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@othernaut and @serena-darrin for a good story

Okay, buckle up buckaroos, because today I met an honest-to-goodness cryptid.

I was out running errands and I made a stop at Intimate Books (…for a friend), and on my way out I realized that the bookshop next door was open.

This bookshop has existed for more than a hundred years, and in all my life it has NEVER BEEN OPEN. I mean, I assume it has to be open sometimes, but never at any normal, reasonable hour. Everyone says it’s a front for the mob or something.

So what do you do when the weird mafia bookshop is open? You go the fuck inside.

The first thing I noticed was the smell. You know that smell when you accidentally leave your towel on the bathroom floor all day and you come back to that mildew funk? The shop smelled like that times a thousand. I expected to see stuff growing on the walls, but the books were pristine. We’re talking first editions, rare editions, weird Bibles and books inscribed to really famous dead people. Librarians would weep for the chance to accession this place. In the first two minutes I found a signed copy of The Crucible and what I think was a first edition of Blake’s Book of Thel.

Then a clerk showed up out of nowhere—honestly nowhere. He looked EXACTLY like a bookseller should look, kind of fluffy and bewildered and really, really gay.

“Are you lost?” was the first thing he said to me.

“Nope. Just browsing, thanks.”

“Browsing, I see. Erm. How do you feel about snakes?” he asked. And without waiting for me to answer, he just walked away and vanished around a shelf.

I figured it was a metaphor, or a code phrase for the mafia. Until I turned a corner like ten minutes later and found a little reading nook. It was really pretty, although I feel like that particular window should have been on an interior wall? Anyway, curled up in an armchair in a patch of sunlight was the biggest fuck-off black snake I have ever seen.

Like, I don’t mind snakes in general. But in their normal context, right? Outside. On the ground. Not six feet long and sitting on a threadbare velvet armchair like it owns the place.

I was about to turn around and leave, but I saw a gorgeous first-edition copy of Leaves of Grass on a shelf, a little too close to the snake for comfort. But I had never needed anything so badly in my life.

So I went back to the counter to buy it, but the clerk was nowhere to be found.

While I was waiting, I noticed a collection of pictures hanging on the wall behind the counter, dating back to the very dawn of photography. A couple were of this rock-star looking guy from the 70s that I should probably have recognized, but there were authors and landscapes and stuff, too. There was even an old tintype portrait of Oscar freaking Wilde, sitting in this very shop with a guy that I would ACTUALLY SWEAR was the clerk from before. Like, I know my family all has the same nose, but this guy had the same everything.

After approximately one year of waiting, the clerk came back out to the desk. By now I’ve realized that he’s too bad at his job to be anything but the owner of the shop.

“I saw your snake,” I told him.

“Did you? Was he behaving himself?”

“He was sleeping.”

“Yes, he enjoys that.”

“Does he just stay out in the open like that? What if he gets out?”

He shrugged and smiled. “He always comes home again, the dear boy.”

Right, a homing snake. That’s totally normal.

Then he cleared his throat and asked, in a weirdly reluctant voice, if I was going to buy the Whitman.

“Yes, please,” I told him. “I saw it on a shelf by the snake, and it was just too tempting.”

He sighed. “Oh, yes, I expect it was.”

When I started to hand him my card, he went all fluttery and said that they didn’t take cards.

All right, fine. I had some cash on me, but I told him that he’d sell a lot more books if he got a Square or something.

He got this scandalized look on his face and went, “Why would I want to do that?”

Oookay. I handed over the cash and he popped open the ancient till and started making change.

In shillings. Shillings! I swear to god I saw Queen Anne’s face on one of them. The silver value of the coins was probably as much as I paid for the book.

But I had to have proof that this happened—at that point, all I had was a book in a plain brown wrapper, not appreciably different from what I bought next door. So I asked him for a receipt.

He looked delighted and wrote one up for me.

By hand.

With a fountain pen.

And that’s the story of how I met a bookseller cryptid and his pet snake.

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On Cal's storyline

I think most likely plan is to have him fall to the dark side. There is only one person whose managed to recover from that, Cere.

Poor Greez ran away from his problems and in many ways is still running even in the second game.

Merrin lives her darkness, and doesn't understand the destruction it's causing Cal. She believes him when he says he's okay.

Survivor shows us he is clearly not okay.

I think Respawn's is to make the Inquisition scary by giving us a dark side Cal.

#cal kestis #star wars survivor #cere junda #greez dritus #star wars #dark side fall #respawn's plan #inquisitors #fallen order #dark side recovery #endings

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Share with my writer friends admit your sin. @yubsie @serena-darrin @othernaut @onwallsjcfwrites

#alignment chart #writer problems #fic writing #writing #tag yourself

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Can we also just talk about how Bob Anderson is just casually wearing his Olympic jacket like it's nothing. Also I don't remember getting to see this fight choreography it's cool but I don't remember it in the movie or at least I don't remember most of it

“This was the most physically taxing of all the film because of the lightsaber duels. Everytime I wasn’t shooting, I was rehearsing. Something that took weeks and weeks to shoot, even though it only lasts a few minutes on film. So it taxed me to the limit.”

MARK HAMILL “Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back” BTS › 1980

#Bob Anderson #fight training #star wars #empire strikes back #mark hamill

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@othernaut @serena-darrin and @yubsie my favorite part is the drawing with empty captioned

Happy black cat day!!

Here are some black cats I've drawn through the years

#black cat #funny cats #because funny #daily laugh #photography #drawing

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@yubsie I thought you might like

This is for all those who sobbed because of the caption on my other painting with pregnant Hera 😉

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@othernaut and @serena-darrin look what I found

@breakfastteatime and @sauntering-down maybe a new background character name

#working from home #children #easter egg #baby names #print media #because funny

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Knives for all @othernaut and @serena-darrin

it's almost that time of the year folks. grab yer knives

reblog for extra stabbing

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Baby toothless is adorable

Year of the Dragon!

#baby dragons #free serotonin #very cute

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On Luke's story lines post-4,5,6

Most of Luke's legends ones were generally about becoming a Jedi master and running the temple. And in the new Republic era he also has to contend with the fact that there is no longer a war on and what does that mean considering he's only known for fighting a war. Plus all of his training was about how to become a warrior.

Some of his best storylines are about his insecurities about being a teacher.

Well I do not think it was well executed.

It was nice to see that storyline tried to be played out in the sequel trilogy. I know this is often thought of undercutting his character to display those insecurities but I think it's adding to it.

After all what does he know about being a Jedi, at most he had Obi-Wan for a month maybe about the same for Yoda. It takes much longer to become a full Jedi Knight never mind master.

So insecurities yeah I would expect them

#star wars #new republic #star wars legends #luke skywalker #luke skywalker storyline #heroes being insecure #star wars sequel trilogy

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On Luke's Green crystal

I love the idea that he made his own and not that he got one passed down to him. And it's because this allows us to tell the stories about someone who's trying to be part of a culture that unreachable for some reason

One of my favorite lines out of one of the novels is addressed to him. And I think it's a good one for the new Republic time frame. Obi-wan Kenobi, calls him the first of the new. The new Republic is a time to discover what was lost, what was buried, and what is a new way forward.

Because making a crystal means leaning into the skills that Luke already has. But making it on his own means that he has to figure his own way. The new way. And I think that's a really good story to tell

#luke skywalker #star wars legends #lightsaber crystal #kyber crystal #making your own crystal

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invited by: @othernaut

last song I listened to: The mass effect Andromeda soundtrack, I enjoy videogame music

currently reading: embassy town by China Miéville. I cannot emphasize how much I do not recommend. A friend lent it to me and I'm trying to give it an honest try. It commits the horrible sin of making me aware I am reading a book.

currently watching: this is actually hard I don't actually watch things long term. Or for any length of time. umm, I'm going to go with I don't know.

currently obsessed with: I guess you could say taking photos in the videogame I'm playing. Do old obsessions count or ones I've never dropped. In which case the novel I am almost always writing, the boardgame I'm working on. You know that you put me on the spot have no idea how to answer this question. I'm sorry to whoever reads this it's not very helpful

tagging: @thirillia and @believe-in-alderaan, @foolinapril and @foxwine

get to know you better game! answer the questions and tag 9 people you want to know better.

tagged by: @abigail-pent Thanks!

last song I listened to: Night Shift by Lucy Dacus.

currently reading: Nothing big. Keeping up with Kill Six Billion Demons and One Piece. I recently re-read Speaker for the Dead. Still need to read Frugal Wizard's Handbook from the Year of Sanderson.

currently watching: Three anime: One Piece, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Dungeon Meshi.

currently obsessed with: One Piece. Re-reading Dungeon Meshi. Outside of media, really loving the board game Heat: Pedal to the Metal.

tagging @catboygirljoker, @itsbumblebunnybee, @wyy-1257, @caustic--acid , @sorchasolas, @thestormlightnetwork, @thefineprinttoguess, @philosophicallie

#only kinda useful #I'm bad following trends

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My first Guardian Books cartoon for 2024

#find yourself

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Beautiful 😍😍😍

#snow photography #wildlife photography #pretty art #pretty pictures

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Please share

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I never learn and think it's too late now

Edit: sensory issues can be counted under "otherwise medically unable to" if you feel that to be appropriate

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On Cere's character

This character doesn't seem to be the same as

Thing is I think that Cere's hasn't been gone that long but Cal's insecurities and Saw lead him to think it was final.

There's an echo outside the base on Jedha. That talks about how Cere appeared to help them and when you visit the last time before the big combat I believe she talks about having finished with the archive.

#cal kestis #star wars survivor #fallen order #cere junda #darth vader #greez dritus #saw gerrera #cannon thoughts