#I'm... so sorry for what I did to Ann and Carmen

[kiaroscuro]

Warnings: descriptions of violence, major character death

Rating: Mature

Main Pairing: Ren Amamiya / Arsene

Main Tags: post-canon, zombie au, angst, hurt / comfort, road trips

Warning: mentioned MCD (not only Mona this time!)

· · ─────── =^.^= ─────── · ·

Tokyo as a whole is just so full of people -- Ren and Arsene take to the train tracks again, but now that they're past the danger-zone of random flash-floods, everywhere they look, there's people: little communities living side by side, some turning into larger settlements, some forming loose alliances with each other. It's fascinating, to see how many survivors there are just wandering between wards and districts as well, when Ren's been counting them in the single digits for most of their travels before they reached some invisible-seeming border near Shizuoka, and the population started to pick up again.

Ren thinks that the number of people could easily reach Nagoya's settlement, or whatever numbers Tsu-Aki has now, and they're just barely halfway-through Bunkyo. It seems to be a fine line they're walking, between being large groups of the living and large groups of the mutated. The landscape of Tokyo is both familiar and not, many of the buildings broken apart or overrun by nature, green flashing between all of the urban areas, sometimes making Ren gag with the phantom-memory of Takuto. They'd started their journey at dawn with hope in their hearts, and by the time they finally spied the Sunshine 60 skyscraper from Toshima station, it's past noon and Ren's got his gun drawn because around every corner, the meandering footfalls of infected can be heard. They grabbed a pamphlet with information about their goal before continuing onwards, Arsene leafing through it between calmer moments.

It's as nerve-wracking as his days near Osaka had been, where the dead had outnumbered the living by too much to count, and both he and Arsene are tense, this close to their goal. They take out large clusters of mutated on their path, until they start reaching barricades and stakes that are clearly man-made. Ren eyes them suspiciously, noticing the faint agi spells that made the fires flicker on some of them, and carefully walks past them with Arsene, more alert for area-of-effect spells now. Not even the angels had warded their settlement like this...

Though, it is possible that we've simply missed the wards due to how quickly we were noticed. These support spells stretch much further.

Mh. Ren agrees, nimbly stepping around debris that seemed to be placed there on purpose. They're quickly approaching the skyscraper, dodging around around lingering spells and obstacles as if they were in a palace, and it doesn't take them that much longer before they arrive around a corner after which seems to be a stone wall, revealing itself as molten rock and metal fused together, with chicken wire secured on top, about twice as high as Ren. Spikes out of wood and metal both are placed before the wall, and there's a few spaces that might be lookout posts, and Ren has to take a step back to take in the whole structure that turned Sunshine City into a palace.

"...god," Ren exhales, suddenly and inexplicably longing for their little hotel room back in Nagatsugawa. The grip on his handgun tightens, and they glance at each other.

A white flag might just be a good idea, Arsene surmises, glancing down at himself; he's threatening-looking on the best of days, and today's not one of those. "Maybe." Ren agrees. "We have some leftover bandages, right?"

"Oui," Arsene murmurs, quickly magicking them out of one of their shoulder-bags, before he frowns and glances around for something stick-like. They find something that looks like a discarded arrow, quickly turning it into a makeshift flag, before Arsene sticks it out as far around the corner as he can. When nothing fires at it, they carefully step around as well, walking over to one of the little lookouts while constantly waving the bandages. Ren tries calling out, not too loudly, and then--

a head pops out of the lookout, pale lilac hair and a red eye the only thing Ren can make out. "Hello!" The stranger calls out, a shotgun dangling between her fingers as she leans further forward. That's as clear a warning as Ren's ever seen. Arsene frowns, next to him. "Are you guys friendly?"

"Yeah!" Ren calls back. "We're looking for-- Futaba Sakura! We're family! Is she with you?"

She blinks, clearly taken aback, before eyeing them over anew. "...right. What're your names, and more importantly: are you wounded?"

"Amamiya Ren and Arsene Lupin, and we art not! Only superficial scratches!"

She eyes them over, frowning, and Ren knows they look a sight. "...are you a shadow or a persona? And my name's -Erina, by the way," Erina introduced herself, pausing oddly over her name.

"A persona!" Arsene calls back, and Erina's shoulders slump in relief. She tells them that they have follow the barricade around the next corner where one of the entrances is located and they do after her hair disappears from the lookout. Once by the door, they're led through what seems to be a repurposed container unit with multiple windows. A voice tells them to "Wait there!" Some kind of shadow going by Arsene's bristling feathers, and then Erina slips into the room. She's wearing something that looks like it might be a cosplay military coat, fingerless gloves, a red skirt and combat boots rounding out her outfit, looking every inch a fighter. She's smiling at them, thinly.

"Let the mu shuwuu and fuu-ki run a diagnostic and seal your skills for now," she says, and Ren tenses up because that would leave them effectively defenseless.

"Thou've had bad experiences in the past?" Arsene asks, the faint green glow of a navigator-type spell falling over him (and Ren, to a lesser extent). It makes all of the wounds that Arsene's sustained more visible for a blinding moment.

"You could say that," Erina says, dryly. She shifts around, and Ren notices that the eye he assumed hidden by her hair simply... wasn't. "A woman, her child and a barong had arrived a few weeks ago; they claimed to only be 'scratched' and we let them in--"

(Ren flinches.)

"-- needless to say, we lost three people and a shadow that day; one of our best nurses at that." Erina finishes.

He doesn't object to them sealing their abilities anymore.

Once that's over and done with, they're allowed out of the container and into the Sunshine City proper: three skyscrapers with ---

Ren barely has any time to inspect everything, though, because a familiar presence settles at the back of his mind, a soft "Welcome back, leader-unit," echoing through Arsene and him before someone tackles him. Instincts snap into place, and Ren hugs back Futaba even while she's burrowing into his neck with a hiccoughing cry of "Ren!"

"Oh," Ren says, overwhelmed, before he blinks back tears and starts to buckle, strength suddenly leaving him. Necronomicon's tentacles curl around his middle and soften his fall into a controlled sink to the ground-- right, that was Necronomicon's voice earlier--

Arsene's moving towards other approaching figures, four of them, out-of-focus to his blurry vision but distinctly familiar, and they're surrounding the persona and touching him before they double in numbers, and Ren's awash with the phantom-feeling of the hugs of his team while everyone somehow starts piling around him and Arsene.

He's crying now, earnest, a tension leaving him that's been with him ever since the whole world went up in flames, and he hugs Futaba back even fiercer and squeezes his eyes shut when he feels Ryuji's hands on his shoulder and Haru's comforting weight at his back. "...we're back," Ren murmurs, amazed.

"You-- you made it-!" Futaba wails. "I can't believe you, you reckless idiot--"

"Yeah," Ren says, softly. He gets tugged to the side and against Yusuke, and now Makoto's hand is on his shoulder, and Futaba's not let go of him. Ren is buoyed in joy, happy, when he catches a snippet of conversation from the persona, still keyed into their broadband:

--Carm en?

She'sgo ne, mate. Sacri ficedhe rs elf.

__

Its flavor is distinctly alien because Necronomicon isn't filtering their conversation properly, having forgotten that it had greeted Ren earlier, the mental 'language' much more melodious than one would assume. Ren's used to it after a whole year of thieving, though, and he freezes up, softly detangling himself from Futaba.

"...where's Ann?" He asks, grief already settling into his bones.

The others are silent for a heart-rending moment. "Dead," Makoto says, eyes squeezed shut as if in pain. Ren stares at her in disbelief. "Before-- before we had the barricades... in the beginning. A big group of survivors..." She trails off. Yusuke picks up:

"If it weren't for Panther, myself and twenty-one people would be dead. Carmen erected a wall of flames that burned for hours, both of them on the other side of the conflict." He takes a rattling breath. "...in the end, they burned themselves out, along with over fifty infected. She always believed you would reach us in the end." Yusuke finishes with, and Ren stares, ears ringing, a hand coming up to his collar unconsciously as he looks over to Arsene, whose own grief is trailing down in golden streaks over his mask. Goemon and Kidd have their eyes averted, while Milady is still, and even Necronomicon's dropped lower.

"Oh," Ren says, at a loss for words. Haru sees where he's touching, but even before she can say anything, Ren nods. "Morgana, too. He... his body was so small. It couldn't fight the fever. I-- held him, and then we buried him, and--" Grief chokes up his words. "My parents didn't even-- they didn't even make it out of our hometown, and. And-- I didn't know if we could make it, but sometimes. It was the only thing keeping me going, and I--" he stops, unable to continue as they hug him tighter, the persona also coming closer to the pile, and Ren lets his grief and terror over the past half-year wash over him, tries to forget that a year ago at roughly this time he'd been spending his last few months in Tokyo before leaving for Hasetsu, his friends having just gotten him out of juvie.

"You're-- here now," Futaba says, voice teary. "We're here, you're here, we're all-- all together now, so everything's going to be-- okay. Just you see, Joker, everything's gonna be okay."

First << >> Epiloge

[almostfoxglove]

Hi Freya! I was wondering if you have any book recs or authors that have influenced your writing?

hi friend!! omg :,) I'm so sorry in advance for the yapping that's about to go down because I could talk about this for... days. weeks. years. millenniums. thank you so much for this ?? omg <3

some writers & books I love

📚 - literary fiction 🌟 - speculative 👻 - spook/horror 💕 - romance 😭 - heart go ouch ✏️ - memoir ☠️ - might contain dark / triggering content

I-will-die-with-these-in-my-hands

our wives under the sea by julia armfield 📚🌟👻😭

betty by tiffany mcdaniel 📚😭☠️

why did I ever by mary robison 📚😭

truth & beauty by ann patchett ✏️😭 (but really anything by her)

warm bodies by isaac marion (I will not be taking questions at this time, yes the movie was bad but the man cooked okay) 👻💕

writers I'd take a bullet for even an ounce of their talent (in no particular order)

lauren groff

joan didion

mona awad

carmen maria machado

julia armfield

sophie mackintosh

daisy johnson

ocean vuong

james baldwin

shirley jackson

roxane gay

karen russell

bel hooks

special mentions/recs

greenwood by michael christie 📚

the days of abandonment by elena ferrante 📚😭

next year for sure by zoey leigh peterson 📚💕

the book of form and emptiness by ruth ozeki 📚🌟😭

seven days in june by tia williams💕😭

the only good indians by stephan graham jones 📚👻

never let me go by kazuo ishiguro 📚🌟😭

motherthing by ainslie hogarth 👻

manhunt by gretchen felker-martin 👻☠️

whoever you are, honey by olivia gatwood 📚🌟

how it works out by myriam lacroix 📚🌟

it lasts forever and then it's over by anne de marcken 📚🌟

through the woods by emily carroll 👻

in the dream house by carmen maria machado ✏️😭☠️

there are no doubt are 100 that I am missing in this moment but these are what immediately comes to mind!! as a yapper and ex-bookshop employee I could do this all day long :,) if you ever read anything on here (or have already) I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS, even if you hate(d) them - I just like chatting about boooooooks <3 ILY PAL

[pacifymebby]

Do you have any fave LGBTQ+ literature, tv, movies, content creators?

Okay so I'm still trying really hard to find queer books that I like because beyond Allen Ginsburg in college we weren't taught any LGBTQ+ authors/poets (except Carol Ann Duffy but the only thing I'd recommend about her work is to stay away because I hate it haha)(I probably hate it because of school tbh, sorry Carol) so anyway yeah, when it comes to this I've had to do all the searching myself and I don't really know how well I've done.

But for books:

🍂 Orlando / Virginia Woolf

I kind of can't believe Virginia Woolf wasn't on my other recommendations because The Waves is one of my favourite books (again I think you have to have a lot of patience but it is beautiful) and this one is brilliant too. A man wakes up in a woman's body and gender roles are revealed to be a little bit silly.

🍂 Thérèse and Isabelle / Violet Leduc

Erotic novella about two girls at boarding school, low-key spoke to me as a bi girl who kind of started realising her bisexuality when exploring sexuality was sort of thrust upon me by female friends at school I guess. It's just a good example of feminine sexuality and desire written by someone who knows.

🍂 Chelsea Girls / Eileen Myles

I'm very into Eileen Myles as a poet and these stories are so so so so so fucking good too!!!!

🍂 In The Dream House / Carmen María Machado

I got into this because it's what Google recs when you finish The Dangers of Smoking in Bed / Mariana Enriquez and honestly, I didn't enjoy it as much but it was still amazing. It's gothic horror af but also a really important work on abusive relationships within the queer community which the author has personal experience of and thinks isn't spoken about enough. Its really haunting, did fuck me up a bit but ultimately in a good way. But be careful because it does chronical abuse and that can be upsetting.

🍂 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous/ Ocean Vuong

Another one where I love their poetry and think they can do no wrong tbh, I haven't finished this yet (I keep getting distracted but don't be put off by that I'm just really easily distracted!!) And I think it's wonderful idk. It's also written in quite a cool style which is always a bonus I find.

🍂 Our Wives Under the Sea / Julia Armfield

I actually only read this because I read an essay on the Exorcist and body horror by the author where she talks about her experience with having a cyst that had to be operated on twice. The essay was so stunning that I was like damn, gonna have to read that book everyone's talking about now and bestie, was worth it. The books class also.

🍂 Sister Outsider / Audre Lorde

I just think everyone should read Audre Lorde, Audre Lorde should have been on the curriculum instead of endless Simon Armitage idk. I read this and Your Silence Will Not Protect You as a 19 year old and they changed the course of my life idk.

🍂 Communion / bell hookes

Read this and broke up with my shitty ex boyfriend. It's not entirely about lesbianism but more kind of, love in general, platonic, romantic, what it really means to love. She talks about the feminist choice to choose lesbianism which was a phenomenon in the 70s and also discusses a lot to do with how misogyny impacts womens ability to love and be loved. It was a really important read for me, made all the more important because when I picked up the book my boyfriend ripped into her name and tried to be like lol what would you read her for...and then I read it and was like oh HE'S the problem.

Poetry:

🐇Howl / Allen Ginsburg

I know he's problematic but for me Howl was the prototype, the first massive poem I read and loved as an adult, the first one where language really sounded musical to me, the first poem I heard that Hurt. If you can you should listen to the YouTube of him reading it in San Francisco,that's amazing.

I also really like A Supermarket in California.

🐇 Sappho

Just all of it I guess, I think we're all eventually pushed towards Sappho and for good reason.

🐇Emily Dickinson

Read her letters to Sue, Open Me Carefully. I read these one summer between school years and I think they changed me. Her poetry in general is wonderful, some of it occasionally comes off as very old fashioned (shock horror our girl was born in the 1800s) but there's much to savour there. Also apparently there's a TV series about her life on Apple TV, I don't have Apple TV though so I haven't seen it.

As for TV and movies I don't think I have anything at all. I don't watch a lot of TV and I mostly only watch the same 5 old man movies on repeat. I think books have always been my thing, I can concentrate on reading in a way I can't concentrate on TV and also just the fact you can put your book in your pocket and get it out on the bus, in the staff room, at school, at the pub when you're waiting for your pals etc... I was always a headphones and books gal so I don't really have any recs for TV. Sorry :/

EDIT: Kill Your Darlings!!!! As in the movie, if you're into the beats you should watch it, it's very good and a real insight into what was in reality a pretty nasty little scene.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

To mod: Rank the designs of the Persona 5 party personas including Arsene and the ultimate personas! (Please?)

//Sure! I honestly really wanted to do this but I didn't know how I could. But since we've been talking about Persona a lot here, I guess this is good.

//I promise I will prioritize Danganronpa content though for those who are concerned, it's just nice to take a break from the norm every once in a while.

//So here it is, from worst to best:

#33: Prometheus It's just a ball with weird patterns on it. I'm not even sure what it's supposed to represent. Is it like, a moon or a planet or something? It's just a weird "upgrade" from Futaba's initial Persona.

#32: Pithos Similarly, Pithos is just a bunch of boxes. Interesting and unique on it's own, but still weird.

#31: Pandora Sorry, but Pandora just looks really stupid to me. I do think it's somewhat cool in how it evolves from Pithos, but the curvy body looks really weird with the blocky head and wings. The awakening scene was great though.

#30: Zorro He looks goofy, though I think that's the point, since he's Morgana's initial Persona. The other two that he gets look SO much better though.

#29: Seiten Taisei A bit of a strange change from Captain Kidd and honestly a bit of a downgrade. And Ryuji wonders why everyone calls him a vulgar ape, lol.

#28: Al Azif Definitely an upgrade from Prometheus, since it actually has a cool design, and I do like it, but I still can't say that it's better than Futaba's initial Persona.

#27: Necronomicon Speaking of...Futaba's best Persona is easily her initial one, but she still falls short of every other design. Don't get me wrong, I like it a lot, but I feel like she just gets the most out-of-pocket designs and it doesn't get much better as she progresses. It's still cool though.

#26: Agnes Agnes is definitely pretty awesome, but I also feel like it's design is a little TOO extra. Plus, given how much I loved Anat's transformer gimmick, I was sad to see Makoto lose that.

#25: Satanael It pains me to rank this beast so low, but I'm not taking Satanael's pure scale into account, because he retains it for the fight against the God of Control and nowhere else. If I was, he'd be higher. He's still raw af, but compared to Joker's other two Persona's, I think he's the weakest.

#24: Ella Ella is basically just Cendrillon but super pale and luminescent, and wearing a wedding dress; and I honestly don't like it as much as the other two forms her power takes. This was a tough one to rank though because I definitely like it, despite all that.

#23: Goemon Goemon's design honestly is pretty silly looking, especially with the weird curvy jaw and pompadour, but for some reason, I really like it. I think Yusuke's initial awakening may play a part though, and I did get attached to Goemon throughout my playthrough's.

#22: Loki Honestly, with how much I like Akechi, I was expecting to put Loki higher, but then I realized that of his three known Persona's, it's probably his most simple in terms of design. Definitely fitting for his character, and definitely super cool in it's own right, but as Ann points out in the Thieves Den, it kind of looks like Loki from the Marvel Comics got fused with a Zebra.

#21: Diego Yeah, maybe it looks a bit more extra, but I think in this case, it works. It adds a lot that Zorro's initial design was missing, and I really like the change of colour. That said, it's still only Morgana's second best Persona.

#20: Carmen I never quite realized just how much I love Ann's Persona's. All three of them have super unique designs that share similar themes, but also don't copy too much from one another. Carmen is the worst of the three in my opinion, but she's still a total stand-out.

#19: Captain Kidd Again, expected this one to be higher, because Captain Kidd is definitely among my top picks for initial Persona's, and he was easily my favourite of the initial party members.

#18: William Though I hate it's name, because it just sounds super weird for Ryuji to have a Persona with such a proper name, William is the rawest design that he has under his belt. I don't know what it is, but taking the skeletal aspects of Captain Kidd and turning them into a real modern punk is interesting and cool to me.

#17: Milady Milady gets points for not only being just a really cool designed Persona compared to a lot of the initial roster, but also the machine guns hidden in the dress thing will never get old for me.

#16: Astarte Initially, I had Astarte underneath Milady because it loses the gun dress when evolving; but then I realized that Astarte's design is just hella cool on it's own, and I really REALLY like the imagery and proportions of it, as strange as they are.

#15: Lucy Hey! All three of Haru's Persona's next to each other! With Lucy though, I really just think that's is a better Milady. Yeah, it's not as colourful, but it definitely has a more "Phantom-esque" look to her now. Plus, she gets the gun dress back, so that's a bonus.

#14: Mercurius My biggest issue with Mercurius is that we only get to see him in action for what is basically the final dungeon of the base game. And even in Royal, he gets replaced by Diego almost immediately after, so unless you have Mona in your party for the fight against Cendrillon, Yaldabaoth is basically the only time you get to see him in action. Which is a shame because he's EASILY Morgana's best Persona design, and one of the best in the game.

#13: Arsene To this day, Arsene is still the best starting Persona that any of the Persona protags have gotten, and I really REALLY wish he was stronger by default, and that there was a benefit to having him around for more than a few levels.

#12: Valjean The one Persona that Zenkichi has is able to stand out amongst the best; and his super raw awakening really helps with this. The origin story is fascinating, especially in the way it matches Zenkichi's own situation, and it's a damn near perfect specimen to represent the old man's sense of justice.

#11: Cendrillon First time I saw this design, I freaked out because I thought it was gorgeous. And I like that in a few ways, it mirrors the colours of Arsene while also having Sumire's own little aspects to it. Plus, the whole concept of it representing the side of Kasumi that Sumire aspires to be is a very unique way to create a Persona.

#10: Johanna I HAD to put the bike in the top 10, especially since it's one of the things that made me fall for Makoto so hard originally. It is EASILY the most unique concept that a Persona has done EVER, and the fact that it went to the super prim and proper student council president of all people was so funny to me.

#9: Gorokichi Again, it's design is ridiculous, but the flashy colours and more standing-straight figure really does a good job at showing what the Stage 3 Persona's are supposed to be - the true power of the user. And Gorokichi is about as "Yusuke" as you can get.

#8: Vanadis Vanadis is Sumire's best Persona because it's such a far cry from what you expect, and it represents a lot more to her than you see on the surface. The colours mimic Arsene a lot, at least from my perspective, and the fact that it's predominantly black and red symbolizes what could be a hidden rage and a burning passion, which we have seen Sumire show on only rare occasions.

#7: Celestine Celestine rocks the exact kind of punk-girl drip that I live for, and the fact that it drops all of the mythical and mysterious crap that Carmen and Hecate had, to show off Ann's true self, is fantastic. Of all the third tier Persona's, it's probably the best one to show off the user's true, unhidden strength, besides Gorokichi at least.

#6: Kamu Susano-o Though Gorokichi means a lot more to me, Kamu Susano-o exudes an aura of power, destruction and anarchy that few of the party Persona's are able to match. With the third tier Persona's all being gods of some shape or form, this one is by far the most godly-looking.

#5: Robin Hood I don't know why it is I'm so attached to Robin Hood, but I think it may be it goes against every preconception of how Robin Hood in mythology should look; as well as how well it fits with Akechi's princely facade and, in his own words, how it serves as his conception of a man who sticks to his justice.

#4: Raoul Yes, we're counting Raoul, because he's got way too much swagger to overlook. Being what is technically Joker's Tier 3 Persona, he, like the others, really works with just showing off, from appearance alone, just how cool Joker really is. You take one look at that fedora-wearing, metallic-winged demon, and you know you're in good hands.

#3: Hecate Hecate's design is fire as fuck (pun not intended) and there's not much else I can say about it, other than the pure savagery it exudes. It makes me glad that this is the design that I spent most of the game with, with Ann being one of the earliest unlockable party confidants and one of the easiest completed, because as much as I love Celestine and Carmen, this one just oozes style.

#2: Hereward Hereward is the perfect fusion of Robin Hood and Loki, and is the best Tier 3 Persona in the game. Again, it suffers from the same issue as Mercurius, because not only do you have to pick a very specific set of dialogue options for Akechi to even UNLOCK it, but you can only do so at the FINAL BATTLE and nowhere else. But it's absolutely worth it because this dark hero is the perfect representation of my favourite character in the game.

#1: Anat. Again, like I said before, the transformer aspect is EVERYTHING to me. The animations are clean, the design is sleek, the origin is awesome, and to top it all off, my already favourite girl gets this. I was wondering initially how the game was going to top the motorcycle, and I was not disappointed when I saw how. Hands down my top pick, even though Hereward is a very close second.

-Mod

[paperbaacks]

ahh!! my first tag game on here, this is so fun :D thank you for tagging me @books-and-strawberry-tea <33

okay okay, here we go!

Amaryllis (pride) — What’s a book you don’t ever plan on reading, no matter how many times it gets recommended to you?

the obvious answer is anything by colleen hoover... but if we want to get a little bit more specific, it's fourth wing. sorry that is never ever happening i'm afraid.

Anemone (death) — What’s a book that got you into a “reading slump”?

just like mother by anne heltzel. it was just... not good. and it frustrated me to no end.

Azalea (renewal) — Name a book that got you out of a “reading slump”.

a study in drowning by ava reid!! it was so rich and atmospheric, the writing was excellent. everything about that book kept me HOOKED

Begonia (beware) — What’s a book you would never recommend?

my dark vanessa by kate elizabeth russell. it's literally one of my favourite books EVERRR but it deals with dark topics in such a visceral and intimate way, i would not feel comfortable recommending it to anyone.

Calla (beauty) — What’s your favorite book cover?

current favs include -

Carnation (love) — What’s the book that made you fall in love with reading?

this is so niche but it's called "ten" by shamini flint. i remember getting it from my school's library when i was like 12 and being OBSESSED with it for days. it really made me want to read more and more just to chase that high!

Chrysanthemum (friendship) — Name a book that depicts your favorite friendship.

rin and kitay from the poppy war by rf kuang. that series fucked me up so bad but this friendship is written SO SO SO SO WELL!!!

Daffodil (hope and rebirth) — What’s a book you turn to when you need comfort?

heartstopper series my beloved <33

Daisy (innocence and purity) — What was your favorite book as a child?

exclusively aesop's fables, i LOVED that shit so much!

Dandelion (resilience and strength) — Name one banned book that you read and enjoyed.

i guess the da vinci code by dan brown?? idk if it's still banned but i know the catholic church was mad when this came out and banned it from vatican/italy i believe

Eryngium (admiration) — Who is your favorite author?

rf kuang!!! i need to be her best friend so bad

Forget-me-not (true love and remembrance) — What’s a book you have always loved?

the perks of being a wallflower <33 this book has such a special place in my heart. it's a shame ezra miller turned out the way they did because i love that movie a lot too!

Forsythia (anticipation) — Name a new book release that you are most looking forward to.

katabasis by rf kuang! it's coming out in august next year and someone i know got an exclusive chapter sampler (one of FIFTEEN) so i'm completely fine guys, everything is great :)))

Gardenia (secret love) — What is a book that’s your guilty pleasure?

divergent by veronica roth 100% you can pry that series out of my cold dead hands and even then i might put up a fight. i have imprinted on that series and it has imprinted on me

Gloxinia (love at first sight) — Name a book you read just because you liked the cover.

the pumpkin spice café and the cinnamon bun book store, both by laurie gilmore. they were okay books but the covers are literally so cute and cosy and autumnal!!

Pink Larkspur (fickleness) — Name a book that you have mixed feelings about.

the invisible life of addie larue by ve schwab. on the one hand, i love that book with all my heart, on the other hand, i've seen the critiques that other people have offered about it and agree with them for the most part too. it's just bias, i suppose

Red Tulip (eternal love) — Name a book that you will never stop recommending.

in the dream house by carmen maria machado. SUCH a good book!!

anyone, i barely have people to tag 😭 (need more friends on here!!) so feel free to do this if you want to and tag me because i wanna read your answers too <33 i'm also going to tag @seekerreads tho!

Here's me doing my own tag game.

Amaryllis (pride) — What’s a book you don’t ever plan on reading, no matter how many times it gets recommended to you?

IT by Stephen King. I've liked some of Stephen King's books before, but this one is way too long for me and I'm not even that interested in the plot.

Anemone (death) — What’s a book that got you into a “reading slump”?

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White. I just did not like the style of humor, plus there were certain elements about the worldbuilding that felt out of place to me (it was the hot dogs and finger guns that did me in).

Azalea (renewal) — Name a book that got you out of a “reading slump”.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was fun, short, and easy to read, which made it the perfect book to encourage me to get into reading again.

Begonia (beware) — What’s a book you would never recommend? 

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers. Sorry, not sorry.

Calla (beauty) — What’s your favorite book cover?

It's always hard for me to choose a favorite anything, but I really like the cover for Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism. It's made to look like a VHS tape cover, which I love.

Carnation (love) — What’s the book that made you fall in love with reading?

I think it might have been the Junie B. Jones books. I just remember reading those a lot. They were special to me because they're some of the first books I read once I learned how to speak and read in English.

Chrysanthemum (friendship) — Name a book that depicts your favorite friendship.

I wouldn't say it's my favorite friendship, but I really love the friendship dynamics between Holmes and Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Daffodil (hope and rebirth) — What’s a book you turn to when you need comfort?

The Peculiar Children books, specifically A Map of Days; I have a lot of good childhood memories associated with those books.

Daisy (innocence and purity) — What was your favorite book as a child?

I don't remember the name of the books, but it was a series of books about a mouse detective (he wears green) who solves...mysteries. The book that I remember most vividly was involved a goth mouse family (who I'm pretty sure were supposed to be the mice version of the Addams Family) and the goth mouse parents had a baby that they named Baby. Yeah. I adored those books.

Dandelion (resilience and strength) — Name one banned book that you read and enjoyed.

Sula by Toni Morrison.

Eryngium (admiration) — Who is your favorite author?

Agatha Christie for two reasons. The first reason is that she's the author whose works I've read the most of. The second reason is that I mostly read her books when I was in middle school, so she's a bit nostalgic to me.

Forget-me-not (true love and remembrance) — What’s a book you have always loved?

This was the hardest question for me. Anyway, The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen.

Forsythia (anticipation) — Name a new book release that you are most looking forward to.

Don't have one :/ all of the new releases I was looking forward to already came out this year.

Gardenia (secret love) — What is a book that’s your guilty pleasure?

Don't have one. Yet.

Gloxinia (love at first sight) — Name a book you read just because you liked the cover.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell.

Pink Larkspur (fickleness) — Name a book that you have mixed feelings about.

Misery by Stephen King. I'm always going back and forth on whether or not I enjoyed this one. I liked the build-up, sure, but the ending felt like it dragged on. One thing I don't have mixed feelings about regarding this book is that the movie was better.

Red Tulip (eternal love) — Name a book that you will never stop recommending.

...I don't have one yet lol. Maybe Sula by Toni Morrison.

Anyway, I'm tagging @lexreadsdiversely @books-and-strawberry-tea and anyone else who wants to participate.

[symphonic-scream]

Yes, 100%

:D

Everyone has a pet that has the name of their persona (cause I'm sentimental) like. Morgana is just Akira's emotional support cat but he also has a little red bird names Arsene. Goro has two mice named Robin Hood and Loki, and Futaba has a ferret named Necronomicon

In the quad apartment there's Carmen the cat, Goemon the turtle, and Captain Kidd the snake

As for Makoto and Haru, there's M'Lady the large rabbit and Johanna the doberman. Hifumi doesn't have a pet yet, but maybe one day

The Okumura-Niijima apartment is right above the bakery and cafe, but they made sure to add an entrance at the back so they don't have to work through the shop front to get home (Makoto sometimes has an overwhelming day at her placements. Sometimes Haru's relapsing into her caged mindset. They wanted a safe route in and out without crowds)

M'Lady sometimes spends Haru's time working the cafe with her. They made a little throne for her at the far side of the counter. Regular customers like to bring her little veggies to snack on

Makoto is training Johanna to work as an EMA. She wants to give her future patients as much comfort as possible, like being able to offer sessions with her and her dog. It's a work in progress, she got the idea when she met Joker (and Morgana) for the first time

I have stories for everyone meeting Joker too so. Let me know if you want those

Hifumi is at first dumbfounded when she discovers Makoto is trans. Akira had told her one of the wives were and based on how they present themselves, she assumed it was Haru. She and Makoto have many long talks about how they define femininity and such. For Makoto, it's in her spirit of rebellion. Being a woman to her is refusing to conform, not to accept the hand she's dealt but to stand up and push for what she wants

And for Haru, it's more like a comfort. She's always felt, protected by her own inner view of the world. She sees her own femininity as like, frills and fluff and treating herself. Inner love. They balance each other well

Makoto: I notice you hunch a lot. Is your height something that makes you feel a little dysphoric?

Hifumi: ah, I suppose so. I'm taller than both you and Haru, and Akira too...

Makoto: I have a solution for that. Want to feel short? You should visit our other friends' place. They're all tall there

Haru: she's right! Ann and Yusuke are both, very tall!

There's lots of conversations about gender and sexuality between Hifumi and all the thieves, about how they found themselves and tips they have for being queer. Some are, awkwardly personal

Hifumi: did you. Have your surgeries yet?

Makoto: ...it's 9 am I'm- I'm not talking about this that early I'm sorry

Haru: just a tip, you don't have to have any to be trans! You can have one, or the other, both or none! Gender and sex are personal to you, don't let anyone else dictate your experience

Makoto is red in the face and sipping at iced water trying to ignore the Convo (it's the one topic she's nervous about. Only because she doesn't like hospitals.)

Hifumi: why do you guys have two spare rooms anyways? For family?

Makoto: oh, no

Haru: can you keep a secret? Don't tell Akira or the others, but... We're thinking of having a baby

Hifumi: ...am I your test run for parenthood?

Makoto: no, don't be silly. That was when we took care of Futaba when they were fighting with the boys

Haru's father isn't a fan of her relationship with Makoto, but he accepted he has no say in whether they're together or not and stays out of their hair. He's, working on being supportive. It's taking him time to learn

Sae on the other hand has been Makoto's number one advocate for years. She helped her sister find herself back when Makoto was just in middle school, and even set her up at a vastly different highschool to start fresh

Goro is horribly awkward around anyone but Akira or Futaba. He's. Like a stick. It freaks Hifumi out at first

Just. Hifumi experiences all sorts of love too. Seeing her friends who found their forever people, platonic love, the sort of familial love she forms with Makoto and Haru-

I have many many thoughts please keep talking to me about this I'm,

Also. Help me find a name for this au so I can make a tag for it! Send me suggestions

[catherinesboleyn]

hi! love your edits to bits and pieces first of all <3 secondly, I'm thinking of creating playlists for henry's six wives, what songs do you associate with each of them?

thank you so much!! A LOT of these songs are by taylor swift so i hope that’s okay!! anyone feel free to add to this if you want.

catherine of aragon: better than revenge by ts, cardigan by ts, clean by ts, haunted by ts, look what you made me do by ts, mad woman by ts, happiness by ts, mr perfectly fine by ts, you’re not sorry by ts, we were happy by ts, traitor by olivia rodrigo, all too well 10 minute version by ts, writer in the dark by lorde, old money by lana del rey, fine china by lana del rey, without me by halsey, more by halsey, you all over me by ts, when we were young by adele, tolerate it by ts, she’s got you by patsy cline

anne boleyn: exile by ts, i did something bad by ts, my tears ricochet by ts, peace by ts, wonderland by ts, i know places by ts, false god by ts, in my feelings by lana del rey, white horse by ts, forever & always by ts, good 4 u by olivia rodrigo, driver’s license by olivia rodrigo, favorite crime by olivia rodrigo, the tradition by halsey, darling by halsey, i am not a woman i’m a god by halsey, sad beautiful tragic by ts, nothing new by ts, babe by ts, i bet you think about me by ts, the story of us by ts, castle by halsey, national anthem by lana del rey, sad girl by lana del rey, money power glory by lana del rey, fucked my way up to the top by lana del rey, the other woman by lana del rey, homewrecker by marina and the diamonds, starring role by marina and the diamonds, special death by mirah, take me to church by hozier

jane seymour: innocent by ts, king of my heart by ts, willow by ts, marjorie by ts, everything has changed by ts, run by ts

anne of cleves: the 1 by ts, this is why we can’t have nice things by ts, right where you left me by ts, don’t you by ts, enough for you by olivia rodrigo, the lucky one by ts

katherine howard: dress by ts, dear john by ts, illicit affairs by ts, mirrorball by ts, ivy by ts, treacherous by ts, carmen by lana del rey, seventeen by marina and the diamonds, primadonna by marina and the diamonds

katherine parr: evermore by ts