#this is old also I have literally Been Published since this story I was baby when I wrote it lol

[nonhumanresources]

Caramel Changes

Here's one to get you into the spirit of the season! Short two page TF written all the way back in October 2017, when I did a series of stories for the season. I'd love to do more, autumn is my favorite time of year.

Summary: you get a weird piece of candy while trick or treating. You probably shouldn't eat that. You do.

What to expect: second person caramel-coating bird TF.

Length: 1.2k words. Fun fact, it's actually 1200 exactly including the title; I usually round.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Trick-or-treat!” you shout, holding out a pillowcase nearly filled to the brim. The frail old woman standing in the doorway smiles, showing off her three teeth.

“Oooh, hello there!” she says, her voice as rusty as the hinges on the door. “I’ve got some very exotic candy for you tonight! I made it myself, you know!” There’s a twinkle in her eye as she speaks, dropping a single wrapped caramel in each of your friend’s pillowcases, ending with yours, giving you a toothy smile and a small wink. She waves goodbye as you thank her and turn from the door, walking back down the weedy, unkempt walkway of cracked cement and back to the smooth sidewalk to continue your annual night of candy gathering.

One of your friends stops next to a trash can sitting out on the curb. He pulls out the caramel and tosses it into the black depths, never again to be seen by human eyes - unless someone happened to be living in the city dump. 

“We should throw these away. If that old hag really made them herself, there’s no telling what she might have put inside,” he says to the group. One by one, your friends mumble in agreement and pull out their own caramels, each piece sharing the fate of the first. Soon enough, everyone is down one candy and ready to move on.

Well, everyone but you.

Story below the cut, or here if you prefer to read on a Google doc. If you made it this far I am kissing you full on the lips platonically. Or is it platonic? It's queer, that's for sure. Comments/questions/thoughts always appreciated!

You hesitate, staring at the small square. Why would an old lady want to do something like poison candy? She had seemed nice enough. Besides, she was the only person so far who had seemed excited to be handing out free candy. While that was suspicious, to you, it seemed more kindly than anything. You tuck the caramel back into your bag. Your friends stare at you in surprise. 

The lead boy shrugs and turns around, tossing a remark over his shoulder. “It’s your funeral!” 

You shrug in turn and reply. “Whatever. Let’s go get more candy!”

The night moves on, and you load up on more and more candy until lifting your pillowcase becomes a full-body workout. A couple hours later, you’re shouting a farewell to your friends as they make the trek home. You nearly fall inside your bedroom door, exhausted. You dump your candy bag on the floor and fall over onto your bed, where one of the two pillows is missing it’s cover. You start to drift into sleep, but before you can enter the realms of dreams, you realize with a start: you hadn’t eaten a single piece of candy! Despite being around sweets for hours, you hadn’t eaten even a single branded chocolate; saving your Halloween candy was essential. One piece couldn’t hurt, though. You decide on something small - not too big, but not tiny, either. Something like…

...the caramel. You dig around in your pillowcase and pull it out. Now that you were in the light of your room, you could see colorful swirling patterns breaking up the normal monotone tan of caramel. What had the lady said? It was exotic? Whatever it was, it was like no other caramel you had ever seen, and it looked delicious. 

Unrolling the clear wrapper, you pop it into your mouth, excited. Some inevitably sticks to your fingers. The soft caramel melts in your mouth, spreading across your tongue, and down your throat. It leaves you with a warm feeling, almost like soft, warm butter being spread on your insides.

The caramel in your mouth thickens just a bit, sticking to your teeth. You try to work it around in your mouth, but it grows even thicker, locking your jaw in place. The warm feeling grows hot, and you hold a hand to your stomach as you start to feel nauseous. 

As you move your hand, you notice that your fingers refuse to bend. You look down in surprise. The caramel on your fingers had spread, coating your whole hand and locking it in place. You start to panic as the candy creeps across your body, spreading outwards from your hand and your stomach - some had gotten lodged on your shirt, too. Your clothes are pressed against you so tightly, they almost seem to become part of you. You hunch over as you are coated in sticky caramel. For a few seconds, your whole body is locked in place. You feel a pressure against your face, like the caramel was pushing into it. Or maybe your nose was pushing out of the caramel? Your arms feel are pulled around your stomach, and they almost seem to squish outwards, wrapping around yourself.

Soon - at least, you think it was soon; caramel had coated your perception of time, as well, leaving it slow-moving and awkward - soon, the caramel begins to loosen and the hot feeling begins to subside. You stomp, trying to knock the caramel off of your feet. You try to wiggle your toes, but they are… unwieldy. You quickly see why, as the caramel breaks off, revealing two large sets of talons on the ends of two large three-toed feet.

You pry your arms away from your sides as you wobble around on your now-pointy feet, trying to keep your balance. The caramel rips away along with them, hanging down in tattered shreds. It starts to fall away, dropping to the ground and revealing brightly colored wings underneath the hanging tatters instead of pink skin. You flap them frantically and fall over backwards. 

Your caramel shell shatters all across your backside, and a huge tail covered in brilliant hues unfurls behind you, spreading the length of the room. You yell in surprise, but your face is still covered in caramel. The effort tears away the candy covering your nose and mouth. A huge SQUAWK echoes out, and you fling your hands to your face. Feathered wings meet a large beak, and you let out another surprised squawk. 

Dizzy, you stumble upright and totter up to your mirror, your long tail dragging across the wooden floor behind you. What you see isn’t surprising, but it is still shocking: a huge bird, feathers askew, stares back at you from the mirror. You blink; the bird, your new form, blinks back. You realize that because of your many colors, you are most likely now male, regardless of any prior truth to that fact.

Your exhaustion gone, you flap your wings experimentally and rise a few inches into the air, your amazing plumage fragmenting the light into soft, multicolored shafts that decorate your room like a disco ball. While being a bird was disorienting, it certainly was dazzling. You drop back to the floor, talons clicking on wood. You aren’t nearly as clumsy now.

I could get used to this… you think, flexing your claws. An idea forms, and you smile as best you can with your curved beak. You hop onto your windowsill and pop open the latch, wriggling out into the night air. Why not go out for a night flight? After all, it’s not like matters could get much worse, and you could always stop by the old woman’s house to see if she had a cure. 

Maybe later, though. After all, you don’t become a bird every day.

#writing wyrms #transformation #tf #halloween #trick or treating #second person #caramel #goo #kind of it's odd #encasement #covering #bird of paradise #bird of paradise tf #avian tf #tg #tgtf #tg transformation #these last three only apply if you read this from a perspective that is not male to begin with #sorry male birds of paradise are prettier I don't make the rules #this is old also I have literally Been Published since this story I was baby when I wrote it lol

[sonosvegliato]

Currently rereading "to an athlete dying young" and going absolutely insane over it, it is so well written!

I have yet to find anyone who is even half as good as you are at establishing insanely high tension/stakes while also doing comedic relief the way you do, every single interaction absolutely kills me. Especially Tim's interactions with Jason and Bruce are so incredibly interesting, you really nail those!!!!!

Reading your fic isn't enough, I need to print it out & eat it.

That being said, what does your writing process look like, if you don't mind me asking?

This is a question I only imagined getting once I have my original work published, so thank you for stoking the ever-hotter flames of my ego while I shoot into the stratosphere.

When I am famous with 10 books published and documentaries are made about me, I dream I will have a well-polished answer for to this question. SYKE.

Process:

F around and find out. Not in a threatening way. Just like—playing around with ideas like they're Legos and you are a three year old baby.

A lot of the time I get a snippet of something and I do a "sketch" of it before I forget it. I have a lot of these, and some of them are impossible to interconnect, so I literally take apart the story and rearrange it, and will do this once, twice, or five times to get through a single scene. I read this writing advice once where if you're stuck on a scene than the problem you really have is a chapter back, and I'm not much for universal writing advice, but I do believe that if I'm stuck in a place, then something else has got to be better. Sort of like pulling a car in park over and over again until you sorta get in in between the lines. I am really bad at parking. Literally not figuratively.

To an Athlete Dying Young is probably the closest to plotting I've ever been, since I'm using what actually happened in the comics as a loose guide for the events in the series. But I still write snippets that I jam together and take apart and peel and stick. My document looks like [LINKS NOTES RESEARCH] [STORY STORY STORY STORY] [RANDOM SCENE] [STORY] [SNIPPET SNIPPET SNIPPET SNIPPET] with some hyping myself up in between. Example of my "plotting", pure and unedited:

^ wouldn't you like to know where this is from

And here's a snippet that was possibly going to be in hold the low lintel up. I was going to have Tim move in with Jason. This is everything I wrote for it, so you're not missing any context:

“I’ve had to move out of my house,” Tim continues. 

“That’s…a change. Can I ask what—”

“My uncle isn’t real,” Tim says.

Hood lifts his hands. They pause in the air for twenty seconds before he lowers them, fingers extended towards Tim. “What?”

“My uncle’s fake. I made him up. They’d’ve made me live somewhere else, otherwise,” Tim says. “I…I don’t want to live there.”

He leans against the warehouse wall, feels the dusty wood under the flat of his hands. “So, anyway, I was just wondering…” He glances at his shoes, then back to Hood. Nervousness, with an ounce of confidence. Just a pinch, not too much. Very little trust can take you very far. “If it were maybe possible…”

He trails off just as Hood starts to lean forward. Hook, line—

“Could I stay with you?”

—and sinker.

“I don’t think so,” Hood says.“Why not move in with your brother?”

“He’s working. I couldn’t do that to him.” And he lives too far away. 

“I’m working, too,” Hood says. “And I can guarantee I’m not doing the kind of things your cop brother will like.”

“Alright. Well, if you want to find me, you can find me in the Bowery, where that old church is. I don’t think any rogues have made their hideouts there, but I guess I’ll find out.” 

“Park Row isn’t safest place in the world right now,” Hood says. “You know there’s a reason people call it Crime Alley, right?”

“I’ve been around here longer than you think.”

“Look. Kid. You can’t stay with me. And with all these new murders, I don’t think it’s a good idea you’re even coming here. I get it. You don’t want child services sniffing your ass. I get that more than anybody, but. There are people out there, strangers even, who are willing to help you.”

It’s not a guilt trip. It’s a gentle emotional suggestion. It’s taking Hood by the collar and throwing him over Tim’s shoulder to slam him into a giant guilt pit that only gets deeper the more he struggles. Tim’s English teacher calls it pathos. 

Then the suit for an extra layer of DRAMA.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, Tim and Superboy were supposed to be better friends and have sleepovers.

“You were sleep talking,” Superboy says. “It woke me up.”

“Sorry,” Tim says. 

“You don’t look so good, bro. You going to be sick or something?”

“No.”

“What were you dreaming about?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Tim hears the sheets shift as Superboy turns over. 

“I don’t have dreams,” he says. “I hear they can be pretty gnarly though. Was yours gnarly?”

“Yeah.”

“You drink apple juice before bed?”

“No.”

“Good. I hear apple juice fucks you up.” 

They fall silent. Tim doesn’t have his phone to distract him. He stares in the darkness at the blank wall. 

“And cheese,” Superboy says. “Cheese will make you dream some wild shit. Again, can’t say if it’s true. But that’s what the internet told me. I learn a lot of things on the internet.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, Black Canary was going to have a role similar to the one she has in Young Justice.

I actually have quite a few snippets of her being sort of Tim's therapist, stereotypical Couch of Mental Breakdowns included, but it never got included into the story, just remained outlier scenes. Also Tim was not very receptive to talking it out.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summary: If I'm bored in the story, I throw a firecracker and watch stuff blow up ✌️

Thank you for asking! And it's an absolute honor to have written a story that's both worth a reread and being eaten. Hope this entertains you until I get the next part up!

#batman fanfiction #tim drake #fanfic #my fic #rock on yo

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🦇 Gwen & Art Are Not in Love Book Review 🦇

❓ #QOTD What classic story would you love to read a queer retelling of? ❓ 🦇 Gwendoline and Arthur have been betrothed to one another since birth. Too bad they absolutely hate each other. When forced to spend a summer in Camelot together, Gwen and Arthur discover tantalizing secrets about one another: Gwen witnesses Arthur kissing a boy, while Arthur learns that Gwen has a crush on the kingdom's lone lady knight, Lady Bridget Leclair. Stuck at a stalemate, they make a reluctant pact to cover for one another. While Gwen and Bridget finally connect, Arthur finds himself enamored by Gwen's brother. Can they navigate their messy feelings to find their own places in history?

[ Find my review below or on Goodreads | Storygraph | Literal ]

💜 Oh my goddess, the queer chaos in this is everything. Lex Croucher has spun Arthurian legends of old into a queer medieval YA rom-com that could easily alter history as we know it. Gwen is a bi baby, newly navigating her feelings for a badass lady knight, while Arthur is a gay, sassy messy shooting heart-eyes at Gwen's brother (the one-day king). The dialogue is EVERYTHING; sassy, quick-witted, and all too entertaining. There's somewhat sexy sword-fighting (come on, sword-fighting is always sexy, but when your queer crush is schooling you, it's all the better), fake dating (does it count as fake dating when you've been betrothed since childhood?), and heart-warming found family vibes. The queer panic and nervous humor were all too relatable, even though the story is set in medieval times. That's a true feat; you can connect with the queer chaos, even if you're shooting heart-eyes in the 21st century.

💜 That being said, let's talk about Gwen and her lady knight. I mean, get ready to absolutely SWOON alongside Gwen. Lady Bridget Lechlair is all fierce confidence (a necessity, when everyone has an unpopular opinion of you simply because you're a woman, regardless of your badass abilities), but she's also an enigma with a gooey interior. I loved seeing Gwen find her confidence through Bridget, discovering her voice and standing up for them both when necessary. Though Gwen is a royal, she's questioned her inner power and authority, as everyone around her has made it clear her only worth is in her marriage to Arthur as a political move. Spending time with Bridget gives Gwen the change to realize she's worth so much more. Though the story's quick wit and banter stands out, I think this character development is the story's real strength. Sometimes, you need someone who believes in your potential before you can see it yourself.

🦇 The only real hang-up for me was the pacing. The ending felt especially rushed, which was a disappointment after the queer chaos dragged a bit. I wonder if the writer paused for a moment, then returned to finish the latter half of the story. I also found the relationship between Arthur and Gabriel (Gwen's brother) a little underwhelming when it had so much potential at the start. Regardless, I appreciated all the queer hijinks and humor.

🦇 Recommended for fans of Heartstopper, Rainbow Rowell's Simon Snow trilogy, Red, White, & Royal Blue, and the TV show Merlin. Get ready for a swoon-worthy, medieval mess of pining and romance!

✨ The Vibes ✨ ⚔️ All the Queer Ships (w/ Serious Queer Panic) ⚔️ Fake Dating ⚔️ YA Debut ⚔️ Found Family ⚔️ Medieval/Historical Fiction/Rom-Com ⚔️ Enemies to Allies

🦇 Major thanks to the author @lexcanroar and publisher @stmartinspress / @wednesdaybooks for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #Netgalley #GwenandArtAreNotinLove

#queer fiction #queer romance #queer community #queer books #queer #book review #booklr #book blog #book lovers #cats and books #books and cats #black cat #book: gwen and art are not in love #author: lex croucher #lesbian pride #lesbian #sapphic books #sapphic romance #fake dating #young adult books #young adult fiction #young adult #batty about books #battyaboutbooks

[applesap-fics]

famous anonymous author!bruno idea? 👀

👀 i already wrote about this a little bit during encantober (for the gift prompt), featuring Osvaldo

The premise is that Bruno wrote a LOT of romantic/smutty fiction during his time in the walls. His sisters/the guys find these, like it, and encourage him to sell the stories as books. Bruno agrees, but wants to do this anonymously. His relationship with the Encantonians still feels a little awkward. He becomes immensely popular however and is the Encanto's number one romance novelist!

additional notes:

gay Bruno, like always.

he uses a pseudonym which vaguely references the miracle. I was thinking something along the lines of "Estrella del Milagro"/"Estrella Milagrosa", but time has passed and it sounds a little dorky/off to me now, haha.

the stories are so dramatic. and so trashy. exactly how people like it.

they start out as little secrets (mostly) women pass around but prove hugely popular.

in that encantober fic I linked I made alma the cover artist. I like the headcanon that she's an artist (opposite Pedro the poet) and that she painted at least a few of the paintings in Casita, such as the one Bruno hides behind.

Alternatively: she has no idea this is Bruno. She loves the more romance-focused novels/novellas to death.

I'm not sure how active the Encanto's book publishing market is. I think they mostly rotate through old books and (especially at the start) don't have the resources to publish books. And because they're a social community they wouldn't have use for a newspaper since all of their news happens via word of mouth. Maybe there's a guy from the original refugees who had notes on printing, lol. Argh, the Encanto needs an archivist!

On that note, I can see Mariano putting out little poetry collections. (He's not so popular. Sorry!)

Osvaldo is involved because they need non-madrigal distributor. Secrecy is sworn. The truth may eventually come out though...

The identity of the author is speculated for years! A few Madrigals are considered~

Pepa also writes one short story after reading a really bad concept Bruno wrote in the walls about…rat babies…that she sees potential in (but needs a feminine, motherly touch). It's still published under the "Estrella" pseudonym but is revealed being hers years later. A bunch of people win the betting pool.

Bruno loves crazy passionate female main characters. The 'lore' is that it's always "Estrella" in different universes, though. Kinda like Barbie, if I had to give an example.

He needs an editor. I vote the most passionate of Madrigal men, Félix, and maybe Agustín. Osvaldo was briefly considered since he's already a middleman and essentially his partner, but he has unreasonable opinions on the sexual workings of women.

Bruno mostly wrote these stories in the walls for his own pleasure (literally. a lot are smut stories), and were ultimately about gay men having sex with each other, or other passionate and complex relationships. Even after editing for the general public, some of his work uses very ambiguous language for the main characters. They are presumed to be women, but if you read through the lines it's easy to read the mc as a man, making his novels gay romance fiction.

Encanto's gay population feel vindicated when the truth reveals itself. As do the 1950s slash shippers.

Years later, after "Estrella" reveals her identity, which probably involved an impatient and overly excited/smug Osvaldo and a Bruno who said "Oh, fuck it, fine. It was me. I'm your favorite author", Bruno publishes an omnibus/collection for the novels' anniversary in which he has a chapter on his identity. He talks about being gay and adresses the speculation that the mc could have been gay all this time, just like its author. All is interpretable, though. Bruno has never had a relationship, but Estrella has been in hundreds. Everyone is allowed to see themselves in the characters, man or woman, or enjoy the stories for what they are. He just hopes people will be open to the idea, will respect it and maybe consider it. He ends the chapter by thanking the Encanto for welcoming him back, as both "Estrella" and Bruno.

There's a q&a that basically boils down to: Q: Why did you decide to write [controversial plotpoint people loved but fundamentally made no damn sense]? B: Oh, I wrote that when I was hiding in the walls. I was a little crazy. Q: But how did you come up with the idea? B: I can't say I understand anything I did when I was in the walls.

#i think this was all of it! #author bruno au #bruno madrigal #encanto #wips #phew thats it so far #anne replies #anonymous

[justsomerandomfanfic]

What 10 Books Can You Not Live Without?

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova; Published in 2020, this is a fantasy romance story about a human girl who is married to the Elf King. I love this story and literally can not put it down! I've read it about four times now since I got it in December last year. It's also amazing since it is loosely based on the mythology of Persephone and Hades! (Even with the whole enemies-to-lovers trope!)

Beauty by Robin McKinley; Published in 1978, this is a retelling of the original story of Beauty And The Beast, with a twist! (Obviously the genre is fantasy romance as well). Basically, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, Honour, also known as Beauty, is the youngest of three daughters. It goes along with the original story of Beauty And The Beast, but with a few changes, and honestly it's the best retelling I've ever read.

The New Year's Party by R.L. Stine; Published in 1995, this book is part of the Fear Street Series of R.L. Stine's and I first read this back in 2014. Like all of Stine's books, this is a horror/thriller, with dashes of romance and murder, how lovely! Here's a bit from the back of the book: "P.J. wasn't supposed to die. It was just a practical joke, no big deal. But P.J. had a bad heart." I truly recommend this but beware, you're in for a scare.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins; This series was Published in 2003 - 2007, and is about a boy named Gregor who has to save his baby sister, Boots, after she falls down an old air duct grate in the basement of his apartment building. Similar to Alice In Wonderland, they both fall into a subterranean world called the Underland. I love this series and highly recommend it if you love fantasy, mystery, and adventure with a splash of romance.

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw; Published in 2022, this is the story about what happened after the events of Nightmare Before Christmas. Basically, Sally's a bit overwhelmed about her new title as Pumpkin Queen.

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani; Published from 2013 to 2020, this story is a fantasy, fairytale, romance, with adventure and mystery. I haven't read the full series yet, but I've read the first two out of nine. Basically, every four years, two children are kidnapped and taken to the School for Good and Evil. Where they would be trained to be good and bad. I loved the first book because of the slight twist.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux; Published in English in 1911, this is the story about an Opera House that is presumed to be haunted by an Opera Ghost, also know as the Phantom of the Opera. Since the making of this book/story, there have been 33 films from 1916 - 2014. It's a wonderful story, and film, though through the years they have changed it a bit.

Cruella (Disney Live Action Novelization + Photo Insert) by Elizabeth Rudnick; This is just the novelization of the 2021 Disney live action movie, Cruella.

Deadpool: Paws: A Novel of the Marvel Universe by Stefan Petrucha; Published in 2018, in the words of Deadpool, "... This book is about puppies. Puppies that turn into big nasty monsters. And then I gotta kill 'em. Thing is, I like killing people -- the ones that deserve it, anyway -- but even I won't kill puppies. No way. So that's what we call a character dilemma..."

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood by Oliver Bowden; This was Published in 2010, based off of the Multiplatinum Video Games from Ubisoft; Assassin's Creed. This is book 2 of 9, about the beginning of Ezio and his journey of becoming an Assassin. I've read this book twice, and finished it in the same day. That's how good it is.

Reblog with the 10 books you can't live without!

#books #book recommendations #2023 #a deal with the elf king #beauty #the new year's party #gregor the overlander #long live the pumpkin queen #the school for good and evil #the phantom of the opera #cruella #deadpool paws #assassins creed #elise kova #robin mckinley #r.l. stine #suzanne collins #shea ernshaw #soman chainani #gaston leroux #elizabeth rudnick #stefan petrucha #oliver bowden #marvel mcu #mcu #ezio #deadpool #disney #erik destler #nightmare before christmas

[foureyedentity]

OKAY SO i am going to make something very clear now

while my blog intro looks v serious i promise u i myself am not

So here’s my personal intro. :>

Hi, I’m S.C., author of this upcoming series. You can call me S.C., or you can call me Sera/Cas. Whichever you’re more comfortable with :>

I’ve been writing these books since I was 13 in a “professional” capacity- but I’ve had art and concepts for way longer than I can describe. These books are my babies, and I hope you’ll like my characters as much as I do.

I use all pronouns, he/they/she, and I’m mostly gonna use this blog as a place to infodump about the series, because I’ve got like. 5 followers here. Nobody’s gonna look this place up until after the books are published, so I figured it would be fun to have a little archive of old art and shitty memes created at three am and facts that no human being deserves to hear about my characters.

I’m such a horror geek, and I’ve been enraptured by the concept of psychology and the cycle of abuse for years. I’ve got a bit of a morbid fascination with darker topics, but I also like dance parties and costumes and screaming musical albums at the top of my lungs.

My goal here on writeblr is to meet other writers! I want to find people who like to write and read what I write and write things that I’d like to read.

I’m a sucker for monster/human romances, supernatural stories in general, murder mysteries centered around insane asylums, the concept of an afterlife and what happens in it, romances in general, and highly intelligent villains. Love ‘em. I fucking love villains in general, actually- along with exploring religious trauma and trauma in general.

If you have anything like this please god contact me (i will beta read)

Please do not be afraid to talk to me I’m literally just. A dork.

Anyways, i have no idea how to do a writeblr intro, so hopefully this is satisfactory

Welcome to my page!! :>

#writeblr #writeblr intro #new to the community #new tumblog #new tumblr #new writeblr #new writers on tumblr #new writter #new writing blog #new writer boost #horror romance #horror enthusiast #bists #Blood Is Sweeter Than Silence #S.C. rambles #romance #bookblr #horror books #book blog

[wandringaesthetic]

So basically on a whim last week I went to a Classics Book Club at My Local Library, which led me to read a book I'd never heard of before by an author I'd never heard of before that has a BBC series I'd never heard of before based on it: Lark Rise to Candleford.

The very first books I ever read that weren't picture books were the Little House series. There is a kinship here. They're both fictionalized autobiographies. They're from near the same time period (Wilder was born in 1867, Thompson in 1876). They were written decades after the events described by women who were fairly old to be writing their first novel (Little House in the Big Woods was published in 1932, Lark Rise in 1939) who had both previously written journal articles. They're about ways of life that the authors saw end. Their viewpoint character is a young girl named Laura.

And maybe that's why Lark Rise appealed to me. Maybe it doesn't matter why Lark Rise et al appealed to me.

Unlike the Little House books, Lark Rise wasn't written with the audience of children in mind. I haven't cracked one of the Little House books since my age was in the double digits, but from what I remember of it, Lark Rise is a bit more Real. Fathers in prison, babies out of wedlock, arguments about politics, etc, are all on the page. People in every era have generally been. People.

Lark Rise to Candleford is nominally three novels, but it would be generous to call it even one. The first installment (Lark Rise) has literally no plot and is a collection of descriptions and anecdotes regarding the hamlet the author was born in. The people who lived there, how they lived, how they viewed each other and themselves, their traditions, their songs and sayings. The other books have something approaching a narrative, in that they move forward in time and roughly follow the life of the viewpoint character, but it's still difficult to truly call it a story.

And yet.

Maybe because there's such a melancholy, here. The book is told from the future, when it was written, with the occasional note on how this or that person died in World War I or how this house was now a field or how she thinks she saw the last bustle ever worn in England pass over a hill in Lark Rise.

Maybe it's because Laura seems so lonely, interested in everyone but apart from them. Among them and not of them. Always questing for new books, something else, something Out There. You seem cheerful, yet you also seem lonely. Were you lonely? I think you and I could be friends. Would you be my friend, Flora?

I looked for information regarding the author, after I finished reading. A couple of biographies of her exist, but her wikipedia page and Google are not especially informative. She died at 70. She was married and had three children. One of them died in World War II. Was she happy? Or did she have happy years, at least? Was her marriage good? In telling her own story she told the story of places. She told about everyone around her as if she were only an eye. She wanders off the page, to another town, revealing everyone's story but hers, but I want to know it.

#lark rise to candleford #flora Thompson #what I'm reading

[seeyounexttime]

Blank Page Brigade Spotlight: Staff

At the end of volumes of Black Clover is space for the “Blank Page Brigade.” This particular “brigade” is composed of the assistants (you know, those who help with art) and others from the Black Clover manga team, lead by “Captain Tabata.”

In each volume there’s a question that everyone answers. I’ve compiled the answers from all published volumes (1-32), and grouped them together. Previous answers (and drawings from the assistants) can be seen starting with this post here.

However, the rest of the staff didn’t include drawings, but they are each represented by an animal-like self (I don’t know if they drew that for themselves, or if it was Tabata or someone else). In the beginning, sometimes these animal selves would be expressing, but eventually it was just the icon; so I just have their answers since it’s just the same icon again and again.

Now specifically... I’m actually not sure what these particular brigade members do.

The first of these positions is: Comics Editor. This is apparently different than Editor (i’ll cover them in a different post) who is the one who helps with story writing. The Japanese version doesn’t clarify it much either: “editor” is 担当 tantou, and “comics editor” is コミックス担当 komikkusu tantou... literally just the Engrish word ‘comics’ 

I'm not sure what a "Comics Editor" does, but seeing as how this position is always filled I'd assume that Tomiyama was also around from the start, and that it took a while to figure out what the doodle was gonna be?

Comics Editor #1: TOMIYAMA

was present from vol.4-8

a giraffe’s struggle with the baby

by now, his kid would be about...7 years old? good luck with the fam, fam

Comics Editor #2: KOSHIMURA

was present from vol.9-20

behold! Jersey Milk soft-serve!

"soup with lots of wheat gluten"? hmm trying to look up the Japanese she said gets me these pictures... I guess another word for that is seitan?

The afterward for volume 21 translates コミックス担当 as "graphic novel editor" which still doesn't clarify what this position actually does since "graphic novel" refers to the volume itself... Do they double-check for mistakes from the weekly shonen jump versions like a proofreader? what do you guys do

Anyways here's that afterward:

Because I work so slowly, I ended up creating a raging torrent of stress, and right in the middle of that, Ms. Koshimura the graphic novel editor–for whom my raging torrent of stress had caused all sorts of trouble–was transferred elsewhere. Ms. Koshimura, I'm sorry for everything!! Thank you very much!!! Mr. Fujiwara, my new graphic novel editor, let me start apologizing now!! I'm really looking forward to working with you!!!

Comics Editor #3: FUJIWARA

was present from vol.21-28

wth is annin tofu? oh it's almond tofu

well will you look at that, Japan has some sand dunes - the wikipedia page for the Tottori Sand Dunes even shows a camel!

Comics Editor #4: CHIBA

has been present since vol.29-32

I've known that Tokyo Disney exists for a long time, but it wasn't til this response that I learned there's a sister resort: Tokyo DisneySea

Designer: IWAI

was present from vol.5-19 and probably since the beginning but she, like the other staff, didn't start commentating until later

I'm not sure what Iwai was designing... Again, the Japanese version does not help: デザイナー ...dezainaa, so just the Engrish word "designer.”

Iwai what were you designing? grimoires? clothes? characters? volume covers?

and why hasn’t there been a “designer” after volume 19???

from the volume 20 afterword, second paragraph: "Right before this volume, Iwai the designer moved to a different project... I'm really sorry for all the trouble I caused you!! Also, thank you so much!! I'll never forget your enthusiasm for your work, and the impressive way you drank!!"

btw are we sure iwai isn't just vanessa?

Media Editor: TAKAHASHI

has been present from vol.28-32

I do not know what "media editor" is or why a bubble for this position took so long to show up in the blank brigade pages, but... I mean the anime had already ended? Takahashi what do you do and why didn't you say anything before this?

and you guessed it, the Japanese version is unhelpfully just メディア担当 media tantou!

you know what I wonder if this is related to the movie... which raises more questions about the title actually...

like are you in charge of movie marketing? script liaison? merchandise? what do you do dude　

what do any of you do

please, if you know what these titles/positions do, please tell me

Next Part: The Tabatas

#black clover #blank page brigade #yuki tabata #long post

[fangfatale]

Nothing else matters | Eddie Munson x Y/N

March 1987| Spring Break Eddie is alive, Max is recovering, Will and his family has moved back, peace is retuning to Hawkins. Its spring break and you're visiting your dad who's newly married to Max's mom. Which means staying right across the road from the town freak. Spring break only lats so long, can you make It memorable?

This is a Y/N x Eddie Munson story, Content waning for smut content will be added to the chapters which need it.

Songs mentioned at the beginning of chapter to set the mood will not be accurate to the years, Songs mentioned and to be listened to during story will be accurate.

I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE STRANGER THINGS FRANCHISE I DO NOT ALLOW MY WOK TO BE PUBLISHED BY ANYONE ELSE OR POSTED BY ANYONE WHO IS NOT MYSELF

Find more over on https://www.wattpad.com/story/318726793-𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠-𝐄𝐥𝐬𝐞-𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬-eddie-munson-x-y-n-story

Word Count 2.9k oops

CHAPTER ONE

Run to the Hills off of Iron Maidens album The Number of the Beast plays loudly from the cassette player in your olive green 1975 ford bronco. The drivers side window’s rolled down; bringing in the slight breeze that spring in Indiana has to offer. Pulling into Hawkins you notice the obscurity of the population sign. Updated yearly by most towns but you can tell a drastic change has been made within the past year. It’s normal for a couple digits to fluctuate, people die, babies are born, people are always relocating. But the way the paint chips shows the numbers have changed by the hundreds. You never asked your step sibling what happened to her last spring when all hell literally broke loose, you figured it was something bad. But not this bad.

Taking a quick peek at the notes your dad gave you on how to get to the trailer park you notice you’ll need to take a left at the upcoming police station. Hawkins appears to have a simple layout, everywhere is accessible off this one main road. After the left you follow the rest of the instructions going through exactly five stop lights and head right at the corner store. You cant miss the sign on the left hand side of the road detailing the exact location you were looking for. Putting on your signal light to turn in you notice five kids on bikes pulling out; all five look familiar but you cant place exactly where from. Shrugging it off you pull in and head over to where you can see your dad already waving in your direction. 

Parking and hopping out in one swift movement you run into your Dads arms. “Y/N it’s so good to see you, I cant believe you're finally here!” Its been about 6 months since you last saw your dad. He came around home last summer, informing you of his proposal to Susan. You were overjoyed to hear the news, but it was even more exciting just having him home. Last year Susan and her daughter drove to LA so Max could see her dad after she awoke from her coma. Susans car ended up breaking down on their way home causing a trip you're dads shop so it could get fixed. It was love at first sight he says. After your first meet with Susan you knew she would do everything in her power to make sure your dad was happy. You appreciated how much she cared for him, your mother leaving wasn’t just hard on you. It also broke the strongest man you know. 

“Im happy to be here dad, driving across 5 states without you was crazy! Im glad old Olive was able to hold up” He laughed. “Well I’d hope so! We spent so much time on her last summer to ensure shed be ready for this trip” Coming out of the hug you can see Susan opening the door with Max in her wheelchair sitting inside. “Well cmon you two! I have fresh lemonade on the table” You head inside following your dads footsteps. Susan brings you into a warm hug as you pass through the threshold of the trailer. It has a cozy smell to it, similar to fresh baked goods and warm laughter. “Hi Susan, it's so good to see you” You say pulling away. She grabs your arms and holds you, as if to get a better look at you “Im so glad you here, your dad and Max are so exited to show you around town.” “I cant wait! How are you feeling Max?”

After Max woke up from her coma her doctor informed her that she would get her eyesight back as well as her ability to walk and move her arms. It was a slow process. Once her bones healed she regained the function of moving her arms and hands again, brining her to physical therapy for her legs. It was possible for Max to stand and walk but not for long periods of time. Her eyesight was projected to be a slower process, she she had regained almost all of it back, sitting her at an 18/20 vision. She required glasses for some things but she mostly went without. “Hey Y/N, I’m good considering everything!” You smile, Max has been so brave during this past year. She’s done her best to stay positive and when things got tough she focused on the fact that she knew shed get better. “Good! Im glad to hear! Have you gotten more news as too when you’ll be walking?” “Soon enough I’m sure! It's not as painful now, it’s more just exhausting for long periods of time. But that means i'll be better soon!” You take your seat across from her as Susan pours you a glass of the lemonade she mentioned earlier. You shoot her a nod of thanks, she smiles. 

“So how about your eyes? Do you like being in the 4 eyes squad?” Her and my dad laughed, man after the year she’s had its so good to hear her laugh. “ I cant wait for it to be over! I can only listen to Lucas make the same glasses joke so many times! .” You notice how her cheeks become flush as she mentions his name. “Oh? Lucas hey? Is this your boyfriend?” Smiling again she nods. “You just missed him actually, him and the rest of the gang stopped by. But I sent them off knowing you’d be pulling in soon. I wanted the first day your here just to be family! Can we make sure you have time to meet them before you go home?” You apprenticed how much Max wanted you to be apart of her life. Growing up an only child was lonely for you; and you couldn’t imagine how much it hurt her when her brother died. You had heard from your dad her stop brother Billy wasn’t the greatest guy, but you know it was the companionship that mattered. “ Of course, I’m here for the entire two weeks, we have lots of time. I can even drive you to school tomorrow and pick you up.” She shook her head and smiled.

You all sit inside and caught up for a couple hours; Laughing about what Max and her friends got up to last summer as well as discussing how school was going for myself, on the outside school was going great. Dad thought all the girls you lived with were friends, but in reality they were merely just girls in your class who wanted cheaper rent. You thought studying English was going to be fulfilling, You thought the that you would have a greater opportunity to interact with other individuals that cared about the same things as you. You had hoped the books we would be digesting would be more interesting. But alas everyday you walk into class feeling miserable, what you wanted wasn’t happening. But being here away from it all, brought hope that maybe some sort of clarity would be given. Something to shove you in the right path. 

After telling them what they want to hear about University; Susan made a suggestion of ordering Pizza. All of you agreed knowing it would be easier to pick pizza than anything else.Once finished you helped Susan clean, after putting the clean dishes away and taking the garbage out to the backyard you take a peak at the clock. 9:00 on the dot. 

Everyone started heading off to bed, Max had her last day of classes before spring break and both your dad and Susan had work in the morning. Susan thanked you for helping and showed me where you’d would be sleeping, a small room next to Max. Twin sized bed, one side table with a lamp on top. And a small dresser positioned in the corner of the room. Even though it was small it was comfortable, it had those warm touches you’d expect. Taking a seat and laying back on the bed you can feel sleep pulling at you; “Shit” you mumble under your breath, realizing you forgot your bag out in your truck. Jumping up you head outside. 

Walking to open your truck you notice a figure sitting on the stairs at the trailer across the street. An amber flame lights up his face as he sparks his joint. Your breath hitches as you get the first glance. Eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness you can make out more than just his beautiful bronze eyes. Curls frame his face and gently fall down his shoulders, rings adorn his fingers surrounding the fresh joint. He takes another drag letting his eyes fall heavy as the THC starts to work its magic. The light above him flicks on as he leans back onto the stairs, leaning his head upwards and blowing a drag of smoke. 

The glow gives you a better opportunity to notice what he’s wearing. A light washed jean vest covered with patches and pins of bands your oh so familiar with.The stitching appears to be done by himself. You can picture the brooding figure before you pulling thread in-between his soft lips and saturating it before threading the needle. Suddenly jealous of whoever got to kiss all the wounds that he would have received from every pick the needle caused. He notices your glances and sends a smirk your way, almost shooting butterflies directly into your stomach. Giving him a quick wave after locking up your truck you run inside. 

Who was that? Max never mentioned anyone your age living across the street, but then again why would she? You weren’t here to have a spring fling, you were here to see her, her mom and your dad. Pushing the thoughts of him aside, you grab a t-shirt and some sleep shorts out of your and put them on. Turning the lights off and getting into bed, after the long two day drive you pass out almost immediately. 

______________________________________________________________________________

Waking up in the morning you can hear the sounds of coffee and breakfast being prepared, taking the time to remember where you are you sit up slowly. Right, Hawkins. Getting up out of bed you grab clothes for the day, a loose fitting DIO shirt and some light wash jeans. Pulling some socks on grabbing a pair of black hightop converse you head to the bathroom. Before leaving you had booked a haircut hoping for something easier to style you ask for what Farrah Fawcett style shag. Spraying some Aqua Net hairspray all over you scrunch your hair to help solidify the curls from the other day. Brushing your teeth and applying some mascara and eyeliner you're done getting ready. Heading out into the kitchen you see Susan and Max at the table, your dad pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Morning kiddo, how’d you sleep?” Grabbing yourself a mug and pouring yourself one you respond “ Good! The drive really knocked me out” You sit down at the table while the rest of them as the rest of them have light morning conversation. “Well max, when should we head out?” Glancing up at the clock “Probably now, that way we have time to load up!”

Helping Max with her book bags you wheel her down to the you stop with her at the side of your truck. You notice the curl haired boy from yesterday. He’s locking the front door to his trailer and adjusting his back pack on his shoulder. You're shocked to see him awake at this time and not to mention a book bag on his shoulders. In the moonlight last-night he looked much too old to be in High School. “Thats Eddie by the way” Max says looking up at you. “You know him?” You say returning her gaze. “Yeah he runs Hellfire, the D&D club Dustin, Mike and Lucas are apart of. He’s failed to graduate three years in a row, but I think this year he’s got it” Three years hey? That would make him 21 and only just graduating. “Well I hope this year is his year” You help Max into the passenger seat and roll her wheel chair down the drive. Opening up your trunk you hear footsteps shuffle behind you.

“I like your shirt, DIO is an amazing band!” You can hear the nerves fall off his tongue. Turning around you smile. “Thanks I got it when I saw them two summers ago, they were amazing.” “Finally someone who has good music taste in this town!” He bends at the knees doing some wild air fist bumps. You can hear Max laughing in the car.  “So not a single person in all of Hawkins likes Metal?” You say laughing at the curly heads reaction leaning up against your truck. “No no, I have a couple friends who like the genera, I guess I should have been more specific. Not a single attractive girl in Hawkins likes the music.” You blush, It's been a long time since someone openly complemented you like that. “ Thanks” “The names Munson, Eddie Munson. But uh you can call me Eddie.” Putting his hand out for you to shake. “Hi Eddie, My name is Y/N” taking it in your own. The feeling of the cool rings sends a tingle from your fingers all the way up your arm and into your chest. “Y/N! We gotta go!” He loosens the grip on your hand so you can turn around and shut the trunk. “Sorry, see ya around Munson” Winking in his direction, walking around you hop into the drivers side of your truck.

Putting you key into the ignition you can feel Max’s eyes on you, “ Whats up kid?” “Your blushing because of Eddie!” Pulling out of the spot you look over at her, “ Whys it bad to be blushing over Eddie?” Max looks as if she’s looking for the reasons as to why it is a bad thing “Turn here, well, your only here for a couple weeks then you head back to your life at University. I don’t want you going ahead and falling for him or vice versa. He had a rough year last year and doesn’t need to have another one.” 

Turning and continuing on the road, seeing the school sign up the road. “ I understand where you are coming from Max, but a little harmless flirting cant do anyone much harm.” But we all know how much of a lie that is. Pulling into the school you can see the five kids from yesterday all standing by the bike rack.

“You can pull in here” doing so you see them all wave. You park, pull out Max’s chair and help her into it. “Hey guys, this is my step sister, Y/N” Hellos float through the air. “ Hi, I’m glad we are finally getting to meet. Ive received enough photos and stories to feel like I already know you!” You approach Lucas closer and give his hand a shake “Its especially nice to meet you Lucas. I appreciate how much you’ve helped Susan and my dad while Max recovers” He smiles “Its really nothing, Your dad and Susan have been so amazing during all of this” Taking a closer look at Dustin and Mikes shirt you notice its the same one that Eddie was wearing this morning, that must be the logo of their d&d group. Almost as if just thinking about him summons his presence. Eddie walks up and puts his arms around Dustin and Mike “Good morning gentlemen, are you ready to finish this campaign?” The boys both nod, “Yup, last one before spring break is gonna be sweet!” Dustin says. “I have something really good up my sleeve for tonight, You two better be ready” The enthusiasm that radiates off of Eddies body is electric as he says it. you can see the passion he has for the game as it sparkles in his eyes. 

Max turns to look at Lucas, “Are you playing tonight?” “ Nope, my plans tonight include you, me and renting a movie from Steve and Robins work!” He grabs her hand and gives it a squeeze. Smiling with joy she nods, “ Good, I had hoped so.” The school bell rings signifying it’s time for everyone to head inside, they all say goodbye with the exception of Eddie who lingers leaning his tall lean body onto the bike racks. 

“ So Y/N whats your plan for the rest of the day, gonna get up to any mischief?” You laugh, “The most mischief I'll get into in a town this small will be buying one too many records at the record shop.” “The one on main street is amazing, if you're open to it id love to take you sometime” You look down at his hands, he’s playing with his rings, twirling them around on each of his delicate fingers. “Are you asking to take me out Munson? You do realize it’s only my first day in town right?” “No-no- I uh, just thought you’d like someone more experience taking you around.” He stammers; “Yeah okay, how about tomorrow, We can go around 1?” Blushing he says “Its a date” Winking in your direction he runs inside. You cant help but laugh, you step back in your truck and head home.

#eddie munson #eddiemunson x reader #eddie my love #eddie fanfic #eddie the freak munson #munson #stranger things #hellfire club #hellfirefreak #eddie stranger things #stranger things s4 #stranger things 4 #eddie fucking munson

[feelbokkie]

Luckily I think I have a knack for languages but only for different aspects of each one? lol. Like, I grew up watching/listening to a lot of Japanese stuff (anime, dramas, music) so I have decent listening/hearing comprehension for it--enough that I was able to communicate with Japanese exchange students in college (I'd answer them in English, which they also had a working understanding of, or in my simple baby Japanese lol). But I cannot for the life of me understand kanji so I'm always going to be Japanese illiterate 🥲 (My brother is also learning Japanese so my catchphrase for whenever he shows me anything is "I can't read this!" lol)

I picked up Hangul real quick and I get the grammar structure now, but my Korean vocab is so all over the place that I can read/write but not know what anything means lmao. I'm hoping I'll absorb it naturally by watching and listening to more Korean media but the school year is so busy. I'm hoping I'm not too mentally dead by the end of June so I can activate all my brain cells this summer vacation to hopefully get fluent 🤓

At least my pronunciation for both languages is decent so I can sing in them now 👍 Let's both aim for "being able to watch shows in the background" proficiency 🤝 because tbh that's what I'll be using any language for the most...

-👻✌️

I love learning languages, which is probably why I picked up linguistics quickly despite never taking a class before grad school. My brother (who is 18 years older than me and literally a genius) accidently picked up Japanese. Like he literally was buying manga to look at the art mostly because he's an artist and went "oh, I can actually read this" and got his hands on more Japanese media. So when I came around he literally raised me on jdramas and read me manga to bed and play me jpop consistently. He's genuinely upset that I'm not fluent like him by now, but I'm also stupid. But at the same time, I also grew up speaking English, French, and Haitian creole (literally the only one of my sibs to pick up the last two, perks of being the youngest). So I think a 4th language would have been too much for my little brain. But I literally retained none of the Spanish I learned in school despite learning it for 13 years and picked up French in 2 (had to do 2 years for college). And I keep picking up French books and reading French posts and being like "oh, I can actually read this" (like brother like sister I guess).

I think I know more Japanese than I actually do because I can watch subbed shows relatively quickly and I've caught myself looking away from the screen while drawing or something and forgetting to look up again and still being able to follow. But ask me to read something and I'm lost. I'm literally learning to read bc one of my fav video game series published a side story book and it's only in Japanese and my brother says I'm too old for him to read for me 😭 (asshole) and nobody has translated the book yet despite there being an English following of the game. But pronunciation wise I'm okayish with japanese since my brother made sure to drill me on how to read when how things are written out in romaji. Compared to watching anything in Korean, I still have to pause for subs sometimes, but that might just be because of how some of them are timed. I'm an auditory learner/person so I think I'm better learning that way. I bought some workbooks for both Japanese (elementary so it should be kanji and hiragana, maybe katakana I think) and Hangul and they both come with audio components so I should be set. Literally, the way I would study for English vocab test back in middle school and high school would be me listening to my friends study together and I would pass every time. So I think if I consume enough Korean and Japanese media I should be able to pick those up too.

I am so sorry for rambling but you hit one of my favorite topics/ special interest and I couldn't help myself 😅 But yes, let's both aim for "being able to watch shows in the background" proficiency!

#feelbokkie answers #👻✌️ anon #I need to learn to stfu

[trickster-whim]

When I enter a Goodwill I become possessed by the spirit of someone with a much fatter wallet than I have (⁠ﾉﾟ⁠0ﾟ⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠~

Like usual, under a cut just for length. I talk too much lmao.

The first thing I found was the American Girl Ultimate Visual Guide, published by DK in 2016. Actually, a lot of the stuff I found at the store was from 2016. Kinda weird.

The book is obviously a little dated by now, but I just love guides and collections! I haven't done more than flip through it, but it's adorable. (Marisol ftw)

This book was juuust heavy enough to be an absolute pain as I walked around the rest of the store with it (especially because my arm still hurt from my vaccine).

Anyway, out of order I also found a little Wacom Bamboo Pen(?) that cost $6.50. A bit pricey for thrift store, but if it works okay, I'll be happy. My old Wacom (I don't know the models sry) met its unfortunate end in a "Wait, is this water bottle not waterproof?!" incident, and I've been using a pretty-okay-but-could-be-better Huion since. Wacom just feels nice to draw on ✨

I also found a little zip pouch that looks like a comp book, because I see comp books and purchase immediately, and a copy of Bruce Coville's Odder Than Ever.

Bruce Coville is definitely up there in my favorite short story writers of all time, and I love the Odd series, but this one's been vandalised :/ If you're familiar with Coville, he has a short story called "Am I Blue?" which is a slightly-outdated-by-now story about a kid being bullied for being gay, and the whole thing is crossed out and has six-pointed stars drawn over parts. Can't imagine why (⁠눈⁠‸⁠눈⁠) And again, I'm not sure the story holds up terribly well nowadays, but as a queer kid growing up in the 90s/2000s, I appreciated it when I first read it (in an anthology of the same name, actually). I might see if I can erase the pencil at all, since it's mine now, but still. The book looks great otherwise. Just the gay-positive story. Hm.

Moving on!!

Posters! There were a bunch of posters, mostly superheroes, which doesn't interest me, but I thought this Pokémon 20th anniversary one was pretty dang cute. There was an Avatar poster in the same sleeve, so 2 for $1.50? Sure! I'll probably give that one to my sister, though, since I *cough* only watched a few episodes *cough*

Now onto the bags! One bag was mostly doll clothes, in a mix of sizes. Almost none of them had tags, but there was a mix of Our Generation/AG-sized clothes (including a fabulous Battat jacket), a few Barbie-sized dresses and bottoms (including bell-bottoms that say "Peace and Love" lmao), and one Madame Alexander dress (the only one with a tag).

In that bag was also a mini beanie baby platypus (I have a few, but it's so cute, I can take another) and a Poopsie Surprise... shark... thing? I think it's name is Hammer, judging by ebay searches, but I've never had one before. Its head is green, and its bottom is blue, and I don't know why the color is so different. Worse than that, though, is that it is a spitter toy filled with thick red slime, which as someone with emetophobia was... challenging. Especially because the red slime looked like [redacted because TMI lmfao]. It's moderately cute, so it'll sit on my shelf probably, but also ew.

Next up, Frights Camera Action Clawdeen! She came with almost everything (and her hands switched, which seems to be pretty common with secondhand Monster High), and is in pretty good condition. It's been a while since I found a Monster High doll in the wild, so hell yeah.

I also got two pairs of shoes and two unpaired shoes, as well as some random stuff and also jacks.

This weekend, mom wants to check some Goodwills for a trench coat (they're dressing up as their favorite book characters where she works and she wants to be Dresden), so we'll see if we find anything else fun or cool. It's been so hit-or-miss lately, literally who knows??

[lookwhatilost]

(This is a high effort Facebook post I made in December, 2021. I never posted it here, but I figured you guys might enjoy it, so here it is)

I remember seeing this in the checkout line at Winn-Dixie when I was around 7 years old. And this was 2002, so, like the height of Friends. I remember thinking it was kind of intrusive, albeit I was way too young to articulate it properly.

Tabloids and celebrity and our relationships with them have changed a lot in the past two decades, but a version of that cover has been a mainstay for a while – speculating about Jennifer Anniston specifically getting pregnant. And I'm not exaggerating here. A while back I remember sitting in a waiting room and seeing an issue of In Touch with a picture on the cover of her and Brad Pitt that said: "Brad and Jen: Wedding and a Baby!" and all I could really think about was "How is this still a thing?"

Jen's story really had it all, didn't it? Heartbreak. Secrecy. Sex. Betrayal. But it had something else outside of it: Us Weekly and all of its copycats. Brad Pitt leaving Jennifer Anniston for Angelina Jolie would have been a huge Hollywood scandal no matter when it happened, but it became an even bigger one because it was turbo-charged by a new kind of media outlet. The tabloids transformed Jennifer Anniston into a literal cover girl for our angst, anxiety, concern, and distain about and for single and childless women. And, at 52 years old, Jen is still that cover girl. What is going on? Why is this still going on? Why is this still happening?

So, Friends is still popular today since it's been given a second life through streaming services, but it stands to reason that Jen would probably be just as famous as her costars had she not began dating Brad Pitt. But to really understand her public persona, the history of Us Weekly is pretty important.

People Magazine was the original personality journalism success, and Us was launched around 3 years later to ride its coattails. But People's coverage is, you know, more authorized. If they're running a story, they're doing it with the subject's cooperation – they sat for the interview, they posed for the photo. It's all very above-board. But since this was the benchmark for personality journalism, the Us editors noticed there was a hole in the market and took a page out of the book from European celebrity gossip weeklies. Magazines like that depend on newsstand sales, so, catchy and salacious covers, and there's more of a profit incentive there because they make a lot more money than subscribers do. Us switched over to this kind of model in 2000. Copycats started popping up in the following years, and by the mid-aughts, the US went from having no magazines that were quite like Us Weekly, to having a lot of magazines like Us Weekly full of... What, exactly? True stories, or kinda sorta maybe true stories?

While I was researching this, I was pretty shocked to learn that Us Weekly had a fact checking department. If they're relying on other people's journalism or reporting they aren't sure about but supports their story, they use words like "reportedly" or "allegedly" but if they run a story saying something Definitely Happened, it's because the magazine has multiple sources telling them that it has. It's not that everything they publish is true, but there's at least a kernel of truth involved.

You can probably liken the business model here to that of a soap opera. Sure, every now and then someone will get married or cheated on or come back from the dead, but there's also a lot of time where nothing Huge is happening and it still needs to be compelling to the person watching it. Tabloids need to do the same thing with their headlines.

So just to recap here, you have this new and massive business model where you need to drum up headlines that elicit emotional responses in prospective readers. And then you have Jennifer Anniston, a well-beloved, relatable celebrity and one half of Hollywood's pre-eminent golden couple, who's already a tabloid fixture, who millions of Americans feel very strongly about.

So, Brad and Jen separate in 2005, and photos on a beach in Kenya of Brad and Angelina Jolie and her young son, which confirms all the speculation about something going on between the two of them. And what's important to clarify here is that there couldn't be a bigger difference in the public perception of Jen and Angelina. One is America's sweetheart, the other is the woman who wears blood vials around her neck.

Two competing narratives emerge about this: One being that Jen was a sympathetic victim who had her husband stolen from her by a femme fatale, the other being that she was career-obsessed and didn't want children, so Brad left her for someone who did. She dismissed the latter in a Vanity Fair interview (it's still their best selling issue) by saying she's never stated she hasn't wanted kids: "I did, I do, and I will". And inadvertently birthed the only character she's played that's as famous as Rachel Green – Sad Jen.

Sad Jen is a version of Jennifer Anniston who, in spite of being rich, successful, and beautiful, is perpetually lovelorn and depressed, a forever victim who can't keep a man or have a baby. She's the perfect tabloid figure who readers can easily relate to – who hasn't had a heartbreak? – and wish for her happiness while her problems made them feel better about their own.

Jen, for what it's worth, doesn't really comment on this because whenever she does, it ignites even more speculation about her. So she doesn't do it very often. And that kind of contributes to her unknowability. We feel like we know her because we know Rachel Green so well, but when you actually think about her personality, she's a bit hard to describe. Hard to pin down. Like she's an enigma, a blank canvas for us to project on. And the tabloids did just that. Sad Jen completely permeated the culture.

As the years went on and Jen dated other men, got married, and did everything that looked like moving on, Sad Jen still kept selling magazines. If Jennifer Anniston is happy, there's no drama. No story. Nothing to be curious about. And, like, it doesn't really matter how woke our society gets, people are always going to want to know when women are going to have babies.

Jen's tabloid persona completely eclipsed Jen, the actress, and Jen, the real person. Sad Jen is a deeply retrograde concoction. In creating her, the tabloids were sending a message to women that was loud and clear: You need a man and a baby to be happy. But it needed saying so loudly because it was at odds with a real woman, with what Jennifer Anniston was actually doing after her divorce – dating, delaying or deciding not to have children at all, doing what made her happy and fulfilled. If celebrities are avatars for our issues, the cultural concerns that are in the air, Sad Jen isn't simply some antifeminist poltergeist. She's a proxy for all our complicated, contradictory, and changing feelings about women. She was such a powerful character for so long not because our ideas about what women ought to do are settled and decided upon, but because they're so... not.

I should probably lay my cards on the table and say that I doubt Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt are going to get back together and have a baby. The reason that cover grabbed my attention was because it seemed so patently bogus, fanfiction prompted by the fact that, for the first time in more than a decade, they're both single again. Generally speaking, I find tabloids very unseemly and feel uncomfortable pinning that on any one person, type of person, or entity. When it comes to tabloids – readers, writers, editors, publishers, celebrities, publicists, marketing departments... They all play their part. We all play our part. There's enough ick to go around.

For serious news outlets, every error hurts their reputation, but no one expects a tabloid to be right all of the time. In fact, a tabloid only has to be right some of the time to give its material a whiff of "could this be true?" especially if you really want the story to be true. And the tabloids, except for People, are all owned by the same company, A360 Media, the creator of Star and the National Inquirer. They do still have reporting staffs that break real, truthful celebrity news. In Touch, for example, broke the story that George and Amal Clooney were having twins, and ran an interview with Stormy Daniels about her affair with the president years before any other outlet.

One of the reasons for these ever more fanciful covers may be a reflection of what's happened to the tabloid business. Since their heyday in the aughts, tabloid sales have fallen off because of the internet, where you can get all the gossip you want, 24 hours a day. Tabloids sell on newsstands in the low hundred thousands these days. But the business model is still reliant on catchy covers, so they keep amping them up. And the people who still buy celebrity magazines grew up with Jennifer Anniston, which is probably why Jennifer Anniston is still a permanent fixture on their covers. A cover about Brad and Jen getting back together is as amped up as possible. A greatest hits reel. A reunion episode of a favorite TV show in which the heroine is finally happy. What this means, though, is that Jennifer Anniston is probably not the tabloid icon she once was, but that tabloids are getting more desperate than they once were.

Jen has gotten unlucky twice. First by getting so spectacularly divorced while the tabloids were rising, and then still being a going concern as they fall. Still, over the years, Sad Jen has largely been canonized as an antifeminist projection, one that doesn't have much of anything to do with the actual Jen. And you could argue that Jennifer Anniston has gotten some benefit from her tabloid coverage, even though I'm sure Jen would disagree with me on this one. She's a middle-aged actress whose most famous work is more than 15 years behind her, and that's in part because the public is so fascinated with her.

I think if you're gonna make some kind of positive case for the tabloids, beyond just accepting that some version of them will always exist, it's that they, and gossip more generally, are a mirror who shows us who we really are, warts and all. What we really care about, what speaks to our brains and hearts. If that's true, the Sad Jen's existence doesn't just tell us about our rigid expectations of women, it tells us something more expansive with our relationship with the truth, which is that when the truth is as propulsive as a great story, we'll take the truth. But when the truth gets gnarly or pedantic or plotless or dull, we'll take the story, even if it's no longer true.

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. I kinda hate how Hades has only had 2 relationships before Persephone and one being his brother’s brother and the other being toxic on both ends. I sorta wish Leuce was in there as like an ex with no drama like the two just didnt work out or something chill (break ups are hard but there’s less dramatic break ups). Idk I just feel like a little internal conflict like that would have some spice to the story but also make me root for the couple a bit more.

Going deeper into it, as a reader we know Minthe as his evil gf whose never gonna work out and Hera and Hades are toxic secret affair, but what if Hades did have a functional relationship with someone who wasn’t toxic but they didn’t work out and she didn’t want to stay in the underworld/be queen. I just feel like that would add a complex layer to the story, not making it all black and white.

With Persephone having more dating experience it’s kinda hard because everyone wants her BUT they aren’t allowed to date her to keep her pure/her mother would kill them/TOGEM. But if RS ever wrote more Persphone and Hermes I’d just want them together like forget hades. 

2. Ive seen some LO fans say "NOW the actual myth will begin" and it's like??? Wasn't that already done in the first three episodes? Why would you RESTART IT? More so, it is objectively awful writing to publish nearly every week for FOUR YEARS to actually get to the main point of the story, which even then will probably take month at best to even start. This is just such a train-wreck in terms of planning, writing, development, and even basic story creation yet the fan will insist it's genius!

3. What I find so aggravating about LO and its fans is they are convinced it's the most unique, groundbreaking work ever, when it's anything but that. Modern settings, Technicolor skintones, "humanizing" the gods, etc have all been a Thing for decades, sometimes even centuries before LO even existed. Even the idea it "deals with heavy topics' is false since the original myths already did so and didn't treat it as haphazardly like Rachel does. They want it to be anything but what it really is.

4. I see so many of the fans excuse Rachel making it just modern NYC as "it's a fictional world so she can do what she wants"  begs the question: do they think Ancient Greece is a fantasy land that never existed? It very much did, and had cultural and social differences from modern day. Even modern Greece is different from America. She does't even try to keep any of it intact despite it being set in that exact time and place. At some point we have to admit the "Greek" part is lip service at best.

5. the "anti" community for LO is overwhelmingly queer, BIPOC women and NBs who used to like the series who where in turn forced out of the fandom because of the almost entirely cishet, white fanbase who refused to even court the idea of differing opinions. The idea all of us marginalized people are "oppressing" a privileged white woman and her entitled fanbase because we critique how she' butchered countless real issue and a real country's stories for her white "feminism" fantasy is laughable.

6. i do not get why all the new book covers we're getting for lo are so boring?? like at least the first normal cover was visually grabbing (even if just lie about what the comic is actually about and has some questionable symbolism in it) but the newer ones are so boring. they don't even have backgrounds now and the logo is so randomly placed and I don't get why. they have book cover artists on staff surely they could help her do it? or work off her sketches and make something better?

7. rachel retweeting a single old picture from cyprus: see! i can about greece! anyway let's ignore that while I retweet 20 pictures in a row about how eris is literally an apple and how hades just needs so many babies RIGHT NOW.

8. rachel spends more time posting about her nails on twitter than even bothering to retweet even one post from her co-workers to give them a needed promo to her massive audience. it's just off putting to me how every other webtoons creators minus her, mongie, and snailords will do anything to support and promo each other while they refuse to do the bare minimum even as the webtoon company bends over backwards to make sure they get them everything they want while ignoring the rest.

9. Even ignoring the issues Rachel added into the story for her own weird reasons, how naive are her and her fans to think whitewashing and romanticizing perhaps the most infamous of all Greek myths into an idealized romance aimed towards pre-teens at the youngest wouldn't come with built in criticism? Like there's a reason the myth is so hotly debated, and it's not because of "misogyny", it's because of how misogyny is used to demonize a mother for the sake of a romanticizing a male abuser..

10. I love how LO fans say "hera only cheated with one person! so that's different from zeus's many affairs!" like no it's not lmao. a person who killed one person and serial killer both get life in prison regardless of how many victims they have. rachel also seems to be implying hera is having an emotional affair with echo which by her own in comic logic is just as bad as a physical affair, so wouldn't that be at least two people? regardless two wrongs do not make a right, hera is also bad here.

#anti lo #lo critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus

[imherongraystairstrash]

I wish there were more fics with Jules while he was raising the kids or omfg one where they find a old photo album or something with memories and they’re are flashbacks of Julian and Emma raising them and key moments like Drus 10th birthday, Livvys first period and Emma comforts her and literally anything of Tavvy and they all tell Julian they love him and dru and Tavvy don’t even remember they’re father cause Jules is one. What I’m trying to say is I love your writing please consider this ❤️❤️

Bestieee!! I would have loved to be able to write all of the things you mentioned! But there were simply too many :(( Dru and Tavvy telling Julian they loved him would have been beautiful but this fic would have been super long and all over the place if I included it. I also thought Livvy’s first period was such a nice idea, but I wasn’t able to fit it into the fic. If you're super eager to read it, feel free to send me an ask with just that, and I’ll write it for you! I know this one took super long to publish (I’m so sorry!!) but I hope you like it!

Ficmas day 8— Blackthorn Christmas Memories (ik the title is sooo creative)

Dru felt really out of her element when she heard her family announce they’re presence. She probably looked like a mess and she had definitely spent way too much time scrolling through Instagram reels, watching conspiracy theories and ghost hunting. Now her brain felt fuzzy and her mouth was thick with sleep. She was sprawled on her back, her phone now discarded next to her. She took a deep breath, let it out and got up.

She was greeted with a string of enthusiastic “Dru!”s as she walked down the stairs to greet everyone.

“Hey strangers,” she said, going up to Mark and giving him a hug. “It’s been a hot minute since we’ve last seen each other.”

As she hugged Cristina and Kieran, Mark replied.

“Yes, it has been too long since we’ve visited, what with New York and faerie and then visiting Blackthorn Hall-“

Dru perked up at that. “Oh yeah, I forgot you guys visited! How is it? I heard it was filled with ghosts!”

Kieran shuddered, “it’s a ghastly place, Drusilla. You would love it.”

“Damn, I can’t wait to visit.” Dru said, dreamily.

Cristina chuckled, “I’m sure Emma and Julian have better stories than we do. You’ll have to ask them when they get here.”

Dru smiled at that. For a second, she was afraid they might not come for Christmas. Of course, she loved Helen and Aline, but she had the best memories with Jules and Emma around this time of year. Even though shadowhunters don’t typically celebrate Christmas, the blackthorns weren’t really known for following the rules anyway.

“I can’t believe they’re coming tomorrow.” She said, “It’s been forever since I’ve last seen them.”

“It has, hasn’t it?” Said Mark as they all made their way up the stairs.

“Yeah- oh dude!” Dru said, punching kieran on the shoulder playfully. “We never finished watching the ring! We have to finish it.”

“Oh no, is that the film with the crawling girl?” Kieran shuddered.

“Yeah!” Dru said, smiling widely.

Kieran was the only person who actually watched horror films with her, though Dru didn’t understand why. Sure, he didn’t get half as scared of them as Mark or Emma did, but he did spend most of the time screaming. Watching horror movies with Kieran was entertaining, Dru thought with a smile.

She was so glad everyone was going to be coming back.

…

“Jules!” Tavvy practically screamed, as he sprinted the distance between him and his older brother.

Julian got to his knees and held his arms out for his brother. Tavvy leaped into them, wrapping his arms around Julian’s neck.

“Hey Tavs,” Julian said. “Did you miss me?”

Tavvy had his face pressed to Julian’s neck, but he still nodded.

“Hey, what am I? Beef jerky?” said Emma, laughing.

Dru skipped up to her and hugged her tightly. “We missed both of you.” she said. “A lot.”

Emma smiled. “How’ve you been, baby bat?”

“Honestly, great! The academy is super fun. But I did miss you all.”

“We did too.” said Julian, after Tavvy released his grip on him and ran to hug Emma.

Dru and Julian embraced and she couldn’t help but be happy at being able to hug her brother again. In so many ways, Julian was like her father. She had vague memories of her actual dad and only one of her mom. She knew for Tavvy, Julian was the only father he’d ever known which is why his reaction to his arrival wasn’t strange to any of them.

“Is everyone already here?” Julian asked her.

“Nope. Ty’s not here. But everyone else is!”

“We should probably greet them before they get offended then.” Julian said, smiling.

…

Soon after Ty had come, they’d all been happy at the thought of finally being all together again. It’s been too long and everybody just sort of smiled widely at each other, Tavvy going from person to person, not knowing who to hug.

“This is great!” said Helen. “I can’t believe we’re all actually here. The last time was almost a year ago.”

Damn, it’s been a long time. Before anyone could say anything though, the lights flickered and went out.

“Oh no,” said Kieran. “Please don’t let this be like Drusilla’s movies.”

“Don’t worry, the power goes out every once and a while.” Said Jules.

“I thought the institute was powered by witchlight.” said Aline.

“Yeah, still. I think there’s an institute ghost or something. It happens once every couple of years. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened in the year you’ve been Heads of the institute. Anyway, I’ll get the flashlights.” said Julian.

“Kieran, we’re not going to die, stop clutching my hand like that.” Helen said.

“I’m not clutching your hand.” Kieran said.

“Then who’s— you know what, I don’t even want to know.”

“Do you think this is a sign?” Ty whispered to Dru.

“For what?”

“That too much Blackthorn shouldn’t be in the same room?”

Dru snickered. “Seems like it.” she hesitated before asking very quietly. “Is she here?”

“Yeah.” Ty said. “She says hi.”

Dru smiled. “Hey. I missed you.”

“She missed you too.”

…

“Hey Em, look what I found while looking for flashlights,” said Jules, holding up a leather-bound book.

“No way! You found that?” Emma asked, gasping. “I haven’t seen that in years!”

“What is it?” Asked Cristina.

“I used to make old photo albums! It was a never ending phase of mine.” Emma said wistfully. “Please tell me that’s the Christmas edition.”

Julian turned that book so that they could read the spine that said ‘christmas’ on it in Emma’s elegant calligraphy skills.

“Yes!” she said, reaching her hands out for the book.

Julian gave it to her and she placed it in the center of their circle, flipping through the book.

Helen’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding me!” she gasped at the first picture.

In it, there was a small Helen, hugging Mark tightly, pressing their cheeks together. Mark looked significantly less enthusiastic at this display of affection.

Cristina laughed so hard at Mark’s face she had tears in her eyes. “You-you look like a grumpy kitten!”

They all started laughing, Helen ruffling Mark’s hair. “My grumpy little brother.” she said affectionately.

Mark waved her away, but was doing his best not to smile, “Okay, that’s enough of that picture.” he said, flipping the page.

The photo next to it was Eleanor Blackthorn holding both Ty and Livvy in one hand while her hand hung over the back of a tiny Julian. He was playing some sort of memory game with Emma, who was dressed in a red dress, her hair in low pigtails. Cordelia, Emma’s mother, was there too, standing in front of Eleanor. Both women were squinting at the camera, as if the flash were blinding them.

“How were you all so adorable?” Said Aline.

Julian shrugged and smiled at the picture of his mother.

…

“Let’s go, Jul,” Eleanor said. “It’s getting late.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to leave him here?” Cordelia said, ruffling Mark’s hair as she passed.

“I would, but Andrew has to go to London tomorrow and I can’t worry about my five children running around every which way.”

“Well, at least promise you’ll ask for help, if you need it.” Cordelia said. “We only have one little Shadowhunter running around, after all.”

“Smile!”

Both women squinted as John Carstairs snapped a photo at them. Ty, who must have gotten frightened by the sudden light, began crying, which prompted Livvy to start crying as well.

“Seriously, John?” Cordelia said, as Eleanor expertly got both babies to settle down.

“I was trying to document this momentous occasion for the children.”

“Couldn’t you have done it at any other time this past evening?” She asked.

John shrugged.

“Yeah, John.” said Andrew, smiling playfully.

John laughed and flipped off the other man.

“Could you get Julian, honey?” Eleanor said to Andrew. “He doesn’t seem to be listening to me.”

“But of course, my lady.” Andrew said. “Let’s go home, Julius.”

Eleanor rolled her eyes as her husband picked him up. Julian wasn’t happy at being separated from Emma, and fussed around, reaching out to her with his hands. Emma looked up at him with wide eyes, as if she were going to cry.

“Geez, you’ll see each other tomorrow.” Andrew said. “Come on, Mark.” He gestured to the blond boy, who was peacefully sitting by the door cross-legged, reading a book.

Eleanor looked around for the missing Blackthorn, and smiled when she found her daydreaming by the fireplace. She gestured to the girl and held out her hand.

Helen snapped out of her haze, grinned and raced over, grabbing hold of the hand of the woman who had been more of a mother to her than the one that had birthed her.

After saying their goodbyes and thanks to the Carstairs, the seven Blackthorns made their way back to the Institute.

…

“I remember that night.” Helen said, smiling nostalgically, before turning the page. They saw a couple of other pictures; of days at the beach, the kids sitting around a Christmas tree, playing card games by the fire. There was even a picture of all of the Blackthorn children crowded around Eleanor, who was in bed, significantly skinnier and paler, with heavy bags under her eyes. They were all smiling. That’s the time she appears in the album. It had been on Christmas eve when she’d passed. Emma’s hand finds Julian’s and she gives it a little squeeze.

There are a couple more pictures after that before John, Cordelia, Andrew, Mark and Helen disappear from the photos as well.

There’s one a year after the Dark War. It’s taken selfie style, Emma grinning widely as the other Blackthorns smile behind her. There’s even a picture with Dru and Livvy posing next to a snoozing Arthur, which made everybody laugh.

“Oh, look, there's a picture of Dru’s 10th birthday here.” Aline said.

“That’s weird, Dru’s birthday is in November,” said Emma.

Kieran looked at Dru. “Are you of the Scorpion Zodiac?”

“Yep!”

“Everything makes sense now.” He said.

Julian scrunched up his eyebrows, trying to figure out why Dru’s birthday picture was there.

…

“What do you want to do for your birthday, Dru?” Emma asked, at the breakfast table. They were all eating pancakes to celebrate.

“I want to watch a movie!” She said excitedly.

“Oh really? Which one?”

“The Nightmare Before Christmas!”

“Ew, isn’t that the creepy Tim Burton movie?” asked Livvy.

Dru frowned at her sister, crossing her arms. “It’s not creepy.”

“Well,” said Emma clapping her hands, “It’s Dru’s birthday, therefore we shall do as Dru wishes. If that’s watching creepy stop motion movies, so be it!”

That’s how, later, the Blackthorns and Emma sat down to watch ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (except for Tavvy, of course, who would have nightmares. He was busy building a city out of books behind the couch, where Julian could see him).

“Is this a Christmas movie, or a Halloween movie?” asked Ty.

“Halloween,” Emma and Livvy said together at the same time that Julian and Dru said “Christmas.”

“Whaat? You’re both on drugs.” Emma said.

“It’s not even scary,” Dru pointed out.

“Neither is hocus pocus.” Livvy said.

“I beg to differ; those fashion choices are terrifying.” Said Emma, “But seriously, how can you guys consider it a Christmas movie? If I had to watch this movie during Christmas, I’d jump out the window. It’s too sad to be watching during Christmas.”

“It’s all about bringing Christmas to Halloween. The whole movie they're basically celebrating their own version of Christmas.” Said Jules.

“If we ever did that, it would be a disaster.” Livvy laughed.

“That would be a nightmare before Christmas.” Ty agreed.

They all went silent, watching the movie. Then, at the same time, they all looked at each other.

“We should totally celebrate Christmas today, but creepy, just like Dru likes it!” Said Emma.

Everybody nodded except for Julian, shaking his head chuckling.

“We’ll even put in the Christmas album!”

“Yeah!” Livvy said.

“Dru-mas.” said Ty.

They all burst out laughing.

“I knew it!” Emma gasped in between laughs. “I knew you had a sense of humor Tiberius Blackthorn.”

Ty looked at her blankly. “I just put two words together. I didn’t intend to make it a joke.”

“Regardless, you’re a comedic genius.” Emma said, pointing to him. “Don’t forget that.”

“Dru-mas!” Tavvy said, cheering.

Julian laughed and looked at his youngest sister. The smile on Dru’s face was brighter than the star on top of any Christmas tree.

…

Julian shrugged. “No clue.” and turned the page.

They all laughed at the various photos, some of which were taken at unfortunate times, like a small Tavvy pulling Julian’s hair or Livvy making a grossed out face at a crab that Ty was holding and smiling at.

They sat there, telling silly anecdotes of those times, when suddenly the lights came back on.

Seeing each other’s faces without having to blind them with a flashlight brought a smile to their faces.

Emma gasped. “We have to take a picture! There’s still space in the book!”

She raced for her camera upstairs before anyone could answer, though nobody wanted to protest.

It was, after all, the perfect addition to all those scattered memories.

...

sry if this was bad. Blame my broken right hand and covid lolll I did the best I could

Tagging: @tsccreatorsnet  @atla-lok143  @rinadragomir  @youngreckless  @autumnangel20  @julemmaes @cupcakesandkittens  @no-scones-allowed  @ninacarstairss  @stxr-thxif  @writeforjordelia  @icouldnotask @jordeliasupremacy  @cordelia-cardale  @will-effing-herondale  @axoloteca @heronstairs2014 @ilovemanicures @ti-bae-rius @alastair-esfandiyar-carstairs1 @readersconfessions812 @nightshade3465 @livvyheronstairs @zemiraa @proudtobealuthor @neurogliadudette @theenchanteddreamer @cheeseandmacarons @shadowhunting-hoolingans @writeordie-4 @amchara @myangelbach @livingformyself @dancing-under-the-moon @queenofoceansanddarkness

If you want to be on my tag list, or if you changed your url recently and your not in the tag list anymore, let me know! Also, if you want to be removed, send me a dm! I won’t be offended in the slightest :) Oh, and if you asked to be on the tag list and you’re not on it, please tell me (I’m very absentminded lol).

#blackthorn #tsc #tsc fanfic #ficmas2021 #julian blackthorn #emma carstairs #dru blackthorn #helen blackthorn #aline penhallow #mark blackthorn #cristina rosales #kieran kingson #ty blackthorn #tavvy blackthorn #livvy blackthorn #tda #tda fanfic #tda spoilers

[luvelyhs]

In the end, we can only save ourselves

harry and y/n are in an open relationship

i’ve been wanting to write this concept for a while cuz i love reading about it so hope you enjoy :)

warning: angst ofc what else do you expect from me 😅

i’m def writing a part two so stay tuned for that :))))

—————

The fresh red marks littered his neck, they showed someone else had claimed him for themself, had marked her husband with their lips. It was a disgusting thought, and Y/N had to turn away before she quite literally threw up.

“Want some coffee?” Y/N shook her head.

“I’m fine.” He didn’t notice anything, fuck, when did he ever? Y/N was getting sick of it, his obliviousness to her tense and off behavior. Y/N thought communication was key, but sometimes she feels afraid of the future, of what could happen if she voices her feelings and thoughts, of saying she wants to end their open relationship. He’d leave her. She knew it.

“Mmkay.” He turned the coffee maker on, and the only sound in the room was the noise it made. Neither Harry nor Y/N were speaking.

She had to leave because she kept taking looks at him, at his neck. Did he even know what that made her feel? Any semblance of feeling? Did he have any respect for her anymore? It would be respectful to not showcase the work of another on his body, open for her to see, in their own fucking home. It was ridiculous, and suddenly the hurt was replaced with anger.

“Have fun last night?” Y/N’s voice was ice cold, something no one could miss, especially not Harry. He glanced up at her over his phone.

“Yeah, ‘t was fun.” He nodded, eyes moving back down to his phone. Great, now he couldn’t even look at her while they were having a conversation.

“I could see. Quite literally.” Harry looked at her in confusion, while Y/N rolled her eyes at his obliviousness.

“All over your fucking neck, Harry. At least hide that shit next time, will you?” Y/N grabbed her laptop from the island table, backing up her chair, making it squeak against the wooden floor.

“Shit, ‘m sorry, Y/N. I didn’t know.” Y/N scoffed at his guilty tone while she was exiting the kitchen. Y/N didn’t know how much longer she could put up with this. She never wanted this fucking open relationship in the first place. All she wanted was to make him happy, and now she’s so disappointed in herself for lowering herself in that way for a man. Even Harry wasn’t worth it, the man she had loved with her whole entire being and entire soul. Because he’s not who he used to be, and it makes her feel more empty than anything else.

“Be a little more considerate next time, yeah?” She called back over her shoulder, walking to their backyard to get some sun and do some work.

She looked behind to see if Harry was following and couldn’t help but feel a little hurt when he didn’t. The old him would have followed her around like a puppy to see her smile and be happy with him again. This was another example of how much their relationship had changed, for the worse.

Y/N opened her laptop and started looking over a manuscript for her job. It had been an hour or so when she got an incoming Facetime call from her friend back home.

See, Y/N had basically uprooted her life for Harry. She had a good job back home, with her family and friends surrounding her, but she let herself get windswept by Harry and his charm and charisma. He had done everything to sweep her off her feet, even though she didn’t want to be with him in the first place.

He succeeded, eventually, hence why she was in London in their home, where he wanted to settle down, not her. London was cloudy and gray, she wanted the bright sun and blue sky. But she had to follow him, because what the star wants, the star gets.

Don’t get her wrong, Harry and Y/N were so happy during their one and a half year of dating and three years of marriage. They were perfectly happy, she had been enough for him during this time, until six months ago he started becoming distant, wouldn’t come home until late at night and would text her to not wait up for him, he didn’t even know if he would be coming home at all, and that irritated her yet also hurt, because he was growing distant and whenever she tried to initiate conversation about it, he would deflect.

It wasn’t until one evening he broke, started saying how he felt trapped.

“I jus’- we’re good, Y/N, so good. But don’t you think tha’s just not enough? I- I saw someone at the club tonight. I wanted to get her number, I wanted to approach her, and almost did when Mitch stopped me, pulled me back, said I had a lovely wife waiting at home for me.” Y/N hadn’t believed her ears. Her initial thought was- ‘he could go to fucking hell’, but she didn’t want to lose him, she didn’t. Because she loved him. So.. she brought it up. When she shouldn’t have. She should have taken it back as soon as she said it, but she can’t turn back time.

“You wanted to fuck her? That’s what you want to do? Throw a whole 4 year relationship away because you wanted to fuck a pretty girl? Go ahead, Harry. Do what you want.” Harry had approached her, looking at her warily.

“You’re not saying, you want to end us?” Y/N heard fear in his words. He was scared of the end of them, but it wasn’t enough. But in the heat of the moment she shook her head, when she should have said yes.

“No. No.. I.. we can try an... open relationship?” Y/N forced the words out of her mouth, wincing slightly when she saw the bright look on his face. And this is where she was proud of herself for a moment, because she had made him happy again.

“Really? Are you sure?” Y/N nodded, again, forcefully.

“Yeah, sure.” She nodded her head, fake smiling when Harry approached her and granted kisses all over her face, before pulling her into a deep one and showing her how happy she made him with lots of loving through the whole night.

It stopped him being distant for a bit. He would tell her where he was going and with who. She’d tell him to have fun and to be safe, wear protection. He said of course he would. They’d meet for a quick peck, then he was out for the night.

He thought she had nights where she went out too, but she didn’t. And she wasn’t about to tell him that. She had pride, she had suggested it, now she had to deal with the consequences. She couldn’t bring herself to sleep with another person, it was disgusting. All she could have thought about was Harry, and she had months to think about this, about how someone you’re married to would be okay sleeping with another person... it wasn’t okay at all, not for her. She always thought if her significant other wanted to do that, she’d end the relationship, because if she wasn’t enough for him, what was the point of being married?

She had given Harry the benefit of the doubt for a few months, wanted to see if he would end the open relationship himself, but no. He became more bold, this wasn’t the first time he came home with hickeys all over his body. But she had been quiet then, she wouldn’t be anymore.

Y/N quickly answered Anna’s call, greeted by the brunette beauty on her screen.

The excitement on Anna’s face made Y/N miss her more.. made her all the more homesick. She wanted to see this face in person, and it had been a year since she had.

“Y/N!!” Anna screamed, excitedly. Y/N grinned, happy to see her best friend again.

“Anna! I miss you!” She squealed, sitting up a bit to set the laptop on her lap.

“How’ve you been, baby cakes? Still kicking ass at work?”

“I’ve been good... just living life. Of course I have been! Getting promoted soon, just know it.” Y/N smiled, because she genuinely loved her job. She worked at a publishing house and read over new stories, and she loved it because it pulled her into another universe, one where she didn’t think about Harry and reality.

“Still madly in love with your hot hubby?” Anna giggled, clearly teasing, but usually when Y/N would laugh bubbly along with her, she sat silent.

“Y/N? Everything alright?” Anna frowned.

“Umm.. yeah.. just-“ Y/N tried to stop it, she tried, really she did. But the first tear slipped past her defenses then another and then more.

“I don’t know what to do, Anna, I don’t.” Y/N sobbed into her hands, breaking down once Anna asked that question. Everything she had been holding in, was being let out.

“What’s wrong, honey? What happened?” Anna said gently, coaxing Y/N to open up and tell her what happened.

“Don’t- don’t judge, okay? I know I said I’d never let this happen, but, but I dunno. I don’t know.”

“Let it out, Y/N.”

“Harry and I.. are in an open relationship.” Y/N looked up at Anna’s concerned face, nodding for her to continue.

“I’m not judging, baby cakes, do you mind telling me a bit of context? How did you get into the situation, huh?” Anna remembered a conversation they had about their future partners. The topic was cheating and Y/N had said if her partner ever slept with another, it was over. She was a little possessive over her boyfriends, not overtly so, but enough to be so jealous if they were to do anything with someone in front of her or flirt and she didn’t think she could ever handle them sleeping with someone else, and Y/N was so in love with Harry, everyone could see it, so how did she get herself in that situation?

“Uh-“ Y/N sniffed, wiping some tears from her face with her hoodie sleeve. “He waa distant and he said he wanted to hookup with someone one night so I just suggested it. He wanted to do it and it made him happy so I agreed too. I haven’t slept with anyone, I can’t, Anna. I don’t know how he does it.”

“Oh, honey.. I think it’s time you came back to us. Take a break from him and gloomy London. Think things over back home.” Y/N knew she needed to get away, and Anna’s words reinforced that thought.

“Alright.. umm.. i’ll book a flight right now.” Anna gave Y/N a sympathetic smile.

The topic switched to Anna’s life and questions about what’s happening back home, all while Y/N booked a flight back to her local airport for two days from now.

It was a one way ticket, she didn’t know when she would be back. Or if she would be back.

The confirmation email sent to her phone and it pinged to let her know it was there.

“Got it! I can’t wait to surprise my mom.”

“So excited for you to get here, baby cakes. Ugh-“ Y/N could hear kids yelling in the background. “gotta go, Ben just spilled juice all over Bran.” Anna rolled her eyes, blowing her best friend a kiss goodbye and then ending the call.

Y/N sat back against the lawn chair, staring at the pool and pretty garden and trees in her backyard.

A warm hand on her shoulder brought her out of her thoughts, making her jump slightly.

“Harry! You scared me!”

“You alright, bubba?” His tone was serious and concerned, looking down at her with his gently green eyes that forced her to say what she’s been wanting to say for a while, but she held herself back.

“‘course, do I not look alright, Harry?”

“You’ve just been a little, I dunno, tense.. recently.” He chose his words carefully, not wanting to upset his bubba.

“Tense?” Y/N let out a short laugh, staring back out at the blue pool water:

“Talk to me, darling, c’mon.” He stroked her arm, coming around to stand in front of her before dropping low, now she was looking down at him.

“I’m not tense, Harry. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You were crying, Y/N. I can see the tears stains and red eyes. Why were you crying?” A dreadful feeling took over him.

“Why am I crying? Why am I crying? It’s because of you, Harry! I’m crying cause of you! You’re not worth my tears, not anymore. Not when I don’t even know who you are anymore.” Her tone became more soft at the end, a broken whisper at the realization.

“Darling..” He cupped her face, a frown marring his features. “What did I do, hm? This about the hickeys? It won’t happen again, bubba.” His tone was gentle for her.

“It’s more than that. It’s about the whole thing. I can’t keep doing this.. this open relationship anymore, Harry. It’s hurting me, it’s been hurting me. You never noticed, that’s the thing Harry.” Harry gulped, the words slicing a knife through him.

“I thought you were okay with it, Y/N? You brought it up in the first place.”

“Because you would have cheated on me if I didn’t. At least with this I know you’re out with others. Not behind my back.”

“You think that lowly of me, pet? That I would cheat on you? Never, darling, never.”

“You yourself said you wanted to hookup with that woman from the club a few months ago, remember that, Harry? If I’m not enough for you anymore, just tell me. Because I will end this marriage if you don’t.”

“What? Y/N! You’re everything I ever need, baby. Well end this open relationship, you’re the only one for me. I promise.” Y/N shook her head, because the respect for herself was building, and this was step one to recovery. At this point, she knew she had to do this, to save herself from the inner turmoil, the disrespect she had granted on herself for letting this happen. It’s taken a toll on her mental health, and she had to this.

“No, Harry. What we’re ending is our marriage. If I was ever enough for you, you wouldn’t have wanted to be with anyone besides me. I’m leaving in two days. Leave me alone until then.” With that, she pushed Harry away from his kneeling position, and walked back into their house. It hurt to say the words, it hurt to make what she was dreading a reality. Harry stared brokenly at her, not knowing what to do to fix this, fix them, fix her.

#harry styles imagine #harry styles fluff #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles imagines #harry styles angst #harry styles blurb #harry styles fanfic #harry styles oneshot #harry styles sad

[thetypedwriter]

Cold Iron Heart Book Review

Cold Iron Heart by Melissa Marr Book Review 

I don’t think many people are aware or have read the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr, but that’s alright. I originally started this book blog as I had so many thoughts and feelings about the books I was reading and yet no one to share them with. 

So I might be talking to me, myself and I in this book review, but at the end of the day, it’s still a way for me to express how I feel about the literature I’m consuming even if no one else is reading this. 

Wicked Lovely is one of my favorite series from when I was young. I still remember very clearly how my love story with these books started as it was odd and coincidental. I was at the grocery store with my mom and a promised “quick” trip quickly turned into an hour-long shopping spree as my mother was prone to do. 

Back then I was in middle school, had no cell phone, and was bored out of my mind. So what is any pre-teen to do? I went over to the small, sad book selection in the grocery story and picked up the novel with the most interesting cover. 

This book was Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. 

I read it the rest of the day and finished it that night, consuming page after page. I was completely transfixed. It was dark, gritty, violent, sexy-all things that my twelve-year old self found entirely fascinating. 

It was a fantasy book about fairies, but these fairies were deadly, life-sized, cruel, violent, beautiful and loving. 

I’ve been enamored with fairies and fairy lore ever since. All because of this book and the series that followed. It hooked me in ways that I still don’t fully comprehend, but I understood then that I hadn’t read anything like it before and I was drawn into Melissa Marr’s world and never quite left it, even all these years later. I’ve gone back and re-read Wicked Lovely multiple times and each time I still found it enjoyable and alluring. 

Cold Iron Heart is a different beast. 

A few days ago, my best friend (who is a journalist) sent me an email saying that local Arizona author, Melissa Marr, was releasing a new book and that she might have the opportunity to interview her. 

I was ecstatic, of course, and not so subtly tried to persuade my friend to let me silently snoop in on the interview (I didn’t, by the way). 

It was then that I realized I hadn’t checked in on Melissa Marr for some time-what had she been writing? Imagine my surprise that one of my favorite series of all time not only had a new book-a prequel no less, but also several new short stories. 

I was flabbergasted. And beyond excited. 

So I ordered the book immediately and read it the moment it arrived on my doorstep to eventually find myself with...mixed feelings with a negative tinge. Okay, more than a tinge, more like a cascading waterfall of negative feelings. 

First off, the book is a prequel. 

Now. Melissa Marr could have done so many cool things with this. There are so many interesting characters that I would have loved to see more in depth or delve into their histories. 

Like Miach and Beira, for example. I’ve heard about the late Summer King since book 1, but never got to read about him as he was dead before the series began. However, his legendary love with Beira, the Winter Queen, would have been so incredibly bewitching to read about it, especially if it involved the birth of Keenan. 

This would have been an awesome choice. 

Irial and Niall would have been another incredible one, probably the best one. We’ve been told over and over again throughout the series that these two hot-heads with a past used to run the Dark Court together, wreaking havoc, taking lovers, seeking new heights, etc. 

But do we get to see this transfixing time? Nope. 

I would even have settled for a story about the Hunt, Sorcha and Bannanach, literally any character done in the right way. 

But...no. Melissa Marr decides to write a prequel that is literally a carbon copy of the first book Wicked Lovely, but innumerably worse. 

Everything in the prequel is exactly the same as the original novels. Miach is dead, Keenan is looking for his Summer Queen, the Winter Girl is pissed off for not being the chosen love of Keenan’s, Irial is temptation in the flesh, Niall and Irial are at odds, Bananach is causing discord, Sorcha is isolated and frigid, the list goes on and on. 

Nothing of consequence, novelty, or importance happens in this book. 

Frankly, it just felt like a terrible redo of the first novel, just set 100 years back. 

I didn’t give a single flying crap about Thelma or Tam or whatever her name was. She was a worse version of Leslie, of Aislinn, of every other cool female character we eventually get to read about in the main series. 

Thelma was contradictory in the worst of ways. She said one thing, like she would rely on no man and never have children and then turned around and did every single one of them like some sort of hypocrite galore. 

She was so irritating and boring to read about that I tended to skim her parts because it was just paragraph after paragraph of bitching and moaning about the same goddamn things over and over again: stay away from fairies, oh god this fairy likes me, no sex, no children, no love and then bam! She just throws it all away. 

Urgh. 

The worst part too is that this isn’t a well written book. It’s repetitive, quite boring at times, and caters way too much to the reader. 

Something I loved about the first Wicked Lovely is that Melissa Marr kinda just tosses you into her world and calls it a day. She doesn’t hold your hand or over explain. She just describes and lets you glean for yourself. 

I loved this aspect of the original series. I liked learning about her world and the characters this way. 

Cold Iron Heart spits on the idea of this concept. Marr repeats herself so much about the same things, who Irial is, what fairies are, why this is happening, that I grew increasingly irritated as the book went on. 

Who on earth is she explaining this for? New readers? Why in the world would any new reader start with this book? The newest one that comes after six others???? It makes no goddamn sense. 

So not only did I feel patronized and aggravated, but the love story between Thelma and Irial grated on me as there was no basis for their love. 

It was ridiculous with no shred of authenticity and I hated it, especially knowing that he already loves Niall and Leslie only to come back and say, “wait a moment! I had another true love that I’ve never mentioned before. Yeah. Her name was Thelma. Or Tam. Or whatever, I don’t know. I knew her for three days, most of which was just sex, and then I lost her after she had my baby but I conveniently forgot about it because of nonsensical plot! Hahahah, good right?”

No. Not good. Horrible. 

Overall, this book is a waste of time and trees. 

I don’t know why Melissa Marr even wrote and published this. I can see her writing this for herself because why not, but as a fan and a reader this was beyond disappointing. 

It’s like how all Harry Potter fans felt when J.K. Rowling wrote The Cursed Child and we got movies about Newt Scamander when we literally wanted anything else-Marauder series anyone??

It’s a particular kind of egregious offense when a favorite series or author of yours ends up ruining the canon you’re in love with. For that reason alone, I am stripping Cold Iron Heart from my heart and mind, like it never existed. 

Just like I did with Cursed Child, or the fact that you-know-who dies in Death Note (if you know, you know). I just...don’t believe it. It ruined all the lovely things Marr had previously written and the stories that defined so much of my love for YA, for fantasy, and for my own writing as a whole. 

I know for a lot of you this was a bumbling mess of a review with little to no clarity of the plot or who these characters are. Frankly, I’d be surprised if you are still reading if you didn’t know the book or the series in the first place, but that’s alright. 

Like I said at the beginning, this is a way to get my intense feelings and thoughts down onto paper and now that I have I feel marginally better, although still pissed off that this book exists and that I currently own it. 

Sigh. 

Well if you stuck around for the ride, I appreciate it. If you skipped this particular book review, I understand that too. 

Recommendation: Burn this book. However, if you want a gritty, tantalizing fantasy story, pick up the original Wicked Lovely and be whisked away into a world that has stuck with me since the first moment I read it on the fateful day at the grocery store. 

Score: 3/10

#cold iron heart #melissa marr #wicked lovely #book blog #books #book review #Book Recommendations #YA Book Review #ya book rec #booklover #3/10