find extensive notes on how the things you've implied in this script fit into the larger lore, which you have done particularly well this time.

Roman: Oh, I, uh--

Logan: I've noted places where we could have an opportunity to research a topic you've touched on and elaborate further, if the run time permits. If not we could possibly link relevant articles.

Roman: ... Oh.

Logan: Of course, minor grammar mistakes or small inconsistencies are also marked, but you do make a valid point there were not many of them this time.

Patton: So if we started color coding the different things Logan does when he revises, we could get Thomas to start thinking about the revision process differently!

Roman: Logan, I'm so sorry, I've been approaching this all wrong. I felt like you weren't even looking at my contributions or giving them a fair chance, and the truth is that's exactly what I was doing to you.

Logan: I appreciate you acknowledging that, Roman.

anyways the whole reason I put this on tumblr and not ao3 is because it has been sitting about here for uh. years now. So yeah they color code things and it helps Logan feel like he has a place in the creative process and also helps Roman not to take feedback so personally

[rainbowbarnacle]

So I finished playing Pentiment

and I am lying here face down weeping into a pillow. It broke my heart and then it mended it again. Definitely up there as one of the best stories I've ever wandered through in a videogame.

You start out as an artist in the 1500s trying to finish your masterpiece while doing illustration work for the local abbey to make money, and when a sudden murder occurs you're left to try and solve it, but this is just Act 1. There is so much to see and do and read about in this game, it stretches onto this unspeakably detailed journey centered around this town and its people and its history.

I went in without knowing a thing about it other than what I saw in the trailer, and I. had. a. blast. Along with getting to explore various settings in this town, there are a sprinkling of fun mini games that shake things up just enough to keep you from feeling like you're doing nothing but roaming from place to place and reading all the dialogue and flavor text.

The plot goes places you would never guess in a million years, and every new twist and turn just reveals EVEN MORE INCREDIBLE THINGS. There are dialogue lines that will stick in your brain and parts that will make you laugh and parts that will make you cry and parts that will just wrap you up in everything it is to live in this town--its people, its culture, its holidays, its food, its art, its landmarks, how things change, how things stay the same, you will love it all so much as the game goes on. All that aside, the entire concept of a game being a story in a manuscript and all the gameplay occurring inside the little illustrations? That was such a visual stroke of genius, just seeing that drew me in right away. The art style is lovely and the music is lovely and the background noises are wonderful and immersive and I feel like you could spend hours just looking and listening to all of it.

And there's enough of the "book" in there that you don't forget it's a book. When you enter different areas, it interprets this through page turnings. Instead of the usual "bidibidibidibi" sounds you get with videogame dialogue, it's scribbly pen noises or print machine clunking. Characters have different fonts and sometimes the font changes in mid-sentence, and sometimes for violent emphasis there's a SCRAWLING sound like the writer is carving the words into the page with the pen. Sometimes in even worse situations there's even ink splattered among the words.

There is an option to see the text instantly, (as well as a nice accessibility option where the fonts are easier to read if it's too detailed to make out) but I found myself liking seeing the words written out for me with an invisible pen, especially since there are little moments where stuff gets crossed out and rewritten or the writer corrects little spelling mistakes. There's also a ton of replay value--you decide things like what topics your character studied in school, what personality they have, what languages they know, what types of books your character reads, and what skills they have--and throughout the game you can make choices and have special skills depending on what you pick. (Alas, this is not a game that lets you create your own character entirely like you would in, say, FFXIV or Baldur's Gate 3; I'm being a little vague for spoilery purposes, but you'll have fun figuring out what you want to do. I'm already looking forward to seeing what happens in Playthrough 2 when I do things way differently. :D)

It's been an hour since I wrapped up my first playthrough and I'm still reeling at everything. What an incredible, incredible game.

So in short: thank you so, so much @mercurialmalcontent for getting me this for Christmas. <3<3<3

[certified-sleep-deprived]

Originally posted: Oct 5 2022

Anonymous asks:

Hi! If your still taking requests…

I'd like an Ink Bendy x Male reader, but with Bendy as the bottom? Thanks for the time, cheers

(yep I still do requests! Hope you enjoy! I'm not too good at writing MxM but I made it work the best I could. Also yes the blue text is the Dua Lipa song. Sorry if its not that good, ive been busy with school stuff lately so i havent had much time to draw or write)

~Good In Bed~

Ink Bendy x Male! Reader

Paring: Male x Male

Smut (18+)

Swearing

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

🎵Yeah, let's get to the point here

You love to disappoint me, don't ya?

You tell me what I want but ain't no follow through

You don't follow through, no🎵

There against the wall, was the Ink Demon being manhandled by his lover, F/N. The human male made out with the demon in a sort of aggressive way, by pushing him into the wall. The demon moaned as F/N felt up the skinny demon, feeling every jut of bone.

🎵But if you only knew me

The way you know my body, baby

Then I think maybe we could probably see this through

We could make it through, but🎵

The human shoved the demon onto a nearby cot in the room and started caressing his chest as he ground his hips into him. F/N started to take his jeans off and soon came his boxers as his erection sprang free and Bendy groaned.

🎵I've been thinkin' it'd be better

If we didn't know each other

Then you go and make me feel okay

Got me thinkin' it'd be better

If we didn't stay together

Then you put your hands up on my waist🎵

F/N hopped onto Bendy's waist and straddled him. The demon started to writhe and whine for his lover to go all out on him. He did this on purpose, knowing how much Bendy could just flip him over and get what he want, he still stays on the bottom.

🎵I know it's really bad, bad, bad, bad, bad

Messin' with my head, head, head, head, head

We drive each other mad, mad, mad, mad, mad

But baby, that's what makes us good in bed🎵

F/N figured Bendy has had enough and plunged down on top of him, riding him at a slow pace. All the while the ink demon's moans and groans of pleasure giving F/N the drive to bounce faster on his girth. Bendy's moans only get louder and louder, being the bottom he is he tries to get more by thrusting up, but F/N comes off and says "If you want this, then you'll have to obide by my rules Bendy."

🎵Please

Come take it out on me, me, me, me, me

I know it's really bad, bad, bad, bad

But baby, that's what makes us good in bed

It's bad

We drive each other mad

It might be kinda sad

But I think that's what makes us good in bed🎵

He dropped down onto the demon again and rode him at a faster pace, knowing Bendy will cum soon and so will he, so he picks up the tempo of his bouncing to near the edge faster.

🎵I dedicate this verse to

All that good pipe in the moonlight

And the long nights where we did everything but talk it through

That's what we do, yeah

You always let me down, boy

But when you're going down I get so up

Don't know if I could find someone who do me like you do🎵

F/N brought Bendy into one last passionate kiss as he felt his shaft twitch inside of him. He felt up and down his curves and let out the last moan as Bendy shot his seed up inside of Y/N. Both panting, and out of breath from the steamy sex session the both of them just had.

🎵I've been thinkin' it'd be better

If we didn't know each other

Then you go and make me feel okay

Got me thinkin' it'd be better

If we didn't stay together

Then you put your hands up on my waist

I know it's really bad, bad, bad, bad, bad

Messin' with my head, head, head, head, head

We drive each other mad, mad, mad, mad, mad

But baby, that's what makes us good in bed

Please

Come take it out on me, me, me, me, me

I know it's really bad, bad, bad, bad

But baby, that's what makes us good in bed🎵

F/N got off of the demon and helped him up and soon began to put his clothes back on. "That was great, thank you baby" he gave the demon a kiss on the cheek and went back to lay down on the bed

🎵It's bad

We drive each other mad

It might be kinda sad

But I think that's what makes us good in bed

It's bad

We drive each other mad

It might be kinda sad

But I think that's what makes us good in bed

Yeah, we don't know how to talk

(Mm)

But damn, we know how to fuck🎵

The tall demon followed suit to his lover in the bed, tired and drenched in sweat and ink. It was a sight that Bendy loved to see. He got into the bed and wrapped his lanky arms around F/N's waist and dropped his head onto his shoulder. Purring and satisfied, Bendy got to sleep easily that night, no nightmares of Joey, no flashbacks of when he was first created, none of that. He was happy and content right here.

🎵I know it's really bad, bad, bad, bad, bad

Messin' with my head, head, head, head, head

We drive each other mad, mad, mad, mad, mad

But baby, that's what makes us good in bed

Please

Come take it out on me, me, me, me, me

I know it's really bad, bad, bad, bad

But baby, that's what makes us good in bed

It's bad

We drive each other mad

It might be kinda sad

But I think that's what makes us good in bed

It's bad

We drive each other mad

It might be kinda sad

But I think that's what makes us good in bed🎵

(Posting all my other oneshots and whatnot will take a bit so be patient please! Also if your the original person who requested this let me know so I can tag you! I couldn't tag you bc you changed your name :)

[elishortforelliott]

IF YOU ARE SUPPORTING ISRAEL LEAVE MY BLOG AND DO YOUR RESEARCH. FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Ok! Hello!! I'm making an introduction page and i dont know how to do introductions that well so I'm going with the flow so sorry if this is confusing!!! Also I have Bolded all the important text so if you want to skim just read the bolded text! :D ALSO if you follow me and you look like a bot (you have nothing on your profile have the default profile picture etc.) I will block you.

WARNINGS AND DNI UNDER THE CUT LOOK AT THEM.

THE INTRODUCTION 👋

Credit: @/burntoutuserboxes

Hi! My name is Eli or you can call me Elliott I do not care!! Either one is fine!! My pronouns are he/they and I think I'm either trans masc or bigender but I'm still figuring thing out! :D I'm bisexual and ace! and I am a minor. I'm working on improving my art so alot of my posts will probably be fanart or just random doodles. I will be working on anatomy so expect me to post huminoids with sub par anatomy and procrastinating by drawing landscapes and I am SHIT at finishing projects so if I say I'm doing something expect it to be posted in a year/hj I'm also learning ceramics!! and I'll take drawing requests!! :D (but if I dont want to do them you have to respect that.) Also be prepared for alot of me screeching about random things.

THE WARNINGS ⚠️

I am in alot of horror/thriller fandoms!! So on my blog you will see: teeth, gore, worms, insects, child murder, murder, eye imagery, clowns, animatronics, manikins, weapons, and so on if you are uncomfortable with any of these things I will be doing my best to add warnings to all of my posts that have the above topics but if you don't want to take any chances please leave.(also if there are anyways where I could improve/add any warnings please tell me.)

ALSO I may or may not reblog/post about political topics or religion (specifically Christianity) i will be putting warnings on these posts but please be careful and leave this blog if it will be harmful for you!

MY BOUNDARIES/DNIs 🛑

Okay! So these are my boundaries please respect them!

Please do not interact if you are: racist, homophobic, transphobic, abilest, proshipper, p*rn bot, pedophile, fatphobic, etc.

Please do not talk about Christianity (I have religious trama) unless I have brought the topic up. anyone who is Christian please do not interact with this blog even if you support lgbtq+ and are not just a total asshole please dont interact im sure your a great person just please do not interact.

DO NOT steal my art if you do repost it please make sure to ask for my permission first and to give me credit and if you don't ill steal your knee caps

Please be patient with me and spelling. I absolutely suck at it and auto correct is my life line. You can totally point out spelling/ Grammar mistakes I make but please don't be rude about it.

And please tell me if I have said/done/rebloged anything harmful, offensive, misinformed, annoying, or rude.

THE FANDOM/INTERESTS LIST 👁

Credit: @/burntoutuserboxes

There are alot of fandoms that I am in so this list is very big and ever expanding!!!

The Penumbra Podcast (i am still on season 3 please no spoilers!)

SIAMÉS

Fools gold DnD campaign

Nimona

Barbie

Hollow knight

Sonic

Teenage mutant ninja turtles (most shows and comics i haven't seen all of them.)

Lego monkie kid

The magnus archives (I have been spoiled on like the whole thing so spoilers are fine!)

Welcome to nightvale (I have not finished year 3 please no spoilers!)

Hello from the hallowoods( I have just started so no spoilers please!)

Malevolent (i have also just started!)

Minecraft

Stray

Last of us

The owl house

Amphibia

Gravity falls

Dead end paranormal park

Spiderman into the spiderveres

BNA

Mob Psycho

Promise neverland

Pokemon

Spiritfarer

Five nights at freddy's

Bendy and the ink machine

Detroit become human

Stardew valley (please no spoilers please!)

Hell followed with us

The girl from the other side

The crane wives

The amazing devil

Pottery/ceramics

Painting/drawing

AND FINALLY TAGS/ ORIGINAL WORKS#️⃣

I have 3 tags i will hopefully have a tag for ask soon but I am procrastinating

#my art -- This as a bunch of fanart of the fadoms I am in and just artpeices I've made

#my pottery -- This is all my pottery pieces and the progress! :D

#To Find A Home -- this is a story im making and im so excited to share my ocs!!!

Thank you for reading!!! Please talk to me if we have any fadoms in common! I want to make friends!! :D

[spiritofcamelot]

007 Fest 2023 Masterpost

To my surprise, I didn't actually do any rare ships this year. Not even anything for my beloved Bond/Tracy! Maybe I'll think of one more thing quick tonight, but for moving halfway across the country during July, I think I did pretty great.

Collab Table - Mock Magazine covers

Inked cover (Also filled a prompt sheet prompt) National Trust Cover Time cover The Housewife cover Vogue magazine Science magazine Bon appetite magazine Marie claire magazine WIRED cover Atlantic magazine

Yes, there's more than 9 there. I don't know what happened.

Non-Human Table

Humans AU Shapeshifter AUs Pixies at MI6 Vampires at MI6 headcanon (Headcanon Day) Not yet set in our ways, we forge a new path (Also filled a prompt sheet prompt) Mermaid AUs (Characters of Color Day) Making an Exception (Drabble/Doodle Day) A Fool in Fool's Wool Endless headcanons (Crossover Day)

Scavenger Hunt Items

#1 - sent an anonymous message of positivity #6 - Created an OHMSS themed crossword #9 - Create an "incorrect quotes" post (And included a bonus meme) #10 - The Six Squad are on tumblr, what post would they blaze to 10,000 people? (Felix Friday) #12 - Wrote an acrostic poem for a Bond title #17 - Make a James Bond poster featuring a landmark in your town or landscape that could play a part in a Bond movie. #25 - Moneypenny's bedding set (Moneypenny Monday) #26 - Show us your pet working for MI6 #33 - Solved both KittenKin's and Bluebell's crosswords #43 - gifted Sunk to Anya since it was based on her image prompt

Other Headcanons

Tanner's camping headcanons (Tanner Tuesday) Pixar crossover headcanons Texting headcanons Paloma's costume party (Also filled a prompt sheet prompt)

Recipes

Florentine chicken recipe (Food Day) Kerim Bay's dinner rolls

Other Creations

Paloma fic recs (Commenting Day) Comisserations (OC Day) Adapted and ran an audio escape room (Something New Sunday) Minds Blown

Events

Attended 3 long fic readalongs Attended 4 productivity hours Attended a music game, bingo, and 14 watch parties

Hosted 2 productivity hours

And left over 200 comments! (I'm still going but this needed to get done before I forgot.)

[petricakegames]

Devlog #2: ECTOCOMP & Bare-Bones Jam(s)

Not a bad week of progress! Not as much as I would've liked, but when is it ever? As far as I can tell, a defining trait of being a writer is not getting as much done as you hoped to.

But! I'm finished with the first draft of my game for ECTOCOMP (La Petite Mort division) and the Bare-Bones jam. It's out with a couple friends right now for feedback and I have 50 minutes left on the timer to edit. I'd love to give it a thorough tonal edit to ramp up the creepiness but I edit even slower than I write, so I probably won't have time. Shock.

I've never spent so much time thinking and meditating on sentence-level text before. It was a bit overwhelming. And I had such a hard time getting started! Knowing I only had 4 hours made me afraid to misuse a single second. Which was a great exercise, but not one I think I'll regularly do.

I enjoyed working with Ink (Inkle? Inky? I'm still not sure which one to call it...). It works well for shorter stories but I think my brain can parse longer stories better in Twine. I like seeing all the "sticky notes" to track story progression.

Forever and Ever is a short, interactive horror story written in Ink. Halloween night comes to a close and you're just settling in to get a good night's sleep when your son Lucas lets you know there are monsters in his room. Again. A father's work is never done.

Word count came to about 3,800 and the game has three endings. I'm planning on publishing on Friday the 13th because....of obvious reasons. Hopefully, with the 50 minutes left on the timer, I'll be able to inject a bit more creepiness into the tone of the story.

I've started on the second game for ECTOCOMP and I'll have to hustle but I think I'll get it done. I'm really bad at gauging how many words I need to tell a story, so who knows. I might switch that one to Twine and drop it out of Bare-Bones (because, I'm sorry Twine, your default UI is not for me). Maybe I'll try another short game in Ink. Writing horror is really fun.

That's all for now! Be kind to yourselves, folks <3

[thessalian]

Thess vs 'The Novel'

So I was drifting through the headlines my phone suggests for me, and one caught my eye, from the Financial Times. Now, while I didn't read the article (mostly because I'm pretty sure the FT is paywalled all to fuck), the headline by itself was enough to throw me into one of those rants that my friends mostly love to watch from minimum safe distance because apparently I am very eloquent and kind of amusing when I'm passionate about something but no one wants to be in splash radius of my rage.

The title went thus:

"Are video games coming for the novel?"

.........

Short answer: no.

Long answer: noooooooooooooooooooooo.

Detailed answer: THEY ARE TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MEDIA, YOU INSUFFERABLE STRING BEAN!

First of all ... novels and video games fit into entirely different niches in a person's life. You are probably not going to be playing Baldur's Gate 3 while waiting for your bus. You are not going to do a private livestream of whatever the current Super Mario game is as a bedtime story for your children.

And some people? Just can't play video games. A book is accessible to everyone - with braille or large-print books, with audiobooks or text-readers... Hell, with ebooks so you don't have to hold up a heavy-ass book and turn pages. There are days I hurt too badly to put hands to mouse and keyboard to play a game but I can hold my Kindle with the right support. And a book doesn't require you to have a certain skill level before you can get to the end of the story. When I pick up my copy of the latest Toby Daye novel, it doesn't ask me to do a little jig before I can turn to the next page.

Hell, sometimes we don't have time to play a video game where we do have time to read a book. Some games have a lack of save points as a point of pride, whereas a book will always be there to pick up ... and frankly to open wherever you want, whenever you want, at whatever stage you want. I can't skip the entire Lothering section of DA2 and move straight to Kirkwall, but I can skip Alex Price flashbacks about seeing his first couatl.

Not to mention, you get more variety in novels. While there's a lot of shovelware kicking around Steam, there are a couple of centuries of books out there; more all the time. And y'know what else? The person that wrote those novels? They almost certainly cared more about the story than a lot of AAA game company execs will let their writers care about the story sort of haphazardly stapling The Next Big Blockbuster Game together.

(Okay, sometimes that's a bad thing - looking at you, Stephenie Meyer, and yes I read each and every one of those novels and if that's your thing then gods bless but holy fuck if I had to look at the passive voice one more time I was going to scream - but still. Passion for the craft.)

I'm not shitting on video game writers, by the way. Some of them do great work. Hell, I've heard more inspiring lines from video game characters than I have from just about any politician in the last ten years. Just ... sometimes you want all the words. That's the problem here - the devaluation of just words. Writers can give you a full sensory experience with nothing more than ink on paper and ... I guess they probably use laser printers now, when they're not ebooks. Sometimes we just want that.

I think the problem is that frankly, books don't get enough press. People don't go berserk for books the way they do for video games or TV shows. Hell, if a book doesn't spawn a movie, TV series or, frankly, a video game (looking at you, Witcher - YES there was also the Netflix series but it was novel series, then video game, then Netflix series), most people aren't very vocal about their interest. And it's not like publishers are doing anything like a decent job of promoting their authors - not unless said authors are already verified money-makers. Which ... the way they're going, the only reason they have any new verified money-makers is sheer dumb luck.

I swear to the gods, people make up these stupid clickbaity headlines and ... I mean, it's the Financial Times. They look at "Video Games = Story + Shiny Pictures + All The Marketing" and "Novels = We Hear Nothing About this" and don't think about the dozen or so people they saw looking at a book, an e-reader or their phone (which is at least sometimes an e-reader app) on the daily commute, in the break room, at the local Starbucks... Nobody wants to have the ability to experience all aspects of their fictional escapism restricted to a medium that's entirely dependent on a certain skill set.

Dear Financial Times: do not come for "the novel" just because they don't generate the same buzz as video games do. Actually think for five seconds about what you're saying here. The format may change; one day we may in danger of losing dead-tree press the same way we did the floppy disc. But the craft of telling stories with written words alone? That can't be replaced with "Press X To Not Die".

[pbandjesse]

I pushed myself ridiculously hard today. And my back hurts so bad that I have a pillow behind me propping myself up while I'm laying on my side because when I remove the pillow it hurts so bad.

But I really enjoy today and while I was incredibly stressed out thinking about today and ended up being great. And now I'm just stressed out thinking about tomorrow and I know that just means tomorrow also be great probably. It was a really nice day despite the weather.

When I woke up this morning it was pouring outside. I let myself sleep in and woke up around 9:00 and stayed in bed for a long time. I needed to get up and feed sweet tea though and he was being so naughty biting my ankles and my calves. But I felt pretty good and sleeping in honestly make me feel a lot better after how exhausted I had been yesterday.

I also felt really cute today. My hair was doing really nice thing and my makeup was good. I'm trying to wear eyeshadow again to try to fix the issue I'm having with my eyeliner sticking to my eyelid. And it seemed to work. So that's good.

I didn't really know what to do for breakfast. Didn't want cook anything. Once I got all the curtains open and fed sweet pea I looked in the fridge and I found that I had half an omelet from the other day so I want that up. It didn't taste incredible but it was food. And I knew that I was going to take myself to Five guys after my workshop. I had the whole day planned out. I sat at the kitchen island with sweet pea. I had my omelette and a couple little donuts. Which I shared with sweet pea. And I double checked my materials I needed to bring. I had to cut a couple blocks in half because I wanted them to be smaller for the group. Which ended up being incredibly small. The group I mean. But that was fine I was just glad anybody came at all.

I left here around 10:30. I didn't have to be over at the armory until 11:30 but I wanted to stop at Michael's and get more black ink. I was not going to have that issue again because that made me so angry and embarrassed. So I wanted to make sure I have something better. I even had a 30% off coupon.

I poured myself two drinks. A lemonade and a soda and got my umbrella and headed out into the rain. And it was raining very hard. And when I got to the car I realized I left my lemonade and my soda in the house. I had grabbed all my other stuff and forgot those. So I had to go all the way back inside. But it was fine. I was in a really good mood.

I got over to the Michaels and was annoyed that they didn't have any black ink or any actual printmaking ink in the pots I normally buy it. They only have skin printing ink which I've already run into the issue of that not working But they did have a four pack of black yellow and blue block printing ink and I felt like it was too expensive but with my coupon it made it more reasonable at least and I stopped to look at the clearance real quick but then I went to pay and headed out back into the weather. It's all self checkout at the Michaels now but one of the workers still checked on me and she was really nice. I really interacted with a lot of very kind people today and that made me happy.

I was less than a half an hour away from the armory and my GPS said I was going to get there at 11:11 with the rain. And that is basically exactly what happened. The drive was terrible I could hardly see it times. But there was almost no one on the road because I think they were all afraid because it was so bad. Like roads were flooding and I was getting Gail warnings on my phone. But I got over to the armory and that's when my stress started. Because the gate was locked.

I drove past the armory itself and went down the street to the grocery store to wait in the parking lot until I heard from Michael who is my contact. I looked through my email and sent him an email letting him know that I was down the street and then I found his phone number and texted him. Turns out he lives 2 hours away! And he was just stuck in traffic so it was fine. He said when he got there a few minutes before I drove over someone's bumper was stuck in the fence. Like they had driven into it. I didn't see that so it must have happened in the last couple minutes between when I got there and he did. Crazy.

But the workshop ended up being great. He brought his little dog again and she's very sweet. And while I only had two people they were awesome. They were both named Tony. It's probably t o n i. They were sisters and the older sister was a little older than me and the younger sister was probably like 13. And they were so funny. They both have different names but they both go by the nickname Toni. And they were just so nice. I had set up and started a print so that I could be at different steps and show them everything and going off of my experience on Thursday I had like a pretty good system for explaining everything and I think I did a really good job. And both of them were so nice and the two hours went by so quickly we were just having a great time talking about different projects and work and she might contact me to come in with her church which is in the neighborhood that I live in and work with some of the teenage girls there which I think would be lovely and it was just a really nice time. And they kept saying like this was so cool and this was such a good experience. And It was really cool to just introduce them to something that they've never done before. And I explained different ways that they could do it at home because they were both a little intimidated by the idea and I was like well these are some ways that you can do it with stuff that you might already have and some home DIY stuff. And it was great.

While they were working we were talking and I had brought my one book of men illustrations as a reference guide and while I was standing there and they were working I was looking at the book and I'll back it said that there was other versions like one of women I was like oh I should obviously buy that. So I went on eBay and found it for $10 with free shipping. And then I was like hey wait a second on the book itself it said it should be $4 but that was in 1980. Inflation. I'm excited to have the set though. And maybe eventually get the other ones. They apparently have children and animals and food and items. It's a really good reference guide so it would be nice to have more options for when I do these classes.

Once we were finished and I made sure they had my contact information I cleaned everything up and Michael came back with Quinn and I let him know that at one point Gwen was in there playing with a Christmas ornament and she had eaten part of it. But he doesn't think she actually ingested it. I really hope that that's the case because I would feel terrible. I had taken it away from her as soon as I noticed that she was chewing on it. And he said that the rain had stopped. We were very deep into the building where there was no windows so we weren't aware. But I was very glad to go out into the world and it not be pouring as horribly as it had been.

I said goodbye to Michael and let him know that I was available for more stuff and to just let me know and I was even down for helping with their camp again that I had helped before and I didn't mind the very long drive. And he was like whoa that's awesome. So I really hope he does reach out.

And then I had the rest of my day. The armory is right by the Goodwill. And when I went over there I had some amazing finds. I got a pair of ugg driving slippers that are basically new. If I was buying them new I probably would have sized up one but they do fit me very well. I just tend to wear things that are too big for me. And I found a little shelf for $8. And a really cute blue cloth for the top of it. And it's all scratched on top so the cloth covers up the imperfections. So I was doing great. Though it was hard to carry the shelf around the store.

Once I paid I drove a little farther down the street to go to Five guys. And I have a really nice lunch while I worked through the podcast episodes that I apparently had slept through? I thought I was caught up on my show but I started listening to the new episode I'm like I have no idea what's going on. And the breaker whiskey episodes are only like 5 minutes apiece so it wasn't like it was a huge deal to go backwards but I was very confused. I'm going to try to listen to those on a weekly basis because they come out every day but listening to 5 minute chunks is not fun for me. I want at least a half an hour. I do still really recommend that show though. It's very good.

I have texted Meril earlier to ask if my package was delivered because I got an email notification that it was. And she said yes and I was like I'm going to come and get it. So once I was done my lunch I drove out to the museum to say hi to everybody.

And that was great. The sun was basically out by then and I didn't realize that it was the egg drop project at the museum today so it was very busy in there. But it was the end of it so everyone was leaving. But I got to see Jessica and Jesse and Ashley. And I got my package and I did a little unboxing for project at the museum today so it was very busy in there. But it was the end of it so everyone was leaving. But I got to see Jessica and Jesse and Ashley. And I got my package and I did a little unboxing for Meril and Meghan. And it was a lot of my stuff that I had thought for our upcoming trip like the airplane seat foot rest and then stuffable neck pillow and a new tag for our luggage and it was just very silly just opening everything and showing them all the stuff. Especially because I got a whole bunch of fake hair products. Like fake hair that you wear in a ponytail. And they were like why? But my idea is that I'm going to try to figure out how to wear them so they can use them for different looks for the wedding. I haven't 100% figured out what that means yet but we're working on it.

I hung out there for a while just chatting with everybody and catching up. And a little after 3:30 I said goodbye. And decided that before I went home I would drive over to the shopping center and walk around the Five below.

The sun was really out by then and I didn't realize it was going to be so I didn't have my sunglasses and I was kind of dying so I let myself buy some trendy shaped frames from the Five below. And I got nail polish but I ended up hating the color when I got home. Like it's just looked terrible on my fingers. But it's fine. It was worth a shot. And it was $2 so not the worst thing.

I left the Five below and I drove home. I got stuck in a bunch of traffic around the inner harbor. But it was whatever. And when I got home I brought everything inside and went through all of the packages inside my larger package that I have picked up and took all the packaging off of them. And I just use the word packaging so many times. And put everything away. And then went to figure out how I was going to set up the little shelf. And I had a whole plan and ended up working really really well. My original spot I didn't like so I thought about moving one of the two wooden chests that we have over there since the one just has cleaning products in it and I switched out all the cleaning products so that I could put them in the basement with all the other cleaning stuff. And then I moved one of the boxes up to James's room. And then the little shelf fit perfectly and honestly I love how it looks there. And once I was done that I jumped into the next big project of the day. Which was James's room.

I have sent James a drawing the other day about how I thought the layout of the furniture could work better. And they agreed with me and I was not being supervised and so I was very excited to start moving some furniture around.

I was in there for hours. I hung a shelf and I moved a whole bunch of stuff and I just tried to optimize the space. I had a podcast going about creepypastas and was just really enjoying myself. But I also really wanted the couch to be in there. I got the dresser moved and the bookshelf with the plants moved.

Which by the way was a disaster. It started falling apart and one of the plants got knocked over and the things shattered and then I realized it was root bound and I was texting James and I felt so bad and I was trying to move everything and then it just collapsed on me. Thankfully I'd gotten off all the other breakable stuff before that happened but it was very upsetting. But after I did all that I realized how much space was in there now and it would just be so nice for James to have seating in there especially when they have like friends over. And just having flax seeding in your space is so nice. And so I went to try to move the sofa.

Which I don't know if you remember but I got stuck on the stairwell last time I tried to move it by myself. And when me and James had moved it James said that it was just not going to make it on the hallway but I hate being told no. So I wanted to figure it out to surprise them.

But it did not fit. I tried squishing it I tried everything but it was just about 5 in too wide to go down our hallway. So I took a saw to the legs.

I saw the legs off and this was no easy feat. Because I had to make sure it was even. I made the sofa 27 in wide. Which fit down our hallway and at the narrowest point of the doors it was 28 in. So I had to take the doors off because with the doors on it was 25 in. And I've never taken a door off before so that was a whole exciting thing and I have not tried to put them back on yet because I think you need two people for it. So I took off the doors of the little room and of James's room and over-ended the sofa down the hall and I got it in the office. I was very proud of myself but man wasn't ridiculous.

Once I got it in the room I was kind of exhausted but I had torn up James's whole room and I wasn't going to leave it like that. So I took a moment and got a drink and came back and started figuring out how to reattach the legs. This was not easy. And I should probably go back in and add more supports but I drilled the legs on an angle and I put a very long screw in it and then on the one side I used hinges that I had and I put the hinges the wrong direction so that they will act as a brace and it's ugly but it worked. I will definitely have to figure out a more long-term solution at some point but I sat on it for a while and I wiggled around and it seems pretty secure. So baller. I'm the best.

I really can't wait to show my parents everything that we've done in the house for better or for worse. I text my mom some dates the other day and if she is reading this I hope that she answers me and tells me what date will work the best for them. Because I would really like to show them everything.

And once I got the sofa set up I moved a bunch of stuff onto the sofa so that I could continue to work on putting things away best I could. I finally had enough space to vacuum up the dirt from when I knocked over the plants. And I looked at James's closet which they had said was two full to put anything in and I was like James there's barely anything in here you just don't have it laid out well so I took everything out of the closet and I realized that if I took out the wire rack that was in there when we moved I could fit the bookcase that had fallen on me in there and so I drug that back down the hallway and reassembled it and hopefully it is more secure now. And I made sure there's no breakable stuff on it this time because it is too fragile for that. And I just started putting stuff away. I did realize that there's a dead space on the wall that I think James would benefit from having some shelves there and then they can put some other knickknacks up there and open up some more space. But it was looking really good and I went through a couple of the bags of clothes that they have and then it turns out those were donation stuff. I was texting James basically this whole time. And filling the minimum what was going on. So I wasn't doing anything without their permission and they were excited that I was getting so much accomplished and I was feeling so good about getting so much accomplished. Even though I was exhausting myself.

I would finish up as much as I could do around 9:00. And that's what I realized I hadn't eaten since two and I was dying. All of a sudden I was wheezing and shaking and it was horrible. And the quickest thing I could make was the one minute Tikka masala And I toasted a pita and opened it up and filled it with the Tikka masala and just try to eat that as quickly as possible because I was shaking so hard. But I have that and then I had a little bowl of cereal and I felt a lot better.

I was texting Jess and telling her about my ridiculous evening and she was telling me that she was watching a movie and we were both wheezing apparently. Just having a time.

And then I would go and take a shower. And while I was in the shower I freaked myself out and thought I heard someone in the house but it was just the dishwasher. I came out in Sweet pea was being so cute so I knew that since he's not freaked out I don't need to be freaked out. And now we are in bed together. And I am very much ready to go to sleep. I'm going to go take some allergy medication and go to bed.

I have another full day tomorrow. I'm meeting Meghan in the morning for brunch and then I'm subbing at art with a heart. And then I don't know what I'll do after that. Maybe I'll take a nap. But I just hope that the stress that I'm feeling right now is meaningless because I know everything will be great. It's going to be a good day and I hope you all have a lovely evening. Sleep well everybody. Until next time.

[valentinoappreciator]

i'm back. with more alastor x valentino:333 you missed him, i know i did. and this idea came to me just because my birthday is coming up.

oh, by the way, this is somewhat explicit gore (i guess) so... don't read it if you're sensitive and just ignore this.

first of all, imagine a yandere! alastor with valentino. at first the radio demon doesn't understand this strange feeling in him at the mention, photo or even presence of valentino. he feels disgusted, why would he be interested in that nasty moth?

As time goes by, he becomes more suffocating and decides to make a stop at the Vees' tower. To Valentino's studio, to be exact.

I can imagine Vox noticing and intervening, believing that Alastor is coming to see him. The radio demon laughs loudly.

"Oh dear, did you really think I was coming to visit you? How adorable. But, please, move along. You won't let me see your dear pimp friend... I need a good view of him."

Valentino for his part is confused but the situation amuses him. Alastor came to see him...strange. Still, he agrees when Alastor tells him to go somewhere more private.

The radio demon is direct. Very direct. He tells him everything he's been going through, everything he's been feeling, everything he's been thinking about him and who knows what else. Valentino first looks at him silently and then bursts out laughing like he's never laughed before.

He doesn't believe him. Not at all. He thinks Alastor just wants to play with him and he finds it incredibly comical and absurd. Alastor just stands there, static and his smile seems to grow darker.

That's the end of the conversation. Alastor leaves and Valentino is left with the fact that it was all a joke. And of course, he tells what happened to Velvette and Vox who laugh and tease Alastor with him.

A few days pass, everything is normal. Valentino just goes on with his work and eventually forgets what happened with Alastor... until an anonymous letter arrives.

It's a neat and beautiful letter but the content is... disturbing. Or so Valentino feels for some reason when he reads it. At the end, a signature that reads "Your Darling." and a smile. Haunting.

He decides to ignore it. But more letters arrive. Same handwriting, same signature, same smile, same disturbing content. Now Valentino does begin to question what Alastor told him.

He sends Angel Dust to keep an eye on the hotel for him. To look for any kind of information, to watch him from afar, anything. But Angel gets nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Then Val's birthday rolls around. Usually, he's usually a little excited because well, it's going to be his day. So that serves to distract him from the letters, which he throws in the trash because he doesn't want to look at them because of how uncomfortable they make him feel.

His birthday arrives. He usually spends the day with Vox and Velvette but oh surprise, they're not there. He looks all over the building for them, texts them, calls them all the way to voicemail, but nothing. In the end he chooses to believe they went to buy a great gift for him.

What else could it be? Of course something didn't happen to them... did it?

Later in the day, a letter arrives. Accompanied by a large bouquet of roses. The letter has red ink but the page is stained with it in places. That makes it look weirder. Apparently, someone invites him to a special dinner alone, at the top of the Vees' tower.

Night comes and he goes up. Upon entering, nothing is visible and it is pure darkness. But there is a horrible smell that makes him nauseous. He tries to turn on the light but cannot. And suddenly, a candle is lit on a table that he didn't see in the dark. At the tip, Alastor sits and grooms himself.

"Greetings, my dear! You look ravishing, absolutely ravishing." suddenly, Alastor appears in front of him and takes his hand and kisses his knuckles "Like every day and night..." he murmurs in a voice... hoarse.

He pulls her hand away and walks away. He demands explanations and keeps asking questions and making threats until Alastor interrupts him.

"Easy, love. I'll answer your questions, but first.... let's have dinner!"

Alastor manages to light up the place and Valentino's expression warps in absolute terror.

Around the table, sit Vox and Velvette... or well, the corpses. Vox doesn't have his head, he's missing an arm and several of his wires were ripped out. Velvette has no eyes and her mouth is gagged with her own guts and her legs were ripped off.

"So, dear! What do you want first? Arm? Eyes? Legs? Liver? Or..."

Alastor shows him a cake and Valentino screams from fear.

It's a padtol full of blood, decorated compartes of Vox like his nuts, wires and that kind of stuff (I don't know what Vox is made of, so I'll use my imagination) and you can even see his fingers spread out. As the main decoration, Velvette's eyes and heart.

"Happy birthday, my dear, go on, try some! It tastes just like your friends...”

holy SHIT 👀 👀 This is BRUTALLLL 😍

I'm A FAN omgggg now I wanna try writing something like thisssss 😭

also, hello again!!! tumblr decided I shouldn't be allowed to see this in my inbox, so I had to do some workarounds to find it, but I hope this shows up alright 😭

ALSO ALSO!!! Happy birthday when that comes around!!! <3

[televinita]

The results of April's book sale bonanza, four library sales in two weeks! Long text post incoming...

Left stack in the first photo is from one sale, right stack is two other sales, and the final photo is from the last one alone. Somehow acquired more in April than I had Jan-March combined. I don't even want to count up how much I spent, so I'm simply going to decide it was worth it because so many pretty books, exciting finds, and fun!

I will say, the craziest thing to me is that the super-mega-huge sale, the one I made an effort to drive an hour for on Wednesday night? It was indeed huge and I spent 3 hours there & had a good time, but only found seven books, pictured in the right hand stack - from The Darcys & The Bingleys up through the 3 skinny paperbacks (plus a couple of CDs I took a chance on, didn't like). And the sale that usually doesn't have much of anything, that I barely had an hour in? The best sale of the month.

I tried to organize the cover photos mainly by age group, with YA blending into adult, so I think that's actually the order in which I'm going to go through them, not least because I missed a couple of them for the stacks.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

1. A Dog Named Wolf - Erik Munsterhjelm (1973): I snagged it mainly because vintage dog/wildlife novel, but then I realized it's actually on my OpenLibrary TBR, so now I don't have to read it that way!

2. Mr. Cat - George Freedly (1960): not really a kids' book but small enough to put here. Apparently a bind-up w/ "More Mr. Cat" but I cannot imagine how short these were originally, as together in a mass market paperback it's still only 160 pages. I assume he was already a famous enough writer, even if only at a newspaper, to be granted the indulgence of publishing a memoir about his cat....

[edit: "theatre critic, librarian and founder of the Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library, Freedley was a regular columnist for PLAYBILL, and the drama critic, book editor, and feature writer for the Morning Telegraph (New York)"]

3. The Black Pearl - Scott O'Dell (1967, 70s edition): not unlike Call it Courage, this is another one I remember really liking in elementary school but the details have been forgotten.

4. BSC Super Special #7: Snowbound: only grabbed because it was super-cheap; it's not in great condition but super-specials are a little harder to spot in the wild so while I'm not trying to collect this massive series, I can't help having a soft-spot for a few reps. (side note: the Karen/Little Sister novelty book "School Scrapbook" was also there, which I thought might be a fun collectible, but it had already been mostly filled out by its previous owner. Still fun to read her answers, though! I would cherish having something like that from my own 3rd grade year).

5. Two-Minute Mysteries - Donald J. Sobold (1967, 90s edition): even though a teacher's name is inked on it, I couldn't resist this nostalgic read! My 4th/5th grade teacher used to read these aloud to us and challenge us to solve them, and you know what? They're STILL kind of hard to solve. You have to pay really close attention to specific wording and tiny details.

6-7. Animal Inn #3 + 6 - Virginia Vail: remember this series I love? By wild coincidence, these are the exact same ones I read from a Little Free Library in 2020, but where those copies were in horrible water-damaged shape, these are as good as can be expected from cheap-pulp kids' paperbacks of the 80s

8. The Dog In My Life - Kurt Unkelbach (1966): yay! I'm interested in all his books but have been wanting to read this ever since I solved it on a Goodreads "What's The Name of That Book?" queries (one of my first, and one I worked very hard on finding!)

9. The Black Stallion & the Girl - Walter Farley (1971): only grabbed this because it was so cheap; it's not in great shape and I probably won't keep. I always wanted to love this series more than I actually did growing up -- everyone who likes horse books always says this is their favorite, and I just never got the hype beyond the first couple! -- but there were a few I really liked. Maybe this could be one of them.

10. A Summer of Horses - Carol Fenner: I see an 80s teen horse book paperback, I buy. Unsure if I'll keep it after reading, but it's not that thick so probably.

11. Flash of Phantom Canyon -- Agnes Ranney (1960s): I see a vintage Scholastic horse book, I also buy. I ended up deciding to read this right away, mostly because it was small and light and easy to carry in a shoulder bag while walking on trails in search of a good reading bench. Honestly, it's as much historical fiction/history lesson as it is horse book and if I ever make myself weed through the Scholastic Stack this is probably a donation candidate...but not just yet.

12. The Stallion of Box Canyon (1997): part of the Treasured Horses collection I owned several of as a kid from Scholastic book orders and LOVED, but sold off when I outgrew them, and have now been grabbing back. When I learned in 2020 that there were model horses to go with them, as well as more books than I knew about, my interest increased, and this one about a Mustang was my #1 most wanted!

13. Foxy - Helen V. Griffith (1984): Dog book! I think I read this in elementary school but want to be sure. May or may not keep, depends how sad it is.

14. The Collector - K.R. Alexander (2018): the modern-day counterpart to Mary Downing Hahn, I freaking love this scary-as-hell cover. I listened to it on audio but I wanted a physical copy as well.

15. The Sun Will Come Out -- Joanne Levy (2021): it was simply too beautiful and pristine -- it looks off the shelf new -- not to buy, knowing I could flip it to Half Price. I think I probably will do that now that I've read it, but I did enjoy it.

16. The Diddakoi - Rumer Godden (1972): figures that I find it just one year after I finally caved and read it on OpenLibrary last year after 6 years on my TBR. But this is the first time I've seen a physical copy. This edition is not my favorite cover so I'm not sure if I really want to keep it, but I did enjoy the book.

17. Tucky the Hunter - James Dickey (1978): pictured in the last photo, I bought one (1) picture book because the illustrations were so beautiful, and the rhyming text written in calligraphy. Do I agree with the story theme of a child dreaming about all the animals he wants to shoot? Not really, but...

YA/TEEN

1. Seventeenth Summer - Maureen Daly (1942, 2006 edition): it's only a mass market paperback, but still thrilled to finally have this classic in my hands to read when ready!

2. City of Darkness - Ben Bova (1976): I just couldn't resist the premise of this one -- Manhattan is now under a dome and only "open" in the summer as a tourist spot, but a kid sneaks in and gets stuck there to find out that gangs secretly live there year-round, fighting for sheer survival? I intended to read & release because it's not in the best condition, so I read it right away, but now I think this is so creative I want to keep it around.

3. In the Hand of the Goddess (Alanna #2) (1984, 2011 edition) - Tamora Pierce: ex-library but I think I can peel the tape/stickers off. I've decided to collect both this version of the series and the mass-market paperbacks as I find them because I love them equally for different reasons.

4. In Front of God and Everybody: The Confessions of April Grace - K.D. McCrite (2011): technically middle grade but putting it here because it's a visual match. I saw this at the sale a few years ago but gave it a pass because it was Christian fiction. Now that bothers me less, and I'm so glad I changed my mind because I read it last week and it was HILARIOUS and I want the rest of the quartet. (also very minimally "Christian Book" -- it shows only in that the family goes to church/says a blessing before dinner and lives by the principle of "be kind to others no matter how ungracious they are")

5. Pretty Fierce - Kieran Scott (2017): a 5-star swoon-worthy YA spy thriller! So happy it's mine.

6. Top Ten - Katie Cotugno (2017): as recently mentioned in the reading triage, this is ex-library w/ a broken spine so I mainly bought it to dismantle for the snapshots on the cover and endpages, but then I realized ah heck, this sounds pretty good and I want to read it after all. I'm 70 pages in and really enjoying it, but saving it for the sunny days.

7. What Comes After - Steve Watkins (2011): one of my standout YA reads in *checks notes* actually 2011, wow! I still think about it regularly -- orphaned teen is sent to live w/ only remaining relatives, an abusive aunt & cousin; finds solace in caring for the goats

8. This Is What It Feels Like  - Annie Barrows (2018): has been on my summer TBR 2 or 3 years running, now I can stop worrying about when the library will weed the last copy.

9. In Real Life - Jessica Love (2016): an underrated read from, I think, 2018? Again with the sweet romance.

10. The Girls of No Return - Erin Saldin (2012): a much more serious book about girls in a wilderness therapy camp/school that really impressed me, thrilled to have one in pristine condition.

ADULT FICTION

Now we're gonna mix it up a little as fiction and non aren't separated in the above photos, mainly to match size & color, but I'm listing all the fiction first.

Driftwood - Elizabeth Dutton (2014): I thought it was a misplaced YA when I bought it, until I started reading and MC is twenty-eight. It promised a solo California road trip, following a route left in letters by her late father, so I decided to take a chance. It seemed so perfect for the weather I ended up starting it in a nearby park before I even went home, and finished the next day. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4, I'm glad I bought it

2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (2000): I bought husband a brand-new copy of the newer edition w/ four extra short-stories in the back, which he never read and now I'm kind of glad he didn't so it stays pristine in a way only I can manage, and meanwhile, I decided to get this one too because it is MUCH, MUCH floppier and more comfortable to read.

3. Maurice - E.M. Forster: I've never read this and kind of want to. I've started making it a habit to look for nice editions of classics at these sales, and while this isn't amazing, it's like new, a floppy paperback, AND it has horses on the front, so.

4. Where the Forest Meets the Stars - Glendy Vanderah (2019): I've been flirting with the idea of reading this and while my library DOES have it, I'd love a perfectly-new copy of my own for $2.

5. The Haunting of Gillespie House - Darcy Coates (2015, 2020 edition): same with this one. I still can't believe that after discovering a whole shelf of her books at the library in 2022 and being like "I'm gonna read them all!", I actually only read one. But this was definitely high on my interest list!

6. The Darcys and the Bingleys - Marsha Altman (2008): had there been more at this particular sale I wanted, I might not have bought it, but the library doesn't have it and my interest is piqued by this P&P fanfiction sequel (which...is the first of ten in a series?? good lord this one is already large enough).

7. Coffee Train - Margarethe Erdahl Shank (1953): It's in terrible shape -- awful foxing on the pages -- so I really shouldn't have, but I'm Intrigued by this vintage read; my family has no Scandinavian roots but much of Minnesota (including my husband) does so I have a soft spot for it. Even though this takes place in the state next door, I think it will be very charming.

Through the eyes of little Mugs, a Norwegian-American girl, we see life in North Dakota with Norwegian Lutherans in the days following World War I.

8. The Dogs of Christmas - Bruce Cameron (2013, 2018 edition): I absolutely loved this book and this is the "author's preferred edition" with an extra chapter at the end! I saw it at a garage sale 3 years ago and resisted like an IDIOT who was trying not to over-buy books she didn't ~need~; have regretted and been looking for this version ever since, now it's mine.

9. The Christmas Dog - Melody Carlson (2009): I couldn't resist this slender novella. This year's December reading is gonna be SO CHRISTMASY I swear it.

10. Christmas at Corgi Cove - Annie England Noblin (2023!): aaand now I am back up to owning 3 unread books by her after having only read 1 and given it 3 stars. But hope springs eternal and all that.

11. Roxane the Blue Dane - Alice Kingham-Lechevre (1988): "a series of short stories chronicling the relationship between the author and her favorite show dog, Roxane, told from the perspective of the great dane." Takes place in France, so I had a devil of a time trying to figure out why this author was famous enough to write about her pet, and finally deduced she was a decently well known English/French artist/illustrator, particularly of animals, born late 19th century. It seems quite wonderful from the chapter or two I've read.

12. The Sccrets of Pistoulet - Jana Fayen Kolpen (1996): this one I'm actually really excited about because a) it's in a slipcase, which I didn't previously know because I read a library copy, and b) I spotted it in the cookbooks section I only ever skim (for Susan Branch). I don't actually love the story, which is a murky magical-realism adult fable set in France, but I do love that it's mixed-media with transparent overlays, at least one card that opens up, and several recipe cards you can physically remove from envelopes.

NONFICTION

1. Unauthorized X-Files -- Hatfield/Bur (1996): I would have climbed over people to get my hands on this in high school. "In this ultimate game book for X-philes, the authors have put together a collection of trivia challenges: Some are based on specific episodes from the first three seasons (brief episode summaries are provided); others address behind-the-scenes and on-the-set information, site locations, dialogue between characters, more. Testing methods vary, ranging from multiple choice to fill in the blank. Also included are actor and character profiles, memorable Mulderisms, and scintillating Scullyisms!"

Even though it's limited to the years of TXF I mostly avoid rewatching, the vestigial Phile in me is still intrigued. By the same authors, I also saw Unauthorized X-Cyclopedia, which tempted me, but I figured I'm unlikely to actually use it for reference and tbh, it'll just annoy me that it doesn't cover the full series.

2. Growing With the Grass - Ted Hall (1992): a small local press-published memoir of a boyhood circa the 1920s, arranged as a collection of brief anecdotes & vignettes, snagged because Old Frontenac is a lovely day trip visit and still just as much of a village as ever. I don't know if this will fully be to my tastes or a keeper, but I couldn't resist.

3. House Lessons - Erica Bauermeister (2020): a memoir of restoring an old house on an island off the coast of Washington, crossed w/ life lessons. Would you believe I was on a Libby waitlist for the audio for three months as our library doesn't have a physical copy, finally finished it during first week of driving to book sales, and then found a physical copy at the last one! Decided I liked it enough to own, at least for a while. Plus physical copy has little sketches before each chapter!

4. The Big House A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home - George Howe Colt (2003): now for the opposite coast...I think I put this on a TBR before; our library only has one copy and I really want to read it but I'm never quite in the mood. Now it's mine forever!! (I was SO excited to find this with you lmao)

5. Cold Antler Farm - Jenna Woginrich (2014): I read her first book twice (Made From Scratch), and while unfortunately there are 2 more memoirs to go before I chronologically reach this one and the library doesn't have any, I'm really excited I have this one!

6. Connemara Mollie - Hilary Brandt (2012): I'm ALSO super excited to try this one, never heard of it but it's a memoir of a long-distance pony trek the author took around Ireland in 1984.

7. Brother Super - Bill Rice (1961): Pet memoir about another Great Dane, this time a family pet.

OTHER MEDIA (not pictured)

Audiobooks: When We Were Lost by Kevin Wignall, a cracking good YA adventure about a plane crash in the jungle, and Why Not Me?, so now I have both of Mindy Kaling's memoirs in her voice! (someday I'll listen to it...)

DVDs: Spiderman: No Way Home; Uncharted

CDs: Patty Larkin - "Watch the Sky," and Matt Wasner's eponymous album/limited advanced edition copy (I took a chance on these based on appearance, because nothing is more fun than guessing right on something random that becomes a new fave!, but unfortunately I didn't like either of them so they will be leaving)