#too lazy to check right now

[wisedreamenemy]

💥💥💥

[littleperilstories]

[Image ID: a square with a dark background of a stone wall. It is overlaid with text that reads: I am learn rather quickly that Breanna Cooper is capable of churning up mayhem wherever she goes. Isolating her from the boy will do little to change that. End ID.]

From Chapter 21, "How Tedious It Is to Be Surrounded by Fools"

Read The Prince of Thieves on Tumblr.

Read The Prince of Thieves on Ao3.

[tea-cat-arts]

Shen Yuan getting transported into pidw isn't "the system punishing him for being a lazy internet hater," but instead representative of "step 1 of the creative process: getting so mad at something you decide to go write your own fucking book" in this essay I will

[oldschool-lolita-archive]

Mystery lolita-chan wears Meta’s unknown logo parasol in white

[togament]

manga -> anime screencap 😳

[glassprism]

Which Phantoms in the past ten years or so are the closest to the classic 90s Phantoms in terms of acting and singing?

Last ten years or so? So only back to 2014? Well then...

From the UK, I mainly think of John Owen-Jones, probably because he sort of is an old school Phantom. (He still had a run in 2016, he counts.) From the US, probably Laird Mackintosh and Ted Keegan, again because they kind of are from that era. As for internationally, probably Brad Little, Tomas Ambt Kofod and David Arnsperger, and can't forget Ian Jon Bourg, still going strong after all these years, though I think he's no longer the Phantom understudy, alas.

[hplonesomeart]

Wohoo animation update I guess wow cool fast paced camera pan stuff wowwww

[obwjam]

Sobbing, I neeeeed spiderverse g/t from the one and only- ESPECIALLY WITH CHARACTERS LIKE MIGUEL AND PAV

okay hello please if you will indulge in this little drabble about a tiny spider-person at HQ

Miles knew there were lots of spider people out there, but this was taking it to a whole new level. Especially the one that was actually the size of a spider.

He had to do a double-take at the tiny figure sitting snugly on Pavitr's shoulder. It took him a minute to realize that they, too, were wearing a little black spider suit, just like his.

"Staring is rude, Miles," Gwen chided when he saw where her friend's gaze was.

Miles shrugged. "Can you blame me? I've never seen a tiny person before." A pause. "Have you?"

"Well, yeah. Everybody know The Widow."

"The Widow?"

"Yeah. Like a black widow. But that name's already taken."

Miles shook his head in understanding as Pavitr glanced down to his tiny friend.

"Do you want to introduce yourself?" he whispered. The tiny nodded. "He's a pretty good guy."

"Haven't you only known him for like, 10 minutes?"

"I'm a great judge of character," Pavitr said with a smile.

Miles froze when Pavitr started to walk toward him. Instead of saying anything, the Mumbattan Spider-Man simply extended his arm out, palm up, and let his small friend scale themselves down.

"Hi," they breathed, offering a small wave. "I'm --"

"PETRA!"

The tiny whipped their head around. "Miguel! Heeeeey, you big brute."

"I'm not in the mood for nicknames," he grumbled, though Petra knew he wasn't actually mad. "You were supposed to be helping me in the lab."

"Funny story," Petra said sheepishly, "Pavitr was actually taking me there!" They paused and gave Pavitr a pinch when he didn't react.

"Oh! Right. Yes. That is definitely true."

Miguel rolled his eyes, but let Petra see their lie through, because god, they were just adorable. Any annoyance he felt just melted away with just five seconds of conversation with the tiny.

"Give them to me," Miguel demanded, holding his palm out.

"Miguel, come on," Petra smirked. "Ask him nicely."

Pavitr simply raised his eyebrows. Miguel sighed.

"Give them to me... please."

"There, see? That wasn't so hard."

Nobody would ever say it out loud, but watching Petra jump around and make impossibly long leaps was everybody's favorite thing -- especially Miguel's. He had found them cowering and scared in their home dimension, completely unaware of the spider powers they possessed. He had practically raised them, watched them learn and grow and become comfortable in the giant worlds they visited. They were the closest thing he'd ever have to a real daughter.

Miguel's heart fluttered when Petra landed lightly into his open palm, like it always did. Pavitr bent down and gave his friend a fist bump, grinning at the comical size difference in their hands. He unfurled his index finger and gave them a playful poke, to which Petra responded by shooting webs at him and yanking him forward. He always forgot how strong they were.

"You better brush up on your skills, Pavitr. They're stronger than you," Miguel joked with a lighthearted smile.

"He can smile?!" Miles whispered furiously to Gwen, who smirked. "He doesn't seem like the joking type."

"Miguel has... something of a soft spot for them," Gwen whispered back. "Not hard to see why."

"Yeah," Miles agreed. "They're adorable."

Petra made their way up from Miguel's open palm to his shoulder, where they promptly took a seat and grabbed onto the folds of his suit for stability. Miguel always made it a point to walk slower and straighter when he had Petra with him, no matter how many times they said he didn't need to.

Miles stiffened when Miguel walked over, but slapped a smile on anyway. Pavitr practically materialized next to him, grinning up at Petra.

"I love this," he said, nudging Miles. "They're taller than both of us now."

Petra waved dramatically. "I'll see you later, Pavitr!" Their friend gave them a small salute, and they turned their attention to Miles. "And it was nice to meet you for five seconds! I'm sure we'll talk more later."

"No, you won't," Miguel grumbled, but Petra didn't care.

"Don't listen to him!" they smiled. "He doesn't control me."

"You are on my shoulder right now," he said flatly.

"And I can just as easily get on another one," they teased. That seemed to shut Miguel up.

Miles couldn't help but laugh at the sight of a tiny, little spider person on Miguel's huge shoulders. Man, he loved it here.

[brightwoods]

Does anyone else feel like almost all of the conflicts that had to do with the various character dynamics in Chain of Thorns didn’t actually get resolved, they just unexplainably ceased to exist after two books of building them up because CC didn’t feel like writing them anymore and she didn’t know how to resolve it naturally after how she’d built the issues up so much?

Like how none of the characters but Cordelia and Thomas had any clue about the Alastair and Charles situation and then suddenly in CoT it was like who doesn’t know? Of course Matthew knew and didn’t say anything before and then randomly brought it up to Cordelia in Paris while assuming she knew too

Or how Alastair and Thomas went from how things were at the end of CoI with Alastair thinking it could never work because Thomas’s friends hate him to oh look everyone suddenly is friends with Alastair with no grudge with no development of that in this book at all, just an abrupt shift

Especially the Alastair and Matthew dynamic where Matthew hated Alastair and wanted him to have nothing to do with any of their friends and he spent CoI ranting about him to Cordelia. And then suddenly in CoT it’s like of course Matthew is supportive of Thomas and Alastair and oh look Matthew and Alastair are suddenly not just tolerating each other for Thomas’s sake but friends despite barely interacting and no development actually showing and never getting any mention of the other in their own POVs, just having Cordelia be like Alastair stop being dumb, you’re literally friends with him now

Or like everyone other than Christopher and Grace where it was like oh we don’t like her for how she’s treated us and her friends straight to anyway she’s one of us. Like yes Grace was useful and yes Tatiana manipulated her whole life, but none of that was why anyone changed their minds or opinions? It was just suddenly the flip of a switch when it was convenient for CC

Or Anna and Ariadne where it didn’t so much develop as Anna just acted mean to Ariadne on and off throughout the series and at the end of CoI she wanted nothing to do with a relationship and then in CoT she was just suddenly like sure I guess I do. Also, slightly different note, but I did not like that Anna barely interacted with anyone else for the entire book and she was just off in the corner being an irrelevant romantic subplot for almost all of the book except when she showed up to barely even be shown in the background being sad about her brother being dead

(Although Anna still got more of a reaction than everyone else and his death was poorly executed all around in the sense of how did you write this so predictably and poorly that no one even knows when he died and it’s so background and 99% of the characters don’t care at all and we don’t see his parents finding out or much of Thomas’s reaction or anything and it’s just as if he wasn’t a character anymore 2 seconds later which is a different genre of issue with CoT but similar problem in the sense that both issues made the book feel a lot more emotionless to read)

And how the issues of Thomas and Alastair being together as two men and Anna and Ariadne being together as two women in this time and the issues of what would happen if the fact that Charles and Alastair were gay got out to the entire Clave just disappeared and never got addressed at all. We know how the ClVe reacted to Alec Lightwood YEARS later. We know society was homophobic at the time TLH is set and that it seems like shadowhunter society was a lot less open-minded than mundanes a century later

I understand that Charles being blackmailed and making shitty decisions was annoying but it was like suddenly everyone finding out wouldn’t have consequences and all the other queer men characters were like how could you possibly be worried about this :/ as if they haven’t spent the whole series knowing they have to be careful about who they tell. And then suddenly it was just of course it’s totally fine and safe to have everyone find out and why wouldn’t you be fine with that. And it was really written in a way that had other queer characters like oh Charles is such a coward for not being ready to publicly tell a bunch of homophobic people his sexuality and it just wasn’t it??? And super weird after Thomas was terrified of telling even Anna and Matthew for years. And also, I did not care for the fact that when Charles did go risk getting outed to finally do the right thing, we didn’t even get to see it through any character’s perspective or how that important meeting went, we just got one line of dialogue from somebody else saying that it happened with no details at all. And I can’t think of other examples right now but there were quite a few moments like that where we got one line saying that something had happened that was important to the plot and to characters’ development that seemed like it would have been more interesting than some of what we did get to see where it was just totally breezed over and way too easy and totally background to less important stuff

And then there was the whole no one reacting to Ariadne and Anna dancing together publicly thing was like yeah that’s nice I guess but not realistic and it doesn’t go with the way things have been presented up to that point, it also just feels like a situation where CC was like well this would be easier for me so there just won’t be consequences and then they can easily end up happily together

And then there was the whole Thomas and Alastair thinking they couldn’t realistically be together thing and knowing they couldn’t get married or be known to be together by anyone they’re not close to and then at the end it’s still not really addressed how they’re going to be together? Like there was the laziest write off of the family tree being wrong and then we still are just left to assume that eventually they move in together and suddenly it’s not a problem and everyone’s fine with it? And then I also feel like we don’t actually know if everyone found out about Alastair and Charles’ sexualities after the blackmail or if people are going to assume about Thomas and Alastair or if that’ll cause issues or if no one knows outside of who they’ve told and they have to be careful or what. Which like wouldn’t necessarily need to be addressed if it wasn’t for the logistics of being together as two men in that time being part of the obstacle that they were struggling with being in their way and then it felt like it was totally forgotten to even be one at the end by CC

Idk like I’d love to think they just lived in a world where homophobia didn’t exist but it felt like homophobia was a plot point when CC wanted it to be an inconvenience and then suddenly disappeared just to make her writing easier the moment she didn’t want it there anymore instead of actually addressing the plots she raised with it if that makes sense?

And sorry, I really did not mean to go on a rant this long. And maybe everyone else had a very different reading experience than I did and other people don’t agree with some or all of this. I personally am just very confused about how the book was almost 800 pages long and it felt like so much of the development in it was us abruptly being told that development had happened rather than actually getting to see it and how so many of the issues were abruptly solved in an I don’t want to write this issue anymore kind of way rather than anything actually needing to be worked at outside of the Belial situation

Edit: You know what, I mentioned it in my tags but I feel like it’s annoying enough to put in the body of the post and make it even longer. What the fuck was with everyone outing or potentially outing everyone else just so that characters could openly talk about the queer characters and tell them to do what they want them to? Why did Matthew out his brother multiple times? Like yes, the people he said it to coincidentally already knew, but he didn’t know that. And why was Thomas outing Alastair? The straights got to keep their secrets as long as they wanted and fix their problems more naturally. Why did I have to sit through queer characters constantly having their sexualities and romantic histories to everyone else when they clearly had not okayed it? Why were the queer characters doing so much of the outing? Why were people who cared about them and knew what it felt like to be afraid of the wrong person finding out just broadcasting their sexualities to make it easier for CC to breeze past development to have their things get resolved fast? Why did no character have an issue with it at all?

[ruvviks]

the english language sucks and is taking all the whimsy out of my writing

[dailyeca]

INLAND EMPIRE [Legendary: Success] — A rosebud, more stem than petal. A teacup, with a steeping sachet of lavender. It will take time. But they will wait for each other.

portrait on its lonesome (disco elysium style is so. difficult hkjh i blend colors too much and am too cautious about palettes to be able to pull it off, does not help im a warm colored art kinda guy)

Dialogue: AUTHORITY — Don't let this perp get the last word! Who does he think he is, talking to you like that? RHETORIC [Medium: Failure] — Who *do* you think he is? PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Trivial: Success] — Someone with a permanent frown. LOGIC [Easy: Success] — Someone who's a criminal. CONCEPTUALIZATION [Formidable: Success] — Someone who's an artist. HALF-LIGHT [Medium: Success] — Someone with two brass knuckles and the know-how to use them. ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Hard: Failure] — Someone who doesn't seem a lotta fun to be around! VOLITION [Heroic: Success] — …Someone who fell through the cracks. SHIVERS [Godly: Success] — Some 20-odd years ago, a kindergarten runaway is herded into the metal belly of packed public transport and emerges reborn in a new city, baptized and spitting up the holy water in the wake of an identity you could barely say was remade as much as it was, simply, made. SHIVERS — He drowns again at age 7, at age 14, and every year thereafter, water filthier and colder every time, treading without a shore in sight. Even as his limbs grow leaden, come hell or high water, he maintains that stepping foot on land after so long will doom him. INLAND EMPIRE [Legendary: Success] — He doesn't even know who he is anymore; he just feigns indifference. He is a ladybeetle inversed - in the same way there are dots of yin and yang. Stiff belief that there will always be bad in the good. Living proof that there is good in the bad. He will never shed the former, nor acknowledge the latter. EMPATHY [Heroic: Success] — Not now, at least. Not with you, and not without time.

[tibli]

*inflicts this on you*

[dreamlogic]

musing in the tags about the view two years out from my hysterectomy and the shifting nature of neuropathy. i asked my PT for recommendations/resources pertaining to pain science and that's been a very helpful lenses to have. i'm still not back to normal, will never be unmarked by this experience or return to my pre-op self, but my baseline has been gradually increasing over the last few months, and it feels good to look back on the last two years and say "i have no idea how i managed to function while living with that, but i did!"

[compacflt]

The poor SECDEF being referenced in Ice's postcard as an unfunny man and then in the Slider POV where Ice and Mav talk to SECDEF and have some sort of inside joke where they laugh about them. I love all these small inside references that feel like Easter eggs. How do you keep track of them when you're writing? Not sure if it will be in the 120k words of extra scenes (which I'm so grateful for, like I'd be fine with even just scraps) but being a fly on the wall while Ice interacts with the SECDEF be like sounds hilarious. Ironic that Ice thinks that he'd sit out in his retirement until he becomes SECNAV and then possibly SECDEF in "Debriefing" and that Ice has become the sort of unfunny man that lost his acerbic wit but regained it by the end in Slider's POV. Anywho I'm kind of in love with your writing and these characters and will sorely miss them when you're done posting these extras. Thank you for writing this fic and the extras and the WIP Wednesdays and everything. I know you've got other writing projects and wishing you the best, and can't wait until the 120k words drop this weekend. :)

to be clear the secdef ice says is unfunny/the secdef ice & mav laugh about at his retirement party are these two fucking guys

im very hesitant to label anyone war criminals even for Funny Reasons because words do mean things., but when it comes to Bob gates i do get all twitchy and hair-triggery

i think ice being secdef after being secnav is unlikely at best & impossible at worst but the thought of him stepping up to do it during bidens second term & then having to deal with. like. china invading taiwan is unbearably funny to me so it’s not out of the question in my fic universe because it would be good for the bit. first openly gay secretary of defense and he sends the US to open all-out conventional war with China,

[rubenesque-as-fuck]

Woo did at least one productive thing today and finished submitting my taxes

[elegantartisanperson]

NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo 😭😭😭😭, they changed the heart icon on spotify to the new stupid thing. May they burn in hell as they don't deserve lord's mercy, the same way they don't understand his love, AND THE MOST IMPORTANTLY MY LOVE TOWARDS MUSIC HOW CAN I SHOW I LOVE A SONG IF IT'S A FUCKING CHECK AND NOT A PRETTY HEART WHAT THE FUCK SPOTIFY WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU I HATE YOU