#( For the Bookshelf ): Reference

[ofliterarynature]

A pic of my tbr shelves at the start of 2025, to hold myself accountable 😄

[campgender]

Whenever a player safewords, this is an occasion for mutual support. We understand that nobody safewords from a happy place, and that all of our egos feel frail and kind of runty when we need to back out of a scene. It is completely unethical to respond with scorn or ridicule to a person who has safeworded: S/M is not a competition, we are not playing against each other.

As tops, we have noticed that if we are having a good time and our bottom safewords, our initial feelings may not be happy. Whaddaya mean you don't like that? I do all this work and you don't appreciate it? I'm hot for being in control and you want me to stop? We have felt real anger and felt challenged in our top role... and, on a deeper level, we have felt put down, hurt and rejected. It is okay to have these feelings. It is not okay to act on them. Take three deep breaths and everybody start taking care of each other.

Sometimes bottoms get so deeply engaged in a scene that they fail to safeword, or forget, or so profoundly believe in the fantasy that it doesn't occur to them: many of the techniques we play with, like interrogation, function in the real world to undermine volition. Dossie remembers a scene in which a top offered her a choice of something or other: "I felt very confused. Some distant part of me vaguely remembered having made choices, but the response from my state of consciousness at that time was, Choose? I am not a thing that chooses." So then what is the top's responsibility?

If a bottom does not safeword and you don't pick up on what's going on, and this will happen if you play long enough and well enough, there is no blame. However, it is still your responsibility to monitor for physical safety as best you can. As ethical tops we make a commitment to never knowingly harm our bottoms. To this end we check in regularly to make sure that things are going the way we think they are, and we constantly monitor the physical and emotional safety of our bottoms. If a bottom is beyond safewording, and you as the top feel unsure about how far you should go, it is your responsibility to slow down or stop the scene and get into communication with the bottom to make sure you have informed consent. If you have to bring the bottom back into reality to do this, please remember that you helped get them into that altered state in the first place, so presumably you can help get them back there again as soon as you are sure of what's going on.

And just because someone safeworded doesn't mean that the scene has to be over. There may be times when the problem that brought either of you to safeword is so overwhelming that carrying on doesn't feel like the right thing right now - but most often we find that after we've dealt with whatever the difficulty is, we're still terrifically turned on, with the added bonus of a shared intimacy.

from The New Topping Book (2003) by Dossie Easton & Janet W. Hardy

(note: the authors use ‘top’ & ‘bottom’ in the historical S/M sense, meaning ‘person performing the act’ & ‘person receiving the act’; the act in question is not necessarily penetration.)

[pigeonflavouredcake]

I turned an old shoebox into a shelf for my main grimoire reference books

[iminyourbookshelf]

Grace, the goddess of chaos and rage... and a guy

[eyepatchdate]

Do you think some Mikado citizens ever figured out they could get their original works published as long as they threw King Aquila in there somewhere? And how much of it was actually fanfiction about Aquila, Mikado's state-designated blorbo? It'd be really funny if Aquila also got "and he'll return in Mikado's darkest hour" like King Arthur. Like technically he did!

@thonkphonk

OK......... THE FAERIE QUEENE IS AN INTEREST OF MINE. I read Books 3 and 4 for a class called 'Violence and Romance in Renaissance Literature'. We spent a lot of time on it, because iirc the only other thing we read in the class at all was some Shakespeare. So it was actually mostly a class on the Faerie Queen books 3 and 4 lol (and all of my papers were on the Faerie Queene instead of Shakespeare lol).

The whole deal with the Faerie Queene is that the titular Queene is the goal of King Arthur's quest, and yet Arthur himself only has cameos in the stories because he is the 'main plot' where all the books have different main characters (and focuses on elaborating on various virtues that each main knight upholds--Arthur is the perfect knight, who extols all virtues, whereas all the characters in the books exist to define specific virtues--ex: Britomart represents Chastity, Artegall represents Justice, etc). And Spenser never actually finished the Faerie Queene, which is why Arthur's quest never gets full attention.

To apply this to SMTIV would be extremely fun.

Absolutely I could see so many stories about King Aquila's times. Especially since Mikado is trapped in this sort of medieval stone-age ('holy times' as viewed by angels) so its not even like stories about Aquila would be dated, it would be so easy to write stories of modern times with Aquila present. Or, even easier, would be his inclusion in these 'fairy-stories' the Luxurors know.

Aquila means so much to people despite having lived so long ago, I would assume his knights are known the same way Arthur's are (with people inventing new knights all the time, as with Arthurian legends as well). So people would toss Aquila into all this often while writing their own stories about the various knights (with a focus on those knights because, like Arthur's presentation in the Faerie Queene, Aquila would be the 'perfect' character, meaning that the stories are more interesting if they can be about the flaws of the others).

But 100% Aquila would always come in to save the day, or to approve of the resolution the story reaches, etc. I am so on board with that idea.

That being said, this would mean the angels likely erase much of this when they take over Mikado, Aquila' name remains on the Obelisk, but his statue is destroyed, so I imagine many of these books are just straight up burned. A few would survive though, less objectionable ones,but the angels hate the influence Aquila still has on the people, and how he is still venerated.

Also you are SO RIGHT about the 'once and future' thing. Like. This has no support in the game because the game is so nebulous about Nanashi's birth, but I do somewhat theorize he was born in Mikado? He's literally just found in Sky Tower, so I'm like, okay was he born there and brought down somehow? I would KILL to know anything about this because like. Ok, they found a baby. How did they find him? In the hands of a demon, dead humans, or just like, on the ground? Hello? Can I have some information please?

But I've always assumed Nanashi was born in Mikado and then SOMETHING was a reason for him to be carried below, and then discovered. Because like. we don't even know why the HUNTERS were in Sky Tower--most people knew about Medusa back then and wouldn't want to go, and people even assume Medusa works for Tayama (which is false--I theorize she worked for Akira but that isn't confirmed anywhere). but if people just assumed the Sky Tower was controlled by the Ashura-kai, I don't know why anyone would approach--they KNOW Medusa kills everyone up there.

and Nanashi of course is randomly discovered after Medusa is there, he's only born well after Akira establishes Mikado, so the Hunters have long-withdrawn from Sky Tower and like. what. is happening.

But yeah a prophecy about Aquila's return and somehow that also including the need for Nanashi to go below rather than above, there's some sect of people somewhere that know something, this is just, one of those many holes left open in the SMTIV world. so we are free to make theories and headcanons and I am so with it.

Thank you for sending this, this was so fun omg. I went on a bit of a ramble.

[orathearsonman]

popping the biggest bottles AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 🍾 🍾 🍾 🎉🥳👏🎊🎊🙌🍾🎉🙌🥳🎉🎉🎉🙌🥳🎈🙌🙌🎉🥳🥳🙌🥳🍾🙌‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

my friend brought me out! to! Barnes & nobles! and!!!!!!!! she is SO SO SO CUTE OH MY GOD

AND THE TITLE IS IN FOIL???? WAGHSBSHSHDHHSGH?!!??????? HOLY SHIT

LOOK AT THESE PANELS SHE IS SO SILLY…. crying rn…

AUGSHSHGSGHH ,,,,,,,!!?!?!,!!;!,!

agdn the tesilid book one cameo HE LOOKS SO TRAGIC LETSGOOOOOOO EVAPORATING RN

[piningpercussionist]

I feel like Kim and Roxie would have a cat that's an absolute fucking bitch to everyone but them and I felt like you needed to know this

(I should be revising rn and I'm thinking about this bitchass roxipine cat the brainrot is real)

Oh my god... just like my cat for real.....

(The bastard herself; I tried to find photos where she looked upset/angry but there are. So fucking many photos of her to parse through I cannot understate.)

Anyway. Y e s. I am ascribing to this.

[cultivating-wildflowers]

shelf update:

The general consensus was to keep my system as-is, so this is currently my odds-and-ends shelf. Two bottom shelves are TBR, middle is the true misfits, and two upper are my pretty antique books. These shelves are shallower than the ones they replaced, so I have less room for knick-knacks, which is a pity. But they open up the room a bit.

[emmajh97-mumaji]

My Tarot + Oracle Decks 🔮🃏🎴

Dreams of Gaia - Pocket Edition

Golden Wheel

Holographic

Marvel

This Might Hurt

Mystical Manga

Oppositions

Spiral

Whispers of Lord Ganesha (Oracle)

MuMaJi's OCs (Hand-made Oracle)

Bicycle - Pink Edition (Playing Cards; which can still be used for Divination!)

Wanted to make an updated easy-reference post for anyone who wanted to ask me for Tarot readings and such (less cluttered than my original post on the subject)

Mystical Manga is still my favorite and go-to deck. I'd say Spiral or Marvel are my least favorites, as of now.

[nabaath-areng]

I'm unlikely to ever finish this (+ haven't been physically able to draw since january) so i'll just post it as is <3

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 479

Rules of the Game: The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of All the Major Sports of the World

Diagram Group

St. Martin’s Press 1990

This is a weird book, even for me, but it fits with my fondness for odd reference books. I’m convinced that one day it’ll be useful. Someday, I’m going to want to know what the hell shinty is, and how it’s played. Or bandy. Or korfball. Or the difference between rounders and softball. Or pool and English billiards. Apparently, Canadian 5-pin bowling is a thing. So is canoe polo. Or maybe I’m going to want to know how to tell a good synchronized swimming performance from a bad one. You never know. But I have the book for that day.

[abbaswift]

life is so hard for a reader who dislikes the penguin classics covers

[diantheia]

Oh no! I'm about to escape this angry psycho entity using these code pieces I found around the library! Someone better stop me!

[melit0n]

One thing I absolutely adore is when people call inanimate objects 'she' or 'he' or 'they', especially when talking about things they hold dear.

Like someone could say "I love her so much. She whines a lot when we gotta do something, especially if it's important, but she's a good one; been with me for 10 years." and they're literally talking about their laptop or their guitar they've had since they were fifteen. They've got so much love and affection seeping out of their pores that they personify things they like and that's so beautifully human to me

[rozecrest]

this is a great song