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Masterpost of TLT metas

This is mostly for my own reference, as tagging doesn't seem to guarantee something being findable on Tumblr...but if you like wildly overthinking lesbian necromancers in space, enjoy!

Overthinking the Fifth House:

What is a "Speaker to the Dead"?

Actually, Magnus Quinn isn't terrible at sword fighting

Imperial complicity: Abigail the First

Pyschopomp: Abigail Pent and Hecate

Did Teacher conspire with Cytherea to kill the Fifth?

What does the Fifth House actually do?

The Fourth and the Fifth can never just be family

Cytherea's political observations at the anniversary dinner

Abigail Pent's affect: ghosts and autism

Were the Fourth wards of the Fifth?

Abigail probably knew most of the scions as children

Magnus Quinn's very understandable anger

Fifth House necromancy is not neat and tidy

Are Abigail and Magnus an exception to the exploitative nature of cavaliership?

"Abigail Pent literally brought her husband and look where that got her" (the Fifth in TUG)

The Fifth's relationship dynamic

The Fifth's relationship is unconventional in a number of ways

The queer-coding of Abigail and Magnus' relationship

Abigail and Palamedes, and knowing in the River

Was Isaac the ward of the Fifth?

Did Magnus manage to draw his sword before Cytherea killed him? (and why he probably had to watch his wife die)

How did Abigail know she was murdered by a Lyctor?

Fifth House necromancy is straight out of the Odyssey

The politics of the anniversary dinner (and further thoughts)

Was Magnus born outside of the Dominicus system?

Overthinking John Gaius:

The one time John was happy was playing Jesus

Is Alecto's body made from John's?

Are there atheists in the Nine Houses?

Why isn't John's daughter a necromancer?

The horrors of love go both ways: why John could have asked Alecto 'what have you done to me?'

Why M- may have really hoped John was on drugs

What is it with guys called Jo(h)n and getting disintegrated? (John and Dr Manhattan)

John's conference call with his CIA handlers

Watching your friend turn into an eldritch horror

Why does G1deon look so weird? (Jod regrew him from an arm)

When is a friendship bracelet not a friendship bracelet?

Why did John have G1deon hunt Harrow? (with bonus update)

The 'indelible' sin of Lyctorhood and John's shoddy plagiarism of Catholicism

Are John Gaius and Abigail Pent so different?

What was Jod's plan at Canaan House?

John and Ianthe tread the Eightfold path

The Mithraeum is more than a joke about cows

When was John Gaius born? (And another)

John Gaius and the tragic Orestes

John and Jesus writing sins in the sand

John and Nona's echoing chapters

John's motivations

Is Alecto just as guilty as John?

John's cult (and what he might have done to them)

The horror of Jod

Did John get bloodsweat before he became god?

Some very silly thoughts about John and Abigail arguing about academia

Overthinking the Nine Houses:

'No retainers, no attendants, no domestics'

Funerary customs and the violence of John's silence

Juno Zeta and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time

The horror of the River bubble

Every instance of 'is this how it happens' in HTN

Feudalism is still shitty even if you make it queer and sex positive

How do stele work?

Thought crime in the Nine Houses

The Houses have a population the size of Canada

What must it be like to fight the Houses?

You know what can't have been fun? Merv wing's megatruck on Varun day...

Augustine's very Catholic hobby (decorating skeletons)

Necromancers are not thin in a conventionally attractive way

Matching the Houses with the planets of the solar system (though perhaps the Fourth *is* on Saturn)

Why don't the Nine Houses have (consistent) vaccination or varifocals?

How would the Houses react to the deaths at Canaan House?

How does Wake understand her own name (languages over 10,000 years)

What pre-resurrection texts are known in the Houses?

Camilla and Palamedes very Platonic relationship (further thoughts)

The horrors the Cohort found at Canaan House

Do the Houses understand the tech keeping them alive?

The scions from an external perspective (sci fi baddies)

Cav cots

The Nine Houses and feudalism

The horrors of early necromantic education

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

It's Crazy About ORV hours (once more)

listen i'm actually collecting this stuff now, and i've started using polls because wow some of them are spot on. cheers to me. dedicated to @chocolatemalt (my darling you've been summoned) and @yeetsintotheabyss (hi! it's indeed our orv audience)

link to part 1, part 2, part 3 and a webweave i made out of story snippets that is yoo joonghyuk centric

also, poll images 1,2, poll image 3, poll image 4,5, poll image 6,7

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

kazehaya is so funny he’s so anguished over the fact that sawako thinks of him as a person who is kind to everyone when he just wants to make it clear that his treatment of her is blatant favouritism

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

Gloves yvy

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

happy new year!

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

Shenanigans

she sawing on my chain till i. man [INCORRECT BUZZER]

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

So chapter 59 is out on mangadex which means I’m no longer relying on machine translation and can point this out without worrying that I have the context entirely wrong. Now… Shirahama’s great with panelling, composition, body language… well everything really but she uses them with a lot of purpose.

I invite you to go through Olruggio and Qifrey’s part of chapter 59 and check

1) when are they in the same panel, and when aren’t they?

2) when they’re in the same panel, how often do they face each other? and if they are, do we see the speaker’s face?

3) when do the shifts happen?

you’re welcome.

actually, lemme just gush about the switches in composition - the chapter starts tensely, with qifrey and olruggio set apart by lighting, panel breaks, angle. qifrey’s got his “uh oh” side to the camera. and then olruggio shatters the mood by getting flustered and passionate about what he thinks is going on and whilst qifrey is baffled, it brings them into the same space for a bit.

and… then… 

the two panels on the left there are a single image, split by a panel break. it’s got dual purposes - it’s a good pacing tool for the length of Olruggio’s speech and makes the page look nice (I love how she keeps the bubbles flowing in her work - it’s very clear here, right and down!). it also… separates qifrey from olruggio right at an incredibly pointed shift in their conversation.

whilst olruggio is clearly speaking from some sort of experience re: getting teased for having matching accessories ruining some kind of budding romance (tassel swap? please) they are still very much talking about coco and tartar up until right here. if it wasn’t for the masterful composition it wouldn’t be as obvious that, once again, they’ve shifted into talking about themselves through the veil of talking about their charges (see: chapter 18 and the scalewolf convo). once again, olruggio is trying to subtly extend a hand - implying he’s realised something is up that qifrey isn’t telling him… and qifrey very firmly doesn’t take it. 

and… god. him being alone in this rather large panel and cast so much into shadow… that it seems to be olruggio’s perspective… god damn man.

and you know… like… tell me this isnt the face of a man who knows qifrey’s talking about himself. and olruggio. i mean shit, do we know how well that memory spell even worked? he remembered that they were talking about something important!! does he know know?! anyway this has been agonising since this chapter was published sldkfjg

edit: wait also - qifrey’s rebuffing doesn’t have much to go off in the facial expression department where as oru is all expression because once again olruggio is an open book and qifrey glued all the pages together on purpose.

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

I love agott sm. She just a funky little lesbian and to her dismay everyone calls her out for being gay.

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

Happy pride to all wlws (witches loving witches)

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

We talk a lot about consent, and that’s a good thing. We talk a lot about autonomy, and that’s a good thing. We talk a lot about privacy, and that’s a good thing.

But we talk mostly about all of that in respect to sex, and relationships, and it’s important to remember this applies to other things, too.

If someone says, “don’t tell anyone I got this new job,” and you then tell people, you’ve violated their consent, their privacy, and their autonomy.

If a friend says, “I don’t like it when people touch my hair,” and you keep touching their hair, you have violated their consent, their autonomy, and their privacy.

If a coworker asks you not to tease them about their new boyfriend, even if it seems like gentle and friendly fun to you, and you do it, you’ve violated their consent, their autonomy, and their privacy.

People remember these things, and they hurt. Not as much as sexual assault, obviously. But those small violations of your wishes, those instances of disrespect, still hurt, and they can add up.

Consent doesn’t just apply to sex. Respect the wishes of others.

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

Y’know what? Fuck you. *Plays an acoustic guitar version of your leitmotif to show you still have tenderness and care in your heart, and compassion for others*

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

Double points if Xie lian is also the really kind upperclassman from when Hua cheng was in elementary school who saved him when he fell out of a tree and shielded him from bullies and who he still has a secret crush on but lost track of after Highschool (despite relentless searching and internet scouring)

Modern AU where HuaLian first meeting is playing musical chairs at a company party and they’re the last two standing. When the music ends, HC snags the last seat but in XL’s haste to win, he ends up plopping right onto HC’s lap-

And then the chair breaks.

XL trying to get up but ends up falling back down and flattening HC to the ground-

HC is the company CEO and XL is there because SQX invited him as a guest. Really, XL is a nobody who just happened to help himself to HC’s lap like it’s free real estate.

The second hand embarrassment is real 😭 even SQX has to look away and cringe.

Everyone thinks HC will blow up, but honestly, he is just shocked that the one guy he thought was cute is now sprawled on his lap and oh- the guy’s hair smells nice-!!

XL immediately stands up and grabs HC hand to lift him up as well - with a surprising amount of strength at that. HC’s heart definitely fluttered.

In response to XL’s apologies, HC smiles and tightens his grip on XL’s hand.

“Gege can make it up by keeping me company on the balcony. Does that sound okay?”

A bit winded, XL nods with flushed cheeks. He allows himself to be pulled away from the chaos - and the broken chair depicting a scandalous crime scene - caused the second his ass made contact with CEO Hua’s thighs.

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

I think the little puff they always do is so cute

Double puff, just to be safe.

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

I get my media recommendations the old fashioned way: by watching someone I follow on here go on an unhinged reblog spree of media related content until I eventually decide to go "alright, what's all this then"

[cactusjuiceisquenchy]

POSTING THIS AGAIN!!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!!