#the locked tomb series 💜💜💜

[tina-rocket]

It's incredibly sexy how Pyrrha manages to be both a milf and a dilf at the same time. She's easily the hottest woman in any given setting and it's through the beautiful combination of being a badass and a parent figure. She loves redheads and wants to kill god. She makes dad jokes. She smokes and drinks and flirts only with women who could kick her ass.

Pyrrha Dve is so hot.

[lesbianamalvada]

I don’t blame them for not finishing The Familiar. That book was a slog to get through and quite frankly too boring and derivative. Though the hardcore Six of Crows stans are never beating the “I only read one book allegation” but at least these are somewhat trying

I got through it really fast! I know this opinion is unpopular, but I prefer Leigh's adult books to her YA stuff. I thought the writing style was really gripping and the historical aspect was cool. TO BE FAIR I don't read a lot of "young maiden falls in love with million years old man" books so it could be derivative. I didn't think it was done in a trashy way though. And yeah as people they are all very nice and SoC girl was the one who did finish the book, so!

[dykelittlemy]

the locked tomb yellowjackets au with jackieshauna! ofc i had to make them third house 💜💛 i think this might become a series tho…. i have ideas for what ships i want to be which house already >:)

second house: lottienat

fourth house: shaunanat

fifth house: lottielee

sixth house: taishauna

seventh house: taivan

eighth house: shautie

ninth house: mistynat

[klausinamarink]

writers 20 questions

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

45 at the moment! I have a few more wips to post on the way so the number is going to go higher

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

130,657

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Stranger Things. I’m looking to branch to other fandoms though like The Locked Tomb in the future

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Standup, You’re Never Too Much, Recapturing the Sunset, Just Another Flesh Wound, One Kid Gone, Another Up and Vanished

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes!! But not always as sometimes I immediately forget to reply and when I do, it’s a few weeks or a month later skkshdk forgive me

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Biting Back in Anger. It’s Eddie having a bad day and blowing up at Steve, who leaves trying not to cry :)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

uhhh most of my fics have happy endings but I think I can nominate The Tinsel Tradition. It has Steve, Eddie, and Robin building a home together in NYC, healed and happy in every queer way!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope, thank god

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I’ve been writing more smut recently and exploring some areas. I’m honestly gotten more comfortable though it’s still a challenge to get the right words without coming off as awkward lmao. but that’s Phil’s (@theheadlessphilosopher) job 🫶💜

10. Do you write crossovers?

I’m more of a fusion au writer who borrows the setting and elements and places my blorbos in there than a straight-up crossover. Unless that counts as a crossover? Those two terms are kinds confusing sometimes..

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

There are a couple folks who played around this idea with me but nothing concrete. Though I guess Phil’s beta work can count because he writes better lines and scenarios than me

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

You’re asking me, a Steddie blog—

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

oof. I have a TLOU steddie wip based on resande’s sketches, but it’s looking unlikely to be done because the person looking it as my beta reader over got busy with other things and I’ve lost the writing juice 😔

16. What are your writing strengths?

Many people tell me that I am very visceral with my descriptions, esp with horror, and setting the tension is top-notch 🥰 (I am a freak who loves gore and blood tehehehehe)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I have too many ideas and a problem to actually write what I want that it comes off as juvenile to me. I also have a tendency to gloss over the editing of my fic which I’m trying to break out of.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I honestly don’t mind it at all. However, I do get taken right out of the story if the language is written literally (like kanji for Japanese, Cyrillic for Russian, etc.) and not romanized when the character is speaking because that’s not how it works

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Warrior Cats. We all started our writing careers from that series at some point in middle school lol

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Noooo, I can’t pick favourites- I love them all equally. But FINE, I’ll say it would be When Life Gives You Pickles, Make It Into Soup. I wrote this as mostly self-indulgent because I LOVE pickle soup and is the best comfort food of all time. I think anyone making soup in general for their significant other if PEAK relationship goals because who doesn’t love soup?? Of course I had to Steddie-ify it

thanks to Devon for tagging me! Tagging others with no pressure: @thefreakandthehair @pearynice @3minsover @penny00dreadful @chaosgremlinmunson

@cranberrymoons @dies-somniator

[velkyr]

Get to know me - tagged by @wazzappp, ty! 💜

under the cut cause it's a longer tag game

Nickname: I don't have as many as I had when I was going by my birthname, but I like Z :) it's fun to be called a single letter. that's my part of the alphabet now.

Sign: libra sun / sag moon / libra rising. look I don't really put any stock in astrology - I'm just here for the vibes - but I do find it funny how I got assigned double libra at birth and can't make a fucking decision to save my life

Height: 152cm/4' 11"

The last thing I googled: 'xcode manually added framework support x86 and arm64'. it was a rough day at work

Amount of sleep: probs like 6 hours on average when I'm not going through a rougher patch of sleep issues. otherwise it varies from 3-8

Dream job: to have no job and dismantle capitalism ❤ nah but really in an ideal world where I could do whatever and study to do it. I would want to work with animals. mostly birds. I just wanna work at a bird sanctuary or do ethical/educational falconry or something. give me a job where I get to hang out with corvids every day and I think that would fix me.

Favorite song: hardest question of all time. right now? this:

Movie/Book that Summarises Me: 'summarises me' is a hard one. I don't tend to interact with media from a lens of relatability aside from latching onto specific characters. if it can be interpreted as 'summarises my tastes' there are a fair few things I can list out though!

the locked tomb - tamsyn muir

six of crows duology - leigh bardugo

priory of the orange tree - samantha shannon

the ballad of sir benfro - j.d. oswald (dragon high fantasy vibes that I've never seen replicated anywhere else, where a displaced dragon is the perspective character for a lot of the series)

the memoirs of lady trent - marie brennan (she's a victorian dragon naturalist in a world where dragons are on the cusp of becoming part and parcel of the ecosystem rather than myth. it's SO good)

the handmaiden

scream series

pacific rim

alien

deadass anything directed by edgar wright

Favorite instrument: I'm always gonna have a soft spot for percussion/drum kits because that's what I used to play. but purely on the basis of sound? probably bass guitars. their range is unmatched, they can be tuned up to drive a melody as well as the bassline, and the Crunchiness of good bass just fucks so severely.

Aesthetic: the word aesthetic really grinds my gears given its usage and tiktokification in recent years lmao so I'm not sure how to answer this one. if we're talking like, personal preference in style, it's... well, goth-lite? masc-leaning goth with an emphasis on ye olde genderfuckery

Favorite authors: tamsyn muir, samantha shannon, marie brennan, sarah waters, derek landy, mxtx

Random fun fact: uhhhhhh did you know that people with coeliac disease have a genetic mutation affecting the HLA (human leukocyte antigen) protein, which causes it to bind with gluten in the body, signalling to the T cells that gluten is a foreign body that needs to be attacked - but they end up attacking the gut itself instead, destroying parts of it? the human body is so fucking dumb fr. at least I get to joke that I'm a mutant

tagging anyone that made it this far <3 mwah

[incomprehensiblelentils]

Hey if you wanna do the thing too, here goes:

❤️🧡🤍🩷💜A WLW ASK MEME❤️🧡🤍🩷💜 List the top 10 ladies you’ve been obsessed with Ever Of All Time! Then send this on to 5 sapphic mutuals 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

I VERY MUCH want to do the thing, thank you!!!

This list is not gonna be in a preference order because if I tried to do that I wouldn't ever stop crying. Also I have been documentedly obsessive about IRL women hello Mackenzie Davis I am free on Thursday but to avoid sounding creepy this list will be composed of fictional characters. I burst into tears writing every single entry on here because I am so normal about women lol.

tl;dr here is the list:

Laura Kinney (Marvel Comics)

Princess Amelia "Mia" Mignonette Thermopolis Grimaldi Renaldo (The Princess Diaries)

Elizabeth Swann-Turner King of Pirates (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Myka Bering (Warehouse 13)

Bennett Halverson (Dollhouse)

Daisy "Skye" Johnson (Agents of SHIELD)

Natasha Romanov (Marvel Comics / Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Rogue (X-Men / Marvel Comics)

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb series)

Cinderpelt (Warriors)

with honorable mentions to Cameron Howe (Halt and Catch Fire) and Amelia Pond (Doctor Who) because there simply was not enough room!

Laura Kinney (Marvel Comics) - I started reading superhero comics at 16, when a friend at school gave me access to her collection. I have also, since I was too young to articulate it, been drawn to stories about "human weapons," particularly women. (Literally only a couple of years ago it occurred to me that perhaps growing up in fundiegelical culture, which is prone to calling its congregants "warriors for Christ" and using a lot of rhetoric about "God's soldiers," might have had an influence on this preference! I May Be Stupid etc.) Laura Kinney is the female clone of Wolverine, but she has two claws on each hand and a foot claw (yes it’s the kid in Logan, though they changed some stupid shit in that version). I first met her at 16, randomly picking up X-23: Innocence Lost at a Borders one evening and immediately being sucked into the story of a teenager who knows nothing but violence, except for the sole person who sees her as human (Sarah, her surrogate mother). Laura’s comic backstory is fucked-up in a way Marvel really leaned into with their 00s characters - she was forced to slaughter her own mother! then she was a victim of child sex trafficking! then she tried to have a normal life but her past came back to haunt her and she was forced to leave behind everyone she loved to keep them safe! - and I don’t think most of it holds up great, except for Target X which is cute because she and her cousin skip school and steal a car to be normal kids for a day. Anyway! I loved her immediately because in my teen brain, this character was one I could truly read EVERYTHING about, and ever since she has been my daughter. Marjorie Liu wrote an amazing series for her in 2011-12 which had her become Gambit’s little sister and Jubilee’s girlfriend bff, and Liu is to this day the writer I have seen do the most interesting stuff with her. She at one point was using Wolverine as a code name and she got a little sister, Gabby, and that was also good. Anyway, she’s the ur-example of “child weapon learns how to be a person” and also she’s angry and sad and doing her best and I love her the most.

Princess Amelia "Mia" Mignonette Thermopolis Grimaldi Renaldo (The Princess Diaries) - While I very much enjoy and am fond of the films, my Mia Thermopolis is the one in the book series. I first read these at 13, and immediately I recognized Mia as a kindred spirit. Mia in the books is riddled with anxiety and self-doubt, prone to people-pleasing but will push back if she reaches her limits, passionate and loyal to sometimes self-sabotaging degrees, and a connoisseur of pop culture. Every time I open a Princess Diaries book, I feel like I’m hanging out with my best friend, and to me she is. A dream of mine is to make a character that feels as real and dear to readers as Mia feels to me. I am not and never have been great at doing “girl” (hi, butch), but Mia was and is a glimpse into a world that I always felt on the outside of. The books are certainly not perfect but I will never get tired of hanging out with Mia.

Elizabeth Swann-Turner King of Pirates (Pirates of the Caribbean) - I got into these movies kind of late, just before the third one came out, but Pirates was one of the most significant fandoms I have ever been in. It taught me about meta, how to analyze subtext, and how to multiship. Elizabeth was a big part of that, being a cool bitch who got to fight and did not take shit from anyone and was also part of a ship full of Yearning. I used to think I had a crush on Will and that’s why I was so into the ship but…no it was Elizabeth. I wanted to be in Will’s place so I could kiss Elizabeth! She’s smart and capable and passionate, and when you’re 16 that corset line sounds really cool, sorry. And she’s the Pirate King and gets a badass rallying speech. Also she gets to wear a sick pirate coat in At World’s End, which is less questionable for me, a Chinese person, to be wearing, and my mother-in-law made a dream come true and made it for me. As far as I’m concerned she was only stationed on that island for as long as it took for baby Liam to be transportable, and then she put him in a sling and ran around being a fucking awesome pirate king again. (Movie 5 does not exist to me, nor does “Henry,” his name is Liam, thank you for understanding.)

Myka Bering (Warehouse 13) - I actually did NOT start watching this show for the gay content, I started because one of my college roommates/best friends was enjoying it and we both found it deeply charming. I actually thought Claudia was going to be my favorite, but Myka quickly took that spot in my heart. I found her deeply relatable, as someone who tends to keep myself pretty emotionally distant until I trust someone, and as a fellow Bad at Being a Girl sufferer. Myka starts the show wary of everyone, but wanting to do her best, and she slowly begins to let her new team in and start to trust them. One of my favorite Myka things is how well she knows herself and what she wants. And of course there's the HG of it all - her insistence on saving and trusting HG even after she betrayed them the first time is so indicative of how much she wants to believe in people. I really hate what this show did to her by the end, because to me it was devastating to watch this incredible, self-assured woman turn into somebody who apparently had feelings for her self-admitted brother figure and whose entire arc was about that now?? It sucked!! But anyway, that's not what I think of when I think of Myka. I think of her hitting Pete with a snowball and then doing a little hop of joy.

Bennett Halverson (Dollhouse) - Bennett is the reason I met my wife, and she is also played by Summer Glau, who I rarely post about anymore but who is involved in multiple shows that are part of my heart, so Bennett had to go on this list. She was one of the most significant characters that fell into my "angry and sad" women niche, as her whole thing is that she's out for revenge against the girl who broke her heart. AND YES SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH CAROLINE I HAVE RECEIPTS. (god this essay is TWELVE years old?? nobody @ me if it's bad) I love Bennett because she's me, or at least, a really stark portrait of the kind of person I could have become in a similar situation. Bennett feels like an outcast and Caroline seems to be the first person who ever showed her positive attention, to a degree that clearly turned romantic on Bennett's side. She's also devoted to Caroline to a degree that is objectively unhealthy ("You're not pissed because I used you?" "I'm hurt that you wont") and her memories of Caroline leaving her are colored by her misunderstanding of why she did it; Caroline was trying to protect her and take the fall for what happened, but Bennett didn't see it that way at all. I am very...dramatic...in my head and 1000% I would've been like that in a similar situation. It's really good B and I met each other and are obsessed with each other exactly the same amount because we would be terrible partners for anybody else. Anyway, Bennett's fucked up and I love her so much and Bennett/Caroline is why I'm like this now.

Daisy "Skye" Johnson (Agents of SHIELD) - If I were pressed to pick one favorite character, period, it would almost certainly be Daisy. SHIELD and I have had a special relationship from the moment it was first announced; if you look I still have a few posts tagged "s.h.i.e.l.d." and a minor regret of my life is that I was too late to get into the pilot screening at SDCC '13. Anyway, similarly to Myka, Daisy wasn't my immediate pic for favorite, but she quickly became my favorite, especially when I found out Chloe Bennet is also a "Chinese dad white mom" girl like me. I called it from the first character bio that she would be divisive, and she was, because fandom is horrible, but to me she is the best character. I wrote an entire essay about how much it means to me that she's biracial, even if I do not love the Inhumans stuff necessarily. But I remember spending the first season and a half desperately wishing for her to be biracial, and then she was! And she's also so funny and brave and kind and angry and sad and good above all else, she does her best to be a good person. I recognize a lot of my worst tendencies in some of hers; B and I joke that sometimes I will "drive off in emotional van" when I try to shut down and process big shit by myself. But I also relate to her in a lot of positive ways as well: we're both deeply loyal, passionate and hopeful. When they teased someone being killed off in the s3 finale, I literally had a panic attack the morning of the finale at the thought of losing her. When the show finally ended, I was happy she survived and even happier that they had her reconcile with her mom and her surprise sister, and now she and Kora and Danny are hanging out in space and sometimes Daisy goes home to hang out with her girlfriend Jemma. If she never comes back in MCU canon, I'll take that ending for her.

Natasha Romanov (Marvel Comics / Marvel Cinematic Universe) - WELL SPEAKING OF CHARACTERS WHO GOT FUCKED OVER LOL. Never mind the Scarlett Johansson of it all, I love Natasha with a tenacity approaching lunacy. (Not as much as my friend Amy, because Nat is her most special blorbo, but almost that much, I think!) Once again: Natasha is a living weapon character who is emotionally closed off and snarky and also very angry and sad, and also she was one of like 3 women in the MCU in the beginning so of course I became obsessed with her. Her comic counterpart is a little different, of course, but the same notes are there, and once again Marjorie Liu wrote the best arc for her (The Name of the Rose, which deals with themes of motherhood and infertility way better than some films I could name). Some of my love for her is me truly putting my hard-earned fandom analysis skills to work with the pittance of canon information I have to work with, and some of it is the five months I spent writing an AU where she didn't die in Endgame and also she and Laura Barton were polyamorous that whole time. (I did a lot of sobbing in the car when I found out about her death, and I'm resolved to never watch Endgame again.) That fic is my tribute to her, so I guess if you want to know all my feelings, go read it.

Rogue (X-Men / Marvel Comics) - Rogue was the X-Men character I imprinted on when I watched the movies at 16 (hey is that a pattern I see here?) because she was sad and emo and, although I didn't know it at the time, I wanted to kiss it better. I affectionately refer to Anna Paquin Rogue as "Diet Coke Rogue" because she's a very bad interpretation of the character, but also I love her. My favorite version of Rogue is actually in the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, where they made her an angry and sad goth (again: pattern) but with her usual reserve and level of sass. But I love every version of her, and I can't wait to watch the new cartoon because I have been sorely lacking in Rogue lately and I miss her. If I can't pick Laura, Rogue is my favorite X-Men character always and forever. Also, I felt so strongly about her and Gambit that I made a 40-part powerpoint presentation to explain their love story to B, while I was on a road trip with my family. This was one of our notable courtship gifts because she had also imprinted on Diet Coke Rogue and I needed her to understand how epic Rogue and Gambit's relationship is. Someday we will cosplay as them.

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb series) - The newest entry, but she made it on here by dint of being, well, so intensely relatable. I too am an awkward butch with a praise kink raised in a weird dead-end religion who falls to pieces in the presence of a pretty girl, whose brain is completely full of jokes and memes to cover up my various damages, and who is so bad at expressing my feelings to the object of my affection that I spent literal years pining after them only to do something exceedingly reckless to try and prove my love (I did not kill myself so they could use my corpse, but it was equally stupid and dramatic, and I have a 1/2 success rate - one of them was a guy, long story). Gideon Nav is Weird Girl turned up to 1000 and I love her for it. I am very short and chubby and not at all muscly, but I love cosplaying as her because in our souls we are the same. If we never see her again I will not recover.

Cinderpelt (Warriors) - I am genuinely not sure if I've ever explained Cinderpelt on this blog, so here's a quick summary: Cinderpelt is the first apprentice of the POV character Fireheart, and quickly endears herself to everyone by being enthusiastic and clever. She wants to be the best warrior ever. As an apprentice, she is hit by a car and survives, but her leg is injured severely enough that she is unable to continue warrior training, so she pivots to becoming a medicine cat. (Yes, Warriors is very ableist and this is not even in the top 5 worst examples.) We don't get a ton of insight from Cinderpelt on her thoughts about this until she's a bit older, but basically she determines that she will ensure the Clan is protected and cared for just as valiantly as she would have as a warrior. She becomes one of Fireheart/star's closest friends, and a constant source of comfort and wisdom throughout the first two series. Somewhere in there, I decided she was my favorite character. Enter series 2 book 5, Twilight (I am almost 15 when it comes out), which features a climactic battle as badgers invade the ThunderClan camp while Cinderpelt's best friend Sorreltail goes into labor. The way I remember it is Cinderpelt kicking absolute ass to protect her friend and maybe killing at least one badger, but I think I may have edited this to be more epic in my mind. ANYWAY she dies from her wounds and I cry for like an hour. In the next book, it is revealed that StarClan (cat heaven) thought Cinderpelt was so cool that they wanted her to have a second chance, and she got reincarnated as Cinderkit. I think this is maybe where the mythology really went off the rails objectively, but you won't convince me it was anything but beautiful. Now she lives as Cinderheart, who had her own journey through rehabilitating an injury but has become a badass and respected warrior herself. (There is also some bullshit about Cinderpelt having been in love with Fireheart lalalala I do not care she is a cool bitch and more than her relationships!)

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🦇 Good morning, bookish bats! It's been a while since I've bothered you all with a challenge! If you're seeing this, consider yourself tagged!

𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 🩷 Finlay Donovan - Elle Cosimano 🩷 Stars and Smoke - Marie Lu 🩷 The Sunbearer (Duology) - Aiden Thomas 🩷 Powerless - Lauren Roberts

𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙪𝙚 💜 Truly Devious - Maureen Johnson 💜 Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mysteries - Mia P. Manansala 💜 Meant to Be - Various 💜 Teen Titans - Kami Garcia & Gabriel Picolo

𝙎𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝 💙 If Shakespeare Were an Auntie - Nisha Sharma 💙 Legacy of Orisha - Tomi Adeyemi Letters of Enchantment (Duology) - Rebecca Ross 💙 Iron Widow (Duology?) - Xiran Jay Zhao 💙 The Locked Tomb - Tamsyn Muir

❓QOTD: What's a series you love that you want to recommend? Gimme allll the recs!

[what-a-trainwreck]

!! harrow is from the locked tomb, a space opera type series by tamsyn muir where there are these two lesbians called gideon and harrow and harrow is a goth nun who is a necromancer. i really enjoyed the first three books in the series!!!

AHHHHH HIIII 💕💕💕💕💕

TYSMMMM FOR THE EXPLANATION ❤️❤️❤️ I've never heard of the series before but it sounds hella interesting!! I'll check for it at my local library 💕💕

How are you btw? Hope you're all ok 💕💜

[gravedangerahead]

ok so. i've always seen locked tomb posts floating around tumblr, and never had much interest. but then i saw you posting about it and thought to myself "well maybe i'll give it a shot". long story short, i wolfed it down in like three days and i just finished the first book. so yeah it's pretty good huh. guess this ask is a thanks of sorts so thank you

Oooooooh, I'm so happy you liked it! I love those books!!!!

I have excellent taste, everyone should read and watch everything I'm obsessed with lol

I first read it because Tor had given away the first one for free, and it was a great return on investment for them, I got a bunch more people to read them. People really should give me more books

I hope you enjoy the rest of the series. Please let me know what your thoughts are!

Thank you for the ask! 💜💜💜💜💜

[inairbinad]

9 People You Want To Know Better

tagged by @bifuriouswaterbender and @stobinesque, thank youuuu! 💜💜

Last song: Fuckin'... Renegade by Styx. This is what I get for watching baseball.

Currently watching: I haven't started anything new since finishing Good Omens 2 the other night. (For Read: it's a good hurt, if you ask me. But. It does hurt.)

Currently reading: lol um. I've got Pageboy by Elliot Page queued up as an audiobook but I haven't actually started listening to it yet. And The Locked Tomb series has been sitting there on my nightstand for a long time, giving me the side eye and waiting for my attention span to return from war.

Latest obsession: Aside from the ongoing Stranger Things brainrot that apparently will never die? I'm in a big foodie phase now that summer vegetables and fruits are in season. I grilled some zucchini tonight that I'm still thinking about two hours later.

I was too busy obsessing over vegetables to catch everyone who's already done this so very no-pressure tags: @patchworkgargoyle @starryeyedjanai @starrystevie @spicysix @legitcookie @sidekick-hero @sentient-trash @soulsofstarsliveinyourveins @thruheavenandhighwater

[orionooak]

I’m back! I’m finally able to work on my dolls again!

This doll is going to become Harrowhark Nonagesimus from the Locked Tomb series. She is one of my favorite characters of all time.

If you like my art please visit OrionOOAK on Etsy! 💜

[sam-glade]

Happy STS! Does your reading taste match your writing taste? Tell me about both!

Hi Lynn, happy STS💜

I'd say there's a huge overlap. I almost exclusively read speculative fiction nowadays, and write only SFF.

I'm a very fussy reader though, especially when it comes to traditionally published books, and I'll often put a book down halfway through e.g. because it's over-explaining things or because something about a character dynamic rubs me the wrong way, and I'm not enjoying it. And conversely, I strive to write books I'd enjoy reading. And re-reading.

However, there are certainly things outside the overlap. Let's imagine it as a Venn diagram.

In the middle, there would be inspiring, earnest adventures about people pushing themselves and finding their inner strength, with characters who are overall nice people and aren't too hateful or selfish. Most importantly, they don't hurt others for fun - I dislike cruel POV characters. The stories I like will have some banter and lighter moments, but will be far from cute and fluffy. (I know I keep bringing it up, but Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive might be the best example of the tone I mean.) The plot itself doesn't have to be that memorable, as long as I enjoy tagging along with the characters.

Also very much in the 'I like to read it, but I'll never write it' category - tragedies. I like bawling my eyes out while I consume the story, but when it comes to writing it myself, it becomes too depressing and taxing, having to go over the harrowing scenes over and over to polish them.

When it comes to reading, I like a consistent but very distinct voice (looking at Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb and Seth Dickinson's Masquerade series). However, when it comes to writing something like that, I get self-conscious about being pretentious - though The Fulcrum is an attempt to get over it.

I'd like to write a clever heist or detective story, but right now I'm not confident I can pull it off. Until that day comes, I'll enjoy reading them.

On the other side, I will occasionally write fluffy and cute scenes, especially to cheer myself up after getting past a bleaker section of a story. Even if they won't make it to any manuscript, it's a treat. At the same time, I don't read much fluff anymore. On too many occasions I've found it either too saccharine or like the author was trying too hard but the characters themselves didn't commit to it.

And finally things that I neither read nor write include grimdark - I don't like all of the characters being awful people; I want to root for someone, not wish that everyone will fail. And also a lot of romance, and especially heteronormative romance.

And I'd like to take this opportunity to vent about it just a little. Sorry, this will get lengthy and slightly off topic.

When I was in school, I tried to be just a normal girl (heh) and fit in. That was around the time when Twilight became a thing, and yes I've read it, since my friends insisted, and I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. I then tried various typical romances, and none of them resonated with me. I couldn't get through Pride and Prejudice even, despite the gorgeous setting and so much more to it than the romance.

What I think was going on was: in straight romance that I was exposed to there was this assumption 'there's a boy and a girl, of course they'll fall for each other'. Sometimes it was well-disguised, sometimes only thinly veiled, but once I noticed it, I couldn't unsee it. Even if the characters themselves were described as someone I might find attractive, I rarely got a good idea of why their love interest finds them attractive. So many times the answer seemed to be 'why wouldn't they'. And because I wasn't on board with the characters' feelings and didn't have the rose tinted glasses on, very often I'd go 'wait no I wouldn't want any partner to do this to me' about things they did to each other.

In comparison, in almost all of the queer romantic plots and subplots I've read (note: it's still not many, and even fewer of these books were first and foremost a romance), there's a lot more subtext and more nuance. I don't know if it's queer authors feeling (subconsciously?) the need to justify why these two people are together, or having more awareness of what's healthy in a relationship, or falling back to the subtlety we're used to seeing in media, from when queer representation was barely a thing, but that's what I enjoy a lot more. Also, in queer romances, I often find the characters having many more individual traits described in creative ways. Traits that aren't considered typically attractive. And my impression is that there's less pressure on characters to fall in love in queer books, but when they do, they're more active and decisive about it. Even when the decision and the action is to deny it.

And to bring it back to your question and the comparison to writing. I've attempted to write a straight couple twice, and in both cases I wasn't convinced there was any chemistry between the characters - at least not in both directions.

Obviously I haven't read that much straight-up romance overall, so this isn't based on a huge sample, but it's still enough for me to decide it's something I'll pass on. At this point, I'm quite happy saying: I don't have to write it if I'm not enjoying it.

[trisarahtops-sketches]

hello! I was a huge fan of your animations as a kid and you inspired me a lot at the time :-] I was curious and wanted to ask - what shows, games or movies (or any other media) do you enjoy nowadays?

+ your art is insanely pretty!! I especially love the sea creatures you paint 💜

I'm glad you like them! :) Thank you!!

I'm currently watching Abbot Elementary (love it) and The Last of Us. Also recently watched Chainsaw Man and Bocchi the Rock, liked them both, especially Bocchi (relatable). I also really liked All Saints Street which I saw not to long ago.

I don't watch a lot of movies, but I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once recently and I loved it a lot.

Games I'm into lately, Warframe, Outer Wilds, Hades, and Hollow Knight. Also I played Bugsnax last year and haven't stopped thinking about it since.

Some random other things...I've been reading the manga Dungeon Meshi and it's really good (FALIN IS SO CUTE, I also like Izutsumi. If you like food, fantasy, or fantasy biology this manga is great). Also in the middle of The Locked Tomb series by by Tamsyn Muir, I'm liking it so far.

[toughtinkart]

I posted 84 times in 2022

That's 8 more posts than 2021!

49 posts created (58%)

35 posts reblogged (42%)

I tagged 77 of my posts in 2022

Only 8% of my posts had no tags

#miraculous ladybug - 19 posts

#the locked tomb - 15 posts

#sketch - 14 posts

#tlt - 14 posts

#art - 10 posts

#ntn - 10 posts

#ml - 9 posts

#mlb - 9 posts

#nona the ninth spoilers - 8 posts

#nona the ninth - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 108 characters

#but i really like the cool tones on his skin because he’s normally so cool and level headed and calculating

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

c’est moi, ma lady. 💜

based on the bakery enemies au comic by @buggachat - thank you for this wild ride!

5,299 notes - Posted August 31, 2022

#4

accessories sold separately

5,305 notes - Posted September 21, 2022

#3

“Tell me how to do it, and I’ll do it.”

been having a grand old time puzzling out Nona the Ninth and rereading the whole Locked Tomb series. here’s some warm and cool color variants:

See the full post

6,723 notes - Posted September 20, 2022

#2

cleaned up this spy x family piece that’s been sitting on a back burner! gradient mapping really is a fun way to add some quick color 💋

11,644 notes - Posted August 1, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

thinkin bout 1970s/1770s crossover fashion 💕

17,853 notes - Posted March 11, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[feralthembo]

omg ok I know you’ve said in the past you have a hard time concentrating on books but I feel like the locked tomb would be something you’d really enjoy. There’s even a dead alive character like izuru who is called the saddest girl in the world (with a hole in her chest and everything :( she deserves so much love too <3)

It’s futuristic sci fi and the main character is a grimy little necromancer from pluto and god is also a necromancer who destroyed and saved the universe and it’s so chaotic and fun and there’s lots of bones and memes and the main message is love

The first book is called Gideon the ninth and it’s by Tamsyn Muir. The first book especially in the beginning has a lot of world building to adjust to but then it’s basically a locked room murder mystery. no pressure to check it out I just really love the series and I feel like you would too. But I totally get having a hard time concentrating on reading, I get in moods where I can’t read for a long time sometimes. Sorry I hope I’m not being a bother 💜

No no not a bother you went about this right! I have no direct intention to read it like some other books ive committed to but also will keep it in mind if i ever become an active reader again!! I also have been having fun just cluelessly wandering around in the fandom kshsjdkshshs

[voidkat-the-necro-bitch]

Fuck your gender Im a void >:3 (They/Them)(She/Her)( Any non masc pronoun) (DID System)

Hi im Void or Eve - 21 years old humanoid that has a minor (or maybe major) obsession with bones and necromancy - Ask me about The Locked Tomb Series, Dimention20, or what makes me feel gender if you want 2-3 hours to kill - Witchcraft Rules, wanna start a coven??

I write dumb shit and will post it on occasion hope you enjoy 💜

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