#valery k

[drinkingteainthedark]

Valery meeting Shenkov and immediately being like 'he's so beautiful' I know what you are

[sleblurk-reads-books]

Valery x Shenkov Head Over Heels Tears For Fears animatic NOW

[vanillaflowerstuff]

pulley characters as the animals i think they would be

[girlboy-frankensteins-monster]

books i read this february:

'the half life of valery k' by natasha pulley

5/5 stars — really enjoyed the plot, romance and characters. also i think it appealed to me because i'm interested in radiation and biochemistry and also history. definitely recommend it

2. 'harrow the ninth' by tamsyn muir

5/5 stars — this book is really difficult to read but it gets way easier in the last quarter of the book so if you're struggling definitely don't give up. i love what it does with the narrator and just generally how confusing it is honestly (it's somehow confusing in a good way). the characters are amazing i love them all so much

3. 'ways of seeing' by john berger

4/5 stars — i really enjoyed this and i felt like it made me consider a lot of things i'd never really thought about in much depth before. i'd be really interested to see a more modern take on advertising like the essay in the book because i feel like advertising's changed a lot since the book was published just in terms of how widespread it is

4. 'the starless sea' by erin morgenstern

5/5 stars — loved the plot, characters and setting so much. i think i preferred it to the night circus just because i didn't particularly enjoy the romance or the ending in the night circus

5. 'the westing game' by ellen raskin

3/5 stars — i read this when i was younger and i think i enjoyed it more then. the plotline's very interesting and i like it but I didn't enjoy the writing style and the portrayal of some of the characters. also angela's character development was kind of undermined at the end in my opinion

[incorrect-pulleyverse]

Svetlana: Every girl is PERFECT and beautiful in their own way and anyone who disagrees can fight me.

Shenkov: I’m not disagreeing but I do kinda wanna fight if you’re down.

Svetlana: A fight for the sake of fighting is the purest form of fight lets go.

Anna: Join in if you’re girl positive but also ready to throw down.

[wwillywonka]

SPOCK: REGRET

[theygotlost]

nonthreatening male feminist

[thenatashapulleyuniverse]

please send this to your non-pulleyverse oomfs i made this for fun lmao

MC = main character

LI = love interest

[spittinwatches]

hello chat. i am back with another banger.

mlp art collab with @vanillaflowerstuff

[flowercrowngods]

is there anything as joyous as finishing a book and finding there’s 24 works on ao3 providing missing scenes, character studies and a pov switched rewrite?

[archmotif]

nonfiction nuclear history recs for fans of the half life of valery k

hi there! as someone who reads a lot about nuclear history, I wanted to give some recommendations for people who read valery k and though "damn that's crazy, I want to learn more!"

Books about the Kyshtym Disaster (Historical Basis for Valery K): - Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters by Serhii Plokhy - This is my favorite book about nuclear disasters! It's a wonderful introduction to the subject, and has a whole chapter on Kyshtym. - Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America by Joshua Frank - This book is mostly about Hanford (the "equivalent" of Mayak in the US) and it's not my favorite, but it does have a good chapter on Kyshtym that I really enjoyed reading post-valery k - Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown - A book that compares compares Chelyabinsk and Richland (town associated with Hanford) as residential areas. Disclaimer that I have not yet read this book, but it was recommended to me by a trusted source.

Books about Chernobyl: - Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich - THE definitive nuclear history book imho. It's beautiful, it's empathetic, and a lot of it served as the basis for HBO's Chernobyl. Plus, imo a lot of the oral histories about rural life in the exclusion zone match up w/ valery k's village plotline. Svetlana Alexievich the nobel prize winner that you are... - Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham - This is a really popular Chernobyl book, though I never finished reading it and prefer Alexievich and Plokhy's work. It has some great maps though. Seriously, I adore the maps. They're amazing.

[lennyjamin]

i'm a big fan of scifi/fantasy romance novels and it's really tickling me how many of the ones i've read over the past year have involved Confessing To The Murder(s) as a major relationship development milestone

[starl1tsky]

the thing about natasha pulley is that she can write well but like. every book of hers, the plot is Man Complicit in Atrocities/Pathological Liar Lies To His Amnesiac/Deeply Confused Love Interest

[msunitedstatesjames]

Every Natasha Pulley book ever:

Bulky Man is unintentionally bulky, he's just sort of stronger than everyone because that's the nature of his life. Everyone assumes Bulky Man is violent because of his girth, but he actually hates violence and is really just the nicest little dude inside.

Fragile Dude is little and/or easily breakable. Fragile Dude is brilliant and/or powerful. He too is pretty nice, but he's probably had to use his intellect and/or power to commit some kind of atrocity in the past that he will be attempting to keep secret over the course of the story. This will be revealed 3/4 of the way through the book, but the circumstances surrounding the atrocity will be so horrible that everyone will agree it was probably justified.

Bulky Man and Fragile Dude are both dissatisfied with their lives to some extent.

Bulky Man and Fragile Dude meet through a series of unlikely and often unfortunate events.

Bulky Man and Fragile Dude are forced to work together in some capacity.

Bulky Man and Fragile Dude are both a little bit afraid of the other, but there's also some quality that they really like or respect in the other nonetheless.

Bulky Man and Fragile Dude continue to work together, but now they're starting to reluctantly take a liking to the other. Neither of them realize that the other actually likes them though.

Bulky Man and Fragile Dude have had to help each other out of some sticky situations by now. They're clearly head over heels in love these days, but circumstance and/or society is keeping them from acknowledging it. People have started to hint to Bulky Man that Fragile Dude is actually super shady, so you better watch your back. Bulky Man doesn't really care that much at this point, but he's like, I guess I better look into these accusations.

(Some kind of cute but unusually intelligent animal is usually involved with the plot and/or their relationship by this point. Also, there's at least one loveable child character that usually helps the characters bond.)

Bulky Man and Fragile Dude have a nice, cheerful break from all of the traumatic events they've been experiencing, which inevitably ends in a romantic encounter.

Because of communication issues or societal issues, both chraracters still don't actually believe the other character loves them, and they both act like it was just a one off thing and an accident and that everything is totally fine.

Things are awkward between Bulky Man and Fragile Dude, but the traumatic events have really fired up again so they still have to work together. Plus, they're both just that desperate to be together, even though they think the other character hates them now.

Bulky Man finds out Fragile Dude's secret, but usually he doesn't get it quite right or he's missing some essential information. Bulky Man is temporarily horrified of Fragile Dude. Bulky Man chides himself for being so desperate for affection that he fell in love with some kind of psycho.

At this point, either Bulky Man makes a stupid mistake while being horrified or circumstances just happen to suddenly get a lot worse or both. Bulky Man and Fragile Dude are physically separated, often by force and some kind of authority. At some point in here, Bulky Man realizes he was wrong about Fragile Dude.

A slapdash plot is hatched to save the stolen love interest. Usually Bulky Man has to save Fragile Dude, but occassionally the script is flipped.

Ultimately, the stolen love interest is rescued, though it was a real close thing at some point. The Day is saved, usually through murder/s, caused by a combination of Bulky Man reluctantly bashing some heads in and Fragile Dude using his wits and/or power to get the right people killed. Often, our protagonists are then forced to straight up run away from the Bad Times, leaving their lives and families behind. (The loveable child from earlier will either be tragically left behind or adopted by the now happy couple.)

Bulky Man and Fragile Dude are a little bit sad at the things they've lost along the way, but mostly they're going to live happily ever after.

[wiltkingart]

I'm queer Russian diaspora and if you have any queer Russian lit recs that would be so awesome!

the only one ive read personally is Spring in Siberia by artem mozgovoy! it came out last year and the author himself is a gay russian man who escaped russia several years ago. i wrote my thoughts about it here and strongly recommend it. it definitely fucked me up big time but im so glad it exists, and was able to exist in this world.

i can also mention The Half Life of Valery K because i found it fun (and fucked up) too, but the author isnt russian and i had some issues with the ending, and the way some things came across. but. i still really liked it overall if you want a nuclear soviet gay romance

[wwillywonka]

i always thought the forced mind meld scene in undiscovered country was out of place and, more importantly, wildly out of character for spock. i think that's the general consensus from the fandom as well, but i also feel like not a lot of people have actually seen this movie or thought deeply about it considering the lack of analysis i've been able to find on it. but the more i think about it, the more it makes so much sense that spock would do something that extreme all in the name of protecting not only jim and the enterprise crew but starfleet as well. jim even says it to him later in the film, "we're both extremists," and spock wonders if they're so used to falling into roles and routines around each other that they've lost the ability to combat something completely different and unique that might come along to challenge them. it is this predictably that valeris was able to use to manipulate him, to get him to trust her, to get him to help her rise in rank in starfleet. because he saw her as everything he could never be: a full vulcan, completely and totally logical and dedicated to her work, without emotional attachment. of course he doesn't regret his friendships with the enterprise crew but still, there is a small part of him that will forever want to be more vulcan. we know that from unification. how long did spock know valeris? all the way back to her first academy days? how long was she his student, his favorite student? how much time and effort did he put into helping her, all the while blind to her ulterior motives? how the hell is he supposed to trust his own judgement now?

she's destroyed the sanctity of starfleet, the place spock escaped to as a teenager to find inner peace and purpose, the place that has given him a home and friends and people who trust him, who would follow him into anything if he asked.

and now he's become a danger to the enterprise crew. he's become a danger to jim and leonard.

and so, the forced mind meld scene comes not from anger towards valeris alone but a deep anger towards himself. and in his anger and his shame at being angry in the first place and his shame for feeling that shame, of course he would do anything to protect his friends, even if it means violating and sullying the most important ritual in vulcan culture.

it's still horrible, he still shouldn't have done it. but it makes so much sense in the wider context of his character and thus makes for a strong and effective plot choice.