#It makes me miss the easy days of the trilogy lol

[a-side-character]

So, hey, does anyone know what pronouns Translator Dlar officially uses? Because they say themselves that translators use They/Them as a rule (obviously not, Qven is technically a Translator and e makes it very clear what eir pronouns are. Same with Reet).

But. Like. All throughout Enae's chapter during the hearing (pp 279-288) they get hit with They/Them AND She/Her. And NOT by Radchaii! By Enae's own internal monologue and by Qven, who has always called Dlar "they" in eir own internal monologue (it happens in the same sentence too: "... Translator Dlar HERSELF wants me to make an adult with Reet, but THEY have no use for that adult.").

My instinct is telling me they're typos (which happens earlier in the book too, Enae pretty clearly only uses Sie/Hir pronouns and yet in the same chapter (I think?? Don't quote me on that) gets referred to by the narration as "she" instead of "sie" and "eir" instead of "hir".) but it happens so frequently in that chapter that it's making me question things.

I'd honestly just assume their pronouns were They/She if they hadn't been such a jerk to Qven about eir pronouns in the beginning of the whole hearing.

Anyways, it's just been bugging me. Did anyone else notice this?

[polichinelle]

the raven cycle timeline

"trc takes place in the mid-2010s" "trc takes place in 2012" no it doesn't! it's pretty common knowledge that mstief isn't the most specific when it comes to timelines (an example is that she had to change ronan's birth date after readers pointed out that it didn't line up with the events of the book; another example is the pre-canon gansey & adam & ronan friendship timeline, which doesn't make sense at all if you think about it longer than a second), and she has said before that her editors are more or less the same.

what that means is that the raven cycle and the dreamer trilogy are kind of nebulously "present-time," and no matter what year you think it takes place in, some details are going to be inaccurate. but since i am a chronic nit-picker and i get very fussy about timelines, that didn't sit right with me! i needed to know the exact year. so on my last reread, i kept a look out for any mention of dates so that i might be able to pinpoint exactly when the raven cycle takes place.

and i think i might have the answer :)

all of my arguments come from the dream thieves.

firstly, adam's birthday. we know that his birthday is july 3rd:

we also know that he was missing for most of the previous day:

what happens then is that he falls asleep for an indeterminate amount of time ("Later he fell asleep sitting up on the end of that same sofa."), he and gansey drive back to henrietta, adam visits blue at fox way, and after scrying with persephone he falls asleep again for twenty-one hours, and during that twenty-one hours is when his birthday takes place.

for a while i assumed the "quietly turned eighteen" referred to midnight, but that actually doesn't make a lot of sense given the context of the previous day being saturday. both of our options (gansey and adam drive back the same evening they found adam; gansey and adam drive back the next morning, on sunday) leaves us with adam falling asleep on sunday. at some point during the next twenty-one hours he "turns eighteen."

the thing is, there is no convenient year where july 3rd falls on a monday (in the scenario where we assume that "quietly turned eighteen" refers to midnight on the day of his birthday). however, if we go with the idea that it is still sunday and it refers simply to his actual time of birth, we're left with a pretty good answer:

adam turns 18 on sunday, july 3rd, 2011.

i have another thing to kind of back this up.

if we assume niall wasn't lying about that, we have two (well... kind of) options:

i searched for earthquakes in northern england since niall was born in cumbria. however, in my opinion, the second one, on december 26th, can't really be counted, since it would mean niall was... 32 in 2011. a little young lol. but if he was born in 1970, he would be 40/41 at his time of death, which makes a lot of sense (it also makes sense he would be a leo). neither earthquakes are a 4.1, but whatever, maybe he just forgot the exact number. maybe he was being humble.

so... all of this to say that the events of the raven cycle probably happen during 2011, and thus the dreamer trilogy would take place in 2013. considering the references to fortnite and all, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but at least i can rest easy knowing that that's just because mstief didn't think about this stuff at all while writing it (hence nebulous "present-day" being the actual correct answer as to when the books are set).

for a while i actually thought trc took place in 2010 since the lynches go to church before kavinsky's party, which i assumed meant july fourth was on a sunday, but it's mentioned that they go for a "special" "holiday mass" and not regular mass. either way, 2011 works better with adam being missing on saturday.

anyway, all this to say that i think about timelines too much. thank you for reading if you've made it this far lol

[heywriters]

Get To Know Me!

Tagged by @justafoxhound

• Do you play an instrument?

Musical, no (I trained in singing though). The only "instrument" I regularly play is a game controller, lol

• Favourite book characters?

I love books as a whole so individual characters rarely stand out much for me. I related to the main character in Barbara Kingsolver's Bean Trees, and love the characters in Bleak House and many Jane Austen novels. The main characters in The Southern Reach Trilogy are iconic to me, and the characters in We Have Always Lived in the Castle spoke for me in many ways.

Book characters often feel like they are me, so having a favorite book character would be like having a favorite limb or internal organ. I love all of me, so I love all those characters. The only times where I've had "favorites" is when the books get adapted to TV/film and feel separate from me.

Got real deep there, but best way I could explain it.

• Favourite colour schemes?

Currently I'm a sucker (and i mean sucker) for that iridescent, anodized titanium look. I bought these in 2022 and I LOVE them:

This color scheme mixes well with the Miami Vice colors I am into atm. I'm also easily drawn in by the trendy emerald/black/gold look:

I have many opinions on interior design...

(PREV MENTIONED COCONUT ICE OMG I LOVE COCONUT ICE but i haven't had it since i was a kid and never knew what it was called and omg thank you i can finally make it or buy it myself with this knowledge *kisses you on both cheeks*)

• Naps or long sleep?

Long sleep! I am at peak performance in the 8–9hr range, but any excuse to sleep in longer is lovely. Naps rarely refresh me, and I miss parts of my day. To really know me in this respect is to know I am an irresponsible night owl who will stay up all night if I have no morning obligations.

• What languages do you speak?

English and paltry Spanish. I practiced Spanish more at my old job than I ever did for school or with Spanish-speaking family, but still am not fluent.

• Dreams/aspirations?

Move somewhere beautiful with someone wonderful and do good work there, but have a vacation home in another climate. Funny how dreams/aspirations change depending on your age/situation.

• Long hair or Short Hair?

Short, please. I've had long, heavy hair all my life and it gets into everything. I like having flippy hair though, so shoulder-length probably better describes my preference.

• Tea or coffee?

COFFEE. Have finally achieved "cup a joe in the morning" status because it's helpful for me.

• Bring a book character to life or go into a fictional world?

Go into a fictional world. Just to study it so I can portray it accurately in fanfic ;)

Tagging: okay, i forget who I follow for writing and who I follow for fandom, so this isn't easy to tag but I will at least tag @insanitysilver @jfictitional @kirarahu and @evelynmlewis

Literally anyone who wants to do this, you are officially tagged by me.

[cloudlessly-light]

OMG you are a genius 🤯 this talent😍 we need the next part of the phone sex series when the visit happens🤯 i’m already addicted. Pla consider me as one of your biggest fans ever🤍🤍

Thank you so much that's very sweet of you! Enjoy the final part of the phone sex trilogy lol

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Smut, dirty talk-ish, oral

Emily would like to think that she didn’t jump on an eight hour flight just to have sex with her ex-boss. She would like to think that she’s going because she missed DC, missed her friends, and honestly she did, but she was mostly jumping the pond because of him.

Since their phone call it had been hard to think about anything but him. She had tried to ignore the pull of him, but it was like he made it impossible. When she had left they had kept in touch, but it wasn’t on a regular basis, a text checking in, a phone call to gratulate Jack on his birthday, happy holiday wishes. But now they texted every day and she even though she could pretend that she didn’t smile when his name flashed on her screen, she couldn’t ignore that she put in vacation time and was on a flight three weeks after that initial phone call.

He meets her at the airport, dressed in a suit and a smile and it’s almost like no time has passed.

“Prentiss.” He nods, almost nervously and she can’t help the smile.

“You’ve seen me naked multiple times now, you can call me Emily.” She jokes against his ear as she hugs him and she feels his deep chuckle against her as he pulled her closer. When they break apart he seems more relaxed and wordlessly takes her bag from her.

“Where is the surprise dinner?” She asks as they start walking and he stops, looks at her with a knowing look and she laughs. “Oh come on, you really thought you could keep that from me? Pen already blabbed.”

“Of course she has.” He shakes his head but there’s a softness to him, had always been when Penelope was involved.

The drive to the restaurant is comfortable, conversation coming easy between them and Emily is hit with the realization how much she had missed him. She hadn’t expected it but it was clear, her body buzzing just by being near him.

“Hey wait.” He tells her as she’s about to get out of the car and she turns to him. She’s caught of guard by his lips on hers, gentle but firm as his hand, warm and big strokes gently over her jaw. “I just wanted to do that, you know before you are swarmed by them.”

She nods, still dazed from his kiss, lips tingling as she gently touches them with a finger.

“Are you staying at a hotel tonight?” He asks then, all previous nerves gone after watching her react to him. He watches as the haziness in her eyes as her lips form into the confident smirk he was used to.

“Depends, will you make me coffee in the morning?”

The dinner is filled with laughs and stories and everything Emily had missed. She liked her new life in London, but nothing would ever compare to the family she had in DC. When she moved it was because she had lost a part of herself, it was the right thing to do, but there was no denying that being there, with the team, she had never felt more at home.

Aaron tells them that he’s driving her to the hotel as they’re putting on their coats at the end of the night. No one seems to notice how her cheeks turn red or how his touch had lingered on her throughout the dinner.

She kisses him the moment he has locked the door to his apartment, presses him against it as she finally lets the need she feels for him show. He groans against her lips, sucks her bottom lip between his own as her hands move over his clothed body.

By the time they reach the bedroom they’re both naked and panting, lips moving over skin and touches frenzied.

“Aaron.” She gasps as his fingers move through her, coating them in her wetness before moving to circle her clit.

“There it is.” He mumbles against her neck as he hovers above her “Fuck I’ve missed that sound.”

She didn’t think he would be like this, had imagine how he would be in bed many times, cocky and confident and teasing had never been what she pictured. It was a surprise when they finally fell into bed years ago, a pleasant memory she often imagined when she was alone in bed now. The memories weren’t even close to the real thing.

He kissed down her body, teased her as he peppered soft kisses and gentle bites along the inside of her thighs but not touching her where she needed. Her hips jerked against him as her thighs shook and she could feel his smirk against her heated skin.

“So wet Em.” He murmured and his breath on her clit caused her to whimper.

“Please.” It was barely above a whisper but in the silence of the room it was clear and she vaguely heard his satisfied hum before his tongue circled her clit gently. He holds her hips steady as he devours her, licks her clit and then dips his tongue as deep inside of her as he can until she’s straining, hips buckling against his touch.

She comes as he pushes two thick fingers inside of her, curls them repeatedly until she’s shaking in his hold, feeling her orgasm everywhere as he murmurs words of encouragement and watches her.

“So pretty when you come for me.” He whispers against her lips, kisses her roughly before she can answer. She tastes her own arousal on his lips and tongue and she can’t help the moan that leaves her. She turns them over so she’s straddling him, grinds down on his hard shaft as she straightens above him.

“My turn.” She grins as she moves down his body. She takes him in her mouth, moans at the taste of him on her tongue. He’s hot and heavy, precum lingering on his tip as she slowly sheaths him down her throat.

He’s groaning as he watches her, leans on his elbows to take in the sight of Emily worshipping his cock, the image making his hips jerk. She hollows out her cheeks, runs her tongue in ways he’s never experienced and he knows that he won’t last if she keeps going.

“Emily,” He grumbles and she looks up with a glint in her eyes. “Fuck, you’re too good at that.” His hands move to pull her away before she as time to object, lifts her on his cock and swallows down her hiss with a rough kiss.

She takes a moment to settle above him, to get used to the stretch of him. She grinds against him, rolls her hips as he pushes up, and she bites his shoulder to keep from moaning too loudly.

“Let me hear you.” It’s almost pleading, he had longed to hear her like this again and now that he had, he didn’t think he could go without it.

It’s frantic, heated touches and longing kisses and she comes two more times screaming his name until he gives in to his own pleasure. He groans against her ear as he pushes deep inside of her. His release makes his vision blur and body tremble as she gently strokes his back and moans against him until he collapses on top of her, body spent and brain deliciously foggy.

The next morning he wakes her up with coffee like promised and she smiles as she sits against the headboard. He climbs in beside her and kisses her gently, his own mug of coffee on the nightstand.

“Morning.” She smiles into the kiss then let out a happy sigh as she takes a sip of coffee.

“Morning.” His voice is still rough from sleep and she finds it sexy. She takes another gulp of coffee and runs her hand through her messy hair.

“I should get going soon.” She mumbles behind her cup, her eyes not meeting his until he strokes a warm hand over her cheek.

“You could… stay?” He looks at her in a way he’s never had before and it makes her heart beat faster in her chest.

“Yeah, I could stay.”

[teatitty]

Sparbossa Brainrot Part 8: Long Suffering Husbands

If you didn’t believe me before when I said this is a monstrous movie to dissect well you’ll be pleased to know you only have two parts left after this and then we can pretend I’m a perfectly normal person over this trilogy

Anyway picking up right where we left off last time we have Jack swinging over from The Endeavour to The Pearl, with The Pearl’s crew already leaning over the railing and expecting him to make his glorious return to the ship. Naturally, Barbossa still manages to look the least surprised out of everyone here

Though when it looks like Jack may have gone overboard he does seem to cuss quite loudly. There’s no audio though so I’m just guessing

Pushes in front of everyone to get to where Jack was first

And on top of being the first one to see where Jack is, he also does a double take to make sure of it. Even after all these years it seems these two keep surprising eachother and truly the only reason Jack is posturing like this is to be a show off lol

The point I’m making is that even without discussing anything beforehand, Sparbossa had complete and utter faith that they would both make it out of their respective situations and where Jack knew that The Pearl would blast The Endeavour and it would be his sign to leave, Barbossa instinctually knew (along with the Crew of course) that Jack would use his usual rope swinging trick to get back to them. Subtle details that are easy to miss but oh so juicy!

And then Hector becomes an aggravated spouse storming off in a huff because Jack made him think something bad had happened but he was actually fine lol

Jack did this with Barbossa earlier that same day so... Barbossa - Elizabeth parallels perhaps?

This decision is what gives her the crew's respect if that wasn't obvious before

Will straight up forgetting he's dealing with the escape expert himself. Do have to wonder how long Jack's been sitting there watching him do this. Anyway we've been long overdue a mentor moment between them and so here it is!

“My disappointment is immeasurable and my night is ruined. I thought I taught you better than this”

Jack gives surprisingly good relationship advice which is a stark contrast to Barbossa who can't even "speak as if to lover" to free Calypso which has always tickled me

Dying did indeed reshuffle Jack's priorities - it also reshuffled Barbossa's which is why they ultimately go after The Fountain of Youth at the end of this movie

Jack has officially given his compass to both Will and Elizabeth to use in order to complete his own ends. I'll be honest when I first saw this I thought he was gonna kiss Will and throw him overboard as a callback to Elizabeth's kiss with him in DMC but alas this is still Disney

Welcome to the club William they have meet-ups every Thursday

This is a pretty good shot to show how they differ in captaincy: Jack actually mingles with the Crew and creates a personal rapport with them but Barbossa keeps himself distant, only allowing a small number (in this case, Pintel and Ragetti, since he trusted them with the eye) to get somewhat close to him

I see this take a lot so I'm going to put it to rest right now: Calypso isn't threatening Barbossa with death she's threatening to bring back his Aztec curse - permanently, this time, which is why his hand turns skeletal. A threat of death wouldn't work considering she actually needs him alive to free her and besides the Curse would be a fate far worse in comparison

Course Barbossa doesn't take such threats lying down. As much as these two quite plainly hate eachother they have no choice but to work together for the time being. It’s fascinating to think that Calypso gets along with Jack who, like her, was betrayed by the man he trusted most (before you get on my ass about Calypso not showing up for her date, a broken promise is not the same as a betrayal. They both hurt for very different reasons), but doesn’t get along with Barbossa, who was the betrayer

Jack may not have been able to hear what was going on, but he still watched it all unfold. Whether he’d already figured out Tia Dalma was Calypso already or if this is when he fully connected the dots is up to interpretation but it’s fun to see his undivided attention on Barbossa regardless

If you wanted more proof that it was the curse she threatened him with, he clenches and unclenches his fist a couple times to make sure it's back to normal and looks, for a rare case, panicked

Clap it up for Will taking a leaf out of Jack's book with that innocent "you didn't tell him” much like when Jack said a similar comment about Elizabeth in the Locker

I know this is a Sparbossa thing, I know, but how could I not include the most heartbreaking Calyavy reveal

Jones "wants" Calypso dead and Beckett "wants" Jack dead. Exes man. What can ya do. Anyway Will is speaking in similar airy tones to how Elizabeth does which is a cool detail

Appreciation for the design of Shipwreck Cove because goddamn thats cool

It's cute how often Jack and Barbossa stand side by side even though they really don't have to

A wordless side-eye between them 

Barbossa did the summons so he's taking charge but Jack choosing not to sit at the table and just kind of lingering in the back messing the the swords is the biggest autism mood

The humour in AWE simply hits different I don't know what else to tell you

Sao Feng may not have known Jack was a Pirate Lord but everyone else - or, at least, Villanueva - does. More importantly this is when Barbossa learns what Jack's Piece is and then files away for later! Interesting that neither of them knew what the other’s Piece of Eight was until this scene but both are aware of their shared Pirate Lord status 

Smug son of a bitch it's a wonder Barbossa hasn't punched him yet honestly and absolutely no surprise that Sao Feng did

Swirls my drink. Do I even need to say it anymore

They do another one mere moments later

Jack of course knows this already and is doing his best to make sure nobody figures that out. Of everyone, Barbossa is the one most likely to either figure out at least some of what's going on soooo his narrow gaze flits to him

I just think them standing like this is cute and a nice setup for when Elizabeth is elected for being in charge and we see The Mentors standing either side of her

Appreciation point for Jack being a slut and showing off partial tit while looking at Hector Like That

Very easy to miss since the camera is putting him out of frame now but as Barbossa starts to talk about Calypso, Jack leans back to keep him in line of sight as he circles the table, similar to when Barbossa kept moving to keep Jack in sight back in the Locker

Jack doesn't actually disagree with Barbossa's points, is the thing. He's simply keeping an eye on the reactions of the other Lords because he happens to have his own plans this time

There's zero reason for him to lean so far into Jack's space when he returns to the head of the table. Look how much room there is between himself and Elizabeth in comparison

When the Lords start laughing at the idea what do these two do? A head turn towards eachother eugh

NO THE SUBS MISSED OUT THAT HE SPECIFICALLY CALLED THE BEARD "SCRAGGLY" THAT'S THIS IS THE WHOLE REASON HECTOR THE CAT IS SCRAGGLY TOO

This is the closest, I think, Barbossa has come to wanting to murder Jack on the spot in a long time. Meanwhile Jack is busy holding back laughter

Best line in the entire movie

Barbossa just has the best eye rolls

Davy kind of a snack with or without the tentacles ngl

WHOO THE CALYAVY AND SPARBOSSA PARALLELS IN THIS ONE LINE ALONE 

Her heart is the maelstrom he falls into when he dies at the end, for those who didn't make that connection

Barbossa has officially Had Enough and I thiiiiink that is in fact Jack holding up the sword in the back. Supportive husbands!

All looking at Barbossa’s hanging balls -

Jack looks Barbossa up and down for some reason before glancing off to the side which is true horny gay shit

Do I make another balls joke or should we just leave it as is

Barbossa's only reaction to Jack being between his legs and interrupting him is to give another big eye (and head!) roll and then climb down to bicker with him. Please also appreciate all the people watching these two like they're a morning cartoon

Jack is literally just doing this to fuck with Hector and Hector knows it

What's funny is that these guys actually move when he shoos them off lol

When your ex decides to embarrass you in front of every single person in the room just for giggles

Her men might be ready to stab him at any moment but he does give her shoulders a rub and she seems okay with it so... Jack's good at shoulder rubs confirmed?

He's so done with Jack's shit. But hey look another shared trait: their ability to work a room

Jack mentioned she is a woman scorned and not only is Barbossa thinking "oh shit" because Jack has most definitely figured out who she is but also because he is, ya know, turning the room in his favour now

Jack is very smart to put himself at the opposite end of this table (they're both the "heads" of the table now) because Barbossa would for sure leap for his throat at this

[trashinaglass-archive]

Train Me

A/n: I know it’s not my usual, but I’ve been getting into Star Wars recently and this is a concept I thought up. I didn’t really plan on posting it, but what the hell. Why not? Does more sitting on the profile than in my drafts lol. Don’t message me about any technicalities of Star Wars land. I know them, but it’s fictional so I can make it whatever the hell I want bitch

Inspo came from a book (The Iron Fey trilogy, I can’t remember exactly which one, maybe the second?), but I think it’s the cutest concept. And I think it fits well with Star Wars.

I’m like equally obsessed with Anakin, Obi Wan, and Kylo/Ben/whatever we calling him so I struggled for a long time on who I should write this with. I ended up putting it in a generator app and got Kylo. I’m not sure what name to go with for him, but I like when they call him Ren so I’m gonna use that.

His brows furrowed as his eyes looked up at you quickly, silently questioning if he’d heard you correctly. “You want me to what?”

You bit the inside of your cheek, half wondering if you never should have asked at all. “I want you to train me,” you repeat. “Teach me to fight and use a saber... like you do.”

“Where did this come from?” Ren asked.

“I’ve seen things happen. It’s scary to think about, because I know you’d protect me if anything were to happen, but what if you weren’t here when it did?” You noticed a sigh fall from his chest; it was something he never wanted to think about. “I just want to be able to defend myself.”

He nodded subtly, moving to stand in front of you. His hands grabbed your arms gently and his forehead rested against yours as he spoke softly, “I understand.” He paused for a second as if recollecting his thoughts. “And it’s a good idea. As much as I want to protect you, you shouldn’t have to depend on me to keep you safe.” He pressed a kiss to your forehead before backing away. “We’ll start tomorrow,” he stated, his voice holding authority as he walked around you, not missing the opportunity to smack your ass on his way out.

. . .

“Ready?”

You looked up as Ren walked in your direction, tossing a small package your way as he passed by you. You catch it, noticing the heaviness of it before unfolding the fabric to find a thick silver rod, the hilt of a new lightsaber. You took in the intricate designs of it as you pick it up, the cold of the metal biting at your hands.

Looking up to meet his eyes, you find yourself silently asking permission. He gave a single nod, encouraging you to turn it on. You press the button and watch as a brilliant white light shoots out from the hilt. Grasping it in one hand, you carefully twirl it around like you’ve seen others do many times before. You couldn’t help but quietly giggle at the sound it produced.

“It’s pretty simple to use,” Ren spoke, stepping closer to do, the hilt of his own saber already in hand. “Just ... try not to hit yourself.”

“I assume that’s the hard part?”

“For you at least,” he chuckled. “Now, defend yourself.” The quiet click of a button was heard before his own saber lit up in front of you.

You held the lightsaber up, blocking his hit as you smile to yourself thinking of how easy dueling must be. Both of you go back and forth blocking swings, Ren seeming to become more aggravated. He swung his saber, and you were quick to block it, except this time he leaned forward causing the tip of his blade to sink into your shoulder for only a second.

“Ow!” You scream, backing away from him as you drop the lightsaber you had been holding to look at the injury. “What the hell?” Ren turned his lightsaber off as well, tucking it into his belt as he got closer to you, also picking up your lightsaber as he passed it.

“You aren’t taking this seriously,” he said, his voice wavering between anger and fear. He quickly took a breath to console himself. “This isn’t a game. I know it’s easy to joke and think it’s fun when it’s not real, but one day it might be. One day it’ll be someone that wants you dead, and you have to keep yourself alive. Because I don’t know what I would do if something ever happened to you.”

You nod, letting him know you understand what he was telling you. “I’m sorry,” you whisper.

“You don’t have to be,” he said simply. You replied with another nod, not sure what else there was to say. “But I am, sorry. I don’t want to hurt you, but I just need you to know how serious it is. Sometimes the best way to understand is to experience it firsthand,” he chuckled darkly.

“I know. I don’t blame you,” you assure him, pushing the pain in your shoulder to the back of your mind. “Let’s go again.” You reach for the saber he was still holding, but he held it back out of your reach, putting it in his belt next to his own.

“Later.” He took a moment to assess the wound on your shoulder, pressing a gentle kiss to the edge of it causing you to gasp softly at the pain. “Let’s go get that checked out.”

[soundsof71]

Hey, friend! Album: Rubber Soul

I love everything The Beatles did, and this is the dawn of my favorite era, for sure. You know those Red and Blue anthologies? Those were first released in 1973, and were a huge part of my life growing up. In fact, I have all four CDs in my car at all times, and play them a LOT to this day....but I hated that by emphasizing the early stuff (in the Red anthology) and the late stuff (in the Blue one), they way underrepresented the best stuff right in the middle. 

This is where The Beatles started synthesizing everything from Dylan to drugs to mysticism and beyond, so I call it the Purple Era, blending Red and Blue, and it definitely starts here. The 24 months from here through Magical Mystery Tour might be the most artistically consequential such span by anyone in the past couple of hundred years.

do I own the album?: Both the US and UK editions, in multiple formats! The US version is the better by far, sez me. I'll go further and say that the US trilogy of Rubber Soul, Yesterday & Today, and the US edition of Revolver is beyond sublime, and certainly kicks the ass of the UK RS+R.

my favorite song: Wellllll..... If I WERE to count the UK edition here, I might say that it was a tie between “Drive My Car” and “If I Needed Someone”, but I’m only counting the US version. LOL Which makes it a tie between “Norwegian Wood” (I’m a sucker for waltz time!) and “In My Life”.

my least favorite song: Run for Your Life. Fuck that shit. At least he doesn’t actually kill her in the song, but I feel like any male rock star who whines about a woman’s infidelity needs to have his dick cut off, and I’m not kidding even a little. I had to stop listening to them for a little while after I heard this for the first time. I haven’t listened to it in 40 years, and don’t plan to ever again.

a song I didn’t like at first, but now do: “Girl” I used to actively hate it, but now I think it’s a gas. Some great time changes, great harmonies, and the thing I used to hate most -- John’s long intaken breath -- is now my favorite part. Still in the bottom half of the album’s overall ranking mind you, but I no longer skip over this, and it’s the song where my opinion has changed the most over time, maybe in their entire discography.

a song I used to like, but now don’t: “I’m Looking Through You” With such a righteous hook, a ferocious vocal, and a locked-in performance by the band at its tightest, it was easy for primary-school me to miss the meanness in it. I understand that a 23 year old boy is resentful that his 20 year old girlfriend is outgrowing him, but it’s still hard to hear.

my favorite lyric:  I know I'll often stop and think about them In my life, I'll love you more

This is the quandry of John in a nutshell, so brutish and misogynistic in Run For Your Life, but so tender, even delicate here. It’s also a lovely bit of prosody as he changes the pacing of the beginning of that couplet through the end. That is, the rhythm of the poetry is incomparable. Maybe only Dylan was in this kind of command of verbal rhythm right now (not just the words as words, but their place in time), and maybe not even him.

I also love the sentiment: yeah, I’ve experienced a lot of wonderful places and people in the past, but none of what I feel for them in retrospect compares to what I feel for you now. Beautiful.

overall rating out of 10: 8 That kind of underplays how much I love it, but John, George, and Paul had a LOT of growing up in their relationships with women ahead of them. Fortunately, they mostly DID grow up (at least relative to where they were here), but calling this one of the most important albums of the classic rock era is faint praise. This is a gem.

Thanks for asking! 

[buildarocketboys]

Books read 2020: Reviews (1-20)

Decided to write a little review/overview for all the books I’ve read this year. Mostly just for personal record but please feel free to message me about any of these books!

1. Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly (Jan 6th – Jan 13th) 8 days 400 pages

I loved this whole trilogy, but this might have been my favourite of all three. I loved the setting (the main reason, apart from the queer characters, why I wanted to read this book) which is a fantasy setting based on the dying days of Berlin during the Weimar Republic. Loved this setting (especially the cabaret/music hall part) and it’s the only book that really features it. I also enjoy (or…find compelling, enjoy might not quite be right since there’s some very ‘yowch’ descriptions regarding torture/being beaten up) the story/plot most in this one, I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happened next…

2. Maurice by E.M. Forster (Nov 17th – Jan 21st) 256 pages

This is the only kind of cheat I have in here, because yes I did start reading it in November 2019, but I read the vast majority of it in 2020. I’d wanted to read it for ages because it’s such a gay classic and there were many sections (sentences, paragraphs) that I related to heavily, not even always as a queer person, but in that way that the best books get at the heart of something about the human experience in a way that’s intensely relatable to the reader. I think I found the romance elements kind of anticlimactic overall but maybe that’s kind of the point? It’s a happy ending, but in a very quiet way. (I think, it has been nearly a year since I read it!)

3. East, West by Salman Rushdie (Jan 17th – Jan 24th) 8 days 224 pages

I started reading this to compare it with its Spanish translation for my Postcolonialism in Translation essay lol. Some pretty interesting stories in here, also pretty sure this is the only collection of short stories I read this year, so it has that distinction. Not super my thing but acted as an enjoyable reading break in the local park while I was slogging my way through essays (and God do I miss that life now).

4. Affinity by Sarah Waters (Jan 24th – Jan 31st) 8 days 352 pages

This was the first of three Sarah Waters books I read this year. I have now read all of her work, and I enjoyed this one a lot – very much a ghost story. It wasn’t my favourite, but definitely sits nicely in the middle.

5. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Jan 31st – Feb 5th) REREAD 6 days 500 pages

Reread this while on a trip to York, when stuff like that was still possible. As good as ever. I love Time Traveler’s Wife not for the romance (which is…interesting, but personally I don’t find it exactly enjoyable and the characters aren’t particularly likable or relatable for me) but for the prose and the structure. The back-and-forth structure of the book (travelling through time, Henry – and Clare – at different points in their life) makes for a breathtakingly constructed plot and I love it more every time. Some of the prose and stuff the characters talk about are kind of pretentious but I’m kind of pretentious myself (I discovered  Rilke through TTW) and a lot of it has stuck in my brain, to the point that 10 months later I keep thinking about it and kind of want to read it yet again.

6. Armistice by Lara Elena Donnelly (Feb 5th – Feb 9th) 5 days 400 pages

I really enjoyed this sequel, I loved exploring the rest of the world, I loved the interaction between characters who either hadn’t met before, hadn’t seen each other in years (there’s a time jump between Amberlough and Armistice) and brand new characters (who were mostly equally as compelling/lovable). A worthy sequel.

7. Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson (Feb 13th – Feb 24th) 12 days 327 pages

My thing (at least non-fiction-wise) this year has been books about food and food history, and this is the first of those on this list. It was pretty good, very interesting. I have trouble retaining information from non-fiction books so I only remember it in the broadest strokes (and remember reading it in the Hygge café in Sheffield which was really cool and I hope it’s survived the pandemic) but it was a really eye-opening look into different appliances/tools/processes/spaces used throughout history and in different parts of the world when it comes to food and cooking.

8. Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner (Feb 25th – Mar 11th) 16 days 352 pages

I read this in the period just before everything started shutting down and the day I finished it (incidentally my girlfriend’s birthday) was more or less the start of the lockdown for us, so that’s my prevailing memory of this book. It was a very good, enlightening look into bi politics and what we (I, as a white gentile especially) could do better. But again, I don’t remember it in great detail because I was more preoccupied with what was happening around it.

9. Solitaire by Alice Oseman (Mar 14th – Mar 16th) 3 days 392 pages

This was pretty good but I definitely read most YA (well, reality-based YA) as an easy, quick read that doesn’t challenge me too much, so I don’t have too much to say about it. It was nice to read about the Heartstopper characters

10. What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera (Mar 17th – Mar 20th) 4 days 437 pages

Again, early lockdown YA so basically brain popcorn for me. That’s not a bad thing though.

11. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Mar 20th – Mar 30th) 11 days 512 pages

This was my least favourite of the Sarah Waters books I read this year, and probably not coincidentally, the only book of hers without explicit queer characters. But still a pretty good scary story.

12. Amnesty by Lara Elena Donnelly (Apr 1st – April 6th) 6 days 384 pages

The last in the trilogy. I still liked it very much, but not as much as the first two books. I think endings to a trilogy are hard to get right. I feel like there was too much focus on one character and his predicament (and while I enjoyed his ending and happily ever after with probably m favourite character of the series), I wasn’t as compelled by this one as I was by the other two.

13. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King (Apr 6th – Apr 15th)  10 days 513 pages

My first Stephen King! I actually really enjoyed this, especially the scary fantasy dream world thing. It wasn’t too scary for me (I am a big scaredy cat who’s just dipping my toe into horror novels since I figure reading horror is moderately less scary than watching it) and just overall pretty good.

14. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Apr 16th – Apr 20th) 5 days 209 pages

Loved this! The meandering almost poetry of it, the epic enemies to lovers, the weird admixture of sci fi and larger than life fantasy concepts (and beings!). Will definitely return to this one again.

15. Five Hundred Mile Walkies by Mark Wallington (Apr 21st – Apr 25th) REREAD 5 days 224 pages

I read this as a young teenager and found it hilarious. It was one of my dad’s books (he might even have recommended it to me, although I did have a habit of reading anything and everything that was in the bookcase – Memoirs of a Geisha at about 13, anyone?) and I laughed out loud practically every page. The gist of it is that Mark takes his sister’s (or sister’s ex??) dog, Boogie and goes to walk the entire 500 miles of the South West coast path. I loved this anyway because I loved the South West (especially Cornwall) and love seeing it through someone else’s eyes. So I reread it and I still enjoyed it, but didn’t find it as rip roaringly hilarious as I used to. Guess your sense of humour changes as you grow up, who knew?

16. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg (Apr 27th – May 10th) 14 days 416 pages

I’ll be honest, I struggled with this one. I’m not sure if it was the setting (historically, geographically, linguistically) that put me off or the way it was written or what. I enjoyed the story but it just wasn’t really my thing.

17. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (May 11th – May 17th) 7 days 528 pages

My final Sarah Waters book (until she writes more! *fingers crossed*) and definitely my favourite of the ones I read this year. Set during the Blitz in London, it’s pretty much straight up historical fiction, and I enjoyed it very much. I think part of it was I related heavily to the characters going through this dramatic time in history, because, you know, pandemic! There were certain passages that really connected with me/felt like an echo of today in a way that was sort of comforting, I guess.

18. Doctor Who: The Maze of Doom by David Solomons (May 18th – May 19th) 2 days 272 pages

A fun, quick and easy Doctor Who romp. Not much to say about this one.

19. Room by Emma Donoghue (May 19th – May 20th) 2 days 321 pages

Possibly the opposite of the previous. If you know anything about Room (the book or the film, which I actually watched years ago) then you know the subject matter is pretty dark and harrowing. Because it’s told through the eyes of a child however, I found it pretty easy (in terms of speed rather than subject matter) to get through and read it in about 24 hours. It’s super compelling too.

20. The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas (June 6th – June 11th) 6 days 372 pages

This, as far as I remember, was just a random one that I managed to pick up (metaphorically since I read this as an ebook) but it was pretty good. Possibly my favourite random discovery of the year, an interesting look on time travel and its consequences, based around the discovery/invention of time travel by four women scientists in the 1960s (I think) and how it affects the rest of their lives.

[beautyiisterror]

10 questions tag 📚

Rules: answer 10 questions and ask 10 new ones. Thanks so much @therefugeofbooks for tagging me in this, i’m so excited!!!!!

1. What's your favorite cold drink?

if we are talking about alcoholic drinks, caipirinhas are the utimate cocktail, do not @ me!!!!! all flavors, are just *chef’s kiss*, but like in general i love orange juice and ice tea.

2. What's the first thing you notice about a person?

i honestly don’t know??? i mean, if they are goodlooking and not a bad person??? those are literally my two criteria. i like people who are smart and have pretty smiles and kind eyes, just not to sound shallow (which i kinda am lol)

3. Do you have any pets? What would you name if you had one (more)?

I DO!!!!!!! i have two pets acctually, a cat and a dog and they are EVERYTHING TO ME!!!! their names are jake (the dog) and belo (the cat). if i had one more, i would like to have a black cat named luna, because i’m a sailor moon trash.

4. What was your favorite TV show growing up?

i don’t really remember, but i used to love all shows with girls doing stuff? like winx club and totally spies. i used to love those!!! i still kinda do actually. 

5. What's your ideal vacation?

i love travelling with friends, and unfortunately, i don’t get to do as often. so i think my ideal vacation would be like travel to a really cool, unexpected place, with the biggest number of my friends that we can gather to such adventure. 

6. Is there any book that you want to read but by any reason you keep avoiding it?

you mean like, 70% of my bookshelf/kindle library????? hahahaha honestly, i buy books faster then i can read them so is always a HUGE tbr pile all around my room, i’m a chaotic reader, and i take no pride in that. but usually the books i keep avoinding are the classics, and the bigger ones. specially because, from a little time now i’m trying to add diversity to the cultural stuff that i consume, and it doesn’t help that most of the books i have here are from dead cishet white dudes. but i will get around reading them, even if is just to complain about it. 

7. What book do you hope will be turned into a movie or TV show one day?

one of the best books i’ve read this year was my sister, the serial killer by  oyinkan braithwaite, honestly, this book has everything that i love in fiction: complex women, sibilings relationships, FAMILY DINAMICS TO DIE FOR, pretty women comiting murder, humor... honestly five out of five stars, and i would love to see a movie adaptation of it. i would also love a kyoshi duology adaptation, even if i’ve only read the first book yet, i just love avatar universe so much, and kyoshi is my favorite avatar (ALSO A BISSEXUAL WOMAN OF COLOR IS JUST EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) it would be awesome to see a show about her. bonus points if it is animation, but honestly, there are so many great asian actresses around, i would love anyways.

8. Are there any books that are really popular but you dislike?

i can’t really remember many of those, even if i’m really picky with my readings, i’m quite easy to please. but a recent reading that was ABSOLUTELLY FRUSTRATING because i really wanted to like the book, was hanya yanagihara’s a little life. once again, the book covered subjects that i usually fell really drawn to, such as coming of age, found family, FRIEND GROUPS THAT DON’T FALL APART AFTER ADULTHOOD, non white writer/main characters, lgbtqia+ characters. honestly, a nox’s favorites textbook premise. AND YET, I HATED IT SO MUCH!!!! all the unecessary pain that some of the characters go to, that at one point through my reading i just rolled my eyes when something terrible happened/was revealed about the past of one of the main characters. and the identity of the non white characters wasn’t really explored as they should? it honestly felt like just more excuses to make those characters go through MORE PAIN. it was honestly hard to finish it up. and the more frustrating thing is that so many people seem to think this is a great representative book, just doesn’t sit well with me. i also think is impotant to say that there are SO MANY POSSIBLE TRIGGERS IN THIS BOOK, AND I DIDN’T SEE ANYONE TALKING ABOUT THIS BEFORE I READ IT!!! so i’ll leave a list of the triggers i was abble to notice throught out my reading, in case anyone is thinking about give it a go:

content warnings for a little life by hanya yanagihara: self harm, suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, disordered eating, physical abuse of a minor, domestic abuse, abuse of character with a disability, loss of a child, drug abuse/addiction, sexual assault/rape, pedophilia, ptsd, forced prostitution of a minor 

9. When did you last visit a library?

wow it has been so long... i think it was sometime in march of this year, that i went to my college library to pick up some class readings that i had to do, and then QUARENTINE HAPPENED, and i still am with the books i picked up lol. thank god that they lifted up the tax for late books or else i would have to sell my soul to pay it hahahaha i really miss going to college...

10. Could you recommend me a book that you think is underrated?

THIS IS SUCH A HARD QUESTION!!!!!!!!!! as i’ve said, i’m trying to do more diverse readings, and in this time i have come in contact with celeste ng’s work, and it’s honestly SUCH GREAT STORIES!!! i also love some contemporary brazilian authors like vitor martins and lucas rocha (both were translated to english recently, and i really recomend that if you are a english speaker you check their work), i also loved laura pohl’s debute novel, the last 8, she is brazillian as well, but her work is published in the us so no excuse not to check out. also, if like me you are a big fan of avatar universe you totally should check the kyoshi’s novels by f.c yee!!!! i also been meaning to pick up the trilogy of the poppy war written by r.f kuang and children of blood and bone by tomi adeyemi, simply because: WOMEN OF COLOR WRITTING FANTASY!!!!! but it’s not really a recomendation, as i have not read those books, but i am definetly doing it in a near future. 

(another author that i can’t go without mention is olivia pilar, she is a black bissexual woman who writes love stories between black women, and some of her short stories are available in english as well, and honestly WHOLESOME CONTENT!!!!!)

— Here are my ten questions, i don’t really know who to tag, but if you see that, and want to answer it i would love to see your answers, so feel free to keep on the tag! i had a lot of fun answering it, and i hope you guys do to!!!

what is your top 5 literature characters, and why?

are you a tea, coffee or hot chocolate kind of person?

what is your favorite/chosen aesthetic?

if you were the final girl in a horror movie, which song would you like to play in the soundtrack when you got away?

who are your favorite relationships in fiction (of any kind)? 

how do you feel about villans?

what is your favorite boyband?

do you prefer physical or digital books?

what is your favorite type of story?

what is your favorite season?

Looking forward to see your answers ✨

[betweenthepage]

Mini Reviews

As always, you can find my reviews on Goodreads and you can also follow my Instagram

Review’s for: 

1) Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland 

2) Scammed by Kristen Simmons

3) The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

4) Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare

5) Ember Queen by Laura Sebastian 

6) The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh 

7) Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger

8) Tithe by Holly Black

Beyond the Black Door

The book read a bit like early 2010’s YA (which isn’t a bad thing, I was fine with it. But some people don’t enjoy it). While I enjoyed the general plot, I wish some parts of the book were left out so that Kamai—the main character—could get the ball rolling sooner. I feel like it would have made for more interesting situations. I really enjoyed reading all the characters—especially Vehyn and all his villainous ways! The diversity in sexuality was beautiful and I am so glad that people are finding themselves in these characters. I think it was done beautifully, and will hopefully open the door for more books like this. Overall, I felt like the conflict was resolved very well and realistically for the book—aka no, “everything happened because I say.” 3 out of 5 stars!

Scammed

I enjoyed the first book, but this book? LOVED. The writing is great and the twists and turns? Did not see a lot of it coming! I’ve been conned! I LOVED that we got to see more of the secondary characters (Henry and especially Charlotte who I love x3 now) and I hope even more of the other students get some screen time in the third book. Beyond Charlotte, I was surprised to see how attached I got to Moore! More Moore! Lol Some of my only problems with Scammed were that a lot of the events that happened could have easily been solved with honesty (but then...no drama!) and that Brynn—our main character—was an easy pawn. For someone who’s good at what she does, she sure got played. I’m still spinning at all the twists that happened, trying to piece things from the first book. Seeing if maybe I missed clues, suspecting everyone, questioning who the real villains are and their true motives. That makes for a good book. @ Kristen Simmons/ Tor Teen, please send me the third book today, I am ready for third book, today. I will eagerly be waiting the third book, which I am ready for today. 4 out of 5 stars!

The Kingdom of Back

Marie has once again written a beautiful book with emotion and grace. As a pianist, I’ve been obsessed with many composers, Mozart being one of them. I knew he had a sister but didn’t know how she too was just as talented as Wolfgang. This books scratched the surface of her talent and used their imagination to write a different world. While I enjoyed the writing itself, I did feel like the otherworldness was a bit confusing and for me, didn’t make a lot of sense some of the time. I had to ignore things or add my own things in order to make more sense of it. Some times I was a bit bored due to the plot slowing down. Beyond that, I was filled with rage at the real life injustice portrayed in the story that Nannerl had to face. Not only from society/the world, but from her own father. I wanted SOMEONE to shout at him. It truly is a sadness and loss to the world that her compositions were lost to the world and she didn’t get her chance to be just as great as her brother. Marie Lu talked about how she believes her music lives on through Wolfgang, I believe so too.

Chain of Gold

Normally with so many characters, I mostly enjoy them but really only care for a few. With Chain of Gold, I LOVED every single character. They all stole my heart in different ways. Though, Matthew is my favorite by far. I have a soft spot for sassy men who like clothes.

I absolutely loved all the minor plot lines; I can clearly see how they’re going to develop into bigger plot lines. Though since there were so many small ones, it made for the overall plot to be...lacking? Not that it wasn’t good, but I just felt like I wasn’t at the edge of my seat. But given everything that happened, I know it’s only going to give me more anxiety as the books continue. I also had to pull up a family tree to see who’s kid was who’s because there are so many Lightwoods. They’ve kept busy haha

I loved seeing all of our characters from TID and I LOVE how much EVERYONE knows Tessa and Will love each other. Makes me feel even more lonely lmao.

And the ending with some of the main characters...it’s a troupe I haven’t read in a while but I’m so excited.

4 out of 5 stars!

Ember Queen

I’ve finally read this! I didn’t get to it because I travelled for a signed copy and then school but finally!!

Lots of moving parts to this book, which make sense considering they’re in the middle of a war. A lot seemed a little too easy, and while many were lost on the pages, it wasn’t anyone we really knew. Thus, the feeling of it being too easy.

The big heart ache towards the end of the book, I knew was going to happen. It no longer had a plot or arc to move the story forward unlike everyone and everything else so it was made clear to me. Regardless, I was still incredibly sad as it was one of my favorite things. (Trying to be vague and avoid spoilers lol)

I LOVED that after everything Theo has gone through, even all the growth she has had, she still remained a soft hearted person, unafraid of her emotions. Embracing her tears and everything she felt. I love a strong willed woman, but we need more soft hearted women. Both are equally strong and Laura did an amazing job at capturing that.

The ending was great, I think. It took something Theo often thought about and was a big thorn to her plan and made her embrace it. It was fitting.

I was fortunate enough to start this trilogy early via an arc, and I’m so glad I got to see it to the end.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Beautiful

Right from the start, I fell in love with Celine. I love everything about her but especially that she wasn’t afraid to want power AND love. The setting and time that this beautiful (haha get it?) book was written was a time where POCs were still treated badly. I liked the fact that Celine—and others—acknowledge this as well as enjoy that all people from everywhere could have a place where they could work side by side. There wasn’t a character I did not like or love. I enjoyed them all, even when they annoyed me or broke my heart. Even the potential lives interests (plural). I love both though I have my heart set on one boy. I didn’t like that even though a lot of things were revealed, those things were still vague. I have to think it’s because grander things will be revealed in the next book, but for now, it’s left me a little confused. This would have made this a 4 star read for me. But I just loved Celine SO MUCH that I have no choice but to make this a 5 star read. She literally made this whole book for me. 5 out of 5 stars.

Steel Crow Saga

Listen...it’s an Asian inspired book filled with LGBTQ+ INCREDIBLE characters, found family, POKEMON-ESQUE things? Just buy the book already. Don’t even finish my review.

This book was great. Every character in this book was amazing in one way or another. Lee warmed my heart (we love a sarcastic thief) but Tala owns it. She was by far my favorite character. Everything she went through, has done...she’s amazing and her growth through the book speaks loudly. She fought a lot of inner turmoil (NO ONE WOULD BLAME HER IF SHE PICKED DIFFERENTLY THAN WHAT SHE DID IN THE BOOK...but I’m glad she didn’t) and all the emotions she felt? I felt them too. I just want to wrap her in a hug and make sure nothing bad ever happens to her again. I did find one of the characters, Jimuro, annoying up until the end, where his growth was finally tangible. He was big talk but finally led with actions. Good job, dude. Still want to mildly slap you, but it’s all good. The pacing of the book was perfect and I want to live in this world where I basically can get my own Pokemon. Or metal bend. I do wish some smaller details were talked about more, as it left me with a couple questions, but overall I enjoyed it. And I hope one day there’s a sequel. :(

4.5 out of 5 stars!

Tithe

Story wise, I felt it was rushed and definitely could have been longer for the pace. But I liked it for the most part. Beyond the pace, everything felt a little too easy. If that’s the case, I can make it in the Unseelie court too lol The main character, Kaye, was something. While I generally liked her, she’s very selfish and unaware of the emotions or well being of her friends and family. Possibly it could be because of what she truly is...but still. And while she apologized for some of her actions, it seemed very surface based and it just rubbed me the wrong way. Her one real friend, Corny? LOVE him. Felt for him too. I hope if he pops up again that he gets nothing but happiness because poor king. Roiben? He was cool. I generally liked him! He was kind of the calm to Kaye’s chaos. He didn’t have much character to him but I know the later story revolves around him more so I’m excited to see his development. 3 out of 5 stars.

[mascaratearsnlipsticksmears]

1..Who was the last person you held hands with? Probably My son

2. Are you outgoing or shy? Shy until I’m

Comfortable

3. Who are you looking forward to seeing? My surgeon

4. Are you easy to get along with? I try to Be. Don’t give me a reason to not Like you 😉

5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you? Never had someone take care of me from drinking .....I’m usually taking care of everyone else

6. What kind of people are you attracted to? Loyal. Chill. Down to earth .

7. Are you married? No.

8. Do you want to get married? Eventually . I do , but I need it to be for the right reason.

9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable? Makes me feel Lonely lately believe it or not.... 😔

10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? Steve

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say? “Oh cool 😎”

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

lil peep- star shopper

Brand new-Jesus Christ

Bebe rexha- I’m a mess

Anything Billie eillish

Doja cat -rules

Ashnikko-daisy

That’s more than 5, Idc

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair? Only certain people

14. Do you believe in luck and miracles? I don’t know anymore

15. What good thing happened this summer? Got a tan and not covid 👌🏼👌🏼

16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? My little guy? I will kiss him when ever I can cause one day he’s not gonna want me to and I’ll be sad

17. Do you think there is life on other planets? Absolutely

18. Do you still talk to your first crush? Yes

19. Do you like bubble baths? 110%

20. Do you like your neighbors? Yea

21. What are you bad habits? Overthinking, caring to much.

22. Where would you like to travel? Anywhere

23. Do you have trust issues? No, people that scumbag me Normally get cut off so I only keep ppl around I trust.

24. Favorite part of your daily routine? Coffee & a bowl

25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with? Uhhh everything from the chin down 😔

26. What do you do when you wake up? Set gage up for class in the living room

27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?darker

28. Who are you most comfortable around? Lauren Rayza

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up? They don’t get the chance, yes a few tried to contact me but my mentality is fuck them.... one even tried emailing my friends to reach me 🙄🙄🖕🏼

30. Do you ever want to get married? I do, one day. Didn’t I just answer this

31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail? Yes

32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with? Idk I’d have to think about it

33. Spell your name with your chin. The fuck?

34. Do you play sports? What sports? Bought a bike yesterday Lol. I used to be on the swim team and I played soccer~ also took dance for 7 years.

35. Would you rather live without TV or music? Depends on my mood

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them? Absolutely.

37. What do you say during awkward silences? Try to avoid them at all Costs

38. Describe your dream girl/guy? No.

39. What are your favorite stores to shop in? Sephora Ulta Victoria secret

40. What do you want to do after high school? Lol I think that bridge has been crosses already

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance? Not everyone , no.

42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean? Normally bad anxiety and hurting , or extremely chill

43. Do you smile at strangers?

Yea I do.... but now I forget I have a mask on and look like a retard

44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean? Can I just going fishing ?

45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning? My son.

46. What are you paranoid about? Money

47. Have you ever been high? There’s a joint in my hand.

48. Have you ever been drunk? Who writes these things??

49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about? No.

50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore? Navy

51. Ever wished you were someone else? Eh wish I was still me with more $$$

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself? I don’t have to wish, I’m doing it.

53. Favourite makeup brand? Tarte, morphs, fenty

54. Favourite store? Didn’t I answer this?

55. Favourite blog? My own💚

56. Favourite colour? Black, Periwinkle , light lavender ,pink

57. Favourite food? Japanese

58. Last thing you ate? 8 hours slow cooked ribs

59. First thing you ate this morning? Coffee

60. Ever won a competition? For what? Probably & Idr

61. Been suspended/expelled? Started a food fight in the science lab and they suspended the wrong Angela ~Womp womp...I did get detention a lot cause my shirt was too low in the front tho.

62. Been arrested? No

63. Ever been in love? Yea I think so

64. Tell us the story of your first kiss? No. ☺️

65. Are you hungry right now? I could eat.

66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends? Meh

67. Facebook or Twitter? Fb

68. Twitter or Tumblr? Tumblr

69. Are you watching tv right now?yes

70. Names of your bestfriends? Stephanie Lauren Rayza Kat Christina

71. Craving something? A simple hand hold...😔.... compliment here or there . To not have to do everything myself... I crave the help I constantly ask for and never get. I crave dick, I just don’t understand this shit anymore.... damnit tumblr u struck a nerve .

72. What colour are your towels? Mixed

72. How many pillows do you sleep with? 1

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? No

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?idk

75. Favourite animal? So many..... tigers maybe? & Lynx. Sharks.

76. What colour is your underwear? Not wearing any 😬

77. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate

78. Favourite ice cream flavour? Mint chocolate chip

79. What colour shirt are you wearing? Olive green

80. What colour pants? None on.

81. Favourite tv show? In the dark

82. Favourite movie? All 50 shades.

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2? First one

84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street? How do these compare

85. Favourite character from Mean Girls? The Lebanese chick

86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo? Turtles

87. First person you talked to today? Gage

88. Last person you talked to today? Myself

89. Name a person you hate? Hate is a strong word.

90. Name a person you love? Gage

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now? Lol Geoff

92. In a fight with someone? No

93. How many sweatpants do you have? No idea

94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?Too many

95. Last movie you watched? “What if”

96. Favourite actress? Perry Mattfeld

97. Favourite actor? Hmmmm

98. Do you tan a lot?yassss

99. Have any pets? A zoo

100. How are you feeling? Confused, tired burning out ..

101. Do you type fast? I try

102. Do you regret anything from your past? Yes

103. Can you spell well? Eh

104. Do you miss anyone from your past? Yes

105. Ever been to a bonfire party? Yes

106. Ever broken someone’s heart? Yes

107. Have you ever been on a horse? Yes

108. What should you be doing? Listing stuff on Etsy

109. Is something irritating you right now? No

110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt? Absolutely

111. Do you have trust issues? No, just don’t give me a reason too.

112. Who was the last person you cried in front of? Ohhhh I don’t cry in front of ppl,cause then there’s a witness... did cry today tho, but you couldn’t see me.

113. What was your childhood nickname? Angiefur

114. Have you ever been out of your province/state? Yes

115. Do you play the Wii?not really

116. Are you listening to music right now? No

117. Do you like chicken noodle soup? Yes

118. Do you like Chinese food? Yes

119. Favourite book? Crank

120. Are you afraid of the dark?some times

121. Are you mean? Don’t cross me 😘

122. Do you believe in “the one that got away”? Yes.

123. Can you keep white shoes clean? I try

124. Do you believe in love at first sight? Idk

125. Do you believe in true love? Yes

126. Are you currently bored? Yes

127. What makes you happy? Attention lol romance? I think romance is dead tho...

128. Would you change your name? My last name? If I were getting married, yes

129. What your zodiac sign? Leo

130. Do you like subway? Food yes, smelly train no....

131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? All my besties have vaginas, nothing to worry about.

132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? Steve

133. Favourite lyrics right now? Brand new : Jesus Christ

134. Can you count to one million? Yea but why

135. Dumbest lie you ever told? I don’t lie so I don’t have that problem

136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed? Closed Cause only 1 Of my 4 asshole cats I allowed in my room

137. How tall are you? Oh how short am I? 5’1

138. Curly or Straight hair? Straight

139. Brunette or Blonde? Right now black

140. Summer or Winter?summer

141. Night or Day? Summer nights

142. Favourite month? August

143. Are you a vegetarian? Keto

144. Dark, milk or white chocolate? Dark

145. Tea or Coffee? Coffee

146. Was today a good day? I think so

147. Mars or Snickers? Dark chocolate Milky Way

148. What’s your favourite quote? I’d have to think about it

149. Do you believe in ghosts? Yes

150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?

“His thumb brushes my lower lip, and his breath hitches. He’s staring into my eyes, and I hold his anxious, burning gaze for a moment, or maybe it’s forever…but eventually, my attention is drawn to his beautiful mouth. And for the first time in twenty-one years, I want to be kissed.”

Excerpt From

Fifty Shades Trilogy Bundle: Fifty Shades of Grey; Fifty Shades Darker; Fifty Shades Freed

E L James

This material may be protected by copyright.

[heavensmortuary]

28, 18, 11 for writing asks? OwO

28: Do you need background noise to write? If so, what do you listen to?

Oh I definitely need music or something!! I'll usually listen to songs that remind me of my WIP, or movie soundtracks with instrumentals. Usually something high emotion lol, I gotta have that angst

18: What writers have inspired you with their use of language? What are some of your favorite quotes?

OH SO MANY WRITERS AAAA

Just to name a *few*, Rick Bragg, C. S. Lewis, Wendell Berry, S. E. Hinton, Jeff Vandermeer, Jerry Spinelli, Lois Lowry, Elizabeth Enright... So many more.

Heres a few quotes that resonate with me, though its hard to pick just one from these authors.

C. S. Lewis, from his Space Trilogy: "He had read of 'Space': at the back of his thinking for years had lurked the dismal fancy of the black, cold vacuity, the utter deadness, which was supposed to separate the worlds. He had not known how much it affected him till now - now that the very name 'Space' seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean ocean of radiance in which they swam. He could not call it 'dead'; he felt life pouring into him from it every moment. How indeed should it be otherwise, since out of this ocean all the worlds and all their life had come? He had thought it barren: he now saw that it was the womb of worlds, whose blazing and innumerable offspring looked down nightly even upon the earth with so many eyes-and here, with how many more! No: Space was the wrong name. Older thinkers had been wiser when they made it simply the heavens. The heavens which declared the glory.” (sorry, I had to include the whole quote bc wow. Also dude used the term "Deep Heaven" to describe space so I mean, bruh)

Wendell Berry: "The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."

Another by Wendell Berry: "Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone."

Jeff Vandermeer, from his Southern Reach Trilogy:

“I could not tell which part I craved and which I feared, and I kept seeing the inside of nautilus shells and other naturally occurring patterns balanced against a sudden leap off a cliff into the unknown."

"It seems like a myth, a kind of mythic tragedy, a lie, that I once lived there or than anyone lives there still. Someday the fish and the falcon, the fox and the owl, will tell tells in their way. Of this disembodied globe of light and what it contained, all the poison and all the grief that leaked out of it. If human languge meant anything, I might even recount it to the waves or to the sky, but what's the point?"

Jeff Vandermeer, from his Borne Trilogy: "What would you have done, reader, who has been able to follow me like the Magician followed me, invisible and ever-watchful and without consequence?"

And for Rick Bragg, I honestly wanted to put down like, all of his writing, but I'll pick a few:

Rick Bragg, from his book All Over But The Shoutin':

"This is a place where grandmothers hold babies on their laps under the stars and whisper in their ears that the lights in the sky are holes in the floor of heaven."

"Every life deserves a certain amount of dignity, no matter how poor or damaged the shell that carries it."

"Passion is something you really don't miss, after it has cooled. It is like looking at an empty bottle on the side of the road and thinking, "Boy, I wish I had a Coke." The loves you miss are the ones that go away when they are still warm, even hot, to the touch."

From his book, Ava's Man: "It is easy to be liked when the world has no jagged edges, when life is electric blankets and peach ice cream. But to be beloved, a man needs a dragon."

11. Set the scene for us. What are your settings like, and do you have any pictures saved that represent them? Do your characters travel and see more than one? What are their names?

(Ok Im gonna make another post for this right after this ask and tag u bc this ask is getting,,, long ajsjajjd)

[vaguely-concerned]

Mass Effect: Annihilation thoughts

TL;DR I fucking LOVED IT, a balm to my heart after struggling through Nexus Uprising! Also canonical lesbians! The sweetest quarian & his badass grandma! Elcor Hamlet except this time it’ll make you cry!!! 

- Aaaaaah the audiobook reader is Tom Taylorson (so male Ryder)!! Fryda Wolf (female Ryder) read the two others and did a nice job, but man I’m soft for his voice in a way only rivaled by (...outside-of-Overwatch!)Jennifer Hale and Nicholas Boulton haha. He also has a much better handle on the pronunciations and voices for the different alien species -- delightful, I’m still cackling over his pitch perfect elcor impersonation. (Bioware please give him more Scott Ryder to voice I miss my son)

- I’m only about half an hour in and this is already SO much better than Nexus Uprising, it really does feel like a brave new galaxy haha. Very funny, very warm and smart and engaging in how it does its characterization and Valente clearly has affection for the setting and the universe, she and Jemisin both do incredible jobs with these. 

- I’m fucking crying laughing at this cross-species near-brawl over a flower arrangement, god I love Mass Effect SO MUCH (what a neat idea though. something blooming quietly even when no one can see it. impractical as hell and hilariously including a high-nutrition celery now, but still neat)

Taylorson continues to wonderful things with the voices, that volus suit sound is so good. (he’s just generally really good at comedy) also a volus bellowing insults ‘moments before punching an anti-bouquet batarian in the groin’ sdafhjklsahfsjadkhfklajshdfkjlsadhf

- a high as a kite elcor... what a time to be alive, to get to read this book

I have already reached the ‘I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR’ stage with these characters, hard boiled drell detective lady and sweet sweet quarian first officer and manically enthusiastic elcor doctor TOT I would die for any one of you!!!

- The quarian/multispecies ark was built for long-term habitation, potentially over multiple generations. So what you’re telling me is that the quarians are the only ones who fucking thought this through and the rest of the Initiative probably should have listened to the people who’ve essentially been living on arks for ages. Who’d’ve thunk huh lol. (I guess the in-universe explanation is that people like the mysterious benefactor just wanted those arks yeeted to Andromeda ASAP, no time to get fancy in case the Reapers changed up their schedule. Fair enough)

- ;n; petition to let senna have a SAM pls (also uh. how happy do you think the stringently anti-AI quarian pathfinder will be when he finds out about everyone else’s SAMs lol lol lol he’s going to PASS OUT FROM RAGE upon meeting ryder. well he sounds like an asshole, I hope he dies so senna gets a chance)  

- I can’t BELIEVE yorrik is an anti-stratfordianist, i am betRAYED! disgraceful, how can I still love you knowing this (and yet I do he is extremely funny and sweet)!!! (at least his theory is that this so-called ‘shakespeare’ was actually an elcor, which makes it better somehow lol. anything so long as he’s not an oxfordian tbh)

senna and yorrik’s friendship is so good and wholesome 

- I really love the consistent alien POVs in this book, mass effect should indulge in this more -- everyone loves this universe so much, bioware, stop making us squint through a human lense to look at it!!  

- oh of course quarian ‘pirates’ exist, the people who’re thrown out of the fleet must be doing something huh. 

- haven’t written that many notes in a while just because I’m enjoying myself so much, I keep forgetting 

- lfsdkhfsajkldhfskadjhfsjakdfhsdkjfh communist volus!!!! this is not a drill, communist volus! I am completely and utterly charmed by this entire book

- the quarian ancestor VI is so interesting and weirdly touching. senna is adorable (and relatably neurotic lol)

grandma AI smoking T___________T I love everything about this, she’s so cool. the worldbuilding being done around pre-geth revolution rannoch here... exquisite 

- way to make me cry about batarians cat valente ;_______;

- the voice acting is SO FUCKING GOOD! I keep forgetting it’s one dude reading all these characters haha, I caught myself wanting to look up who voiced this dying batarian. (special shoutout that he does so many wonderfully distinct and specific female voices!) 

- haHA I KNEW the quarian VI was a full AI (or near enough that it makes little difference tbh)!!! this fabulous grandma was self aware the entire time b i t c h e s !!!!

- the running joke of borbala’s ‘you need ______? I can make _______ happen’ is SO satisfying hahaha

ooooooh serious femslash vibes!!!! initially I thought batarian ex-crime matriarch was too old for drell PI, but this is undeniable. (I don’t think we actually ever get to know how old annex is, anyway, come to think of it) I guess if asari get to be five times older than everyone else and still fuck freely this isn’t really that weird lol

- “don’t look! it’s not so bad if you don’t look!” ofhsdalfhskldlsfjas oh senna baby boy 

hey qetsi? qetsi both senna and I love grandma liat more than you. stand the fuck down 

- NOOOO GRANDMA LIAT ;______________________________________;

- do you think SAM could meet liat (either ship!liat or just grandma!liat).... and have... a friend ;_________; (a cool laidback friend who isn’t a murderous angaran ai who might very well go the murder suicide sort of friendship route lol) 

anyway I miss SAM a lot and love him??

- yorrik noooooooooooo this is awful everything is bad and terrible I love all of them so much why must senna be sad and watch everything he loves fade away 😭😭😭

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand?” He realized he’d forgotten to preface the words with an emotion. Now they wouldn’t understand what he meant.

Oh. Oh what a way to drive home the sadness and loneliness of this moment f u c k  (and again the emotion taylorson brings to it jesus cHRIST) 

I’m destroyed over how much senna and yorrik love each other, cross species found family out here wrecking my heart in true mass effect style 

- yorrik is such a great character though. he’d be so easy to make a one-note joke character (like most elcor have been in canon lbr), but there’s nuance and depth and just enough satsifyingly believable alienness there. (I love the staunch elcor ‘you can’t call anything love that hasn’t lasted at least two centuries’ perspective haha) his memories of his childhood and disappointment with his profession and everything... goodnight sweet prince indeed :(

- they went and made elcor hamlet heartbreaking how dare they 

(to be real for a second I think some of the human culture references are a little bit clunky, but the elcor hamlet stuff is perfect. contextualizing a throwaway joke from the original trilogy and giving it emotional depth, helping us see it from the elcor perspective and how frustrating and lonely it is to be so fundamentally not emotionally understood or seen on a level most of the other races are, despite their other differences, even though you have all these feelings and want to communicate... its very good.)   

fun additional fact: both mordin and yorrik have played/wanted to play polonius in a production of hamlet! though I guess mordin is the slightly problematic fave in that duo and yorrik is a sweet melancholic angel who has never done anything wrong in his life, I would say protect him but I guess it’s too late for that D:  

- qetsi giving off some real ophelia vibes here, I wish yorrik was here to see it, he’s the only one who’d properly appreciate it despite it all

- I. am. SO FUCKING HUNGRY for more mass effect after this (well even more so than usual) I’m so hyped!! I love this universe so much! I want a new andromeda game with senna as quarian pathfinder and grandma liat as the ship’s AI and see how they interact with ryder and SAM! (honestly though I feel like senna might be the one who’d translate the most cleanly into a game, I think there’s a lot of potential in him that’s barely being realized towards the end there with his deep righteous rage cutting through his uncertainty. also I just want nice things for him. is that so much to ask. he is a good boy, yorrik was so right.)

- aaaah not just femslash vibes, canonical lesbians, this is not a drill! I can’t wait until they propose... ‘we get shit done together, want to be in good cop/bad cop with me until the day we die y/n?’  

- the ME universe doesn’t feel quite itself without all these ‘background’ species hanging around, I suddenly realize. I dream of an Andromeda sequel with all of them on the board and in play again Y-------Y 

- potential Liat and SAM dynamics are so fucking interesting though! if she becomes/is confirmed as a full AI (all I hope and dream of), you’ll have two artificial intelligences with such different starting points but not that dissimilar goals? Liat was an organic person once who’s looking out for her family even now, and SAM is completely artificial but also intimately tied to and protecting His People. (and pulling a whole lot of symbolic weight re: the strength of familial/interpersonal relationships to boot; he’s the best way alec ryder managed to connect with his children. even though he was dead. because as established alec ryder was a disaster of a person)  

- I enjoyed the loose murder mystery structure of this quite a lot, but that might also be because nexus uprising is so shapeless and meandering by comparison that I’d be relieved by anything else (sorry I’ll stop ragging on NU soon it just. took some hours of my life I can’t get back)  

- jemisin did great stuff for characters already in andromeda (cora, SAM, alec ryder) and valente made me remember just why I love this universe so much and desperately want these aspects brought to andromeda too... and now I’ve exhausted all the fresh mass effect content I had available to me and will sit here consumed with lust for the rest of the time it takes for a new game to be announced thank you and goodbye  

[blackidyll]

It's been a long while since I've been on Tumblr, but here I am, trying to get back into my usual rhythm of life. Mainly: I'm alive, but I'm really, really tired.

The end of 2019/beginning of 2020 has been really insane. I fell sick for most of December - the whole cough/cold/sore throat trifecta that got so bad I finally ended up on antibiotics on New Year's Eve. I actually took two weeks of leave in December, but I was so sick and busy during this time that I basically got no rest whatsoever, and when I got back to work in January it was to drop straight into an absolute tsunami of work - one huge project ended the day before Chinese New Year, and immediately after CNY holidays I had another huge executive event to prepare for (I was working over weekends), and when that ended last week I got YET ANOTHER project dumped on me. Covid19 and the political situation in my home country is also taking its toll. I feel like the past two months has been an absolute blur - mostly of stress and negativity.

I'm so tired, you all.

Anyway, I'm trying hard now to pull back and strike a balance between work and having down proper time. I owe quite a few of you replies to messages and chats, and TBH there's like 60+ comments in my AO3 inbox that I haven't had a chance to respond to. I'm going to try hard over the next few weeks to get to all of them. I really appreciate every message and comment I get, because they constantly remind me there's still people and the entire world out there, when sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in my head with all my stresses and worries and the day-to-day grind.

I'm going to go throw a bunch of things in my queue to get this place kickstarted again, but in the meantime - have some fic recs. I've been reading a lot of fic to keep afloat the past three months; these are the WIPs I'm following at the moment. I'm completely out of creativity so my own fics will have to wait, but it always gives me a boost when I see some love for my WIPs, so if any of these appeal to you, give them a read and drop some love to those authors too.

The Bureau Files series by Catsafari [The Cat Returns, episodic/case style canon-based sequel; Baron/Haru]

i kill giants by diasterisms [Star Wars new trilogy; canon-based sequel to The Rise of Skywalker; Rey/Ben]

Ragnarǫkr, Part 3 of the Sharingan Rising series by weialala [Naruto; canon-divergence with supernatural elements; Sasuke-centric, technically Sasuke/Naruto but is more Sasuke's relations with everyone]

Peripeteia, Part 4 of the Carry Your Heart verse by mondaze [Shingeki no Kyojin; canon-based A/B/O verse, eventually diverges at the retake Shinganshina arc because Erwin lives (\o/); Erwin/Levi]

Just Another Day by Tierfal [Fullmetal Alchemist; post-manga series, Roy has severe PTSD; pre-relationship Roy/Ed]

try something new by gdgdbaby [Nezha (2019); post-movie oneshot where the two have grown up and gotten their bodies back; Nezha/Aobing]

WIPs that haven't been updated recently but since I'm on a roll, you all should read them:

Nukume Dori by Leareth [Tokyo Babylon, X/1999; canon-divergence, kind-of time travel with X!Subaru falling back into the TB!timeline with all his memories intact; Subaru/Seishirou, a lot of trio interactions with Hokuto] 

boy with a coin, Part 5 of the signal to noise series by twigcollins [The World Ends With You; post-game sequels exploring the consequences of Neku winning the long game and Joshua deciding to bring him back to life; Joshua/Neku]

(more info and my comments on each fic under the cut, because they get long)

The Bureau Files series by Catsafari [The Cat Returns, episodic/case style canon-based sequel; Baron/Haru]

I've been (re)watching Studio Ghibli movies on the weekends and I fell completely in love with The Cat Returns (I love Whisper of the Heart but I missed this movie somehow?). This wonderful sequel fic series focuses on an adult Haru that becomes a full-fledge member of the Cat Bureau and goes on plenty of adventures with the Bureau crew. It's also 500K words (!!!) of delicious slow slow slow SLOW burn between Baron and Haru. I just found out the author will be posting the next installation in the series this month, so you know. Perfect time to read the existing content and then follow the author's weekly updates for more of this amazing series.

i kill giants by diasterisms [Star Wars new trilogy; canon-based sequel to The Rise of Skywalker; Rey/Ben]

Yes, I'm a Reylo fan. I find the grey dynamics between Rey and a vaguely redeemed Ben Solo fascinating. I think it's because I was such a huge Luke and Mara Jade shipper from the Legends days. Anyway, I'd recommend pretty much all of diasterisms's Reylo fics (they nail the characterization + growth arcs incredibly) but this WIP in particular is a direct TROS sequel, which is great for all us fans who were very WTF about the way TROS ended. Also - lots of Force ghosts :D

Ragnarǫkr, Part 2 of the Sharingan Rising series by weialala [Naruto; canon-divergence with supernatural elements; Sasuke-centric, technically Sasuke/Naruto but is more Sasuke's relations with everyone]

I think my bookmark gushes enough about this series (and the previous installment) that I don't need to rehash it here. But anyway, this sequel is flipping amazing. The world building is so incredible omg. The wait between chapters is very long but so very worth it.

Peripeteia, Part 4 of the Carry Your Heart verse by mondaze [Shingeki no Kyojin; canon-based A/B/O verse, eventually diverges at the retake Shinganshina arc because Erwin lives (\o/); Erwin/Levi]

I'm usually very, very particular about my A/B/O verses (the concept squicks me a little but some writers subvert the trope and those are amazing) and this is a really great take on the trope - Erwin and Levi bond first out of necessity and then have to rebuild/realize a romantic relationship out of it later; they're already such strong friends and incredible partners that the bond actually throws them out of whack initially lol. But the evolution of their relationship is so well written, and the sub-plot about Levi being targeted is also great. Anyway, in this particular sequel goes back to the canon-timeline; Erwin survives the Beast Titan charge, everyone finds out about Marley, and the Survey Corps goes on a mission to make contact with the outside world. I don't actually follow the manga but I know enough that this sequel is really intriguing me. Also, Erwin lives. Thank goodness Erwin lives.

Just Another Day by Tierfal [Fullmetal Alchemist; post-manga series, Roy has severe PTSD; pre-relationship Roy/Ed]

Everything Tierfal writes is golden, but this one. Oh man, this one. It gets dark, and sometimes that's bad if you're already stressed (your mood doesn't need more depressing things to drag it down) but sometimes... you also want to indulge in it, because when you see a character go through hard and traumatic times and make it out the other side, it gives you hope too, you know? Anyway, right now at chapter 2, it's all trauma and pain for Roy, so take caution while reading this fic, but......... Ed. Oh my goodness, Ed. He tries so hard. He doesn't give up. This fic reminds me a bit of But Not Buried This Time, where Ed is the one drowning in his guilt... I remember thinking while reading that fic, "goodness, everyone needs a Roy like this in their life." Well, for this fic? I just keep thinking, "goodness, everyone needs an Ed like this in their life."

try something new [Nezha (2019); post-movie oneshot where the two have grown up and gotten their bodies back; Nezha/Aobing]

not a WIP but what the hell. So this version of Nezha is hell of a lot different from the Nezha I remember of my childhood (in that....... Nezha 100% kills Aobing lol and I remember being very conflicted because I love dragons and Nezha kills a lot of them, but at the same time deity!Nezha is pretty badass?). So anyway, someone with creative control DEFINITELY has shipper glasses on when they made this movie, I cannot get over how adorable Nezha and Aobing are. I really enjoyed this movie, it was so over the top and funny. And they made Nezha and Aobing literal soulmates? This fic is cute and adorable because it's Nezha and Aobing traveling and helping the world after they grow up and regain their bodies, and it's just tons of adorable teenage(?) confusion where they're hovering on the edge of friendship and something more. THEY ARE SO ENDEARING I love them!!

Nukume Dori by Leareth [Tokyo Babylon, X/1999; canon-divergence, kind-of time travel with X!Subaru falling back into the TB!timeline with all his memories intact; Subaru/Seishirou, a lot of trio interactions with Hokuto]

Instead of dying on the Promised Day, 25-year-old Dragon of Heaven Subaru wakes up in his 16-year-old body during the Tokyo Babylon timeline. Having seen what the future holds, he decides to continue with his original Bet with Seishirou - this time fighting to win. In the latest installment, we go pass the TB timeline into the years before 1999 and the changes that the divergence makes is just absolutely fascinating, plus we start seeing more of the X/1999 cast, whom I love and adore.

boy with a coin, Part 5 of the signal to noise series by twigcollins [The World Ends With You; post-game sequels exploring the consequences of Neku winning the long game and Joshua deciding to bring him back to life; Joshua/Neku]

I love Joshua so so much but he digs his own bed willingly and he lies in it with all the broken pride he can muster. He's very much the master of forfeiting the game before he can lose, except this time it's Neku standing beside him, and Neku is very, very stubborn. Trust your bloody partner, Joshua (I say, with all the love in my heart for this Joshua and this poor beleaguered but incredibly stubborn Neku and the all the game mechanics and worldbuilding in this series). Also, the latest cliffhanger is killing me but I'm ready to see Joshua go absolutely feral on anyone who would dare touch his city and his partner.  

[houseswolo]

Day 7 - ‘Tis The Season To Be Thirsting

“That star belongs to me!”

While Rey and Kylo tussle for the star, here are today’s Thristies!

LostInQueue

(Tumblr: @lostinqueue-ffa​ | Twitter: LQffa | Ao3: LostInQueue)

What got you into Star Wars?

Hubs. I never watched it until after I was married. Let's just say my parents were against us watching TV... "go play outside" was all I really knew until hubs and I were married. Heh.

What made you a Reylo? Lightbulb moment!

That was a surprise actually. I mean, I noticed it in the movies, and hoped it wasn't just actor to actress interests there... but I'm a fabric designer and was looking for references for a handful of characters including Kylo to morph into a specific art style (I can't really contractually talk about) when I came across a Reylo anime style piece and that solidified it for me. The more I researched that the more I realized it wasn't just me that thought Reylo was a thing. I'm still squealing about it every time I read reylo fanfic. <3

Why do you write / make art?

Because it is fun and I'm usually inspired by others to go forward with it. I like the excitement it brings to others too :)

Which part of Adam do you like the best? 

His drive. I can get behind that. He's got the looks and that is wonderful, but the drive to be the best and the intensity he's been said to have on screen and on stage is admirable. I'm scared stupid on stage. lol...

Favorite Star Wars Movie

The Last Jedi

What do you like to write / draw / paint the most?

Action in all three. I love the angles, the way the world reacts to cause and effect, all of it. There's an intensity there that I can’t quite explain but I love it!

Your TRoS Prediction

That I'm going to drink too much soda and miss something important.

If you were an aesthetic... (colors, images, feels....)

I'd be warm fuzzy socks and a warm blanket. If I had to be a place though, I think I'd be a tall cliff looking over the ocean at sunset.

If you were a candy bar, what would your name be?

(no idea - totally open for what you guys think)

What's your ideal environment for writing / creating? 

A nice warm room - but not too warm because I will fall asleep.

Are you a dom or sub? 

Dom in life, sub in the bedroom. If I never met you guys, I would NEVER have had the courage to write that. :P

What's the most exotic/wierd place you've gotten intimate?

Field hockey fence... yes... outside at night...

What's your kink?

arms... eyes... hair... yep, definitely arms. Can't go wrong with feeling safe.

Use three words to describe yourself.

Kind, Optomistic, Strong

Meaning behind your nick / ID name

Oh, I always went by another one and sort of wanted to distance myself from it because it’s my gaming ID. But May is my slow month for work and I just finished a huge project by then, because of this I sort of fell down the fanfic hole and started writing in between projects. When I finally had the chance to make an Ao3 LostInQueue was born. It literally means I'm between work and play.

Are you a big spoon or little spoon?

little spoon.

Do you like it rough or soft? 

Rough. I put my all into life, I better get his all... O_O I'm just sayin...

Favorite toy

I can’t honestly say.

Favorite fic you read

Rolling the Dice by our very own MizuPhoenix  - It mixes all of the nerdy awesomeness I never knew I needed in a fic.

Favorite fic you wrote or favorite art you made

While I absolutely love Stars... It's a solid tie between Rey's Mechanics and Triggered. Rey's Mechanics was my first go at an AU and that opened up my nerdiness with Triggered. I've had fun in the craft ever since.

Favorite SW character besides Kylo and Rey

Rose, then Finn, can I have both of them as a favorite?

_________

Kaybohls

(Tumblr: @kaybohls​ | Twitter: kaybohls | Ao3: kaybohls)

What got you into Star Wars?

I was raised by a die-hard trekkie. Watching Star Trek was a weekly occurrence and something super special in our family. I have vivid memories of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and pretended to be Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge with plastic headbands over my eyes acting as my visor. When I was still a little girl, I begged and pleaded with my Trekkie single dad to let me see "the space one with the princess" and the rest is history. Headband visors became braid and hair buns, and "make it so" turned into "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Let's save the discussion of my teenaged obsession with Han Solo for another time...

What made you a Reylo? Lightbulb moment!

I'll admit, I had the tiniest inkling of a feeling during the interrogation scene in The Force Awakens that was instantly forgotten the second that Kylo Ren, hot as he may be, killed my first true, love - Han Solo. It took time and many more viewing to understand more about the character, and by the time The Last Jedi rolled around, the INSTANT the first force bond started, I WAS ALL IN.

Which Adam look do you like the best?

It's hard to say, I love when he's in full Swolo mode, but I really can't describe how much I am loving his slimmed down, "normal" Adam look he's been sporting lately.

Which Adam avatar/ role do you like the best?

Kylo Ben, forever and ever. There's some characters I love as well, some I love to hate, but Ben will always be my top pick.

Which part of Adam do you like the best? 

Easy. Dat mouth. His voice. His hands, and his eyes.

Favorite Star Wars Movie

I love ALL Star Wars. Really, I do. They all endlessly fascinate me in their own ways. I can narrow down a favorite from each trilogy, but I am SURE that The Rise of Skywalker will end up at the top of the list.

Your TRoS Prediction

I love to speculate. My friends will agree, and my family will roll their eyes, but the ONLY thing I can predict with absolute certainty, is that I will love it, no matter what. After all, it's Star Wars.

If you were an aesthetic... (colors, images, feels....)

This is probably a question best asked of someone else because, while I am a weaver of words, I find it impossible to do it for myself, haha!

What's your ideal environment for writing / creating? 

My Star Wars shrine of an office and zero interruptions. Music is a must. I get an astonishing amount of work done when I’m locked in a dark room with noise-canceling headphones on.

Are you a dom or a sub?

Dom, definitely.

What's the most exotic/wierd place you've gotten intimate?

A charter bus. How, when, and what is a good story for another time.

Use three words to describe yourself

If I hyphenate, can I use more? Awkwardly-charming. Protective. Clever.

Meaning behind your nick / ID name

It’s a combination of my middle and last names because, for a creative writer, I couldn’t come up with anything more interesting. 😂

Are you a big spoon or little spoon?

BIG SPOON. I can't fall asleep without cuddling my husband's ass. I HATE being the little spoon - don't stifle me with your love!

Do you like it rough or soft?

Wouldn't you like to know? Hehehe....The romantic writer in me wants to say soft...but I'm a naughty girl...

Favorite toy

Lelo Sona - The OG Goat!

Favorite fic you read

I've read so, SO many amazing fics, but there's a few that really stand out. The Sword of the Jedi (Like Young Gods/To Kingdom Come) will FOREVER be glued to my heart.

Favorite fic you wrote or favorite art you made

Stardust. Forever and always. I could write a hundred things and this one would still be at the top.

Favorite SW character besides Kylo and Rey

Can I pick two? Yes? Okay good. HAN and LEIA.

____________

Meet the Other Thirsties! Thirst Order Advent Calendar Day:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

cc: @tazwren​ @drnucleus​ @ashtyntaytertot​ @deadlikemoi​ @nite0wl29​ @thereylowritingden​ @housedadam​ @houseplaidam​ @house-crylo​ @housereysistance​ @my-jedi-life​ @shestoolazytologin​ @koderenn​ @thoseindarkness​ @areylofan​ @lostinqueue-ffa @queenoferebor @kaybohls @cosmo-gonika @roguesinside @wilsonthinks66 @dangertaylor​

[therealdaveofdaves]

Updates! Get yer updates here! New stories coming, a response to criticism, and more!

Hello friends! Thanksgiving week is upon us at long last, and the semester is winding down (omg, PRAISE!), so Ye Writer thought it was high past time I update y’all as to where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to!

First and foremost, we’ve got some new stories coming this week! Yep, time to get the Mazeverse fired up again after a too long hiatus, and we’ll kick things off with the start of the 2019 Holiday Trilogy featuring our heroes and heroines! I had so much fun writing those stories last year, that there was no way I was going to pass up on it this time around. Be on the lookout for the Thanksgiving story on...well, Thanksgiving Day!

Keep in mind, and I’ll be adding this to the author’s notes, that these stories will be taking place ahead of where we are in Maze of Moments Book Two, so there will be slightly spoiler-ish things popping up here and there that I won’t be getting into detail on over at the main story for quite some time. Still, I’ll be doing it in such a way - I hope - that it’ll whet your appetites and not give away too much.

Speaking of author’s notes, I got some interesting feedback on the most recent chapter of Maze Two, “Secrets,” last month.

WARNING! IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THAT CHAPTER YET, SKIP THIS NEXT PART!

So, Sheri reveals to Clay that she had been sexually assaulted while in juvenile detention. I got some feedback calling me out and accusing me of clickbait and that it was a disgusting tactic on my part. This was NEVER my intention. Indeed, it is a detail that was a part of the Season Two finale as part of a larger montage in the courtroom as Bryce’s trial was wrapping up. A few of you commented as to whether or not I had planned to address this in any way in my stories, and I chose to make it part of the narrative to flesh out Sheri’s character further. I am in no way attempting to bait my readers or to "take the easy way out”  as I was accused of doing. Further, this keeps my story in continuity as much as possible with the show itself, which is important to me - even though it has really become AU now owing to the events of Season Three and what I’ve already written. So, to the reader(s) who was offended by this, I’m sorry that you took it that way, it was never my intention for that, and I hope things are cleared up between my response to your comment and now here as well.

Moving on.

So the last month was a busy one for Ye Writer! Classes, creating a new class for the spring, committee work, fraternity stuff, and then trying to have a life outside of the university! Needless to say, Maze was put on the backburner for a little bit. But in what downtime I did have, I’ve been kicking around new ideas and scenes to write, and I really think you’re going to like what I’ll have coming up. A couple of 13RW characters I’ve never used in Maze before are about to appear!

Plus, with winter break just around the corner, Maze galore is coming! Yay!! I miss the Mazeverse!!

Finally, the ever lovely and dear friend of mine @platonic-ideation​ tagged me in the following: “You can tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to, so put your music on shuffle and list the first 10 songs!” (I’m gonna skip the tag ten people part though lol!). So, here we go!

1. Rainy Day - 10,000 Maniacs

2. Treacherous Doctor - Wallows

3. Save the Last Dance - The Drifters

4. Sunflower - Post Malone and Swae Lee

5. True Colors - Phil Collins

6. Walk Me Home - P!nk

7. We Wait and We Wonder - Phil Collins

8. Only Friend - Wallows

9. She’s a Rainbow - The Rolling Stones

10. The 59th Street Bridge Song - Simon and Garfunkel

So, there we have it! Be on the lookout for “We Gather Together” over at AO3 on Thursday! See you then!

Justin approves.