#i wonder if they hold up to rereading as an adult

[gentlegentian]

I feel like the true cruelty of the lan sect is a really overlooked topic in the mdzs fandom, because when you think about it...

they practically forced madam lan into marriage so she wouldn't be executed because she killed one of her teachers, but gave her no trial or chance to explain why, and once she was married they simply locked her away and that was that. qingheng-jun then locked himself into seclusion once he had a kid and that was that, had no business with the rest of the sect and left xichen and wangji to grow up alone.

not to mention the fact that wangji even being born is suspicious... xichens conception makes sense, as they would've needed a sect heir, but wangji? how would he have been concieved, if madame lan was trapped away and qingheng-jun was in seclusion. either this is a plot hole im looking way too deep into or theres something darker happening there

in any case, the twin jades most likely did not have a good childhood. like at all. their father was completely absent, and once their mother died they were practically parentless. sure lan qiren raised them, but he was also acting as the lan sect leader whilst qingheng-jun was away, so i doubt he held much involvement in their raising other than making sure they stuck to the rules and were fed etc

SPEAKING OF THE RULES. the punishments the kids in the lan sect had to deal with?????? the fact that nhs, wwx and jc were beaten for rule breaking whilst they were staying at the lan sect as pupils just makes me wonder how badly they treat their own lan disciples if thats how they treat special guests from other clans. they were fifteen when that happened, FIFTEEN, so clearly the lan sect has no problem with LITERALLY BEATING children to teach a lesson.

its basically just abuse to keep a system in place, and it makes me wonder just how many times the twin jades suffered like that as kids to be as 'perfect' as they are as adults

the lan are so corrupt in their ways and i hate how we dont fully see that in the story until wangji is whipped for protecting wei ying. the whole situation is so fucking cruel and unnecessary it makes my blood boil whenever i reread/rewatch that part, because yes wangji did wrong by injuring the elders but the only reason he did so was because they were refusing to listen to him and quite literally trying to murder his lover.

i get he committed treason or whatever by fighting the elders but 33 whip lashes all in one go with NO breaks or healing time?? with a magical cultivated punishment whip as well, its genuinely like they were trying to kill him. even if he didnt die from the lashings themselves he could've gotten an infection, or had severe blood loss, or hell they coulve broken his spine with the force of it. it took so long for him to heal from that, and it left him with so many scars both physical and mental. that level of injury would've likely left him with some form of chronic pain or illness as well, and it was just so cruel for a situation that didn't ever need to come to this.

they forced him into seclusion, just like his father, and punished him for defending himself, just like they did his mother. xichen ended up similarly as well, with his seclusion after the events with jgy. the lan elders had seen the horrific end qingheng-jun and madame lan had, and yet did nothing to stop their children from facing the same trauma, even making theirs worse.

the lans praise themselves as a sect that sticks to righteousness and principles, when realistically its just full of hypocrites holding onto power by means of fear and punishment. they say that lwj broke the rules by fighting to save wwx, and yet somehow torturing him was completely within the rules of the clan.

their rules and image are merely a cover up for the downright abuse and silencing of their disciples, and its just so fucked up. i could rant about this for so much longer, but also wanna see what other people think before i delve into some of the other topics i have in mind that relate

#lan wangji deserved better #'wwx suffered so much' WHAT ABOUT WANGJI #lan qiren on his own is a whole nother thing i could rant about #xichen as well like #the twin jades are so overlooked in some aspects it hurts my soul #mdzs #cql #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #danmei #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the founder of diabolism #modaozushi #mo dao su zhi #lan wangji #lwj #lan zhan #lan xichen #lan huan #lxc #mdzs lwj #mdzs lxc #lan qiren #gusu lan #twin jades #twin jades of gusu #gentlegentian #wangxian #mxtx #mxtx mdzs

[fictionadventurer]

By the Shores of Silver Lake was my least favorite Little House book as a kid, and upon starting the reread, I could see why. Earlier books had Laura as a child observer--not engaging in or totally understanding the wider world of the adults, but still engrossed in the simple joys of childhood. In this book, Laura is neither child nor adult--she's too old to play like a child, but she's too young to take an active part in adult life, so she's stuck in this awkward middle ground.

Yet as the book went on, I started to see that that was the point. This book is about growing up, about being on the brink of adulthood and trying to hold onto childhood while also becoming someone new. Laura's growing-up is paralleled with the "growing up" of the country around her. Both the old and the new ways of life have their benefits and their downsides, and Laura has to figure out how to hold onto the best of both.

The prairie is beautiful, wondrous, free. Laura would love to just roam forever, always traveling west, always seeing new places. She doesn't want to marry, doesn't want to teach school, doesn't want anything to change about her way of life. But one can't stay a child forever. Eventually, the infinite possibility of childhood has to turn into the definite identity of adulthood. She has to take responsibility and settle down. The arrival of the town brings that adult life to the prairie, and in doing so, it destroys the innocent wonders of nature--the majestic wolves lose their home, the buffalo are gone, and the ducks no longer land at Silver Lake. Laura has to wrestle with this--is childhood, for herself and the prairie, gone forever? Does she have to let go of childlike wonder and embrace the mundane responsibility of adult life?

This theme is resolved when Laura finds Grace in the buffalo wallow. It's a place of impossible magic and beauty, a carpet of fragrant violets hidden away from the world with butterflies flying overhead, so perfect it seems like a fairyland. Of course Grace, the innocent child, is the one who was able to find it. When Laura asks Pa about it later, he explains that the "fairies" that made this magical ring were buffalo. There's a mundane explanation for the phenomenon, but that doesn't destroy the wonder and beauty of the place--adult knowledge enhances, rather than destroys childlike wonder. The buffalo might be gone, but there's still beauty left behind. Laura can move forward into the future and know that there are still wonders to find. She can be an adult and still maintain a childlike wonder, can take responsibility and still find comfort in the safety of home and family.

This thematic resonance made so much about the book so much deeper. It's the message of the entire series distilled into story form. Remember the past, children, but go forth boldly into the future. It's a message much easier to see with an adult's eyes, so I'm so glad I gave this book another chance.

#on the shores of silver lake #little house #laura ingalls wilder #i probably only saw this theme #because i just read her collection of fairy poems #and read a bunch of her farm columns where this theme is very prominent #she loves the simple joys of life #emphasizes the importance of hanging onto wonder and joy in the face of simple tasks #her descriptions of how much she loved taking out the cattle as a child made those scenes hit much deeper #those are the times when she gets to see the beauty of nature! #it makes the mundane chore a chance for beautiful reflection! #that kind of thing is all over this book and you know it's my jam #the point where this book really started to make sense was the scene with the wolves #laura faces this majestic wolf in the moonlight and it's like a fairy tale #the fading away of a fairy king #and suddenly everything about the theme just snapped into place #if i were a scholar my dissertation would be #'these books aren't just an old lady's memories or her daughter's libertarian tracts they're art and can we please talk about them like art

[just-antithings]

I'm not saying adults insisting they only need to read YA books and watch children's cartoons is leading to this culture wide phobia of sex which in turn is becoming a useful vector for the increasing spread of fascism except that is exactly what I'm saying.

Im not that anon but want to expand on their thought, if they're saying what I think they are.

I thought of this more when seeing an old post of someone saying their English teacher should have let them write a report on Divergent instead making them read 1984. Someone commented supporting the OP, saying that they never read Divergent, but 1984 is problematic. Iirc, the commenter referred to Winston (I think that's the protag in 1984; sorry I haven't reread it in years) as a creep. I can't remember is this specific commenter called Winston a misogynist, but that's a common complaint I hear when people say they don't like 1984.

The screenshot of that post also had other screenshots, including the twt posts of YA authors saying that the classics were problematic. It's a sentiment I keep seeing around book twt before I deactivated my account but still on booktube as well, and it's always booktubers who also read and rant about Colleen Hoover, because they know her name gets clicks. Or booktubers that do those videos titled "I read [old/popular/controversial] series so you don't have to".

Sorry, sliding off topic a bit. Going back to what anon said, YA books tend to be more sanitized. They're supposed to be written for a 15-19 audience, so sex and gore aren't supposed to be explicit. There are YA books with sex scenes. 2 I read recently have sex scenes, but they aren't explicit. One uses mostly poetic language and infers to what's happening, and the other essentially fades to black after they get into bed, as they're touching and then picks up the next morning. (One of these YA books had a big controversy on booktube a few years ago for being problematic, though. Gee, wonder why /s)

But for the most part, often for people who enjoy urban fantasy or romances but not steamy scenes, they may go for YA, since it's usually more "PG". Unfortunately, some people get it in their head that this makes YA inherently "better", that adult books that are being more explicit are only doing it to get more sales, when YA tbh has a tighter hold on it marketing-wise.

Okay, I'm not published (yet), but I've been studying it when I need to take a break from writing to see what course is best for me and what I want to write. YA is becoming oversaturated in the market, so it's not as big a "money making genre" for debut authors as it might have been once (and I'd argue that even in the past when YA was smaller, you still had to be lucky, known, or connected to get that 6-figure check for a debut YA novel). YA is more likely to get scrutinized, considering its supposed to he for a younger audience, so a YA author wanting to push boundaries is going to receive more push-back than an adult lit author.

Now pushback happens in adult lit, too, like Ava Reid saying her editor or publisher (I forget who) told her that Juniper&Thorn might be too dark. (I've read it. Yes, it's dark, but bad reviews I saw for the book blew it way out of proportion. If you (gen) like lyrical/poetic narration and gothic horror, I highly suggest it).

But it feels like there's more of a push to keep YA books "clean". You can find some outliers, but like the YA I mentioned above, those outliers in YA that push boundaries can get wrapped in controversy and called problematic.

And for whatever reason, some people on booktube say this is a good thing and say "think of the children!"

They will say censorship is bad but then advocate for sanitized YA to be read instead of classics, because the classics are "bad" and "teach bad things" and "should be left in the past". They advocate for censorship without realizing they are advocating for censorship. It's exhausting, and as someone who wants to be published and does enjoy a lot of YA, it makes me feel discouraged. I don't think I'm "pushing boundaries" at all in my writing or saying anything new, but I'm very sure it's not sanitized enough for most publishers, especially if I wanted to try for one of the beg houses in the US.

Tl;dr One of the major problems in this anti-intellectualism is capitalism.

.

#mod erin #ask #posted without comment #fascism mention

[nyxoz]

Congrats on 500!!! Would love a sweet Eddie proposal!

omg i squealed when i saw this request i love it!!!!! p.s. i stole this idea off of bride wars bc to me it’s the perfect proposal and if my future partner doesn’t propose this way i will be upset hehe 💓

The studio apartment you and Eddie have moved into was the definition of tiny, but you loved it because it was your space, together.

It’s your first night in your new home and there’s boxes stacked around the place, some opened and some still sticky taped shut. You’d only gotten everything up the stairs (cause the elevator was broken) about an hour ago, so you haven’t had a chance to unpack much just yet.

“I’m famished.” Eddie says as he puts some clothes in the dresser drawers.

“Famished, are you?” You chuckle, “Well, we can’t have that. What do you want for dinner?”

Eddie’s lips purse together as he thinks, his eyes looking upwards. “Oh! Oh!” He says excitedly, “There’s that Chinese place just around the corner?”

You nod as you stack a few books on a shelf, “Chinese sounds good to me.”

About thirty minutes later, you and Eddie are sitting on the floor in front of your bed, because you don’t have a table to eat on just yet, gorging on fried noodles, kung pao chicken, Peking duck, dumplings, and egg rolls.

Eddie is very badly using chop sticks because he’s refusing to use a fork. “I can do it.” He grumbled as you held a fork out to him.

You’re talking about how you want to put a tv on top of the dresser that lines the wall opposite your bed but Eddie doesn’t really seem to be paying that much attention. He almost looks nervous with how he’s poking at his food and avoiding your eye contact.

You chalked it up to him being a bit antsy over the move and your first night as real adults in your own place.

As you both call time of death on your feast, he backs up the meals straight away and puts the left overs in the fridge before grabbing something out of the plastic bag the food came in.

Eddie comes to sit back next to you and holds out two fortune cookies in the palm of his hand.

“Your fortune, m’lady.” He says, smiling.

Your fingers dance over both of them before grabbing the one on the left.

You crush the cookie in your hand and pull out the little piece of paper. You stuff your face with the cookie quickly before rolling the paper out and holding it to your face.

Swallowing down the treat, you read the small letters printed on the little white piece of paper.

You blink a few times, thinking you’re hallucinating. but nope, every time you open your eyes and reread it there’s four little words, one question, written on it.

Slowly you turn your head to Eddie and he’s there smiling shyly with wide big brown eyes and holding something out in both his hands.

It’s a small box. A blue velvet box and nestled inside is a diamond ring. it’s very small and dainty but definitely cost Eddie everything he has saved.

You look back up to his face and he takes a breath before he speaks. He looks so nervous.

“Y/N,” he starts, “I love you. So much that you’re all I think about everyday. I wonder when I’m going to see you next, what we’re going to do that day, if I can get you to do that cute little snort when you laugh,”

Your eyes are blurry now and you let out a snotty giggle.

“I want you. For the rest of my life. I want you on your good days and your bad days. I want you when you’re happy and sad. I want you when you’re old and wrinkled and you’re telling our grandkids off for flying their hoverboards too high,”

You’re fully crying now, but laughing along with him. His smile is big and there are creases around his mouth.

“I want you forever. Will you marry me?”

You nod fast and all but collapse against him. He catches you against his chest, holding you close as you cry into his neck, his hair tickling at your face.

“Yes, yes, yes. A million times yes!” You say, pulling away and looking at him.

He laughs and smiles down at you, tears pricking at his eyes too. Leaning down, he captures your mouth with his, pressing a hard kiss against you.

Pulling away, his attention comes down to the box still in his hand. He holds it between you and grabs the ring in a shaky hand. You hold your left hand up, shakily as well, and he slips the ring onto your ring finger.

You swallow deeply, trying to compose yourself as you look down at the ring.

Here you are, on the floor of your small new apartment, dressed in gym gear and still sweaty from the move, feeling happier than you ever have in your entire life.

“I love you.” You say looking up at him.

“I love you. Forever.” He says.

You give a snotty laugh and lean forward to kiss him again, “forever.” You say against his lips.

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fanart #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fluff #joseph quinn #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #oz writes #oz writes eddie munson #nxyoz

[swearyshera]

Advance apology for the long ask in a likely sea of 'em. A lot of people talk about wishing they could experience something they love again for the first time, this series was genuinely as close to that as I've ever felt. Just given the span of time my attention flucuated on and off but once the latter half of s4/s5 began my attention was absolutely nailed to your feed. Its up with Dragon Ball Z Abridged as parody series that become so dramatically effective they become a valid or definitive way to experience the series. Goddamned sensational.

Your portrayals of the characters soar. They provide a hilarious, cruder take on each that still cuts right to the soul of who these people are and lays it bare, which I think is the mission of any good-natured parody. Adora, Catra, Glimmer, Scorpia, Bow, Prime etc. There is not one that does not shine. It tackled a ton of issues and misgivings I had about canon, and even elevated or clarified many scenes and arcs through addressing them a more direct fashion. You took full advantage of not having to dress up and dance around the dark subjects canon was sort of doomed to handle inadequately given its age bracket and thematic priorities. Many scenes were jawdropping. Ive raved about it before, but your scene with Glimmer actually talking about her mom with Catra still leaves me gobsmacked every time I reread it. Your big moments towards the finale btwn Adora and Catra are obviously sublime and tie their wonderful arc off fantastically, but in my heart of hearts that cell talk will be the crown jewel of this project. Loved seeing the LGBT message take center stage in way canon had to hold back. To paraphrase Tolkien, I'm can't count myself among those gifted people, and youve def got a target audience in mind, but if youve ever worried if your stories resonate on a quote unquote "more universal" level, I promise you can put those worries to bed. Since becoming an adult ive intentionally sought out more and more queer-inclusive/created stories and I havent regretted it a bit, and the rising tide of fascist sexist/homo/transphobic bile in politics gets more and more frightening. But I've also seen how strong and resilient LGBT people are in the face of it, empowering themselves in no small part thru stories like yours. Please don't ever give up on your art. The world needs artists like you. Sorry if I come off pretentious or condescending, I feel like that when I try to get everything I think out at once. I'll be among the first to come running if you ever start another project like this or make something on an even grander scale. Thank you a thousand times for this. Also writing a wholeass sitcom pilot based on an offhand quasi-joke I made is the most weirdly touching thing I think anyones ever done "for me" (at least nominally cuz of me), especially a stranger. So thank you for that too.

Aw, you'll make me cry, you know! I think you've understood everything I wanted to do with this strip (or at least, when I started thinking beyond just 'characters saying fuck'), and... yeah, it's been an incredible journey, both for the blog and for me personally.

I've always tried to keep the parody good-natured. You can often tell, particularly in parody, when the creator dislikes one particular character (I mean, Horde Prime was probably the exception here), but I love all of them, so it really comes from a place of love. It's quite odd because I never set out to "fix" the show, and I wouldn't want to, but some things I've done seem to have had such an impact that a lot of people think I have done just that.

The Glimmer/Catra conversation is absolutely one of my favourite things I've written from this. It's such a pivotal moment in both their stories and character development, and I am truly humbled that multiple people have called it 'better than canon'. Like... I'm just some person trying to be funny and occasionally serious, and people are saying something I wrote is better than what a team of experienced professional writers did? Give over, no... But it's still a moment I can be proud of.

I won't be stopping writing things. This whole blog has given me a new lease of life and something to aim towards. I've got an excellent pilot script pretty much finished, and I do want to bring Hellspawn up to that standard too (thank you for suggesting someone make a Sweary Frosta sitcom - I'm someone!). That may well involve a complete re-write, but I'll be sure to share it.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your kind words along the way. It really keeps me going :)

[hbosucc]

Greg Hirsch x Reader: Chapter 5

Another smut chapter yay! Same as Chapter 4, this chapter is for 18+ readers only, no minors.

Link to previous chapter

Content warnings for:

Sex (protected, between two consenting adults), oral (f receiving), sex while blindfolded.

Swearing

Thank you all for reading/liking! :') I'm having so much fun rereading as I'm posting these chapters. Thinking about maybe taking requests if anyone's interested at some point!

Chapter 5: Bootycall

          I hadn’t seen Greg in a week, not since the morning after our first night together, and I hated to admit it, but I missed him. Sure, we texted every day, but it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t very independent-woman-boss-babe of me, but it was true: I was starting to fall for him. Not in love, necessarily; that would take more time, but I was feeling things for him nonetheless.

          On my couch after work one night, scrolling on my phone with a mug of tea, my feed was interrupted by a phone call. I saw it was from Greg and waited half a second before picking up.

          “Hey, what’s up?” I asked, putting him on speaker.

          “Hey, sorry, I know it’s kind of late. Am I, like, disturbing you, or anything?”

          “No, Greg, you’re fine.” I laughed. “I literally wasn’t doing anything.”

          “Okay, cool, um…well, I was wondering, and like,” He sighed. “It’s been, like, a really fucking long week at work, and super stressful, and I missed you, and I was basically wondering if I could come over?”

          “Is this a bootycall?” I asked, faking incredulence.

          “No. I mean, not necessarily, um, to what I understand as the definition of—of a bootycall,” He said, and I couldn’t hold in my laughter anymore.

          “It would be okay if it was, you know.” I said, leaning back on the couch. “What time are you coming?”

          “Oh, um…I can be there in, like, half an hour? If that works for you?”

          “Sounds good.” I stretched and stood up. “I missed you too, by the way. See you soon.”

          We hung up, and I went down the hall to make sure my bedroom was presentable. I pushed my dirty clothes off the bed and into the laundry basket, then pulled the sheet and comforter up, smoothing them out. I gave my pits a quick sniff-test and changed into a set of matching underwear. None of this was necessary, I knew that; Greg probably wouldn’t have noticed, much less cared, whether my bed was made or not. But it made me feel more put-together and gave me something do while I waited for him. I pulled on a silky robe and went back to the kitchen to pour two glasses of wine, then lit a candle in the living room and settled back on the couch to wait. It had only been a week since we’d last slept together, but I could feel the need to have him rise rapidly in me once again.

          When he arrived, I buzzed him in and met him at my door, pulling him inside and kissing him before he had a chance to speak. I closed the door and he pushed me against it, running his hands through my hair and locking at the nape of my neck. Breathless, we broke apart, looking into the others’ eyes.

          “Hi.” I smiled, my hands on his chest.

          “Hi.” He said back, looking at me with a strange expression. It took me a moment to recognize it as something between lust and adoration.

          “So, rough week?” I asked, one hand reaching for his tie, slowly beginning to loosen it. “Need someone to take your frustrations out on?”

          “Yes and no,” He ran his hands down my back and over my hips, giving my butt a squeeze. “I just really, really fucking wanted to see you.”

          “Well, I’m flattered.” I kissed him again. He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around him as he carried me down the hall to my room, letting me fall back onto my bed. He threw his suit-jacket off to the side and undid his belt, stepping out of his pants. I could see he’d popped a tent already.

          “You need some de-stressing?” I asked, looking up at him through my lashes as I crawled to the edge of the bed, palming him through his underwear.

          “No,” He stopped my hand, unbuttoning his shirt.

          “No?”

          “I mean, yes, but,” He pulled his shirt off, holding onto his tie as he pushed me back on the bed. “I wanted…I want to do something for you, tonight.”

          “Oh, do you?” I raised my brows, propping myself up on my elbows.

          “Yeah, so just lay down, and, um, is it okay if I..?” He moved behind me, and I could feel the silk of his tie slip over my forehead, coming down to block out my vision.

          “Oh! Oh, yes,” I assured him, and he tightened the makeshift blindfold so it would stay on. I lay back against my pillows and waited, tension building as I had no idea when or where I’d feel his touch next. I felt a pull at the belt of my robe, and it fell open so I could slide out of the sleeves. The air above me shifted as his weight came down on top of me. He kissed me, tilting my face up to meet his.

           He drew away, and I felt his lips move to my neck, then my cleavage, feeling me over my bra, then continuing down. He pressed kisses to my stomach, then my hips, and I felt his fingers hook under my thong and pull it down my legs. Kissing my inner thighs, getting closer and closer, he was teasing me, making me wait.

          And then finally I felt his tongue on me, and I gasped. My body started as though I’d been shocked. His hands came up to hold my thighs in place as he moved his tongue slowly over me, circling my clit before coming to rest on it, flicking it languidly. I’d severely underestimated his abilities, I had to admit, though I had never been happier to be wrong about something.

          He sped up, seeming to notice how I reacted to different movements, figuring out what I liked and replicating it. With my vision gone, I felt everything even more vividly than usual, to an almost overwhelming degree. My legs began to shake as he continued, my moans pitching higher and higher as my thighs clenched against his grip.

          “God, yes,” I breathed, one of my hands gripping a handful of blanket, the other finding his head and weaving through his hair, holding him in place as I grinded myself against his face, his tongue still going. I clenched one last time, letting the eruption of pleasure ripple through my body as I came. I rode out the warm waves, then collapsed back against the sheets, letting go of him.

          “Jesus Christ,” I said, my legs still shaky as I tried to sit up.

          “Was that good?” He asked, untying the blindfold. I grabbed his face and gave him a long, slow kiss, tasting myself on his lips.

          “What do you think?” I chuckled softly, kissing him again.

          “I don’t know, you tell me.” He smiled. He wanted to be praised.

          “I liked that very, very much.” I indulged him. “Actually, I fucking loved that. Did you enjoy yourself as well?”

          “Yeah, actually, you taste really fucking good.” He reached around and unhooked my bra, tossing it to the other side of the room.

          “The blindfold was a nice touch, too, where’d you learn that?” I ran my hand idly over his shoulder, down his arm, and back up.

          “I, uh, I’ve had some experiences,” He said, with that shyly devilish little smile he gave me sometimes.

          “Well, I’m lucky to be getting to enjoy your expertise.” I kissed him and brought my hand down, slipping under the band of his underwear, feeling the satiny-soft skin of his head. He blew out a slow breath, his eyes fluttering closed as I began to stroke him, feeling him harden under my grasp.

          “Honestly, I’ve been thinking about being inside of you literally all week.” He groaned as my fingers quickened.

          “What a coincidence, I’ve been thinking about the same thing.” I kissed him, moving on top to straddle him and sliding down his underwear, his dick springing out. I was more prepared this time, grabbing the condom I’d left on my bedside table and ripping it open. He helped me slide it onto his length, and I rubbed myself against him, aroused enough that he soon slid inside with no discomfort, just a few shorter strokes for adjustment. I rode him slowly, sighing at the sensation, his hands moving to my hips, then up to my breasts, cupping and squeezing.

          I felt myself climbing towards an orgasm again. I knew I probably wouldn’t be pushed over the edge before he was, but I was enjoying the ride nonetheless. At this angle, my clit rubbed on him each time I went down again, and combined, it was a lovely sensation. His hands had gone back down to my hips, moving me faster and faster, until he held me in place, letting out the kind of moan that could only accompany an orgasm. He pumped a few final times before I lifted myself off, curling myself next to him as his breathing returned to normal, coming down from his high.

          “Fuck.” He laughed, giving me a kiss before pulling off the condom and tossing it across the room into the garbage.

          “Lucky shot.” I rolled my eyes. “If you missed, you’d be cleaning your cum out of the carpet.”

          “I never miss.” He stretched out, getting comfortable.

          “If you say so.” I got up to use the bathroom. When I returned, I was surprised to see him still awake, his gaze shifting from the ceiling to me as I rejoined him on the bed.

          “Hey,” He started, turning towards me. “I wanted to ask you something. And, um, if you say no, that’s totally okay, but, um…I still wanted to just, like, put something out there for your consideration.”

          “Yeah, what’s up?” I asked, propping myself up on one arm.

          “Would you…well, I was wondering if…” He took a deep breath, looking at me with his big, dark eyes. “Would you like to be my girlfriend?”

          “Oh,” I said, absolutely thrown for a loop.

          “I mean, if it’s too soon or you don’t want to or something—”

          “Greg, sweetheart, I would love to be your girlfriend.” I took his face into my hands, stroking his cheek with a thumb.

          “Well, that’s—that’s great news.” He smiled, leaning in to give me a kiss. It was cute to me how nervous he’d been. It was slightly high-school, but also very, very Greg. And I liked him quite a lot, so I didn’t mind the idea of putting a label on our relationship.

          “You’re so sweet.” I said, laying my head on his chest as he wrapped an arm around me.

          “I wasn’t sure if I was asking too soon, or if you maybe weren’t—you weren’t as into this as I was, so,” He let out a breath. “Very happy you said yes, to say the least.”

          “Well, I’m happy you asked.” I ran a hand over his chest. “I mean, I’m having a good time, and it seems like we work well together.”

          “Yeah, it does.” He kissed my forehead, then lay back against the pillows.

          “Do you want to stay the night, or do you need to get back to your place?” I yawned, snuggling in closer.

          “No, no, I can stay.”

          “Good.” I curled into him, closing my eyes. I listened as his breathing slowed, evening out, and he began to let out little snores with every other exhale. I could feel myself begin to slip away too, and let sleep take me over.

#hbo succession #succession #succession fanfic #succession imagine #greg hirsch #greg hirsch x reader #succession x reader #x reader #gregory hirsch #x reader smut

[queen-paladin]

March 2024 Reading Wrap Up!

Hiya guys, since I have been on a book reading craze lately (I want to read 30 books before I turn 30 and am now on 13 in March, which says something). I enjoy Goodreads, but little to no people read my reviews. My most popular one on Goodreads has *drumroll* six likes *confetti*. And I have a lot of feelings and thoughts and nowhere to express them...so why not here!

That being said...Books I have read in March of 2024! Better late then never!

What I read and my own personal, take it with a grain of salt thoughts on them below:

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

(YA Fantasy)

Summary:

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over. But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

I am usually not the type to stay up late reading because I have to know what's going to happen. I usually set the book down and tuck in bedtime.

This book was an exception.

I was on the edge of my seat, forgetting the time and hour, wanting to read just one more page because I had to know what would happen. The pacing was just right, the world was beautiful and dangerous, and I enjoyed the characters. Scarlett was a breath of fresh air in a genre notorious for internal misogyny in it's female protagonists. Timid and Proper and Responsible, but grows on her own and learns to take initiative.

The environment was very reminiscent of the Night Circus, imagine like, if the Night Circus was a town built on illusions, and you have Caraval. But the Night Circus, rereading it as an adult, had an insufferable MMC who has a girlfriend who sacrifices so much for him, then the MMC who cheats on his girlfriend for the FMC, and then when the girlfriend has the truth confirmed to her, she gets upset and briefly lashes out, the writing then frames her as An Evil Woman Scorned for doing so (which is...yikes) Justice for Isobel Martin. She should have done a full Carrie White style Everyone Dies rampage and I would have rooted her on the whole time.

There's none of that crap here! We have a lovely romance between Scarlett and Julian full of all sorts of wonderful, chemistry-building moments.

But what got me was the story- the various twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat, gasping and clinging. I was captivated. Entranced by it's spell. This is a roller coaster of a book, so just hold on and enjoy the ride. I am so glad I read this book, it gave me a feeling and experience I hadn't had with a book in ages, one where I had to stay up late, because I had to read what would happen next.

5/5

The Unlovely Bride by Alice Coldbreath

(Romance, Historic, Fantasy)

Summary: Lenora Montmayne leads a charmed life as the most beautiful woman at King Wymer’s court, surrounded by admirers. And then disaster strikes. The red pox sweeps the summer palace at Caer-Lyones and Lenora’s fair face falls victim to its ravages. Without her looks, what does Lenora have left to her?

If ever there was a knight the crowd loves to hate, it’s Garman Orde. Even his own family despises him. Then one night a heavily veiled lady offers him an extraordinary bargain. And he finds out that Lenora Montmayne was never just a pretty face.

Review: Any marriage of convenience story I will read, and I will devour it. I've been looking forward to this book for a while, and I do love the premise. And most of all, I love the setting! This lovely world that is part medieval England part not because fuck it, it's not history, just the vibes. And I LOVE our female protagonist. Leonora relied on her looks and nothing else for years to get by, and now that they are gone, she relies on her own person. She loves kitty cats, she believes in prophecies and fortune-telling but is smart, pragmatic, and determined. She and Garman have a nice romance with some great lines and moments (and some nice spice). My complaint is that while the first half is amazing, the second half kind of drags, and not much happens, it could have used more tension, more stakes, and more plot. I may read another Coldbreath book sometime, just because I love the world of Karadok, but I'm not sure.

3.75/5

Medea by Eilish Quin

(Historic, Fantasy)

Summary: The daughter of a sea nymph and the granddaughter of a Titan, Medea is a paradox. She is at once rendered compelling by virtue of the divinity that flows through her bloodline and made powerless by the fact of her being a woman. As a child, she intuitively submerges herself in witchcraft and sorcery, but soon finds it may not be a match for the prophecies that hang over her entire family like a shroud.

As Medea comes into her own as a woman and a witch, she also faces the arrival of the hero Jason, preordained by the gods to be not only her husband, but also her lifeline to escape her isolated existence. Medea travels the treacherous seas with the Argonauts, battles demons she had never conceived of, and falls in love with the man who may ultimately be her downfall.

Review: Ok, ok, I have so many feelings about this. I was...sadly disappointed by this book. Medea is probably my personal favorite of the Ancient Greek Women, if not, my favorite of the spicier, more controversial, morally grey ones (Hera, Circe, Medusa, Clytemnestra, etc)

But, my biggest issue with this book, and it's big, is that I don't believe there is a love story between Medea and Jason. The writer makes him unlikable from the get-go, to where he has numerous Kick The Dog (tm) moments like physically abusing Medea and killing one of Pelleas's daughters when she won't stop crying. Medea herself doesn't justify them, and she keeps thinking of "eh, he's sometimes kind of good-looking, but he's okay."

Like, Medea in this book, after meeting Jason, she flat out tells her brother that he is the man she loves the most in her life (which...YIKES for the implications. But in order for any Medea story to work, I HAVE to believe she is madly, desperately in love with Jason. There's no oath where Jason swears before the gods to stay with her, so then there's no hurt. She kind of has to marry Jason to preserve her honor according to Aunt Circe, but not out of love. Since there's no romantic chemistry, the sacrifices Medea takes make more sense and the betrayal hurts even more so then when she does what she does in Corinth, she is extremely sympathetic at least in the beginning.

Like, she has a moment after Jason revealed he cheated on her and is leaving her for Glauce and she goes "oh, poor Glauce is a victim like me." Which begs the question for this version- why doesn't she just kill Jason himself? She calls Glauce a poor baby victim, she kills Glauce, not Jason. If she loved Jason that much, then she would hate him more, and killing Glauce would make more sense. She wants to watch Jason suffer.

Also, I feel like Eilsha Quinn is a bit afraid of the moral nuances of Medea. She has her "I didn't really MEAN to!" moments and there is one character she kills who she then re-animates (like she re-animates her brother, so oopsie Daisy, she's actually not a kinslayer! And he just...vibes with them as the third wheel lives with them, and helps look after the kids. This makes it less tragic because A) She's not a murderer who risked and left everything for him, she's more "perfect" and not as flawed, and B) when Jason betrays her, she's less alone and has an immediate support system there in her brother). And the kid- killing she does to trick Jason and then she re-animates them later, or tries, to but no, that failed and they're dead dead, whoops. Even if Medea purposely killing the kids was the invention of Euripides, I want to believe Medea is capable of purposely, intentionally doing some violent, controversial things and this seems to be afraid of her spice, her teeth.

The writing is pretty, and I liked the beginning with learning about her childhood, but this was a letdown.

I did order Hewlitt's book of Medea, which is higher ranked on Goodreads so my hope is higher for that one.

3/5

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

(YA, Fantasy, Romance)

Summary:

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

Review: This book was utterly beautiful, breathtaking, and heartbreaking all at once and yet uplifting and then it breaks your heart again. The world is simple and lovely. It's a mix of World War One/two aesthetics with a fantasy setting. It's basically You Got Mail but fantasy and more focus on the drama then the comedy.

The romance is lovely, there is such a beautiful love story between Roman and Iris as they sort out their feelings, reveal their secrets, doubts, failures, grief, and insecurities, and learn more about where they fall for each other. Plus, the twists and turns were a lot of fun and the pacing was just right.

I have no faults or complaints, this was just a lovely, lovely book and I look forward to the sequel because THAT was quite a note to end on!

5/5

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Summary: After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

Reveiw: This is such a hyped, beloved, popular book that is so many people's baby and favorite series and it...it was okay.

It wasn't bad.

But I didn't find it phenomenal, amazing, spectacular, life chagning.

It was good. It was okay.

I honestly got extremely tired of trying to learn how the over-complicated Arthurian society worked. It's explained in a super info-dumpy way that the characters get, but I don't. And the pacing was way too slow, I feel like it needed to shave off a good hundred pages, or fifty, perhaps.

I do enjoy the main girl, Bree, alright. She doesn't take bullshit, but has moments of vulnerability. As well as exploring race, grief, family history and the scenes with root magic were amazing. The beginning was fantastically done, it was the middle part where it peterred off for me.

But the rest of it, not gonna lie, was kind of...eh.

And, ngl, I am more Team Nick. Sel is a giant jerk who treats her like garbage, yet people root for them and want them to be together, and I'm like....??????? why? At least Nick, white saviory as he can be, is trying and cares for her and affirms and appreciates her strength.

I respect that this is so many people's favorite book and that it speaks to them and moves them. But for me, if none of these people made any content around this book and said nothing, based off of my opinion independent of others, if you plopped this book on my lap and said nothing about the hype about it...I'd still say it was just okay. That might be my controversial hot take, but it's just what my personal experience was from this book.

3/5

Currently Reading: The Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Lemming, The Death of Jane Lawrence by Starling, Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies by Fawcett, and Twisted Love by Ana Huang.

#reading #books #bookblr #bookworm #literature #booklr #goodreads #books and reading #book lover #book wrapup #bookish #reading logs #reading thoughts #caraval #stephanie garber #alice coldbreath #the unlovely bride #divine rivals #letters of enchantment #roman kitt #iris winnow #rebecca ross #legendborn #tracy deonn

[luluwquidprocrow]

sweetest things

violet, klaus, beatrice, bertrand

gen

3,155 words

To the consternation of most of the Baudelaire household, the third Baudelaire child takes her very sweet time making an appearance.

my fic for @snckt for @asouefanworkevent's wicked way exchange!!! lainey, i loved ALL your prompts so much and i, fully 100% intend to do another one as well, when i can get my head around it better. but here is some baudelaire family slice of life!!

By Friday afternoon, according to Violet’s checklist, the Baudelaire family had tried –

1) An after dinner walk (It was fun for the four of them to go around the block after dinner, with Klaus pointing out all the summer flowers, but it hadn’t done anything at all. Mother hadn’t been very optimistic about that option anyway. She walked around all the time, and if that wasn’t enough to jog anything, more average physical exercise was unlikely to move things along.)

2) Surprising Mother (Father had hidden himself around the house all day and tried to startle her – it had only really worked once, and mostly just succeeded in Mother almost smacking Father right in the face with her summer book. They were all very thankful Mother was rereading Violet and Klaus’s books from when they were very little, and not her customary enormous summer novel. Violet wondered what would’ve become of Father’s face if he’d been smacked with, say, Mother’s gigantic illustrated Moby Dick with the gilded cover. Something very horrid, she thought. Father was very handsome.)

3) Dancing (Also a regular activity, but one Mother enjoyed much, much more than the after dinner walk. They’d all been sure that a whole afternoon of elegant tangos and brisk but careful sambas would be the perfect thing – but Mother had ended the day sitting and grumbling when nothing happened.)

4) Not doing anything in particular (On the chance that merely suspending their wait and pretending they weren’t waiting might cause something to happen. They all carried on with their usual day – Father brought Mother lemonade, and Mother read regular, adult books, and then did a crossword puzzle with Klaus, and Father worked on his puzzle book, and Violet and Klaus played chess in the library and gave answers when Father asked them for help with the trivia section, and then Mother and Father played game after game after game of backgammon, and they all painted their toenails again (with Violet and Klaus and Father taking turns doing Mother’s toenails), and none of them entered the nursery just to even look at it and make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, and they even moved Mother’s hospital bags from the front foyer into a closet, and then they all sat around in the afternoon sun not doing anything until Mother let out a very dramatic sigh and said they should give it up as a lost cause. They’d gone out for ice cream that night, as a reward for all their trouble. They were a few days past Mother’s initial due date now, or her due week, because Violet had been late and Klaus had been early, so when it came to expecting her third child, Mother circled the whole first week of August so she was prepared at any moment. After the ice cream, she’d looked at the calendar in the hall almost like it had betrayed her.)

5) Laughing (Father told the most terrible, awful puns and jokes, and went around a whole morning making jokes in the library to make Mother laugh. Violet and Klaus thought Mother had to be humoring him, but it was her genuine laugh, every time. Maybe, they figured, when you married someone, you thought them saying “You’re a real page turner” and looking between Mother and the book she’d been holding was endearing, not embarrassing. Either way, that hadn’t worked, either.)

Violet starred the next thing on her list – spicy food – then put down her notebook and scooped up her invention into her arms. She carried it back downstairs, stepping over Klaus, who was in his usual position on the floor outside the kitchen, where the sunlight came in the best through the big glass window above the sink and filled up all the spaces of the Baudelaire home with a soft, yellow light. It fell right on the pages of Klaus’s book, just the way he liked it.

“What are you reading?” Violet asked, looking back over her shoulder.

“Nothing,” Klaus mumbled. He’d been uncharacteristically quiet this week, Violet thought, barely helping at all with Violet’s list. It was like all the anticipation, all the excitement, all the wondering and waiting just passed right over him. Violet frowned down at Klaus’s head, buried back in his book. She figured that when Klaus wanted to talk, then he would surely tell her what was bothering him. She’d just have to wait him out, too. And Violet was getting excellent practice at waiting things out.

“Ah! Is this it?”

Violet turned back to the kitchen. Father was looking at her expectantly, standing by the counter with the tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and one onion all laid out. She rushed over and set her invention down.

She picked up one of the tomatoes and fit it onto the top dowel. Violet pressed the tiny button she’d put a tomato sticker on, and her invention whirred to life as she and Father watched – the tomato spun around as the record player underneath it started up, and on the first revolution, the skin of the tomato peeled off, and on the next, it split open, sliced out from the inside, creating neat little cubes of tomato that fell onto the transparent plate below, all to the tune of one of Father’s bossa nova records, the sound coming out of the gramophone horn fixed on the side. Violet beamed. She’d designed it last week, after seeing a box grater display in the supermarket, and knew she could do better.

“Wonderful!” Father said. “Very well done, Ed.” He removed the tomato pieces and set them in the big glass bowl at his elbow, then set one of the cucumbers on the dowel. “You can get started on the croutons,” he continued, gesturing at the sideboard cabinet, where he’d put the bread last night.

Violet picked up the big bread knife nearby and got to cutting. It would be easier, she started thinking, if there was a machine for this, too – and something that would toast the croutons – and something to saute the garlic to put them in – and maybe something to tell time while you were doing it, too – and maybe –

“Croutons first!” Father said.

Violet realized she’d been reaching for the ribbon in her trouser pocket. She gave herself a little shake and got back to the bread. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Father set the chopper for the cucumber. He was humming along with The Girl From Ipanema, and perfectly at ease. An excellent opportunity to try and catch him off guard.

“Where’s Mother?” Violet asked, to start.

“In the library,” Father said. He removed the cucumber and replaced it with a pepper. “Relaxing.”

“And it did not work,” came an irritated voice, and Violet and Father both looked up to see Mother in the doorway, holding onto the jamb as she stepped over Klaus as well and lowered herself slowly and gingerly down into one of the stools by the counter. Klaus watched her carefully until she’d sat down, and went back at his book.

“Aha! Here she is!” Father exclaimed. “Miss Tall and Tan and Young and Lovely herself!” He leaned over and gave Mother a quick kiss on her forehead, brushing some of the hair that had fallen out of the bun atop her head out of her face.

Violet barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Father was at it again. Certainly, Mother was tan and young and lovely, but not very tall at all. But it made Mother look a little less grumbly, and that was good.

“Anything I can do to help?” Mother asked. She adjusted her position in the stool, sitting at an angle so the curve of her stomach didn’t hit against anything. “Get you the vinegar? The coriander? Dance around with the salt shaker until I salsa this child out of me?”

“All you have to do is sit there and look nice,” Father said. “Which you already do, effortlessly. And not eat all the cucumbers,” he added, waving Mother’s wandering hand away from the big bowl.

Violet waited a few moments, slicing into the bread again. She wasn’t sure how she’d fare against both of her parents at the same time, now, but maybe it would cheer Mother up. And hopefully Klaus would join in. “I wonder if Ginger will like gazpacho,” she said, keeping her tone light.

Father started humming again. Mother was suddenly inspecting her fingernails, looking very interested.

Violet reached over into the icebox for the half-used garlic bulb. “Or if – ” She caught sight of the mason jar filled with soft, small green leaves. “ – Sage will like garlic croutons.”

Father smiled once more, his eyes sparkling behind his glasses, and Mother successfully stole a piece of cucumber from the big glass bowl and popped it into her mouth. “Very refreshing,” she commented. Father gave her a mock-stern look, until Mother said, “You said all the cucumbers, that was one cucumber.” She maintained eye contact as she reached into the bowl and took another. “Two,” she said, around the cucumber.

Violet puffed out a sigh. Mother and Father had been so tight-lipped for the past nine months about what they were going to name their third child. Violet and Klaus had taken to dropping name options at every opportunity, to see if they could jog a response. Not even food-themed names could get them to talk. Mother and Father were going to make them wait until the baby was born. Which, at this rate, could take an age.

All of a sudden, Klaus cut in. “Babies can’t eat gazpacho,” he called, looking into the kitchen. “Or garlic croutons.”

Violet didn’t scowl – she thought she was much too old for scowling – but her face scrunched up, just like Mother’s had been doing. Why didn’t Klaus want to have fun anymore? It wasn’t as if they’d run out of food names. And of course babies couldn’t eat gazpacho, but that wasn’t the point.

“Perhaps Pepper will like gazpacho when they’re old enough to try it,” Father said. He scooped up the last pepper and dropped it in with the rest of the ingredients. “Klaus, stop sulking down there and get the vinegar and citrus juice for me, please.”

Violet almost thought Klaus would insist he wasn’t sulking, he seemed in that sour of a mood, but it was hard to talk back to Father. So Klaus got up from the hall, bookmarked his page with a thin slip of paper, and joined Violet and Father and Mother in the kitchen.

While Violet and Klaus bustled around, getting the remaining ingredients, Mother chopped up a scallion into little pieces with a knife. Scallions! The one thing Violet hadn’t allotted for in her invention. She’d have to make an adjustment for that, later. Mother complemented Violet’s handiwork, then helped her cross a few wires so they could use it as a regular record player too, without needing to slice or chop anything more, and the Gilberto album went on, filling the kitchen with soft saxophones and guitars. When Father and Mother had mixed everything together in the bowl, Father placed the soup in the fridge so it could chill, and then the four of them made the croutons together.

They crowded around the stove top, pressed close to Mother as she sauted the butter and garlic in a pan before tossing all the bread cubes in alongside. Klaus got to shake the pan around to coat the bread, and use the big salt grinder to sprinkle them with salt after, and he looked a little happier.

Mother and Father piled the croutons atop a cream napkin on plate. “Well, we have to try them,” Mother said. The gazpacho would take forever to chill – or at least a couple hours – but garlic croutons were considered spicy too, Violet realized, and maybe that would be enough to convince the third Baudelaire sibling to make their appearance.

“I concur,” Father said, and the four of them each took a crouton. “What do you think?” he asked over all the crunching.

“Buttery,” Klaus said.

“Toasty,” Violet said.

“Garlicky,” Father put in.

“Very garlicky,” Mother said, looking pleased, and she took another crouton, and then a handful of them. “Well done, troupe.” They stood in the kitchen, waiting and waiting, but the only thing that happened was that Violet’s feet started to get a little sore from standing. The warm summer breeze continued, and the sun was still bright in the mid-afternoon sky, and Desafinado was playing now, and Mother was still, despite everyone’s best intentions, very, very pregnant. Violet frowned; Father kissed Mother’s forehead again; even Klaus sighed.

“Maybe the gazpacho will do something,” Mother sighed, and dusted crouton crumbs from her fingers. “It’s early, but how about the two of you set the table anyway, mm?”

Klaus got the napkins, and Violet got the silverware, and they passed under the big archway between the kitchen and the dining room, filled with soft purple and blue shards of sunlight from the pieces of stained glass in the dining room windows.

“I could always try to scare you again,” Violet heard Father offer, back in the kitchen. “I’m still upset that didn’t work.”

“If you tell me you’re going to scare me, how is that going to work, Bertrand?”

“Forget I said anything – look, that’s an awfully interesting frying pan, isn’t it? What if you look at it while I go over to the other side of the kitchen and get a washcloth and on the way back, while you’re very engrossed in the pan, who knows what will happen?”

Mother started laughing. Violet and Klaus followed each other around the table, putting each place setting down a piece at a time. It was a good sized table, Violet thought. Definitely enough room to accommodate the fifth Baudelaire.

“Which end do you think the baby will sit at?” Violet asked. She thought the far end, by Mother, would be the best, so Mother was right there if they needed anything.

“Babies can’t sit up right away,” Klaus said. “It’ll be months before they can sit at the table.”

Violet knew that, but that wasn’t the point of it, either. She thought maybe she should stop waiting out Klaus in particular and just come right out and ask him. She was his older sister, and soon to be the eldest sibling out of three, and she should be able to problem-solve this like she’d problem-solved an unexciting box grater, like she’d been making the list of things to try and help Mother, like she wanted to be able to do for their new sibling. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Klaus said again. He folded the fourth napkin and set it down on the table, a little too hard. He ran his fingers over the bend in the cloth. “Do you think the gazpacho will work?”

“I hope so,” Violet said. “Is that what you’re worried about?”

Klaus shrugged. “I mean – I liked things the way they were,” he said quietly. He adjusted his glasses, then the collar of his shirt, like the way Father fidgeted sometimes. “A baby changes a lot,” he pointed out. “Mother didn’t even read her summer book, this year.”

Things had been a little different this year, Violet realized. But not in a bad way. In a fun way, of getting things ready and helping Mother and Father, and they still spent a lot of time together, all of them. But Violet hadn’t been able to go to the museum with Mother as much as other summers, and Father had spent a lot of time looking out the window with a little crease of worry in his brow, when he thought no one else was watching. They’d all have to spend a lot of time looking after the baby when it finally did arrive. They might not be able to go to the museum at all, and maybe – it struck Violet with a pang – maybe Mother wouldn’t have time to read a book with Klaus next summer, either. Things might change a lot.

“And,” Klaus continued, “what if something goes terribly, terribly wrong? Babies aren’t supposed to be late.” He glanced past Violet and back into the kitchen, and when Violet followed his gaze, she saw the book Klaus had been reading earlier placed on the counter. One of Mother’s pregnancy books that they’d all taken turns reading.

“Oh, Klaus,” Violet said. “I don’t – I was late,” she remembered. “And Mother was okay. And – ” She hesitated. She didn’t want to say the wrong thing. “We’re all still a family, aren’t we? That doesn’t change just because some other things do.”

“It feels like it,” Klaus said miserably. “I like it when things stay the same.” He wiped the side of his hand under his glasses, over each eye.

Suddenly, Violet had an idea. She reached over and put her hand on Klaus’s shoulder. “I think Brie will really like you, Klaus,” she said, trying to put on her most serious face. The corner of her mouth twitched, just as Klaus met her eyes.

It worked – Klaus started to laugh, just like Mother’s genuine laugh, a loud and bright startled sound. “You think so? Wheely?” he asked.

“Of course they’re gouda,” Violet said, giggling.

“I hear puns!” Mother called. “Bad puns!”

“Excellent job!” Father called after.

The gazpacho was delicious. Mother was still pregnant after dinner – but the gazpacho was delicious, and so were the remaining croutons, after all of them sneaking handfuls while the gazpacho chilled. And Violet and Klaus and Mother and Father sat around the table, all of them suggesting the silliest food names they could come up with, making Mother laugh until there were tears in her eyes.

Father and Violet and Klaus gathered up all the dishes and took them in trips to the kitchen, letting Mother stretch out in her chair. When Violet and Klaus came back for the glasses, Mother grabbed hold of them and pulled them down onto her lap, all of them making a little oomph noise. They were a little too big to really fit comfortably, especially with Mother’s stomach taking up most of the room on her lap, but she held Violet and Klaus so close against her.

“Let me tell you a secret,” Mother whispered, looking at Violet and Klaus. “Don’t tell your father I told you, alright? Look surprised when he tells you. But I want to tell you.” She got a look in her eyes like she’d heard every word Violet and Klaus had said before dinner. Violet thought there wasn’t a thing in the world Mother didn’t hear. “Both of you, sweetest things.”

“What is it?” Klaus asked.

Mother smiled, slow and beautiful. “Sunny,” she said. “That’s what we’re going to name her.”

#asoue #a series of unfortunate events #wicked way exchange #i will fix the dashes..........lllllllater #much like bea with sunny i had a hard time getting this to Exist. i hope it reads well and is. soft

[eldritchmochi]

OKAY SO I JUST FINISHED REREADING COPING SKILLS AND I'M BACK TO HOUND YOU WITH QUASTSHUNS <3

When did Essek get into the Rosohnan kink community? Before/after his hEDS showed up? (basically I guess I'm wondering if he was into kink before dealing with hEDS or if, like many disabled kinksters in my experience anyways, he got into it as a way to have some control over pain in a pleasurable way)

Who exactly would Essek have mentored under????

How did Testament clock Bren as a kinkster, let alone introduce him to it?

Is Frumpkin an ordinary cat in this fic or a familiar?

How did Beau and Yasha meet??? What brought them to Xhorhas?

How did Essek meet his Guides?

LISTEN it's really hard for me to not ask about stuff that seems like it's gonna get answered over the course of the fic because I wanna be patient, dammit! Just please know that for every question I am pestering you with (affectionate) I have like, at least three more I'm holding back lol.

Anyways I hope you're healing up well! :3

holy shit you were not kidding about SO MANY QUESTIONS lmao (i am healing well thank u i got halfway thru typing this up and then went to the hospital so uh....)

When did Essek get into the Rosohnan kink community? Before/after his hEDS showed up?

his interest in kink came first when he was younger, thru the elf equivalent of his teens as he tried to figure out sex acts that interested him beyond the abstract of touch-dick-feel-good, then the inkling of hmmm maybe there's something physically wrong with me as he got a little older and it stopped being excusable that he was a bit of a klutz, but he became active in the scene as an adult around the same time he was getting official diagnoses in his late 90s, early 100s

Who exactly would Essek have mentored under????

good question! honestly, he probably hasn't (hadn't??) with the exception of/until zehra because before his guides he hadn't really spent too long in relationships, kink or otherwise. he attended plenty of workshops when he was starting out and has done scenes with several others in the community like, casually, but he is probably not as experienced as readers (or caleb) would assume

How did Testament clock Bren as a kinkster, let alone introduce him to it?

it was the other way around actually! kink is not precisely taboo in rosohna, not the same way it is irl or even in the empire; it's generally expected that most folks, particularly those in noble circles ESPECIALLY if they're a longer lived race, have dabbled at least a little. rather, its hush-hush to like, allow those same nobles the freedom to operate outside the expectations of their circles. like there can be repercussions, but its mostly just private business is private. caleb, however, is very observant and there was like, a kink equivalent of the "i like your shoelaces" deal, which absolutely delighted testament

Is Frumpkin an ordinary cat in this fic or a familiar?

he is a familiar! i've fudged some things from cannon/dnd raw because fuck you its fanfic i can do what i want, but frumpkin is still a familiar, still a fae creature, still telepathically linked to caleb, and still able to be summoned and banished as needed. its absolutely impossible to show given how 99% of the fic is from essek's pov, but caleb very politely bribes frumpkin with mlem sticks to please leave him and his guest alone until such and such time when his guest will leave so caleb can fuck in peace (per yasha's suggestion given that cats are not common in rosohna, so it follows that essek has not much interacted with them (he has not) and may be uncomfortable with the staring (he would be))

(further fun frumpkin fact, caleb had to get a special permit to have his familiar's default form be "cat" because they are a non-native species lmao)

How did Beau and Yasha meet??? What brought them to Xhorhas?

they met through caleb and molly respectively; after molly's "death", yasha had a hard time staying in rexxentrum without feeling overwhelmed, so when beau got the opportunity to be part of the souls efforts to set up a library in rosohna, they got shotgun married and went somewhere new

How did Essek meet his Guides?

the tl;dr of it is basically lapin walked up at some event and was basically like my wife girlfriend and i saw you across the bar and we really like your vibe lmao. essek was mildly put off because he only likes men and zehra was basically like well thats fine because im a lesbian and you're obviously not a woman but that doesn't mean things cant be interesting, queue lapin being like yeah you dont have to fuck to have fun!! and essek was so baffled he agreed to get to know them and then somehow it was two years later and he was in their wedding party with friendship nipple piercings

absolutely feel free to ask questions even if you think they'll be answered in fic!! i don't mind fielding them because like, tbh, i am not THAT good of a writer so its entirely possible i wont think to really explain xyz thing because its obvious to me (there have definitely been SEVERAL things ive had to last minute edit into following chapters to explain a thing previously because people commented like wait what is this??? because i just... knew what it was so obviously everyone else would lmao). worse case scenario i'll pull a neil and go wait and see

but thank u for so many questions it was very fun!!

#mochi rambles #unletteredheathen #unlettered-heathen #mochi asks #mochi presents coping skills #mochi fic

[sitp-recs]

Hidden Gems by @writcraft

September is indeed a blessed month as some of my favourite fandom folks celebrate their birthdays (and I resent that!! 😂). I completely missed Writcraft’s a few days ago so this is a humble if belated little gift to celebrate them. As I put this together I realized I’ve never made a proper reclist for them, despite having read almost everything from their catalogue at this point. The heresy! So I thought maybe this could be some sort of love letter too, to show how much I appreciate their contributions to the fandom over the years.

I’ve been reading Writ’s fics - both Drarry and rare pairs, hello Harry/Teddy and Snarry my beloved! - since 2012. Not even in my wildest dreams I imagined I’d ever get to interact, let alone be friends with the mind behind one of my all-time favorite reads, the iconic Little Compton Street. This story means so much to me it’s impossible to think of it without getting choked up in my emotions.

For the first time I found myself eager to learn more about queer history through fic, because of the touching and sensitive approach to the theme, which got me as invested in it as I was in the Drarry romance. LCS was also the first fic that made me wish I could see a first kiss scene on the big screen (with Bowie’s Life on Mars in the background of course!); it’s the first fic that made me consider James/Sirius as a romantic ship, the first fic that took me by the hand and guided me into London’s vibrant and seductive landscape and nightlife, not to mention the places of historical significance for the queer community. I have recently reread the equally fabulous How We Were Warriors - a must read for any Snarry fan! - and was hit by the same magical feeling of “wow, I’m so privileged to be able to dive deep into 🏳️‍🌈 history while falling in love with NYC”. And it happened organically, in a way that made me feel nostalgic for a place I’ve only been to once in my life. The power that Writ’s storytelling holds!

But as much as I’d love to, I’m not here to talk about LCS or HWWW, but to shine light on a few of my favorite hidden gems by this talented writer, who’s just as brilliant exploring a range of rare pairs dynamics, especially the intricacies of angsty romance between characters with a complicated past. Writ explores these nuances with so much care and sensitivity. Their writing offers a generous but realistic portrait of adult themes like coming out, loneliness, internalized homophobia and mental health. All fascinating yet difficult subjects to navigate. But every fic of theirs transpires heart and research, carefully crafted to guide us through a singular, poignant emotional ride full of catharsis, self-awareness and hope. I consider many of these essential to my fandom “coming of age” so to speak, as I became an adult reader who gravitates towards adult stories about adult characters put in adult situations. Writcraft offers unique perspectives by combining seriousness, grief and sorrow with a spark of youth, wonder and tenderness.

Without further ado, here are some short-ish treats for your weekly reading list. Drarry and rare pairs (especially Snarry and femslash), let’s rejoice! I’m sure you’ll find something for your tastes in here. Lastly, nobody asked but the banner inspo comes from a moodboard I did a while ago, featuring a butterfly. When I googled its meaning, here’s what came up: Butterflies are beautiful and have mystery, symbolism, and meaning and are a metaphor representing spiritual rebirth, transformation, change, hope, and life. The magnificent, yet short life of the butterfly closely mirrors the process of spiritual transformation and serves to remind us that life is short. Not sure how much of that is true but I found it very poetic and fitting!

Writ, thank you so much for everything you’ve done for the fandom throughout the years - for being such an inspiration for both authors and readers, for providing the BEST clubbing fics and being a rare pair enthusiast, and finally, for being a strong voice for queer representation and legacy of resistance and hope. Every time we talk I am in awe of how open and generous you are, always willing to share knowledge and experiences about these themes. I’m so happy to be getting to know you, and I hope you’ve had a lovely birthday last week! 💜

Drarry:

Dapper (2016, E, 4k) - delicious PWP with a perfect balance between smooth development, playful banter and hot hot hot smut! Love their voices here.

Draco starts wearing Muggle suits and Harry’s definitely losing his mind.

Dancing on His Own (2016, E, 6k) - I feel the urge to rec every single clubbing fic Writ has ever written, it’s such a strong trademark and I love their sexy, freeing and entrancing atmosphere. Get ready to fall in love with London nights as our boys inevitably falling together.

Under the decadent lights of London’s gay bars, Draco and Harry find one another again after years of searching.

Merlin’s Kitchen (2021, E, 12k) - another fantastic and engaging clubbing fic with Writ’s brand of sensual atmosphere, rich and adult and so incredibly compelling. I would stay in this universe forever learning more about this charming and fascinating Harry through Draco’s eyes. Kudos for that ending full of promise!

Merlin’s Kitchen is a shit nightclub but having sex with Harry Potter might improve things.

Dirty Little Secret (2013, E, 22k) - a wonderful and refreshing take on BDSM, it’s such a treat to watch Harry and Draco navigate and discover their kinky side, eager and clumsy and relying to much on the hate/love dynamics that we love. They sound so very young and deliciously flawed here, and I adore how this fic gives them room to grow and brings them back together at the end.

When someone threatens Harry’s life, Kingsley decides to send him to a safe house with only Draco Malfoy for company. As the two men are forced together, memories of the past resurface and secrets are discovered.

Collapse Amongst the Dying Stars (2013, M, 26k) - I’ve only read this fic once and it was enough to leave a lasting impression. There’s something to be said about an author who makes you read tropes you usually avoid (mind the tags!) but I was so deeply immersed and invested I didn’t even care. This devastating yet perfectly executed time travel journey will break your heart with this fascinating Draco development and this beautiful, loving Harry. It’s about the catharsis 😔🤌🏼

After the final battle nothing is quite as Harry expected. Death Eaters remain unaccounted for, Malfoy is in prison and there is something rotten in Azkaban. Banned from assisting the Aurors, Harry keeps himself busy with regular visits to Malfoy and works to bring light to the darkness of 12 Grimmauld Place. Cw: implied rape, character death, unhappy ending.

Rare pairs:

Stone Butch Blues (2018, T, 1k) - if you haven’t read the LCS instalment focused on Will/Minerva (which you absolutely should RIGHT NOW) maybe start here with this brilliant short. An incredible take on gender fluid Will and superb dialogue that left me hooked and so curious to learn more about these two. So much character within 1k, my god, what an impressive short!

Will reminisces with Minerva.

Where Thestrals Fly (2014, T, 3k) - beautiful Snarry short, I love the premise and the unique narrative style, it’s wonderful to see their backstory and attraction slowly unravel with the Thestrals ritual and the post-war scenario as background. Soft, sensual, contemplative. Yum!

Every Beltane, Severus and Harry undertake the ritual of moving Thestrals between the Bel fires. As they grow closer the light in their future steadily overpowers the darkness of their past.

Storm Chasers (2020, E, 4.5k) - I’m so fond of my first Ginny/Tonks fic - this is a lovely, poetic and thrilling get together with compelling characters and organic chemistry. I love the intimate writing, the sexual exploration, the A+ character development. Non-binary Tonks is a joy to read!

It starts, as these things often do, with hummus.

Tonight Let's Get Some (2019, E, 4.5k) - oof I’m so thirsty for this scorching Harry/Charlie, you can taste the sexual tension in your bones and their dynamics are quite organic and casual. Great characterization, sexy clubbing aesthetics + voyeurism/public sex as a special treat, my favorite! A must read for any Charlie slut like me 😌

Harry discovers private karaoke rooms are great for blow jobs, gets a crash course in Muggle music and hopes that One Direction songs are the way to Charlie Weasley’s cock heart.

True Colors (2017, E, 6k) - one of the sweetest Harry/Teddy I’ve ever read, this fic holds a special place in my heart. It is so moving and full of gentleness and hope. I love the tentative dynamics and how they slowly but surely come together after dancing around each other. The way Teddy yearns for Harry is so tender it hits right in the feels and leaves me swooning for their love.

Teddy spent the last year running away from his feelings for Harry. Now it’s time to come home.

No Comparison (2020, E, 7k) - imo the ultimate comfort Snarry, very different from the usual angsty take we see out there. This is both hilarious and sweet with a charming take on the characters, delightful flirting banter and a satisfying get together. I love the refreshing “omg they’re officemates” scenario, plus their chemistry is 👩‍🍳💋

Sharing an office with Severus is driving Harry mad. When he discovers Severus isn’t quite as straight as he first believed, Harry decides there’s only one way to resolve their constant bickering.

Holding Out for A Hero (2015, E, 7.5k) - one of my all-time favourite Harry/Teddy fic, this is a sinfully hot and romantic get together + first time, my favourite combo for this ship. So much tender domesticity and soft mutual pining, plus breathtaking smut and a beautiful, sweet Teddy melting both Harry’s resistance and our hearts. I’ve read this one more times than I can count, delicious!

Even as he says no, Harry’s hands push into Teddy’s hair. Even as he protests, his lips connect with Teddy’s. Before Teddy can offer any reassurance his heart’s thumping wildly in his chest and Harry Potter’s kissing him as if there’s no tomorrow.

The Way We Were (2021, E, 15k) - after LCS this was the fic that made my heart beat faster for Prongsfoot! A poignant “coming of age” story with friends to lovers, queer awakening and LGBT themes in the 70s, only Writ delivers this wistful mix of excitement and devastation. This is complex and nuanced with James and Sirius navigating the complicated feelings of their changing relationship, all with the impending war looming in the background.

At nineteen, James Potter is missing Hogwarts, nursing a broken heart and worrying about his ailing parents. James needs his friends more than ever, but Remus is behaving strangely, Peter is too busy with his new job and Sirius has a secret more terrifying than the whispers of a looming war.

#hidden gems s3 #happy belated bday writ <3

[kryptonitecore]

Reread: ROM vs. Transformers: Shining Armor

I was unsure what to expect going in. On the one hand, I’ve seen lots of interesting panels from this comic floating around, but on the other hand I don’t have the highest opinion of a lot of the IDW1 crossover things and I didn’t have any prior knowledge of ROM. I’m happy to say I didn’t need a lot of prior knowledge and there were some very concise notes at the front laying down the basics. Honestly, I think perhaps ROM was an easier combination with the Transformers canon, given that it seems to have its own space opera and SFF aspects.

I immediately latched on to Stardrive like a gosling onto its mother. I may also be about to go down a rabbit hole of over-interpreting minor details, but here I go. Stardrive raises some interesting ideas about Cybertronian ageing. The IDW1 continuity doesn’t really account for a subadult period of life. There are ‘newer’ characters and periods of training and education, but not really a fundamental and distinct phase of life that would be equivalent to childhood or adolescence. Stardrive, surrounded by mostly organic species, is shown experiencing a childhood and is interpreted as young by multiple characters from multiple different species: she went to school, someone must have found her that purple cuddly toy, and characters like Rom, who tries to soften criticism directed her way, and the Dire Wraith, who claims she screams ‘like a child’, do not interpret her as a full adult. Admittedly, there’s multiple ways to interpret this in the story itself. It could all be down to socialisation, or, alternatively, it could suggest that there is a period of Cybertronian life (even if it’s relatively short…) that is subadult or somewhat ‘childlike’ and they just don’t mark it? That or the writers just wanted to make Stardrive seem cuter or more innocent, which… goal achieved, I suppose. It’s a shame we didn’t see more of this character, especially with that ending and the question of how, should she survive, these experiences might alter Stardrive given that she seems quite young and soft - not a pushover, but quite a soft person.

I still know nothing about ROM, but I have to say I was not expecting the Solstar Order to be as planet-destruction-happy as they turned out to be. I have to wonder how no one in the Order is questioning Livia a bit more considering… well, everything she says and does? I mean, she can barely hold back her contempt for her peers, let alone everyone else. I enjoyed the multi-sided conflict and it gave the story a nice sense of scale, though I am starting to wonder about the Galactic Council and their hatred of Cybertronians, which seems to be their only defining feature - I don’t know whether I find that a bit wearing or quite funny.

A lot of the images I’ve seen from this comic have been of Starscream and for good reason. If you like IDW1 Starscream, especially if you are interested in a more upbeat take on the character, this is well worth a look. There’s also an interesting sense of camaraderie among the Decepticon characters - some of their interactions are informal, there are nicknames, there are jokes, Astrotrain and Blitzwing are grudging friends, Starscream gets a bit territorial, etc. Also bringing villainous energy, there is ROM’s contribution in the form of Vekktral, who is just delightfully enthusiastic about his combination of magic and technology.

This book mostly escapes continuity traps, but the one thing that does come up is Ultra Magnus - specifically, this is NOT Minimus but someone called Convoy, despite being seemingly close to the modern era. Ultra Magnus’ characterisation is very, very deliberate - it’s even a joke at one point, where Bumblebee talks about how ‘Magnus reacted with a level head, as always’, immediately followed by a scream of ‘Annihilate them!’. Similarly, ‘They’re organics! They barely count as life, anyway’ is certainly a sentiment. It was actually quite entertaining to see evidence of such a wildly different version and a further exploration of the concept of Magnus-as-role rather than individual, however it does have the side effect of suggesting Minimus was not in the job for that long.

I honestly had a lot of fun with these issues. They’re relatively self-contained and might be a bit tonally dissonant compared with what was probably going on in the mainline comics at the time, but it had a lot of life to it, with great art, fun character moments, and it went well above what I expected from a crossover. It got a little cluttered towards the end, but otherwise I was pleasantly surprised by this!

#transformers #rereading! #the grand reread 2023 2024 #rom vs transformers shining armor #idw1

[rottentiger-art]

tag people you would like to get to know better

Thank you @gigantomachy1916 and @litterateur97 for the tag!! It's crazy how much we have in common lol

1. Three Ships

Ooof, I got so many, I'm gonna put the three I'm currently obsessed with (bc I'm not sure I could choose just three as favorite)

Vegebul, my beloved, my OTP, the light in my life, the best anime couple imo

Trumai (yes, both versions), the successor of Vegebul, they have me in a hold just as strong as them, it's such a weird but fun pairing, I adore them

Hurrem x Suleiman (look at themmmmm) everytime suleyman spoke his poems to hurrem I melted, no ship has ever have such romantic quotes. Plus, i use a lot of their scenes for royal aus, it's just gold

I know you said three but I gotta give an honorable mention to Lawmane, who's ever present in my mind, even if I dont post about them as often as before. They would've been THE couple if only Misa hadnt fallen for that gay republican

2. First Ever Ship

I think it was either Sparrabeth or Quogan, I'm not too sure (Quogan was the first ship I've read a fanfic of tho). I'm still obsessed with both, maybe more than when I was younger. I remember wanting Spareabeth to be endgame and to know more of Quogan's life after the show's end, but now it's a NEED

3. Last Song

Funeral by Mon Laferte. It's an amazing song, it speaks of being in a loveless/passionless relationship and wondering how it got that way and wanting nothing more than for it to finally reach its end. My favorite part goes something like this: "While I prepare breakfast I feel so terribly alone, suddenly I want to die, I want to run away from you. I wish I was on the ocean, letting the waves carry me away, I want to stop breathing; dont wake me up, I want to keep dreaming about our funeral" not a perfect translation, but you get the point. The narrator feels so helpless and is so desperate to find a way put an end to that relationship, other part of the song reflects her regret on how they both let the relationship die and wishes she could go back in time and prevent it, but nonetheless their love has died and they're both wasting their time by still being together.

I listen to it a lot when I need to think an angst AU or something lol. But the singer is so good and shows such emotions through her voice, it makes me relate, even tho I've never been on that situation (thankfully)

If you want to get into Hispanic music, I definitely recommend Mon Laferte, she's one of my favorite artist, "Se me va a quemar el corazón" is another amazing song of hers that I recommend.

4. Last Movie

The Menu (2022)

Amazing movie, it was fun and light to watch and not to be taken too seriously + it has my gf Anya Taylor-Joy (ORGULLO ARGENTINO), I took a peek at its tag on ao3 out of curiosity and I'm embarrassed to say who I'm shipping now, but if you know me, you can probably guess

5. Currently Reading

Nothing new, I've re read my favorite books, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by GGM. The little prince was the first book ive ever read, I always heard it's a book you should read as a kid and then later as an adult, and my God, it's true, it's a completely different experience. 6 yo me thought it was a fun book about a man hallucinating in the desert, 24 yo me cred like a baby full of longing for a childhood I didn't appreciate and grief of the kid in me that inevitably died as I grew up and became an adult.

I never tire of reading CoaDF, everytime I expect the end to be different even tho the very beginning tells you what's gonna happen.

I dont have much time, so I choose those too bc they're a short read. However, I'm gonna start to reread asoiaf books too, bc I can never get enough of them

6. Currently Watching

Like I said, I have no time, so I stick to Sitcoms I can put on the bg while I work. I'm currently rewatching The Nanny, I forgot how much I loved it. And I swear, I'll start dressing as Fran as soon as I have time to buy new clothes, her style is just, mwah chef's kiss, obsessed.

And omg, I forgot how slow the burn in this show was, its Season 5 and they're still not dating!!!! Immabout to throw gasoline at them!!!!!

7. Currently Consuming

I ordered some Pizza, it should be here any moment, I'm sure you can guess why

8. Currently Craving

TIME PLEASE, I NEED TIME TO BREATH, I HADNT DRAW ANYTHING IN SO LONG AND ITS AFFECTING ME SO MUCH

I also need to finish my fic and socialize more. So I crave time, I need a vacation.

9. Tagging

@tomwise @emcads @littlewomenpodcast @mslilylashes ❤ anyone that wants to do it, feel free to!

#tag game #beloved mutuals #vegebul #trumai #hurrem x suleyman #lawmane #sparrabeth #quogan #mon laferte #the menu (2022) #anya taylor joy #the little prince #chronicle of a death foretold #cronicas de una muerte anunciada #asoiaf #the nanny #fran fine #idk what else to tag

[waltwhitmansbeard]

HI may I pls get 'Here, squeeze my hand if it hurts?' with anything of your choice:)?

here. squeeze my hand if it hurts. read these first.

turned my water into wine #40

He's quiet, the new boy, and Keyleth likes that. The children of the nobles at court, they are far too boisterous and talkative for Keyleth's tastes. She never knows the right thing to say, the right joke to tell, and it's clear that the other children feel the need to impress her, daughter of the sovereign, even though they hold little real affection for her. So she's grown accustomed to time spent in her own company, grown to enjoy it, even, but here is this trembling rabbit of a boy, hair shocked white and eyes like moons, wide and distant, and Keyleth doesn't feel the urge to say the right thing anymore. Instead she joins him in the library, much to her tutors' relief, and doesn't speak. He's always very attentive to his studies, reading and rereading his lecture notes, scribbling in the margins of his study books, writing essays two and three times the length required, and Keyleth has to wonder if maybe he's thinking so much about his schooling to avoid thinking about other things.

Today, though, the air in the castle is hot, swampy, here in the bowels of summer, and both of them are having trouble keeping their eyes open. Keyleth's been staring at this same page of her history text for ages, not reading a single word, and from the corner of her eye, she can see Percival's head dipping and ducking as he fights to stay awake. She's just about to suggest they slip away to go splash around in the little ravine that runs along the eastern edge of the castle grounds when Percival loses his fight and his head flops down atop his parchment. She sighs; well, it's no fun skiving off alone.

She continues to pretend to read, actually doodling little flowers where her essay on the original Ashari charter is supposed to go, until a small whimper tugs her easily swayed attention away. She looks to Percival, whose face is twitching in his sleep. His hand has a death grip on his quill, as if it is actually a knife, and Keyleth can see his eyes darting about violently beneath their lids. He's having a nightmare, that much is clear.

Keyleth chews on her lip, unsure of what to do. She considers going to fetch an adult, but the last thing she wants to do is draw any additional eyes to Percival—she has not missed his stiff posture whenever adults are around, particularly those a boy their age might usually trust implicitly. So instead she reaches out to curl her hand over the fist clutching the quill, squeezing just a bit. "Percival?"

He shoots upright, eyes panicked and searching, and his breath is coming fast, as if he'd just run a mile. He yanks his hand away from hers, and though Keyleth is frightened by his response, she forces herself to sit still, to let him recognize his surroundings on his own. It takes a minute, but he does, and his breath begins to even out. She says then, "Are you alright?"

Slowly, red begins to creep up his neck, stain his cheeks pink. "I...yes." He looks away from her, embarrassed.

"I have nightmares, too, sometimes." Long, empty halls, walls that stretch up forever, darkness that creeps into the corners of her vision, a haunting call, her name echoed in a voice she'll never hear again. "They're quite frightening."

Percival still isn't meeting her eyes. "They...hurt."

Keyleth's heart breaks, a bird's egg tumbling from a high nest. She flips her hand over so the palm faces up, still extended toward him. "Here."

He looks at the hand, confused, before delicately placing his own in it. She curls her fingers around his. "Squeeze my hand if it hurts."

There's a moment of silence, and then Percival's fingers squeeze hers, just a bit, and for the first time that Keyleth can remember, she doesn't feel like a princess from whom so many people want so many things, but rather just a girl, one whose friend is in need of help that she can try her best to provide. She smiles at him. "I'm sorry things are hard. I hope they can get better."

He manages a small smile, a ghost in the corners of his mouth. "Me too." He lets go of her hand to pick up his quill again, and she lets him, somehow sure that she will not be spending quite so much time in her own company in the future.

#ask #crispysnake #critical role #critical role fic #cr fic #vaxleth #vaxleth fic #vaxleth au #vox machina #vox machina au #tlovm #tlovm fic #my fic #my fair lady #turned my water into wine

[bilvy]

throam was like life-changing to me at 14 i havent reread it in at least 7 years now but all this talk is making me wonder if it holds up... do you know?? is throam good actually??? is it worth rereading as an adult??? sometimes i still think about gabe in vol 2 and it makes me unwell

i don’t think that anna green is a good writer however the story does hold up

[seaquestions]

heya! i hope youre doing well! i just wanted to say that i know it has been a reeaally long time since you wrote your fic w/ transfem ambulon being a helicopter, but it is one of my absolute FAVORITE tf fanfics. i go back and read it so often, and it has such a dear place in my heart. genuinely such a wonderful piece of writing, and the art you've made for it is just as beautiful. im not sure how to ask this, but i was wondering if it would be alright if i wrote a fic somewhat inspired by that one? it's absolutely fine if not! i just thought i'd ask before i did anything. again, your fic was wonderful and i absolutely adore it to pieces; just having that fic alone is more than enough. thank u for taking the time to read this, and i hope you're having a good day when this message gets to you -🌟

gosh this is so sweet and wonderful to hear, i’d like to thank you first of all for such a lovely message and yes, of course you can write a fic inspired by it!

i also reread that fic from time to time. the writing reads kinda clunky to me now, but it still holds up if nothing else as an extremely personally significant work. writing it genuinely helped me work through my thoughts and feelings with being transgender as i was becoming an adult. i literally would not be half as confident in myself as i am today if i hadn’t written that! it’s a work that lives deep in my heart. and i’m so glad that it lives in your heart too.

as an artist there’s really nothing more fulfilling than when someone tells you that your work touched them in some way. so im very happy and very grateful that you took a moment of your time to send this to me!

#asks #gwaaaaahhh can i take a moment to cry a little bit. like a metronome is my baby okay. its so important to me. #fun fact i had a little sequel in mind ages ago but i only ever managed to write a snippet of a convo between whirl and ambulon #in the end it felt like it wouldve dealt too heavily into topics i dont know enough about. #but anyway. i highly doubt i’ll work on it considering i havent published fic in ages #ive written a few little naruto fanfics for myself and my partner (and transformers poetry….) but thats abt all i can work on

[aliteraryprincess]

Hi :)

5. What's a scene you read this year that sticks with you?

17. A book you reread this year. Did it hold up to how you remembered it?

Thank you!

5. What's a scene you read this year that sticks with you?

The final scene of So Happy For You by Celia Laskey because it pissed me off SO MUCH! The book was bad even without that, but there was one thing it was doing that I liked. And the final scene just negated it. Ugh.

17. A book you reread this year. Did it hold up to how you remembered it?

I reread quite a few things this year, but one that I hadn't read in ages was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I loved it as a kid, and I still found it wonderful as an adult. There's definitely stuff I didn't notice as a child that just...hasn't aged well I guess. But that's the case for most 19th and early 20th century books, so I'm used to that. It remained a five star read for me.

#answered #bookish asks