#what is erin andrews

[hajamfxsblog]

Erin Andrews responds to trolls about

[daisyjoners]

tag dump! andy’s version - pairings, parte dois.  

[bluedelliquanti]

Before I go on vacation, I present my list of my top books for 2024.

COMICS:

Roaming by Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki

Bunt! by Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert

Ukazu and Rupert are a powerhouse team, and as an art school adjunct, this already funny GN is even funnier (albeit in a way that necessitates a skull emoji in the educator groupchat)

Tiffany’s Griffon by Magnolia Porter Siddell & Maddi Gonzalez

Phobos and Deimos by J Dalton

Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui

It's a tough task to reach a satisfying conclusion to a series that was as strong as Dungeon, but I think Kui accomplished it!

Fool Night by Kasumi Yasuda

King in Limbo by Ai Tanaka

Over the last year I've been drawn towards comic series that work with a retro, fixed-width inking style, and King especially informed some recent experiments of mine.

PROSE:

Twins by Bari Wood & Jack Geasland

When I learned Wood was responsible for the book that became Dead Ringers, I knew I had to try it. This is the one that wins my "Oh, shit! Wow!! Okay!!!" award for the year (distinctions previously awarded to Cyteen and Manhunt).

The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow

DS9: A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson

Those of you who read my journal comic from last August might recall that I met Robinson at a Trek convention! I'd learned from reading these books that Stitch was considered a white whale among collectors, and now I absolutely understand why. If you're a DS9 fan and you want to try any book from the original run of novels, try this one. By which I mean, try the far easier-to-find audiobook version.

Translation State by Ann Leckie

A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason

Fellow SBCF participant Erin Roseberry had shared this title as an inspiration for their comic, The Maker of Grave-Goods, and I was especially interested in trying a book by a Twin Cities author. What a serendipitous find!

Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell

For the third year in a row, a book nominated for the Le Guin Prize makes the list.

Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin

This is another book I always told myself I'd try someday, and was it ever worth it! I spent some time talking about my experience with this story (and its accompanying materials that fill out the world) in my talk with Evan Dahm on his show.

See you in the new year! I've packed some thick books for a long flight, so I'm starting my 2025 reading pile right away!

Reruns of my previous two lists, 2023, and 2022, below the cut.

2023

COMICS:

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou by Hitoshi Ashinano

Out of Style by Devi Putri Megwati

Skip and Loafer by Misaki Takamatsu

The Harrowing of Hell by Evan Dahm

The Infinity Particle by Wendy Xu

Esteban by Matthieu Bonhomme

I covered my ShortBox reccs back in October, but since then I also picked up Pearl Hunting by Hana Chatani when it came to itch.io and adored it.

PROSE: 

So yes, maybe I'm cheating by including Moby Dick since I'm not all the way finished, but Whale Weekly really did end up being a great tool for getting me to crack open my gorgeous Evan Dahm-illustrated copy I've had for a while.

My favorite book of the year is Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. I genuinely did read it the first week of January, but after having it recommended to me for years, I'm thrilled it didn't disappoint. Maybe I am someone who likes Russian novels after all???

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Such Nice People by Sandra Scoppettone

Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh (I jokingly placed these three in the "READ 👏 FEMALE 👏 AUTHORS 👏" category because they don't have anything in common other than describing some of the most upsetting/bizarre scenarios I've read this year. Cyteen especially! Wowee!!!)

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid

Glory by Vladimir Nabokov

A Different Trek by David K. Seitz, which I mentioned as my vacation book for the Star Trek convention, but it's given me some great suggestions for more books, both fiction and otherwise. Also, I read... 11 more DS9 books this year. 

2022

COMICS:

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa

Vattu by Evan Dahm

The Well by Choo and Jake Wyatt

Wash Day Diaries by Robyn Smith and Jamila Rowser

Some ShortBox Comics Fair entries that are graphic novella length and are really good include Food School by Jade Armstrong and The God of Arepo by Reimena Yee et al.

PROSE:

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson

How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente

edit: oh my god I can't believe I forgot Perfume by Patrick Süskind

Honorable mentions from the pile of DS9 novelizations include Revenant by Alex White (for successfully pulling off a Sara Paretsky-style mystery in space) and Dominion War: Call to Arms by Diane Carey (for absolutely unhinged adjective choices).

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Sunday, President Biden announced he will not seek a second term and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his pick to become the Democratic Party’s nominee. In the immediate aftermath, Harris' donations surged, and major Democratic officials rallied behind her. Republican influencers, however, seemed unprepared for a primary line of attack, initially conflating Harris’ potential presidency with the Biden administration’s policies. By evening, they appeared to have settled on a familiar but often unsuccessful tactic: focusing on pronouns and accessibility.

Within moments, several right-wing accounts posted the same video from 2022: a video of Vice President Harris sitting at a table and addressing a group of people, where she introduces herself by listing her pronouns and describing her clothing. She says, “Good afternoon, I want to welcome these leaders for coming in and having this very important discussion about some of the most pressing issues of our time. I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit.”

The event was attended by a room full of disability rights leaders. According to White House Correspondent Andrew Feinberg, who stated that he was the print pooler at the event, “she was talking to a room of disability activists, including people who are/were blind.” Using descriptive terms to indicate who you are, your appearance, and what you are doing is a common technique to improve accessibility for audience members who may be blind. The Disability Visibility Project says of the practice, “A self-description provides information about a person that non-blind people passively glean. This includes identity characteristics such as skin color, gender identity, hair length and texture, wardrobe, and more.” Within hours, however, conservative accounts began pushing the video as their first major line of attack on the likely nominee. Anti-LGBTQ+ influencer Chaya Raichik posted it on her Libs of TikTok account, highlighting the footage. RNC Research, a collaborative social media account for the Republican National Committee and Team Trump, also spotlighted the video. Elon Musk quoted it, stating, “imagine 4 years of this…” Conservative influencer Wall Street Silver added, “Do we really want more of this woke junk?”

[...] The criticism to the line of attack is well-founded. Conservatives have attempted to target Democratic politicians over accessibility, transgender people, and other issues they deem to be “woke issues” for nearly four years, with little success to show for it.

The right-wing faux outrage machine’s attacks on Kamala Harris for using pronouns to address participants during a July 2022 meeting is a bit wack and a tool to push anti-trans and anti-”woke” fodder.

[penwieldingdreamer]

A Shot in the Dark ~ Prologue

Well, welcome to my latest obsession - FBI and OA Zidan. This is a crossover between FBI, FBI: Most Wanted & Blue Bloods. Let me know what you think and if you'd like to be tagged in any future chapters.

I do not own any of the characters of the FBI Franchise and Blue Bloods, they belong to their respective owners

Summary It's said, you'll always meet twice in life. But you never thought it be in a hostage situation with a gun pressed against your head.

Warnings: hostage situation, canon typical violence, coarse language, smut in later chapters

The human mind is really the scariest thing of all.

Life in general is scary, and yet you step out of your home each day and face it. You imagine how a situation might turn out if you just changed one thing in your day to day life. Sometimes it’s the sandwich they didn’t have at the bakery and sometimes it’s the choice you make on the job.

“Andrew, drop the gun and let my sister go!” Detective Danny Reagan called, his own weapon trained on the former NYPD officer, voice shaking as he looked at you, seeing his own fear mirrored in your eyes. “She’s got nothing to do with this. You want me. Let the kids and her go.”

Shaking his head, former police officer Andrew O'Sullivan pushed the muzzle of his gun harder against your temple. "They are all the leverage I need to get you to do what I want."

"O'Sullivan! This is Agent Scott and Agent Bell with the FBI. Surrender your weapons and let the hostages go. We will make sure that your demands are met, but you need to let the kids and Miss Reagan go."

You could feel the tears running down your cheeks, but you knew you had to be strong for the children. Their parents put you in charge and you, as their teacher, needed to make sure they'd get out safe. “Please Mister O’Sullivan, you got me, let the children go home. They don’t have anything to do with this.”

Your heart was hammering in your throat watching your brother desperately trying to get Andrew to drop the weapon, the ground feeling like it was going to be pulled from underneath you. And here you thought it was going to be a good day today.

Five hours earlier, 9:15 Bluestone Lane Tribeca Café

"So, heard anything from tall, dark and handsome? You looked cute together."  

“Erin!”

“Mom! You’re embarrassing her.”

The lawyer grinned into her coffee mug as the three of you sat together for breakfast. "What!? I saw pictures from way back when. It's been more than four years now, just thought maybe you'd have a run in with him again."

"Nope, haven't seen him since before he started training at Quantico and you would know that. I'm practically living with dad and pop again after those idiots living above me wouldn't have smoked weed and forgot to shut off the water."

Nicky only rolled her eyes at her mother trying to play matchmaker – as always. “You should leave Y/N alone. Danny would have a field day if she came home with him.”

“Thank you, Nicky, I knew why you were my favorite niece.” You took a bite from your chocolate croissant. Usually you’d be getting the breakfast sandwich the café was famous for but today they were all out.

“I’m your only niece, so that’s not a hard feat to do.”

“Yet.” You pointed a finger at the younger woman. “And I don’t even know where he is. I’ll not be running after him and use dads resources to find him.”

“All I’m saying is that you should get laid, you can’t just stay a single workaholic forever." 

Sending your sister a disapproving look, you could see the disgust on your nieces face. She was old enough to be part of that conversation and already had one boyfriend, yet you knew she was absolutely embarrassed by her mother's choice of breakfast conversation.

"Mom! God! I'll be heading off to work or you'll start talking about dad and yourself." Nicky, so much like Erin grabbed her purse and to-go cup, leaned over to kiss her mother's cheek before she moved next to you. With her arm draped over your shoulder, she leaned in as if to whisper into your ear but still spoke at normal volume. "Don't let her bully you into looking him up. You do you, Auntie, but she's right, you need to get laid."

Slack jawed at her gall, you turned accusatory eyes on the lawyer. "That's definitely on you, Erin. You taught her to be like that."

"Well, she's definitely got that from me and she'd make a great lawyer like that."

Letting out a sigh, you leaned back in your chair.

Damn, they were right.

Quickly apologizing to God under your breath, you try to anchor yourself to your mug. It had been years since you had seen Omar. You had met him outside a bar in the Financial District, after a date had dumped her right before dessert, telling her she wasn’t worth his time.

“He’s a dick, he wasn’t going to know what to do with you anyway.”

You sat together at the bar and talked about random stuff – friends, hobbies, only things that wouldn’t compromise him as you later found out he was undercover for the DEA.

“You’re quiet, what are you thinking about?”

Blinking, you watched your sister with a small, wistful smile, something she had seen so often when you had gone out to have breakfast with Nicky and her every Saturday morning. “Nothing.” You shrugged your shoulders, but the secret smile that barely turned up the corners of your mouth was still there and the lawyer knew that one, she had seen it often enough.

Erin took a sip from her coffee, narrowing her eyes at you. “Don’t give me that shit, Y/N. It’s Tall, Dark and Handsome isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” You admitted quietly, looking down at your fingers, busy playing with the white napkin under your croissant.

“You should get Eddie to look for him, maybe he’s in town.”

Shaking your head vigorously. “No, I’ll not be looking for him. We would have seen each other, probably...maybe.”

“New York is huge, you think you’d just walk down Broadway and bam! There he is? Y/N, I can assure you, that’s not how it works.” She laughs, knowing all about it with her ex-husband Jack. “You want him, you need to look for him, he’s not just going to turn up if you snap your fingers.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to look for him, maybe it wasn’t meant to be if I haven’t run into him by now. Or maybe he’s somewhere in D.C., happily married with 1.93 kids, living in the suburbs and chasing the bad guys.”

Chuckling, the lawyer shook her head at you. “You got it all figured out now, huh? Maybe he’s still single, thinking about that maybe with you. He was really nice when he came around for lunch that day.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me, Eddie wouldn’t shut up about him for a week straight.” Just then your phone chimed, letting you know that you needed to get ready to get to your Junior High class for their field trip to the museum. You would meet them together with their parents right in front of the museum. “Shit, I’m late! Sorry Erin, I got to head off.”

“We’re not done talking about him!” She called after you as you raced out of the cafe to the next Metro station.

An hour and a half later you remind your seventh grade students to be nice and listen closely to the lady showing you around the National History Museum. “There’s going to be a test on Monday next week, so you guys should take notes on all of this.”

A groan ripped through the hall and I knew they hated me for this. “But Miss Reagan, you said we could have fun today.” Jimmy calls from the back, a frown on his cute face. 

Giggling, you shook your head. They were still thinking it was just going to stay easier from there on out. “I did, but it doesn’t mean you guys can slack off on your school work. This is going to help you with your Science project.”

Groans, followed by sighs from your students were the end of that conversation. You and the group of thirteen-year-olds followed Mrs. Langdon as she talked about the museum, which exhibitions had already been part of the building and what was waiting for the boys and girls of Lower Manhattan Middle School. They were in the Early Adolescence stage and it was absolutely normal for them to act like that. With Nicky, Jack and Sean you had been exposed to that stage early on and you loved them for it.

You entered the Saurichian Hall of the museum, awed by the skeletons, the hairs on your arms starting to raise from the goosebumps at the imagination of having lived back in time, 66 millennia’s ago. But somehow, it wasn’t the only thing that gave you the shivers. At the entrance of the museum you had seen a guy, dressed like everyone else. But you had been around police your whole life and listened to your bothers to know that something was definitely wrong with him. His head was down but you saw his eyes darting about like he was searching for something – or someone.

Getting to the next section, you slightly turned your head away from your students excitingly listening to the tales of each dinosaur exhibited at the museum.

There he was again, the backpack slung low on his shoulders and it looked like he was sweating. Was he sick and needed help? If so, wouldn’t he have asked the people at the front desk or even stayed at home.

Danny had always told you to be vigilant about suspicious people roaming about and this guy fit the description. Should you text Danny or Jamie? They were probably busy with their cases and if he was just a creep you’d make a fool out of yourself and maybe your dad in extension.

Police Commissioner’s daughter accuses visitor at the National History Museum to be a creep and makes a laughing stock out of the Reagan family.

Now that would be the headline of the week.

Turning back to listen to Mrs. Langdon and your students with a sigh you missed him pulling out a gun from under his jacket, pointing it at your back before slightly lifting it up and pulling the trigger.

11:40, Joint Operations Center

“Alright guys, we've got a hostage situation at the National History Museum. Twenty-two students from LoMa Middle School and their teacher. This is high profile. Detective Reagan with the NYPD called it in about fifteen minutes ago.” ASAC Jubal Valentine’s voice rang out through the JOC. He motioned to Elise, one of the Analysts to put every information on the screens. “This is Y/N Reagan, she’s a teacher at the school and also the daughter of New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan.”

Your picture popped up on the screens, a happy smile on your face as you sat together with your father and your brother Jamie at a city function.

“You know, now that I’m done with my trainee-ship as teacher, we could make it official. Dad wants me to tag along at this function or other and I’d like to take you as my plus one.” You smiled at him, your arms slung around his neck as you lounged together on his bed.

Omar ran his fingers from your shoulder to your elbow and up again. He loved the feeling of your soft skin under his hands, slightly roughed from the army. “It would be nice, I’d love to finally show you off to my family as well. Erin has been nagging me like a hen to know who the guy is making me smile all day.” He smiled, nuzzling her neck and listening to her giggles as his nose and beard rubbed up and down against that point where her neck met her shoulder.

"I'd like that. I bet your sister isn't the only one nagging." He chuckled, burrowing closer and pushing his lower half against yours earning a soft groan from you.

Your fingers raked over his head, feeling the short cropped hair tickle the palm of your hands. “Pop and dad are already giving me those penetrative looks, you know the ones where they are acting like cops and trying to read a suspects thoughts.”

Closing his eyes, the former army ranger breathed in your scent. It was the one thing that grounded him on days his mind sent him back to Iraq. “From what you told me I’m more afraid of your brother, not your father and grandpa.”

Omar moved next to Maggie, a soft Shit leaving his lips as his eyes swept over the screens. It had been a few years since he’d last seen you, only a few days short of leaving for his training at Quantico. Seeing your face, tear track staining your cheeks with the suspect pressing his gun to your head.

The brunette watched her partner, the fingers of his left hand anxiously playing with his ring. A sign that he was nervous. A sign Maggie had learned in the beginning when they first were partnered up.

“You know her?”

He sighed, “We, ugh, we dated for a while before, before I went into training. I...broke it off, because I thought she’d be better off without me.”

“Gosh, OA.” Maggie murmured, scratching a fingernail along her eyebrow thoughtfully. She knew her partner had been in relationships before – he was Muslim, not a virginal saint, but she had never seen him this distraught or anxious. 

It was clear as day that you were still important to him and it took everything in him to not run out the door and drive off toward the museum.

"What do we have on the suspect?" Isobel questioned, coming to stand next to her 2nd in charge. 

"Suspect is 40 year old Andrew O'Sullivan, former police officer with the NYPD, 54th Precinct and bomb specialist with the Marines. Detective Daniel Reagan, Y/N’s older brother was part of the investigation against him.” Kelly Moran, an analyst at the JOC spoke up, tapping hastily on his keyboard and sending the pictures of their suspect to the bigger screens. “He took drugs from evidence and tried to sell it on the street. O’Sullivan needed it for his daughter, she has leukemia and he was going to take the money to pay for her treatments.”

The analyst pressed a key to show the picture of a little girl, maybe ten years old, grinning at the camera. “Lena O’Sullivan, she”

“His daughter died two days ago, that’s why he’s doing it. He wanted to save her from it and we took the money that would pay for her treatment. Andrew has been angry with me for a while and called me after Lena died.” A new voice sounded from behind them, strong and authoritative, yet they could all hear the pain laced into his words. “He has my sister and if you guys don’t get a move on, Andrew is going to kill them all.” Detective Daniel Reagan had made his way to the JOC, knowing he couldn’t make a move against O’Sullivan without the people of the FBI. You were his little sister and he’d be damned just sitting around at the precinct when he needed to get you to safety. More so when Erin would have his head for being the reason the former officer had you and your kids as hostages.

[burins]

I read a LOT of books this year, which is always exciting. I also neglected to do much in the way of write ups during the year proper, so here are little opinions about all 84(!) book-books I read. I love to yap about what I read and I would love to talk about any and all of these. (Graphic novels and comics are gonna be their own post because there are also too many of those.) Bold are my top faves, headphones are things I read as audiobooks.

JAN

Less - Andrew Sean Greer

Shockingly funny book on a writer’s midlife gay crisis. I was a little mid on the end but the prose here was fantastic.

The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future - Ryder Carroll

Beyond Bullets: Creative Journaling Ideas to Customize Your Personal Productivity System - Megan Rutell

Read about a million of these for a program; this was the only one worth recommending if you want to try journaling. (The official guide is Fine but it throws a lot at you at once.)

The 365 Bullet Guide: Organize Your Life Creatively, One Day at a Time - Zennor Compton

Lettering for Planners: A Step- - -Step Guide to Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy for Bullet Journals and Beyond - Jordan Truster and Jillian Reece

This should not have been a book.

Afterparties: Stories - Anthony Veasna So

I’ve been meaning to read this for years and years-- So was a friend of a friend-- and it was as excellent as I expected, and also made me tremendously sad that we won’t get more writing from him. 

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space - Amanda Leduc 🎧

This is theory for a general audience but I still wished it was more robust-- Leduc’s arguments had about the academic rigor of a tumblr post, which is a shame.

Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945–1955 - Harald Jähner 🎧

Nation-making and identity formation in the aftermath of fascism. There has been a lot of writing about the German project of the post-Nazi era, but this was a very solid read.

Water and Salt - Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

I came across Tuffaha’s gut-punch of a poem, “Running Orders,” online, and while the rest of the collection doesn’t always hit as hard, it’s still fantastic.

Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel 🎧

Reading this and The Mirror and the Light at the beginning of the year really ruined me for all other prose for the entirety of 2024, tbh. Nobody does it like Mantel.

Bandits, Misfits, and Superheroes: Whiteness and Its Borderlands in American Comics and Graphic Novels - Josef Benson and Doug Singsen

After reading Birds of Prey in October-December I really wanted to read some writing on whiteness in comics. This didn’t touch on what I was most interested in exploring and I did come away from the book thinking damn. None of that book was nearly as good as Tony Wei Ling’s fantastic piece on Crumb and alt-comics’ self-hagiography in SOLRAD.

Mending with Boro - Harumi Horiuchi

Make and Mend: Sashiko-Inspired Embroidery Projects to Customize and Repair Textiles and Decorate Your Home - Jessica Marquez

Mend!: A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto - Kate Sekules

Mending with Love: Creative Repairs for Your Favorite Things - Noriko Misumi

Mend It, Wear It, Love It!: Stitch Your Way to a Sustainable Wardrobe - Zoe Edwards

Can you tell I taught a visible mending class in February? Honestly any one of these are a good pick if you’re wanting to get into visible mending. This is the best for giving you a whole menu of techniques to choose from and having very accessible instructions.

Modern Mending - Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald

Mending Matters: Stitch, Patch, and Repair Your Favorite Denim & More - Katrina Rodabaugh

Creative Mending: Beautiful Darning, Patching and Stitching Techniques - Hikaru Noguchi

This is the best one for getting into the ethos of visible mending. It’s a deeply kind book.

Joyful Mending: Visible Repairs for the Perfectly Imperfect Things We Love! - Noriko Misumi

Visible Mending: A Modern Guide to Darning, Stitching and Patching the Clothes You Love - Arounna Khounnoraj

The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel 🎧

Once again. Nobody is doing it like Hilary Mantel.

FEB

Finna - Nino Cipri 🎧

Anticapitalist multiverse Ikea relationship drama should have been my entire jam but this book was simply quite bad.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy - Cathy O’Neil 🎧

Are you ready to get depressed about data? This is a great book for your liberal mom. I could wish it were more anticarceral but for what it’s actually covering it does a great job.

Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty - Lisa Mason Ziegler

Garden planning :) 

Flux - Jinwoo Chong 🎧

If you liked Severance (the show) or have ever projected some identity feelings onto a not-very-good TV show, this is a book for you. Imperfect pacing but still gripping, and I’m excited to see what Chong does next-- this is his first book.

Ocean’s Echo - Everina Maxwell

The premise of this book is simply so sexy. And overall the book is too!

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles - Malka Older

Yayyyy Mossa and Pleiti return! I love this series and I loved this book.

A Land with a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism edited - Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Esther Farmer, & Sarah Sills

I don't really have a write up for this. It's powerful and well written and I would recommend it.

Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time - Teju Cole

Best book I read all year, frankly. Teju Cole writes about art and culture and being alive when the world is falling apart like nobody else.

MAR

The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi - Richard Grant 🎧

Oh you hate to see a British guy get sucked in by white Southern niceness. (Richard Grant, in this case, is the British guy.) A lot of the stories in this were excellent but Grant gives way too much credit to folks clinging to the tattered remnants of the Old South.

Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine - Michelle U. Campos

Excellent historical antidote to the idea of perpetual struggle in Palestine. Also interesting read just for looking at how citizens of Jerusalem were using national and imperial identities for their political agendas at the time.

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us - Ed Yong 🎧

Lovely book that resists anthropomorphism and rendered me a font of “hey babe can I tell you a cool snake fact?” for about three weeks. 

The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free - Paulina Bren 🎧

You know I should have expected a book like this to be exactly what it was and yet. In addition to the sort of milquetoast stabs at feminism the structure is bad-- it devolves into Sylvia Plath’s life story and doesn’t really recover. I don’t mind reading a book about Sylvia Plath but I would like to plan to do that going in. 

The Hunter - Tana French

Only Tana can manage to write a book that is mostly just pretty normal conversations for 75% of its runtime and yet made me unbelievably stressed the whole time I was reading. Creeping dread! We love it.

Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde

I last read this in high school when I was so excited to see that the sequel would be coming out any day now. Over a decade later, any day at last arrived! So it was time for a reread. The sexual politics of this book are insane, which I didn’t pick up on in 10th grade, but it is still an extremely clever and enjoyable book.

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus - Bill Wasik 🎧

I learned a lot of fun facts in this book but it was rambling and also I do wish books like this would stop trying to overstate the importance of their topic. Rabies can’t be the source of vampire legends AND zombie legends AND werewolves. (Zombies in particular. We know where those come from and it ain’t rabies!)

The Transcriptionist - Amy Rowland 🎧

As a former transcriptionist the idea of a mystery that revolves around the intrinsic weirdness of being the fly on the wall was very appealing to me! This wasn’t quite the book I thought it was but I still enjoyed it. 

City Editor - Stanley Walker

If you can ignore the amount of name-dropping of people who were certainly famous in 1934 newsrooms but I have certainly never heard of, there are definitely some amusing anecdotes. Walker writes with a dynamism and bombast I would love to see in any kind of writing nowadays. However it is also a book written - a newspaperman in 1934 so it does hit every single -ism like it’s trying to get a pinball high score.

The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism - Adam Nagourney 🎧

This book is exceedingly kind to the NYT and it was wild to read this the month that the Hamas mass rape story very publicly fell apart. However reading it did give me a very clear picture of how that story, and stories like it, happened in the first place. 

Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom - Carl Bernstein 🎧

Of all the “how do newspapers work?” books I read in March-April to prep for a fic I didn’t end up being able to write, this was my favorite. Bernstein is an engaging narrator and this answered my questions about how a story actually happens (particularly pre-internet.)

APR

Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America's Community Newspapers - Dave Hoekstra

This ping-pongs between case studies in a way that would be totally fine in a feature story and is unforgivable in a book. But the case studies are interesting!

Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life - Margaret Sullivan

This is more memoir than NYT hagiography, and thus I enjoyed it much more.

Ocean’s Godori - Elaine Cho

I’ve got to stop reading SFF that came out this year. Unfortunately, it is part of my job to be aware of SFF that comes out this year. The pacing on this was UNBELIEVABLY sick-- the inciting plot incident only occurred halfway through the book, and the first 60 pages were us being fairly clumsily introduced to too many characters. The author’s end notes effusively thanked her editor and I think she should not have done that because a really solid editing job could have made this into something I really enjoyed. (People who work in publishing I’m sorry about publishing.)

Bombshell - Sarah MacLean

If your whole plot is going to hinge on a Deep Dark Secret, it better be deep and dark. 

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance - Jeremy Eichler 🎧

I got this for my grandma for Christmas and that was a mistake because this book is so depressing. If I had thought for two seconds I would have known this! However. I did like it! 

MAY

JUN

Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics - Qiana Whitted

Really loved this one. 

Super Bodies: Comic Book Illustration, Artistic Styles, and Narrative Impact - Jeffrey A. Brown

This book would have been fantastic if the author had a) had any art historical or visual analysis training and b) done research about manga and the ways its styles have been used in the west. As neither of those were true this book mostly made me wish it was another, better book. Good comics recs though. 

Red Side Story - Jasper Fforde

Long-awaited sequel! This is an entirely solid book, though I wish I could have read it when I was a teen because it would have rocked my shit then. 

JULY

The Ladies Rewrite the Rules - Suzanne Allain

Really the only thing you need to know about this Regency #girlboss book is that at the very end of the book, which made almost no pretenses to historical accuracy wrt attitudes about gender roles, the main narrative tension is the love interest’s plans to go off with the East India Company to make his fortune. The other characters have no moral qualms about this; it’s proposed with the same air that a modern book would talk about someone going to college across the country. It made me feel completely insane. 

Escape Velocity - Victor Manibo

You know when you read a book and you say wow, I can’t wait to watch this as a Netflix special, but boy was it not very good as a book? That. Also I really wish we had spent more than about two scenes with the servants on the space hotel, so that I could care about them as people and not as plot devices!

Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia - Emily Hilliard

Engaging stories of modern West Virginia.

Belonging: A Culture of Place - bell hooks

The writing on exile in this did make me cry while I was eating lunch.

AUG

Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People - Erica Adams Locklear

More historical than I expected but solid writing on how perception of food affects perception of people.

What You Are Looking For is in the Library - Michiko Aoyama

I really didn’t expect this to get me but I am not immune to lovely, small-scale stories of people being kind to one another in community. Teared up on desk. 

SEPT

Watercolor Is for Everyone: Simple Lessons to Make Your Creative Practice a Daily Habit - Kateri Ewing

This was for a class and everyone liked the class! 

Hot Summer - Elle Everhart

I am so hit or miss on contemporary romance. This was a messy, delightful reality show romp. Light on drama, but the robust character relationships are the star of the show.

Loving Mountains, Loving Men - Jeff Mann

The poems here are generally better than the prose, which gets a bit repetitive at times. The poems are also generally very good, and a few of them made me cry. 

Second Night Stand - Karelia and Fay Stetz-Waters

I wish I had known going in that the authors were a married couple looking to tell “a story about a healthy queer romance.” All love to them, but I am simply not very interested in reading a story that bills itself that way! And as you might imagine there was a lot of therapy speak and very little narrative tension. Sex scenes were great, though, and if you want a very queer comfort read you might enjoy this. 

You Should Be So Lucky - Cat Sebastian

Very chewy character relationships. Sebastian manages to tell a story that feels of its time (1950s sports/journalism) while not being deeply bleak, which is a balance that many many queer historical romances completely bomb.

Lady Eve's Last Con - Rebecca Fraimow

Delightful lesbian screwball comedy. In space! 

OCT

Slippery Creatures - KJ Charles

The Sugared Game - KJ Charles

Subtle Blood - KJ Charles

Imagine if Lord Peter Wimsey had a passionate love affair with a gruff and tortured soldier recently back from WWI. That’s basically these books and I inhaled them. Shout out to detectorist for the rec!

The No-Show - Beth O’Leary 🎧

About 60% of the way through this book, I said, oh man, I hope that the twist to this book isn’t [redacted]. That would make me so mad. Well, it was, and it did! 

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words - Eddie Robson 🎧

Scratched the itch for sci-fi mystery, and the premise is fantastic. The narrator does a mostly excellent job but her American accents are distractingly bad, so if that will bother you read the book.

Deviant Hollers: Queering Appalachian Ecologies for a Sustainable Future edited - Zane McNeill and Rebecca Scott

Most of the essays in this are great! Every so often I get in my head about whether I can claim an Appalachian or Southern identity and whether I should do any writing on the subject. And then I read an essay that makes a lot of claims about “I centralize queer, trans, rural southern voices” and then does not proceed to actually demonstrate how they are doing any of that work, and go oh wait I’m actually fine. 

NOV

Better the Blood - Michael Bennett 🎧

A pretty solid thriller elevated by a very solid conceit: a Maori detective is investigating modern-day killings connected to a 19th century execution of a Maori chief by a group of British soldiers. This suffered a little from being written by a screenwriter who very clearly had certain shots in mind while writing (sometimes that works in prose, sometimes it doesn’t) and also from periodic intercut scenes from the killer’s POV (also a convention that works better in TV) which did undercut whodunit tension. Also the main character is a cop. But I ended up finding her sympathetic, which is a HUGE ask given the subject matter. 

The Stars Too Fondly - Emily Hamilton 🎧

Hated this. I tried to be measured in my initial review but every single part of this book was simply so bad. I wish I had those 11 hours of my life back. If this author is your friend I apologize, and also I hope she didn’t base a character on you, because every character in this book acts like a 15yo.  

Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy edited by Meredith McCarroll & Anthony Harkins

I worked my way through my own booklist this fall and this was one of the best books on it. I kept trying to put it on display at the library but our copy was checked out the entire time. Give this to your uncle who won’t shut up about Ohio. 

The Pairing - Casey McQuiston 🎧

First half of this was way more compelling than I expected it to be, and then McQuiston makes the WILD choice to switch POVs entirely and permanently halfway through the book. And I found the second character pretentious and given to fits of purple prose (he describes the first character as a “superbloom” at one point and also won’t shut up about the most art history 101 pieces of art) so I did not particularly enjoy the book as a whole. I will give it points though for having a pretty non-cringey “hi i’m actually nonbinary” conversation, which is astonishingly rare.

Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead

This was initially a book club pick for a meeting that didn’t end up happening, which is a bummer because I would like to talk about this book with more people! A lot of lines in this are going to stick with me-- Whitehead shifts through time and place with deftness and grace. If you like K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary I think you will enjoy this-- Whitehead revels in the body in a similar way.  

I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition - Lucy Sante 🎧

If you’re not already a little familiar with the NYC art scene in the 70s and 80s you may not enjoy this, because Sante name-drops a lot. I am, and I loved it-- it’s a lovely meditation on growing old and hitting your breaking point. Sante is also a fantastic writer, and this is an excellent counterbalance to the particular type of trans writing that is very very common online. (Nothing wrong with that writing, but you need a balanced diet.)

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - CM Waggoner

I loved Waggoner’s previous books and I did end up enjoying this one a lot! It’s an enjoyable send-up of the cozy mystery genre.

Regarding the Pain of Others - Susan Sontag

A reread for my yaoi zine piece! Not only does this still hit but I think it’s a particularly apt piece of writing to be reading right now, when we are daily surrounded - images of suffering. Sontag, as ever, does not have any neat answers for us, but she does make you think more deeply about the world that surrounds you.

DEC

How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom - Johanna Hedva 🎧

I loved parts of this, and I hated other parts, which for me is a good sign about a book of theory. I have more thoughts about disability activism and being online that don’t fit into a quick write-up for a book. 

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia - Stephen Stoll

This took me six months to read, but mostly because I was reading it occasionally on desk and I kept having to return the ebook. It demands a little bit more sustained attention than I was giving it! It’s an excellent overview of the history of land use in Appalachia through the 1930s and it gave me a lot of good context for the mountains I grew up under. 

The Forbidden Book - Sacha Lamb 🎧

Unfortunately, I think I would have liked this a lot more if I hadn’t read When The Angels Left the Old Country first! It’s a perfectly nice YA story-- but it definitely feels YA, and I don’t tend to enjoy reading a lot of YA.

Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am - Julia Cooke 🎧

I still don’t really know how I feel about this book. It does avoid some of the pitfalls of #girlboss nonfiction, but also it falls right into others. Mostly I wish it had engaged really at all with the people these women met on their travels, or like. Literally anyone Vietnamese. 

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation - Eli Clare

Oof ouch my bones!!! This hits on a lot and does it with incredible grace.

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis🎧

I wish my grandma was still alive so I could recommend this to her, because she would have adored it. Delightful time travel Victoriana. 

The Message - Ta-Nehisi Coates 🎧

I really admire the move of making the entire second half of your highly anticipated book about the injustices you saw in Palestine, and I hope it pays off and every NPR listener who loved Between the World and Me picks this up and reads to the end. 

Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

This book reads like a 200-page panic attack, which is not a diss! Really revels in the situational hilarity of anxiety/OCD/something unspecified.

Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Okay I had to add this one in because I finished it after making my post. This book (contemporary queer Jewish romance with a bit of the supernatural) was so lovely and deeply felt and often laugh out loud funny. The family relationships are the real star although the romance is also very sweet.

[tobbesdiscordkitten]

*evil laughter.* For both the anons who requested the tea, HERE IT IS!

*rubs hands together.* Sit down and make yourselves comfortable. There's gonna be lots of intense, juicy details I'll share.

**trigger warnings for violence and abuse**

First and foremost, I believe Axl got together with Stephanie Seymour because she resembled Erin Everly in a way by having the big, curly brown hair, blue eyes, and being a model. Keep in mind: this is all speculation on my part. I can't confirm, nor deny, any truth behind Axl's intentions on why he chose Stephanie. I'm also not sure if Axl was trying to replace Erin - maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, but I can't say for certain.

Before Axl met Stephanie, he found a photo of her on a Playboy magazine cover. What kind of photo? My guess is one where she was either naked or topless, causing a reaction in Axl's uh...you know where lol. It's true, to a certain extent, that men think with their dicks 😏 But Axl didn't just see Stephanie as eye candy, he wanted to get to know her on a personal level, hence, why they met, and fell in love.

Now...l'm gonna take a short detour and share some background on Stephanie's dating history to set the scene and introduce what kind of woman she is.

At the age of 14, Stephanie dated John Casablancas, who was 42 at the time, and was married to a model named Jeanette Christiansen. If that wasn't a big YOWZA! Here's some more sketchy details. She dated a few other men in 1988, like Tommy Andrews, before getting together with Warren Beatty in May of 1990 until April of 1991. Stephanie then met Axl in March of 1991, one month before breaking up with Beatty. Also keep in mind that Stephanie had a baby boy with Tommy and she named him Dylan. Dylan would be the light in Axl's life during his relationship with Stephanie since he wanted to have kids, and he treated Dylan like his own son.

Both Stephanie and Axl seemed to hit it off well. They got along and Axl helped boost Stephanie's career/reputation by featuring her in GNR's November Rain and Don't Cry music videos. Overtime, things got a bit messy. Throughout 1992 and 1994 Stephanie was cheating on Axl with Charlie Sheen. I made a post, explaining a theory with one of my mutuals, on why she was hanging out with Charlie. You can read my detailed answer here. But to sum it up, Stephanie seemed like a wild party animal, similar to Charlie, and they probably went to cocaine-infused parties together. Since Axl stopped doing drugs Stephanie might've felt bored with him and needed that excitement back in her life.

Unfortunately, Charlie wasn't the only person she cheated on with Axl. She was also dating billionaire Peter Brant in January of 1993, marrying him in 1995, while still being with Axl until February of 1993.

So, how did those two get to that point? I believe Stephanie fell in love with Axl, but her feelings might've not lasted long. She seemed to wander off to other men in order to feel special and to satisfy her insatiable need for sex and wealth. Stephanie's relationship with her son, Dylan, was also falling apart. She seemed to be more careless with her son, not being there for him when she should've. Instead, it was Axl who was there for Dylan, and it was Axl who watched out for Dylan whenever Stephanie wasn't around.

Here’s a fine example of her carelessness. During a Christmas party in 1992, Stephanie was snorting coke in the bathroom while Dylan was present. Axl came home and found out, becoming upset, and insinuating it was abusive, on Dylan's behalf, for Stephanie to do drugs. One thing to note: Axl didn't want to throw a big Christmas party initially. It was Stephanie who defied his words and threw one anyway because she was in a "festive mood." Big mistake on her part.

Anyways, after the party, the two had a 45 minute argument in the kitchen. Axl had an inkling Stephanie was cheating on him and, to confirm his suspicions, he found her diary where she talked about cheating on him with all these men. A dumb bitch, if you ask me. Like...who does that?! And why did she feel the need to record that??? She must've thought nobody would read her diary, not even Axl, but damn...

Axl broke some glass in the kitchen. Stephanie tried fighting back by grabbing his testicles, which then lead to Axl defending himself by grabbing Stephanie in a headlock, hitting and kicking her, while dragging her bare feet across the broken glass. This was the only time Axl laid hands on Stephanie. She came out of the fight with a bloody nose and black eye.

I'm not justifying abuse, or saying what Axl did was right, but Stephanie did this to herself, and karma kicked her in the ass for cheating. Hopefully she learned her lesson. Later on, Axl proposed to Stephanie with a 4 carat ring but they were only engaged for 3 weeks. She stole $100,000 worth of jewelry from Axl and sold the ring. If you ask me, she was waiting for him to put a ring on it so she could steal his money.

That's pretty much why the fandom hates Stephanie. She was, and probably still is, a self-centered whore who only cares about men's money and not their personality. Let's not forget...Axl sued Stephanie first for all the damage and infidelity she caused him, however, she counter-sued him for having him "slap," "punch," and "kick" her down a "flight of stairs" after the notorious Christmas party. Whosever story you're gonna believe you should probably believe Axl's.

What's even more shitty is Stephanie was never there for Axl when he needed her the most. It was around this time when Axl recovered some fucked up childhood memories through regression therapy and he was gonna share it in a Rolling Stone magazine article (which he did). Axl did say Stephanie was very supportive of him during that time but her actions later tell me otherwise.

I apologize if this is a lot to take in and I’m sorry for my jumbled words 😭 I tried to get in as much detail as possible. I don’t know EVERYTHING about their relationship, so I might’ve left out a few things, but that’s the majority of what happened, and why everybody hates her. If you have anymore questions, don’t hesitate to ask! ^.^

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in March 2024 🌈

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Shift: A Memoir of Identity and Other Illusions - Penny Guisinger 🧡 Tempting Olivia - Clare Ashton 💛 Monilinia - Free Mints 💚 Guillaume - Aurora Dimitre 💙 The Marble Queen - Anna Kopp & Gabrielle Kari 💜 The Baker & the Bard - Fern Haught ❤️ Rainbow! - Sunny & Gloom 🧡 The Safe Zone - Amy Marsden 💛 The Weavers of Alamaxa - Hadeer Elsbai 💙 The No-Girlfriend Rule - Christen Randall 💜 A Different Kind of Brave by Lee Wind 🌈 Cirque du Slay - Rob Osler ❤️ Wizard’s Debt - Niranjan 🧡 One Last Breath - Ginny Myers Sain 💛 Nothing Special - Katie Cook 💚 I Feel Awful, Thanks - Lara Pickle 💙 The Tower - Flora Carr 💜 Be the Sea - Clara Ward ❤️ What Grows in the Dark - Jaq Evans 🧡 Heirs of Bone and Sea - Kay Adams 💛 The Haunting of Velkwood - Gwendolyn Kiste 💙 Thunder Song - Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe 💜 Mona of the Manor - Armistead Maupin 🌈 Like Happiness - Ursula Villarreal-Moura

❤️ Ellipses - Vanessa Lawrence 🧡 Saint, Sorrow, Sinner - Freydís Moon 💛 Blood & Brujas - Mikayla D. Hornedo 💚 Infinity Kings - Adam Silvera 💙 Really Cute People - Markus Harwood-Jones 💜 How You Were Born - Kate Cayley ❤️ These Bodies Between Us - Sarah Van Name 🧡 Icarus - K. Ancrum 💛 The Emperor and the Endless Palace - Justinian Huang 💙 How Not to Date an Angel - Lana Kole 💜 Enemy Colours - R.M. Olson 🌈 Broken Parts Included - Alyson Root

❤️ Who's Afraid of Gender? - Judith Butler 🧡 The Duke’s Cowboy - Andrew Grey 💛 The Secret Something - Emily Wright 💚 Colstead & Andie - Olivia Janae 💙 Play It Again, Ma’am - Sienna Waters 💜 Love Is…? - K.J. Wrights ❤️ Welcome to Forever - Nathan Tavares 🧡 Just Another Epic Love Poem - Parisa Akhbari 💛 The Phoenix Bride - Natasha Siegel 💙 These Letters End in Tears - Musih Tedji Xaviere 💜 Truly Home - J.J. Hale 🌈 Monster Mixer - Robin Jo Margaret

❤️ The House of Hidden Meanings - RuPaul 🧡 Promised to the Queen - Barbara Winkes 💛 A Conclave of Crimson - Nicole Eigener & Beverley Lee 💚 A Hunt of Blood and Iron - Cara Nox 💙 The Fealty of Monsters - Ladz 💜 Ariel Crashes a Train - Olivia A. Cole ❤️ Those Beyond the Wall - Micaiah Johnson 🧡 Dancing Toward Stardust - Julia Underwood 💛 Heir to Dreams & Darkness - Ben Alderson 💙 Comet Cruise - Niska Morrow 💜 Dead Girls Walking - Sami Ellis 🌈 Blackout - Carlos E. Rivera

❤️ Monster Crush - Erin Ellie Franey 🧡 Blessed Water - Margot Douaihy 💛 These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart - Izzy Wasserstein 💚 Kiss of Seduction - Rawnie Sabor 💙 Sunbringer - Hannah Kaner 💜 Evacuation to Love - C.A. Popovich ❤️ Sin - Brooke Matthews 🧡 Falls from Grace - Ruby Landers 💛 Lean in to Love - Catherine Lane 💙 A Small Apocalypse - Laura Chow Reeve 💜 Cascade Failure - L.M. Sagas 🌈 The Mars House - Natasha Pulley

❤️ All This Time - Sage Donnell 🧡 The Romance Lovers Book Club - MA Binfield 💛 View from the Top - Morgan Adams 💚 Number Call - Nagisa Furuya 💙 Crossing Bridges - Chelsey Lynford 💜 The Boyfriend Subscription - Steven Salvatore ❤️ Love the World or Get Killed Trying - Alvina Chamberland 🧡 Synthetic Sea - Franklyn S. Newton 💛 The Prince & His Stolen Groom - J.E. Ridge 💙 Chrysalis and Requiem - Quinton Li 💜 Where Sleeping Girls Lie - Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé 🌈 A Botanical Daughter - Noah Medlock

❤️ Wednesday Nights - by Donna Jay 🧡 The Woods All Black - Lee Mandelo 💛 Song of the Huntress - Lucy Holland 💚 Rainbow Black - Maggie Thrash 💙 Spirits & Sunflowers - A.D. Armistead & Austin Daniel 💜 Floating Hotel - Grace Curtis ❤️ Far From Camelot - Rylee Hale 🧡 This Way to Change - Jezz Chung 💛 Mexican Bird - Luis Lopez-Maldonado 💙 Android Affection: Unveiling - Beau Van Dalen 💜 Welcome to the Damned - Astraea Long 🌈 She Came for Blood - Darva Green

❤️ Cover Story - Rachel Lacey 🧡 The Poisons We Drink - Bethany Baptiste 💛 The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist - Sophie Gonzales 💚 In Walked Trouble - Dana Hawkins 💙 Never Leave, Never Lie - Thea Verdone 💜 Guardian: Zhen Hun - Priest ❤️ All the World Beside - Garrard Conley 🧡 Rainbows, Unicorns, and Triangles - Jessica Kingsley Publishers 💛 The Feast Makers - H.A. Clarke 💙 Synthetic Sea - Franklyn S. Newton 💜 All the Painted Stars - Emma Denny 🌈 A Hard Sell - Jennifer Moffatt

[trashnotfound]

Time for my usual run down of the season , didn’t do it how I usually do because honestly I had not very nice things to say about the first 5 episodes 💀

Dr s2 pt2 spoielrs ahead

- jay? Jay!?! JAY!? Hello what was THAT- IT Was a COP out honestly, all the hype and build up for a shit ass reveal and a boring fight between him and nya, only for him to LEAVE 5 minutes later. I wanted more of him being evil, it was so rushed and just usless. Like they could have just made nya find him or something, he didn’t have to be evil, Because they did literally NOTHING with it. I know they probably realise they need a whole season to build up to jay but maybe if they didn’t focus on Lloyd all the time they could??

-It was nice to see some old characters again, like tox and Mr pale! Finally some old rep 😭 I just wish they we’re actually utilised properly. I didn’t want just cameos I wanted actual character arcs or something. I know I’m asking for a lot and “should be greatful to even get to see them” but s4 showed all the old elemental master so well, and they all at least got a little moment to shine even if just for one fight, then they added to that with season 9. It just felt like a *here’s your old characters now shut up*

-People may think I’m being too picky with this, but the random panning to Geo and other characters with jayas fight TOOK ME OUT!? Like we just had this super emotional revels and now jay and nya gotta fight, oh okay we’re just gonna show a purple goblin mid scene ?? Like it just took me out the moment and was also so random. Like he doesn’t even know nya that well, why are we seeing his reaction more then the ninjas. Same for the audience. Like they don’t know these people WHY ARE THEY HERE

- wyldfyre and Roby! What can’t I say about them. Saved the season for me honestly. I like how wyldfyre actually got a break this season and got to be goofy and silly. We really saw more of her personality shine! Her being the comic relief was really refreshing to see. Plus her and Roby instantly hitting it off, just like Kailor did was such a cute nod to them. The fact that their just so sweet and full of puppy love, they couldn’t be more different then eachother but that isn’t mentioned ONCE (I like that) wyldfyre takes on all of Roby words, and him roaring for her to show he loves her too. I just adore how they take on eachother characteristics and embrace how their different. Plus the blatant flirting 😭🤚🏻 made giggle

- ERIN LOW KEY TURNING EVIL HELLO!? I was kinda expecting someone to turn on the ninja, honestly shocked it was Erin. Him and sora fighting broke my heart :( I can 100% understand his point of view, it’s been over a year since he met Lloyd and he’s still no closer to his parents. It does suck and I wish it was prioritised too, but Lloyd can’t help that all the danger they have been facing is world ending. Someone just needs to give him and hug. But I also think he needs to learn he can’t have everything in life. He wanted to be a ninja and he got that! I know he lots his parents but so did sora. I just think he needs a good hug and some support

- cole and zane we so pushed aside this season. I know they aren’t the main focus anymore, but for cole especially just doesn’t feel like a character anymore? He hasn’t since 13 honestly. I don’t think it helps that I’m still getting used to Andrew voicing him ( no fault of his own the writers won’t give him enough material to work with) so it genuinely feels like a new character to me. Plus his lack of interest in the ninja. Zane could have been used so much this season to analyse their opponents and help train sora, but they just cast him aside. Like hello he had an entire episode DEDICATED TO HIM BEING A DETECTIVE? Why didn’t they let him help Erin figure out the murders ( yes it was to do those flashbacks of his parents but that didn’t really add much)

- Kai coming back was so underwhelming, I honestly would have liked if they waited till next season to do that. We didn’t get a proper reunion of him and wyldfyre or nya :(

- ep 11-20 did not feel like a part 2, they felt like an entire different season. The separate parts really don’t merge well on my opinion. We’re following 2 completely different story lines and fighting 2 different villains. Their isn’t really an over arching storyline aside from Ras and his gang. Who don’t even turn out to be the main villains 💀 this part just felt like a re do of seaosn 4 but a lot more boring. I really couldn’t get into the story until at least episode 5. It was just way to repetitive with no real danger being shown.

I think that’s everything I wanna talk about for now, there’s others but they more small critiques or details I liked. Not my favourite season ( you can probably tell lol) definitely the worst of all 4 parts so far in my opinion. But I’m hoping season 3 is better since we hopefully have an actual evil ninja ( Erin) and jaya to look forward too

[magicalyaku]

Hello and welcome to my 2023 reading wrap up! A big Thank You to everyone who followed my ramblings throughout the year! <3 I will continue through 2024. Maybe I'll learn how to write proper reviews, at least I'll try to remember better what I actually want to say about the stories. In 2022, I read 93 books plus my own. Guess how many it were in 2023? 93 plus my own!! xD That was huge coincidence and I love it. Of these 94 books, 4 are rereads (which won't be included in the "Favourite" sections), 2 are non-fiction, 11 are non-queer. I only DNFed 1 book (which is not pictured) and other than that I only disliked 6 books! (And it's a pretty soft dislike in comparison. I don't hate them nearly enough to want to shit on them again. :'D).

So on the the awards!

Most Read Author: KJ Charles (8 books)

Least Favourite Book: Daresh (Katja Brandis) (the one I could not finish for dear life)

Favourite Character: Brand (The Tarot Sequence) and Will (The Will Darling Adventures) (yes, there's a trend)

Favourite Covers (of books I read, not releases):

(There were too many. D:)

Highest Emotional Investment (aka The Agony, the suffering, the why you do this to me Award): Dark Heir - The Scottish Boy - In Memoriam

Wildest Story: The Adventures of Pinocchio

Favourite Books:

The Devil's Luck (L.S. Baird)

The Scottish Boy (Alex de Campi)

In Memoriam (Alice Winn)

Just Lizzie (Karen Wilfried)

Dark Heir (C.S. Pacat)

The Will Darling Adventures (KJ Charles)

Gwen & Art are not in Love (Lex Croucher)

The Buried and the Bound (Rochelle Hassan)

More Books I enjoyed greatly:

Oracle of Senders series (Mere Joyce)

Of Feathers and Thorns (Kit Vincent)

Wren Martin Ruins it all (Amanda deWitt)

Simon Snow series (Rainbow Rowell)

The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley (Shaun David Hutchinson)

The Tarot Sequence (K.D. Edwards)

The First and Last Adventure of Kit Sawyer (S.E. Harmon)

Sixteen Souls (Rosie Talbot)

By any Other Name (Erin Cotter)

The High King's Golden Tongue (Megan Derr) and more!!

Most Used Name: I counted names last year and didn't want to do it again this year because I read so much fantasy, so the names were all over. Still, there was one who stood out amongst them all with at least 4 instances, if not more. Probably more.

Will

Congratulations. I have to admit, I've always liked that name. My favourite character of all times and part of my one and only OTP is named Will as well and I kinda hope the last book of their second trilogy never comes because it will probably make me scream and ... ...

Bonus! This year, I counted pages! Because I felt that most books were much shorter than what I read before. So I wanted to know. Turns out, my feeling was wrong. My 93 books had a whole of 33011 pages which results in approximately 350 pages per book. That's pretty normal I dare say.

That's it for 2023! I had a very good year in books. I wanted to read less actually, and failed spectacularly because I had too much fun. And if anyone's wondering how I read so much, I read fast and I just didn't do anything else in my free time. Escapism to the max. I hope, the new year treats you well! I hope, you have fun with the books you read! Let's meet again soon! <3

[idonthaveanyurlideas]

25 animatics 2 and a half years 1 hour, 20 minutes and 39 seconds Approximately 5852 frames 349 unique characters appearing a total of 982 times

have what will most likely be my final blaseball animatic, a self-indulgent goodbye to all my beloved beams and a whole bunch of other players

Music is Celebrate the Reckless by Magic Giant - design credits below the cut

Credits: Randall Marijuana by alienmandy_ - Pangolin Ruiz by Mortimer_Mekhane - Dunn Keyes, Ramirez Winters and Pedro Davids by glassgoblin - Cory Ross and Grollis Zephyr by saltbuzzard - Lucas Petty by Dorito - Logan Rodriguez by Monthenor - Zephyr McCloud by dreambaot - Steals Mondegreen by 510five - Spears Taylor by Bells - Jessica Telephone by telekeys - Randy Dennis and Niq Nyong'o by tiny_revel - Kelvin Drumsolo by Australia-Hungary#9082 - Haruta Byrd and Erin Jesaulenko by miasmajesties - Justice Spoon and Edric Tosser by necromngo - Isaac Johnson, Gita Sparrow, Dunlap Figueroa and Mullen Peterson by _waalkr - Rivers Javier by toadparty and sidoopa - Baby Sliders by samiratu - Alvie Kesh by quilyn - Alexander Horne and Wyatt Mason VI by Fancymancer - Forrest Bookbaby by bugsbenedict - Helga Burton and Helga Moreno by electricgaunt using picrew by r4tist - Andrew Solis by rabbittraps_ - Rhys Trombone by Ephesos - Esme Ramsey by HetreaSky and grr - Mickey Woods by sol - Bright Zimmerman by staradavid - Iggy Delacruz by Karagna_ - Rey Wooten by dipppitydoop - Ziwa Mueller and Richmond Harrison by avery_helm - Workman Gloom and Beasley Gloom by shenaniglenn - Snyder Briggs by mensisritual - Jasmine Washington, Donia Bailey, Jasper Blather and Hops Chen by desmodusrotunds - Avila Guzman by jaungeedraws - Richardson Games and Hiroto Wilcox by CurseOfScots - Cornelius Games by kyl_armstrong - Nicholas Vincent by Hazel Cooper - Eugenia Bickle by awhekate - Fran Beans by thr33h3addrag - Valentine Games by deerstained - Magi Ruiz by Nofacenerd - Tiana Takahashi by VHS_DREAMER - Tillman Henderson by cryptmilk - Mcdowell Karim by ferretrix - Sebastian Woodman by Starfauna - Yosh Carptener by gfclass - Aldon Cashmoney by occultclassic - Donia Bailey and Hiroto Wilcox by crickadelic - Jasper Blather by nel using picrew from astrolava

Wiki Pages: Eugenia Garbage - Rivers Rosa - Stevenson Heat - Qais Dogwalker - Margarito Nava - Lou Roseheart - Beck Whitney - Nic Winkler - Neerie McCloud - Blood Hamburger - Kennedy Rodgers - Nagomi Meng - Lachlan Shelton - Kichiro Guerra - Fletcher Yamamoto

Other: Emmett Internet - Priya Fox - London Simmons - Cravel Gesundheit - Willow Dice - Xanthe - Jorge Owens - Carter Grimsley - Kajjala Aliyev - Guozhi Ong - Grizz El Sayed - Thomas Marsh - Amos Parveen - Kaj Statter Jr. - Anastasia Isarobot - Zack Sanders - Özlem Suttner - Malik Romayne - Sigmund Castillo - Son Jensen - Jayden Wright - Paula Reddick - Sandoval Crossing - Velasquez Meadows - Hahn Fox - Howell Franklin - Miguel James - Passenger - Nagomi Nava - Wyatt Mason VII - Wyatt Mason III - Wyatt Mason V - Dudley Mueller - Joe Voorhees - Harriet Gildehaus - Phineas Wormthrice - Elvis Figueroa - Borg Ruiz - Tot Best - Lars Taylor - Nerd Pacheco - Hendricks Richardson - Kaz Fiasco - Hank Marshallow - Beans McBlase - Sutton Bishop - Quack Enjoyable - Guy Gulp - Siobhan Chark - Alaynabella Hollywood

Unsure: Mooney Doctor - Wyatt Mason IV

[seeminglyranch87]

Taylor & Travis Timeline

June 2024 - Part 3

June 25 - Travis Kelce is a guest on "Bussin with the Boys" Podcast and talks about his relationship with Taylor (x 1:14:18). Podcast recorded 19 June 2024

Travis is asked how his team mates handled the news that he was dating Taylor...

"no nobody really gave me [a hard time] no, really nobody knew what was going on really all over the place, we kind of kept it between us as much as we could but once she came to a game obviously it was all popping from there"

"you want to keep things private but at the same time I'm not here to hide anything, that's my girl you know what I mean that's my lady, I'm proud of that so it's like I'm not sitting here trying to juggle 'how can I keep this under wraps'. You just don't want to let everybody into your personal life and be able to comment on it knowing that everything she does is getting a headline."

When asked about what has been crazy as a result of dating Taylor Travis replies

"it's been cool, it's a different demographic than the NFL really so it's been cool to dabble in that and see her following, it's been fun.

"The Chiefs fans have turned into a lot of her fans or her fans have turned into Chiefs fans so I've had fun with just about every aspect of it. It's just when you're at home you want privacy and you don't always get that"

On supporting each other and Taylor going on to the field at the Super Bowl:

"she's very self-aware she understands situations and that's why I really started to really fall for her was how genuine she is around friends & family, it can get crazy for somebody with that much attention and she just keeps it so chill and so cool and because you know everyone's watching what hey what move

"The first game she came to against the Bears I was like 'hey yeah so I could probably set you up with everything' and she just walked right through the front door. There's no going down talking to security making sure that she gets to her [box seat] she just wants to be around the family and friends and experience this with everybody. She got Buu points for that. She's in the madness, she wants to be a part of it, she wants to support me and do things like that. She really won me over with that one though."

How's it been going to the concerts?

"dude the concerts are electric yeah they're electric and she just switched it up, she just came out with the new album so she Incorporated that into the new show, she's having fun up there so it's like I can enjoy seeing her in her element killing it on stage and I love the show man she's got bangers."

Travis is asked to name his top tier songs of Taylor's...

"I really started listening to Taylor's music when she came out with 1989 like I knew who she was before that, we were the same age we so through high school I knew who Taylor was as she was getting her career started. 1989 was where it really started to go crazy so I'm going to say Blank Space because that was the first one great song so I'm put that one at number one. "Number two; Cruel Summer is one of the ones she opens with at her show and when she comes out and it's just Electric in the stadium and then she goes into an absolute banger like that, I was fired up when that happened the first show I was ever at" "What would be my third? I'll say So High School, it's got a little bit of a sentimental meaning". "You know how to ball, I know Aristotle"

June 26 - New Heights - The London Episode airs (recorded Sat 22nd June in London). Jason and Travis Kelce talk about Jason and Kylie's first experience of the Eras Tour in London UK.

“13+87 i’m just saying it works”

Calm Down with Erin & Charissa podcast. Erin Andrews & Charissa Thompson share their experience of attending the Eras Tour at Wimbledon Night 1 and chatting with Travis in the VIP tent... (x)

Charissa: “you must be so proud of her.” Travis: “you have no idea.”

June 28 - The Eras Tour, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

State of Grace x You’re on Your Own Kid (guitar) & Sweet Nothing x Hoax (piano)

June 29 - The Eras Tour, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

The Albatross x Dancing With Our Hands Tied (guitar) & Ours x This Love (piano)

June 30 - The Eras Tour, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

Travis flew in from LA and arrived part way through the Folklore/Evermore era, this is the moment Taylor saw him arrive (x)

Stevie Nicks & Julia Roberts are in attendance.

Clara Bow x The Lucky One (guitar) & You're On Your Own Kid (piano)

Trav let her bejeweled 🥰😭🤩 (x)

Taylor, Travis, Stevie Nicks, Paramore, band and dancers enjoyed a post show celebration at Hacienda Bar in Dublin (x)

Go to previous update -> June part 2

Go to next update -> July part 1

Return to the timeline

[she-karev]

Intervention (Marina Angst with a Happy Ending Imagine)

Previous Part Here

Age Rating: 12+

Chapters: Three of Three

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy

Characters: Carina DeLuca, Andrew DeLuca and Maya Bishop

Canon Episode: Season 17 Episode 1

AN: Hey guys so Station 19 ended sadness but it’s up to us to keep the epic romance alive. I will post another Marina story next week and it’s gonna be funny and surprising. Stay tuned.

Mental Health Resources: https://www.nami.org/, https://www.aacap.org/, https://www.dbsalliance.org/, https://afsp.org/

Summary: Carina drives Andrew to the treatment center and along the way he expresses guilt and shame for how he treated everybody, most of all Amber. Carina returns home to Maya who comforts her.

Words: 3213

Carina drives down the road in her car about twenty minutes away from the residential facility in Bellevue. Andrew is next to her in the passenger side alarmingly calm even as he looks out the window in a foreboding way telling her there is an inner conflict going on. Carina looks at Andrew in pity before looking back at the road. She figures out what to say to make him feel better about the journey ahead.

“I know your scared but this is one of the best treatment centers in the state I checked.” Andrew is still looking out the window, “It’s 30 days to get you on the right meds, talk to therapists and monitor you. I will visit you every Saturday so I can see how you’re doing and tell you all that you are missing. I know it’s hard but you’ll get better and that’s the goal, that is what is going to separate you from papa. He is not strong enough to do this but you are, I know you are.”

Carina stops at a stoplight, looks over and sees Andrew rubbing his tired eyes, “I know your trying to help and I appreciate that I do and I am gonna do this I am I just…I can’t undo all that I did when I was being a stubborn idiot.” Carina sighs, “Opal got away with Erin because I made a scene, I was so far out of stability I didn’t do things rationally and calmly instead I looked like a crazy man and that girl ended up back in that monster’s clutches.”

“And she got free.” Carina reminds him to no avail as he shakes his head.

“What if she didn’t?” Andrew asks in a broken voice, “If she didn’t, she would have been tortured and raped for years and it would be because I was unstable and untrustworthy.”

“Andrea the Chief didn’t believe you and she allowed Opal to walk away because she didn’t consider the possibility that you were right.”

“You didn’t believe me either.” Andrew coldly reminds her, “Nobody did and honestly I do not blame them, if papa did that a year ago, I would have thought he was crazy too.”

Carina looks down the road sad for him, “You can’t blame yourself for what happened to Erin, if you do it’s just gonna hold you back and you won’t look forward. She’s safe and she’s with her family that is what’s important here, focus on that not on how you reacted while you were having a mental breakdown you didn’t ask for.”

“I ruined- no I single handedly destroyed the best relationship I ever had because I didn’t see what everybody else did.” Andrew sniffles as tears form around his eyes, “I did to her exactly what our father did to mama and I am never gonna forgive myself for that. She’s never gonna forgive me for doing this to her, for being another name in her list of crazy people that scarred her for life.”

“You didn’t mean to hurt her it was the mania that said and did all of those things not you.” Carina tells him from observation, “I’ve seen you with her for two years and those are two different people.”

“I told her she would end up like her father.” Andrew tells her in a regretful tone, “She was trying to help me see there was something wrong and my response was telling her that without me around she would end up like her father. Her junkie father who abandoned her after beating her, I told her she would end up like that man she hates more than anyone. And after that I compared her to her schizo mom who neglected her before screaming at her to get out of my apartment because I didn’t need her or want her. God I am the cruelest person in the world, I did that to a woman who has had more than enough crazy and pain to last a lifetime. I did that and nothing you say is gonna make that okay so don’t try.” Andrew takes a deep breath rubbing his face before continuing in a tearful voice, “I love her so much, I miss her so much, why didn’t I listen to her before I destroyed her why?”

Carina sniffles and wipes a stray tear away knowing how much her brother loves Amber and sees that love again for the first time in months. She only wishes Amber was here to see it so she can see at least one person in her life feels bad for the pain their mental illness put her through.

“You listened now.” Carina tells him, “You’re doing the work and she will see that. When she sees your getting better for yourself and her, she will forgive you and take you back.”

“It’s too late, way too late.”

Carina shakes her head, “She loves you and she’s hurt but I think if she knows you feel bad for the way you treated her, she will-”

“What did she say when you asked her to come to the intervention?”

Carina pauses at that sudden question and tries to lie, “I didn’t ask her.”

Andrew chuckles bitterly, “You always were a terrible liar. Just tell me word for word so I know how bad I messed this up and how much I need to do to make up for it.”

Carina sighs and relents, “She said she didn’t want to be a sitting duck for your verbal abuse again and that she’s learned from her mom, brother and now you to walk away from a bazooka pointing at her.”

Andrew grins slightly at Amber’s feisty nature, “That’s my girl, taking hits and not pulling back punches.”

“She’s upset Andrea you need to give her time to cool down.”

“We could live for thousands of years and the temperature in that woman wouldn’t go down a single digit.” Andrew takes out his phone to play a familiar voice mail, “If you don’t believe me listen to this voicemail, she left me after I ignored her calls.”

Carina listens to the voicemail that plays while she is driving with Andrew keeping a straight face after hearing this message too many times only now feeling anguished instead of anger as Amber’s slurring words fill the small car space, “Hi, it’s me again of course you didn’t answer, I guess it’s because you think I’m gonna point out what’s wrong with you and tell you I’m here for you to use as your own verbal punching bag. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen because I’m done Andrew, I am done caring about you because you clearly don’t care about me! Your sister made that obvious when she told me about you calling her and answering your phone when she calls while I have been here wondering where you are or if you’re dead!” Carina winces at that reminder of the day she accidentally told Amber Andrew was taking her calls.

Andrew continues holding the phone out, “You know what I’m not pissed anymore I am glad that you showed me what I should’ve seen two years ago at that awful bar. A man who is turning into a carbon copy of his father, you think I’m like my parents well let me tell you exactly what your dad would do. He would walk into your life acting all sweet and getting you to open your life to him but really he looks for weak spots to tear down like the cold manipulative son of a bitch you accuse him of being. That is exactly what you did to me you bastard.” Andrew closes his eyes at that feeling more tormented at soiling the loving and blissful relationship he and Amber established over two years.

“You got me to open my life to you, you let me feel safe enough to trust you and break my walls down that I put up after what my family did to me. And you know what you did Andrea Vincenzo DeLuca? You broke me! You made the pain you’ve caused so much worse by forcing me to let my guard down so you can twist the knife you put in my back. You are not the man I love, right now you are a carbon copy of your father who I hope ends up dead in a ditch because then you would know exactly how you made me feel you cruel, arrogant, crazy, selfish motherfucker!”

The voicemail ends and the car is filled with silence again as Carina processes that very vulgar message while Andrew looks down the road brooding over the voicemail his ex-girlfriend left when she was rightfully angry.

Carina exhales and takes a beat, “She’s very colorful with her words.”

Andrew nods still frowning, “Yeah and not afraid to make her point across. Do you still think she’s ready to forgive me, marry me and have my babies like none of it ever happened?”

Carina sighs, “I think you put her through a lot and you both need space to heal. The only thing you need to do now is take care of yourself, rest and learn how to establish a routine for yourself so you can be the man she loves again. If she ever decides to forgive you that is up to her and I think it might go better once she sees you are getting ahead of this. I will tell her where you are and how you are doing because I know no matter how angry she was at you she was still worried when you didn’t show up for work the next day. But for now, we’re gonna get you checked in, non aver paura.” Carina grips his hand to keep him calm as they stop outside the check in gate. Carina turns to the security guard, “I’m checking in my brother, Andrew DeLuca.”

“You need to drive around. You say goodbye there; he goes in on foot.” The drop arm in front of them pulls up and Carina drives around as instructed before putting the car in park. They both exit the car before taking his suitcase out of the trunk full of clothes and amenities for the month. Andrew takes an uneasy breath as he puts the suitcase on the ground ready to roll it inside the center.

He and Carina stand there for a moment looking at each other solemnly knowing the journey ahead is what he needs but not one that’s gonna be easy. Carina gives him a reassuring grin before putting her hands on his shoulders while he looks at her with guilt over how he treated her too after his breakdown. Carina has that far from her mind as the only thing that matters to her is that her baby brother knows he will always have her at his side through the worst times of his life like she always does.

“It’s going to be okay,” she says. “I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but it is. You’re nothing like Papa. He wouldn’t do this, he wouldn’t accept help, even in the worst times. That makes you better than him. It makes you stronger and more brave.”

Andrew nods and she takes it as a sign that he is taking in what she is saying.

“I love you, il mio fratellino. And I’m going to be right here to pick you up in four weeks, okay?” Andrew nods knowing this is what he needs and looks at his sister with gratitude for putting up with him at his worst and never giving up on him even when he wanted her to. He resolves from then on to make amends for his mistakes by being his best possible self. And he knows the first step to do that is to head inside so his sister’s efforts aren’t for nothing.

“Thank you,” Andrew says quietly.

It is all she needs to hear, and Carina feels her chest swell. She pulls him in for a hug, holding on to him for as long as she can. Andrew wraps his arms around her pulling her in tight as both an apology and a thank you. They stand there for a minute hugging like they did when their mama died, it was the worst moment of their lives. Despite that they knew then what they know now, that they’re in each other’s corners through the good and bad.

Andrew pulls back feeling calmer and rolls his suitcase behind him walking up the sidewalk to enter the large building. Carina looks on with pride for her brother’s bravery and heartache for his unfair inheritance. As soon as he’s inside the building Carina finally lets the tears fall that she has been holding in since they started the drive. Carina takes a deep breath, wipes her face and heads back inside the car to drive back home.

Later

Carina enters her apartment exhausted despite the sun still being up and walks to the kitchen for her secret junk food stash. Instead of an empty kitchen she finds Maya kneeling down looking in her bottom drawers and pulling out a deep glass baking dish. Maya stands up and smiles at Carina.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” Carina greets back pleasantly surprised by Maya in her apartment.

“I know I should have called first after last time, but I didn’t want to call at a bad time. I figured you and your brother needed to do this without intrusion and-”

Carina interrupts Maya with a kiss that takes the blonde firefighter’s breath away. Maya is conscious enough to put the glass on the counter, so she doesn’t drop it. She puts her hands on Carina’s firm waist sinking into this passionate embrace. After a few blissful moments Carina pulls back and leans her head forward against Maya’s looking deep into her blue eyes that look into her brown eyes with such love and conviction.

“I’m glad you’re here, I really needed to see you after.”

Maya rubs Carina’s back soothingly, “I’m here now, it didn’t go okay?”

Carina groans slightly, “He was hesitant at first there were tears and a lot of slamming doors…but eventually he agreed to let us help him. I called in and got him into a treatment center at Bellevue.”

“And the drive up?”

Carina sighs, “He told me how guilty he feels about Erin and Amber. He told me that he regrets hurting a woman that he loves repeatedly when she was trying to help. I told him that it would be okay that she might forgive him but honestly…I don’t know if she is.”

“I hurt you too, I lashed out and I did a very stupid and awful thing to you and you still forgave me. If we can do that then I think they can too.”

Carina chuckles bitterly, “You don’t know Amber Karev she is…she is angry and rightfully so and she has had enough people hurting her when they had a mental breakdown. I don’t know if she can forgive him and love him again. He loves her so much, what am I supposed to do if she rejects him and he is heartbroken without the love of his life there with him?”

Maya looks at her in thought, “…You could get him a dog.” Carina laughs at that suggestion causing Maya to smile, “I had to do something to make you smile. He’ll be okay I don’t know him but if he’s like you then he will bounce back and move on. As long as he still has you, he’ll be okay.”

“Okay.” Carina holds Maya’s hip. “And when he’s better, I’m going to make sure he gets to know you properly. I want him to know you, Maya.”

Maya smiles, her cheeks blushing pink. She is not normally the kind of person that someone wants to introduce to their family, and it used to be a red flag to her, but not this time. This time, she wants it. She wants to be all in with Carina and get to know her brother she loves so much hoping when the time comes, she gets his approval.

“I would like that.” Maya tells Carina who smiles, “I just hope he likes me.”

“He will.” Carina tells her with conviction, “If he doesn’t, he’ll just have to learn to get used to you or I will kick his bottom.” Maya laughs at that image and Carina looks at the pan with interest, “Why were you taking a pan out anyway? We’re you gonna make me something?”

Maya smiles and pulls away from Carina to grab the glass pan, “I remember you telling me that whenever you or your brother would get sad or scared you would go to the kitchen and make something together to cheer yourselves up. I thought we could do that since you need cheering up.”

Carina looks at Maya in awe over her remembering that story. She can still remember the day their mama yelled at papa and threw plates at him after he killed those four patients. She and Andrea would crawl under the covers and she would sing to him to calm him down. The next morning when their mama was in bed and their papa was at work, she took her brother to the kitchen and taught him how to make French toast. The process helped keep their minds off their parent’s breaking apart so every fight they overheard they would find a new recipe to try. It was their thing and it make Carina’s heart skip a beat at the thought of sharing that with Maya.

“You would do that for me?”

Maya nods, “I would do anything for you, I love you Carina.”

“Ti amo Maya.”

Maya smiles at the Italian words that she finds so sexy coming from Carina but focuses on the task at hand, “So do you want to start with the lasagna? I have been dying to know what your secret is.”

“Ah, ah, ah.” Carina teases, “You are not there yet bambina, we have start you off with something simple and then work our way up to my famous lasagna.”

Maya chuckles, “Oh really? Okay sexy Guy Fieri what’s level one of this cooking challenge?”

“Mmm.” Carina thinks with a grin, “Let’s start with something simple like spaghetti aglio e olio.”

“It sounds delicious what is it?”

“Spaghetti in garlic and oil sauce.” Carina explains.

Maya’s nose wrinkles at the concoction, “It sounds like a vampire’s worst nightmare.”

Carina chuckles, “Trust me bella you say that now but when we are done you will fall to your knees over my cooking skills.”

“News flash it doesn’t take you cooking for me to do that.” Maya tells her with a mischievous smile and Carina looks at her in amusement, “Okay what do you want me to do chef?”

“Chef? Wow I think I am going to love this.” Carina teases before they head to the pantry to pull out ingredients. Carina looks at Maya with love and admiration knowing that despite the day she and her brother had things were gonna be okay, she believed it.

[ladypiscesmoon]

I have just opened up my anons again. Everyone ready to keep it civil this time? All hate will be blocked, I'm not going to answer anymore.

For all the lovely people out there who like me reading for you: I have cleaned out my inbox and made an inventory list of all readings I will do first.

What a list. And all the smaller pulls too. I only closed anons for a week or so, these are all older asks. Some of the smaller pulls I will do on Instagram, when the first one is posted I will warn you, so you can follow me there too.

Have a nice day!!

Readings:

In the next few weeks I start on the following list of readings. Some are long overdue and I am sorry for it, but 2024 wasn't the best of years. In the summer of 2023 my depression started to play up again and I had to take care of myself and wait until I was in the right headspace again for readings. In March my husband got sick.

But eventually, I'm here and I will give priority to the following list:

Paul Mescal. soulmate reading

Austin Butler. future spouse

Austin Butler&Kaia Gerber. relationship

Jude Bellington love life/ft spouse/career

kit young&Jack Wolfe friends/coworkers

Simone Ashley. love life/ft spouse

Bill Skargard. general reading

David& Victoria Beckham. marriage

Hozier ft spouse/love life/career

Matt Smith. ft spouse/career

Anthony Starr&Erin Moriarty. former relationship

Enzo Vogrincic. soulmate reading

Yunho Ateez. relationship wit a florist

Louis Hamilton love life/ft spouse

Joe Burrow. love life

Bratt Pitt. ft spouse

Lando Norris. ft spouse

Noel Gallangher general reading

Harry Styles. ft spouse/ new album

Charles Leclerc. feature spouse (already in his life)

Henry Cavill love life/professional life

Frankie Rodriguez and Joe serafini? They are 5 years into their relationship. Will they get married? Are they secretly in engaged Have they talked about marriage?

Andrew Scott&Ben Aldridge relationship

Kylian Mbappe. ft spouse reading

Glen Powell love life/ft spouse

Timothée Chalamet ft spouse

Smaller pulls:

Hiii hope ur well! Could you please do a reading on Ross Lynch and Laura Marano’s friendship? Are they on good terms? Ty! Is there any romance/feelings between them?

Does Carlos Sainz miss his ex-girlfriend Isabel?

Are Jude and Jobe Bellingham in love with someone at the moment?

How are the Bellingham parents doing? Are Mark and Denise still in love?

Hi can you ask how Nicola Coughlan is doing?

Can you do a quick love reading for Kim Namjoon (RM of BTS)? Thanks 🥰

What will Club Chalamet's reaction be if Timmy is associating with Armie?

Do you know Hugh Grosvenor? He married this June and maybe the cards know if he is still in love. Maybe a baby will arrive soon? Thank you

Can you Pic some cards for Taylor zakhar perez and his partner. How's their relationship is going on?

Is Yunho Ateez dating a florist?

Is Simone Ashley in love with her boyfriend or another friend? rumors that boyfriend is on tinder.

Alex Turner &Louise Verneuil energy/relationship

Anthony Starr current energy

Is the relationship between Henry Cavill and Natalie Viscuso a pr stunt?

Damon Baker and Simon Loof have fallen out over something. Can you do a reading if it was over unrequited feelings? Some people think Damon wanted to have something more romantically with Simon but Simon didn't feel the same.

Omar Rudberg and Nurbo Bozan Was there cheating? Who broke up with who and why?

Do you think timothee figured out theres money missing from his money or did he figure brain stealing from him

Alexander Skarsgard and Tuva Novotny. What their relationship is like and will their relationship last?

how is Max Verstappen and Kelly Piquet relationship at this moment?

How is Nicole Alexander and his gf Victoria relationship and was there something between him ad Tatyana or they were just friends

Why Liz don't stop effie from posting disgusting stuff about harper and Ford if she can team up with effie to destroy armie then why she doesn't say her to stop.

Hi, could you please check how are Armie's kids doing?How is their relationship with Armie? Have they heard rumors about Armie (or has Elizabeth fed them bad thoughts.

year ahead Matt Bomer

year ahead Jonathan Bailey

year ahead Matt Bomer&Simon Halls

[leppardcampbelllove]

I met Vivian Campbell!!!!!!!!

@armageddonviv @stevesfuzzypinkslippers @jimmysdragonsuit13 and any other mutuals. FYI this is gonna be a long post.

I met Vivian on September 17, 2023 during one of his shows with his side band Last In Line. I bought tickets and meet & greet tickets. I was nervous that I got to the venue 2 hours early than I needed to be.

Last In Line's manager came out to get us (there were 5 others beside me waiting). We had to wait a bit because there was an issue with the speakers but finally IT WAS TIME!!!! I was so giddy and excited but also nervous to meet the man I have been crushing on for the last 18 years (at the time I was 38).

I had brought 2 things for all the guys to sign. Their CD booklet from their second CD and my ticket. So I went down the line to get them signed. First Vinny signed, then Andrew and then Viv was next. OMG!!! He looks even better in person.

I told him that I had been waiting to see him for a while. He said well here I am. He asked me my name, I replied Erin. He said that's a very Irish name. Then word vomit struck. Ugh!!!! I said thanks my great grandparents came form Ireland (at the time I thought this was was case turns out my ancestors came from Scotland, who knew) and that I didn't know where they were from so don't ask. He looked at me like ummm... okay. Then it was over. I was like ugh great stupid thing to say.

During the concert (my seats were 3rd row) I made my way up to the front of the stage. Vivian at one point saw me and had something in his hand. He put something in his pocket and at the end of the next song. He came over to me and was trying to give me his guitar pic when someone drunky mcdrunkerson next to me but his hand on top of mine to take the pic. What a jerk! But Viv saw this, and and said no This is for Erin and proceeded to put the pic in my hand. I told him thank you and was internally freaking out.

Thats my story of how I met Viv. Yes he was super sweet and nice and shy. He looks good in person and looks fit. Will post pictures in a separate post.

[scrunkly-week]

the character graveyard — a creator's lament

a wall of snow keeps you hidden, it's true.

my hands tainted. I buried you all myself.

some of you live, just barely, breathing through a straw in your graves. an illusion of existence.

some of you never had the chance. your lives extinguished before you could fully form.

massacre.

your god has not forsaken you, I plead.

though I am god and she is merciless. by circumstance, not design.

I come to acknowledge you. you forgotten ones, the ones I hid, the ones who died by my hand and the ones who fizzled from existence before I could reach them. I gather you here today. to recognise you. mourn you. immortalise you.

I raise my chalice to each of you.

here's to the faceless ones. the ones I never named. the ones who had nothing but a name. a vibe. a role. a disembodied something. you hadn't enough love or care. I'm sorry.

here's to the fleeting ones. ones who existed in passing. to assist another's narrative. to enhance the world.

lindsay, erin bray, lynn clerke, jarrod holman. alli, nicole, cam, daniel, alisha. javin daxar, ellin daxar, dalen daxar, damon daxar, kara quillan, zaiden. daron ferris, charlie reid. lennard rose, elisabeth rose, elli. deyan thomson. lucia. sophie, caleb. jeremiah, chris, lukas, troy jackson, zach, linda, mr. woods. kere lockhart. aric jeweller. andrea, stefano. reece, john, demetrius rodriquez, seth reeves. aria, aaron, william, matthew, gaeldon, jonah. julia. sigrae, cassirean, king pyrest of emberia, hakan. dayell, carr kepnar. conrad, mr. stevens, steph, lilian maxwell, evie, vida, erica, david, olivia, andrew, dexter badd, marianne, charles wickham, katherine wickham, james wickham, raiden, calvin, darlene. therese matton, henri matton, geneve matton, madeline matton, mathieu matton, talon debois, lloyd hawthorne. morgan hawksley, aaron hawksley, marcus walters, cassidy donaldson. evan callaghan, mildred callaghan. arthur drover, sybilla drover, harriet drover, vera dustinborough, victoria darkwood, bethly violet, eliphalet lushington, emma. erysibe, kirkos. guiletta lanese, donato lanese, ottavio lanese, benedetto lanese, pietro lanese, vincenzo lanese, matteo lanese, annetta fornari, stefano fornari, adriana fornari, carlo fornari, francesco fornari, augusto fornari, adele sozzi, bettina aliotti, ciro, salvatore sallucci. edmond wickerman, rosalind wickerman, elias starling, hubert cornell.

here's to the strange ones. the 'I made you just because' ones.

scalene, nikia goodrich, ami ruff, riesa gentry and co., zachary bliss, janae lombardi, dawn watts, jay spear, lea cantrell, danny light. cardinal, scar. harmony/chaos. leighton, josh. nick joyce, rosalinda joyce, jasper joyce. emilee, ashli, nadine kathy hemingway.

here's to the old ones. the ones I left behind as I myself grew older.

timothy, kimberly, ash, connor. zoe. gabey mal'lie. raina hardin. zariah mika rose. karli hayes, shaun roberts. bella davis. milaa lockhart. mabel. queen heresa. tāne miller. victor.

here's to the ones who never reached anything past the development stage.

iris. olive. phoenix mars, rose earthen, gem airborne, luna moonbeam, leon king, mattias grey, venus greenwood, scarlet rust, sage bluest, amalthea browner, rialta silverton, jupiter violet. princess seraphine of emberia. the assassin, prophet, serenity. valentino, theokles, fabiola fornari, blair aiden hawksley, james robert callaghan, ruby starling.

here's to the ones I invested my time in, who I write one or two prose pieces and umpteen handfuls of rambles for, only to leave you by the wayside to crumble to dust.

vivian edwards, lucille matton, luciana lanese, alaric joseph drover, alexander wickerman, jinx the kea, hamid, sahar.

here's to my future creations, who may inevitably fall under one of these categories.

the wall of snow may keep you hidden. but I promise, you'll never be forgotten.

Submitted by: our lovely friend, Bee

———

☆ this is hauntingly sweet and I utterly love it !! What a good way to pay your respects to all of these characters <3 I raise my chalice alongside you, to toast to their lives