#I've loved reading since I was a kid ^^

[kuramirocket]

Me: I like how the first thing I saw when I opened tumblr is this book

*shows mom a book with an Ice Dragon on the cover* (I will consume any media with dragons. No questions asked).

Me: Speaking of books, I'm waiting for a package to arrive tomorrow.

Mom: What did you buy?

Me: Like I said, 'speaking of books.' Books.

Mom: More books?!!

Me: ..Yes.

Me: I know I still have a bunch of unread books to read and I will get to them, but I wanted to buy these books first!

[totem-but-shark]

it is the biggest compliment when i notice references to my art or descriptions of my character designs in fanfiction, to the authors who do this know i love seeing my illustrated work translated so beautifully into written word and i'm honoured to have contributed in some way towards your wonderful stories

[biomic]

blue beetle trailer

[lovelyfoolish]

Happy Valentine’s Day, lovely person 🌹

I’m not sure if you’re on here. No worries if you see this much later, I just wanted to let you know I’m sending you my love! You’re such a kind person and the comments that you write, the quotes and references you make in them, are very inspiring. And I have to mention your writing, of course, because it’s beautiful.

Here’s a romance-themed OC question for any OC(s) of your choosing (no pressure to answer on Valentine’s day itself, or at all):

What combination of random objects would your OC use to describe their LI? What do they represent? Bonus question: What would their LI use to describe them?

thank you for your kind words ♡ it's the greatest pleasure in the world for me to share things i read or see with people, so really it's selfish, lol.

there are few things that mean as much to me personally as someone saying something reminded them of me, so i just want to reciprocate that where i can, and the purpose of language and beauty is to be shared, right? i'm trying to be less insecure about sharing things with people so this is really encouraging, thank you for saying this ♡

i love this question! (i wonder what objects the people i love would use to describe me? i'll go ask them.)

i'll elaborate, but in summary! mason is a swimming pool, nate (mina) is bubbles on a bubble bath, mina is an umbrella, and nate (bella) is wisteria, and bella is her little gold locket.

mina

mason it might be strange to say this because the ocean and its terrifying power is so clearly a motif and fixation for n, but m makes me think of drowning. there's the stormy grey of their gaze, of course, but also they invoke the metaphorical kind of drowning. overstimulation, for me, has the same overwhelming feeling as being in the water and running out of energy to fight to stay afloat.

when it comes to their romance route, i think of this ram dass quote often, "all you can do for another person is be an environment in which if they wanted to come up for air, they could."

so while i was tempted to say something like "noise-cancelling headphones" (rip wayhaven m you would love my xm4s) i think, for mina, m is a swimming pool. (is that an object, or a location? humour me, please.)

one of those ones you go to when you're a child in a hot place in the suburbs of a big city. cool water and chlorine that stings your eyes and that precise shade of blue and whistles blowing and voices echoing over the water.

maybe it's just me that can immediately invoke the feeling of being in a neighbourhood pool like that, since i spent a lot of time in them when i was young in a hot place where a pool was the only relief. but i think it's so contradictory and so lovely and peaceful and so chaotic and you leave with your lungs burning. and i think that's what mason is to mina. the bottom of a swimming pool and the first breath after you surface and you are aching but you are alive.

nate the mar in me wants to say pomegranates, but i will leave them to her ♡ (but really, a man who is a fruit with thick skin and arils that glitter like jewels and juice that streams down your mouth like blood?)

maybe, instead — for mina, nate is the cloud-like layer of white foam on a bubble bath. (water, again. it wasn't intentional! but!)

how easily you can hold it in your hands, but when you try to grasp it tighter, it disintegrates. it promises eternity (if you keep the water running, you'll make more bubbles) but that promise requires so much to go certain ways. you can cover yourself in an embrace of bubbles. there's so much more below the foam.

does this make sense?

mina for mason, mina is an umbrella. both for the refuge she provides and the level of organisation that it calls to mind. isn't always having an umbrella when you need one the goal of adulthood? i think there's something strangely elegant about that and that is very mina.

(i also think mason would be very serious about umbrellas lest he becomes a bit of a wet cat after being out in the rain too long, and mina always having one ready just like him is startling to him.)

bella

nate bella is a gardener, so i think she would want to think of nate as a flower, and wisteria is the one that comes to mind for her first.

it's a beautiful flower, first and foremost, but it's also exceptionally strong. it has the ability to break stone through strangulation with its vines (making it a very predatory invasive species, believe it or not) and it can even destroy entire forests by killing off trees and leeching into the canopy to drive more sunlight towards itself.

it's also poisonous, like the flower bella was named for. (atropa belladonna.)

isn't that so nate? so beautiful and so strong that it can be brutal? while wisteria is relentless i think nate is relentless in a different way — he's wrapped his vines around bella's heart.

bella this is less metaphorical, but nate gave bella a gold locket that often pops up in my stories about her. (mina probably has one too, lol. lockets are my favourite jewelry to give a character, i'm afraid.)

it's always catching nate's eye from across a room and shining brightly, just like her.

what's inside it, i can't say. (i like to imagine f and m have played a game guessing the contents, ranging from the boring (picture of nate) to the insane (nuclear codes, cocaine, dumpling sauce).)

there's also the implications of the metal heart she wears around her neck and her metal heart (her pacemaker) ♡ i like that he thinks of both of them when it comes to the woman he loves.

bonus!

“extinction event” takes up most of my time these days so i wanted to answer for the researcher and stranger (who i hope you’ll meet later this year) too ♡

(like bella's answer, these will be objects they have/use.)

the researcher at first i think the stranger would describe them mostly in terms of things they regularly buy in the convenience store! since that’s a little easter egg (recently i've been toying with a goofy little spice tolerance stat lol but the branching is already ridiculous so it might be left on the cutting room floor :')) it’s up to the players to choose those items and i can't name anything specific.

i've been thinking a lot about an object all of them would have. i've got an idea for one right now that has both a lot of symbolic and personal meaning (it's something i have a collection of so it would be my little shout out to that) but i'm not sure if i'll keep it. i'm trying to make sure it's something that could fit every version of the researcher.

the stranger the branching complicates things! but definitely the first thing the researcher would think of when they think of them would be their necklace. i went back and forth a thousand times on what it should be (i was leaning towards victorian mourning jewellery at one point but then i was like “they are weird but idk if they are that brand of weird” and so they will not wear a dead person’s hair around their neck!) before i settled on the coin. 

the other object that the researcher would describe them with is very much a spoiler!

thank you again, and thank you for waiting for me, sending you love ♡

[ojamayellow]

listen, if people push me to watch a show multiple times then I'm never EVER gonna watch it :))

[creative-hanyou-girl]

My PJO Story: 10+ Years in the Making

It's so crazy to think that we are less than 2 days away from the Percy Jackson premiere. I've been waiting for this series for 2 years from the second I heard about it. If I'm being honest, it was only some months ago that I actually finished the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for the 1st time before moving on to HOO. Yet, even before then, I've been reading The Lightning Thief book over and over again since I was 11 or 12.

When I was younger, it was the movies (ugh, I know) that convinced me to read the Percy Jackson books. I had already seen them around school in the library and around my peers, but I personally felt no urge to pick the books up myself. I was DEEP in my Warrior Cats obsession at that point and believed no other book series could top it for me. But then we watched the Peter Johnson movies in class, and I'll be honest, I ended up really liking them. I know, I know. They are awful adaptations and still not the greatest stand-alone movies either, but I enjoyed them at that age since I hadn't read the books and knew Jack-shit about real Greek mythology at the time. And even now, while I'm no longer blind to how bad those movies are, there are still a few visuals from the 1st movie that still stand out in my mind to this day, like Percy's water trident.

But the greatest thing the movies did for me, and the reason I have to give them the obligatory 1 ⭐star, is that they finally convinced me to pick up The Lightning Thief and give this series, that was all the rage amongst my friends and peers, a chance. My mom got me the entire boxset for Christmas that year, and I got to reading. And I fell in love! I was blown away by the humor and fun I had reading The Lightning Thief. And it felt amazing to see a main character have a disability and use it as their superpower. I don't have ADHD or dyslexia, but I did have a stroke as a baby which affected me physically AND mentally, so in some ways, I could still relate to what Percy and other characters in the book were going through, at least a little bit.

Once I finished TLT, I was eager to start on The Sea of Monsters, and I even started reading into that book, too. But in a bizarre twist, the 2nd book disappeared one day from my nightstand. I looked EVERYWHERE for it, but I never found my copy of the 2nd book. I was so upset and embarrassed that I lost it, and I was worried to tell my parents for fear they'd think I was irresponsible for losing a book, so I just....didn't. And because I was convinced that I could still find my personal copy of the Sea of Monsters, I refused to check out a copy from my school library. And so because of my embarrassment and stubbornness, I would not continue the rest of the PJO series for years to come.

But that didn't stop me from rereading The Lighting Thief periodically throughout my teenage years going into adulthood. I read it for enjoyment, to refresh myself on the story and what happens in it, and especially when we'd go on vacation to the beach since, you know, it's the perfect summer beach read. This is just my opinion, but while TLT did set up groundwork for SOM, it could also be read as a stand-alone book, too. And for years, that's how I treated The Lighting Thief. I always planned on buying a new copy of The Sea of Monsters as well, but stuff would happen and I just wouldn't get it for one reason or another. And to be honest, I think part of it was a sentimentality thing with me. I was so sentimental about The Lightning Thief since it was the only book from PJO that I read fully, that part of me was worried about the other books overshadowing it.

So for years, that's how it went. Until, in late 2021, I found out that Percy Jackson was being made into a TV show. And my mind was blown; I DID NOT expect a book series that was close to 15 years old and after 2 failed movies to get a TV show made after it. In fact, I thought it was a joke at first or that there were people trolling the series on the internet. But then when I looked more into it, and especially when I saw that the author, Rick Riordan himself, was heavily involved in the project, the reality of this news finally started to sink in.

And I was ecstatic!

But it also gave me the reminder that I had yet to read the rest of the series past The Lightning Thief, and I wanted to go into the TV show having read the books beforehand. And so, after literal years of not telling them, and because it was right around Christmas and my mom was practically begging me to tell her what I wanted that year (I usually don't want much for Christmas), I told her I wanted Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters for Christmas that year.

And I finally got it.

But because life happens, I wasn't able to actually start my planned binge reading of the Percy Jackson series until this past spring going into summer of this year, 2023. But once I had a free couple days to spare, I finally sat down and read the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for the 1st time, starting with exactly the same old copy of The Lightning Thief I've had and loved since the age of 11 or 12.

And it was AMAZING!

This series truly is something else, and it's no wonder its maintained its popularity throughout the years. Its funny, sweet, action-packed, crazy, and just all around fun to read with lovable characters. It's one of my absolute favorite book series of all time and I'm so excited about the show dropping in less than 2 days now.

But it's the fact that we will be seeing the 1st book specifically, The Lighting Thief, come to life lovingly and faithfully first, that has me the most excited. For so long, this was the 1 book in the series that I read. It was the 1 book in the series that always stayed with me when I couldn't continue reading past it. It was the book that introduced me, and many others, to all these amazing characters and the world of Gods and Goddesses.

So while it is true that the later books in PJO are objectively better, it will always be The Lighting Thief specifically that will always have a special place in my heart. And I am thrilled that this first book of Percy Jackson (and hopefully the later books) is FINALLY getting the adaptation it deserves, and that I'll get to revisit the 1 book that has been with me since childhood in a new light!

Long Live Percy Jackson!

(Also yes, I made that bookmark)

[gay-robot-boyfriends]

i am awkward but i just wanted to say that i love your art so so so much!!;;o;; your art always makes me smile and happy and just overall fuels my giddy xzero soul. I still look at the comic you made with just awe and glee you really worked hard on it too!!! your tags always make my day too !!! have a good day :D

Hi! I'm also awkward! Thank you so much!! asdkashdksh That really means a lot! 😭 When that comic was in my head, it was going to take 5 or 6 panels to finish, but thinking about what the characters were feeling as it happened stretched it out to 29! It really was a labour of love, so thank you so much Q_Q

[nonbinary-octopus]

Me: ah, yes, an old favorite. I shall listen to this book again.

Hoopla: hi, are you a child? should we turn on baby mode? Do you want to only see content intended for children under twelve? baby books for the baby?

[section-69]

What is your Hogwarts house?

I'm like 90% sure this is a bot/spam/troll ask but at any rate

I'm an adult man, and

If there's anyone left who thinks Harry Potter is a well written series, I highly recommend the podcast The Shrieking Shack - they reread the books and went into great depths on the author's politics and how they show up in the text, as well as just unpack how messily written the books are.

[spawnofbhaal]

Realizing that one of the plus sides of BG1/BG2 being more simplistic in terms of visuals and audio is that it allowed for so many mods that can change/add to the story if you want them. Like want a new companion character? There are like 30+ to choose from. Want a romance with a character that wasn't originally romanceable? Chances are there's a romance mod for them. Want a new quest in the game, or one that was cut before release? There are mods for that.

(More rambling under the cut because this got long).

Sure, some mods are . . . weird or annoying by varying standards, or not the best written (a lot of modders didn't speak English as a first language, or were teenagers when they made them), but the love behind the writing can absolve some odd phrasing. A lot of people in the modding community also translated mods into their native, non-English languages. All of this for free, just because they loved the game. The level of content (dialogue, quests etc) in some romance mods puts any studio-made romance to shame, because a modder could just focus on romance rather than all the other aspects of game development.

(Also, IMO Bioware totally took the "kiss your love interest" option in DAO from "flirt pack" mods and other romance mods where your character could choose a lot of different flirtatious things to try on your love interest, from kissing, hugging, playing with their hair, etc. Or you could ask them more about their past, their family, or whatever the modder thought to add. The Bioware devs were definitely aware of the modding community and I honestly think that's one of the reasons you can kiss your LI on command in DAO and now BG3).

I think what I've felt kind of sad about, or like I'm "missing" with BG3 the past few days, is this . . . sense of almost infinite possibility with the game, and collaborative storytelling. Which is silly, because obviously BG3 is a great game as is, and Larian has been doing a great job of updating things, and there are a lot of talented writers, artists, and modders who make content centered around the game.

But I have to reconcile the fact that there are probably never going to be companion mods for BG3. There are never going to be new quest mods for BG3. Like for BG2, someone would totally make a mod to adventure in hell with Karlach or cure Astarion or romance Raphael (like a real romance, whatever that would look like, not the incubus thing). A mod to hug Gale, or ask Astarion about his family before he was turned, or braid Shadowheart's hair, or ask Wyll to tell you all the Baldur's Gate scandals he's heard. But with games being more advanced with graphics and voice acting these days, I seriously doubt any of these things will happen unless Larian does them. And Larian only has so much time and resources. (I also get that for many people, graphics and voice acting are more important than having more written content, but for me it's the opposite). Fanfiction helps a lot, but there's something really magical about seeing things happen in the game.

And if I'm somehow wrong about how these mods will never come to be, I'll be happy to see it (unless people try to do crap like add voice lines with AI, in which case I do NOT want to see it. Ever). But modern game modding has mostly just become cosmetic as far as I can tell. When there's such a focus on graphics, that's cool and all, but I sincerely doubt I'll remember a mod hairstyle after 20 years. Story and character mods I do remember.

[astrxealis]

fun story i got the dlc of 'a date with death' at school LMFAO ..... i have cash but not gcash (it's a filipino thing) so i was talking w my friend in class who also played the game (and she calls me a nerd /pos a lot lol) and i was like i want the dlc but i have no gcash... and she was like ok i'll give you gcash..... enabler ....... but also she wants me to tell her abt it so. ^_^ ecks dee

[taruruchi]

You guys don't understand THE MATHING ISN'T MATHING

ACE HAS NO R CARDS BUT AZUL HAS TWO. ACE HAS FOUR SRS BUT AZUL HAS ONE. SO. WHY @?)?/?)?%!%?@?# I'm going through the five stages of grief at the same time rn

[flowerwithdepression]

.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

sometimes really really stupid things make me cry

[arctic-hands]

Pleasantly surprisingly, Ferrero has apparently made progress in going fair trade and getting sustainable palm oil, so I bought a small jar of Nutella to try out again, and the cocoa in it didn't give me a migraine. No idea why but goddamn Nutella is good

[bumblingbabooshka]

What if Tuvok didn’t want to read the letter from T’Pel at first because he was (deep down - he’d never admit to this of course) nervous that she had in fact done the logical thing and moved on. She absolutely could have, couldn’t she? She’s on Vulcan with so many options and it’d be illogical for him to expect her not to, she didn’t even know he was alive after all. It’d be logical to- But then he hears that she’s still calling him her husband and praying for his safe return. And suddenly he very much wants to read it.