#i only get shocked when its actually such beautiful history

[yellowheartz]

Tiktokers out there having the most wildest family lore out there while my family lore has all the sweetest and most beautiful poetic shit ever.

#what do you mean your grandparents met this or that or did this in the war #well MY family talks to their plants and paints and writes and sings songs and so goddamn sweet about it #im not phased anymore when my family drops wild lore on me #LIKE LIKE #i only get shocked when its actually such beautiful history #like fuck u mean this relative of mine sang songs and wrote poems and painted pictures of his beloved just to win her over #like fuck you mean they used to be farmers who were children that ran in the grass and played in the forests as kids #WDYM MY RELATIVES HAVE THAT CHILDHOOD FRIENDS TO LOVERS LORE #LIKEEEE #WHO CARES IF IM RELATED TO A NATIONAL HERO IM HERE FOR THE POETRY OF IT ALL #no bc my relatives loved children so much and valued family that they helped every child of their relatives finish schooling and even #supported them in times of need bc they wanted to be close with everyone not wanting to lose any one at all #its boring to be unhinged nowadays I WANT THAT LOVE GODDAMNIT #cupioromantic moments #yellow talks #yellow rants #fuck people who hate love and family or alla that bc they want to be sigma #i may have trauma from my family but i still want to experience the love they showed each other #goddamnit i want to grow old with my beloved and my siblings and grow flowers on my front yard too #gonna pin this bc its so important to ME

[writeroutoftime]

pawns in your game

pairing: cassian x fem!reader

summary: when you get injured working a job with rhys, your mate - worried for your safety - loses it and finally lets go of his pent up anger

warnings: angst, injury towards reader, cass getting angry at rhys and also rhys kinda being a dick (look I have a lot of thoughts of conversations that never happened in acosf lol - I just hope this isn't horribly ooc)

words: 1.3k

a/n: first cassian fic! honestly, I know I said I'm in love with rhys, but it's the same for cass and az - so this one is for my fellow cassian people! wasn't sure how to wrap this up, so I left it open for a part 2. let me know if anyone is interested and/or has any ideas? but either way, please enjoy!! (also, if you could let me know what you think because I'm so nervous about posting this!)

tagging @captainsophiestark as requested! (hope you're having a lovely day!)

oOoOo

"Cassian, I need you to visit Windhaven and deal with Devlon. I'm getting reports of unrest, and I want this handled before it becomes a problem." Rhys commanded, not looking up from the papers on his desk.

Standing at attention, Cass nodded his head once, sharply. "Of course. I will go and pack, so that y/n and I may leave before the sun sets." He moved to exit the room, holding his hand out for you, but was quickly stopped before either of you got too far.

"Actually, y/n, I need you to accompany me." Rhys interrupted, directing his attention to you.

Your jaw dropped, caught off guard, and you hurried to school your features. It was not that you had to be paired with Cassian for all missions, but it had been that way for at least a century now since your mating ceremony. It served as peace of mind to you and Cass, and usually meant your missions were more successful compared to when you were separated. Surely, Rhys understood that.

"We will be leaving for the Spring Court in the morning, and I need my most trusted courtier with me."

Shock ran through your body, but you nodded your head regardless. It must be a serious matter, for you had not visited the Spring Court in many months. However, you instantly felt a sharp tug of your mating bond followed by waves of anger that poured off of Cassian.

"Spring Court?" he ground out, fists clenched at his side. "Why must you travel to the Spring Court? I thought we put that behind us?"

"Because I have official business to conduct with Tamlin that supersedes our personal desires. And I need the Night Court's courtier present for." Rhys snapped back.

You sent a soothing message down the bond, trying to calm Cass' anger you felt growing with each second that passed. "Cass, it's alright. Both of us will be fine."

"No. Rhys, you know what happened the last time any of us stepped foot there. You really want to risk it? Can't you send anyone else to go? Lucien, Mor, Feyre?"

Now it was Rhys' turn to growl. "Watch it, Cassian. I've told y/n she will accompany to Spring and that's enough."

"But can't you just-"

"I said that's enough!" Rhys shouted, his eyes darkened dangerously as the thread of his patience snapped. "I am your High Lord, and you will not push back against what I command."

A tension so thick that it threatened to choke you immediately filled the room. You kept your eyes locked on the ground, but you didn't have to look to know Cass wore a mask of despair on his face. It had been decades since Rhys had lost his temper like that.

Cassian merely bowed his head in mock respect before dragging you from the room. He did not speak for the next hour, only doing so to whisper his love and goodbye to you, before flying to Windhaven, not saying another word to Rhys.

oOoOo

The next day found yourself in the ruins of the Spring Court. What once was a beautiful court that thrived for all its citizens now lay dilapidated and lonely, a reflection of the court's high lord's own feelings. It had rattled your nerves to set foot on Tamlin's territory considering the rocky history between the Spring and Night courts, but you would not leave Rhys' side.

Now, you were utterly exhausted from mediating with two, stubborn males all day; only for no new development to transpire, meaning you simply wasted a day away from your own court and your mate. Your only relief came from the swift exit Rhys insisted on, making sure you would arrive home before the sun set.

Yet, the tension from the previous day lingered as you and Rhys traveled to the border to be able to winnow out. But as you both walked in silence, you couldn't help but feel uneasy. Like someone, or something was watching you. Before you could communicate any of this to Rhys, you caught a solider out of the corner of your eye with an arrow notched and aimed at your high lord.

"Look out!" you shouted. With such little warning, you knew Rhys wouldn't be able to deflect the arrow on his own. And with a rush of adrenaline, you pushed your body to reach Rhys.

Mere seconds before the arrow could lodge itself in its initial target, your body collided with Rhys', knocking him out of the way and safely to the ground. Instead, the arrow lodged itself deep in your shoulder, burning like a thousand fires. You let out a guttural scream, immediately dropping to the ground. 

Being part of the Inner Circle - the Court of Dreams - meant you were no stranger to pain, but this was unlike anything you ever thought existed. Very briefly, you recognized that Rhys had neutralized the threat and now hovered over your body. 

His face was contorted in pain and tears clouded his eyes. He moved to pull the arrow from your body, but halted the moment he touched it. Your scream reverberated in the stone courtyard. 

"y/n, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." he cried, never seeing you like this. Quickly, Rhys gathered you in his arms and winnowed back to Velaris and directly into the med wing. He prayed Madja could mend the wounds, and he blanched at the thought of Cassian discovering the events that had played out. 

oOoOo

Meanwhile, in the Windhaven camp, Cassian was meeting with a handful of males, attempting to negotiate peace. His focus wavered, however, as a blinding wave of agony struck his heart through his bond. He froze on the spot, his heart stopped pumping blood. While on a mission, the two of you had agreed to keep the bond closed - for safety reasons. The fact that he could feel this immense pain, meant something very wrong had occurred. 

"I-I have to go." Cassian mumbled, not bothering to offer any more explanation to the Illyrians - consequences be damned.

Immediately, he took to the skies and started the flight back to Velaris. The already long flight felt like it took an eternity. The wind strung at Cassian's cheeks as he soared, but the pain didn't register like the way the bond sung in pain.

Finally, Cass could see River House in his site, and when he finally entered the house, he was met with the site of his family huddled together in the sitting room. All eyes turned his way, a mixture of pity and concern as they looked at him. 

"What happened? Where is y/n?" he demanded, fully stepping into his role as Lord of Bloodshed, eyes darkened and wings drawn out menacingly.

Before anyone could answer, another scream could be heard from the halls. Cassian's knees buckled, and he would have fallen to the floor if Azriel hadn't been standing by. Rhys blocked his path, unable to meet his brother's eye.

"She was attacked, brother. We were ambushed while visiting the Spring Court." Rhys whispered.

"And they attacked her?" Cass questioned, though he knew deep down that wasn't the case. When Rhys, or anyone else for that matter, refused to speak, Cassian growled. "What happened?"

Unable to speak, Rhysand gently scraped against Cassian's mental shields and projected to him the whole truth of what had happened at the Spring Court; the ambush, you pushing yourself into harm's way for the sake of Rhys, and the pain you felt from the moment the arrow struck your body.

As Rhys withdrew himself from his brother's mind, Cass drew, deep rugged breaths. The silence in the room was so thick it felt suffocating, but no one dared to move or speak first. However, instead of speaking, Cass pushed past everyone and demanded his way into your room to be by your side.

One look at your crumpled form, sent Cassian to his knees by your bedside. He reached out, hesitantly, to grasp your hand in his and allowed the tears to fall. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart." he mumbled.

Madja made herself known from the corner, approaching Cass the way one would a frightened animal. "The arrow she was shot with was laced with a terrible poison - much worse than faebane. I've done my best, but some of the poison already made it to her system."

"When will she wake up?" Cass asked, not allowing the possibility of you never waking to cross his lips.

The healer sighed deeply, looking over the famed general, now brought to his knees at the sight of his mate fighting for her life. "Only the Cauldron and Mother know. It will be up to y/n to bring herself back from the brink." Madja spoke slowly.

With a final, soothing touch to Cass's shoulder, Madja made her exit. Now off to deliver the same news to the rest of your waiting family.

"Please don't leave me. Y-you can't leave me." Cass whispered, clutching your hand. "I'm here with you every step of the way." he vowed.

oOoOo

And that was how it continued for the next four days as your body continued to try and heal itself from the inside out. Cass refused to move from the chair he had dragged to sit by your bed. Unwilling to leave your side for even a moment.

The rest of his family took turns sitting with you and Cass, bringing him meals, forcing him to at least take a bite. He knew that everyone else was suffering as well from your situation, but it felt like his heart was being torn apart, bit by bit, with each hour that passed and you still remained asleep.

He wasn't stupid. He knew the longer you went without improvement, the less likely it became you would heal. Cass heard the hushed conversations Mor and Azriel held outside your door, discussing what to do should the worst happen, Cauldron forbid.

It was on that fourth day that Cassian reached a tipping point. He heard the door creak open behind him, imagining it was Amren who would be sitting with him, based on the previous days' schedule.

What Cass had not anticipated was to see his High Lord approach the bed and pull a chair up on the opposite side of your bed. It was obvious to see the prominent dark circles that overtook Rhys's normally bright face, and the way his body and seemingly sunk into itself. But Cass could not bring himself to care for his brother's guilt or be the first to utter a word.

With a wave of his hand, Rhys summoned a tray of food for Cassian, and only sighed when he rejected the peace offering. Finally, Rhys found a sliver of courage and was the first to break the silence.

"Madja has yet to make headway on identifying the poison y/n was hit with, but she is not giving up. None of us are." he offered, unsure of how to breach the subject.

Rhysand could only imagine what Cassian was experiencing. The pain of losing Feyre had been so immense, but in a twisted sense, at least it had been quick. A blink of an eye and she was gone. Rhys didn't think he would have been strong enough to sit vigil, feeling her fade through the bond with each passing minute.

"Stop looking at me like she's already gone." Cass growled, eyes darkening towards Rhys.

"Brother, I only want to help her, and to support you."

"I think you've done quite enough. It's your fault she's even in this position to begin with." he spat, enjoying the way that Rhys flinched at his words.

"Now that's not fair, Cassian." Rhys tried to counter. "I never asked her to that for me."

Cass could only scoff at the High Lord's response. "Of course, you didn't have to ask. You're the fucking High Lord, of course she was going to risk her life for you. Isn't that we all do here?"

"All of you, y/n including, knew what you were getting into, what the dangers were, when you swore allegiance to my court. You don't get to throw that back on me. You think this doesn't hurt me just as it hurts you?"

"No, it fucking doesn't!" Cassian screamed, his blood boiling at this point. "Because you use us like your puppets to protect you and your mate-"

"Careful how you continue, Cassian." Rhysand warned, not caring for slander against his mate, even in Cass's state of grief.

"Ever since this "death bargain" you and Feyre struck, it's like the rest of us don't matter. All we do is making sure your asses aren't killed because Cauldron forbid the saviors of Prythian are stolen from us." Cassian blazed on. "Yes, you've lost your mate before, Rhys, but she came back to you, and you to her.

"Who will remake y/n if she can't fight this? You and your High Lady are so far up on your pedestal that you don't know what it's like for the rest of us. Yes, we understood what our duties would entail, but that doesn't mean we have to continue to stand for this." Cassian spat, finally allowing years of pent-up fear and anger to spill over.

With one last, murderous, glare, Cassian turned his back on Rhysand, letting his words ring out for all in the House to hear. His wings stretched out behind him, hiding both you and he from Rhys, the Night Court, and the rest of the world. If it was to only be the two of you against everyone else from that point on, so be it.

part 2

oOoOo

a/n: part 2?

#cassian x reader #cassian imagine #actoar cassian x reader #acotar x reader #acotar imagine #rita writes

[oneatlatime]

The Desert

Alternate title: Gimme Appa back.

"But I believe, Aang can save the world." no pressure kid.

I had completely forgotten about these two chuckleheads. For once the 'Previously On' segment is useful rather than spoilery.

Ok Aang is going to get the world's biggest pass this episode, because he's in the suckiest of all situations. But even so, how exactly was Toph supposed to come and get them, when she was both actually blind for once and the only reason the library hadn't drowned them yet?

Aang has something of a history of running away. Does going after Appa count as running away from his friends?

Zuko's theatre kid tendencies are genetic.

The way Iroh said "What Now?" you know he was actually saying "fuck's sake."

Zuko's hair seems to grow very quickly. I thought that I could use his hair growth to measure time passing but this is not tracking. He barely had a buzz cut in The Chase and now he's fluffy.

Two things: a) this guy has eyes greyer than Aang this episode. b) He's cocking his hands like that ridiculous Henry Cavill scene from Mission Impossible where he cocks his biceps.

This guy's spear has piercings. And is coming out of a Dragon's mouth.

I don't know that I'd call these guys legendary. They're zero for two against an Avatar in Drag and two starving refugees with three functioning arms.

Doesn't Katara ever change out her water? Or even use it up and have to refill it?

I said it last episode, and I'll say it again: why did five people, a lemur, and a ten tonne sky bison travel into a desert famous for its desertiness with only a single water pouch between them? Admittedly, if they'd brought extra water and left it on Appa, they'd be having the same problem, but still...

Is a kids' show actually going to go there?

They actually went there!

Honestly if you're dying of dehydration in the desert, eating strange plants is absolutely the way to go. I'd rather trip my way into the afterlife than just shrivel up and die.

I love the way Aang's glider shadow moves over the dunes. Another one of those tiny details that the animators could have left out, but they didn't!

Sand benders must get crazy high speeds if Aang can't spot even a trace of Appa from up high. He wasn't Appa-napped very long ago.

Everyone go watch the scene where Aang blows up the mushroom cloud. Go right now I'll wait. And pay attention to Sokka's mouth. It does the wave.

His mouth does the wave and his arms do the worm. Someone really had fun this episode.

Zuko breaking the world record for highest number of Fire Nation wanted posters. Despite being the only person on that board who's unquestionably loyal to the Fire Nation. What a nice reward he got for his loyalty.

How is that one wrestler dude's hair so shiny?

Why, other than plot convenience, would Zuko and Iroh be at the Ice Spring?

I see now that the left hand shadow is Sokka with a Momo on his head. But for just a second I thought it was Ramona from Scott Pilgrim.

There are some really beautiful colour gradients in this desert.

"We won't survive without Appa." Well yes, but you have to try.

If this is a normal desert they're going to freeze their butts off overnight.

No comment. Just vibes.

Hey this is a Katara episode! Toph is blind, Sokka's zoinked, Aang's given up, so it's Katara time baby!

This episode has no business being this pretty.

"Sokka. I was there." I'd be very surprised if Katara's voice actress doesn't have an idiot older brother. That line was delivered a little too perfectly.

I'm not going to comment on every Sokka is high joke, but rest assured I'm finding them all hilarious.

Those drinks cost a gold piece each. Where did they get five gold pieces from?

Colour me shocked. The chuckleheads actually had a good idea for once.

Colour me shocked again! I vaguely predicted this!

Zuko. Honey. How are you this dim? He's so very good at missing exactly what's in front of him.

"Gold?"

Big muscles. No brains.

Very pretty. The sand texture is good too.

Well that was mean.

Passive aggressive glider deployment. Also how low is that cloud if Aang can reach it to bend it?

Aang is not shining this episode (understandably) but Katara is going from strength to strength. I NEVER would have thought that she was someone who could keep her cool under pressure like this. Happy to be wrong!

I have no idea if Sokka is going to remember or be aware of this epic trip he's on, but this is probably the best time he's had in months. Certainly since Yue died. He deserves this. Bad timing, but he needed a break.

"You must forgive my nephew. He is not an initiate, and is dumb as shit and incapable of reading the room."

Why is there a flower shop in the middle of the desert? What clients do they have? Obviously it's a front for this pai sho secret society thing, but why did they pick such a nonsensical front?

Toph has so much personality that it's easy to forget how tiny she is. Like a little gargoyle.

Sokka talking like a Greaser was the thing I didn't know I needed.

Poor Katara. Now you know how your brother feels every time he has to save your bacon from your weekly prison break.

I am losing my mind over these colours. Especially after The Library.

"I have a natural curiosity." I'm going to start using that.

Oops they found the circle bird nest.

Hey showrunners, you're going to take Momo from me too? You sure you want to do that? After last episode? Don't give me a pretty sunset with a latte swirl. Give me back Appa, put down Momo, or I'll sic Toph on you.

I do like Toph as a piece of artillery.

Turns out a combined Appa and Momo -napping is what it takes to get Aang to break his no killing rule. I now know how to defeat the Fire Lord.

The Audacity. Going to Ba-Sing- however the hell that's spelled. The sheer audacity. But then what? What's the plan after they get there? Just live the rest of their lives?

Rejected Mortal Combat guy.

You ever have one of those days where you do only your top lip?

Whoever made that door, and that lock - good job!

Nothing to see here, just making a delivery of two giant planters in the middle of the desert. The Owl decided to spruce up his entryway.

Y'all are fucked. Y'all deserve it. Aang has completely lost control. He's spent the whole episode losing it more and more and now he's gone completely off the rails. Has he ever zipped into the Avatar state that fast before?

Never underestimate the power of a woman who's fed up with everyone's nonsense. Just so fed up.

Well that was sad.

Badass name of the day: Malachi Throne, voice of a character whose name I don't recognise.

Final Thoughts

This was Katara's episode. I'm not going to forgive not getting Appa back, but Katara actually keeping a level head for once was an unexpected delight.

This episode was pretty unrelentingly heavy in the A-plot, which is why I don't understand why Sokka and Momo tripping worked so well. It did work, and I very much enjoyed it, but it should have stuck out like a sore thumb and it didn't. The beat up Sokka quota fulfillled from within by chemicals was a nice creative touch.

I am very happy to see Iroh take the wheel, although I'm not convinced there's a long term plan here beyond get food and shelter. Which, fair enough, goals tend to be short term and immediate when you're in dire straits.

This episode really stomped all over Aang. And then stomped some more. I was surprised how negative and shouty he was at the beginning, but by the end I was surprised how long it took him to lose it. Apart from his staff and his clothes, Appa really is all he has left from before he got frozen. That sandbender punk was rotten to the core.

So I guess we're going to the earth kingdom capital regardless of the eclipse information. Is the rest of the season going to be getting there? I also can't help but notice that it's where Iroh and Zuko are headed as well. Zuko could actively run in the direction opposite to the Avatar and he'd still end up tripping over him. The earth Kingdom is ginormous. And yet, like every two episodes Zuko runs into the Avatar. Is it fate? Is it plot convenience?

I should dislike this episode. It's 24 minutes of our faves getting beat down and not finding Appa, with a b-plot of Zuko being more oblivious than usual. I should dislike it, but I don't. This is definitely going on the rewatch list. It was a very pretty episode, which helped. Beyond that I can't put into words why I liked it, but I did!

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #The Desert #Dessert? #Desert is one of the words where the longer you stare at it the less it's a word #Like Sausage #Sew-sahhj

[recreationalfanfics]

This was stuck in my notes (And I wanted to clear them out, so please forgive me that there’s a LOT of information)

I feel like Daley!Reader has fairly decent grades in every class, except History, then they’re the top History Student on the Whole Campus (With everyone wondering how, then they say, ‘History really comes to life to me’ and then everyone remembers that they can bring historical figures ‘to life’, and the Teachers don’t think it’s cheating because all Reader is doing is getting their information by literally talking to said figures in history and read books about them to know what them personally)

Or just out of spite (Cause sometimes your tired of being the ‘Bigger Person’ and you just wanna go ‘Screw It!’), if Daley!Reader gets annoyed with certain House Wardens or Students for their bragging about their skills, they literally bring one of the Statues of the Great Seven to life to get some help on giving a ‘Certain Someone’ a ‘Taste of their own medicine’ (Earning the Respect of Each Great Seven Statue on what Reader does to one-up, Minus Malleus, as Reader actually want Maleficent’s help to impress their Mysterious Friend, and she helps, but mistakes Reader’s friendship ‘Tips’ with some Custom Fae Rituals to wing Malleus over, it works, but they freak out because Malleus ‘Accepts Them’ as his future spouse) Like Azul cons them eh? Gets help from the Ursula to con him back, or Vil going on about Poison and Beauty, gets help from the Fair Queen to make her signature Poison Apple (Shocking Vil, Rook and Epel, but Rook is the only one ugly crying about the beauty of it) and don’t get me started on Hades, as Daley!Reader doesn’t have any issues with Idia (yet), but wants to be his friend, so asks Hades what to do (He’s shocked by Idia’s Social Anxiety, but makes a few jokes about it, and recommends Reader to give Idia some Pomegranate Flavored things, cue Reader buying him Pomegranate Flavored Energy Drinks, Candies, Snacks and just straight up gives him the fruit for actual Sustenance)

- Another Add on to the Magical Tablet thing, because they’re in a world full of Magic, the Tablet doesn’t just bring statues to life at night, but also in the daytime, however it has a radius of the Entire NRC Building, so as long as these figures don’t step outside of NRC Building Grounds in the Daytime, they won’t turn to dust (They are however able to step outside when it’s nighttime, they just just have to come back before daybreak, like the classic Museum Rules) as one of the figures stepped out and they just turned into a pile of ash right in front of their eyes, which honestly traumatized everyone who witnessed this as they didn’t think Daley!Reader was serious when they said they’ll turn to a pile of ash)

You can ignore this if you want (These were in my notes for MONTHS and I forgot about them) I just wanted to send them to you because these were thoughts

THESE ARE ALL SUCH GOOD IDEAS OMG!?

- Yes, the Daley! Reader definetly gets super high grades in history because it interests them more but imagine them not only talking to the Great Seven statues but also, they explore the school archives and such and are constantly asking questions and whatever and Ace and Deuce think they're a dork but in a sweet silly little way.

- and the magical tablet concept is cool! I like the idea that because its surrounded by magic that it works 24/7 but I just prefer it to be with the theme of like, happening at night because 9f the movie.

- THEM BRINGING HISTORICAL FIGURES TO LIFE TO MESS WITH THE NRC KIDS IS SO FUNNY. THAT'S LIKE BRINGING BACK ARISTOTLE BECAUSE SOME KID WAS BRAGGING ABOUT GETTING A HIGHER SCORE THAN YOU ON A TEST OR SOMETHING GJWJFJEJFJ-

#twisted night at the museum au

[lotusmi]

hey lotusmi! i am the shifter and yes i would love to teach you but i will just make a separate post about it if i feel comfortable sharing this with you guys because what i have learned is basic so i will be shifting again and go there and learn new stuff. but before that i would like to tell you and all the other people that shifting is so easy like you can do it within a second actually and i have done that. its not only about shifting to new places but also learning new things which are similar to this world but really interesting. like this is a real example i am gonna talk about so in this world we have biology and in that we only know half of the stuff like 30% of the nature and stuff but the world i have shifted they talk about in-depth like 70% of biology stuff like omfg my brain just went somewhere else... they have weird names like "ethraplado" idk what that shit is that but its an hormone of something like seed germination were we have gibberellin (if you biology student you know it i guess?) but in here they talk about gibberellin and ethraplado? like idk what to believe it was whole another level. when i came to this reality and searched that word it wasn't there? so i was confused whether to believe it or not because that was crazy! i have shifted to world there which they talk about "180th sense" but we all know we only have 5 senses (touch, smell, hear, taste, sight) but in that world they have 180 senses of a human body!!!! like i was shocked i screamed in that world- and ran away cuz whatever they taught i just don't get it!!! i want to tell you guys that there are secrets outside the world which they have found out that we didnt so imagine if we just go to another world and know some of the stuff that "in" this world people dont know and we share this information in this world and they believe it? imagine that? lol that what i have been imagining cuz this would break the world honestly... like to know your opinions here guys?

"shifting is so easy like you can do it within a second actually and i have done that." this is so beautiful, anon! tysm for remembering us of that <3

And wwoww the 180 senses is ssssssssoo coool omg!!!!!!!!

Those secrets made me so excited and curious lmaoo😭I don't even can imagine how people would act. I think your name would be in the history just like Galileu Galilei and Einstein.

It's soo weird to imagine that there are a lot of things we still don't know!!

#shifting success #shifting motivation #shifting

[thetypedwriter]

Babel Book Review

Babel Book Review by R.F. Kuang

This book was so incredibly impressive in multiple ways. I was blown away by Kuang’s sheer amount of research in terms of history, etymology, linguistics, and sociology. There were so many aspects of this novel that required her to dig deeper into subjects and Babel is an incredible display of her hard work and effort (and PHD’s). 

Babel tells the story of a young boy who is taken from his home in Canton and trained by Professor Lovell in England. Given a new name, Robin Swift, the best tutors, and a strict schedule that dominates his childhood, Robin is forced to forget his home and dead family in order to assimilate into White British society, a society that sees him as foreign and less than human, even as they rely on his Cantonese in order to power their city. 

Blending realistic, brutal history of the British empire—bloody politics and colonialism included—with the magical element of silver bars and silver-working, Kuang creates a beautiful blend of accuracy and the fantastic. In this world she’s created, silver working is birthed through what is lost in translation, requiring different languages and people who deeply understand it. 

The effects of this translation are magical bars that can be imbued with a variety of purposes like making carts go faster, ships sail smoother, and teapots stay hot—only if you can afford it, of course. 

Robin’s childhood is stained with memories of Professor Lovell’s cold shoulder, violent temper, and reticence to admit that Robin is actually his son. With Lovell looming over him, Robin is relieved when he’s old enough to attend Oxford as a Babbler, a revered translator. 

A good portion of the book details Robin’s stay at Oxford, including his studies with his other cohort members: Ramy, Victoire, and Letty. 

I could argue that this section was a bit long, where we have chapters upon chapters of Robin attending classes, dreaded school functions, mundane translation work, or spending time with one of his friends but overall, I enjoyed it. 

This is where Kuang focuses a lot of energy and pages to linguistics, building her world and magic system of silver bars, and developing the relationships between Robin and the others. These chapters are also steeped in history, with several of them almost coming across like a textbook. 

Again, if this sounds boring, it wasn’t. I found the historical recounting of the British empire a fascinating subject when used in conjunction with the silver bars and Robin’s eventual epiphany of his own situation and latent childhood cruelty. 

Some much needed spice came in the form of Griffin and the Hermes Society. Griffin, it turns out, is Robin’s half-older brother and also an unnamed heir of Professor Lovell. 

He is a part of a rebel organization whose purpose is to destroy Babel, stop the pillaging of other languages for Britain’s greed and pleasure, and eventually, to change the course of history by dismantling war plans between China and England. 

I could go on and on by summarizing the rest of the book (which would contain massive spoilers), but the ending focuses on Robin and his friends going to Canton themselves, witnessing the British trying to get the Chinese addicted to opium, a harsh death that leads Robin and his cohort to join the Hermes society, and then a fight against the empire itself as Robin and his rag-tag survivors destroy Babel within in order to bring Britain to its knees and leave Canton alone for good. 

The plot of this book itself was solid. I don’t say fantastic because there was never at any point where I was truly shocked or blown away by a surprise twist or revelation. The characters you think will die, do die, and the characters that seem suspicious of betrayal, do in fact betray others. 

This would be a criticism of obvious expectations, but I don’t think astonishing was what Kuang was going for. I think she was going for more of a streamlined story in which, yes, the white girl does feel slighted and must take action in order to save herself.

 I did like the occasional separate POV’s that would explain a character’s backstory and motivation, but in general, Kuang was trying to tell a realistic story and she did, including adding historical footnotes, remarks on translation, and word definitions that I found fascinating, if a bit obtuse. 

Setting wise, Oxford was brilliant. You can tell that Kuang is half in love with Oxford, which makes for very pleasurable reading. As I studied abroad there myself, it was very nostalgic and lovely to read about its cobblestone streets and spires glinting in the moonlight. 

My biggest gripe with the book are its characters. They’re not bad, not by any stretch of 

the imagination, but none of them felt very fleshed out either. The only character I found myself really understanding and relating to was Robin, as we spend the entire book in his head. I found Robin to be a sweet, tortured soul who took us on a riveting journey of self-discovery and eventual, brutal revolution. 

All the remaining characters in the book were fine, but I never felt like I knew them on any grounds. It annoyed me when Kuang would have a paragraph or two every other chapter discussing how much Robin loved his cohort members and list off random things about them, like how Victoire preferred her tea or how Ramy acted in the morning. These idiosyncrasies should have been shown to me, not told. 

The book would have been at least a third longer if Kuang had truly tried to develop the characters naturally in a way where their connections felt believable and organic, so I understand why she didn’t, but it comes at the cost of having shallow characters with little depth and minimal attachments to the reader. When several characters died, I didn’t bat an eye. 

I teared up slightly when Robin was miserable in prison, but the deaths of others? Not a blink. 

While I understand that Kuang’s focus was more on the history, sociology, and linguistics, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, by shafting the characters, it does make this a good book rather than an exceptional one. 

For me, a very character-driven reader, no matter how stunning the research and backdrop of your novel, if you don’t have strong characters to pull the reader through, it will never amount to a book I would consider great. 

However, that being said, I really enjoyed this book for what it was and the information it contained, even though we never learned Robin Swift’s real name. It was a very different read than the novels I’ve been ingesting lately, coming across as refreshing and informative. 

I really enjoyed the book, despite not having attachments to characters, because of all that I learned and the lens of history it offered. 

Recommendation: If you like history, revolution, languages, and magic, this is your book. If you wanted a different perspective on the fall of the British empire mixed in with fantastical silver bars, you will find nothing more polished or better explained than Babel. If history bores you, the world and characters will not be enough to pull you through to the end. But as a lover of history and different perspectives, I bolted down Babel and cherished how much I learned in the process. 

“Language was always the companion of the empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.” —Antonio De Nebrija 

Score: 7/10

#babel #rf kuang #oxford #translation #linguistics #historical fiction #book blog #book #book review #favorite books #books #Book Recommendations #book rec #book recs #Popular Books #popular fiction #book analysis #Book Aesthetic #7/10

[mihai-florescu]

i also told half my friends about that poll and it was like, kind of doubly insulting of a comparison because i watched II when i was like 13 and am actually familiar with it. and it getting so many votes was kinda shocking to me (beyond the size/prominence of enstars' fandom playing a part) because 1. i still thought object shows were relatively niche or obscure and didnt know there were enough fans to give it so many votes in the first place and 2. the entire story is constructed so badly that there isn't even like a story to talk about. if you asked me about the plot of II i'd have to explain the history behind its existence and then how there is no concrete plot because the writers are hobbyists who don't know how to make a comprehensive story. it's so bad, it was already bad enough but then sometime way in they introduced a plotline about a corn version of steve jobs stealing alien eggs to fuel his iphone production line. his name is steve cobbs. this was meant to be a total drama esque show, what are the writers on?

anyway i dont have to explain to you how greatly interesting wataei is but i hope you know my pain at that poll. discussing enstars is getting to talk about themes and ideas and how they interplay and contrast and parallel between characters, it's stuff you can chew on. discussing inanimate insanity is just talking about the 3 simultaneous ideas they had for a show that they tried to write and failed horribly each on an individual level and also it all just clashing egregiously in tone. they wrote an entire spinoff alternative show because they knew they couldn't salvage it and were sick of making it.

so yeah even as a former fan of inanimate insanity in my childhood they just ... it's not a comparison you can meaningfully make, it's like comparing a delicious pudding to nickelodeon gak. you can do it but what's the point? they aren't the same thing, you have to talk about each in a totally different way.

also lightbrush isn't even canon because there are no romance plotlines in II (thank god). i really shouldnt have felt so strongly about the poll as i did

It's all such a fever dream of an event... but i somehow feel like the enstars fandom on tumblr is very small compared to other social medias (good. Well, either this or i live in my beautiful bubble of very lovely followers & very lovely people i follow. It's most likely the latter). Yet i cant imagine it's smaller than the ii one... but i remember it breached containment and ii fans were promoting it on twitter. At some point it became less of a "looking at it objectively" and more of a "we should win because...we should?" on both sides. For us it actually made sense tho. Were the lightbrush fans writing thousands of words and bringing dozens of screenshots to compile a measly showcase of maybe 10% of their ship's canon relevancy like i was? (Or we were, probably, i dont think i was the only one but i only focused on doing My Part, didnt really look at what others were doing. My discord name is still "brave wataei warrior" to this day after that event) No. They couldnt. We all knew that. Which is why the whole thing was baffling and infuriating. They just wanted to win for the sake of winning something despite the objective evidence. Haha lack of objectivity in the object show fandom *badum tss* thank you thank you im here all day.

#ask #ei-mugi

[averagewriter-inthedark]

Onyx Eyes & Spooky Antiques | Rhett Abbott Imagine | Outer Range x Addams Family

Contains light spoilers to Netflix’s ‘Wednesday’

My Masterlists

Characters & Pairings: Rhett Abbott x Persephone Addams!OC (Romantic), The Abbott Family, The Addams Family, Maria Olivares

Content Warnings: fluff, morbid sense of humor (typical Addams family style), slight profanity, slight spoilers for ‘Wednesday’, bullying and slight animal cruelty. Cannon divergence | Female OC (she/her) | Wc: 9k

Premise: Returning to Wabang with a broken heart, Rhett Abbott longed to be able to open up to someone without history repeating itself. When his niece, Amy, requests out of the blue to go to a antique store he had yet to discover, the familiar name attached to it has him thinking back to his high school days. Now ten years after wondering what happened to the oldest daughter of Wabang’s most peculiar family, Rhett gets his answers…and possibly something more along the way.

Note: omg I don’t know why this came to mind, but after binging ‘Wednesday’ and hyper-fixating on Rhett Abbott and Top Gun lately I just wanna do a Addams family crossover series/dribbles. This was in my head for at least a good day before I got to writing it and it’s probably one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. I hope y’all enjoy and just know there is some cannon divergence to fit the narrative. Let me know if yall liked this because I’m thinking of doing a whole Drabble list of my Addams!OC x Rhett Abbott (like Rhett meeting the Addams family, his reacting to the relationship, Maria returning, etc) if this gets well received. 🥺

———————————————

“Can you take me to Addams Antiques, Uncle Rhett?” The plate Rhett was washing nearly slipped from his hands. With wide eyes he turned to his side to find Amy holding out her own plate with puppy dog eyes. In his head he thought, ‘did I hear her right?’

“Run that by me again.”

She gave a sound that resembled an annoyed sigh, “Can you please take me to Addams Antiques? It’s over by the farmers market grandma is always going to after church.”

“I don’t remember that being there months ago,” Rhett mumbled, drying the plate before placing it on the dish rack and taking the one from Amy. It had been about a month since Rhett returned home after the shit show that was his relationship with Maria. After years of harboring a crush on her, Rhett thought he finally got the chance he was dreaming of.

But it didn’t go as planned. Now he was stuck home again, bull riding his way to make enough money to leave and helping his parents with the ranch. What he enjoyed the most being back was getting to spend time with Amy. She had updated him on all that was new in town and what he missed when he was gone. Hearing there was an antique store sharing a familiar name he hadn’t heard in a long time was something new.

Though Adams with one ‘d’ was a common last name, Rhett only knew of one family who spelled it with two. The Addams family, who lived on the outskirts of town in the middle of nowhere between the hills and mountains—closed off from the rest of civilization. None of the locals dared to travel close to their spooky mansion that seemed to have its own fog surrounding it along with their private graveyard.

The Addams family had moved to the small town of Wabang over ten years earlier. A wealthy family, they invested in several businesses and owned many of their own including the town’s funeral home and floral shop (which only sold bouquets in the color palette of red, white, black, and grey).

Their appearance was a shock to the many generations of residents who were put off by their gothic style and peculiarity views of life. Rumors immediately spread upon their arrival: that their butler was actually Frankenstien’s monster, that the uncle was a wanted fugitive. Many were certain their fountain of wealth came from dirty money that the father Gomez was involved in. His pinstriped suit and cigar hanging from his mouth made him look like a gangster from the 20s. Women, envious of the beautiful Morticia, voiced her to be a vampire or witch who cursed people that disrespected the family.

They might be right with their suspicions—considering when a drifter attempted to cop a feel on her and began having a seizure.

Gomez and Morticia were the couple everyone in Wabang looked at with distaste yet silently admired. Everyone saw how genuine their love was for each other and their family. Gomez worshiped the ground Morticia walked on, and Morticia always looked at Gomez as though it was the first time she saw him.

Then there were the children. Three very odd children who were known to say or do things that were unorthodox to the conversative townsfolk. The youngest, Puglsey, seemed to always wear a striped t-shirt and shorts who enjoyed vandalism and partaking in whatever his sister Wednesday was up to. Wednesday, the middle child and youngest daughter, was never seen without her long black pigtails and stone cold face. Her monotone voice and habit of saying the most morbid things scared away kids her age—not that she minded, in fact, she enjoyed scaring them. A prodigy on the cello, Wednesday was asked to play for the high school when she was still an elementary student….until she was kicked off for setting fire to the band room at practice when the kids stole her music sheets to sabotage her.

Lastly there was the oldest, Persephone. Named after the Greek beauty herself. She was ten years older than Wednesday and twelve older than Pugsley. Like her siblings, Persephone was pale with straight black hair that fell above her shoulders and plump dusty rose lips she often painted with blood red lipstick. Cheekbones high with jawlines that could cut through wood. She stood out like a sore thumb in school with her black attire that contained lace, leather, skulls, roses, and all things dark. At school she mostly kept to herself, hiding away in the library or the art room during study hall and lunch. People snickered as they would pass her, write ‘freak’ in sharpie on her locker, or gave looks of distaste.

Persephone never paid any mind to them. She never gave the attention they desired which only made them more frustrated. Hardly would she speak to anyone, save for the teachers, but every now and then she’d make a witty comeback to whoever insulted her which left the entire classroom speechless. Like when Destiny Samuels told her she looked like she was always dressed for a funeral and Persephone, deadpan, went, “I’m practicing for when I attend yours.”

Destiny never made eye contact with her ever again.

Rhett remembered Persephone. She transferred to the high school at the beginning of his junior year and was already far ahead than most in their class. At no point would Rhett consider her a friend or even an acquaintance. The only time he ever found himself close in proximity with Persephone was when they sat next to each other in Spanish—though he couldn’t remember ever seeing her do class work because it was learned quickly that Spanish was her native tongue and spoke in full conversations with the teacher rather than partake in the lecture. Then one time Rhett was passing the French classroom during free period and overheard her speaking full French with the teacher.

The week later, Rhett was serving detention and had to clean out the gym where he found Persephone in a heated fencing duel with a person he’d never seen before. Turns out, it was her private coach and Persephone was training to take home the national title.

She did, not allowing her opponent to get a single point in. The news came with her face plastered on every newspaper in the state. To the surprise of everyone, Persephone donated her earnings to the elementary school for new computers and library books. Not too long after, once people got over their jealousy, parents were—with hesitance— approaching Persephone to ask for fencing lessons for their children.

And you can best believe she charged high prices.

There were two times where Rhett Abbott exchanged words with Persephone Addams. The first happened when Persephone was purposely bumped into by Maria and her crew—the group giggling as the contents in Persephone’s hands spilled to the ground. At the time Rhett was sporting a massive crush on Maria and was going to ignore the situation like everyone else, but something in his head told him he’d feel guilty—and his momma raised him better than that. Even if she thought the same of the Addams family as the whole town.

So when Rhett knelt down to help gather some pages that scattered, he saw the visible reaction of Persephone, who paused slightly before shuffling through her bag to throw in pens and markers. Not a word was spoken as the two cleaned up the mess. Rhett was careful to not accidentally tear the papers, which he recognized as some of her artwork. It was all done in charcoal and oils—mostly consisting of spiders, snakes, graveyards, castles, with a few portraits of historical figures and her family. Rhett couldn’t help but let his eyes linger. They were beautiful.

“These are really good,” he said before he could stop himself. The words have Persephone still, finally looking up to him after keeping her head down the entire time. Here Rhett was able to get a better look at her face and he felt the air catch in his throat.

She was mesmerizing.

In class Rhett only ever saw her side profile which was often concealed by her dark hair or scarf. Now it was less than five feet from him and clear as day. There was not a blemish in sight on her pale skin and the contours of her cheeks were what models strived for. Her eyes were nearly black like onyx and accentuated by the eyeliner framing them with thick long lashes that gave her an almost doll-like appearance. It was like she was a character from a Tim Burton movie.

“Thank you,” even her voice was haunting and sensual. The simple phrase sends chills down Rhett’s arms. “And thank you…for helping me. That was very kind of you.”

Rhett forgot how to think, blinking rapidly as he began to stutter, “U-uh, yeah-yeah. No problem.” He extended his hand holding the drawings, watching her own reach out to take them. Her manicured nails were painted the same color as her lips, blood red. Rhett flinched as a spark of electricity coursed through him when her finger brushed over his. When he looked up, she was frozen in a daze. Rhett frowned, confusion filling him as he snapped his fingers in front of her only to be met with no reaction.

It was like she was a robot that lost its battery.

Suddenly he was jumping back when she rapidly blinked. “Sorry!” She said, quickly snatching the papers and closing them into a random book before gathering the rest of her belongings. Standing up in a rush, Persephone turned on her heel and rushed down the hall to the class she was now late to. Rhett was left crouching on the ground, a pink hue to the top of his ears as he tried to wrap his head around what happened. People were looking at him like, ‘were you really talking to the Addams freak?’ Not liking the looks, Rhett scurried off to his class—knowing it was going to be the talk of the school for the rest of the week.

And it did…ending horribly. Well not for Rhett, per say, but for Persephone.

Words spread like wildfire in Wabang and the high school was usually at the center of it. So when the news of Rhett helping Persephone Addams broke, followed by a classmate catching sight of a portrait she drew of him, some people found it as bait.

Especially Maria.

Maria saw it as an opportunity to poke fun at the oldest Addams. Even though it was well known Persephone was a loner at school, it didn’t stop people, especially Maria, from being envious of her. Persephone was naturally beautiful, a prodigy in fencing and the arts, intelligent to the point where teachers hardly gave her class work because she already knew the material inside and out and didn’t give a fuck about what others thought of her.

Getting attention from Rhett and possibly having a crush on him was enough to fuel the fire slowly burning in Maria.

And so the Friday before spring break of their junior year, Maria gathered her friends and broke into Persephone’s locker during their study hall while she was in her AP English class. To their shock, not only was the locker filled with plants, but also found a large grey rat in a cage running on a wheel perched on the top shelf. “She is the type to have weird pets,” Maria cringed, taking the cage in her hands while someone ripped the vines and flowers from their pots. Finally they spotted the black leather bound book they figured was her sketchbook and snatched it.

When Rhett exited his U.S History class that afternoon, the sound of laughter coming from the next hallway drew his attention. People had their phones out and were taking pictures or video recording. “Damn, did you see the look on her face!” He heard someone laugh. “I knew she had a crush on Abbott—I caught her eye fucking him the other day in Spanish.” As he came around the corner Rhett froze at a horrible sight.

Not only was Persephone covered in a red slushie, but several of her drawings were torn to pieces and hanging on the lockers. Rhett spotted Maria on the opposite side, holding her stomach from how hard she was laughing while her friends mirrored her on either side. Then his eyes drifted over to what Maria had in her hand, recognizing the style of charcoal in the portrait. His own face stared back at him.

Persephone had drawn him. The only color being that of his cerulean eyes in contrast to the black and grey of his visage. It was so detailed it was like he was staring in a mirror.

He couldn’t even react because soon the situation took a darker turn when something dropped from the ceiling, hanging in front of Persephone so it was eye level. It was a lifeless grey rat.

“Should’ve known a freak like you would keep rats for pets, Addams,” Maria snickered, watching as the teen’s eyes widened as it stared back into the dead eyes of their pet. “I bet you even have his grave plot reserved at home. Huh?” Maria crumbled the drawing in her hand, throwing it at Persephone which ended up hitting the rat causing it to hit her in the face. It sent another wave of laughter through the crowd. “Oh and forget about that little crush of yours. No one in this town will ever get with a freak like you. Enjoy your spring break—have fun burying your pet.”

Everyone dispersed after that, leaving Persephone—save for Rhett—in the middle of the hall. Shaky hands came up to wipe the residue on her face before gently taking the rat in her hands. Rhett waited until everyone was gone, ignoring the way people clapped him on the back with the snide, ‘go get your girl, Abbott,’ before walking up to Persephone.

She didn’t look at him, keeping her head down to gaze at the dead rat, running a finger over his neck to find it crushed. Rhett picked up the crumbled paper, unraveling it to reveal the drawing of him. When she didn’t react, Rhett took it upon himself to remove the torn pieces of the artwork off the walls. They were the same ones he saw that monday along with a few others he assumed were new.

Anger filled him, furious at Maria and the entire school for committing such a cruel act. The drawings were not only torn but also marked with sharpie with the words, ‘freak,’ and ‘witch.’ There was even a drawing of a stick figure tied to what appeared to be a stake. What the fuck was wrong with people? And to kill a rat and throw a slushie on Persephone to humiliate her? How could anyone condone that when she did nothing to them.

“Hey,” he approached her when he got all the pieces. Her dark hair glistened under the light from the liquid, red staining her face and neck. It just so happened Persephone was wearing a white dress that day under her blazer so the fabric was now ruined. Black streaks streamed down her face as a result of the eyeliner she was wearing. Rhett felt his heart clench, sympathy overtaking his anger. “I-I I’m so sorry. Uh-I had no idea—t-that Maria would do—.”

“Not your fault,” she cut him off gently. Rhett watched in silence as she took the cage sticking out of the trash can to place her rat in before placing it to the ground. Without looking at him, Persephone took the papers and discarded the torn pieces, keeping the crumbled one of him in her hand. Next thing Rhett knew she was handing it to him, “Here. You can have this. Unless you find it weird and then you can throw it away. I don’t mind whatever you choose.” And so she stood with her hand out, waiting for Rhett to take it from her.

He wasn’t sure what to think. Part of him felt confused as to why she felt the need to draw him, another part of him a weird feeling of warmth. Hardly any girls ever paid attention to him. With a slight blush, Rhett gently took the sketch—trying not to react as another spark of electricity hit him when their fingers touched, however Persephone did as a pink hue appeared on the apples of her cheeks.

Finally she met his eyes. Onyx meeting blue. And Rhett frowned at the sight of water lining her eyes. On Monday when Maria had deliberately pushed her, she was obviously annoyed but remained stoic. Here, Pesephone’s face was tight, showing it took everything in her not to become emotional.

“Thank you for all your help,” she whispered, bottom lip trembling as she gulped. “Have a lovely spring break, Rhett.” And again, she was gone before he could get another word out—gripping the cage and her bag in either hand and speeding out the nearest exit.

That was the last time Rhett saw Persephone Addams.

After spring break Rhett was back in school and the first thing he noticed was the empty seat beside him in Spanish class. It didn’t concern him, for sometimes Persephone would spend the period in the library since she already spoke the language. But then Tuesday it was empty again—and Maria was gone too. And then Wednesday. Finally on Thursday, Rhett got the answer to why Persephone and Maria were a no show all week.

“You didn’t hear?” Travis Coleson from his Chemistry asked with wide eyes. Rhett just gave him a look that read, ‘I wouldn’t have asked if I did.’ In response, Travis scotched over and leaned in to whisper so the teacher couldn’t hear. “On Monday during Mrs. Parker's third period, Addams waltzed in—mind you she doesn’t have that class at all—and slammed Maria’s head to the desk. Then the psycho dropped a black widow spider onto her face! It bit her on the cheek from what I heard and they had to call an ambulance.”

Rhett couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “Holy fuck,” he muttered, bringing a hand to caress his jaw. His thoughts were swarming. On one hand he felt a little bad for Maria—mostly because he for some odd reason still had a crush on her—but on another felt she deserved it after the stunt she pulled. Although, ending up in the hospital is a tad bit far. “Is um— they okay?”

Travis made a face at the question, “well besides being traumatized and having a large red spot on her face, Maria is just dainty,” he spoke with obvious sarcasm. “Addams on the other hand got expelled. Last I heard my folks caught sight of their family car leaving town Tuesday and returnin’ this mornin’—but no sign of Persephone. Rumor is they sent her to some boarding school out of state.”

Rhett frowned at the news, licking his lip as he turned away from Travis deep in thought. There was an odd feeling in his stomach—one he had trouble describing. It carried with him all day, turning into nausea when he spotted Maria hiding in the corner of the cafeteria with her friends—a large bandage covering her cheeks. She looked tired with red puffy eyes as if she had been crying for a long time.

The rest of the year Rhett never saw Persephone Addams. Then one year became two, and soon they added on till he lost count. While he never forgot Persephone, Rhett no longer found himself thinking about her after that first year. On occasion he wondered how she was doing whenever his parents brought the Addams family up. Especially when a new business opened that was attached to their name. “Maybe you should try getting a part-time job at that liquor store over by the tobacco shop, Perry,” Cecilia said one random dinner when Rhett was twenty. It made everyone—minus Amy—stop eating and look at her incredulously.

“That’s the ones owned by the Addams family, ma.”

“I know,” she shrugged, trying not to show any sign of aversion. Rhett looked in between his parents with raised brows, commenting, “thought you didn’t like them, ma.”

Cecilia scoffed at the accusation, though it was obvious there was some bit of truth to it. “It’s not that I don’t like them, Rhett. I just find them….odd, like everyone else in this town. But I do respect and appreciate all they’ve done—like the fact they donate to the schools and the one shelter.”

“Maybe ‘cause no one else is selfless enough to do so,” Rhett muttered under his breath, glaring when Perry kicked him under the table in warning.

That was the last time the Addams family was brought up. Flash forward to 26-year-old Rhett and the thought of Persephone Addams vanished when Maria returned to his life. Something he hoped was permanent, but in reality was a complete and utter failure. Now his niece is staring up with him with puppy eyes, begging to go to an antique store opened by the Addams.

“It opened up while you was in Bozeman,” Amy told him, handing Rhett the utensils when his hand extended for them. “Right beside it is their book store—they’re basically connected and you can enter one and exit the other without going outside.”

“Wow,” Rhett said, putting the last dishes on the rack before washing his hands. “When you start gettin’ interested in antiques?”

Amy gave a small shrug, “Grandma was over at the farmers market and I wondered over there. Saw this cool clock in the window and wanted a closer look. It’s pretty cool—spooky and weird, but cool. And the lady who works there is cool too.”

“Really?” Rhett chuckled at his niece. “Do I know her?” He thought hard at the type of people who often took up the jobs at the Addams businesses. The only one Rhett knew of that the family ran themselves was the funeral home. Other than that, high schoolers took on summer jobs when they were desperate for money or teachers worked the weekends to make a little extra for the month.

“No, I don’t think so. I ain’t seen her round before until that day. She’s pretty and looks about your age—you’d definitely like her, uncle Rhett.” He gave his niece a knowing look, but she just smiled back. “Though, I don’t think the same would be said for her.”

Rhett made a sound of offense, playfully pushing her. “Are you dissing my game, little miss?” Amy giggled, pushing him back. “I’d be careful what you say, otherwise you can find someone else to drive you.” Immediately the girl pouted, which made Rhett chuckle, “I’m just teasin’. Go get your shoes, we’ll leave in five.”

With a squeal, Amy ran out of the kitchen to get her things leaving Rhett to finish cleaning up. Once he was done he gathered his shoes, keys, wallet, and hat before meeting Amy at the door. It was just past noon and the town was not too crowded by the townsfolk with many shopping at the farmers market and stores. Rhett found a spot to park his truck and the two hopped out with the man following behind Amy as she sped to the door of a two story brick building, painted black, that read in iron letters, ‘Les Antiquítes de la Famille Addams,’ beside it was a similar building, only it read, ‘La Biblioteca de Clásicos y Misterios de la Familia Addams.’

“Is that…French and Spanish?” Rhett asked his niece, who already had her hand on the iron door knob.

“Yup,” she emphasized the ‘p’ with a pop. “Now c’mon. I wanna see if they got anythin’ new in since last time I was here.” A jingle sounded above them, indicating to whoever was there that someone was entering the store. Rhett froze after gently closing the door, eyes scanning the scene before him.

It was unlike any antique store Rhett had been in. The color palette was like any business related to the Addams family with a vintage gothic aesthetic to its core. It definitely gave off an eerie feel, but it was beautiful. There was an iron chandelier hanging from the ceiling surrounded by melted floating candles. Clocks made of various metals and materials took up the space of an entire wall above the windows. Shelves stacked the many clear bookcases holding delicate china, porcelain dolls, and games that looked to be straight out of the 1920s. And like most antique stores it was laid out like a maze. Already Rhett had lost sight of his niece.

“Amy?” He gently shouted, careful not to scare anyone who could be lurking. As he took a few steps forward Rhett noticed the large opening to his right which should’ve been a wall but instead led to the conjoining book store. It had the same style and layout it could pass as an extension to the antique store—only it held strictly books.

“Back here!” Her voice called out in the distance. Rhett followed the sound, careful not to bump into anything and possibly destroy the items. The last thing he needed was to spend hundreds on irreplaceable artifacts.

When he found Amy, Rhett was confused to see her perched on a barstool in what appeared to be the back room. Doing a double take, checking to see where the worker was, Rhett peaked his head in, “Uh Ames, what’re you doing back here? This is the back room.”

“I know,” she told him, adjusting her position on the stool. “I’m waiting for Ms. Percy to show me her ring collection.” Something in Rhett’s stomach tightened at the name, “M-Ms. Percy?”

“Yes,” the sultry voice sounded behind him, causing Rhett to spin suddenly only to freeze as those onyx eyes stared back at him. Matching black hair framed her pale face ending at the top of her shoulders. The little bit of baby fat she had in high school had vanished, leaving sharp cheekbones with a grey hue to accentuate the contours of her face. Blood painted her lips, which were parted in a small smile showcasing pearly white teeth that people would spend hundreds on to have.

Rhett was speechless. Not only at the sight of Persephone Addams in front of him—still as captivating as ever—but the fact there was a baby girl perched on her hip. They both wore black, though Persephone’s was leather compared to the baby’s cotton onesie. While the baby had a black bow tied into her mop of black hair, Persephone donned a pillbox hat with lace falling down to cover her forehead and one of her eyes.

The baby, who looked to be not even a year old, was a spitting image of the woman holding her. There was no doubt she was Persephone’s daughter. His eyes betrayed him because immediately Rhett was pitching a glance to her hands, finding no diamond ring nor wedding band. There was only a snake ring looped around her left middle finger, with a black pearl on her right index. Rhett did notice the tattoos that coated her fingers and hands, some even crept up on the visible skin of her neck. Speaking of her neck, it was layered with various silver necklaces—including the letter ‘D’ on one.

“Hello, Rhett,” she snapped him from his daydream, no doubt pink coating his ears at the fact he was caught checking her out. Rhett scratched the back of his neck, becoming more flustered when her eyes flickered up and down—doing the same to him. “How nice to see you after all these years.”

“Persephone,” was all he could say, tipping his hat slightly in greeting. He wasn’t expecting to see the oldest Addams child after nearly a decade. The last time they were 16 and Persephone was covered in red slushie with streaking eyeliner. Now she was a grown woman—a mother as one could assume by the baby on her arm.

“You look good,” she complimented, not missing the way his cheeks flushed. “How long has it been? Ten years, give or take?” The man nodded, causing her to smirk. There was no doubt she knew of the effect she had on him. Although most people crossed the street to avoid Persephone, she always caught the way their eyes lingered. Before a morbid comment could scare them off, their attraction was as obvious as the sky was blue. “Once I left that hellhole that was—oh I shouldn’t call it that,” she sighed, “Hell I would actually enjoy, but you get what I’m saying, right?”

“Uhh—.”

“Did you find it, Ms. Percy?” Amy interrupted the moment, making Rhett turn to give her a slight glare. The girl shrugged with innocence, smiling when Persephone peered behind her uncle.

“Oh yes, darling, I did. Excuse me, Rhett.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled, stepping back only to run into the edge of the doorway. Persephone smiled, squeezing past him to get in the room. It was then he noticed a velvet box in her free hand not holding her baby. Persephone placed the box on the desk before stepping around to sit in the vintage leather chair and perching the child in her lap causing her to babble and reach for anything on the table. The sight made Rhett smile.

“Now,” Persephone opened the velvet box to reveal a matching cushion holding an array of different rings. Some had gems, some were made of metals with lucrative designs. Almost all gave signs they were worth a lot of money. Persephone removed a golden one that had a large emerald in the middle surrounded by black diamonds. “This is one of my personal favorites. It belonged to one of the First Lady’s.”

“Woah,” Amy breathed, taking the ring as Persephone handed it to her. “Which First Lady?” Rhett moved closer, leaning against the wall beside the desk. He too was curious to know.

“Wednesday wouldn’t tell me,” she sighed, adjusting the bow on her daughter's head. “It was a gift from her on one of her many grave robbing adventures when we visited Virginia.” Rhett’s eyes widened at how nonchalant Persephone’s words were. His gaze snapped to Amy, who seemed unfazed as she admired the ring before handing it back.

Now he wondered just how many times Amy had interacted with Persephone since she returned. It surprised him the girl didn’t react like most would. And on that note, Rhett had a lot of questions he was curious to know.

“What about that one,” Amy pointed to the dazzling ruby ring on the bottom row. Persephone gave a fond smile, removing it from the cushion.

“This one is a good one. It belonged to Anne Boleyn—second wife of Henry the Eighth. She was executed for treason,” Persephone gave a sad look, though it was more in regards to not being alive to witness the event. “This is one of the rings she was wearing as she knelt on the chopping block.”

‘Jesus Christ,’ Rhett thought, but felt a smile creep up. He didn’t know what it was, but he found the whole situation amusing. There was something about Persephone that was endearing. It drew him in. And although he found some of the things she said odd, he wasn’t as put off by it as everyone else. In fact, he wanted to hear more.

One by one Persephone told the story of each ring—becoming slightly more morbid with each. Finally on the last ring, which was stolen by Puglsey and belonged to a French aristocrat that died in war, Persephone noticed how Amy’s lingered a bit longer on it than the others. “Here,” she said, pulling out a small velvet box from the drawer and placing the ring in it, closing it shut to hand to her, “it’s yours.”

A gasped escaped the girl, “I couldn’t possibly—.”

“I insist.” The box was pushed into Amy’s hand. Rhett stepped forward to protest, but Persephone waved a hand to stop him. “Consider it a gift. Amy has been so kind coming to visit me these past several weeks—even helping me organize or clean when the dust becomes too much. It’s the least I can do to thank her.”

Rhett glanced at Amy, who now had a light blush on her cheeks and was smiling at Persephone in gratitude. “What you say, Amy?”

“Thank you,” she said immediately, holding onto the box like it would disappear. “Thank you so much Ms. Percy. I will make sure nothing happens to it.”

Persephone smirked, “I’ll hold you to that.” The baby then made a sound, resulting in Persephone to adjust her so she was cradled to her chest. A hand gently stroked the baby girl’s back and the cries that were about to start soon went away. “Chut, ma petite épine. Nous serons bientôt à la maison.” ‘Hush, my little thorn. We will be home soon.’ A kiss was placed to her head before Persephone turned back to her guests. “My apologies, she gets a little fussy around this hour.”

“It’s not a problem,” Rhett replied with a soft smile. He nodded to the baby girl who’s eyes were fluttering as sleep started to overtake her. “What’s her name? If you don’t mind me askin’.”

“Desdemona.” So that’s what the ‘D’ on the necklace represented. “Mona for short.”

“That’s a pretty name,” he complimented. Never had he met someone with such a rare name. It was like Persephone. Unique and uncommon to hear in the modern day.

“It’s Greek for ill-fated and unfortunate, you may recognize it from the play ‘Othello’,” Persephone said casually, causing Rhett to be slightly taken aback. He recovered as she added, “Fitting for an Addams, don’t you think? After all, my name means ‘bringer of destruction.’”

Amy tilted her head, “I thought it was about the girl who was kidnapped by Hades.”

“That’s what they want you to think,” the woman winked, causing Amy to giggle. Rhett glanced between them, still blown away by how open his niece was at how strange Persephone was. It gave him pride and joy that she wasn’t like everyone else in Wabang. Judgemental to outcasts. She didn’t write the Addams off because they were different and instead found them intriguing.

“‘fore we leave, Ms. Percy, do you mind if I borrow another book?”

“Oh not at all,” Persephone clutched onto Mona as she stood from the chair. “Be my guest and choose whatever you please. Did you enjoy the one I recommended to you last week?”

Amy gave a short nod, hopping off the stool and giving the ring box to Rhett so he could hold it while she explored. “I preferred ‘Carmilla’ but I see why ‘Dracula’ is so talked about.” With that Amy was off to the opposite end of the building that held the book store, leaving Rhett and Persephone alone. With Mona of course, but she was sound asleep.

“She’s reading classics,” Rhett said with bewilderment. “Willingly.” He wondered if Perry and his parents were aware of Amy’s newfound interests. It was difficult to grasp for Rhett, though it sure as hell impressed him. And he damn well knew his mother would have a fit if she caught her granddaughter reading books like Dracula, Frankenstein, and all things spooky at that young an age.

A soft giggle brought him out of his shock. God even Persephone’s laugh sounded like a melody—like a siren singing her song. It made him feel warmth and the desire to hear it again. Fuck why was he acting like a teenager having a crush agian.

Wait, maybe it was a crush. Oh boy.

“Is it so hard to believe young girls would be interested in such?”

“Well, considerin’ me and everyone in high school hated the lessons on said literature…I’d say so, yes.” Something flashed in her eyes at the mention of high school, her smile turning down a bit, causing Rhett to back track at the memory of her drenched in red slushie, “I’m sorry—uh. I shouldn’t have brought up…”

“Please don’t tiptoe around just to spare me from feeling down and depressed, Rhett. I actually enjoy those emotions. Makes me remember I do have a heart.” She flashed a smile, adjusting her arms to make sure the baby was comfortable. There was a distant look in her eyes, as though she was thinking back to a certain time in her life. Rhett bit his lip, contemplating his next words.

“May I ask ya a question then?”

“Of course. I’m an open book. I’ll answer with honesty, Rhett.”

“What exactly happened and uh, where did ya go?”

“You’re referring to when I put a black widow on Maria’s face?” At Rhett’s nod, where he was trying not to react to the confirming truth, Persephone continued. “Well, as you can expect the sheriff was called and her family was furious. They rushed her to the hospital to receive the antidote to combat the venom,” she made a face, turning away, “so dramatic if I say so—they should know there has not been a fatal bite from a black widow on a human since the eighties. All it did was swell her face, make it red, give her abdominal cramps for a few days. It was a baby spider so it didn’t do too much damage.” Her tone implies it was not a big deal. Again, he should find it weird, but was actually impressed.

After a pause, she sighs and meets his eye, “At the station, they wanted to press charges as one does. But fortunately for me, the video of what Maria and her friends did was all over those social media platforms they were addicted to. You know, the ones where they strive for validation from others. Let’s just say Maria and her family were not on board with the idea of her being charged for animal cruelty and harrasment. Especially to the daughter of the family who is the reason Wabang has money. We promised to drop the charges in exchange for them to do the same.”

‘Fair enough.’ He expected that outcome in all honesty. It would not have been fair for Persephone to be punished while Maria got off. The city relied on the donations of the Addams family too much now that the sheriff wouldn’t dare lose that funding.

“Heard ya got expelled.”

“Oh no,” Rhett’s eyes widened in surprise, curious to know the explanation. “That didn’t happen at all—despite how much Maria and the school wanted it to. She would’ve had to be expelled as well. No, I willingly left Wabang High School and my parents sent me to the academy they went to in Vermont.”

“That’s a long way,” Rhett muttered, but she heard him nonetheless.

“Yes, but it was where I belonged. You probably would not understand. The school was…not for everyone. No offense,” she chuckled at the end causing Rhett to do the same. He wondered what kind of school it had to be that someone like him would not fit in.

“None taken.” For a moment the two just stared at each other, the conversation falling to a silence. Rhett, unsure of what to say, felt warmth spread on his cheeks at the eye contact causing him to look away just as Amy was speeding back into the room, “I got something!”

“Wonderful, darling. What sparked your interest this time?” Amy held up the book that looked withered and dated, reading ‘The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales’ by Edgar Allen Poe. Persephone smiled in approval, “A girl after my heart—if you can call it that, of course. Terrific choice, my little Raven.”

“Wasn’t the school you went to named after his poem?” Amy asked, making Rhett look at Persephone with raised brows.

“Why yes. ‘Nevermore’ to be exact. And as you walked the grounds it was as though you were living through the mind of Poe himself.” As she spoke, Rhett’s eyes drifted to the area below her ear that was exposed when Persephone pushed some of her hair back. There were several little black birds tattooed down her neck. How fitting.

“Well, we don’t want to hold ya up,” Rhett spoke when he noticed a customer had entered the shop. He and Persephone locked eyes. “I’ll make sure she gets that book back to ya once she’s done.” It was generous Persephone was letting his niece just take the book free of charge, but Rhett saw how dated it was and assumed it was no doubt an original copy. Actually almost all of the books in the store appeared to be original copies. Surely worth a lot of money.

The woman waved a hand, “There is no rush at all. She may take as long as she pleases.” Together they all walked to the door, Amy thanking Persephone again for the ring and book before rushing to the truck to wait for her uncle. Rhett stayed behind for a moment and when he faced Persephone he was nearly frozen by how beautiful she looked when the sunlight hit her. It threw him off, making him forget what he was about to say.

“Are you alright, Rhett?”

“Uh-yeah-yeah,” he coughed into his hand. “Sorry. I just uh—,” cursing in his head, Rhett tried to man up and say the words he’d been wanting to ask for the past twenty minutes. Usually he had little to no trouble picking up women like the occasional buckle bunny after the rodeo to fuck out the adrenaline he was feeling. He’d go on a date every now and then though it led to nothing. And he was okay with that.

But after Maria everything changed, he was scared to open his heart up again to someone.

Now, standing in front of Persephone Addams, his brain was screaming at him. There was always a small part of him that admired her from afar in high school. A tiny crush that was overshadowed by the one on Maria. Rhett regretted nothing more now than the fact he was so stupid to let his teenage hormonal self desire a girl who cared about no one but herself half the time. When there was someone like Persephone right there.

Finally he mentally kicked himself and manned up. The worst she could do was reject him. Not like he hadn’t experienced that before. Removing his hat, Rhett scrunched his nose and leaned forward, “Would you—would you maybe wanna grab some coffee some time? If you’re available, of course. But if-if you have someone I completely understand.”

He watched as his heart pounded as Peresephone’s lips curled up in a genuine smile. “There is no one.” He internally sighed in relief. She nodded down to Mona, “Her father is not in the picture. Hasn’t been since I was six months pregnant.” That made Rhett frown, upset at the fact she was left alone in her pregnancy and birth of her daughter.

“I’m sorry to hear.”

“Don’t be. He cheated and is now in prison.”

Rhett made an ‘o’ shape with his mouth. “Wow. That’s um…unfortunate.”

Persephone glanced over her shoulder to make sure the customer was nowhere in sight before leaning closer. “Wednesday is one to hold a grudge. I told her she had free reign to ruin his life however she pleased.” She scrunched her nose adding, “Probably should have laid down some ground rules. Having attempted murder on your record is not an accomplishment to some…compared to our family.”

‘Well shit,’ Rhett thought. He could only imagine what the teenager did. And judging by the obvious hint from Persephone, it involved framing someone for attempted murder. What should have had Rhett running away, instead it had him think, ‘Note to self: do not fuck this up.’

“I’ll be sure to not get on her bad side then,” Rhett said, noticing a flash of surprise to take over her expression. It was as though she couldn't believe he still wanted to pursue her. After all, she did just admit her 15-year-old sister put her ex in jail for simply cheating on her. Rhett smirked, “Was that some kind of a warning, I take it?”

Now she mirrored his smirk, liking what he said, “More like a test. You passed.” Rhett placed his hat back on his head, tipping it slightly, “Glad to hear.”

The sound of a bell ringing drew both of their attention, finding the customer: an older lady holding a vintage tea set. Persephone offered a friendly smile, “I will be with you just a moment, ma’am.” She then faces Rhett, “I don’t open the shop until eleven tomorrow and I close at around five. I can meet you either in the morning or afternoon for coffee if you’d like.”

“Tomorrow mornin’ is perfect,” he told her, trying to control the joy he was feeling. “How nine-thirty sound?”

“I’ll be there,” she winked, reaching around him to grab a business card. It had her name, home & cell number, email, and names of the shops on it. “Forgive me if I do not answer you right away if you try to reach me. I am not a fan of technology, but for the sake of family businesses I do my best. I’ll keep my cell phone close by for you.”

Rhett ran his eyes over the information, laughing softly at her and ignoring the butterflies he felt by her last statement. He puts the card in his pocket, “It’s no problem, Persephone. Thank you though.”

“Please, call me Percy.”

Rhett smiles, “Well, Percy, I’ll leave ya to it then.” He tips his hat, “see ya tomorrow.”

“Adiós, vaquero.” ‘Goodbye, cowboy.’ As Rhett exited the store, the bells echoing behind him, he stopped to peer through the window to get one last glance at Persephone Addams. Her back was turned to him, walking to the register to greet the customer where she gently places Mona in a black vintage bassinet. Rhett knew it probably looked weird to passerbyers that he was standing in front of the store, with a dazed look in his eyes as he watched Persephone ring up the lady and carefully wrap the tea set in packaging.

Her lips were moving, but Rhett couldn’t hear what she was saying, only that he was captivated by how she moved and the passion in her eyes as she was no doubt explaining the history of the tea set. Quickly shaking his head, biting back the grin trying to escape, Rhett hurried to his truck before he was caught. When he got in, he was faced with a knowing look from his niece.

“Did ya ask her out?”

“Maybe,” he quipped, buckling his seatbelt before starting the engine. Amy rolled her eyes, but behind them he could tell she looked happy he did in fact make a move.

“Please don’t mess it up, uncle Rhett. I really like Ms. Percy. She’s so nice and lets me ask questions people say I shouldn’t ask. She doesn’t care what people think of her and teaches me things no one else in school or at home does. So please,” her tone becomes serious, causing Rhett to turn his head when they get to a stop sign so she has his full attention. “Don’t play her heart. Or I’ll take her side for whatever she ends up doing as payback.”

‘You don’t gotta tell me twice, Ames.’ There was no way in hell he was going to mess up his chance with Persephone. Not when she actually was open to giving him one after she probably blamed him for what Maria did.

He ends up saying with determination, “I won’t mess it up with her, Amy. I promise.”

Three ½ Years Later

It was a gloomy, rainy day in Jericho, Vermont. Grey colored the sky, ravens chipped in the distance. A truly miserable day.

Perfect for Nevermore Academy’s graduation ceremony.

“Mi amor, do you know where Mona misplaced her teddy?” Persephone was rummaging through her bag that was placed on the seat of the car while she stood outside. Rhett was holding the umbrella above to protect her from the rain in one hand with four-year-old Mona perched on his hip with the other.

“Not sure, darling. Last I saw it was in the hotel room,” When she bent over to get a closer look inside the car, Rhett couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to her ass. Which looked amazing in the tight black dress she was wearing. “Careful, Percy,” he warned when she leaned forward, noticing her baby bump press against the seat.

She was roughly five months into the pregnancy. Just shortly after celebrating their three year anniversary, in which Rhett had got down on one knee and presented a black diamond ring with the promise to love Persephone even after death, she endured a vision showing her holding a baby boy beside him. “I think I might be carrying your son, Rhett,” she gasped as she awoke in his arms. Whenever the visions came Rhett stayed beside her until they ended. The second the words left her mouth he was pulling her to the nearest pharmacy to get a test. The man just about cried when the two little lines appeared on the strip.

Cursing, she moved away and smoothed out the fabric of her dress. Clasping the buckle of her purse, Persephone pulled on her coat and threw the bag over her arm before shutting the door. “Thankfully I have her other toy to keep her distracted.” Lurch locked the car, following behind the couple as they approached the grounds of the school where the ceremony was held.

The rest of the family had already gone in to meet with Wednesday and the ceremony was planned for when night took over. So when they entered the courtyard where everyone had gathered, Mona was already squirming in Rhett’s arms and reaching for her aunt who she spotted first. The rain had settled to a light drizzle, so Rhett set her down when they were only a few feet away, letting the child run and wrap her tiny arms around Wednesday’s legs.

The teen didn’t look happy—then again she never did, but behind that cold, stoic, stare, there was a glimpse of affection. “Desdemona, you foul creature, you should know better than to embrace me with physical contact.” Her words were returned with giggles from the girl. Nonetheless, Wednesday patted the top of her head and gently pushed her back to her parents. The teen clasped her hands, looking up to her sister and soon to be brother-in-law, “I was not expecting you to come in your condition, sister.”

“I would not have missed this for the world,” Persephone grinned, holding Mona to her side as she nuzzled into her coat. “It’s not everyday my little sister graduates school—though I must say, Wednesday, it truly is a surprise.” To anyone else the words would have stung, but for Wednesday Addams, it was a compliment.

“Glad to know my reputation still holds,” the teens eyes flicker to the ring on her sister’s left hand before moving the gaze to Rhett. After years of dating Persephone, he had become a pro at handling Wednesday deadpan stare. It no longer fazed him unlike his family, who still had trouble being in the same room as her. Amy was the only one who didn’t feel creeped out by it. “And that you were true to your words.”

Persephone turned to Rhett, curiosity in her eyes. “What does she mean, Rhett?” There was a light blush to his cheeks as he replied, “When I asked you parents for your hand, I also asked your siblings.” Immediately her face softened, “oh, mi amor,” she reached up to kiss the corner of her lips before actually kissing him, aware of Wednesday’s glare.

“My one request is that you two refrain from acting like mother and father tonight for the sake of my sanity.” Persephone chuckled, pulling away from Rhett who was also smiling as he fixed his black Stetson. She made a gesture of crossing her heart, which only made her sister roll her eyes and stalk away to find Bianca and Enid.

“I’m curious to know how that conversation went?” Persephone teased, reaching up to adjust Rhett’s bolo tie. Mona sped over to her uncle and grandparents who were speaking with Enid’s family, leaving the couple alone in the corner of the courtyard.

“Surprisingly, not bad. Of course she threatened to do worse than frame me for murder if I fucked up. I believe her exact words were, ‘There’s already a plot in the family graveyard with your name on it. I’ll look forward to filling it.’” Persephone shakes her head, but there’s a smirk on her lips. Rhett leaned down to kiss her softly, “But that’s not gonna be filled till I’m old and gray and you can barely stand to look at me.”

Persephone pulled him close, arms going around his neck while he placed his hands on her waist. She could feel his thumbs rub the sides of her bump. “I’ll still always have my eyes on you, Rhett Abbott. You could never repulse me. Even when you start looking like a corpse.”

He threw his head back in laughter, Persephone giggling with him. Calming down, he tightened his arms around her, careful of the bump where their son was growing and stared into the onyx eyes he adored. “I love you, Persephone Addams. Thank you for giving me the honor of having your heart and being a part of this family.”

She kissed him with all her might, pouring her love and soul so he could feel it for all of eternity. “Te amo mucho más, mi querido vaquero.” ‘I love you so much more, my darling cowboy.’

#rhett abbott imagine #rhett abbott x oc #rhett abbott x reader #rhett abbott #outer range #outer range imagine #lewis pullman #outer range fic #the Addams family #crossover #fluff #angst #original character

[yukirayu]

Meta: Taku Was (Not) in Love with Maya

One of the things that tends to get brought up every now and then when talking about Taku is how he supposedly had feelings for Maya. 

Now this is only my opinion, but I do believe that it is nothing more than a misconception.

To recap, it was first brought up by Toono after he had Towa all "dolled up" in order to fluster Taku. No one can deny that Towa is almost a dead ringer for his mother, and since he was dressed in feminine garb, Taku instinctively responded by mentioning Maya's name.

To which Toono then drops the "bomb": Taku was in love with Maya, but since the woman is dead, Taku is settling for the next closest thing: Maya's own son. 

Because Taku reacts in shock to that and angrily denies it, it's easy to assume he got caught red-handed.

And when Towa confronts him about it himself, he only denies again that none of what Toono said is true, but he visibly struggles to say the words. 

So once again, the easiest interpretation of this scene is that it's all actually true, and Taku is just in denial.

Taku does set the record straight by saying that he only admired Maya. He can't deny that she was beautiful, but he wasn't infatuated with her, per se. 

But after what's revealed about Taku in Fujieda's route, you may think that this is just one of his many lies.

Though let's give the above scenes a closer look. When the first one happened, let's recall that at least an hour ago, Taku almost got killed and was taken hostage alongside Towa. So it's only a given that his mind isn't exactly at its most rational or restrained state.

And Taku first showed shock not when Toono claimed that he had feelings for Maya, but when he answered Towa's question of who "Maya" is. 

At first glance, it seemed to be because he can tell where Toono's getting at and thus panicked. But in truth, that's not the case.

Remember, Taku is trying to keep Towa from knowing about his past no matter what. Even when he'd tell Towa false stories about a happier childhood, it should be pointed out that Towa still never knew even just Maya's name. 

Taku didn't tell him even that.

Which was why he was alarmed when Toono said that Maya  was Towa's mother. He feared that even that alone would already trigger some horrible memories for Towa. 

It's not as if his assumption is senseless, since even in his dreams, her mere shadow already stresses Towa out.

But even without Toono around, Taku still sounds like he's fighting against himself when he refutes to Towa that he didn't see Maya that way. Though it's not because he's still in denial or is rattled at getting "exposed". 

As explained during his final Interrogation:

For more details, some time after Towa's "euphoric session" with Asakura, Taku's feelings gradually changed. 

He was aware of it, and he struggled with it, because with everything Towa had been through, with how long they've known each other, it would be inappropriate.

It's why Taku sounds like he's having a hard time saying just the words "That's not true." He knows the rest of the sentence. 

"I never loved her that way. I'm in love with you. Only you." 

But at the time, he was still trying to bottle it up... until he no longer could.

What about the part where he says that he once looked up to Maya? It could be another lie. But he visibly fumbles more when he lies. Then again, he could have learned to say some lies with a straight face. 

But what if he was talking about something that used to be true?

Let's not forget that Taku had a complicated history with his mother. He loved her a great deal. But according to him his mother was sheltered and never learned to cope, having fallen after her husband left her and Taku, and fallen hard. 

To poverty, to drugs, to death.

But then, there's Maya. It's repeatedly made clear that Maya is deception personified. It would be all too easy for Maya to make Taku think she was nothing but a normal, kind and loving mother. 

Can't let the physician suspect anything, after all.

Back then, Taku was still struggling, even more so than now, due to what happened with his mom, so he'd naturally admire someone who could run a successful business while still finding time to take care of her son. If only he and his own mom had found that stability.

But of course, no physician would be foolish enough to see Towa's injuries and just brush them off as nasty accidents. Not when there's so many of them. 

And some of the dialogue during their pillow talk confirms that Taku already started having his suspicions.

What's left implicit is that it wasn't until after the "accident" for his suspicions to be confirmed. Exactly how and when? We don't know. 

But it should be pointed out that he's not put in the same position as Hasegawa, who was blackmailed into keeping silent about Maya.

In other words, Taku managed to find out - even if not all - at least enough about Maya without Sakaki ever catching wind of it. 

It would have been too easy for Sakaki to use Taku's debt to Toono as leverage, but that kind of situation is never brought up even once.

To go back to my main point, it's likely Taku wasn't lying. He may have technically told the truth: he /used to/ look up to Maya. At most, he admitted she was beautiful. But that's something absolutely no one denies. 

More importantly, Taku's words are a foreshadowing.

To what? To how a certain someone else fits the description better. 

Taku "admiring Maya" and "seeing Towa as a substitute for Maya" is something I've already covered before in a different meta, which I'll link here. All the details are there.

That leaves one last thing. Whether Taku's lies stay unexposed or not, he never once seems to talk about Maya with loathing or anger, even in Fujieda's route. 

But given how much he cares for Towa and how much Maya had hurt Towa, shouldn't Taku be mad?

And again, it's easy to draw the assumption that it's because he's still having difficulty reconciling the fact that his "beloved" is actually such a cruel psychopath even at present. But, at least to me, that's not what the narrative seems to be going for.

When he's not caught lying or keeping secrets, of course he wouldn't let any of his real emotions show. 

At most, the narration just mentions his expression turning dark when Towa asks if he had a horrible childhood, and Taku simply confirms it without giving more details.

And in the scenario where Towa finds out that Taku knows about his past, keep in mind it had been years since Maya had died.

For years, Taku been far more preoccupied with worrying about Towa than wallowing in shock or resentment over his broken faith in Maya.

And Taku never personally knew Maya. He mentioned them all having dinner once, but there's no other hint of them being close in any way. He wasn't all that familiar with her. 

So let's say if he ended up harboring bitter feelings about her, it's undoubtedly in the more distant sense.

Putting that aside, Taku wouldn't just suddenly fly into a rage or glower at the mention of Maya. 

In the true route, he's more concerned about how Towa's faring as he learns more of the truth. Towa and Towa's condition is his priority. Not some dead woman or how infuriatingly vile she was.

And there's at least 90% of why I think Taku definitely did not have feelings for Maya and how it's nothing more than a misconception that's easy to take as truth because Taku's secretiveness doesn't help his own case to anyone, not even the player.

#slow damage #fen writes meta

[gideonthefirst]

3, 17, and i'll re-ask 16 to get whatever other one you meant!

3. What were your top five books of the year?

WAHOO! I like this one it's made me realize that I actually loved way more books this year than I was giving credit to. Let's say:

5. We Have Always Live in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Loved loved loved this one it's turned me into a big #ShirleyHead and also (along with Hill House) is responsible for some other takes I've had about books this year which I'll expound on later.

4. Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes on a Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib. Nobody's doing it like him. Only music writer I've ever read who is actually capable of communicating the music itself just over text, loves the things he writes about so strongly that it makes you as the reader love them too, beautiful beautiful collection and piece of work. A Little Devil in America would be on here too but I'm limiting myself to one book per author to resolve both this and the Nabokov problem.

3. When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb. First book I finished in 2023 and one of my all-time favorites :] It's so smart and so lovingly written and so complex and doing such fun things with religion and history and gender and also it's a fun and excellently-paced read. Recommend without qualification

2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Well. It's Lolita innit

1. Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash. Would I argue that Stephen Florida is "better" than Lolita? Who knows. Depends on the day. But I did love it more than any other book I've read in recent memory. The most directly invested I've been in a story in a long time, spent huge stretches of it being so stressed out about multiple things at once that I had to pause every five pages to catch my breath. Stunning depiction of a deeply unlikable character who you still want to win an unwinnable situation. Hostile to any attempt of a reader to figure out what it "means" or is "saying". Fantastic commitment to character voice. Perfect ending that had me totally motionless and speechless for maybe ten minutes. Have never in my life been more disappointed to find out that an author hasn’t written anything else. Man. Nobody is doing it like that.

16. What was the most overhyped book of this year?

Sob really funny of Sarah to get Annihilation and you to get The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. This wasn’t my first answer because it certainly is less broadly overhyped than Annihilation but I haven’t heard a single other person have negative feelings about it and I’m baffled by this. It fell into such a constant and repetitive trap of overexplaining things to me, both exposition and description of things that were supposed to be scary, and it drove me nuts. It being the year of Ms. Shirley Jackson certainly did not help, since she really has the perfect balance of how much to describe something to keep it scary, which isn’t super fair to Mr. Jones but it’s true regardless. Plus I thought how it treated women was really strange (derogatory), which I would have cared about much less in a better book but in this one really stuck out and weakened it further. And overall I just did not at all really understand what it was trying to do, which could be on me but I’m certainly too annoying to admit it, the pacing did not work for me at All and it just. Ugh. Didn’t like it!!

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

I was kind of shocked by how much I liked Where Are Your Boys Tonight? but I have already talked about that one. So let’s go with The Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. It wasn’t like life changing or anything but it was a much more fun read than I was expecting since last attempt I made I bounced off the narration style immediately. But despite its many many concessions to the great weaknesses of epic fantasy I still intend to read the sequel and I especially love how Hobb engages with, uh, pain and sickness and disability and how she refuses to let them fade away and seems to really understand the extent to which pain and extended sickness alter people. I’m so so so excited to get to the torture because of this

#asks #ask memes #storybook-souls #ty hannah :]

[flhoarder]

Calling you JV the way you say 'don't make me seem like a Lana fan' and then give him *Fishtail* instead of a more popular one <3

(which if anything in this hypothetical modern day billboard 100 AU is possibly even more incriminating than him doing Young and Beautiful or something he can just blame as a random earworm from the radio because they kept playing it)

Also potentially cursed version of that ask, new karaoke place, but they (if you want to do the rest of 41st as well go ahead) only have the top 10 pop singles from like 2000s onwards. What songs are they singing (or forcing themselves to sing). Who demostrates their Lady Gaga knowledge, pulls out some quickly forgotten 2005 hit, or reveals apparently the only popular songs they know are Gangnam style and Pineapple pen of all things ect.

NONO I CAN EXPLAIN

...Okay, Norman and Ocean Blvd are pretty cool. And possibly Chemtrail. Possibly. And Lust for Life. IM NOT A FAN

-

Aha it is cursed and I like this a lot, upon first glance it's embarrassing how many of these songs I can still sing along to

...Alright then, 41 C wing (supposedly and mostly, anyway) karaoke. A handful of people agreed to go. Pryce is paying. They left the station all at the same time but somehow some of them are still late.

Sorted by the order of their arrival time:

McCoy: First one to arrive because he has discipline and he makes his partner do a song with him. Threatens to do WAP but no one is surprised by the choice of song coming from fuckboy McCoy, which discourages him. He ends up doing Circus by Britney Spears and Starboy by The Weekend instead. One is a feel-good confidence boost for him, the other is just straight up truth. He is a motherfucking starboy with the highest body count in the whole building. Competition? He don't pay attention.

Vicquemare: Doesn't want to come but knows Harry's going to be here so he's here too. Annoyed that McCoy's on time but Harry isn't, even more annoyed to see McCoy doing a song with his partner. Goes on to get out a few dry lines from Show me the meaning of being lonely in the name of soundcheck before the second group come in. He's got the right vibes for the song, but he waits until Harry gets here and goes on to do Without me by Halsy, the entire time not breaking eye contact with Harry. It’s probably the most downbeat and grim version of the song anyone has ever done in history. He also doesn't hit half of the notes even after dropping 5 octaves from the original vocal but its the message that counts. The only people who don't find this unnerving are Harry and Ptolemy Pryce. Actually it’s so uncomfortable that no one even brings up the question as to how he even knows about the song, they are just happy to see him pass the mic.

Minot: Arrives with Jean. She's not against coming here but it's not one of her top 3 places to be. Thinks its a good idea to get the song out before the second group show up. Puts out a few solid lines from Formation by Beyonce before calling it good. Jean is the only one who's not surprised by how much she rocks the song and how well it works with her voice. She slays.

Kitsuragi: That's right, he's here because Harry literally called up 57 every other day for a whole week just to ask him to come. He finally caved on the 7th day and said yes to that. Does Maps by Maroon 5 and before anyone is shocked, he explains that he doesn't dedicate songs but if he had to this would be dedicated to his partner. Jean rocks back in his seat when he hears that but an insider tells him just in time that Kim is referring to his previous partner at 57. Kim drops 3 octaves from the original vocal and manages to make the song sound mournful with a hint of wistful longing. There's not a dry eye in the audience when he's done, and he knows it. (RIP, Eyes. You are missed.)

Pidieu (Jules:) Was planning on doing This I promise you by NSYNC because he's heard it way too much when he used to drive Apricot to school. Last minute changes to I want it that way by Backstreet boys, a song he's also heard way too much during that time. The reason for the change is because Apricot told him that young people nowadays actually still liked that song. Turns out she’s right and the song becomes a group effort as soon as Jules hits the *my fire* line.

Pidieu (Apricot:) New Rules by Dua Lipa, some of the boys are curious as to why she cuts into this song like nobody's business, a brave one almost jokingly requests Hips don't lie, but one look from her shuts them all up. Not everyone can handle Pryce's business like she does, and it certainly shows.

Torson: Alejandro by Lady Gaga. He says he's doing it for a joke and makes a really bad attempt at the accent, but after passing the first two lines he gets really serious about it, at the end it almost makes him choke up. He actually really likes the song, it makes him feel some kinda way. He's not afraid to admit it, there are two women that no one can make fun of in front of Mack Torson, one of them is his mum, the other one is Lady Gaga.

McLaine: Super Bass by Nicki Minaj. Somebody tell them who the fuck he IS. Its a good attempt and he gets Mack to join in on the chorus to give the song a boost. A for effort and the energy is off the fucking roof, even though he doesn't hit many notes.

Heidelstam: Is late because he had to drop Mikael off home and make dinner first. Gets on the stage and whips out Positions by Ariana Grande. He heard this song on the radio and liked the tune, played it a lot on his commute even though he couldn't make out most of the words in the song except something about kitchen and bedroom which he felt spoke to the depth of his soul. After a while he finally looked the lyrics up, it didn't change his opinion, but he doesn't play it when Mikael is in the car anymore. Anyway, he kills the song, even though there's mumbling in between where it gets a bit more explicit. Gotta appreciate a dad's attempt, though. He also benefits from having a relatively higher pitch in his voice comparing to the rest of 41.

Du Bois: When Harry gets here he's already got a bottle of red down. Crawls up the stage to sing Perfect by Ed Sheeran, dedicating the song to EVERYONE in the audience. Jean is very snarky about it but becomes visibly less annoyed after Harry mentions his name on the list of people he likes during his drunk chat on the mic. Kim doesn't comment on it, but he thinks Harry does the song solid.

Gottlieb: Shows up close to the end, off his face drunk. Chooses Swimming Pools (Drank) by Kendrick Lamar to sing. Even at his drunkest he knows his voice and knows exactly how to use it. For most people it's a tough song to do, and not many can get the song exactly right, but he does. It's not like he's going to remember this tomorrow morning, but he woos the crowd tonight.

Pryce: Oh yes. Did you think he was going to miss out on this? Sadly he has to go because Captain duties. The song he put in the queue earlier on was We R who we R by Kesha. It's not clear whether he intended to sing or just queueing it up for when the timer ran out. Don't ask.

#de au #I had fun doing this #im totally dating myself as well #Thanks for asking #disco elysium #de #ptolemy pryce #nix gottlieb #harry du bois #chester mclaine #mack torson #apricot pidieu #jules pidieu #trant heidelstam #kim kitsuragi #jean vicquemare #john mccoy #dragonfly789 #ask

[burningvelvet]

Byron and Shelley chronicle their 1816 sailing trip in Lake Geneva — Days 6/7, June 28th/29th — preview: they get stuck in Ouchy due to the rain, go sightseeing in Lausanne, and visit Edward Gibbon’s former home.

Percy Shelley, History of a Six Weeks' Tour:

“The rain detained us two days at Ouchy. We however visited Lausanne, and saw Gibbon's house. We were shewn the decayed summer-house where he finished his History, and the old acacias on the terrace, from which he saw Mont Blanc, after having written the last sentence. There is something grand and even touching in the regret which he expresses at the completion of his task. It was conceived amid the ruins of the Capitol. The sudden departure of his cherished and accustomed toil must have left him, like the death of a dear friend, sad and solitary.

My companion gathered some acacia leaves to preserve in remembrance of him. I refrained from doing so, fearing to outrage the greater and more sacred name of Rousseau; the contemplation of whose imperishable creations had left no vacancy in my heart for mortal things. Gibbon had a cold and unimpassioned spirit. I never felt more inclination to rail at the prejudices which cling to such a thing, than now that Julie and Clarens, Lausanne and the Roman Empire, compelled me to a contrast between Rousseau and Gibbon.

When we returned, in the only interval of sunshine during the day, I walked on the pier which the lake was lashing with its waves. A rainbow spanned the lake, or rather rested one extremity of its arch upon the water, and the other at the foot of the mountains of Savoy. Some white houses, I know not if they were those of Mellerie, shone through the yellow fire.”

Byron in a letter to John Murray:

“Ouchy, near Lausanne, June 27th, 1816.

Dear Sir

I am thus far kept by stress of weather on my way back to Diodati near Geneva from a voyage in my boat round the lake - & I enclose you a sprig of Gibbon's Acacia & some rose leaves from his garden - which part of his house I have just seen - you will find honourable mention in his life made of this ‘Acacia’ when he walked out on the night of concluding his history. - The garden - & summerhouse where he composed are neglected - & the last utterly decayed - but they still show it as his ‘Cabinet’ & seem perfectly aware of his memory. - My route - through Flanders - & by the Rhine to Switzerland was all I expected & more. - -

I have traversed all Rousseau's ground - with the Heloise before me - & am struck to a degree with the force & accuracy of his descriptions - & the beauty of their reality: - Meillerie - Clarens - & Vevey - & the Chateau de Chillon are places of which I shall say little - because all I could say must fall short of the impressions they stamp.

Three days ago - we were most nearly wrecked in a Squall off Meillerie - & driven to shore — I ran no risk being so near the rocks and a good swimmer - but our party were wet - & incommoded a good deal: - the wind was strong enough to blow down some trees as we found at landing - however all is righted & right - & we are thus far on return.

Dr. Polidori is not here - - but at Diodati - left behind in hospital with a sprained ancle acquired in tumbling from a wall - he can't jump.* ——“

*This is a reference to the instance where Byron (probably jokingly) suggested that Polidori should jump off a balcony in the rain to impress Mary Shelley. When Polidori actually did it, Byron was shocked and helped him inside to prop him up with a pillow. Polidori was then furious with him. See: Mary Shelley’s contributions concerning the Villa Diodati in Thomas Moore’s Life of Byron

UPDATE: I took my dates from Shelley, but his dates must have been confused and Byron's must be more accurate. Because I'd been confused by Byron's dates in the past, since he often wrote past midnight (thus often referring his prior day as "today"), I had assumed Shelley was more trustworthy. According to Shelley and His Circle vol. 4 pp. 700-701, they left on June 22nd which was a Saturday, and so I believe each day of their trip would be one earlier than I and Shelley stated in these posts.

Taken from Shelley and His Circle:

"TIMETABLE OF THE LAKE GENEVA TOUR

June 22, Saturday: Sailed from Montalègre, slept at Nernier.

June 23, Sunday: Sailed from Nernier, slept at Evian.

June 24, Monday: Sailed from Evian, encountered storm off Meillerie, slept at St. Gingolph.

June 25, Tuesday: Sailed from St. Gingolph, saw the mouths of the Rhone, visited Chillon Castle, landed at Clarens, visited bosquet de Julie, slept at Mme. Pauly's house (Place Gambetta) at Clarens.

June 26, Wednesday: Visited Le Châtelard, and the bosquet de Julie, sailed from Clarens, visited Vevey, slept at the Hotel de l'Ancre at Ouchy.

June 27, Thursday: Visited Gibbon's house at Lausanne, slept at Ouchy.

June 28, Friday: Remained at Ouchy.

June 29, Saturday: Sailed from Ouchy, slept at [?Rolle].

June 30, Sunday: Sailed from [?Rolle], arrived at Montalègre."

#shelley and byron’s sailing trip #poetry #english literature #literature #lord byron #romanticism #history #writing #percy shelley #geneva #geneva squad #aesthetic #romantics #romantic poets #travel writing #switzerland #sailing #trip #trip diary #diaries #letters #books

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Hey ho, have you seen The Creator (2023) yet? Unsubtly about US imperialism, but also really moving, aesthetically stunning (Greig Fraser as DP, oh yeah) and John David Washington killing it in the main role. I was surprised by how much there was to love. xoxo

I fucking LOVED The Creator and kept trying to write something about it here but never managed to collect my thoughts. But yeah what a fucking movie, oh my god. I feel like it kind of got buried by lack of publicity but tbh I am not that surprised because it's one of those movies with politics that make you think how the fuck did they get away with making this.

Gareth Edwards, like Villeneuve, is a director I've been paying attention to for a while now, ever since his 2010 movie Monsters, which was a really impressive low-budget sci-fi with effects that just looked seamless and interesting things to say about borders and the human cost of militarized responses to disastrous events.

And then he did Rogue One and pulled off something very impressive, which is to take one of the most famous sci-fi weapons of our era--the Death Star, a metaphor for nuclear weapons so iconic it has become a symbol in itself--and made it actually fucking scary for the first time in the history of the franchise. And he did it by turning the camera around.

Because the thing is that before this point, we had only ever seen the Death Star from the point of view of the people firing it. The idea of a planet-destroying weapon is intellectually horrifying but we didn't really ever feel it. Because for that we need to see the weapon from the point of view of its victims. It's such a simple but radical shift in perspective, and I feel like Gareth Edwards took that idea from Rogue One and then made it into a whole movie with The Creator.

The Creator, for those unfamiliar with the premise, is about a near-future counterinsurgency war in which the US military is hunting down various forms of AI/android/robot beings. It also features a space-based super-weapon that is eerily beautiful but goddamn fucking terrifying. It was mostly shot in southeast Asia and heavily evokes Vietnam War imagery (as the ending of Rogue One did as well); it is probably about as close to "Vietnam War movie but you're rooting for the Vietnamese" as it is possible to make in the American studio system. The protagonist is still an American soldier (who defects and "goes native" fairly early in the movie) but making him a Black disabled veteran was certainly a Choice. And yes it's John David Washington and he's great in it.

It feels facetious to say The Creator is Reverse Terminator, because it's much richer than that, but it's also kind of fucking true. For the entire movie, the characters are just running for their lives from the implacable and overwhelming destructive force of the US military which is just crushing everything in its path.

The movie does a lot of things that you simply do not see in most American war movies, but the one that stands out to me the most is that in every scene of war violence there are civilians, including children, fucking everywhere. It really threw into relief for me how often American war-action movies create these empty video game environments for soldiers to run around in, where any actual people who might live in the place where the war is happening are at best props and at worst completely absent. (Alex Garland's Civil War, in addition to being terrible in every other conceivable way, is a particularly bad offender at this.) The Creator does what really should be the bare minimum of taking time to showing that these are people whose homes and lives are being destroyed and it is shocking how novel it seems. (There's a line that plays in my head all the time where one of the AI characters says something to the effect of, "Do you know what will happen to the humans when we win this war? Nothing. We simply want to live.") I will also say that this made it a very intense watch in late October 2023 in particular, but it is fiction so we get a very satisfying and cathartic ending. And yes it is an absolutely gorgeous movie, the VFX are mind-blowing, and I found it quite moving.

#asks answered #the creator 2023 #gareth edwards

[staliamazing]

tag game TEHEH

name: sarah !!!! c'est moi

age: twenty, to be twenty-one soon-ish. i am planning a party. will i go through with it? who's to say.

star sign: taurus sun, capricorn rising, gemini moon. i have beef with geminis so the last one deeply upsets me.

first language: english

second language: je parle français !!

i was near fluent and have my B2 but don't practice anymore. i am considering getting back into it because i feel i need more hobbies and highly regret throwing out all my textbooks and notes. (that's a whole other story i LOVED school and threw out all my damn notes and stuff?!?!? sarah you dumb dumb)

favorite lip product: that lush lip scrub! i've lost my peppermint tub but anticipate it turning up when i least expect it. my lips always has excess skin peeling off for some reason so its great to feel exfoliated!

the best food dish you can make without a recipe? um. pizza bread! pizza, pizza sauce, cheese. eat up friends!

if you drink tea, what kind? none, get away from me. SOMETIMES lipton peach iced tea but only if im at mad mex.

if you drink coffee, what roast do you usually get? see last answer. i get the jitters.

favorite thing to watch on youtube right now: THE BALD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. i;ve been watching upwards of two episodes every night in bed.

favorite thing to watch on youtube in 2012: for sure mormon family vloggers. pick a channel i probably watched them. i have no fucking clue why!

favorite item of clothing right now: new graphic tee! the alice oseman x everpress collab with this gorg patchwork design and all little queer and trans doodles over it! the proceeds went to LGBTQIA+ refugees <3 i fucking love graphic tees holy shit

favorite item of clothing in 2012: some form of graphic leggings im certain.

fandom -

three movies you recommend: the half of it on netflix - watched recently and was confused but pleasantly surprised

your favorite concert: either one i went to with my gf! they were both great experiences even though i was shitting myself before both because i have a lot of sound and crowd sensitiivities ( # actually autistic). i loved being in the pit for ATL despite not knowing any songs and i like how you can feel the music inside you.

have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion? no i've actually followed someone because i love getting mad <3 over time i have grown to really respect them and where their views come from which im proud of because i can be a bit close-minded.

the best tv show you watched last year: i watch a lot of shows! recently though i watched euphoria and understood the hype. couldn't rewatch though. it felt like a disservice to the shock factor i feel like the show really feeds off.

do you have a fancasting you just can’t let go of? don't pay much attention to fancasts!

a ship you’ve abandoned: im so sorry amy and rory from doctor who... i legit met them too. it just doesnt hit the same and im glad they divorced. amy was too swept up in the doctor and rory is a damn sweetheart who honestly deserves better. ALSO maya and lucas from girl meets world - bit random honestly why did they do that. lucas and riley from day one. maya and zay!

on a scale of 1-10 how willing are you to share your ao3 history? 7? depends on who to! anyone on here sure. not real people they'd be like "what do you mean you like fics where that little thug man wears short skirts" they just wouldnt UNDERSTAND

what fandom do you wish was bigger? tori spring fandom! maybe it is and i just dont know but.

do you have a fandom tattoo? yah, the fandom of my high school english teacher! most of my tats are literary inspired and specifically books i read in school for the curriculum.

my others are - phoebe bridgers related

gf related (she tattooed me) (fave fandom) (she's the best)

has a finale ever ruined a show for you? definitely i just can't remember which lmao im sorry

have you…

swam in an ocean? yep! swam is a strong word though. i've been in and bobbed up and down! i usually run from the tide.

been vegan/vegetarian? both! at different times. it was very much part of my friend and family culture growing up.

gone skinny dipping? yes, in my exs best friends dads girlfriends dead uncles pool :) honestly 10/10 swimming with clothes on is so random? i think its so beautiful how people look under the blue wavy water of the pool.

gone skiing? no i am scared of the snow since learning about crevasses in year 4 and almost falling off a ski lift at a very young age. i do love the cold and the ski lodge episode of gmw though.

thanks for the tag @iansw0rld, these are fun :)

#tag game

[geminid]

The other ask about college reminded me, I just brought a physical copy of superbright to my college professor, I took digital painting with him and now he's letting me sit in on his life drawing class. He did a quick flip through and he liked it! He also immediately said "yeah if you like this art get into the history, who did they learn from?" I've only been following you for 2ish years? And it's just been what's landed on my dash. But I looove your pieces, the coloring on the backgrounds versus how Leo and Takumi are drawn, and then the pieces like the mainly pink diner.

So yeah mainly wanted to say you're super cool! Things that you learned from would be neat to see but no pressure.

hi i was honestly very shocked to read that you would show this to your professor who is probably a really great artist but im glad he liked it? ???

i answered the rest of this under the cut

as far as my art history goes, i have no academic background in art so i'm just making stuff up. i think like a lot of kids I got my roots in wanting to draw like shoujo manga, particularly the big eyed round faces of the early 2000s. I would just try to copy the eyes or something. To this day I honestly don't really look at tutorials or watch speedpaints i kind of just look at finished art and try to emulate the things I like about them. It's very simplistic I think and perhaps means I don't make art that's as clean or efficient as people who actually go out and try to learn how pro artists actually draw.

i went on pixiv a lot as a teen and followed like 1000+ artists and looked at a lot of art all the time. I was really enamored by people who could draw characters and backgrounds, like fuzichoco. (this is a super weird fun fact but one of my favorite artists in like 2011-2012 who specialized in like drawing beautiful girls with beautiful backgrounds ended up getting into leokumi under a different name/account and i was their mutual! and i didnt realize this until rather recently. im too shy to share the name tho. my teen self is throttling me btw). I Really wanted to learn how to draw backgrounds so i had to go through the struggle of teaching myself perspective and later on downloading 3d software so i could see boxes on the same plane at angles lol.

When I see art I like I try to capture the essence of what it is I liked about it in a piece (maybe one time its desaturated colors, and the next its dramatically long legs, or adding blur to the foreground), and i decide if it worked out and I want to keep doing it. Some stuff i definitely continue to use is i draw upper eyelashes the way i do because of Sata (touken ranbu, feh artist) and i started drawing leo with weird non-blond hair colors because of Araki (the jjba mangaka, who often colors his characters in alternate palettes than their "canon"). Even though i think there are stuff im a bit rigid about, like i always kinda stay in the realm of anime style, I'm still trying to keep trying out stuff I see in other artists, not just even anime artists but everyone's favorite Leyendecker or Mucha, or I'll take photos of random stuff to file away as an idea. Like I have a photo of leaves my coworker collected that have a nice green to pink gradient that I took for inspiration.

As far as the diner picture goes I think to pull off that piece I needed to practice making art with less colors and also less contrast. Similar shades of pink take up most of the picture with teals being a secondary color and avoiding adding other colors in large amounts. I think the linework is doing a lot of work in that piece. I had to google a photo of a person sitting at a diner table for the perspective.

idk if this answers anything but it was fun to think about?

#nids replies #team-indigo

[bookofmirth]

lol I remember joining acotar fandom on social media and was confused as hell!! The fact that I knew about the ship war before starting the books and I was fixed on elucien and gwynriel and e/riel to choose my side wisely and the only e/riel scene I remembered worth focusing was TT and Elain gifting Azriel on winter solstice and that was it💀

then I joined the fandom and this specific fanart where Elain call Azriel's hands beautiful and there was a chapter mentioned there. I was literally so shocked that I missed something so important bc Az definitely have history with his hands and when Elain calls it beautiful it means so much to him and to the ship how could I not notice it!?

It turns out that I was right on completely forgetting about it. Bc its from Feyre's pov she was unsure whether she was taking about his hands or his siphons... literally all of their scene will fell flat at some point and as a casual reader who doesn't choose sides you won't notice these things.

Damn I really had a hard time separating fanon form canon lmao

ITS WILD OUT HERE

I feel like it should be standard practice to reread the series at least every two years for people who are going to be making theories and meta and stuff. (And I’ve reread the series once a year since 2016 so I’m walking the walk.) Otherwise, the fanon just gets absolutely bonkers. Like even I have taken things for granted and then reread and realized wait - no? Like potatoes, Rhys literally explains that Az gets uptight because of his mom issues. It’s… right there in the book. It’s not a ship thing.

Tbh there is so little actual content for elucien, or gwynriel, or e*riel, that I think everyone is trying to exaggerate the implications of what we do have. I understand the impetus, it just gets out of control.