#this concept has been living in my head since i started the moomins

[agentromanoffsir]

the cry of the wild goose, frankie laine // snufkin leaves moominvalley, the moomins // brandy (you're a fine girl), the looking glass // selkie, wikipedia page // song of the sea, cartoon saloon // chilling of the evening, arlo guthrie // swan princess crying, john bauer // wild geese, mary oliver // dinosaur, richard siken // selkie statue, mikladalur // brandy (you're a fine girl), the looking glass // the swan maiden, swedish fairytales // serethereal, tumblr post // moominvalley in november, tove jansson

[all-soul-crossover-comic]

BIIIGG ANNOUNCEMENT FOR ALL SOUL!!!

I know I haven't been posting much, but trust me, it's for a damn good reason. That reason being...

I'm making a webcomic!!! An original one! This is amazing! (For me at least.) I haven't really felt anything with my past stories aside from this one because they've always had to be something, and I could never figure out how to get from point A to point B in a "respectable" way. (That way being with no fun or whimsy or glitter and sparkles). It's been occupying my brain just as much as All Soul usually would. So much so that I might either leave all soul off here or write the chapters exclusively in text. Script form, of course. Descriptive writing isn't my strong suit, I've realized...

I'm still working out the details of the story but it still feels like that all soul thing where a lot of different lore from different things are mixed and matched. A bit from kaiba, a bit from moomin. That sort of thing. I'm trying not to give too much away in case I either end up dropping it due to lack of motivation or the story changes drastically, but I can confirm that it shares a lot of DNA with All Soul (due to them having the same mother lmfao) so if you liked this, you might like my future original work! I'm really excited about it and worldbuilding has been so fun, and I haven't been so invested in writing since I started with the basic concept of All Soul 7 years ago. I think about it often still, just not in the way I used to, yk? Like I finally feel content with just having it live in my head again. It doesn't need to be a whole thing, it doesn't need to be like that one loud house fanfic that gets updated every few hours and has more than 1000 chapters.

More about the webcomic

My plan isn't set in stone (mostly because that's the only way to go assure that I won't complete anything at all) but I plan on releasing it on webtoon canvas, tapas, or Tumblr itself! Will she go to boarding school or will she stay in public school with her older sibling? Find out in about a year from now!

That's right! It's January, and i said a year! I plan on using 2024 as my sort of planning phase. I don't want to rush into this like I did in the past with my other abandoned projects. I hope to reveal the main plot for it in at least a few months, if I don't forget. It stars a female protagonist (because I can only read books or watch movies about womengirls or I get so bored that my brain functions start slowing down and my eyes start rolling into the back of my head), and that's pretty much all I can say! It features a straight romance because I love prettyboys and none of you can stop my teenager brain from being attracted to men, and borrows a lot of worldbuilding things from Winx Club. I hope I can share it with you all soon! See you all next time!

If you wanna maybe see some of the details about it sooner, or just see what else I got on my mind, follow my main blog, @eepop-stuffs .

[huangels]

up to snow good - renjun

request: i’m not sure if anyone’s requested this yet since i just found your blog but can i request a renjun cuddle scenario please?

a/n: happy krimas (idk if this counts as a renjun cuddle scenarios but-)

summary: You set out to the supermarket to purchase as many Christmas related decorations as you can to bring the holiday joy to Renjun’s dorm, not knowing it will spook the both of you later at night. 

genre: fluff?

word count: 2.1k

"Is this really necessary?"

Renjun arches an eyebrow just as he opens the front door to his college dorm room. Standing on the other side is you, decked out in an ugly Christmas sweater that says "up to snow good" in giant green letters and a Santa hat that is slightly too large for your head. In your wobbling arms is everything you could find at the supermarket that has anything to do with Christmas: decorations, fairy lights, stockings, animated stuffed animals, and more. And lastly, weighing down your entire back is your backpack filled with Christmas snacks, soda, chips, cookie mix, and other things essential to this joyful holiday.

"Yes, now please help me before my arms give in."

The latter grabs whatever he can, being about 5 boxes of fairy lights and extra wall decorations. You shuffle into the familiar small space of your boyfriend's apartment dorm, carefully depositing all of the stuffed animals and decorations onto the couch before plopping down next to the pile. "It was not easy walking up those flights of stairs with all of this blocking my view."

"Why didn't you use the elevator?"

"I couldn't find the button."

The latter shakes his head.

Renjun's home, the same as last week, is deserted of jolly colors and holiday spirit. You gave the boy a week to get at least a small Christmas tree and surprisingly he had obtained one. However, it is just a plain and short pine tree sitting by the couch, no festive lights or cute ornaments hanging from the branches. Not even a bright star to top it off.

Disappointed, you set out to the supermarket to purchase as much as you can to upgrade his dorm, especially since Christmas is in only two days.

It is not that Renjun does not enjoy Christmas or celebrate it, he has just been quite busy with his art projects, both for his courses during finals week and for his personal studies. Holidays like Christmas have a way of sneaking up on you without you knowing and boom, all of a sudden the radio is playing "All I Want for Christmas," fluffy blankets of snow cover the pavement, and everything is discounted in stores (which actually aren't bad things at all). Without your constant reminder, Renjun would probably not even know what day it is today or even the time.

"Okay, before we start, I have something for you!" you dig around in your backpack, pulling out the snacks in the meantime and setting them on the coffee table. Finally, at the bottom of the bag, you find another Christmas sweater with a knitted red and green pattern, stitched with the words "Resting Grinch Face" in white on the front. "We can be matching!"

Renjun flashes a small glare once he read the words displayed on the sweater, a perfect example of the resting 'Grinch' face. Nonetheless, he takes it and tosses it over his simple stay-at-home t-shirt. It is a size or two too large for him, so it reaches just to his midthigh, the sleeves entirely engulfing his hands. If Renjuns is not wearing jeans right now, he would have looked bottomless in this pullover.

With how small Renjun looks in the large sweater, you cannot help but envelope him in a giant hug. "Oh, how cute!"

Renjun lets out a soft chuckle, encircling his arms around your neck. Your face is squished up on the sweater, the soft fabric of the knitted wool tickles your nose. You look up without delinking your arms that are resting around your boyfriend's waist. Renjun shares a tender smile that causes his eyes to bend into crescents. The cold temperature of the winter weather paints a layer of pink across his cheeks, making the latter look extra fluffy and lovable.

Standing on the tip of your toes, you steal a kiss from Renjun, catching him off guard. "Let's start decorating."

You unravel a box of white fairy lights before the latter can react, a large smile stretched upon your face. Renjun joins soon afterward with a blush redder than before. How adorable...

Putting some batteries in the lights, you string it around a tiny bookshelf to the left of the couch. It illuminates the books and other nick nacks with a warm hue, making Renjun's home look even homelier.

Renjun starts lacing the more colorful lights around his Christmas tree. You join him to add some wacky ornaments you bought that do not have any color theme or concept. As you hang the ornaments, you also show each one to Renjun and provide an explanation of why you purchased it. For example, you present a Moomin ornament, who is wearing a Santa hat and beard, explaining that it reminded you of Renjun because of his love for the cartoon character. Along with that, you show him space related ornaments, sweets related ornaments, and others.

Once the small space is fully decorated, the sun has already set and the lights hanging around the room illuminates up with radiance.

"You know what, it actually looks pretty cute," Renjun admits, scanning over the hours of work the both of you put in today.

The first room is the main living area with his two-seater couch and projector (since a television is too expensive and too large for the room). Laying on the couch is a Frosty the Snowman themed blanket with matching Christmas snowman pillows. On the table in front of the couch is an arrangement of dancing and singing stuffed animals and Christmas scented candles. The bookshelf also holds many stuffed animals and animate decorations.

"I don't trust all of these stuffed animals," your boyfriend eyes them with a suspicious squint.

You laugh in question, "What? Why? They're so cute."

Renjun squeezes the hand of a reindeer toy and it starts to wiggle around while singing "Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer."

"What if it just turns on in the middle of the night?" he shivers at the thought of it. "Wouldn't that be scary as hell?"

"Who would turn it on? A ghost?" you tease your boyfriend with a grin, hands mimicking the movement of a ghost.

Renjun's eyes widen, "Oh my god, what if? What if my dorm is haunted? I have nowhere to go."

"Okay first of all, you can come to my dorm. And second, don't worry there are no ghosts to turn on the stuffed animals and your dorm is not haunted."

- ☾ -

Maybe you spoke too soon. Maybe Renjun was right. Maybe his dorm really is haunted.

The alarm clock sitting on Renjun's nightstand table ticks 1:46 AM. Your arm is slung over Renjun's chest as your head rests in the crook of his neck, legs tangled with his. You bask in the warmth of your boyfriend through the soft long sleeve of his nightwear, listening to his steady heartbeat. His chest slightly rises up and down from his breathing, you can even hear it in the dead silence of the night. It is a cute little inhale of breath and a long exhale.

However, the peaceful tranquility is broken by a strange yet familiar tune outside the door.

"Rudolf the red nose reindeer...Had a very shiny nose..."

The lyrics are barely audible, the melody of the mysterious song echoes into the bedroom.

Renjun is the first of you two to hear the tune, jolting awake from the horror-movie-like music. Though his body is frozen from fright, his eyes frantically scan the room. It is dark, the only light peaks from the edge of the curtain covering his window and the dim fairy lights that line the perimeters of the room. He can already feel his body get warm with more horrid thoughts of ghosts, monsters, and possibly death that are just waiting for them behind the door of his bedroom.

"Y/N...," he whispers in a hissing tone. You stir in your sleep but do not respond, arms tightening around your boyfriend. He tries again, using the hand that is wrapped around your waist to tap you awake. "Y/N, wake up!"

"Hmm, wah?" you look up at Renjun through hooded eyes, face painted with sleep.

"Do you hear that?" Renjun whispers again, nodding towards the bedroom door.

You pick up your head and wait, eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"...Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say..."

"Holy shit." Now you are sitting up, along with Renjun. The both of you look at each other with fear in your eyes. "Who is that?"

"How the hell would I know?"

Renjun and you hold a silent battle to see who should bravely go into the other room and check out the cause of the noise, not using any words but only exaggerated gestures and looks. This goes on for some time, with back and forth "not you go" motions. It would have gone for even longer if not for a loud crash from behind the door. You and Renjun jump into each other's arms, both agreeing to go together.

After the crash, there is a silence. Renjun opens the bedroom door slightly, peaking out into the dark living room. The fairy lights are all turned off to save power and battery life so the only light available is the window near the couch. You sneak your head under your boyfriend's to also get a good look at the scene. There is no sign of any movement or noise afterward.

The both of you squeeze past the door, cautiously tiptoeing around the small space just in case there is a murderer or even a ghost.

You find the singing and dancing Rudolf toy on the floor. It seems like it fell down from the dancing since it could have shimmied its way off the coffee table. You pick it up to examine the toy, there is not a sign of danger from it.

A large cold breeze pushes your hair back and your take refuge wrapping your arms around your chest. The window near the couch is opened, allowing air to flow in.

"Renjun," you motion for your boyfriend to come. He leaves the area he was investigating to stand beside you, a questioning look upon his face. You point at the window, and as if on cue, another long breeze enters through. It seems to be strong enough to blow a stuffed toy off of a table.

"See, there's nothing to worry about. It was just the wind," you explain.

Renjun huffs, "It's not like I was the only one that was scared."

"Whatever, let's go back to bed."

You take Renjun's hands, lacing them around yours before leading him back to his bed. The worries have already left you as your adrenaline decreases, replaced by the demand for sleep. On the other hand, however, Renjun is still paranoid and slightly shakened up, his hands are colder than usual. He is always the easier one to get scared between you two.

You plop down onto your side of the bed as Renjun warily lays down next to you. His eyes are still trained on the door, and even if his back is facing you, you know he is not even blinking.

With a soft sigh, you lace your arms around Renjun's waist, pulling him into your embrace. "Renjun, it's okay. There's no one there."

You plant a gentle kiss on the nape of his neck before hooking your chin over his shoulder. Your head comfortably rests by his. Renjun's tense shoulders relax upon your contact. You lightly run a hand up his arm and across his shoulders. Then, you start peppering his neck and jaw with more kisses. Renjun explodes into quiet giggles, complaining that it tickles, but the smile on his face meets no objection. Your arms return to their original place around his waist as his own hands hold them under the blanket.

The buzz dies down as the two of you bask in the silence of the night. You can feel Renjun drifting into sleep as his hold on your hands loosen.

Renjun becomes so small cuddled up in front of you between your arms. All you can see is his soft brown hair, casually tussled in the cutest spots. You resist the fighting urge to run your hands through his long and smooth hair.

Before you fall asleep yourself, you place one last kiss on his shoulder.

- ☾ -

[bonus]

"Do you think they heard us?"

Jisung turns to Chenle, the multitude of chip bags almost falling from his arms. The younger is wearing his pajamas just as the older is. Chenle readjusts the two soda bottles in his hands, becoming heavier the more he stands around.

"No duh, you literally made so much noise," Chenle accuses with a squint of his eyes. If he had a free hand, he would have slapped Jisung's arm for thinking they got away with it.

"It's not my fault, how was I suppose to know that reindeer would sing AND dance."

[baltics4engbergs]

Our last full day in London

On Thursday morning (our last full day in London), I got up earlier than I would have liked – and that seems to have been the case much of this trip.  

Once we got to England, the kids were getting up at like 6:30.  Their usual time at home is 7:15—and they don’t always get up at the same time at home.  But, on this trip, with them in the same room, when one was up, he or she really wanted the other up!  

One really nice and heart-warming thing about this trip is that the kids played so much together – they got on each other’s nerves more too and were maybe a bit more physically jostle-y with each other than usual, but they spent a lot of time playing with each other in new ways.  In Vilnius, there was a doctor’s kit, so Rowan checked Cece’s blood pressure, heart, and gave her a vaccination.  They also wanted to “ride bikes” together, which they do at home too (in Vilnius, this involved one riding a ride-on toy of some kind and the other riding the tricycle.  Also in Vilnius, Cece really wanted to ride the scooter, which she wasn’t big enough to do -- it’s so funny, she called it the “roller skater.”  And on a related theme, she likes to “ice skate” across the floor while walking, just by moving her feet in a certain way.  An imaginative little one, for sure!  

Anyway, while in London, in an apartment with no toys, the kids really had to use their imaginations, and that really took off for them.  One day, they were talking all about the Moomins and who was who, between the two of them.  Cece also got to watch a little Cbeebies, the BBC i-Player of their children’s shows.  A few mornings, I just needed some more rest, since I tend to stay up stupidly late and their early-waking just resulted in me being exhausted this whole trip.  So, a few mornings, Cece too got to watch a “screen” with Rowan, which she never does at home.  Rowan started watching some shows at about age two and a half, so, it’s not out of line, in terms of my parenting history, for her to watch some now.  But I do really try to keep it limited for Rowan, and thus Cece, and however much (which is still little) they watch, I always fixate on it. As I mentioned in an aside in the Roro interview, Cece was really into chatting with herself (I mean, the girl talks nearly 100% of her waking hours, so this comes as no surprise) and with her toys  and dolls that came along.  One morning, she ended up tucking everyone in in her crib, from the outside (through the slats), including a totebag and a towel.  So, everyone got a rest!

Anyway, back to the last morning.  On Instagram, I have reconnected with a gal I knew from my year in London, because she lived in a flat with my boyfriend at that time and a few of my other friends: her name is Emma and I finally got to see her again, and her seven-year-old daughter.  We only had a sliver of time to chat, but those forty-five minutes Thursday morning we were great.  It was so nice to catch up. I went from there to the conference and saw a really great panel, which included a guy who I presented with at MLA in Austin two Januaries ago.  His paper really got me thinking, so we had a good chat afterwards. That afternoon, I had lunch with some nice Lawrentians, and then I took a little perambulation over to Soho, and wow, I didn’t remember a thing, really ;)  But, I popped into a few shops and did buy myself one nice memento.  So, I have never been to an Orla Kiely boutique, and maybe my head’s been in the sand, but I really only know her from her collection for Target, but as with their other collections (like the Marimekko or Missoni ones), I knew that collection emerged from a line with a serious following –and from what I saw, design sensibilities I liked.  But, holy crap, the store was incredible.  I was like, I want that, and that, and that. So, I would put it this way: the design of the textiles and clothes and handbags and housewares in the boutique is like if Marimekko products lived in my parents’ kitchen in the 1970s and  resulted from all of that fusion – the proper pleats of my mom’s clothes, the flowers like on our yellow-and-white kitchen wallpaper in our first Albuquerque house, the dark wood as in the accents in our kitchen, and of course the avocado and marigold appliances.  I have such a weakness for 70s housewares (and earlier periods, truth be told. Ok, I just have a weakness for housewares, haha).  But, I was blown away by the knit dresses, the jacquard knee-length marigold-colored skirts, the use of patterns that I probably wouldn’t wear because I tend to pick simpler patterns or, well, frankly, primarily stripes—but I loved lots of what I saw-- just for my eyes.  And it’s summer sale season in the UK, so I did leave the shop with a new shirt.  And then I went into the Fred Perry boutique and looked at the women’s line and drooled over a pair of shoes, but left there empty-handed. After that, I went back to the apartment and then I had to turn around after a bit and head to two keynote addresses in a row.  The first was by Paul Poplawski, who happened to be the editor of a special issue of the D. H. Lawrence Review in which I have a forthcoming article, and, I swear, his editorial role has impressed me so much, considering the attention to all small aspects—and big concepts—in my article.  He pushed me to make it better than I ever imagined.  Anyway, his talk was great.  But, I was feeling really sleepy – but then, between the two talks, they paused for a champagne break!  How do you like that!  I didn’t have champagne, but I got to chat with a few people, get reenergized, and then listen to the second talk, by an amazing Lawrence scholar and a truly incredible and generous and full-of-life-and-humor woman, Judith Ruderman. I just love her.  So, after the keynotes, I dashed back to the apartment again, helped get the kids to bed and made sure they were asleep, and then I raced back to King’s Cross tube station to get a Piccadilly line train to Gloucester to go to the conference gala dinner.  Wow, the train was so funny on my return after the dinner on a Thursday night.  There were drunk 20-somethings, a girl with a nose-bleed, lots of people openly partying and chatting with each other.  It was like a social interaction or dating app on rails.  And then there were a few scattered tired old people like me.  But, I did sort of melancholilly (not a word but you get me, I am sure) think to myself, half my life ago, this was me on this train!  I mean not openly drinking out of plastic pint container of vodka or borrowing someone’s toilet paper for a bloody nose, but just excitedly and energetically enjoying the London nightlife. A few words about the conference dinner: a) it was so hot in the hotel’s “conservatory” room, even at 9:30 p.m. when I finally waltzed in (well, that is not as late as it sounds: dinner had just started), b) as is the case with many of my Lawrence Society interactions, I was the youngest person at the table at which I sat by probably about 25 years, c) everything in my vegetarian entrée involved a cream sauce, d) after the dinner and during dessert, there was musical entertainment in the form of performed excerpts from the musical “Lawrence!,” a dramatical rendering of his life and career.  This last item was super interesting and I was expecting it to be really corny, and it kind of was, but it was really true to details of his life and the singers were really very good – very Broadway-style, so if that’s your thing, then they would’ve sounded just-right to you. I did have to leave during their encore, because I had to take the train back ten stops to get to our apartment, because we were leaving the next morning! More in my next post about our day of travel back to the U.S. and our somewhat unexpected – but super glad we had time for – trip to London Gatwick for our departure.