#top 23 books in 2023

[theinquisitxor]

Top 23 books of 2023

Here are my top books I read in 2023, with a few honorable mentions and rereads below!

A Day of Fallen Night by Samatha Shannon

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemison (all three books)

The Shadow Histories duology by HG Parry

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Age of Darkness trilogy by Katy Rose Pool

11/22/63 by Stephen King

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Starling House by Alix E Harrow

Leviathan Falls (Expanse 9) by James SA Corey

Kaykeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

Damar duology by Robin McKinley

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Adventures of Amina al-Sifafi by Shannon Chakraborty

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

Honorable mentions:

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson

The Fragile Treads of Power by VE Schwab

The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher

The River of Silver by SA Chakraborty

Rereads (that were very good):

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Wicked King by Holly Black

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Even if you think AI search could be good, it won’t be good

TONIGHT (May 15), I'm in NORTH HOLLYWOOD for a screening of STEPHANIE KELTON'S FINDING THE MONEY; FRIDAY (May 17), I'm at the INTERNET ARCHIVE in SAN FRANCISCO to keynote the 10th anniversary of the AUTHORS ALLIANCE.

The big news in search this week is that Google is continuing its transition to "AI search" – instead of typing in search terms and getting links to websites, you'll ask Google a question and an AI will compose an answer based on things it finds on the web:

https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024/

Google bills this as "let Google do the googling for you." Rather than searching the web yourself, you'll delegate this task to Google. Hidden in this pitch is a tacit admission that Google is no longer a convenient or reliable way to retrieve information, drowning as it is in AI-generated spam, poorly labeled ads, and SEO garbage:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/#site-reputation-abuse

Googling used to be easy: type in a query, get back a screen of highly relevant results. Today, clicking the top links will take you to sites that paid for placement at the top of the screen (rather than the sites that best match your query). Clicking further down will get you scams, AI slop, or bulk-produced SEO nonsense.

AI-powered search promises to fix this, not by making Google search results better, but by having a bot sort through the search results and discard the nonsense that Google will continue to serve up, and summarize the high quality results.

Now, there are plenty of obvious objections to this plan. For starters, why wouldn't Google just make its search results better? Rather than building a LLM for the sole purpose of sorting through the garbage Google is either paid or tricked into serving up, why not just stop serving up garbage? We know that's possible, because other search engines serve really good results by paying for access to Google's back-end and then filtering the results:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Another obvious objection: why would anyone write the web if the only purpose for doing so is to feed a bot that will summarize what you've written without sending anyone to your webpage? Whether you're a commercial publisher hoping to make money from advertising or subscriptions, or – like me – an open access publisher hoping to change people's minds, why would you invite Google to summarize your work without ever showing it to internet users? Nevermind how unfair that is, think about how implausible it is: if this is the way Google will work in the future, why wouldn't every publisher just block Google's crawler?

A third obvious objection: AI is bad. Not morally bad (though maybe morally bad, too!), but technically bad. It "hallucinates" nonsense answers, including dangerous nonsense. It's a supremely confident liar that can get you killed:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/01/mushroom-pickers-urged-to-avoid-foraging-books-on-amazon-that-appear-to-be-written-by-ai

The promises of AI are grossly oversold, including the promises Google makes, like its claim that its AI had discovered millions of useful new materials. In reality, the number of useful new materials Deepmind had discovered was zero:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs

This is true of all of AI's most impressive demos. Often, "AI" turns out to be low-waged human workers in a distant call-center pretending to be robots:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/31/neural-interface-beta-tester/#tailfins

Sometimes, the AI robot dancing on stage turns out to literally be just a person in a robot suit pretending to be a robot:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

The AI video demos that represent "an existential threat to Hollywood filmmaking" turn out to be so cumbersome as to be practically useless (and vastly inferior to existing production techniques):

https://www.wheresyoured.at/expectations-versus-reality/

But let's take Google at its word. Let's stipulate that:

a) It can't fix search, only add a slop-filtering AI layer on top of it; and

b) The rest of the world will continue to let Google index its pages even if they derive no benefit from doing so; and

c) Google will shortly fix its AI, and all the lies about AI capabilities will be revealed to be premature truths that are finally realized.

AI search is still a bad idea. Because beyond all the obvious reasons that AI search is a terrible idea, there's a subtle – and incurable – defect in this plan: AI search – even excellent AI search – makes it far too easy for Google to cheat us, and Google can't stop cheating us.

Remember: enshittification isn't the result of worse people running tech companies today than in the years when tech services were good and useful. Rather, enshittification is rooted in the collapse of constraints that used to prevent those same people from making their services worse in service to increasing their profit margins:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/26/glitchbread/#electronic-shelf-tags

These companies always had the capacity to siphon value away from business customers (like publishers) and end-users (like searchers). That comes with the territory: digital businesses can alter their "business logic" from instant to instant, and for each user, allowing them to change payouts, prices and ranking. I call this "twiddling": turning the knobs on the system's back-end to make sure the house always wins:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

What changed wasn't the character of the leaders of these businesses, nor their capacity to cheat us. What changed was the consequences for cheating. When the tech companies merged to monopoly, they ceased to fear losing your business to a competitor.

Google's 90% search market share was attained by bribing everyone who operates a service or platform where you might encounter a search box to connect that box to Google. Spending tens of billions of dollars every year to make sure no one ever encounters a non-Google search is a cheaper way to retain your business than making sure Google is the very best search engine:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Competition was once a threat to Google; for years, its mantra was "competition is a click away." Today, competition is all but nonexistent.

Then the surveillance business consolidated into a small number of firms. Two companies dominate the commercial surveillance industry: Google and Meta, and they collude to rig the market:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

That consolidation inevitably leads to regulatory capture: shorn of competitive pressure, the companies that dominate the sector can converge on a single message to policymakers and use their monopoly profits to turn that message into policy:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

This is why Google doesn't have to worry about privacy laws. They've successfully prevented the passage of a US federal consumer privacy law. The last time the US passed a federal consumer privacy law was in 1988. It's a law that bans video store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you rented:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

In Europe, Google's vast profits lets it fly an Irish flag of convenience, thus taking advantage of Ireland's tolerance for tax evasion and violations of European privacy law:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

Google doesn't fear competition, it doesn't fear regulation, and it also doesn't fear rival technologies. Google and its fellow Big Tech cartel members have expanded IP law to allow it to prevent third parties from reverse-engineer, hacking, or scraping its services. Google doesn't have to worry about ad-blocking, tracker blocking, or scrapers that filter out Google's lucrative, low-quality results:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Google doesn't fear competition, it doesn't fear regulation, it doesn't fear rival technology and it doesn't fear its workers. Google's workforce once enjoyed enormous sway over the company's direction, thanks to their scarcity and market power. But Google has outgrown its dependence on its workers, and lays them off in vast numbers, even as it increases its profits and pisses away tens of billions on stock buybacks:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

Google is fearless. It doesn't fear losing your business, or being punished by regulators, or being mired in guerrilla warfare with rival engineers. It certainly doesn't fear its workers.

Making search worse is good for Google. Reducing search quality increases the number of queries, and thus ads, that each user must make to find their answers:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

If Google can make things worse for searchers without losing their business, it can make more money for itself. Without the discipline of markets, regulators, tech or workers, it has no impediment to transferring value from searchers and publishers to itself.

Which brings me back to AI search. When Google substitutes its own summaries for links to pages, it creates innumerable opportunities to charge publishers for preferential placement in those summaries.

This is true of any algorithmic feed: while such feeds are important – even vital – for making sense of huge amounts of information, they can also be used to play a high-speed shell-game that makes suckers out of the rest of us:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for-you/#the-algorithm-tm

When you trust someone to summarize the truth for you, you become terribly vulnerable to their self-serving lies. In an ideal world, these intermediaries would be "fiduciaries," with a solemn (and legally binding) duty to put your interests ahead of their own:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/#rewilding-the-internet

But Google is clear that its first duty is to its shareholders: not to publishers, not to searchers, not to "partners" or employees.

AI search makes cheating so easy, and Google cheats so much. Indeed, the defects in AI give Google a readymade excuse for any apparent self-dealing: "we didn't tell you a lie because someone paid us to (for example, to recommend a product, or a hotel room, or a political point of view). Sure, they did pay us, but that was just an AI 'hallucination.'"

The existence of well-known AI hallucinations creates a zone of plausible deniability for even more enshittification of Google search. As Madeleine Clare Elish writes, AI serves as a "moral crumple zone":

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

That's why, even if you're willing to believe that Google could make a great AI-based search, we can nevertheless be certain that they won't.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/15/they-trust-me-dumb-fucks/#ai-search

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

--

djhughman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modular_synthesizer_-_%22Control_Voltage%22_electronic_music_shop_in_Portland_OR_-_School_Photos_PCC_%282015-05-23_12.43.01_by_djhughman%29.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[jadedxhearts]

𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

Law uses one of his devil fruit abilities to keep you quiet while you two are being intimate.

originally posted on Mar 23, 2023

Please note that this is an old work and isn't representative of my current writing skills!

You’ve grown restless; it’s late, and you’ve been sitting on the library’s couch for what felt like years, doing literally anything to distract yourself from dying of boredom.

Law was just the type to not give up on his work. And as much as you hated interrupting him, you hated sleeping alone just as much; if not more. 

He had many books spread out on the table, you figured they were medical ones as you hadn’t really paid attention. Law had a couple journals out, leaning his head on his fist with his left arm as he wrote down notes with the right, a sour expression on his face.

Laying on the couch, your feet dangling over the edge as you kept looking to the clock on the wall, hoping time would just move faster for once. But it never did, and you’d had enough of waiting around.

Groaning, you sit up so that you can see Law, “how much longer? I’m so bored…”

“If you’re really that bored, you should go join the rest of the crew with their childish drinking games…”

“No,” you whined, “I want you.”

“Me?” Law echoed, not looking away from his work.

“I want your attention,” you clarified. “I’m deprived of your love.”

“Really? Maybe you should find someone better then.”

“Law!” You snapped, pulling your legs back and crossing them and your arms with a pout, “is it so hard to cuddle me for just one evening?!”

Your boyfriend sighed, finally moving to face you. “Come ‘ere.”

With a smile, you leaped from the couch and wasted no time planting yourself in Law’s lap, wrapping your arms around him.

“My attention, huh?” 

“Mmhm,” you confirmed, “any positive attention… maybe even some more intimate attention.”

“Ohh, now I understand. You wanna get fucked, don’t you?” Law smirked.

You shyly nodded, burying your face in Law’s neck. “Please, Law?”

“Fine,” he sighed, “give me a few more minutes, though. In the meantime, you can ride my thigh, how’s that sound?”

You whimpered at the suggestion, but immediately moved to try and get your shorts off from within his lap. After a moment of struggling, you got them off. You scooted over to sit on his left thigh, holding it tightly between your legs. 

Just barely raising your hips, you pushed them down to grind your panty-covered cunt onto his jeans. Your movements were short, but your desperation got the better of you as you moved quickly.

“You’re so pathetic,” Law commented, only watching you for a second. “So needy that you’d fuck my thigh.”

Small noises of pleasure began falling from your lips, your hands gripping his shirt harder as you kept up your movements. You could feel the roughness of his jeans grinding up to your clit, feeling as though that alone would make you cum.

“You’d better not make a mess on my jeans,” Law warned, continuing his work.

But you ignored him, grinding harder and slowing your movements just a bit to feel him more. Your quiet noises turned to breathy moans, getting yourself so worked up you felt the signs of being close to orgasming.

With a loud moan, you came on his thigh, pushing your cunt into him as hard as possible.

“Look what you did,” Law taunted you, “soaked my jeans just after I told you not to.”

“I’m sorry,” you whined, body shaking as you held onto him, “I can’t help it…”

“So pathetic,” he rolled his eyes. “I’ll have to punish you for that.”

The thought alone had you whining, grinding on his thigh again. But before you could go any further, Law picked you up by your waist, shoving the books on the table away and placing you on top.

Now lying on your back, you looked up and watched Law yank your panties off, tossing them to the floor. As one of his hands fumbled with his jeans, the other delivered a smack to your pussy, causing you to cry out.

“Shhh. You don’t want the crew hearing, so you?” 

You shook your head, but couldn’t hold back the next cry as he slapped your cunt again. You knew he’d be more rough if you kept ignoring him, but it felt so damn good; and this was the attention you’d been seeking all along, anyway.

Without warning, two of Law’s fingers plunged into you, fingering you fastly with no remorse. 

“L-Law!” You shrieked, tossing your head around as you continued letting lewd noises slip.

“You just don’t learn, do you?” Law asked, removing his fingers, only to replace them with his hardened cock.

Another shriek left your lips, hands flying to grip at the ends of the table. Law harshly grabbed your hips, pulling them toward himself as he began thrusting into you. It was impossible to keep quiet when he was being so rough, especially since you were already sensitive from the first time you’d cum.

“Oh my god, Law,” you whined, “please- ohh.”

Law let out a couple grunts as he continued slamming into you, accompanied by the noises of his skin slapping yours each time they met.

“Since you can’t keep quiet,” Law growled into your ear, “r- fuck, room.”

The light tint of blue surrounded you, creating an orb around the both of you. You briefly wondered what he was trying to do, but you sooner realized.

One of Law’s hands moved atop your cunt, driving his finger into your clit, rubbing against it and spitting onto your cunt to wet it more, allowing him to slide his thumb over it with more haste. 

You opened your mouth to scream, but no sounds came out. It didn’t matter how hard you tried, screaming so loud your throat began to hurt. He’d silenced you with his devil fruit powers.

“Look what I had to do, just to make you shut up,” he spat, relentlessly fucking into you while grinding his thumb into your clit. 

You raised your hips up, feeling close to another orgasm from everything happening; Law’s act of being mean and dominating, how physically rough he was being on your body, and now from the only noises you could hear: wet squelching, skin slapping against skin as Law’s thighs smacked into your ass with every thrust into your cunt, and Law’s noises of pleasure that were typically drowned out by your own moans.

He sounded pathetic now, moaning over your silent body, holding onto you with an intense grip as he lost control. Focusing on nothing but the feeling of chasing his own orgasm, using you to get off. 

You tried moaning his name, and still nothing came from your lips. 

Your body began to tremble as you reached another orgasm, your cunt spasming around his cock as your juices spilled from your wet cunt.

“Fuck, quit clenching on me… you trying to suck the cum from me, hm?”

Again, your mouth flew open to let out a guttural, animalistic moan, but it was pointless. You were completely silenced.

A moment later of Law continuing to abuse your cunt, his hips stuttered in movement as he began cumming, pulling his cock out and spilling all of his warm seed onto your belly.

Then the blue hue of his room disappeared, and you could finally hear yourself again as you panted, trying to catch your breath. 

“Now I gotta clean you up,” Law huffed, still leaning over your body, only his body was much more limp now as he’d exhausted himself. 

Slowly, he pushed himself up and away from you, putting himself away into his jeans. 

“I’ll have to go get a towel or something. Stay there and don’t make a damn sound. I don’t need anyone coming in here and seeing you like this,” Law said, walking away from your hot mess of a body.

You didn’t have the strength to get yourself down from the table, so you chose to listen to Law’s words and stay there. He returned a moment later, face red in embarrassment.

He spread your legs apart to wipe off your cunt, and then your stomach. 

“Why do you look so upset?” You asked, fearing you’d done something wrong somehow.

“Guess who heard you screaming before I could silence you?” 

Then your face turned red, and you covered yourself with your hands in embarrassment. “They all heard me?”

“Not sure. But they certainly gave me shit for the stain on my thigh,” Law sighed, turning away to pick your panties off the floor before sliding them back onto you.

Now you were terrified about facing your crewmates. But you’d have to worry about that later, because right now; you were fucking tired. You simply wanted to sleep now.

“Law? Can you carry me to bed?” 

“I’m not leaving this room until I know they’ve all gone to sleep,” he denied.

“Ugh, then the couch? Please, I’m so tired, baby…”

Giving in, Law tossed the towel away and lifted you into his arms, carrying you over to the couch you’d been sitting so bored on not too long ago. He gave you a sweet kiss just before placing you down.

“I wasn’t too rough, right?” He asked, concern evident in his tone as he looked you over, searching your face for any signs of discomfort.

You tiredly shook your head, “no… I liked it.”

Law nodded, kissing you one more time before walking away, getting back to his work.

[natspookie]

book worm

warnings, …stalker nat? LOL

an, kinda bad but i had the idea??? also, i’m working with the reqs soon!!!

it was rare natasha had time to go out for leisure, more so, to shop. but here she was, natasha romanoff shopping at thrift shops and markets.

this one road in new york was slammed with sellers and all sorts of things to buy.

natasha had bought a few vests she thought yelena would like, also some for her to match. she’d bought little trinkets to fill her room up. she had been dragging her shopping bags for about two hours when she reached the end of the market, a book stall.

hundreds of books were stacker on top of each other but the one of top caught natasha’s eye.

pride and prejudice

in the red room, sure natasha had read books. well.. books how to seduce men, and basic knowledge. but never for her own enjoyment.

she picked the book up, flipped through its pages seeing annotations here and there but she didn’t mind, handing the shop owner a couple of dollars before she made her journey back to the compound.

it was a quiet weekend at the avengers compound, not much missions. “hey nat! ohhh, what did you get?” wanda immediately eyed the eco bags on natasha’s wrist.

“just saw like a flea market or some thrifting- i don’t know honestly.” “the one near that shawarma shop we go to?” “precisely. i also got you this lamp, you said you broke yours”

natasha handed wanda a clear pink tinted lamp with crystals hanging from the top. “oh nat i love it! thank you!” wanda jumped across the couch and hugged natasha “no problem, witchy” natasha laughed, making her way to her room.

she took a quick shower before unloading all the things she got on her carpet. she put all of yelena’s things in one bag and started to put her things in her laundry bin.

when everything was sorted, she picked up the book and sat on her bed.

it was a book with good condition considering she paid 2 dollars for it. she got her reading glasses out and started to flip through the pages, immediately seeing clean and beautiful cursive black writing.

on the cover page it says, “01/01/2023 my love, i have my whole heart to give to you and it starts by the pages of this book. with little annotations, i hope you love this book as i do you.

all the love, y/n”

love was never in the cards for natasha but boy, would it not be nice to receive this.

as natasha ventured through the pages of this book, she found a certain comfort in the cursive writing she knew she was not meant to read.

little comments like “i bet she’s as beautiful as you” “you remind me of this line” “i want us to experience this” were enough to get her hooked till dinner time.

“nat, dinner” wanda knocks on the door before rushing to the kitchen. natasha had made it more than halfway through the book.

she reached the confession in the rain and one writing in red caught her eye. “no love is ever the same. but know my love for you is bursting with all kinds to give” natasha had fallen in love with the words from a person she doesn’t even know.

she made her way to dinner, nose nuzzled in the book. “nat, you read classic romance?” yelena points out “mhm” natasha sets the book down, remembering her page.

“i got you vests and left them in your closet” natasha stabs a french fry before eating it as natasha does a little ‘yes’ air fist.

natasha didn’t stick around for dinner conversation. instead, she grabbed a milk tea in the refrigerator and retreated to her room to read.

it was 1 in the morning when natasha finished, reaching the last blank page. the words took her by surprise.

“09/01/23

it’s been 9 months without you, you didn’t read this book. i’ll be giving this to the book shop down the block and you will never read the words i longed for you to hear. i hope you’re happy with your new life, truly.

to whoever is reading this,

i wish you a love as strong as darcy and elizabeth. you’ll get there;)

all the love,

y/n”

natasha shut the book with a deep breath. along the pages, she had been looking forward to that annotation in the end. natasha took it as a sign to sleep with all the excessive thinking.

yet all the black cursive words swirled around in her head that night, painting numerous people to who could be the face of these carefully said words.

the next morning natasha went on a personal mission to find you. why? she doesn’t know.

she realized an hour in that it was pointless looking for a y/n if she doesn’t even know what you look like. hence, her going back go the market.

she asked the seller when the book came in and if he knew who.

“oh yes, around last week monday a young woman with (y/h/c) donated a whole stack of books! only that one had annotations though” natasha nodded and thanked the man before going back to the compound after getting shawarma.

natasha accessed the city cctv footage from last week monday and saw you struggle with a pile of books.

you turned before turning back to the person and walking the other way. nataha rewinded the footage and paused it when you turned, she knew what you looked like now!

natasha ran face scanners and finds you — y/n y/l/n.

fresh graduate and working at a little cafe not too far from the market.

natasha didn’t really have a plan so when she stepped foot in the cafe. but when she saw you, she immediately lost track of her words.

“hey, what can i get you?” you smiled at natasha “um- a drink” natasha said as you laughed “what kind of drink?” “coffee” “black coffee?” natasha nodded

“alright, can i have a name?” you grabbed the cup and a marker “natasha” “thanks, that’ll be 3 dollars” natasha handed you the money. “i got that book” you tilted your head at her “pride and prejudice.. the one by the market” you sighed

“oh. yeah… sorry for the annotations” you laughed “no! i actually loved them. you have a great way of words” “thank you.. did you stalk me here to say that or something” you joked, putting the drink in front of her. “sort of” natasha shrugged and you paused

“that was a joke but… thanks?” “i mean this in the nicest and less creepy way but i really was curious by you. as i said, i was kind of enthralled by your words.” “are you saying you want to take me out on a date, natasha?”

“hoping to do so” natasha leans on her heels. “7 o’clock.. don’t be late or be a stalker” you chuckled, walking back to the counter “you bet”

[ninja-muse]

2024 Year-End Reading Wrap-Up

Reading-wise, I think 2024 was about diligence. I kept reading even when I felt slumpy. I managed my goals of minimum one book off my physical TBR per month, minimum 20 non-fiction titles, and 75 of the books I wanted to get to. I didn’t do so great at keeping my book acquisition down, but at least I got rid of as many as I took in (and a lot of the books I bought were used or cheap). I even took in fewer reading copies and managed to pass on a fair number of them! I didn’t quite get to my 2023 total of 128 books and I didn’t quite manage 45,000 pages, only 44,865, but that’s okay. They’re kind of wild goals and I got darn close. Of the 126 books I did read, 29 were off my TBR and 38 were reading copies. That means that 59 were library books, which, thank goodness for libraries! This is why I donate to mine every year.

What I didn’t do so well on were most of my other goals. (2023 for comparison.) I’m still steadyish on Canadian and female authors, steadyish on classics, up on authors of colour (!), but sadly way down on gender-diverse authors. I’m going to have to find more enbies and genderqueer folks I want to read, but that’s hard as it still seems like most non-binary fiction goes towards the dark and grim and realistic and most of my reading choices goes towards the light and hopeful. I will happily take suggestions.

I’m most bummed, though, about breaking my StoryGraph reading streak of 567 days. I went home for Christmas on a late-night flight and the next day, I was just not awake enough to read dense non-fiction. I am looking forward to outdoing myself on this new round.

Yearly total: 126, excluding rereads and picture books Queer books: 37 (29%) Authors of colour: 19.5 (15.4%) Books by women: 77.5 (61.5%) Authors outside the binary: 3 (2%) Canadian authors: 12 (9.5%) Classics: 7 (5.5%) Off the TBR shelves: 29 (23%) Books hauled: 47 Books unhauled: 47 ARCs acquired: 40 ARCs unhauled: 46.5 DNFs: 10 Rereads: 3 Picture Books: 11

Outside of the stats and goals, I think my choice to mostly leave Tumblr was a good one. I’m feeling a lot less pressure to read The Right Things or whatever everyone else is, and less pressure to be constantly posting, though I do miss seeing what you all are reading. Please, please, feel free to tag me in reading wrap-ups and reviews, especially if you think it’s a book I’d be interested in. I do check my mentions regularly. (Friendly reminder that I’m ninjamuse on Storygraph and LibraryThing, if you’d like to follow me there.) And not posting as much as helped me get more writing done. I’m not quite finished the first draft of the cozy fantasy WIP, but I’m within sight of it, if I manage to get my mojo back after Extreme Retail Season.

My goals are 2025 are fairly reasonable and predictable. 126 books and 40,000 pages, and I've set up StoryGraph challenges to encourage myself to read 50 new releases and 50 backlist titles. I'm going to try for 20 non-fiction again too, though this year that was very much by the skin of my teeth. And of course, the enby author thing. And I'm going to finish the dang WIP and restart an old one. Wish me luck?

Click through for more book recs and breakdowns:

Books Reviewed Eve - Cat Bohannon I Love Russia - Elena Kostyuchenko The Briar Club - Kate Quinn Evelina - Frances Burney How to Become a Dark Lord (and Die Trying) - Django Wexler The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport - Amit Basu The Disenchantment - Celia Bell The Dollmakers - Lynn Buchanan Submerged - Hillel Levin A History of Ancient Egypt - John Romer

And if anyone’s interested, here are the rest of my year’s highlights: Top Five Fiction (not ranked) Rose/House - Arkady Martine How to Become a Dark Lord and Die Trying - Django Wexler The Briar Club - Kate Quinn Navola - Paolo Bacigalupi The Disenchantment - Celia Bell Top Five Non-Fiction (not ranked) History of Ancient Egypt, Volume 3 - John Romer Malady of the Mind - Jeffrey A. Lieberman Sociopath - Patric Gagne I Love Russia - Elena Kostyuchenko The Demon of Unrest - Erik Larson Most Impressed By: I Love Russia - Elena Kostyuchenko The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport - Amit Basu Evelina - Frances Burney Nicked - M.T. Anderson

Most Disappointing: Wordhunter - Stella Sands Bad Glass - Richard E. Gropp The Black Bird of Chernobyl - Ann McMan The Dishonest Miss Take - Faye Murphy The Voyage of the Damned - Frances White Longest Book: A History of Ancient Egypt, Volume 3 - John Romer Best Queer Book: A Desolation Called Peace - Arkady Martine

Did I beat 2023? No, but 126 is really close to 128. Did I beat my Best Year Ever? No. That would be 2021. Did I read more classics? Yes Did I read more Canadians? No Did I whittle my TBR shelves down any? No. Was it a good reading year? Average. Breakdowns by month:

January February March April May June July August September October November December

[benevolenterrancy]

2023 Tumblr Top 10

1. 7,990 notes - Jan 1 2023

2. 6,635 notes - Aug 4 2023

3. 2,329 notes - Sep 2 2023

4. 1,140 notes - Nov 23 2023

5. 1,024 notes - Sep 2 2023

6. 994 notes - May 14 2023

7. 940 notes - Sep 1 2023

8. 689 notes - Sep 24 2023

9. 653 notes - Nov 3 2023

10. 562 notes - Jul 19 2023

Created by TumblrTop10

So apparently people enjoyed the silly MDZS comics I drew this year while reading the books! + one sherlock holmes and one torchwood pic 😂 for variety i guess

[frozen10fanzine]

Frozen Through the Years

Yearly Spotlight: 2023

Written by @toriofthetrees

This year marked...

Frozen’s 10th Anniversary

It was wild.

Starting off with a bang, in February Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Frozen III was in development, later confirmed by Josh Gad. Idina Menzel and Jen Lee confirmed it in June, with Jen Lee going on to say that she would not be directing this installment of the franchise. However, she confirmed that she knew the person who was, she loved their story, and she trusted them completely.

Her enthusiasm did not go unnoticed.

On top of the 10th Anniversary for Frozen (November 27) this year also marked the 100th Anniversary for Disney Studios as a whole (October 16). To commemorate both, much of the activity peaked towards the last three month of the year.

The hashtag #Frozen10 was created to celebrate the anniversary.

On October 11, the Forces of Nature podcast was released over several installments. It was met with mixed reviews; some enjoyed it, some were more critical of it, and most agreed that while it was fun, it did not have the chops to be a major installment of the Frozen franchise.

On October 16, Disney released a short film called Once Upon a Studio to commemorate their centennial celebration. It aired on ABC and showed the hustle and bustle of Disney Studios as everyone (all of our favorite characters) prepared for the big celebration! Elsa, Anna, Kristoff (and technically Hans) were among the many classic Disney characters that appeared!

Two novels were released this year. The first book was the first installment in the Disney Legends trilogy entitled Fixer Upper, written by Jen Calonita. It tells the story of Kristoff’s childhood and life before he met Anna in Frozen. The second novel, an anthology of short stories, was created specifically to celebrate #Frozen10. It is called All is Found, and it brought together 10 authors to write 10 short stories to celebrate the anniversary. It was edited by Heather Knowles and Mari Mancusi, veterans in non-film Frozen lore.

November is the month things started reallly picking up. The merchandising train at Disney rolled out a lot of Frozen merch, including limited edition dolls of the sisters specifically for the 10th anniversary. On November 16, Bob Iger announced a fourth installment of the franchise, with multiple voice actors and creators tied to the project confirming it later that same day. This coincided with the Grand Opening ceremony of the World of Frozen at Disneyland Hongkong. Jen Lee joined in this celebration, with the gates to the park opening four days later.

She informed the world on November 22 that Frozen III and Frozen IV were one story across two installments.

The anniversary itself was on November 27. Disney released a press release on their official website commemorating all that had happened in Frozen history (kind of like what we are doing with these blog posts). And, of course, the merchandising train spun out once again to give us all new merch specifically for the #Frozen10 celebration.

Towards the end of the month, the Frozen song playlist was added to Spotify and Season 5 of Disney Speedstorm was released with Frozen characters.

The year ended with exciting activity from the fandom! The Youtuber GeekCritique worked closely with the Arendelle Archives to create a video detailing the history of Arendelle. The video was released on December 23 and managed to make headlines! The other major project was a fanzine celebrating #Frozen10. Inspired by All is Found, several fans came together to create Water Has Memory: A Frozen Decade. Within the zine are the fandom's Frozen memories, presented in the form of Elsa & Anna accessing them together through Ahtohallan.

Needless to say, this year was a major leap forward for all things Frozen. It gave so much to look forward to, and it was a sizable way to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of this beloved story.

Stay Tuned for More

👆🏻 Click above if you want to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Frozen. The due date is April 12, 2024.

4 Days Left

We look forward to seeing your memories ❄️

[darkmaga-returns]

Democrats are the party of mass censorship, the weaponization of the CIA, FBI, and DHS, and the politicization of everything. What does that sound like to you?

Michael Shellenberger

Oct 25, 2024

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to deliver remarks before departing the vice president’s residence on October 23, 2024 in Washington, DC. Harris spoke on former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's recent comments on former U.S. President Donald Trump, including that he fits “into the general definition of fascist” and wanted the “kind of generals Hitler had”, in a series of interviews published Tuesday. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Trump is a fascist who sells out America, says Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in a new advertisement released yesterday. “John Kelly, a four star Marine general, has told us Trump said, ‘Why aren't my generals like those of Hitler's?’” Harris says over images that look like a Republican is holding up a Nazi salute to Trump. “He admires dictators.”

The ad comes on heels of what was ostensibly a new revelation of what Trump said to Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, in a major piece called, “TRUMP: ‘I NEED THE KIND OF GENERALS THAT HITLER HAD,” by The Atlantic magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.

But Goldberg’s revelation wasn’t new. On August 8, 2022, the Washington Post published a story headlined, “Trump wanted ‘totally loyal’ generals like Hitler’s, new book says.” Journalist Amy Wang wrote a near-identical article to the one that Goldberg wrote.

“President Donald Trump once told a top adviser that he wanted ‘totally loyal’ generals like the ones who had served Adolf Hitler,” reported Wang, “unaware that some of Hitler’s generals had tried to assassinate the Nazi leader several times, according to a new book about the Trump presidency.”

Both the Goldberg story and the two-year-old Wang piece were based on claims made by Kelly and Kelly alone. Nobody else has verified them. And the Kelly claims received abundant coverage when the book Wang referred to, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, by the New York Times’ Peter Baker and the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, was published in 2023.

[cinamun]

Top TFA Moments of 2023

TFA = Things Fall Apart for my new friends

Okay so I was tagged by the homie @theplottdump to tag 23 of my favorite story posts of 2023 and since I can't follow directions well, I decided to do my favorite moments from January to December!

I'll tag @shesthespinstersimmer @citylighten @digital-deluxe @softpine @sheplayswithlifee @dreamlandiasims and literally anyone else seeing this right now!

(original post with actual thing you're supposed to do lmao)

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

WOW!!! WHAT A YEAR!!! I really, REALLY enjoyed all the ups and downs this year. And especially, all of the growth which is the plot of this very very very long saga. I hope you all enjoyed the story this year too and there is plenty more to come in the new year. I hope you stick around and to my new friends, I hope you feel welcome in The Badass Book Club™

[thebest-medicine]

Day 23: Incoherent

Tickletober 2023 - Critical Role - C2 Mighty Nein - lee!Fjord, brief lee!Jester

[see my other tickletober 2023 fics]

A/N: Fjorester my beloved. I need their silly energy in my life. Little snippet of Jester tickling Fjord and then asking him to do the same to her (a lil fluff, a little sexy, whatever ya feel *eyebrow waggle*)

Words: 1,050

—

“Ah. Oh no. No- no Jessie- ahaHAWAIT!” Fjord squealed before descending into giddy laughter. 

“Wait? What do you want me to wait for?” Jester asked innocently — her fingers, on the other hand, were quite guilty of the quick, nimble scribbling they’d begun inflicting on Fjord’s sides.

His head shook side to side against the pillow beneath it, occasionally bumping into his elbows on either side. His arms twitched and pulled against the silks tethering them to their bed above his head. Jester’s fingers sent electric tingles up his bared torso everywhere they touched. They plucked at his sides and then began spidering wildly over his belly. 

“Aha- I can’t- I hehehehe- AHAHAHA AHH NOHOHOHO- THAHAT TICKLES! THAT TICKLES HAHA- AHAHA JESS!” 

“Well, duh, Fjord! It’s supposed to tickle!” 

The next few minutes were hazy — fuzzy in the best sort of way. Jester was smiling at him, tickling and teasing him to bits. She brought out so much in him that he hadn’t expected, and she had so many silly, wonderful ideas for expressing affection. In the midst of one, she squeezed at his hips a few times, getting a yelp for her efforts.

“I can’t believe how cute you are when you’re getting tickled Fjord! Your face is so cute! I have to draw it for you some time.” 

“NOHOHOHO!” Fjord cried through his cackles.

Jester’s grin widened as she got an idea. A few more quick squeezes to Fjord’s abdomen and she pushed up, hauling herself off of his hips and running over to her sketch book. 

Fjord took a few deep breaths, some broken up with lingering laughter, and stared at the ceiling as he happily accepted the short break. “Wh- what are you planning now?” He asked — sounding a little teasing and giddy, and a lot nervous.

Jester spun around, a smirk on her face as she wiggled her eyebrows at him. In her hand, she held up her sketching pencil. 

Fjord swallowed, watching her. His giggling started back up again. 

Jester perched atop him, eyes hungry. He felt his stomach twist with anticipation, excitement, and nerves. She took the pencil in her hand as though to start a lovely drawing, except that she had the pointy end up. 

Fjord shook his head. Jester nodded encouragingly, the hand not holding her pencil grabbed at the top of his underwear and pulled the waistband down a bit. She lightly drug the back of the pencil back and forth over his hip. Fjord gasped and burst into giggles. His legs kicked out on the bed behind Jester. 

“Ahaha no- nonono!” Fjord whined. 

“Yes yes yes!” Jester chirped in response. She drew figures and circles and whimsical patterns all over the lower section of his tummy, the front of his ribs and chest, his sides, and even up into his armpits and along his neck. 

Tracing the pencil along each rib on one side as she made her way back down to his sides, Jester started wiggling and pinching along the other side of his torso with her free hand. 

Fjord’s laughter grew louder as he wriggled side to side at her two fronted assault. His smile could cause bones to melt, but his laugh was like a cannonball of delight. It was the sort of gut-deep, boisterous sound that ricocheted off the walls of the ship like thunder - and it was impossible for Jester not to grin in the middle of the storm. 

Dropping her pencil, she made a sound of delight and started scribbling up his sides. Fjord wheezed and cackled, his eyes squeezed shut with tears in the corners of them. 

Fjord was already pretty far gone, but he still reacted viscerally to the sound of Jester sucking in a deep breath. “NO- NAHAHAHA NOOO NAHAHOT THAT!” He pleaded.

“Aww, are you too ticklish?” 

“STAHAHAHOP HAHA NO- JES DON’T DO IHIHIHIT!” Fjord wailed.

“Oh alright… I’ll just give you a couple raspberries. Let me know if it tickles too much, okay Fjord?” 

Her fingers continued to scribble and crawl their way from his hips to his armpits, which would have had him in plenty of hysterics on its own. Her lips, adding poison to the dagger, pressed down softly on the middle of his belly before she let out a loud, ticklish vibration against his abs. 

Fjord pretended to ignore the shriek that fell from his lips when she started, and each additional squealing wail that followed when she continued.

“NAHA- STAH- I CAN’T AHHH HAHA AHAHAA-” His thundering cackles quickly devolved into shouts and gasps between wails of desperate laughter. 

 It wasn’t until her nails began to scratch unbearably under both of his arms and she decided to blow her next raspberry on his side that Fjord cried out “SP-SPRINKLE!” between hoarse booms of laughter. 

Jester withdrew with a grin, sitting upright over him and taking in his exasperated, ravaged state. “Wow, you did really good Fjord! I was pretty mean..” She winked. 

Fjord felt a blush rise to his cheeks in spite of his already warm face. “Heh, thanks.”

“Okay.” Jester leaned in, peppering his cheeks with kisses as she untied the silks from his wrists, leaving the restraints hooked up to the bed. “Okay, okay! Me next!!”

Blissed out smile on his face, Fjord took his jelly arms and wrapped them around Jester’s wiggling form, pulling her in close for a cuddle. “You’re too good at that.” He mumbled as he pulled her in to be the little spoon, both of them still giggling. “I’m so tired now, I need to nap first.” He sighed dramatically, closing his eyes as his legs wrapped around Jester’s. 

He pretended to start snoring, exaggerated and loud, and Jester squealed adorably. Then, “sleep-walking” fingers began to trace ticklish paths around Jester’s ribs and sides, over to her stomach, down near her hips. 

“Ah ehehe Fjord!” Jester squeaked out as she giggled harder. 

A loud snoring sound, and then Fjord mumbled. “Fjord’s sleeping.”

“Nohohoho he’s nohot! Fjord’s tickling!”

Another fake snore. “No he’s not. He’s sleeping.” Jester felt him take a deep breath, chest rising to press further into her back. A long, exaggerated snore. “But when he wakes up. He’s really gonna get you.” 

“Hehe hehehee oh nohoho-” 

[xomakara]

linda's tumblr wrapped 2024

Yes, finally a face reveal in my simple banner lol.

I want to thank @shadowkoo for tagging me in her wrapped 2024 and figured that I should do one as well~ I want to say thank you to all my readers, followers, friends and the folks that have liked, commented and reblog any of my fics. It means alot to me that there are folks reading my works and liking them and encouraging me to continue writing. I love you all and thank you for a wonderful 2024! 💚

Here's to 2025 being a bright, happy and positive year and I hope you'll be there to join me again~ 🥂

⟡ 2024 fic stats ⟡

number of fics posted: 56 (lord, i posted alot)

number of fics in progress: 12

⟡ most popular fics of 2024 ⟡

no clue - first place, 2,006 notes

posted: july 30th

pairing: jaehyun x f.reader (nct)

wordcount: 11.9k

readers review

↳ “this is so hot🥵🔥” - @peachytokki

————

baby on board… again - second place, 1,686 notes

posted: aug. 27

pairing: jaehyun x f.reader (nct)

wordcount: 6.4k

readers review

↳ “Omg! The best ever 😭😭😭🤍🤍 love the wholesomeness and sexiness! Truly the best, love your writing.” - @hisunflower

↳ "*sigh. i miss my non-existent husband😮‍💨" - @chuckychangmin

↳ “I LOVE THE WAY YOU WRITE DAD!JAEHYUN OMG😭😭😭🩷” @luv4jeno

————

behind closed doors - third place, 876 notes

posted: oct. 13

pairing: seonghwa x f.reader (ateez)

wordcount: 6k

readers review

↳ “Linda, count your days. This was so good wtf!!!! Your writing style never ceases to amaze me! In this fic, I love the dynamic between the reader and Seonghwa. It doesn't feel like they are just there with each other just for sex. It's hard to portray that in smuts sometimes and this is done very well. Seonghwa being caring and loving in this fic really shined as well and it allowed the reader to be open with him. This in turn guided them to have a steady relationship/friendship before anything happened sexually between them. Anyway, I always enjoy reading yours, Linda! Fantastic job (as always).” - @othersideoutlawsnetwork

↳ "This man is the definition of man in the streets but a man in the SHEETS! I stand by what i said and you can't change my mind. Not him scaring that douche away like the badass gentleman and then ruining yn for everyone else..." - @cromernet

↳ “#i am SCREAMING#this was SO GOOD#i am straight up swooning#hes so freaking dreamy#he had ME catching feelings#well done!!#seonghwa#ateez#good shit” - @justsomekpopstuff

⟡ most recent fic of 2024 ⟡

after midnight - 52 notes

posted: dec. 27

pairing: yangyang x f.reader (nct/wayv)

wordcount: 8.8k

readers review

↳ none at this point lolol

⟡ longest fic of 2024 ⟡

ranching hearts - 527 notes

posted: oct. 24

pairing: mingi x f.reader (ateez)

wordcount: 16.9k

readers review

↳ OMG cowboy Mingi has me in a chokehold!!!! I'm a city girl through and through but I'd risk it all for this man in a cowboy hat istg” - @velvetskize

↳ “#ateez#tbr#ugh i remember reading so many western romance books back in the day#here we gooooooo” - @hoeranghae1117

⟡ my personal favorite fic ⟡

inked by you - 330 notes

posted: oct. 6th, 2023

pairing: johnny x f.reader (nct)

wordcount: 10.1k

why it's my favorite

↳ this was my first johnny fic that I ever wrote and I still come back to read this one to this day lol. It's also one of my earlier works since I started writing on tumblr fully back in ‘23 (i used to write on other sites). I come back to this and reflect on my writing and the improvement I made throughout the months.

⟡ favorites reads of 2024 ⟡

I haven't read alot of fics lately this year but here are a few of my favs!

you in my arms by @sluttyten (haechan x f!reader)

your gentle hands by @yourlocaljonghoe (hongjoong x f!reader)

the boy is mine by @domjaehyun (haechan x f!reader)

premeditated by @acupoftaewithsomesuga (seonghwa x f!reader)

sweet release by @hisunflower (haechan x f!reader)

⟡ my top tracks of 2024 ⟡

smoothie - nct dream

walk - nct 127

perfume - nct dojaejung

box - nct dream

wish - nct wish

work - ateez

it's you - ateez

dandelion - jaehyun

crazy form - ateez

get the money (khmer girl remix) - bella moon

(that's a lot of nct there…)

⟡ my goals for 2025 ⟡

more fics to come!

read more books and fics! 

try not to be a silent reader lolol

Tagging: those who've I've mentioned above already plus

@lovetaroandtaemin @kpop---scenarios @yoonguurt @remedyx @anyamaris 

@yourfatherlucifer @snowball-doie @itsnotmydejavu @rems-writing @hobeemin

& anyone else that wants to do it 💚

[cho-aaacho]

(Flufftober 2023) Coffee Shop/Book Shop

Main Masterlist I Archive of Our Own

Flufftober 2023 Masterlist I Prompts List

Tags : Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Coffee Shops, Flufftober 2023, Reader is genderless

(Flufftober Day 23)

"Tell me if you need something. I hope you like our new cake. It's my new recipe!"

"Thanks."

The aroma of a luxurious cup of coffee wafted through his nostrils, wrapping him in romantic vibes. The heavenly jazz music whispered in his soul, floating him away to the seventh heaven.

Piers gingerly cradled his cheeks, his skin feeling the warmth that only shyness could evoke. He rarely talks to strangers, but when he is with you, it's something else. It was a moment when he could feel his heart melting, fluttering like dove wings, and blossoming like a sunflower.

"Should I tell the truth to my cute little barista there?" He was debating his feelings.

The chocolate cake before him waltzed seductively upon his taste buds. The sweet touch of the chocolate invaded his mouth, surpassing even his wildest expectations.

This cake is a masterpiece, and it was baked by your delicate hands. Oh... Piers is so addicted to your skillful hands.

He couldn't help but giggle like a teenager each time his sight line was set on the curve of the cake. Everything around him changes drastically; it feels like he is trapped inside a cubicle full of daffodils. 

The cake was wrapped in rich chocolate with a bright red cherry on top. Don't forget about a tiny little message written in white chocolate that graced the plate.

Have a nice day (◠‿◕)

Piers scanned the coffee shop, and eventually, his eyes set on you. He found your presence gracefully and stood behind the counter, adorned in a black polo shirt and a maroon apron that kindly wrapped your curves.

Sipping his coffee, he couldn't help but accept the romantic scene in front of him. His focus was only on you as you engaged in conversation with a fellow barista.

Piers didn't know what you were talking about, but he was hoping that he could join that conversation, to hear his first name escape from your sweet lips, to gaze at him with shy glances and giggle at his joke.

"You know, you look like a dumb stalker when you do that?" Jake's teasing voice interrupted as he sipped his iced coffee. "Why don't you talk to that barista about your pathetic love? Your obsession annoys me."

Piers' eyes widened; his hands were trembling. Something inside his head was spinning like a commuter line as if he had consumed too much caffeine.

"Are you stupid, Crazy Bald? I'm not you! My cute little barista is probably terrified of you. You shouldn't come here and disturb us!"

"What?! How—" Jake's anger flared, boiling his head with anger. He clenched his fist as if ready to punch the air.

Jake sighed. "Listen, Shorty. Firstly, I'm not bald—clearly, I have hair, don't you see that? Secondly, Chris Redfield has requested that I pull you out of this goddamn coffee shop. I have no time to listen to your puppy love story."

After hearing Jake's nonsense fill the atmosphere, Piers has a terrible urge to punch that face. It feels like Jake's existence was a big mistake that God made. He couldn't hold himself from yelling at that kid or bumping his car into Jake.

Piers knows very well that he always hates Jake so much, and his hating is unreasonable sometimes. 

Piers feels like falling into a black curse after seeing Jake in the same coffee shop and engaging in a cute conversation. All of this is frustrating him. However, he tried to calm himself in front of you. He didn't want you to see how bad-tempered he was when he was with Jake.

"Jake, where are you going?"

"Toilet," Jake replied casually.

As Jake walked away from their table with confidence, he headed toward the counter to meet you. His eyes are catching a sparkle in your eyes, and he is talking casually to you with a different intonation than he always does to Piers. As his explanation arrived in your ears, you were caught off guard. You almost fell off, and it made Jake freeze for a moment.

"WHAT? Are you sure, sir?"

"Shorty—eh, I mean Piers asking you to date if you are free. But he's too shy to talk to you. So what do you say? Is it a yes or a no?"

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Lina Khan’s future is the future of the Democratic Party — and America

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

On the one hand, the anti-monopoly movement has a future no matter who wins the 2024 election – that's true even if Kamala Harris wins but heeds the calls from billionaire donors to fire Lina Khan and her fellow trustbusters.

In part, that's because US antitrust laws have broad "private rights of action" that allow individuals and companies to sue one another for monopolistic conduct, even if top government officials are turning a blind eye. It's true that from the Reagan era to the Biden era, these private suits were few and far between, and the cases that were brought often died in a federal courtroom. But the past four years has seen a resurgence of antitrust rage that runs from left to right, and from individuals to the C-suites of big companies, driving a wave of private cases that are prevailing in the courts, upending the pro-monopoly precedents that billionaires procured by offering free "continuing education" antitrust training to 40% of the Federal judiciary:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

It's amazing to see the DoJ racking up huge wins against Google's monopolistic conduct, sure, but first blood went to Epic, who won a historic victory over Google in federal court six months before the DoJ's win, which led to the court ordering Google to open up its app store:

https://www.theverge.com/policy/2024/10/7/24243316/epic-google-permanent-injunction-ruling-third-party-stores

Google's 30% App Tax is a giant drag on all kinds of sectors, as is its veto over which software Android users get to see, so Epic's win is going to dramatically alter the situation for all kinds of activities, from beleaguered indie game devs:

https://antiidlereborn.com/news/

To the entire news sector:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-must-open-app-stores

Private antitrust cases have attracted some very surprising plaintiffs, like Michael Jordan, whose long policy of apoliticism crumbled once he bought a NASCAR team and lived through the monopoly abuses of sports leagues as an owner, not a player:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/michael-jordan-anti-monopolist

A much weirder and more unlikely antitrust plaintiff than Michael Jordan is Google, the perennial antitrust defendant. Google has brought a complaint against Microsoft in the EU, based on Microsoft's extremely ugly monopolistic cloud business:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-files-complaint-eu-over-microsoft-cloud-practices-2024-09-25/

Google's choice of venue here highlights another reason to think that the antitrust surge will continue irrespective of US politics: antitrust is global. Antitrust fervor has seized governments from the UK to the EU to South Korea to Japan. All of those countries have extremely similar antitrust laws, because they all had their statute books overhauled by US technocrats as part of the Marshall Plan, so they have the same statutory tools as the American trustbusters who dismantled Standard Oil and AT&T, and who are making ready to shatter Google into several competing businesses:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/8/24265832/google-search-antitrust-remedies-framework-android-chrome-play

Antitrust fever has spread to Canada, Australia, and even China, where the Cyberspace Directive bans Chinese tech giants from breaking interoperability to freeze out Chinese startups. Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops, and the cost of 40 years of pro-monopoly can't be ignored. Monopolies make the whole world more brittle, even as the cost of that brittleness mounts. It's hard to pretend monopolies are fine when a single hurricane can wipe out the entire country's supply of IV fluid – again:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-10-11-cant-believe-im-writing-about-iv-fluid-again/

What's more, the conduct of global monopolists is the same in every country where they have taken hold, which means that trustbusters in the EU can use the UK Digital Markets Unit's report on the mobile app market as a roadmap for their enforcement actions against Apple:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f61bc0d3bf7f62e8c34a02/Mobile_Ecosystems_Final_Report_amended_2.pdf

And then the South Korean and Japanese trustbusters can translate the court documents from the EU's enforcement action and use them to score victories over Apple in their own courts:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

So on the one hand, the trustbusting wave will continue erode the foundations of global monopolies, no matter what happens after this election. But on the other hand, if Harris wins and then fires Biden's top trustbusters to appease her billionaire donors, things are going to get ugly.

A new, excellent long-form Bloomberg article by Josh Eidelson and Max Chafkin gives a sense of the battle raging just below the surface of the Democratic Power, built around a superb interview with Khan herself:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-09/lina-khan-on-a-second-ftc-term-ai-price-gouging-data-privacy

The article begins with a litany of tech billionaires who've gone an all-out, public assault on Khan's leadership – billionaires who stand to personally lose hundreds of millions of dollars from her agency's principled, vital antitrust work, but who cloak their objection to Khan in rhetoric about defending the American economy. In public, some of these billionaires are icily polite, but many of them degenerate into frothing, toddler-grade name-calling, like IAB's Barry Diller, who called her a "dope" and Musk lickspittle Jason Calacanis, who called her an all-caps COMMUNIST and a LUNATIC.

The overall vibe from these wreckers? "How dare the FTC do things?!"

And you know, they have a point. For decades, the FTC was – in the quoted words of Tim Wu – "a very hardworking agency that did nothing." This was the period when the FTC targeted low-level scammers while turning a blind eye to the monsters that were devouring the US economy. In part, that was because the FTC had been starved of budget, trapping them in a cycle of racking up easy, largely pointless "wins" against penny-ante grifters to justify their existence, but never to the extent that Congress would apportion them the funds to tackle the really serious cases (if this sounds familiar, it's also the what happened during the long period when the IRS chased middle class taxpayers over minor filing errors, while ignoring the billionaires and giant corporations that engaged in 7- and 8-figure tax scams).

But the FTC wasn't merely underfunded: it was timid. The FTC has extremely broad enforcement and rulemaking powers, which most sat dormant during the neoliberal era:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

The Biden administration didn't merely increase the FTC's funding: in choosing Khan to helm the organization, they brought onboard a skilled technician, who was both well-versed in the extensive but unused powers of the agency and determined to use them:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

But Khan's didn't just rely on technical chops and resources to begin the de-olicharchification of the US economy: she built a three-legged stool, whose third leg is narrative. Khan's signature is her in-person and remote "listening tours," where workers who've been harmed by corporate power get to tell their stories. Bloomberg recounts the story of Deborah Brantley, who was sexually harassed and threatened by her bosses at Kavasutra North Palm Beach. Brantley's bosses touched her inappropriately and "joked" about drugging her and raping her so she "won’t be such a bitch and then maybe people would like you more."

When Brantley finally quit and took a job bartending at a different business, Kavasutra sued her over her noncompete clause, alleging an "irreparable injury" sustained by having one of their former employees working at another business, seeking damages and fees.

The vast majority of the 30 million American workers who labor under noncompetes are like Brantley, low-waged service workers, especially at fast-food restaurants (so Wendy's franchisees can stop minimum wage cashiers from earning $0.25/hour more flipping burgers at a nearby McDonald's). The donor-class indenturers who defend noncompetes claim that noncompetes are necessary to protect "innovative" businesses from losing their "IP." But of course, the one state where no workers are subject to noncompetes is California, which bans them outright – the state that is also home to Silicon Valley, an IP-heave industry that the same billionaires laud for its innovations.

After that listening tour, Khan's FTC banned noncompetes nationwide:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men

Only to have a federal judge in Texas throw out their ban, a move that will see $300b/year transfered from workers to shareholders, and block the formation of 8,500 new US businesses every year:

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/21/g-s1-18376/federal-judge-tosses-ftc-noncompetes-ban

Notwithstanding court victories like Epic v Google and DoJ v Google, America's oligarchs have the courts on their side, thanks to decades of court-packing planned by the Federalist Society and executed by Senate Republicans and Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, and Trump. Khan understands this; she told Bloomberg that she's a "close student" of the tactics Reagan used to transform American society, admiring his effectiveness while hating his results. Like other transformative presidents, good and bad, Reagan had to fight the judiciary and entrenched institutions (as did FDR and Lincoln). Erasing Reagan's legacy is a long-term project, a battle of inches that will involve mustering broad political support for the cause of a freer, more equal America.

Neither Biden nor Khan are responsible for the groundswell of US – and global – movement to euthanize our rentier overlords. This is a moment whose time has come; a fact demonstrated by the tens of thousands of working Americans who filled the FTC's noncompete docket with outraged comments. People understand that corporate looters – not "the economy" or "the forces of history" – are the reason that the businesses where they worked and shopped were destroyed by private equity goons who amassed intergenerational, dynastic fortunes by strip-mining the real economy and leaving behind rubble.

Like the billionaires publicly demanding that Harris fire Khan, private equity bosses can't stop making tone-deaf, guillotine-conjuring pronouncements about their own virtue and the righteousness of their businesses. They don't just want to destroy the world - they want to be praised for it:/p>

"Private equity’s been a great thing for America" -Stephen Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital;

"We are taught to judge the success of a society by how it deals with the least able, most vulnerable members of that society. Shouldn’t we judge a society by how they treat the most successful? Do we vilify, tax, expropriate and condemn those who have succeeded, or do we celebrate economic success as the engine that propels our society toward greater collective well-being?" -Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo

"Achieve life-changing money and power," -Sachin Khajuria, former partner at Apollo

Meanwhile, the "buy, strip and flip" model continues to chew its way through America. When PE buys up all the treatment centers for kids with behavioral problems, they hack away at staffing and oversight, turning them into nightmares where kids are routinely abused, raped and murdered:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/they-told-me-it-was-going-be-good-place-allega-tions-n987176

When PE buys up nursing homes, the same thing happens, with elderly residents left to sit in their own excrement and then die:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/24/nursing-homes-private-equity-fraud-00132001

Writing in The Guardian, Alex Blasdel lays out the case for private equity as a kind of virus that infects economies, parasitically draining them of not just the capacity to provide goods and services, but also of the ability to govern themselves, as politicians and regulators are captured by the unfathomable sums that PE flushes into the political process:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/10/slash-and-burn-is-private-equity-out-of-control

Now, the average worker who's just lost their job may not understand "divi recaps" or "2-and-20" or "carried interest tax loopholes," but they do understand that something is deeply rotten in the world today.

What happens to that understanding is a matter of politics. The Republicans – firmly affiliated with, and beloved of, the wreckers – have chosen an easy path to capitalizing on the rising rage. All they need to do is convince the public that the system is irredeemably corrupt and that the government can't possibly fix anything (hence Reagan's asinine "joke": "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help'").

This is a very canny strategy. If you are the party of "governments are intrinsically corrupt and incompetent," then governing corruptly and incompetently proves your point. The GOP strategy is to create a nation of enraged nihilists who don't even imagine that the government could do something to hold their bosses to account – not for labor abuses, not for pollution, not for wage theft or bribery.

The fact that successive neoliberal governments – including Democratic administrations – acted time and again to bear out this hypothesis makes it easy for this kind of nihilism to take hold.

Far-right conspiracies about pharma bosses colluding with corrupt FDA officials to poison us with vaccines for profit owe their success to the lived experience of millions of Americans who lost loved ones to a conspiracy between pharma bosses and corrupt officials to poison us with opioids.

Unhinged beliefs that "they" caused the hurricanes tearing through Florida and Georgia and that Kamala Harris is capping compensation to people who lost their homes are only credible because of murderous Republican fumble during Katrina; and the larcenous collusion of Democrats to help banks steal Americans' homes during the foreclosure crisis, when Obama took Tim Geithner's advice to "foam the runway" with the mortgages of everyday Americans who'd been cheated by their banks:

https://www.salon.com/2014/05/14/this_man_made_millions_suffer_tim_geithners_sorry_legacy_on_housing/

If Harris gives in to billionaire donors and fires Khan and her fellow trustbusters, paving the way for more looting and scamming, the result will be more nihilism, which is to say, more electoral victories for the GOP. The "government can't do anything" party already exists. There are no votes to be gained by billing yourself as the "we also think governments can't do anything" party.

In other words, a world where Khan doesn't run the FTC is a world where antitrust continues to gain ground, but without taking Democrats with it. It's a world where nihilism wins.

There's factions of the Democratic Party who understand this. AOC warned party leaders that, "Anyone goes near Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl":

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1844034727935988155

And Bernie Sanders called her "the best FTC Chair in modern history":

https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1843733298960576652

In other words: Lina Khan as a posse.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/11/democracys-antitrust-paradox/#there-will-be-an-out-and-out-brawl

[limerental]

i'm in the midst of planning for my fifth (!!) ficlet month this November, where i challenge myself to write one small fic per day for a whole month, so i figured i might rec some of my favorites from past months.

the majority of ficlets were written for The Witcher but it's very funny to see my canon interests broaden and change from year to year.

Ficlet Month Masterlists

November 2020 - tumblr & ao3 collection November 2021 - tumblr & ao3 collection October 2022 - tumblr & ao3 collection November 2023 - tumblr & ao3 collection

Ficlet self-recs below the cut!

written out of the stories - '20 - yennefer & original female character

a meta heavy future fic where yen speaks with a museum curator about her forgotten place in The Witcher legend inspired by book canon asides and featuring a heavy dose of spite

monster - '21 - yennefer/geralt

a tragic frankenstein au where yennefer creates a monster to love her but cannot ever be sure that he truly does featuring body horror and angst and yucky tenderness

a study in perseverance - '21 - geralt/jaskier

a crack taken seriously centaur!geralt au where jaskier is wholly determined to prepare himself physically and mentally (mostly physically) to have penetrative sex with geralt's horse bits featuring over the top melodrama, bad sex and gooey romance

the little griefs - '21 - geralt & roach(s)

a study of a series of horses called roach through a witcher's life on the path featuring loss, loneliness, and carrying on

from such great heights - '22 - yennefer/geralt

in an alternate universe where magic users are born with wings, yennefer gave hers up and geralt's were stolen from him. featuring two broken people loving each other as best they can and wing preening

a unicorn for tea - '22 - yennefer/geralt &ciri

a post book canon fic where ciri and ihuarraquax come to visit yennefer and geralt in their idyllic ambiguous afterlife featuring yen's poor baking skills, humor, and a lingering bittersweetness

degradation for degradation - '22 - dijkstra/geralt

a porn with very little plot game canon divergent fic where dijkstra seeks to even the score with geralt featuring humiliation, geralt being a little shit, and a healthy heaping of size difference

when we were girls - '23 - calanthe/meve

a pre-canon twn/book/game-blended exploration of the childhood relationship between two young women who later became powerful queens with very different fates

we worship nothing in the foxholes - '23 - isengrim/iorveth

a post battle of brenna missing scene between two virhedd commanders who are just beginning to grapple with nilfgaard's defeat, the scoia'tael's lost dreams of freedom, and the likelihood that they won't get out of the war alive

how much it was worth - '23 - geralt & ciri & kelpie

a missing scene before the end of lady of the lake where geralt admires ciri's black mare and feels the rift of time and trauma that's grown between himself and his daughter

[kaiyves-backup]

2024 Reading Wrap-Up

In 2024, I read 43 books for fun! (My previous record was 34 in 2023.) This year, I finally got around to reading many books that I'd wanted to read for a decade or more.

30 were nonfiction, 13 were fiction.

23 were by a woman or women (previous record was 11 in 2023), 18 were by a man or men, and 2 were written under collective pseudonyms making the actual authors unknown. I achieved my goal of half or more books read this year being by women.

30 books were by American authors, the rest by non-American authors. (Of those, 4 were by Brits and 3 were by Australians.)

Oldest: The "Mary Celeste" and Other Strange Tales of the Sea, J.G. Lockhart (1952)

Newest: Murder at Beacon Rock, by Alyssa Maxwell (2022)

4 were from the National Geographic Explorer Academy series.

Best: The Wave, in Pursuit of the Rogues, Giants, and Freaks of the Ocean, by Susan Casey (2010) I read the first two chapters in my High School library shortly after this book came out, and I bought my current copy at @strandbooks in 2015, but this one was absolutely worth the wait. It deserves every accolade it got when it came out.

Other Favorites:

At Sea in the City: New York from the Water's Edge, by William Kornblum (2002)

The Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing (1956)

No Horizon Is So Far: Two Women and Their Historic Journey across Antarctica, by Liv Arnesen, Ann Bancroft, and Cheryl Dahle (2003)

The Orbital Perspective: Lessons on Seeing the Big Picture from a Journey of 71 Million Miles, by Ron Garan (2015)

The Planets, by Dava Sobel (2005)

Seeing in the Dark: How Amateur Astronomers are Discovering the Wonders of the Universe, by Timothy Ferris (2002)

Starlight and Storm: The Conquest of the Great North Faces of the Alps, by Gaston Rébuffat (1954)

Taking on the World: A Sailor's Extraordinary Solo Race Around the Globe, by Ellen MacArthur (2003)

Taking the Helm: One of America's Top Sailors Tells Her Story, by Dawn Riley (1995) (Ms. Riley signed my copy when we met back in April! I interviewed her here!)

Worst: The "Mary Celeste" and Other Strange Tales of the Sea, J.G. Lockhart. The title of this book made me expect some fun nautical ghost stories, of variable truth, but really only four of the stories told could be considered "mysterious". Most of them are just "brutish-and-dimwitted mutineers of heavily-emphasized ethnicity speaking broken English as they kill their captains and then wreck the ship because they can't navigate" stories that become kind of uncomfortable in aggregate. (As a Greek-American, it struck me that every Greek seaman described in the book is one of these "shifty mutinous brutes".) Eeeesssh.

[accio-victuuri]

The story of Bojunyixiao’s WEIBO NIGHT 2022/2023 📝

this is my attempt to archive in one post what happened in this event. from days before the actual show and most of the rumos/hearsays going around. also moments from both the boys as individuals during the show and of course, everyone’s favorite, cpn moments. it’s the long awaited same-event from them so it’s only right that it be documented well. i will not be talking about the red carpet / livestream drama so this post remains positive.

if you only want candies please skip to part V which is the final section of this post. there are also minor ones on part ii ‼️

I. The Anticipation / Announcements

As soon as the “winners” were announced for the user recommendation portion on 3/20, people were already celebrating that we will have a same-stage and same event incident. This is because, both XZ & WYB were awarded in the top 3 as popular personalities on Weibo. Also Yibo won in all categories where his works were nominated movie/drama/variety show/song. At this time there was really no question that GG is gonna attend because his votes for KING/ Oath of Love were astronomical but Yibo on other hand had melons related to him saying he would not be attending. XFXs were hard at work trying to win tickets to Weibo night but MTJJs weren’t because there was really no confirmation or even leaked schedule for 3/25. BXGs were also hard at work trying to get tickets for fan-sites to get in.

It’s been a long running rumor that GG will be one of the guests that will be announced last. However WB night account posted a banner of the attendees for the livestream which showed him. Also the weibo opening screen on 3/22 evening had him as an attendee. So this certainly “spoiled” it tho there was never any doubt that GG will be there. I say “spoil” because Weibo Night account made a big deal of announcing attendees in “batches” depending on their perceived status at the event. So this spoils a couple of attendees, including GG, which were not formally announced yet.

The next day 3/23, Yibo pops up on his weibo account and announces the he will be attending. This certainly allowed us to breathe a sigh of relief. His VCR for the awards night was also shared. He really went “surprise bitch, i’m attending” on us which is certainly on brand for him.

AT THIS POINT, the fandom is screaming because we finally have the long awaited same-event. Even if they don’t interact or even look at each other, as long as we can see them at the same awards night then this is a win. It is also important to note that there are a lot of turtles who have never experienced this. Truly one for the books.

3/24, the last day before the actual awards show, Xiao Zhan was announced via his post on his weibo account.

II. Pre-show rumors and everything else

• The notorious “seating arrangement” started going around in the evening of 3/23, as event organizers were already hard at work at the venue in Shanghai. It was rumored that they are in the same zone but XZ is in Row 1 and WYB in Row 2.

jokes were also going around that they should have a loveseat 😂😂😂

• 3/24, there was a video/photo of GG being shared, boarding his plane & arriving in Shanghai. The moto leather jacket he was wearing certainly caught our eye. It’s by Tod’s and the look is similar to what WYB had been wearing when he is photographed @ the airport.

The things that gets us tho is why is he so dressed up only for a plane ride? This is supposed to be mister comfortable clothes hopping on a plane. We’ve seen it so many times. So why is he so stylish? Even if he has a work related engagement after the flight, he can just change. We’re speculating that he is dressing up for the love of his life 💕 He has to look extra fresh when he arrives in Shanghai and they see each other. Also if you look at the side by side i posted above, you can’t really tell that the one on the right is GG when you first look at it.

• GG wore an off white suit coat for filming his Weibo Night VCR. It’s been a while since he wore Off White and when he does, it’s for an event where he and Yibo are gonna attend. Off White has some CPN history because of their “couple wear” in 2018.

The style of the coat is also similar to what Yibo was wearing in his announcement poster. It’s an interesting choice to say the least.

• Some next level coincidence is the night before the event, the Moon & Venus are clearly seen in the night sky. 🌙 and knowing our cpn symbolism history with these two, turtles can’t help but think it’s fate and a sign of good things to happen. also the next time this will happen again 2026.

Then you have the strongest aurora in Tasmania for 32 years. The last time the strongest aurora appeared was in 1991 which is ZZ’s birth year.

This is some kind of cosmic-level romance power 😂

• The real icing on the cake is the night of 3/24, LRLG decides to share a post of events that happened on the same day. All the details and sweets on that are here. 🍬

• Traveling to where Yibo is + playing LoL at midnight clues

III. Red Carpet

Didn’t happen because SINA weibo decided to be a bitch and not give the fans what they want. 🤷🏻‍♀️

IV. Weibo Night Awards Show

• XZ Studio photoset ( Elie Saab ) one two / behind the scenes

• Yibo-official photoset one two / behind the scenes

• XZ Studio photoset ( Balmain ) one two / behind the scenes

• Yibo receiving his award

• Xiao Zhan receiving his award

They didn’t get the popularity award as we expected them to, or even for their dramas, but I think those got consolidated so people don’t have to get up the stage too many times. I found WB night went more with specific things like XZ getting an acting award and Bobo for movie-actor. Maybe they also consulted with the attendees on this. XZ didn’t even get the KING title, but it must be true that he didn’t want it. I mean, any fan who knows and pays attention to what XZ does will feel that another traffic award is not what he needs right now. He’s won it several times already. His passion is acting and he will concentrate on that. Good for him. Good for them.

Yibo immediately left the venue after getting his award because he still has to film night scenes for his drama. GG stayed till the end, but a video showed him running out the venue. He was also in a hurry to leave. lol.

Overall I wanna say that it was as peaceful as it can be. No drama onstage is so much better. At least they did their part in this circus and of course, blessed us with their presence.

V. Time for some post-show Sugar round-up 🍬🍭

• XZ’s look screams Disney Prince! and also, like a grown up version of the Little Prince which is his favorite and have been tied to him & WYB. It’s also from the brand Elie Saab that is popular with making intricate gowns for women and wedding gowns too.

I’m personally happy to see him in this fit! The perfect balance of masculine and feminine 🤍

• The venue where this was shot is the same place one of his Tod’s ad was filmed + Bobo’s Chanel ad. This was already CPNd before and it’s nice to see this place coming up again.

• In XZS’ photoshoot behind the scenes, one of the things on camera that was emphasized was a flower. sure, it could just be because it was pretty but i’ve said so many times that XZS does videos carefully and every frame tells a story. What a coincidence that out of all the shots they can insert as filler, it’s of a PEONY???? I mean. We know who the White Peony of Luoyang is. Wang Yibo.

Plus there was a frame that you can mistake as WYB. They really look alike in some angles! Soulmate things!

• Yibo’s suit for the night is by Givenchy, he is in all black and it makes his Chanel high jewelry accessory stand out more. It’s been a pattern for him, for the past few events to have Chanel as a highlight. Anyway, what blew my mind is how this is a contrast to GG’s. It still matches tho. They can get married. The aesthetic is just 🥹🥹🥹 Yes, GG is not the “bride/wife” but you get the point, how they look together is truly something.

• You can see the element of a “television” in both of their photoshoots. is this a popular theme that i don’t know about??? why is it always them??? Then you have the bts for yibo’s photoshoot, he was holding a video recorder. the TV for GG’s in the meantime, had that V effect.

• This shot is so reminiscent of that scene from Hidden Blade. Again, why would you use this shot??? I'm pretty sure they have better ones but they went with this. an interesting choice.

• Fans are saying WYB bowed in the direction of GG here, but I think it was more of him bowing to everyone and being polite.

• One type of candy that I don’t usually go for, because it’s too invasive and sometimes there are things that we shouldn’t look imply. but we can’t help but notice how their lips are bruised. or maybe these are sores? because of the weather? idk man. yibo bites his lips usually, but ZZ? hmmmm. i’m not confirming anything, just kinda sus that they are in the same city and this happens. 🤔

• not sure about this but fans are hearing GG say “where is wang yibo” to the assistant. here is the video.

A cute incident showing they have the same braincell. lol. seats apart and the same mannerism. i love them!!!

XZS posted another behind the scenes and the BGM and how sexy everything sounds makes my mind go places. The lines goes: I will keep the lights on, until -- till you get back home. Who is this line for??? are you gonna wait for someone who still has night scenes to shoot to come home??? Damn it. Yibo is so a lucky man and I wanna fight him. HAHAHAHAHAHA! He has Xiao Zhan to come home to. I'm happy they are in the same city cause WYB is often exhausted and does long hours for his shoots, that's a given but it's not everyday that he has XZ waiting for him. <3

• LASTLY, my favorite is Weibo Night’s choice to cut to certain things and people depending on who is onstage. I can’t believe they did it to Yibo tho. HAHAHAHAHAHA. So it’s like, for example, AngelaBaby ( actress ) is onstage, they will show Huang XiaoMing’s reaction. Why? They are exes. Then when WY and WJK were accepting their respective awards, the camera cut to YYXQ who is their bandmate in TFBoys and their fans were hoping for a reunion. You get the point?

Even non-cpfs picked up on what happened. After Bobo’s speech, the camera cut to the audience but you can see the CPF HEADBANDS. RED AND GREEN. The event knows. They weren’t that brave to cut to Xiao Zhan tho. 😂😂😂😂 and well, imagine the pandemonium between the two fandoms if they did. What this tells me tho it’s out there. BJYX is known. This is a show broadcasted on CCTV. The stream is watched by 300M++ people, and they still chose to do it. Unless the camera person whatever is a turtle then there is no point in doing this. It was definitely a 👀 moment. What do you all know? Or maybe they were trying to appeal to the very small number of CPFs who were hoping for a same stage? hmmmmmm… I'm not sure if it's good or bad but it's definitely something. It was unexpected and that's why it's my favorite.

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

If you reached the end of this post, thank you for reading! I planned to just do a purely CPN breakdown of events that I usually make with any of the ones they attended before. However, I thought it would be better to make a longer one that details more of the other events and content related to it — and all of that be in one place. This 2022 Weibo Night is added to Turtle History so it’s best to have something that can be used as “cpn archaeology” one day. 💛

If something else comes up, and i'm sure it will, then a separate individual post will be made about it. have a good day everyone!

PS : Do not repost this CPN outside of tumblr without a credit to me and a link back to this post. Do not steal my words. Do not screenshot. In short, do not steal content that i made and claim as yours.