#v is reading

[vspin]

Why do i teeter between reading slumps and then reading a book in a day

[ambrosiagourmet]

I've seen pieces from this extra comic before, but never read the full thing until today. And holy shit does it hammer home just how much the story is about class.

Multiple times, when food comes up in this comic, it’s also in context of money:

I've seen this last panel on the right brought up before in context of like, dungeon meshi's relationship with fat and eating, but in the full context of the comic it really hits how much adventuring directly consumes bodies for money.

As much as this has been part of the story the whole time, showcased as early chapters 19 and 20...

It never fully hit me before how often adventuring comes down to having no other way to make money but to throw yourself into death repeatedly. To be used, whether it’s by individual selfish people (like the resurrection group that is happy to try and get Kabru's group to kill each other to get extra gold from them in chapter 32), or by the greater cog of the Dungeon Economy in general.

Which, to be clear, is all too often how things work in the real world, too. So many jobs burn through the health and lives of workers. Dungeon Meshi just makes it literal in a new way: by making the healing and resurrection, a core part to the adventuring loop, directly use fat, muscle, and energy from the body being healed.

Imagine Amazon, but if you got injured at work, they could literally burn up some of your body to get you back to working sooner. And that was seen as an advantage of the job.

And then you have Laios, thinking about eating monsters:

Not just because he likes monsters a lot. But because it would help. He says something similar in the actual manga too, during the chapter discussing his dream with the Winged Lion

Laios wants to be able to make a home for Falin. He wants to give her a place where she never has to eat alone. And when he gets a party, he wants to give them a way to eat well. And when he runs a country, well…

He wants to ensure that everyone has enough to eat.

Food is political. Food ties into class, and money. What is deemed "proper" to eat, what is a luxury, what is crass… so much of it comes down to money.

Being judged for eating what's available, when what is “proper” isn't affordable, is already a thing that happens. People forced into work that consumes their energy is already a thing that happens.

Dungeon Meshi has a lot of fantastical elements, but boy is its examination of food and class very real.

[umblrspectrum]

i love learning cursive just to write text for exactly one character

[fisheem4mmal]

Today is not only Malleus's Birthday, but also Lilia's 'rebirth!'

Happy Birthday Malleus!

[1alchemistart]

some dunmeshis bc i love them

[torpublishinggroup]

Celebrate Pride with Tor Publishing Group!

Rakesfall by @adamantine

They met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. Later, in a demon-haunted wood, an act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey through the ages. As they reincarnate ever deeper into the future, a truth emerges: Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell.

Running Close to the Wind by @ariaste

In this queer pirate fantasy, Avra Helvaçi has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world. To avoid capture, he flees to the open sea, where only his on-again, off-again ex aka pirate Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār can help him survive, profit, and become a legend.

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Something evil is buried deep in the desert. It wants your body and wears your skin. Welcome to Camp Resolution, a queer conversion center where everyone leaves a different person. In 1995, seven queer teens were abandoned here by their parents, but survived. Sixteen years later, they’re scarred and broken, but back to face an evil that threatens the world. 

Kinning by Nisi Shawl

In this alternate history where barkcloth airships soar and former colonies claim freedom from imperialist tyrants, the identity of the island of Everfair still wavers. Victorious in the wake of the Great War, a new threat looms. Can Everfair continue to serve as a symbol of hope for anticolonial movements around the world, or will it fall to forces within and without? 

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by @rebeccathornewrites

Can one of the Queen’s private guard and the most powerful mage in existence leave their lives behind to settle down in their new bookshop that serves tea? This cozy fantasy is steeped in sapphic romance and nestled on the edge of dragon country. 

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

Once there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London. After a desperate attempt to prevent corruption and ruin in the four Londons, there are only three. Now the worlds are going to collide anew—brought to a dangerous precipice by the discoveries of three remarkable magicians.

Now available in paperback!

The Archive Undying by @emcandon

This is a story about misplaced faith, complicated love, so much self-loathing, and yeah—giant robots. Plugged into his AI god when its apocalyptic corruption renders him unfortunately immortal, sad gay disaster Sunai takes a die-again-or-die-trying approach to things. Unending life’s tough when intimacy is somehow scarier even than either of the warring police states set on turning you into a weapon or the rogue undead mecha-fragment of your old god that wants to eat you. 

Now available in paperback!

The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen

A dazzling historical mystery that dives into the shadowy, closeted world of the Navy, emerging in the gay bars of the city. It’s a whirlpool of missing people, violent strangers, and scandalous photos in 1952 San Francisco. 

Now available in paperback!

Celebrate Pride with more titles from Tor Publishing Group here!

[ravenlilyrose]

Okay, Okay, OKAY!!!

Idea.

Brucie Wayne and his horde of children (and definitely-not-his-children) attend a costume gala in their vigilante costumes. BUT they mix it up some to throw people off. It would be too easy to match up ages, personalities, body types, etc if they just do it the normal way. But this way it’s fun (and to get Bruce, Damian, etc to participate, it also helps keep secret identities secret.)

Bruce can still be Batman for the sole purpose of trolling people because there is no way Brucie Wayne is Batman. (This is equally hilarious to those in the know and those not.)

I love the trope of Cass and Tim being the same size and just sharing everything, so they just straight-out switch.

Dick finds it absolutely hilarious to wear the Robin costume again. (And carrying around a sword is actually really fun.)

Jason wears the Nightwing costume. Definitely not because he kinda still has a little bit of the little brother hero worship going on. Nope, it’s just because he has the physical build that’s most opposite to Dick’s.

Damian and Steph are fighting over Jason’s helmet when Duke just walks by and snatches it away, putting it on his own head. It takes them embarrassingly long to realize that it’s gone.

That leaves Damian with Spoiler and Steph with Signal. Damian complains and calls all of the purple undignified, but then Commits so hard. No one is quite sure whether he’s upset or if he likes it. Steph spends the whole night forcing people to play along when she ‘disappears.’

Bruce honestly didn’t expect to enjoy being flirty, silly Brucie while wearing the bat suit, but it is actually rather fun. (He is less pleased, however, with the fact that his kids are actually getting up to more nonsense than usual. But it’s not his problem right now. Let the rich socialites and the paparazzi deal with them.)

[syndullahera]

STAR WARS: EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) -dir. Irvin Kershner

[ghelgheli]

Often when trans women ask me when I'm performing next, and I tell them that it's a queer/trans event, they will tell me that they'd rather not go because they do not feel comfortable or safe in those spaces, that they have been dismissed or belittled at such events before. Even trans women who are dyke- or bisexual- identified often don't feel welcome or relevant in queer/trans spaces. And whenever a trans woman or ally points out aspects about the queer/ trans community that contribute to these feelings of irrelevancy and disrespect—such as the way our community coddles those who support trans-woman-exclusionist events or who make trans-misogynistic comments—we are described as being "divisive." This use of the word "divisive" is particularly telling, as it implies that "queer/trans" represents a uniform movement or community—a "oneness"—rather than an alliance where all voices are respected.

Julia Serano, Whipping Girl. Published 2007.

[lazylittledragon]

ok someone please correct me if i'm wrong but am i weird for thinking those 'audiobooks don't count as reading' posts are ableist as fuck????

[tzarrz]

i listen to fog lake too much

[vspin]

reading Xenos...kinda want to make a psyker RT....

[essektheylyss]

I really am not gonna get over Keyleth/Verin as a ship because like, they are WILDLY compelling for having come out of nowhere:

Verin will at the very least live another six hundred years, and is quite possibly functionally immortal via consecution.

They can commiserate about being thrust into the responsibility of commanding a force against extraplanar existential threats at a young age due to the (temporary) death of a parent in the role before them. This really does feel like a two nickels situation, if I'm being honest.

What are air magic and graviturgy if not different methods of achieving the same effect?

He's even a dramatic, long-haired goth with a complicated relationship with a fate deity and, if we're being honest, mommy AND daddy issues. Look at his Netherdeep art. Don't tell me Vax wouldn't approve.

I cannot bring myself to classify this as a crack ship because it is genuinely, bizarrely compelling in character.

[arunneronthird]

tell 'em all they'll love in my shadow

[dalekinapaintedparadise]

Another reason to cry about the Temperance ending: Johnny feels like V is still out there somewhere.

[debestest]