#a normal thread :)

[okthisway]

Elek don't flirt with my… colleague

[victusinveritas]

Honestly, for my part, I'm surprised there aren't as many post offices or beaches that need storming. And that there's an abundance of potatoes.

Book recommendations:

How the Irish Became White by Noel Ignatiev

Wounds by Fergal Keane

D-Day by Anthony Beevor

The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith

I'd love to hear about things your family (found family also counts) told you about during childhood, especially the historical happenings that might happen again, that just kind of... aren't so much of a thing in 2025.

[s0fter-sin]

nikolai hunting ghost down whenever they're on the same base and plucking him from whatever duties he has to whisk him away somewhere private. he has no authority, nothing more than his reputation as a rogue pilot with a few screws loose, but the way he fearlessly manhandles the ghost has people ducking out of his way anyway

behind a locked door, he offers ghost the choice of either curling up at his feet or sitting pliant in his lap, his full weight against him with his head lax on his shoulder; warm, comfortable, boneless

he then tucks his mask up above his lips and plies him with fruit and sweets; things he'd never buy for himself, indulgences he’d never entertain, wasted on a hollow shell like him

but nikolai? oh, he knows how much he deserves them; these precious moments of peace where the only thing ghost exists for is the next delicious bite

he feeds them to him one by one; thumbing strawberry juice and powdered sugar from his lips, humming in pure pleasure as he sucks it away, and smiles at ghost’s involuntary shivers when he feeds him his favourites. ghost doesn't even know what most of the sweets even are; what they’re made of or even what country nikolai buys them from. he just knows he loves them; loves the chase of nikolai’s fingers on his tongue after each one even more

nikolai always brings plenty for him, always draws it out, wanting these rare breaths of contentment to last for ghost’s sake as much as his own; offering plump bites of tart, homemade treats, letting rich chocolate melt between his fingers so it's soft in his mouth and watches his eyes flutter shut as he savours it

decadence incarnate; slow taught and hard won

ghost licks the dregs from his fingers and suckles them long after they're clean; the thought of an empty mouth so wrong to his sweet-clouded mind. nikolai coos in russian down at him, brushing his fingers through his hair as he holds him close, but he's too far away to take in any of it; the only thing holding him in the present the sugared fingers held gently in his mouth

after all, nikolai's always been his favourite sweet

[princedevitt]

[loversmore]

“i believe in you so what’s left is for you to believe in yourself.” – han

for @hyunsung ♡

[chaosgenasi]

What a bunch of bums. They got no batters, they got no pitching. You did good, Finnerty. Very good. Five for five, batting a thousand.

[foryoupeko]

Why is it that whenever ppl write Peko without Fuyuhiko it’s always Fuyuhiko being an apathetic asshole and Peko having an existential crisis for ten pages.

Fanon Peko: What do I do? The Young Master doesn’t need me, and I only know how to be a tool! If only a potential love interest could come and teach me how to be a stereotypical happy teenage girl!

Canon Peko: (Goes to parties, bakes with the girls, goes on walks on the beach, that bitch loves swimming) I hope the Young Master doesn’t stay in his room the whole day

Ppl don’t know how to write Peko without defining her by her trauma / doesn’t think Peko is worth writing unless it’s to fix her, and it really shows.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

you saved me before. i will not let you drown.

[zackthelion]

So did Shrek eat the other two boy shreklings or did Zendaya Shrek eat her brothers to assert dominance

[warrior-of-storms]

Chapter cover art for chapter one of Everybody's Gonna Hear Me Out

idk, it seemed like a fun idea, and I really love how it turned out <3

[activate-shadow-of-the-window]

Day 29 of Hermit-a-Day May: Skizzleman!

The Witch of Weaving, he is more often called Angel due to his tattered white cloak and unique Brim design. Masquerading as an upstanding follower of the laws of the Great Hall, his golden necklace can be inverted into a floating Brim that resembles a halo. It was a gift from the man who made him turn Brim, an unknowing common blacksmith by the name of Impulse.

[stacytea]

I've been chewing today a little too much on the idea of the oath being an eldritch foreign presence in fëanorionses' minds and the pulp that I keep on chewing on now is that the oath would actually be visible if someone did them brain scans. Not like brain tumors or some normal illness, it would look like these pictures of ghosts where it's always a blurry dark fog usually with something resembling eyes and mouth.

[natgoodmans]

books read in 2025 🤍

books read so far: 89 reading goal: 100

as always, askbox + dms are open if have any questions or would like to chat about books! you can find me on goodreads here, and on bookstagram here. 🤍

♡ indicates any new favorites; ⊹ indicates a reread.

january ⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚

1. writers & lovers by lily king 2. the art of memory collecting: 15 scrapbook, collage, trinket and zine projects for crafting treasured moments by martina calvi 3. tom lake by ann patchett (audiobook) ♡ 4. our town by thornton wilder ⊹ 5. beloved by toni morrisson 6. promise me sunshine by cara bastone (arc) ♡ 7. days at the morisaki bookshop by satoshi yagisawa & translated by eric ozawa ♡ 8. small things like these by claire keegan (audiobook) 9. beartown by fredrik backman ♡

february ⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚

1. the fellowship of the ring by j.r.r. tolkien (audiobook) 2. i'll pretend you're mine by tashie bhuiyan (arc) 3. sense and sensibility by jane austen ⊹ (audiobook) 4. the lonely city: adventures in the art of being alone by olivia laing (audiobook) 5. everything i learned, i learned in a chinese restaurant by curtis chin (audiobook) 6. tiny moons: a year of eating in shanghai by nina mingya powles 7. sorcery of thorns by margaret rogerson (audiobook) ♡ 8. more days at the morisaki bookshop by satoshi yagisawa ♡ 9. mysteries of thorn manor by margaret rogerson

march ⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚

1. an enchantment of ravens by margaret rogerson (audiobook) 2. white ice: race and the making of atlanta hockey by thomas aiello 3. lost and lassoed by lyla sage 4. holy terrors by margaret owen (arc) 5. swift and saddled by lyla sage 6. circe by madeline miller (audiobook) 7. a dark and drowning tide by allison saft (audiobook) 8. intermezzo by sally rooney (audiobook) ⊹ 9. my side of the river by elizabeth camarillo gutierrez (audiobook) 10. four weekends and a funeral by ellie palmer ♡ 11. the bell jar by sylvia plath (audiobook) 12. the break-up pact by emma lord 13. love lettering by kate clayborn 14. the partner plot by kristina forest 15. the rom-commers by katherine center 16. emily wilde's compendium of lost tales by heather fawcett (audiobook) 17. dolls of our lives: why we can't quit american girl by mary mahoney & allison horrocks (audiobook)

april ⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚

1. you between the lines by katie naymon 2. my not so perfect life by sophie kinsella 3. a quantum love story by mike chen (audiobook) 4. the siren of sussex by mimi matthews 5. the love wager by lynn painter (audiobook) 6. you belong with me by mhairi mcfarlane (audiobook) 7. puck and prejudice by lia riley 8. swept away by beth o'leary 9. great big beautiful life by emily henry (arc) 10. second first impressions by sally thorne (audiobook) 11. i who have never known men by jacqueline harpman ♡ 12. the belle of belgrave square by mimi matthews 13. the kiss countdown by etta easton 14. lovelight farms by b.k. borison 15. the wedding people by alison espach (audiobook) 16. the ex vows by jessica joyce 17. deep cuts by holly brickley 18. remember me? by sophie kinsella 19. here we go again by alison cochrun (audiobook) 20. the most wonderful crime of the year by ally carter (audiobook) 21. mistakes we never made by hannah brown 22. when you least expect it by haley cass (audiobook) 23. pitcher perfect by tessa bailey (arc) 24. the next chapters: an on the same page novella by haley cass (audiobook) 25. on the same page by haley cass 26. it happened one fight by maureen lee lenker 27. hello stranger by katherine center 28. ps: i hate you by lauren connolly 29. the rose bargain by sasha peyton smith (audiobook) 30. out on a limb by hannah bonam-young 31. make the season bright by ashley herring blake (audiobook) 32. flirting with disaster by naina kumar 33. first-time caller by b.k. borison 34. welcome to the hyunam-dong bookshop by hwang bo-reum, shanna tan (translator) 35. funny story by emily henry ⊹ 36. the guest cat by takashi hiraide, eric selland (translator)

may ⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚

1. evenings and weekends by oisín mckenna (audiobook) 2. the dragon's promise by elizabeth lim (audiobook) 3. the examiner by janice hallett 4. i want to die but i want to eat tteokbokki by baek se-hee, anton hur (translator) 5. the manor of dreams by christina li (arc) 6. lonely castle in the mirror by mizuki tsujimura (audiobook) ♡ 7. john proctor is the villain by kimberly belflower ♡ 8. the crucible by arthur miller, christopher w.e. bigsby (audiobook) ⊹ 9. in a not so perfect world by neely tubati alexander (audiobook) 10. the vanished birds by simon jimenez 11. time is a mother by ocean vuong 12. promise me sunshine by cara bastone ⊹ 13. straight white men / untitled feminist show by young jean lee 14. before we forget kindness by toshikazu kawaguchi, geoffrey trousselot 15. passion project by london sperry 16. the killer question by janice hallett (arc) 17. the cat who saved books by sōsuke natsukawa, louise heal kawai 18. bibliophobia: a memoir by sarah chihaya (audiobook)

[fulcrums501st]

the issue with Burt and Irv’s ending(?) isn’t that that was the ending or that they didn’t kiss or that it’s tragic. the issue is the screen-time ratio.

(this is written under the assumption that this is how the show is planning on sending off these characters. I am still holding out hope that this won’t be the case, after all the finale hasn’t aired yet)

but the issue is that we skipped over seeing just HOW the love transcended severance with them. we go from Irv awkwardly asking Burt out after an awkward dinner with his husband to BAM ominous car ride, and theyre talking to each other like they’ve met many times since the dinner but we don’t get to see any of that.

plus like now irv has now walked away, but supposedly he was fighting/investigsting against Lumon. and that was clearly important to him cuz he was painting the door over and over again. so his trust and connection to outtie burt must also have reached the same level of significance to him for him to do what burt says and get on that train, but we don’t see that develop. and if the show revisits Irvs implied corporate espionage them like cool, but it does as of now feel like irv is being written out. but still him getting on that train is like Irv abandoning all the implied corporate espionage without us even being cued in onto his corporate espionage and is not seeing his relationship with burt develop, the thing that convinces him to abandon the corporate espionage.

there should have been something in between where burt and irv meet up alone, and despite not knowing each other they still have this sense of familiarity that motivates them to keep going back to one another. like let’s see them realizing that this connection does in some weird way transcend severance. we don’t need to see them falling in love all over again across a season the way we did in s1, we could have just seen a couple moments of them seeing each other and hitting it off cuz the feeling and connection is still subconsciously there. we should have seen the complexities of their love transcending severance, instead of skipping it over and POOF now they’re saying goodbye and it’s unclear how much time they’ve even spent with one another, how deep the connection went, and how we got there in the first place. cuz theyre clearly talking in ep9 like they’ve grown closer since ep6 but I have no idea how. it is lwk left up to speculation.

meanwhile the markhelly stuff this season has no major skips or cuts in their development. we see the fallout of mark and helly being violated by helena and them overcoming that. and yes, they bang. but that’s not what annoys me. I didn’t need burt and irv to kiss or fuck cuz I agree theyre more reserved and the longing and the fact that they cant is a huge part of their dynamic. plus I hate when kissing and sex is just thrown in to make up for lesser romantic chemistry (markhelly cough cough). so I didn’t need burt and irv to kiss cuz there was the love.

but I needed their relationship to be treated with an appropriate screen-time ratio for their development, which markhelly gets, while it feels like burt and irv fell like they have scenes missing. so in the end the writers chose to show more development of the straight couple on screen while the gay couple feels like it has missing scenes. that’s why it feels rushed. thats why, despite the beautiful parallels and the beautifully tragic implications of their love transcending severance, it’s frustrating. cuz it largely happened off-screen, while markhelly was full screen, and after burt and irv got sm development in s1 the difference is noticeable.

love may transcend severance, but major missing beats in storyline threads and character development don’t transcend off-screen into the audience.

[rxttenfish]

theres a post going around thats driving me insane so i have to comment on it

no, lighter bones are NOT associated with secondarily aquatic animals!!! its the opposite!!! secondarily aquatic animals often acquire DENSER bones than their relatives!!!! not only does this help them be more stable in the water column, but it also acts as ballast to help them SINK!! they do NOT want to float!! they want to achieve a density that is roughly equivalent to that of the water around them and achieve neutral buoyancy so that it is equally as energy efficient to dive as it is to surface! secondarily aquatic animals already have lungs and fat stores and other things which are less dense than water and thus would float, so they need something to offset that, which often results in things like denser bones!!

penguins have denser bones than other birds! whales acquired denser bones in their evolution to a marine lifestyle! the extremely high density of spinosaurid bones is one of the primary arguments for them having an aquatic lifestyle!!!

[feralkwe]

Our once barren world now brims with life That we may fall in love Every time we open up our eyes I guess space and time Takes violent things, angry things And makes them kind

@t0talfail-1 generously helped me fix Elidibus' eyes, so naturally I had to re-do this set again. Thank you so much!