#yay going through my long backlog

[pan-magi]

Anime and Manga Comparison (Encore): Amon

I'm back at it once more, and this time it's at the beginning. Not the very beginning, but close enough! This time comparing the first dungeon. I talked before on the specific humor compared to action we see with the slimes. Now, I want to focus on the design of the dungeon itself.

I love the intro dungeon in the manga. It's great. I do appreciate the comedic timing and framing of some Ohtaka's panels. The manga also shows Alibaba's problem-solving skills better. He has the moment in the anime showing he knows Tran and is well read and can lie pretty easily. But convincing a rich petty man that has never done anything by himself isn't saying that much.

Alibaba is able to deduce the proper way to go is the path left unmarked. Not something particularly hard in retrospect. It is a common tactic to leave some kind of marker where you've been to avoid confusion He is smart to break out of the in-the-box thinking he and Aladdin were stuck in. They thought the markings were something left by the dungeon itself as clues to progress. A good ol' dungeon puzzle. It wasn't though. It was merely something left by former adventurers to not screw themselves over and get lost. Taking a minute to go "wait a sec" isn't that easy, especially in a high stake location like being stuck in a dungeon.

I love the parts in the manga that didn't make it into the anime. It is great, truly.

But goddamn is it Amon generic as fuck.

Spikes in a death pit? Ancient language that you should know or else? Bland stone corridors and caves with multiple paths you have to travel through? Slimes as the common dungeon creature?

It's so painfully generic. I can't even, lmao.

I get the impression that Ohtaka did not know what she was going for in depth with the dungeons. I don't mean that as lack of experience or planning ahead, but more-so as just wanting to get her series off the ground so she went with common tropes she knew her readers would expect and probably enjoy. A safe bet to work her story out.

The rest of the dungeons once she gets around to them have so much character. The second you're in Zagan you can tell: this belongs to an earth djinn. Baal as the first dungeon in SnB feels more standard but has more stuff going for it. I love the creature designs inside a lot of Sin's conquered dungeons.

Belial is an absolute mindfuck and I love it so much. It's a psychological barrage of confronting your trauma and biases because Belial more than anyone else has to make sure he has a King's Candidate that has their shit together. Then it fails miserably. It has to be my favorite dungeon in the entire series.

Amon has nothing on any of that.

The anime in contrast?

From the outset, in a way in which your ass will be fried if you don't pay attention, the lesson is clear: this belongs to a fire djinn. Be careful or you are dead. 10,000 have gone in and very few had come out. It's great. The dungeon had such a powerful glow up in the anime. 10/10 will recommend for certain death.

A couple other things that don't really fit into the theme of dungeon design. In the manga, Aladdin sits around and waits because the time dilation is different for people entering the dungeon. Something that isn't really brought up in the anime is that people travel to and from dungeons separately and at different rates. Anime Aladdin could have been there for a while. I doubt it though as kid would have drowned and been burned alive of Alibaba didn't grab him and bolt out of there.

The bigger more subtle change is how Amon is summoned.

Manga: Story based on Aladdin and the Lamp. Cannot not have the imagery of Aladdin touching the lamp (or its stand-in in this case).

Anime: It's the moment when Aladdin chooses Alibaba as king. The magi has made his choice, and Amon decides that is a definitive time to come out. That isn't something that is clear on first watch. Odd that the room would suddenly light up when Aladdin helps Alibaba up. It is easy to miss the significance with not being introduced to the magi system until afterward. On rewatch it felt like a sledgehammer to me on how blatant they made it. When the anime hits you with the symbolism, it goes all out.

About wraps it up this time. Next, I'll probably try to tackle the beautiful mess that is Zagan's arc changes because BOY DO I HAVE THOUGHTS.

Mostly how it is surprisingly well done but so many people come out looking dumber in the anime. omg.

[larkingame]

so, it's 2025...long time no see.

I'll skip they hi, how are yous and get down to the real meat and potatoes of what I'm here to say. TLDR: Larkin is still being worked on (screenshots + such below) and it's always going to remain a free game, but it's under heavy construction atm. thanks for checking in 🫡

for the two people who want to hear the long sob story that usually comes with these type of posts from online creators: I fucked up my back majorly and was out of work for a long time. I went back to work pre-maturely and! I've fucked it up again. the stress of this, lack of income and the fact that i've been taking a lot of meds to help the injuries (but mess with my ability to stay coherent) has made it really difficult to consistently focus on larkin, writing, social media in general, but it is still getting worked on in bits and pieces.

that said, some back story: I started working on larkin in 2019/2020 and it was really really fun! loved it. had a great time. but then i started posting about it and showed it to other people (and to my surprise they??????? liked it????) which made me put a very large amount of pressure on myself that made it not so fun any more. over time i would go through cycles of it's fun! to it's not fun! and so on and so forth. throughout this time I also had pressure from a lot of people around me (irl) to somehow like. strictly monetize larkin somehow, and as someone who was like VERY INSECURE and obsessed with people like mishka making like insane funds off of her game of the same type?/genre? i gave in to that pressure (if you could not tell by all my occasional dirty deletes of shade towards twc. truly pathetic and if any of yall saw. apologies and thanks for ignoring it.) addressing that: i liked twc when it came out, it was fun for what it was and larkin would not exist without it. so thanks for that miss jenkins and i will probably still passively engage with it on my own time.

but, back to larkin. anyways, the looming pressure of this need to monetize made me hate everything that i was doing and constantly feel like i needed to re-evolve and rework and just, overall not have a fun time with it. throughout the months of november, december and january when i was really missing the days of larkin's existence as an idea when me and my sister would just like walk around our neighborhood and i would just infodump to her about my cowboy vampire ocs. so i found my old larkin notebook and the stickies i made planning plot stuff and avoiding tumblr i just. had fun working on my little cowboy vampire game. like not really thinking about other stuff. and that's essentially it.

so I came to a conclusion: larkin is something i love, and i want to continue loving it. so essentially, i won't be monetizing the game itself. episodes/chapters whatever they end up being in the end will always be free. yay. if you want extra content/want to support me in some way monetarily, feel free to join the patreon, however, I won't really be active on it until i have something substantial to show you game wise. that being said, you can still subscribe for access to the backlog of short stories and art etc. I'm turning off charges each month until i have like a real game for you to play that doesn't make me sick to my stomach to look at or think about. another note: pc players are going to be priority until it's finished. I will have a mobile version but i can't promise you she will be all that pretty.

another note, because larkin is free i can't promise quick turnarounds on anything but what i'll be offering on patreon when i start charging again and additionally: i'm back to making larkin a game for me. i really lost a lot of enjoyment for doing this stuff when i thought about that pressure i put on myself like i mentioned above but also, when i started writing it for other people in mind. first and foremost i am making larkin because i like cowboys, i like vampires, i like horror and religious trauma themes. i'm writing this for me: kc, so i can go on my computer and teehee at all the kissing scenes and make a cool cowboy character with fights. i'm going to make it gay and self-indulgent and basically just have fun with it because it's my game and i am making it and i said so.

all that said here are some of the major things i've done with larkin over this past little while:

updated the website so that it is now useable :)

done a lot of work on the ui:

and i have been rewriting a lot of stuff because I FEEL like it was not good and was not fun for me. THE DEMO FROM LAST JUNE ESPECIALLY. it hurts my stomach to look at.

visually, dan (@tapeworrmart ) has been on his fucking a-game with the art even through my crisis. here's the male ace portrait he put together for me last fall and the art for the main menu:

we also have some more art in the works that i am very excited for because they are in pursuit of new fun features :D

all that said. thanks for the continued support if you're still reading this, appreciate any interest you have in my game.

[ask-team-donum]

<Prev || Cover || Next>

ANNOUNCEMENT: Hi y'all!! We've been going strong with pages the past few months, unfortunately that means I've burnt through my backlog! In order to build it up again, I will (try) to take a month-long hiatus! (I might come back sooner though fhdhdbdb)

Additionally, Home's Gift will start updating on Mondays and Wednesdays after the hiatus! Tuesdays and Thursdays are just SO busy this semester fgdgdb

FEEL FREE TO SEND IN ASKS THOUGH!! That way we can start right away as soon as the hiatus ends :3!! THANK YOU ALL FOR UNDERSTANDING <3333

Asking Rules under the cut (please read them if you're new to asking!!)

✨️ Asking Rules ✨️

• I will try to get to all the asks yay!! No promises though

• If you want your character to interact, include their ref in your comment/ask please!

• I will try to draw all the characters but might not be able to! We'll have to see how many asks we get

• If you want hints about what would be good questions to ask, just tell me and I'll make a post/pinned comment for it!

• Include ✨️ at the start of your comment/ask so I know you've read through da rules. If you do not include it I will not answer your ask

• If the ask is too spoilery/too godmod-y, I will not answer it. If you're unsure you can always ask me! <33

• Have fun!!!

[sflow-er]

Writing tag game

Thank you so much for the tag @starvalisedham!

I'm going to follow your example and put a cut here...

How many works do you have on AO3? Nine. -

What’s your total AO3 word count? 356,524... Sounds like a lot, but the number is skewed by one 238k longfic. -

What fandoms do you write for? Only Young Royals since I started again. I'm not going to name the fandoms for which I wrote before my 14-year hiatus, but most of them were anime. -

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Other people's secrets (1,245) Matters of adjustment (198) The real deal (186) Like you better (161) Last chance (138) I write (mostly ace) fic about background characters in a fandom that leans heavily towards the juggernaut ship, so with that in mind, I'm very proud of these numbers! -

Do you respond to comments? I always respond to comments on my WIPs! Those mainly come from a handful of regulars, and the comment section is a lovely little community for discussing each chapter. I also used to respond to every comment on my finished works, but I've had too much on my plate in the last year or so to keep it up. Lately, I have actually been so low on "spoons" that even a couple of comments from readers who had related to the story in meaningful ways have been left hanging... I don't think I'll ever clear the backlog but I will get to those particular comments eventually! ETA: This game gave me the kick I needed to reply to one of them! Yay! -

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? My August character study/background fic Årnäs, February 2016. It depicts him as an isolated and impressionable twelve-year-old who idolises his manipulative and emotionally abusive father and has difficult feelings about/for his absent mother, and it does not end on a cheerful note. -

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? All my finished Walty fics end happily! It was a conscious choice I made when I started writing them as an ace/allo pairing. As to which is the happiest, I guess it's a matter of opinion. Maybe Other people's secrets, as the long time spent with the characters and their struggles adds to the payoff, but you could also argue for the shorter fics which are fluffier throughout. -

Do you get hate on fics? I have received some anon hate here on tumblr for posting the same kinds of takes that I write in my fics, but the response to my actual fics has always been lovely. Some of my regular readers may occasionally question something, but they are always nice about it. We have great discussions! Oh, and I do have one rude public bookmark on OPS. It upset me a bit but I wouldn't necessarily count it as hate. -

Do you write smut? Not at present, no. I did write some before my long hiatus, but back then, I was just emulating what I had read. Somehow, it was easier to take the scenes and the characters' supposed experiences at face value when I had no personal frame of reference. I mean, smut is always exaggerated fantasy, and there are plenty of ace writers who excel at it! But to me personally, as a grey ace who struggled for years with my very bland experience of sexual attraction, anything I write just feels disingenuous and takes me to a really weird head space. I don't want to write a story or scene where I can't buy into the characters' thoughts and emotions at all, and I just can't seem to manage that with smut. Still, a day may come when I feel differently. You never know! -

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Nah, I'm not really creative enough to combine storyverses. -

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of! Although everyone who's got unlocked works on ao3 has probably had their works scraped into the CommonCrawl dataset (and potentially others) used to train AI, and I only started locking mine halfway through 2023 so... -

Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. -

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not co-written, I don't think that would work for me as even the thought of a beta reader stresses me out. But I did ask my spouse (who has extremely relevant professional experience) to help me get August and Carl Johan right in ÅFeb16! It was a really great experience. -

What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I've got two languishing WIPs on ao3 at the moment, but I fully intend to finish both of those. I also have some unpublished ones: a one-shot of August and Rousseau at Årnäs, and a multi-POV Walty + Stedrika + Madisander fic. I still have some hope of finishing the one-shot someday, but the multi-POV one is probably doomed. -

What are your writing strengths? I've been told my dialogue is good and the more straightforward style I use for it contrasts nicely with my frillier style of prose. Also, people have said they like my characterisations and the way I write (romantic and other) relationships. I'm good at research and worldbuilding, and I like to think the overall quality of my writing is okay when I'm not too stressed. -

What are your writing weaknesses? I'm too wordy and write my teenage characters too mature, but those weaknesses pale in comparison to my problems with compulsive editing, perfectionism, and excessive self-criticism. I get stuck in rewriting loops and easily spiral into writer's block. Oh, and I'm terrible at maintaining a healthy life/writing balance. I neglect my wellbeing and burn myself out when I feel creative, and when real life gets stressful, the quality of my writing declines or I can't write at all. -

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I do not mean to criticise anyone who likes to use it, everyone can do whatever they like in their own stories! But as a professional translator, my work is all about conveying a message written in one language in another language, as fluently as possible. I can't just turn that mindset off for writing. If I write a story about Swedish-speaking characters in English, I'm going to approach it the same way I'd approach the translation of a Swedish story into English. The English dialogue is already understood to be in Swedish, so to me personally, it makes no sense to render random bits of it in Swedish. (Of course, a character suddenly speaking a language other than Swedish is a totally different matter, but I assume the question isn't about that.) Not to mention that languages work differently, from word choice and connotations to grammar and from communicative conventions to thought patterns. My focus is on making the dialogue flow in English, and I'm too much of a perfectionist to mix in phrases or sentences that a native Swedish speaker might not even say in that context. (That goes both ways as I also try my best not to use fully English-based word plays etc., but sometimes they slip by me.) Again, that's just my opinion and the logic I apply to my own fics. Everyone who disagrees with me is just as valid! -

First fandom you wrote for? I wrote a fix-it fic for Final Fantasy X in my English notebook back in seventh grade. Never posted it anywhere, but it still counts! -

Favourite fic you’ve written? Other people's secrets. It was the first fic I wrote after all those years of thinking I'd never write again, and considering how massive a project it was, I'm enormously proud of myself for having finished it. It's one of the best stories I've ever written, and one of the most meaningful (to me personally, and I guess also to some of the people I've heard from). That being said, I am also extremely proud of ÅFeb16, which is my most mature writing so far - and of my outlined version of The Windsor! I've only managed to post one chapter of the latter, but if and when I eventually finish it, I think it will be my third favourite. It's an aged-up retrospective and explores some themes I've actually wanted to write since outlining OPS back in 2021.

Phew, that was the last question! Thanks for reading all this way! <3 No-pressure tags: I feel like most of my writing mutuals have been tagged already, but maybe @silvagrey @sunnyelfs @crownedwille would like to join...?

[oflights]

allie i've been trying to gather the courage to reread close behind honestly ever since i first read it in march last year but i've been too. emotionally distraught to actually do so but! i've literally thought about it probably twice each week. and now i'm finally actually almost over my ex so i should just bite the bullet but im SCARED bc the last time i cried for 5 hours

like i literally remember 2 am on a weekday in literally -2 C weather and i sat on my balcony, wrapped in a blanket, chain smoking and reading at the same time, tears streaming down my face. all this to say i long for that catharsis but i'm. scared

omg. anon!! first of all it's probably weird how happy this kind of message makes me lol, like yay, i left you emotionally ravaged!!! mission accomplished!!

second of all: just remember the happy ending! read the last chapter first, and keep it in your mind as you read the rest!! think about everything that could come after it, too, like:

harry and draco's first awkward af date in hogsmeade. ron, daphne, their kids, and scorpius all follow them in various disguises courtesy of george and they are very obvious but harry and draco are too into each other to notice.

draco never wears black again. for every date with harry, he wears a different set of brightly-colored, over-the-top robes.

he steals harry's colorful fair isle sweaters all the time, too.

oh and he gets a weasley sweater like, day one of his renewed relationship with harry. molly had actually been knitting him a bunch over the years but held them back because she didn't want to make things weird or upset harry, so there's a backlog to get through. some have a little dragon stitched on them and ron is super jealous.

their first holiday at the burrow? emotional, life-changing, beautiful, cathartic. harry weeps at least five times. ginny punches him for old time's sake.

speaking of, headmaster harry who holds regular office hours for all hogwarts students in case they ever need to talk to him about something. even if they just want to talk about socks.

(headmaster harry who gets all embarrassed whenever anyone calls him "the youngest hogwarts headmaster in a century")

terrifying new DADA professor hermione granger, who is distressingly unpopular amongst the students because they're all too intimidated by her and it takes her a while to learn how to deal with kids.

until she skips out on a hogsmeade weekend to scandalously elope with a much younger former department of mysteries intern and then she's just incredibly cool to them.

and listen. scorpius locks himself in his room when he finds out about harry and draco's past. he asks draco if he'd ever loved astoria and makes draco cry. draco teaches him that the heart is a universe and he doesn't have any regrets and a wonderful future doesn't invalidate a past he was truly happy in.

and then!! there's stepdad harry. my favorite thing. scorpius asks harry how he knew he was gay. harry gives scorpius the invisibility cloak and asks him to help perfect his disillusionment charm in return. scorpius asks harry to rig the house cup for slytherin as his birthday gift. harry refuses, even though draco thinks it's only fair.

harry and draco date, get engaged, get married in their 40s. they go back and forth between hogwarts and the hogsmeade cottage (which includes ron and daphne's fam like 70% of the time too; harry loves summers spent as part of the extended weasley-greengrass-malfoy-potter family). draco eventually retires from curse-breaking and becomes a nepo hire charms professor after scorpius graduates.

they really do live happily ever after, after all that. promise. 😌

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (12/01/25)

It's funny that in the lead up to this season I was like "Oh I'm not gonna be watching a lot next season so I'll be able to take it easier and maybe even get through some backlog stuff" and then ended up with a dozen shows anyway... It could've even been more but I stopped myself lol Barely any manga this time, but next week stuff should be going back to normal so yay

Green - New series/New to me

Anime

Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms Ep1

Decided to watch this cause the synopsis sounded fun and I haven't watched a goofy romcom like this in a while so I was like "hey why not". I'm p sure I saw manga caps of this here on tumblr years ago, but honestly it's been so long I'm not even sure Regardless it was exactly what the synopsis said, the whole presentation is p low budget, as you'd expect from a title like this, but the voice cast is good, loved hearing Serizawa Yuu doing a Kansai-ben lol. Fortunately, it comes out at a good day in the week for me so I plan on keeping up with it, unless something insane happens that makes me change my mind but I doubt that I'm trynna see more of her tomboy(?) childhood friend tho 👀

I Have a Crush at Work Ep1

I'll be honest, I read the synopsis for this and was like "yeah that sounds nice and all but I'm not really that interested" but then I checked MAL and saw that my queen, Miyamoto Yume, was voicing the main so I decided to give the show a shot solely for that I actually ended up enjoying it a bit more than expected. It was super cute (in no small part due to Yume's great performance) and it's refreshing to watch a show with an actual adult cast. It's not super relatable since I'm not an office worker like the target audience but still Sadly it's in a weird situation in regards to it's subs, same as BA a few seasons back, so I can only hope that the person that did these watchable subs keeps it up for the rest of the show like they said

I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I'll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time Ep 1

Decided to check out this show cause before the season started I read the synopsis and was like "You know what that actually sounds like it could be p fun so I'll give it a shot." I didn't even know the main girl was voiced by the TakaRie since I didn't check the cast then, but that's a big plus as well. Speaking of, she was clearly having a lot of fun with this role which helped too Anyway, nothing terribly impressive about this first ep. Everything was p average outside of the voice performances. We'll see how the next couple eps go to see if I'll keep up with it or nah Oh also, the ED is really cute, it's def recency bias, but I think it's my favourite of the season so far, tho I'd have to listen to them all again to really decide

Sakamoto Days Ep1-2

First of all FUCK netflix for doing the same release schedule for this like they did for BB, that shit is so infuriating, I literally can't understand what the hell goes on in the head of people who decide to do this. Thank god Dunmeshi wasn't like that too somehow (prob thanks to Trigger.) But anyway, with my obligatory shitflix bitching out the way, let's talk about the actual eps. They were p good honestly. The weird paper texture thing they have going on is kinda weird but it honestly doesn't bother me that much. The animation was above average but nothing too impressive, tho I'll reserve judgement until we get to the real cool scenes that deserve the sakuga. Even if they don't do proper justice to those, it'll still be a pretty solid adaptation. The voice cast is also very good, Nobu did a great job as Shin. It was funny hearing Ayaneru as Lu cause I forgot that's who was gonna voice her, tho it's fair enough cause she'll get a fair amount of screentime this cour. It's kinda annoying that this is split cour, with the next airing in summer, and counted as different seasons like other recent stuff but oh well, what can you do right Looking forward to seeing the ferris wheel scene in a few eps from now, here's hoping they cook up something good 🙏

Mahoutsukai Precure Mirai Days Ep1

It's peak I'm afraid. I had very low expectations considering how the last Otona show was, but after they released some pvs I thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. After the ep came out we learned the Yoshiyama Yuu was the chief animator for the show and started seeing a ton of clips from the ep along with a deluge of praise. And for a good reason. WanPre has been pretty lackluster all along but even if it wasn't, to make this look better in comparison, it still looked amazing on it's own. I'm also very glad we actually got a new transformation and attack animation instead of using the old stock ones like Otona did... You can really see yoshiyuu's touch all over the episode but especially on the op and the fight near the end, they both looked unbelievably good. Of course, hearing Takarie and Hocchan is great as well Will be very much looking forward to watching this every week, let's just hope it doesn't overshadow IdolPre too much in a few weeks lol

Sorairo Utility Ep2

That was a good ep too, I was glad to see it keeping the same personality and vibes that they showed on the first ep and it even had some yuri crumbs, just for me. If they keep this up, or at least close to it, it'll be a very fun show to keep up with

Manga

Dandadan Ch180

With all these random people getting powers outta nowhere this is feeling like the culling game arc from Jujutsu to me lol. Not like that is a bad thing cause that was probably my favourite part in the whole series and I've been enjoying it here too

[semper-legens]

Happy New Year! I am…late with this post, I know. Life just keeps getting in the way! As such, I'm going to take a bit of a hiatus for a while to sort myself out, build up a backlog of posts, get everything back on track again. So, without further ado - the roundup of 2023!

I'm so pleased I managed to get through 200 books last year. While I have managed it before, I feel like 2021's total was cheating a little bit, given that a good quarter of that 200 were Animorphs books that I can read in the blink of an eye. But this time, I did it properly! Yay me!

Of the books I loved this year, Piranesi was an early standout. Absolutely not what I was expecting, but in the best way. Contested Will was also a book I wanted to read for so long - a book about the 'anti-Stratfordians' written by someone who knows how bullshit the whole thing is! For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain was a book written entirely for an audience of me, and I loved it to pieces. Your Wish Is My Command, meanwhile, was the best graphic novel of the year - thought-provoking, funny, and deep, and a thoroughly interesting read.

The worst, meanwhile? It'd be a cliché to nominate the entire House of Night series, but honestly, that's where I'm at. I'm only continuing this series out of pure stubbornness at this point; that, and wanting to see the new depths to which it can sink. The Wrongly Executed Airman also annoyed me - it's just a dick waving exercise by the author about how smart and capable he is, not a narrative of an interesting case. And Punk 57 actively pissed me off with how it's more about a horrible relationship that the narrative is glorifying than anything actually interesting.

And my favourite? Well, I couldn't pick just one - so instead, I'm picking the Thomas Hawkins series by Antonia Hodgson, purely because I can see myself returning to it time and time again. I immediately went out and bought the series after reading it, and I'm definitely going to reread it before too long. It's just that good.

[animereviewsbykyranskye]

Reviews while I watch Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte: Episode 7-8

Ayo!! I'm back. And I am so behind. Damn. Life has been hellishly rough the past few months and I currently have a week that I can do this. Might be able to do more after that but who knows.

I have very little recognition of what I've watched but my backlog is long and I really have to catch up. So let's do this!

She was put in danger last time from what I remember. I really should just watch stuff through as that helps me actually remember what's happening. XD

Opening is still a banger. Oh yeah, we have the creep trying to get ahold of the game aren't we? Or was that a different show?? Nah I do believe it was this one.

Aw. Awww. Awwwwwww.

The captions actually have the correct use of fiance and fiancee. That's cool.

Sincerely, why can you romance a teacher in this game? No. Just no.

He broke her. She broke him. She seriously broke him.

Ah nice. They're getting to commentate for everyone now. And people seem to be enjoying it. Damn. Even pulling more people in.

And now everyone thinks they're dating. Which they will end up doing. It's inevitable.

Damn. He got a power up. And now he will fight the potential husband. XD

She descends further into the dark.

----between episode thoughts----

So I just went back in my posts. Apparently I never wrote on this series. It was just one I was watching without posting. My apologies about that. I don't want to waste an episode so Imma keep going.

K Thanks Bye

----Episode 8----

Manipulation at its best.

Okay 1.5x speed is too fast to try read subtitles. Back to 1.25x.

Backstory time. Did we always know she was Fae? Honestly can't remember.

Oh she trained him. Nice.

Ha. He stole the mask. I like this guy.

Aw. The mom is just trying to help.

Hm. He's really pushing this a lot now. A bit too much.

Damn. THey're just trying to kill her now.

nooooo. Don't give in. Shit.

Yay!

Damn. How is this show going to end? She just killed the witch. We're only on episode 8.

Tsuned really pissed. XXXXXXXXXXXXXD

They have finally confessed. Fuck yeah. Concrete.

Now these two just go to confess.

Oh no. She mad.

----after thoughts----

I was going to go longer but it is too hot to be sitting in this chair any longer. Shit's about to go down and I am so ready for it.

[readingrobin]

Reading-wise, May was absolutely ROUGH. I've been trying to tackle my library book backlog, which is an incredibly formidable opponent, I'll tell you, and unfortunately a lot of them ranged from being simply okay to "why did I even put any time into this one?" As a result, by the end of the month, I was desperate to find anything that would slightly interest me, as I was heading towards a bit of a slump. I'm in the middle of a couple things now that I'm really enjoying and just didn't get around to finishing before May ended, so I'm going to say I'm leaving this month off on a positive note. Now I venture forth into June with summer reading challenges ahead of me and a new job that yeahhhh is really going to impact my reading time, but yay employment!

Total Books Reads: 9

Total Pages Read: 3,846

Books Read:

The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke (2.5/5) -

My curiosity towards this book really peaked with that cover design, which really draws in the eye well with the contrast of a dark blue with the firey red of a sunset and wolf silhouette. Gets you in the mood for an intense read, which here is a reinterpretation of Beowulf. It seems to be a fairly loose interpretation to my knowledge, just a group going off to fight against a monster, which sure seems to be Beowulfy enough. There was some imagination put behind some of the worldbuilding, except when it came to the setting, as it seems to be some Scandinavian-adjacent place with a lot of real world words all jumbled around. Norse becomes Vorse, Valhalla becomes Holhalla, Odin is Obin. It's not really my favorite kind of setting, basically something familiar with just maybe a few letters off, as it just seems less creative.

The Mercies themselves seem like a very bleak, but interesting concept, what with their entire purpose being assisted suicide. Immediately we can sympathize with the main character Frey, who has had enough of death and longs to make her mark on the world. Unfortunately, out of all the main leads, she's probably the least engaging. The other girls, Runa, Juniper, and Ovie, have way more compelling backstories and motivations that would make them fine POV characters that, in comparison, just make Frey look quite dull. Her quest for glory seems so hollow compared to what they've been through and want to achieve.

It wasn't a terrible book. The action flowed well, the stakes were high, and there were some effective emotional moments. It just didn't feel as strong as it could have been, like it could have used one more draft to get all the kinks out. I wanted to like it, but, overall, I just left the story feeling fairly neutral.

The Monkey King: The Complete Odyssey by Chaiko (4.5/5) -

An exceptional adaptation of the classic saga Journey to the West. Chaiko's watercolors always excel in heightening the tone of a scene, whether it's a dark, intense battle in the clouds, or a light, emotional parting of ways in a snowy forest. The style gives the comic a rough, traditional look, which pairs well with such a legendary and beloved story.

I am naturally biased because I will automatically love anything with a great portrayal of Sun Wukong. The Monkey King is always a great character to focus on when giving the story a new breath of fresh air, as he has the most compelling character development, going from heavenly menace to loyal disciple.

My only complaint is that, while the marketing and synopsis claim this is the complete story of the Monkey King, it does not follow Wukong, Sanzang, Bajie, and Sha's journey to the west to the very end. It concludes rather abruptly, only mentioning that several adventures lay ahead for them. It was a bit frustrating not to see the story reach its natural end, but at least it provides readers the opportunity to seek out more of it for themselves. Since it keeps the same epic, adventurous vibe of the original while keeping true to the characters, that enough makes it a worthy adaptation.

Dark Ride Vol. 1 by Joshua Williamson (3/5) -

Hard to give a lot of thoughts since we're only at the beginning here, but it seems like a promising, dark beginning. The amusement park gives off a Halloween Horror Nights at Universal from Hell sort of vibe, an infernal Disneyland complete with an iconic statue of the founder along with his creation. I like the look of the comic, unsurprisingly full of deep reds and dark colors. The designs of the devilish mascots are whimsical, yet take on a nefarious edge as the horror element starts to kick in.

It feels too soon to really give my thoughts on the characters. They don't make too much of an impact just yet, and I'm willing to give them a couple more issues to see if they start to stand out.

Interested to see where the story goes from here.

This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee (3.5/5) -

A neat steampunk reimagining of Frankenstein that gets fairly meta at times. It provides a nice alternative history that, while not entirely accurate, perfectly serves the point of the narrative. Lee evokes a similar coldness in her retelling of the old romantic tale, though mostly just in setting as the Victor Frankenstein equivalent actually has some humanity to him rather than a god complex gone rampant. 

Alasdair feels like he comes from the opposite end of the humanity spectrum, still having an interest in the altering of humanity through machinery, but ultimately dabbles in mad scientist out of a love and need for his brother to survive. He is racked with a guilt that is more on a reasonable level for us to empathize with. I like the original Frankenstein, as much of a disaster as he is, but it's interesting to see a more grounded and human reinterpretation. 

Also, Lee provided a much different envisioning of Mary Shelley than I think we in the gothic lit circle are used to. Again, I know I keep using this word, but she's so very human here, capable of faults and taking a story that isn't her own and flinging it to the masses before she could get any control over it. 

I wish there was a bit more of Oliver. I think I was just missing him for a good chunk of the novel, seeing as he shows up for a chapter in the beginning and doesn't really work his way back in until maybe around the Act III portion of the story. Maybe I still prefer following the creature over the creator, but I suppose we get enough of him through Alasdair's memories in those portions.

Big hoorah to Clemence's queerness being an aspect, (that I totally think deserves her getting her own story and girlfriend) and lack of romance between her and Alasdair besides being the main duo of the book. 

For A Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig (2/5) -

Woe to all the readers that are always lured to a book because there's a badass dragon on the cover, only to realize that there aren't any actual dragons in the book. Okay, maybe on a technicality there is, but really there was no amount of technicality dragon that was going to save this book for me.

For a Muse of Fire was probably the most frustrating time I've had with a book in a while, for multiple reasons. The plot moves at a snail's pace, rarely getting anywhere or committing to a sense of conflict that doesn't end with Jetta running away. There were several moments during the first portion I was ready to put it down altogether, but the middle portion seemed promising and actually flowed much better than the beginning, only for the end to sink back into that meandering pace. Things do happen, twists are revealed, but it feels like the book never spends time on them long enough for them to mean anything. There's no build up to them, no sense of shock or thinking about the implications, only a passing reaction and, boom, we're back on our way. 

Jetta as a character is also incredibly hard to become invested in. As I said before, she doesn't really tackle conflicts head on, only runs away until the plot says she can't anymore. She repeatedly makes very dangerous decisions, like straight up showing her magic right in front of the guy that would probably kill her if he knew about her magic just to get passage on a ship. From the author's note, it's also mentioned that she is bipolar, which could explain her more impulsive decisions, but I don't know, she never read as bipolar to me. Perhaps that's more on me not the the symptoms of being bipolar, as it is a condition the author shares. 

The only part of the book that really stood out to me was the slight historical inspiration of a France-adjacent country occupying what can clearly be seen as a parallel to southeast Asia. Here you can really see elements of colonialism, military occupation, and cultural erasure. It's incredibly heavy at times, as Helig doesn't shy away from any brutality. It feels like the most genuine aspect of the book, and so it slightly raises my rating a bit. 

Since getting through this book was such a struggle towards the end, I don't think I will be continuing with the series. 

The Owls Have Come To Take Us Away by Ronald L. Smith (1.5/5) -

I can always appreciate a book for tweens that's not afraid to get a little disturbing. Smith clearly knows how to lay the tension on thick, providing us with a seemingly unreliable narrator as well as giving us a clear, honest picture of their fear through voice and tone. There were moments where I was genuinely unnerved by what seemed like the mental unraveling of Simon, a middle schooler that believed he was abducted by aliens. Even before the encounter, Simon always seems a tad paranoid, afraid of otherworldly threats and experiencing feelings of being watched. The fast paced nature of the book heightens a sense of tension, as it never really gives you a moment's rest.

However, what initially came off as a horror story about a boy fearing capture by unknown forces and constantly going unheard by everyone around him really loses any effects it had by the end. The climax of the final chapter, while rushed, provides such a bleak ending yet feels complimentary to the rest of the book. Unfortunately, all of that is undone within three pages. We go from an epic turning point in the story where our main character's fears are fully realized, the future is unclear, and we don't know what sort of danger awaits him, only to rush forward 100 years to see everything was always going to be hunky dory. It seems drastically disappointing. I understand that this book was written for younger audiences, but I've seen countless books that were able to go to similar places and stick their more unhappy endings. And dang, aren't those the ones that stick with you in your childhood?

And yeah, continuing the stigma of "parents are never going to listen to you so don't tell them anything/therapists are only there to pump drugs into you to make you behave" is not great. It's concerning that these elements are still found in stories for youth today, where mental health is becoming more rampant of an issue. I understand it might have worked against the conflict of the book, but Simon deserved some sort of validation somewhere or got his moment to feel understood.

I won't count reading this book as a total loss, since I was able to finish it in a day and got some sort of emotion out of it. The representation of a biracial lead is drastically needed in more sci-fi/horror stories, so I'm glad that it's here, but sadly representation doesn't exactly make up for a poor story.

Nayra and the Djinn by Iasmin Omar Ata (3/5) -

Has a wonderfully soft, pastel color pallet that gives it a sort of astral look. The mixing of all the purples and pinks give it a welcoming atmosphere and brings out the magic of the story. It was great to learn about more about Ramadan, as it was a holiday I was unfamiliar with and I'm always so excited to learn more about holidays from cultures different from mine.

While the story had a good foundation, I wish we got a bit more development on certain things: Nayra's relationship with her family, the djinn's world, Rami's home life, and some more resolution with the bullies.

Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton (3.5/5) -

There is something that is so subtlety charming about this book. It often comes off as a folk horror story, in which a town must sacrifice one of their own to appease the malevolent force that lives in the woods and keeps their town from experiencing famine, disease, and overall hardship. There's a good dose of body horror as well, in which flowers and thorns grow out of skin, which is enough to give you a bit of a tingle down your spine. The beginning is somewhat of a slow start, as we see the town worry about how the ritual has come too soon this year and the concerns of some of the potential sacrifices, but when it finally gets going it keeps that energy for the rest of the story.

What I really appreciate is the strength of the love between the main trio. I always applaud an author that takes relationships that in any other YA novel would have been a contentious love triangle and instead creates a more polyamorous union between them. It gives a good bit of representation, subverts a trope that's been done to death, and honestly feels so refreshing to see characters that all truly like each other.

While I found this book entertaining and worth reading, I don't know if I'm going to remember it a year from now.

The Dreamway by Lisa Papademetriou (3/5) - A perfectly serviceable middle grade book that gives a well meaning allegory for depression and the process in which one loses themselves to their negative thoughts and emotions. For me, it didn't read as anything groundbreaking, but it may make quite a difference to a young reader trying to navigate those feelings. The ending seemed a tad abrupt, and there were a few plot elements that didn't really get much resolution as a result.

DNFs:

The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice - Honestly, I don't think I could take the book seriously after Anne Rice compared a man turning into a werewolf to getting a boner. I was too busy snickering to even process what I was reading. I think I want to stop mainly because I think that's one of the only things I want to remember about this book. That the main character, Reuben the Wolf Man, is the most basic, has-all-the-charisma-of-a-paper-bag lead and Anne Rice made a metaphor I don't think I'll ever forget.

Average Rating: 2.94/5

[perditus-a]

Blog Updates below 

|| I’m going to be dropping every one of my threads from this point on. Not because I don’t want to write them ( I love them so much tbh I really do ) but because It’s been so long and I’ve been struggling a lot this past month. I’ve gone through a breakup ( mutual but it was still stressful), general terrible customers at my job because yay holidays, my dog has surgery coming up I had to take a loan out for so money money money issues etc etc. I really do want to write though, but not with how much stuff I have waiting for me. And I don’t want people waiting either. 

so I’m going to be limiting my threads going forward to people I’m plotting with. If you absolutely want to keep our thread please let me know because I will! I just have a lot of backlog, so as long as I know which ones people want to keep going and don’t mind the wait then it’ll be a lot easier on me ||

[merelygifted]

‘Yeast. Magic sauce!’ went the PM as he lost a one-man game of Articulate | Zoe Williams | The Guardian

Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ speech contained few policies and even fewer coherent sentences

... As he gave his lackadaisical account of the nation’s stark inequalities, his own boredom bounced off the lectern. It’s an outrage, he said, that someone in Glasgow or Blackpool had 10 years less on this planet than someone in Rutland. “I don’t know what they do in Rutland to live to these prodigious ages … Who knows?”

Well, loads of people know: Michael Marmot knows, so does Danny Dorling, so does everybody who has ever read a book or understood a graph. They live to prodigious ages by having relatively high incomes, secure housing, functioning public services, air quality, etc. Why on earth would a person attempt a speech on health inequality with absolutely no idea what is driving it? Here’s the thing: he made this big pantomime of ignorance because he was halfway to a joke in which Rutland sounds a bit like “rutting” and its people stay alive by having sex. I cannot prove this. Yet I know it.

Any excuse to get off the depressing territory of his own choosing: there are areas of the UK that are less productive than East Germany – “You remember East Germany, with their funny little cars and fake coffee?” He seemed astonished that Germany had succeeded in levelling up where the UK had not. Is it that amazing, though? They seem to have quite a coherent policy agenda, whereas we have a man who had some coffee once in 1990 that didn’t taste very nice, and cannot understand how a country got from there to liveable wages. They’re actually not that liveable, they’re just better than ours; but that’s another story.

The plan, though, ladies and gentlemen, that’s what you really want to hear: first, they’re going to fight crime, and have already driven more than a 1,000 county lines drugs gangs out of business. It’s unclear how this policy creates opportunities, unless the plan is to retrain dealers in some other business.

The tone was set, one of complete randomness; they’re going to do this and that; build yay-many hospitals; “invest in all sorts of things”; deal with the NHS’s backlog of elective surgeries; and invest in schoolchildren to the tune of £3bn. What was missing, apart from the extra £12bn that the education recovery commissioner recommended, was a through-line. How did any of these announcements relate to levelling up? It was just a mash up of policies that have already been announced, plus £50m for football pitches. You know when you meet a kid, and you ask them what they want to be when they grow up, and they say “a footballer”, and then you fondly tousle their hair and tell them to stop being an idiot? That’s about where we are, except it’s the prime minister and he has already fondly tousled his own hair.

He crescendoed on the “yeast, the magic sauce, the ketchup of catch-up”, like a guy playing Articulate and just shouting words, while his teammates look on saying “what even is magic sauce?” Levelling up involves devolution. He plans to devolve power to counties, or shires, or whatever, but he doesn’t know what power, maybe just buses, and he doesn’t know what office any of this power will be devolved to; all he knows is that anyone can join in, unless they’re from the “loony left”.

“My offer to you: all of you who see a role for yourselves in local leadership, come to us with your vision.” That’s genuinely it. That’s what he means by a “skeleton of a plan”. That’s his magic sauce. That’s how he’s going to fix inequality so baked in that you can tell from a person’s wage packet whether or not they had free school meals as a child. Hear ye, levelling-up-mongers of the regions; go to him, and he will provide “support and strategic direction” for your plan, so long as it is visionary. And he calls the left loony. The man has a neck like a jockey’s bollocks.

[ryqoshay]

So I just finished reading all of How to Handle a Nico and I absolutely fucking loved it, do you have any NicoMaki fanfic recommendations of your own?

I must offer my apologies for the delay in response. I did not forget you, Anon, despite answering two questions that came in after this one. However, I wanted to wait until I knew I had a good amount of time I could dedicate to making a proper list of recommendations worthy of my time in the LL/NicoMaki fandom, which is typically sometime during my weekend.

Also, please bear in mind that this list is not all-inclusive. NicoMaki has one of, if not the most extensive list of fanworks out of the various LL ships. If someone reading this list is a fan of, or the author of a given work not included, please do not take it personally, this is merely a sampling of my favorites. There are genres and tags that I tend to avoid for various reasons, and there are many perfectly good works with the NicoMaki ship tag that I haven’t read simply because they are not the primary focus. And due to current events, as well as those of last year, there is a sizable backlog of NicoMaki focused fics that I hope to get around to reading sometime soon.

And as I expect this to get long, I will put the list itself under a cut.

First and foremost, I must shamelessly shill an author whose first forays into NicoMaki fanfic are based on HtHaN. It’s been almost a year since the first one went up and I remain in awe that I was able to pay forward the inspiration given to me by other authors. For this list I will only be including said works based on HtHaN, though VNVdarkangel has written some other NicoMakis I haven’t read yet.  - Always there - Nico wakes up in the middle of the night. Some post-canon fluffy angst.  - On tracks to the heart - Takes place during the scene transition in Homecoming.  - Meet ‘n’ greet - Nico has a meet ‘n’ greet event and Maki shows up  - Part-time idol composer - Nico hires Riko to compose some idol music for Egao. Minor YohaRiko to keep up the casual connections between HtHaN and HL.  - Next steps... - A long, multi-chapter work that takes place after the numbered chapters of HtHaN. This work tells the story of NicoMaki as they take advantage of the research mentioned way back in Telling Mama. Yay science babies!  - Out of focus - Maki can’t focus on anything but Nico  - The door to dreams - Riko finds the piano from How to Celebrate a Maki and Maki finds Riko. More minor YohaRiko from HL.  - Idol trainer - A non-NicoMaki, RinPana honorable mention tied to HtHaN

Next, I must link a few things from jstonedd, whose works I can point to as being among those that helped cement NicoMaki as a my favorite ship.  - Buy Your Love - By the gods, I’ve honestly lost track of how many times I’ve reread this fic. It is also responsible for my headcanon that Tsubasa teaches Honoka how to skate, which I thusly include in Nico on Ice.  - Soldier Wars - If memory serves, this work earns its M rating less for lewd stuff and more for action movie depictions of violence, like an R rated Charlie’s Angels or something.  - After School Troublemakers - Earns its tag of Fluff and Crack.  - Babies Maybe - More Fluff and Crack I only skimmed the first few chapters of Otonokizaka Private Academy and it didn’t seem very NicoMaki focused or really much my cup of tea. But I’ve heard others like it, and it was finally completed a few years back, so there’s that.

One author with whom I’ve interacted moreso than any other - maybe not VNVdarkangel as of late, but... - is the creator of one of my favorite Fantasy AUs, which is often a genre I don’t read much as it so often leans on Harry Potter, of which I’m quite unfamiliar. Of course I say I often avoid Fantasy AUs despite now writing two... Anyway, we have a few differing headcanons and I must say it’s fun to have a civil discussion about them - as opposed to others that become heated and dissolve into ad hominum attacks like the one marked by Comment Deleted tombstones in the comments of HtHaN. Anyway, that train of thought derailed, so here are some of lonelypond’s works. Worth mentioning that most works take place in the U.S. instead of Japan, something that confused me for a few chapters when I first started reading, but have come to enjoy it, especially when places are mentioned that I know.  - Casual Lunacy - The aforementioned Fantasy AU as well as my introduction to this wonderful writer. Pulls in a quirky character from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, an adorable anime I’ve been meaning to finish. Maki is a werewolf. And I really need to reread this one at some point.  - PhotoJazz - Maki is a photographer and Nico is an actress.  - AU Yeah August - A collection of short 1 Shots. I haven’t read all of them, e.g. the Harry Potter one, but those I have were adorable, e.g. Summer Camp, Fake Dating and FWB.  - Christmas Confections - A collection of amazing Christmas themed works that rank among my favorite gifts each year since I first started reading them. I’d link them each individually, but they’re all amazing so just read them all; you won’t be disappointed. Maki and Christmas just go together and lonelypond writes them well.  - Can’t Get Started - To quote the summary “Nishikino Maki is trying to make it in the piranha fishbowl of movies, music and Hollywood. Yazawa Nico already has. And they keep crashing into each other.” Literally. It’s quite amusing. I’ve heard good things from other readers about the 1Kiss series but have only skimmed a few; they are high on my To Read list. The Idol House series came out during my troubled 2019, so it also remains on my To Read list. The Moonlight series seems to focus on NozoEli, which is fine, but for better or worse lowers it position on my To Read list. It’s lonelypond, so I do intend to read it eventually, but there are more NicoMaki focused fics that I’d like to get to first.

Next up is Lucia Hunter, a case where I must separate author from work. To this day I remain uncertain as to the details of the issues between this author and the denizens of Sukutomo, but the animosity exists nonetheless. Still, the listed works below were part of my gateway drugs into the wonderful world of NicoMaki fanfics.  - The Diamond Princess’s Melancholy - How NicoMaki came together.  - Love marginal - My favorite portrayal of KotoHonoUmi. NicoMaki is a side pairing here, and remain so through the rest of the works, but they’re still worth reading, imho.  - Shiranai Love*Oshiete Love - RinPana focus but NicoMaki still plays their role.  - Garden of Glass - de de deee de de deee Obviously NozoEli focused.

My first encounter with Rinforzando was a T rated cute and fluffy fic but they’ve done some pretty good NSFW works as well.  - Ten Years - Always enjoy a good adult NicoMaki fic. - Limbo - NSFW FWB NicoMaki - Caprice - NSFW 2nd Person post-canon NicoMaki. I’m not typically a fan of 2nd Person perspective, but this one was worth it.  - Cheers for Loving You - NicoMaki Secret Santa.

Hidekins is another author that has written a lot of NicoMaki I’ve enjoyed, but on a quick scan through the AO3 entries, few are jogging my memory with title and description alone. Perhaps I’ve read more here on tumblr? Perhaps I’ll come back and add more if I remember them better later.  - NicoMakisses - A set of five cute short NicoMaki stories about kisses.

Saberin writes a lot of 3rd year stuff, and that’s fine, but the NicoMaki collection is worth checking out.  - Prickly Love - As of writing this list, there are 10 chapters of cuteness

whoneedsapublisher writes a lot and I enjoy the style. Thus, when I see NicoMaki pop up on the account, I try to read.  - Couples Therapy - One of my favorite Maki headcanons is included here. Not explicit but earns its M rating and thus is NSFW.  - Subtle - Not particularly crazy about the Nico-taller-than-Maki, but that’s a minor complaint compared to the rest of this wonderful work.  - At Least Six Confessions - Presequel to the above work. Poor Nico had her work cut out for her with a romantically dense Maki.  - Keep Your Promises - Ten years later...  - Happy New Year - Sometimes stalemates must be broken by someone.  - Hidden Depth - Nico’s voice changes. And Maki likes it  - Pretending to Pretend - Not explicit, but earns its M rating so NSFW. One of my favorite examples of the Fake Dating trope.  - Merry Christmas Maki - I can’t think of a better present.  - No Lies Allowed - Truth of Dare, NicoMaki style.  - All Dressed Up - Based on a wonderful pic by noelclover  - Santa’s Stand-in - Guess who still believes...  - Switcheroo - Always love the idea of the girls trying to behave like the others. Makes me want to rewatch that episode.  - Tick, Tock - Some introspective Maki  - Insensitive - NicoMaki dating issues  - Tomatoes - Maki’s favorite food I’ve heard good things about Dazzling Warrior Nightshade, so it’s on my To Read List, but I must admit I can be picky about my Magical Girls stuff. Madoka set an... interesting bar for the genre for me and in most cases I’d prefer to watch it as an anime or read it as a manga/doujin. Still, the idea of Nico being a magic girl amuses me greatly, thus why the fic remains on my radar.

And here are some other random works I’ve enjoyed over the years.  - Smile, Nico Nico! - In which Nico drags Maki to the dentist  - Billiards - NSFW 2nd Person. Yes, I know I just said I’m not typically a fan, but this one was also good.  - Piano For Beginners - NSFW AU where Maki is assigned to teach Nico how to play the piano so as to be convincing for a film.  - critical rules for not-dating - NSFW FWB AU that I need to finish reading someday but was happy enough with what I’ve read that I’d still recommend it.  - 24 visits - Visits as in Nico the idol visiting Maki the doctor in the hospital.  - 24 dates - A NSFW followup to 24 visits

So yeah, that’s a fairly decent list to get one started in their AO3 NicoMaki delving. As mentioned above, this is not all-inclusive and there are a ton of NicoMaki works out there. I haven’t visited FFN in years, so there may still be some authors that post there exclusively and have written some amazing stuff, but I cannot recommend what I haven’t read, or at least skimmed. I also have some tumblr works bookmarked... somewhere, so if I find them I might compare them to this list and maybe add those missed.

Here’s hoping something here piques your interest and makes you fall a little more for the wonderful NicoMaki.

[jeslieness]

“In Which a Child is Lost at the Museum”

I’m slowly inching my way through my review backlog and recently checked off this piece by @olwendylluan...and as usual, Wiggleversey Thoughts resulted. Originally they were just supposed to be about Datura, but you know how it is with the Wiggleverse. You give brain space to one snaby, and three others come along for the ride.

So as a refresher: Crowley and Aziraphale take snake Angelica on her first solo outing to the museum. She decides her interests in art are different, so she hops out of Aziraphale’s pocket and goes off on her own without leaving a forwarding address.

Since Junior and Angelica are kind of the de facto leaders of the kiddos, my feeling has always been that they tend to have a monkey-see-monkey-do sort of dynamic. Once Angelica is brought home and gleefully tells her sniblings about what she did, Junior is eager to try it too. (Rosa makes note of it as a potential tool she doesn’t anticipate having to use; Datura probably decides not to try it, but thinks the whole thing over and comes up with a zillion questions.)

At the other end of the spectrum, there’s Clem.

While the story notes that Junior and Rosa were disappointed by Angelica getting a solo outing, Clem and Datura were indifferent. I imagine that Clem is the only one of the snabies who hears “children, we’re staying home today” and goes “YAY!” The idea of being lost is unquestionably terrifying to this anxious little guy, who lives in fear of being replaced. The idea of being DELIBERATELY lost probably results in the snake equivalent of the blue screen of death. Like Junior, he is full of questions. But where Junior’s questions are along the lines of “soooo, how did you do it?”, Clem’s are, in order: “You got lost?...On purpose?....And they didn’t notice??????” His dads are suddenly bombarded with questions about being lost. Clem is probably the first snake in history to take up orienteering. (We will pause here to appreciate the image of baby Clem carrying around a compass. Go on, it’s adorable.) If his dads attempt to leave the shop with him, Clem drags over a roll of tape and tries to secure himself to his father, just to reduce the chances of becoming Horribly Lost.

I imagine when he’s big enough to be more noticeable, his anxiety eases somewhat. But for a couple of weeks or months when he’s still pretty tiny? “I’m still here, Father.” “Yes, Clem, I know. I can feel you around my wrist.” “Okay, just wanted to make sure. ....I’m still here, Father.” “Yes, Clem. You taped yourself to my sleeve eight times.”

As for Datura, I wondered what sort of pre-car non-park field trip would interest them, and my brain immediately supplied the image of an excited baby Datura “swimming” in a big container of metal washers. I nominate for headcanoning that Crowley took a stroll down to the hardware store one day with a couple of snabies, so he could buy supplies for pranks and the kids could see some of the world, and it ended up being a multi-hour trip once the kiddos spotted all these shelves upon shelves of shiny things, some of them very small and lightweight and just perfect for little snakelets to play with, and some of them very big and mysterious and just provoking tons of questions. The staff at the hardware store couldn’t figure out why this guy hung out and talked to the various drawers of nuts and bolts for a couple of hours, but hey, as long as he was buying things....

(I suspect that after the hardware store, Crowley also realized that outings didn’t always need to be elaborate opportunities for Education and Culture. Aziraphale was less than pleased when he realized Crowley was taking some of the babies to the laundromat and the post office.)

[esselley]

Hey Essie, I was just wondering what your writing schedule is like (or if you have one?) I just finished reading your fic December Boys and I am /in love/ with that crossover ❤️ You're so talented and I'm always inspired by the sheer amount of fics you've written, let alone their quality! I'm getting a little burnt out on my own series so I was wondering if you had any tips :3 ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ I love your writing and always look forward to updates! ❤️

Yay thank you so much!! I was so nervous that nobody would wanna read december boys and I’ve gotten so much positive feedback on it, it makes me so overjoyed!!! Thank youuuu (and everyone so far who has been so kind) ToT

To answer your question, I don’t have much of a schedule! Often when I’m inspired I just write whenever I have time! This used to be literally constantly (like from 7 am to 11 pm on weekends, while i was at work, etc) but that was unsustainable over 4+ years so I’m not quite as manic anymore XD That is how I was able to write so much when I first started posting back in 2016 though! 

I do post quite a bit less frequently now, and the past year or so have struggled with burnout myself (and now pandemic anxiety isn’t really helping much either). But I will say that one thing that helps me is a) trying to take breaks when needed - I play a lot of video games and binge a lot of anime - and b) working on other stories for short periods of time that I feel fired up about in the moment, even if I don’t get far or finish anything. For me, splitting my focus actually works pretty well, because I have a short attention span and always get excited by new shiny ideas when I’ve been working on others for a long time. Then I can eventually come back to the old one when I’ve got a backlog of excitement built up for things to explore in that concept. Go back, reread your favorite parts of the old stuff, and remember what you were excited to get to in the future \o/

Overall, I think my biggest tip is to recognize signs of burnout and try to give yourself breathing room, get ahead of it by not forcing yourself through it! I did not pay attention to my own for a long time, and bouncing back is not the easiest. So be kind to yourself <3 

Hope this helps! Also, just a reminder that I do have my writing advice tag, with sections for motivation and writer’s block/burnout, if that may be of any help! ^^ 

[animebw]

Rinne no Lagrange

Greetings, all! I’m The Anime Binge-Watcher, a blog dedicated to me binge-watching anime in episodic chunks and analyzing it in long-form text posts for your enjoyment! Today, I continue to wrap up the last few shows of my second annual Summer of Suggestions, in which I solely watch your recommendations until I get through them all. And the next one on the list is one I know nothing about: Rinne no Lagrange, or Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne!

From what I’ve seen on the artwork, I’m guessing this is a mecha show with a primarily female cast, most likely with some fanservice (blegh) and possibly with yuri (yay). Other than that, I’m going in blind. Please don’t spoil me on anything, I prefer going in blind as possible. Expect my first update later today, and thanks for joining me on this new adventure!

Schedule: I watch two shows concurrently, one long-running and one shorter, alternating each day. Currently, my long-running “show” is the Fate/Stay Night VN. Feel free to visit my blog and explore my extensive backlog of previous binge-watches, a list of what shows are on my agenda for the future, a link to my Discord where you can hang out and chat about the shows I’m watching with me and a bunch of fellow anime fans, and more!

[yournewapartment]

Hiatus Announcement / Game Show Podcast

LISTEN NOW

On Episode 41, Mac hosts a game show! Mac quizzes guests Maddie, Nova, and Naomi on an episode originally released as a bonus Patreon episode. There is light cursing throughout the episode that may not be suitable for all listeners. Your New Apartment the Podcast is going on Hiatus until October 2019.

Episode Links:

Your New Apartment on Patreon

Your New Apartment on Ko-Fi

Your New Apartment on Society6

Your New Apartment on Instagram

Maddie's blog Adult Talk

Nova's blog Positively-LGBTQ

Naomi's blog Matte Glitter

Naomi's Instagram

Contact us: askyournewapartment@gmail.com Intro, outro, and transitional musical loops by Natalie Ice. Find her album "Hungover/Spiritual" on all your favorite streaming services. Natalia's Website. Natalia's Insta.

Hey podcast listeners, Mac here, with a little announcement. First off- last week I released episode forty of my podcast. Which, is crazy. Because a few months ago I didn’t even have a podcast, and now I have forty episodes of a podcast.

I am so grateful to everyone who has listened to the podcast, left reviews on iTunes, and supported me on Patreon and Kofi. I am so incredibly moved to see that people out there are actually listening to my little podcast, real people, not just my mom! I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your incredible support, it means the world to me.

As some of you may know, I’m getting married in a few weeks (yay). Because of my wedding, Your New Apartment the podcast is going on hiatus until October. The podcast is something I write, edit, and produce all by myself. It takes an incredible amount of time and energy to finish even an hour long episode, and I’m concerned that between the wedding planning and other life stuff, I won’t be able to give the podcast the attention it needs.

However- I have some exciting episodes coming your way after the break, including episodes on house buying, insurance, the Bitches Get Riches episode, and Confessions of A Former Goth Part 2. I’m also always looking for new topics to cover and guests to speak to, so if you have any suggestions, please contact me at askyournewapartment@gmail.com

I wanted to take a minute to do a special shoutout to all my Patreon supporters. They have helped me pay all of my podcast hosting fees, as well as my Adobe Audition fee, which is the application I use to edit each podcast. They also helped me purchase in full- headphones, a Blue Yeti Microphone, and a pop filter for said microphone. Thanks to my mom, my Bubbie, Lissa, Ruth, Elise, Dianna, Svenja, Naomi and the lovely ladies at Bitches Get Riches. Thank you to past Patreon donors as well, I know committing to a monthly payment can be tough, and I appreciate everything you were able to give me.

I also recently had some incredibly generous Kofi donors, which helped me purchase Kofi Gold for a year. Starting in October, I will be accepting Kofi Commissions for Adulting-related posts and questions. A huge thanks to Mars and two other anonymous donors for helping me purchase Kofi Gold.

With all this incredible help, I feel so selfish asking for more, but it’s the nature of podcasting. As it is, I am making $0 in profit from this podcast. Which is fine, my patrons are covering all of my monthly expenses, and I’m so incredibly grateful for that. In my travels in podcast editing, I’ve discovered several more tools that I’d like to purchase that would greatly increase my ability to record in a higher definition. Recording in higher definition means that editing each podcast would be a hundred times easier, as well as cutting down my editing time by a significant amount.

I use Zencastr to record remotely with people, and it's a great software. I am currently using their free plan, which has limited recording quality and storage space options. Zencastr Pro would be an addition $20 a month! If I get 20 new $1/month patroons or two very generous $10/month patrons, I will be able to purchase Zencastr Pro. 90% of my interviews are done remotely, so upgrading would make  a HUGE difference for me! $1/month gets you early access to podcasts as well a vote on podcast/blog content. $10/month gets you both those things, and two additional very special YNA podcasts each month. Go to Patreon.com/yournewapartment for more info.

If you’re unable to give monthly, but would like to make a one-time donation, you can buy me a coffee on Kofi. All proceeds from Kofi are going towards paying off my Kofi Gold one-year subscription! After that, I will use the proceeds to pay for soundproofing for my home for better recording quality. Go to ko-fi.com/yournewapartment

My future goals for the podcast are purchasing an incredibly expensive piece of equipment that will allow me to record phone calls in high definition audio, as well as being able to pay to transcribe every single episode of the podcast for hard of hearing listeners. This is a request I get a lot, but it costs SO MUCH money, I really cannot afford to do it that often. Which sucks. Because I want to be more accessible. If you want to make a donation towards transcribing a specific episode through Ko-fi, let me know, and I will put your money towards transcription (usually costs about $6/episode).

If you can’t afford to support me in a financial way, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE rate and review YNA on iTunes! The more reviews I get, the higher my SEO ranking! And hopefully one day, I can even get some sponsors.

I know I’ve mentioned her a lot lately, because I am completely obsessed with her music, but once again, big shoutout to Natalia Ice. Natalia graciously allowed me to use music from her album “Hungover/Spiritual” as my transition music. You can find her music on all of your favorite streaming platforms. You can buy her music on Bandcamp and buy some awesome merch at her website nataliaice.com. Check out her episode of YNA the podcast if you haven’t already! She is one of the coolest people I’ve ever spoken to.

Finally, I wanted to give a big shoutout to all of my lovely guests who offered me their time for free, many of whom appeared on the podcast multiple times. It was so much fun getting to know all of you, and thank you for supporting the podcast.

Listeners- if there was a particular guest you enjoyed hearing, please let me know! Many guests come on this podcast thinking that everyone is going to hate them and that nobody is going to care about their episode, despite how many times I tell them that they’re amazing. I love sharing specific feedback from listeners, and it may even help me encourage some guests to make a second appearance on the show! So again, if you loved a particular episode, let me know.

And lastly, before I go, I wanted to a share a very special podcast episode with you, as a thank you for all of your support. This episode is a Patreon-exclusive episode that I released back in May. This episode really has nothing to do with adulting, but it was so much fun to record, and I did hands down the most amount of research on this episode that I’ve ever done for the podcast.  It was HOURS upon HOURS of research! So you better stick around and listen to the whole thing! There is cursing throughout this episode, so if that’s not your thing, please skip the episode. A huge thank you to Maddie, Nova, and Naomi for recording this episode with me, I hope to do a rematch sometime soon. I will link their respective blogs for everyone to check out and support, and they’ve all appeared on YNA the podcast before, so listen to those episodes as well.

Don’t forget to check out my backlog of 40 episodes! There may be one you missed, and they’re all worth listening to. Follow YNA on Tumblr and Instagram, and check out the episode page for any and all links mentioned in this preview. Enjoy.