#I CAN FINALLY PUT IT OUT I LITERALLY FORGOT IT WAS TECHNICALLY DONE

[bugdogg]

i forgot to SHARE THE MIZUKI RELIGIOUS AU REF

they have two knives underneath the gown, they summon demons and generally cause problems for both heaven and hell. they think it's fun and they're also bitter towards any higher power, they're just an oblivious ass honestly (wow! thats out of character... sorta..)

they summon demon oso and basically just fuck around and cause horrible disasters with him. i imagine oso is actually still related to kara, ichi, and totty in this as they're alive and still apart of a church. Jyushi is still an angel, hellbent on fixing all the demon bs and has to kill Mizuki.

Zuki is basically a horror movie geek and based everything off they do and wear off movies or scary internet stuff, they got lucky when they found the book that can summon demons and basically do it as a hobby. They rarely use other people's blood for summoning, they use their own which is why they're hands are always bandaged. they have killed people before but from their own words "its excessive and super messy, and most people aren't willing to part with their blood, y'know."

i also had the idea that Akita is a demon, a powerful one that satan (i thought maybe totoko for satan but it's more cause i think she's capable of ruling over hell, idk if that fits sorry) sends over to also kill Mizuki. She at some point may start working together with Jyushi to finish the job but i haven't thought that far ahead yet >w>'

anyway summary: Mizuki is a stupid little cultist who isn't 100% sure what they're doing but is doing it successfully anyway, and is just a massive nuisance

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I changed my name because people are overusing the nickname privilege?

2 years ago, I (29, transmasculine) changed my name. For the sake of this ask, since I don't want to use my real name, a decent equivalent is James, so I'll be using that instead.

I originally told my mom and my roommate/close friend (Alex, 29, agender) I was okay with the nickname Jamie, but I'd prefer to mostly be called James, especially when it comes to people I don't know well.

I tried to set this boundary because the nickname feels a little feminine, even if it's technically gender neutral. I don't pass very often, so it makes me uncomfortable to think people who don't know me might misunderstand, and think I am simply a woman with a gender neutral nickname. So I envisioned Jamie being reserved for the people closest to me because of that.

Both my mom and Alex opted to call me Jamie immediately. They introduced me to friends, family members, and even strangers as Jamie, put my name in their phone as Jamie. My mom sends me packages addressed to "Jamie [lastname]". Just the other day, Alex's grandma sent us chocolates in the mail and the note inside said "Merry Christmas Alex and Jamie!" and I am not close to her by any means, I am positive Alex must have told her that's my name. Just tons and tons of little things like that.

It took me a while to catch on - at first I thought people simply decided to call me Jamie on their own, or heard Alex or my mom talk to me and figured it was okay. I'm autistic, so it takes a while to figure out the best way to approach a problem involving social skills. I didn't want to immediately jump in and say "hey, don't call me that, you don't know me well enough," because I think that's a bit callous. And I thought I was dealing with just a few acquaintances - not literally everyone Alex or my mom talks to.

I confronted both of them about a year ago, when I finally put it together. They said they're not intentionally disregarding my feelings, but "Jamie suits you so much more" so they forget and it just slips out.

(I could be wrong, but I think this is probably because Jamie can be a girl's name and I still look like a girl. So, yeah, of course they'd feel that way.)

I begged them to stop and call me James if they're talking to people about me. My mom promptly "forgot" again. Alex has gotten better about it, but still slips up. Even if they were perfect, I feel like the damage is done after 2 years of this.

To further complicate things, Alex actively avoids using pronouns to refer to people in speech. They will say things like "I've been told that the flight was canceled" instead of "he said he canceled the flight". This is due to anxiety because they're not great at remembering pronouns & doesn't want to accidentally misgender anyone. So there is a lot of general confusion about my pronouns amongst the groups that are connected to Alex. (I don't really use social media, so informing people of my pronouns is more complicated than just putting them in my bio and calling it a day. I've asked Alex to please just say he/him, but they're so resistant and weird about it because of their irrational fears, which...honestly just feels transphobic now).

Now I've started to ask them to drop the nickname entirely, even privately. Call me James and nothing else forever. Jamie has been thoroughly ruined for me, I just feel nauseous when I see or hear it. But at this point, since I lost my job & most of my social network is through Alex, everyone calls me Jamie, and it's exhausting to correct them over and over when it's such a small, seemingly pedantic thing. I don't mind a little confrontation or advocating for myself, but this...this is beyond what I can handle without getting severely stressed out.

So I've been considering changing my name to something else that doesn't have such a common gender neutral/feminine nickname. Just start over. Reset.

But this would be the third time I've changed my name. The first time was like 6 years ago, and it only lasted a few months before I decided it didn't fit, and went back to using my deadname while I figured myself out. My family remembers this well, and 2 years ago when I told them I go by James now, expressed their frustration because I "keep changing things and it's confusing". I'm worried that if I change my name again, nobody will bother to take it seriously, they'll just assume I'll change it again, so why bother using the correct name at all.

Plus I do see how it could be considered petty or immature. It took years to settle on the name I have now. I put a ton of thought into it. I used to love it. I might be TA for letting something as unimportant as an overused nickname sway me to the point where I feel like I need to throw the whole name away.

I mean, I understand why younger trans people might do that, since they have less of their life established and are figuring out who they are, but I'm nearly 30, so I feel like I am getting too old for this. It's just tiring.

Idk, I probably won't make any decisions based on the results of this, but the feedback would be helpful to consider. WIBTA?

What are these acronyms?

[mando-abs]

I just need y’all to know that I met Din Djarin at Disney World over a week ago.

Y’all

I was not prepared for how polite and sweet he was. Like, y’all don’t undertsand. I’m STILL thinking about that. Do NOT fall for his tough guy persona he puts up for his job. That man is without a doubt all soft under that armor.

I’ll put my experience under the cut but I do want to say many thanks to the wonderful friend of Din Djarin that greeted me that day. Cast members rock and he was no exception.

The Technical Stuff:

Okay, so beforehand, I searched online when was the best to see him and how since Din doesn’t have a set meet and greet in the parks. Din and Grogu typically come out of a literal hole in the wall on the far end of the marketplace (coming in the marketplace from the First Order side of the land) and they make their way through the market. Also, since this is a different meet and greet, how to approach them is different than usual meets. Din chooses who to interact with, and it’s never a guarantee if you will get picked. The best chance of getting picked??? Get there early. On the day I visited, I checked the My Disney Experience App to see they made appearances on the hour from official opening (so like 8:30 AM) until 3:00 PM. (And Disney is always punctual so you can guarantee that)

If you read all of that and were thinking “this is way too tedious to see one of the most popular characters” you would be correct. But I don’t make the rules, and I was very desperate to meet him.

Before Meeting The Mandalorian:

At about 10 minutes before he was scheduled to arrive, I was met by a lovely young lady who was already waiting for her man (I know I fellow Din lover when I see one). She confirmed the information I mentioned above because my family just didn’t believe me when I said I knew what I was doing. Because of this, I sat just behind her in hopes that she got picked first because she called first dibs lol.

After 10 minutes, Din came strutting out with Grogu in sling and handlers in tow. At this point, I was loosing hold of my facial expressions. I’m pretty sure I looked like

I don’t think I’d been that excited to meet a character at Disney since Aurora and Mulan when I was a little girl.

The handlers made sure there was enough space for Din and Grogu as suddenly, in the short span of time it took for Din to walk up, there was a small crowd forming and people calling over that the Mandalorian had arrived. The lady who arrived before me was called up first and she had her moment with Din and Grogu. Very happy for her. And then there was another before me. And then it was my turn :0)

The Actual Meet:

When I stood beside Din Djarin he immediately commented on my Mandalorian shirt (yes I wore a Din focus shirt in hopes I’d get picked, don’t look at me). He motioned to my shirt and said (all of this is approximate btw) “Your allegiance is appreciated.” And I want to say he shook my hand? He was shaking a lot of hands. Like I said, he was polite! Anyways I was like, “Of course!” And then I went into a short spiel about how his and Grogu’s stories have traveled across the stars and how much they meant to me (super cheesy I know, but let me have my moment). But y’all. His response??? The softest, “Thanks☺️”

I almost died. Melted on the spot. And his body language was kinda like “aw shucks ☺️☺️☺️” (as close as a mandalorian can get to that). The worms in my brain will hold onto that one for a while.

Finally we took a picture, and when all was said and done, he turned to me, nodded, and said the ever famous line, “This is the way.”

Grogu:

Grogu was not in the picture during this interaction. 😂😂😂 I’m ashamed to say that I totally forgot about him. He was very quiet!!! And he was on the other side and I wasn’t about to stare past a man’s hip. I like to think he was in his own little baby world during the whole meet.

[armory-rasa]

Thorin boot caps, start to finish

I’d made the pattern for his boot caps available in my shop, but unlike my other pattern packages, it didn’t come with instructions on how to make them. So, here is me fixing that with a quick step-by-step tutorial. :)

Step one, print your pattern, trace it out (twice) onto 10 oz veg-tan:

(The reason that leather is an odd shape is because it was a discarded panel from the Witcher armor. Waste not, want not, I suppose. 🤣)

Cut it out; you can use a utility knife or an exacto knife for this:

Case it, aka dunk it in water a bit until it softens up:

Then you’ll probably want to put it in a plastic bag or something overnight, so that the water can evenly permeate the leather. I wrote a whooooooole big thing on proper casing that’s much too long to retread here, but is worth a read if you’re trying to git gud at leather tooling.

When the leather is well cased, take a stylus (or a ballpoint pen) and trace the design from your pattern piece. The leather should darken where you’ve indented it, an effect called burnishing, that makes your traced design very easy to see:

(And if your design isn’t burnishing well, that’s usually a tip-off that your leather is still much too wet.)

The next step is to use a swivel knife to go over all the lines you traced. I actually forgot to take a picture of this step, but digging around on my computer turned up a very old WIP photo from the same project, showing the carved lines next to the traced lines:

If you haven’t used a swivel knife before, I strongly advise doing a lot of practice on scrap leather before you attempt it on your project -- it’s unintuitive for people who aren’t used to it, and in my opinion it is one of the hardest leatherworking tools to master. On the plus side: this project is entirely straight lines, which makes it much easier.

Once you’ve got your cutlines made, you are going to bevel every single one of them -- outward from the design, inward from the edges of the piece.

It looks kind of complicated at a glance, but technically speaking it’s very simple, since all you’re doing is bevelling. You can do almost the entire thing with a single stamp, a wide checkered beveller (Craftool B971, if you’re buying from Tandy Leather), and switch to a narrower beveller (what’s shown here is a Barry King tool; the closest Craftool equivalent would probably be B936) for getting into a couple of tight crannies.

When your tooling is done, you’ll want to put some texturing on the overall piece, because that will make it look better when it comes time to paint it. I have a mallet I made for exactly this purpose, a cheapo rubber mallet that I pockmarked with a dremel, but you can literally just go outside and find a rock for this step:

Take a rivet hole punch (~2 mm) and punch the holes as shown: 

(Or punch different holes -- this is going to be how you attach them to your shoes, and there are a lot of different ways you could go about that.)

Take your edge beveller and round off the sharp square edges (you’ll do this on both the top side and the underside), as shown below:

Punch stitching holes as shown. If you don’t have one of these punches, you can poke the holes with with an awl instead, it’ll just be slower.

Take your knife again and carefully cut at a 45 degree angle from the top of your stitching holes to the edge of the leather. This is what is going to allow them to come together to form a tidy right angle:

Mark the lines where it’s going to fold, and do something similar there. The key is that we’re removing material to make it easier to bend the leather, and make for sharper angles in the folds.

Time to dye! For this (and other armor pieces that get gilded afterward) I use Eco-Flo Waterstain in black. Leave the angled edges you cut undyed, because that will help them adhere better when it comes time to glue:

And before you leave them to dry, pre-fold them into the final shape you want -- it will put less strain on the glue, and folding leather after it’s dry can cause it to crack.

When the dye is dry, apply contact cement to the angled edges:

Wait 15~20 minutes for the contact cement to set, and then firmly press the edges together, being careful to have them correctly aligned before you do. (Because you only get one shot with contact cement, and if you set it crooked, you’ll have to pry them apart, scrub the glue off, and try again.)

Time to stitch up the corners, because glue is almost never meant to be the ONLY thing holding leather together. Start like so, with 12″ of waxed black thread and two blunt needles:

And then you just kinda.... sew up the line. I’m not sure how to explain it, just stick needles in holes in a way that makes sense.

From the outside:

From the inside:

Then tie off a knot with your loose ends, and clip them down to like 3/4″. With the tie-off at the top rather than the bottom, it’s not likely to come loose because there’s no strain being put on it at that point.

Then, because those glued-together edges are currently very ugly, you’ll want to take them down with some sandpaper, or a knife if you’ve got a steady hand. I use the sanding drum on a dremel, to make them level and smooth them out:

And then you’ll need to hit those edges with another quick coat of the black dye, and buff them smooth, which I also forgot to take a picture of. Fortunately this step is easy: edges are undyed, so dye them.

Very last step is to put the metal color on them. In all the reference pics they look like a very muddy bronze, and I found a great mimic for that in Rub n Buff’s “Spanish Copper.”

It’s very simple to apply, you just coat your finger with a very small amount of it, and then dab/rub it lightly over your surface. It gilds the raised areas without getting into the crevices, which does a brilliant job bringing out the textural detail in your work.

That said, if you don’t have that product and don’t want to acquire it, you can dry-brush it with your acrylic paint of choice.

And then you’re done -- le voila, Thorin boot caps!

[marvel-noms]

What's the most embarrassing moment when Peter got swallowed by Tony? (And can we get a short story?)

of course! Bare with me I’m rusty-

Peter couldn’t believe it. Out of all the battles, all the times he tripped in school this was literally the worst thing that had ever happened to him. He stifles a groan squeezing his eyes shut as he dangled in the open air. For the fifth time he wriggled against the webs his scowling deepening when it didn’t give.

Mr. Stark had of course shrunk him for a later snack, which he promptly snuck away from to work on his edible webs. IT was sorta going to be a surprise for the genius considering the man times he had been subjected to the odd taste of his normal webs. It should’ve worked, it really should’ve but instead it just stuck to the ceiling and made him slowly spin in circles. After this he was so done swinging for awhile

He wasn’t sure how long it had been, but he finally caved after the sticky solution managed to get wrapped around his body. “Friday?”

“Yes Peter?”

“Can you um...can you tell Mr. Stark that I need help?” He mumbles his cheeks going red. He felt ridiculous and probably looked the part dangling in the air like an abandoned sticky hand on the ceiling. “of course, Peter, Boss is on his way now.”

a few moments later the genius came in, looking around and slowly moving forward like he was afraid he’d accidentally step on Peter. The teen lets a small snort of amusement out, well until Tony’s eyes flicked upwards a chuckle drawing out from the man.

“H-hey! Don’t laugh! and before you judge this is totally your fault.” Peter sputters, his blush worsening when the webbing made him slowly face away from the man. “How is this my fault? I’m pretty sure I didn’t stick you to the ceiling.” Despite everything Peter couldn’t help but to relax at the sound of his mentor’s voice.

There was some noise before the sound of repulsers reached his ears, hands cupping around him, surrounding him in blissful warmth. “The webs- I made them special for you but they’re all wrong and made me stick too much.” He pouts, relaxing into the feeling of solidness. the webbing above him snapped as his mentor pulled him down to his chest. It was a welcoming move considering how long he had been dangling in open air.

“Why special webs for me? are they easier to clean off my ceiling you little gremlin?” Tony prompts, Peter’s insides swooping at the feeling of slowly descending down to the ground. Stupid tower with stupidly tall ceilings.

“Well, kinda? They’re edible so they basically should dissolve like cotton candy when they’re in contact saliva.” He snuggles into his mentor’s chest, relishing the feeling of heat he forgot how nice being held could be.

When he didn’t get a reply, he looks up, not too surprised to see that hungry glint in his mentor’s eyes. He was supposed to already be tucked snugly away inside the genius. Hell, if Tony hadn’t gotten distracted, he would’ve already been down. Before he could process being lifted up to the genius’s face the warm slimy muscle dragged over him, a hum of approval sounding out.

“Mr-Mr Stark!  A little warning next time!” He squeaks out, glaring up at his mentor. All he got in return was a soft chuckle and an amused looked. “What? You can’t tell me you basically make candy webs and not expect me to sneak a taste~”

Another squeal escapes him when the tongue dragged over him again, targeting the strands around his waist more than anything. “Hey! Warning Mr. Stark! come on!”

“Fine fine, but seriously kid good job on the flavor. Loving the raspberry undertones.”

Peter rolls his eyes, crossing his arms as his mentor’s mouth opens wide in front of him, the muscle twitching eagerly as he’s brought to the opening. A few weeks ago, he would be putting up a fuss or at the very least be squirmy but now it was a familiar sight. “This technically wasn’t a warning.” He grins watching his mentor pause for a moment and sigh. The action causing a rush of warmth to wash over him.

“Warning.”

And with that he was popped into the genius’s mouth. HE rolls his eyes patting the muscle under him as it made sure his limbs were out of the way. The light fading as the man closes his mouth, the soft clack of teeth sealing him from the outside world. “Now you’re being the smart ass!”

He grins as he’s gently pushed around, saliva pooling around him more than usual. Huh he never really took Mr. Stark as a raspberry sort of guy. He winces when he’s pressed against the roof of his mentor’s mouth, a loud swallow sounding from all around him as the excess saliva is swallowed down. Man Mr. Stark was taking a lot longer than usual. Normally the man was more than eager to get him down, something about the instinct only being quiet when the person was actually in the stomach.

He let himself be tasted, not minding to much as the muscle poked and swished him around. Maybe it was the webs, which was probably it. He smiles a bit and shoves at the tongue to get his mentors attention. “So, are you gonna eating me or am I just like a piece of candy for now?”

He waits for an answer, laughing when finally, everything started to tilt his feet sliding back towards the man’s throat. he could barely see in the dark, but he knew what was coming. There was an intake of breath from all around him before a loud swallow pulled him down. It was tight and felt weird but at the same time the motion was familiar and almost comforting.

Before he knew it his feet hit open air for a brief moment before he plopped inside of the stomach. A loud growl sounded from the organ as the stomach walls pulsed against him, sorta like an odd greeting if he was being honest. “Ah, that hits the spot.”

Peter grins at the comment, laughing when a fond pat accompanied the statement. “Mr. Stark!” his laughter only growing when his mentor chuckled with him. Okay maybe getting tangled up wasn’t the worst thing to happen.

“Get comfortable Spider baby, I’ve got science to do.”

Peter hums in acknowledgment, leaning into the plush flesh. He lets a soft sigh out, focusing on the way everything seemed to sway with the genius’s stride. It was weird how normal this had become. Sure, it was still a little weird but overall, it had become an odd sort of comfort.

“M’ comfy, do your weird projects.”

Peter stretches out, smiling as the organ follows his movements. It wasn’t all bad he supposed. He was just glad that he had sorta got used to the whole thing. He sighs and just relaxes listening to the steady heartbeat and the soft sound of air rushing in and out of his mentor’s lungs.

Not bad at all.

[princesseevee06]

would love to know more about ytr ranmaru!

absolutely! ranmaru is my fave sopping wet dog /j

i talked about him a liiiittle bit in that one kurumada post i did, so i’m just gonna briefly go over those points so everything is conveniently in one post

basically ranmaru’s parents are both detectives, and so ranmaru knows a lot about the business (as well as feeling pressured to take it up himself :,) ). kurumada becomes sort of like a mentor figure to him, but in their first trial together ranmaru ultimately snaps under the pressure and ends up getting kurumada killed so that he can survive

ironically, this guilt ends up primarily being what motivates his survival instinct (which is both a good and a bad thing 😭), because he feels like if he has to carry the weight of kurumada’s death bc he wanted to survive, he has to get out so that the whole thing wasn’t meaningless

in the beginning of the death game, he tries to take charge a lot because he has ~experience~ with crime, and ends up mostly working with ryoko and sara because they’re kind, reliable figures. he actually…doesn’t end up liking most of the other cast 😭 whether that be he finds them suspicious or just Straight Up doesn’t like them (i think the funniest example of this is him having one-sided beef with mishima for literally zero reason other than he just does not like the man)

actually, now that i think about it, he does get along with hinako. they have an annoying sibling dynamic where even if they don’t really talk to each other much if you put them in the same room they get each other’s vibes immediately. psychic connection

but of course the main relationship i focus on for him is with ryoko, as ranmaru is one of the major supporting chrs! :) ranmaru’s pretty quick to get back on his feet after the first main game (not that he isn’t affected by it, just trying to keep everyone going steady) and so he helps ryoko a lot in trying to recover. some of his most major moments are A. in the chap 2 subgame and B. in the second main game

in the subgame, ranmaru is trapped on the platform (i literally forgot what it’s called) with ryoko and maple. he’s actually the first person to jump on the idea that maple could be a doll (she’s the one who gets switched out in the room of lies. i thought it’d make sense both since maple takes reko’s role and cause it’s a little ode to her obstructor form in actual yttd x3), and tries to logically lead the conversation along while everyone else is freaking out (i SO need to make a post about the chap 2 subgame, it’s a complete mess 😭😭😭)

one of the most interesting bits of characterization i’ve come up with for him imo is on the route where the ai maple gets pushed into the spikes. like nao, ranmaru is the one who pushes her, but unlike nao’s reasoning behind it which was that she didn’t want sara to carry any more burdens, ranmaru remarks that he didn’t want ryoko to have any blood on her hands (even though, it’s technically not blood since she’s a doll…but you get the idea)

^ to add onto that, ranmaru does really care for ryoko as a friend but he feels like he can’t really fully open up to her bc he deems himself a murderer + is paranoid that if he gets found out everyone will try to vote him out. his constant secrecy ends up coming to bite him in the ass when kugie happens to buy kurumada’s victim video, though 😭 it gets brought up in the second main game and of course he has to come clean. he does garner some sympathy (mostly from ryoko and maple/hinako), but it also makes some ppl more suspicious of him as well (like kugie and shin).

SPEAKING OF the second main game hooooo boy is ranmaru a central figure of it. he gets completely screwed over and sent the sacrifice card due to gashu’s tampering, and this man FREAKS the hell out. he doesn’t wanna die, he’s only 16 and he hasn’t even done anything he can consider worthwhile yet (that and, if it’s true that every terrible thing he did was for nothing, maybe his guilt will finally catch up with him 😞)

sooooooo yeah massacre ending is with ryoko and ranmaru. it’s Bad. ranmaru convinces himself that he has to do this and that he has to Win and escape with ryoko, but even if they go thru with it it’s clear neither of them really wanted this outcome anyways. i think this note i made for myself sums it up pretty well:

ahhh, i hope this satisfies your curiosity about the maru!!!! i kind of turned him into a miserable figure in this au sorry ;-; i promise i love him, i just have to put my blorbos through the Horrors sometimes

[fusion-ego]

✩Update✩

✮ Haven't done one of these in a bit because life has been. Crazy. I honestly don't remember the last thing I updated y'all on in terms of how things are working out over here.

✮ So we're gonna go over everything I can think of since August 1st!

✮ August 1 - 11th: Got a job offer in Arizona! Put in two weeks' notice at my job at the shelter. Immediately my plans to get out to Arizona in time to start my other job went up in flames because of car issues/money issues. Honestly not all that upset, I'll have other chances to get something and if it turns back up I might even re-apply for that job.

✮ August 12th-19th: I had the most insane two weeks of work where people I had never interacted with previously/didn't know very well got teary and insisted they were going to miss me. I gave a lot of hugs to women I did not know very well. One of the residents, who got there the week I was leaving, heard that I was leaving to pursue a different job, and her daughter baked me a going away cake. They had known me for two days. It was fucking bizarre. I also bought my truck from my MIL finally! 19th was my last night at work.

✮ August 20th-31st: Left the shelter for the last time at the end of my shift the morning of the 20th. Got my truck's title in the mail! Started making plans to be out of apartment and on the way to Arizona by around September 1st, when my mother was supposed receive retirement benefits from her job that she just quit and then we could all head out to AZ together (instead of my husband and I driving cross-country on our own for the first time). Power got shut off for non-payment the same day I received a "please gtfo of this apartment, you didn't pay your rent" note from my Insane Landlady. We got out of the apartment because I had no plans of paying her anyway after the shit she'd been pulling the last few months (long story). Ended up in a hotel for a few days, in a motel for a few more. Now officially completely broke.

✮ September 1st-30th: Waited for mom's retirement benefits. Moved in with my grandmothers temporarily (around 3 weeks). Went totally broke and had to beg for money for food a couple times. Finally set out for AZ on the 30th. Car promptly started overheating and nearly broke down about 100 miles away, so our little convoy (my mom's truck, my truck, my parents' RV) stopped in at an RV park in Missouri so we could try to fix the truck and some issues the RV was having.

✮ Oct 1st-2nd: Cannot fucking figure out what's wrong with my truck. Dad has replaced the thermostat, tested the water filter, flushed and refilled the coolant, and emptied and refilled the oil. Stupid old thing (affectionate AND derogatory) still overheats if she goes over 60mph for longer than about 5 minutes. RV wouldn't start Oct 2nd when we meant to try and set out again. Mom and dad paid for my husband and I to remain in the RV park for the next two weeks, piled into mom's truck, and went on ahead to AZ to get started at their jobs so that they can come up with the money to get the RV and truck fixed and get us out there as they understand I literally Cannot contribute at the moment since I don't have a job and ran out of cash ages ago since this whole thing took WAY longer to happen than it was supposed to.

✮ Technically this also goes in the last section, but I decided to try and do OC-Tober this year. So far I've done the first 4 days with little difficulty, and it's honestly been nice. I've also been doing some mini-fics on a separate blog every day and that's been really nice too. I forgot how freeing it is to just write a little random thing and post it without needing to provide context or anything. Think I'm gonna try and stick to writing a mini-fic a day! At least until I'm gainfully employed again. It's done great things for my mental health.

✮ That said, my commissions are desperately open right now. I've got at least two weeks before I can make it to Arizona and have a chance at a job, and there's a chance we may just have to send my truck back to Illinois if we can't figure out what's wrong with it which will severely impact my ability to find gainful employment in the city.

✮ Not exactly an update, but groceries are so much fucking cheaper in Missouri than they are in Illinois??? I haven't called DHS to tell them I'm moving yet because we still definitely need the money and don't have a permanent address outside Illinois yet anyway, so we got our SNAP benefits today and, like... We bought $130 worth of groceries at Walmart that would have EASILY maxed out our SNAP in Illinois like halfway through picking up essentials. It's WILD.

✮ And... I think that's it? For now?✮

[coffeeandfaeries]

Zodiac Academy: Ruthless Fae/The Reckoning - A book review

C. Peckham and S. Valenti

I’m gonna be honest, I’m liking this series less and less with each book. My memory is a bit fuzzy and I barely remember what happened in this one. I remember that in this book they finally took those mid-term exams, the so-called “Reckoning”. The thing that actually bothers me the most is that they definitely will get together with one of the heirs and the professor. Okay, I kinda do like the professor. I'll be honest and I think that he and Darcy are cute together. Not exactly a healthy relationship, but it’s fiction so I’ll let it slide.

Okay so I know I should’ve expected it because it’s a bully romance, but in my defense, I didn’t see that before I started reading the series. It’s kinda obvious that Darcy will end up with Orion and Tori will end up with Darius. At first I was like hell yeah they’re gonna kill the Heirs and take over the throne, but uhh that ain’t happening apparently.

Tori and Darius have a weird ass relationship, one moment they are torturing each other. He made her believe he was gonna kill her and she set his room on fire and stole his stuff. They keep fighting and undermining each other, and then all of a sudden he takes care of her when she gets drunk and blacks out.

He was sweet in that one chapter, I’ll give him that. But honestly, their relationship makes no sense to me at all. I don’t see why they should trust each other, and how are you supposed to date someone you can’t trust?

Either in this book, or the next one we learn about soulmates, and apparently every Fae has one, but it’s up to them to decide if they will be with their soulmate. If they decide they want each other they will not be able to stay away from each other, but if they decide against it, they will not be able to try again no matter how hard they try. I’m guessing that Darius and Orion are supposed to be their soulmates.

The writers kinda forgot to give the other male characters any personality so I’m pretty sure my guess is correct. On top of that Darius’ father has put some kind of spell on Orion and Darius that bonds them. Because of that bond, Orion can feel Darius’ pain and feels the need to protect him. Definitely hasn’t been done so that the four of them have a reason to be together without the other three heirs.

Max, Seth, and Caleb are once again almost completely forgotten. Caleb and Tori are having regular sex and Seth accidentally made Darcy his omega, so they get a bit of attention every now and then, but Max is so irrelevant they might as well kill him off. This time we got to see the story from Caleb’s POV a couple of times, but the only thing he thinks about is Tori, so it’s not like we learned anything about him anyway.

I have just realized that I have no idea what happened in Book 2 and what happened in Book 3, so I’m gonna make this the review about both of the books oh God.

So, not only is Tori regularly screwing Caleb, but Darcy has also decided to make the relationship with Orion official, obviously this is a secret. And while they’re fucking their literal enemies who want them dead, they’re also pulling harmless pranks as if that’s gonna scare the Heirs into submission. Yeah, you sure showed them when you spread the rumor that Caleb likes Pegasuses, gave Seth flies, and put griffin shit in Max’s suit. Technically I suppose you set Darius’ room on fire and made him doubt all his friendships, humiliated Caleb, ruined Seth’s reputation and drove his pack away, and made Max lose the game of whatever your magical sport is called, but all of that is so irrelevant, and most importantly TEMPORARY.

Thankfully, by the end of the second book the girls FINALLY got a hang of their powers and blasted the nymphs with some badass blue fire, scaring the heirs in the process, and passed the Reckoning proving their worth.

Now by the end of book 3, the girls, Darius and Orion get kidnapped by Mr Acrux (Darius’ dad) who uses the twins to summon the fifth element, which is (I think) darkness. While he did this the girls' Order emerged, and they were phoenixes. A rare order that was extinct for over a thousand years, making them unbelievably powerful since no fire (including dragon fire) can harm them, but they can easily kill dragons with their own fire, which is the only fire that can harm a dragon. (of course, they’re stronger than their enemy, how shocking)

Now this gives Darius, Orion, and the twins a reason to work together, since they now have a common enemy - Mr Acrux. Very predictable, yeah I know, but honestly I didn’t expect much from the book series that markets itself as “Hogwarts if Voldemort was the headmaster” and calls itself a “bully romance”. I wasn’t expecting a literary masterpiece. It’s entertaining, funny, and sexy. If I want something profound I’ll read classic literature.

Rating : ⛤⛤