#and tbh even my reading i specifically want to FINISH the books so no more skipping around ;-;

[bussyslayer333]

2. say you feel the way that i feel

summary: jake finally gets a moment alone with you.

pairing: best friend’s brother!jake seresin x fem!reader

word count: 2.0k

warnings: swearing, smut (oral), allusions to smut at the end, jake being down bad tbh

previous part • drive me wild

Jake Seresin didn’t believe in luck. He never had to. It was hard work and skill that got him to the top of his Top Gun class. It was even more hard work and skill that made him stay on top.

Right now however, he was thanking his lucky stars.

Both his sisters are back at their respective houses for the day, his dad is out golfing, his mom is at book club, and Addy is at lunch with her high school friends.

That’s leaves him and you in the house. Alone.

Jake notices you from where he’s stood near the kitchen window. It’s hot out today, and you’re sat on one of the recliners near the pool reading a book in what could probably be described as the worlds tiniest bikini. It’s white and has little cherries on it. Jake thinks he might spontaneously combust. Before he can do so, you turn in your seat to catch sight of Jake in the window, wiggling your fingers at him in a greeting.

Jake takes this as a sign to actually make a move, when had he even been the guy to pass up on something he wanted? He starts towards the patio doors, but not before shedding himself of his shirt and checking himself out in the reflection.

“Hey sugar,” he drawls, slipping into the seat next to you, “don’t you just look extra sweet today?”

You can feel Jake’s eyes rake over your frame, paying specific attention to the flimsy ties of your bikini. You place your bookmark in and put the book down beside you.

“Hey, Jakey,” your voice comes out in a teasing lilt.

Usually he hates when people call him that, but he decides in that moment it’s probably the best thing he’s ever heard.

“Whatcha reading?”

Your smirk slightly and Jake realises whatever you’re bound to say is about to be amusing.

“Lolita.”

Jake scoffs playfully, “you’re funny sugar.”

“I’d like to think so,” you shrug with a smile.

Jake rolls his eyes and settles back into the recliner, the sun feels so good beating down onto his tense muscles. He thinks he could probably drift off until your voice rings through the air.

“Jake?” you question.

“Mhm?”

“Could you do me a favour?” you ask, voice dripping with honey, “pretty please?”

Jake opens his eyes and looks over to your pouting lips.

“Well since you asked so nicely…”

You hand Jake the bottle of sun lotion that had been resting on the small table between the recliners and roll over onto your stomach.

“Do my back?”

You let out a giggle as Jake audibly groans, unashamed of how you affect him. He watches with hooded eyes as you let the ties at the back of your bikini top loose, your modesty only being saved now by your position.

“I hate tan lines,” you offer.

Jake nods his head vigorously, “‘me too, can’t stand ‘em, great idea.”

His enthusiasm skyrockets your ego, you jut your hips up lightly and look to where he’s standing above you.

“You gonna sit?”

“Oh yeah, right.” Jake mumbles, disoriented.

He hovers over you awkwardly, a leg on either side of your waist. You look back to him again and giggle.

“It’s okay, y’know?”

Jake shakes his head as if to clear it and sits down finally. He tries not to think about how you feel beneath him and instead gets to work squirting the lotion onto his hands.

His strong hands are cool on your back, massaging into your skin. You cant help but whimper slightly as his hands massage lower.

“Feels good, Jakey,” you moan out.

Jake can’t wipe the smirk off of his face as he continues his movements until he’s satiated, grabbing languidly at the soft flesh of your back. After he’s decided he’s finished, Jake moves back to sit at the edge of your chair,

“All done, sugar?” He taps at your ass lightly.

You hum and push yourself upwards, turning to face Jake. His mouth goes dry as he catches sight of your bikini top laying lonely on the chair.

“Help me with the front?” You pout, something glimmering in your eye that Jake can’t quite decipher.

You reach over and take Jake’s hands in your own, they’re soft and still sticky with residue from the sun lotion, and guide them up towards your breasts. He can’t get enough of the way you feel beneath him, soft skin arching up towards his touch. When he swipes the pads of his thumbs over your nipples you gasp quietly and Jake chuckles.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he mumbles more to himself than you.

You whine, “I need you to touch me Jake.”

“I am touching you sugar,” Jake teases.

He knows what you want, but he just wants to hear you say it. You whine once again, it’s music to his ears.

“Touch me properly,” you huff.

Jake sighs and removes his hands from your breasts. His hands go to your thighs as he lies down on his front of the chair and pulls you abruptly towards his face. You squeal at the unexpected movement, widening your legs to accommodate Jake.

He reaches a hand up to the ties of your bikini, pressing a kiss to your inner thigh before speaking.

“As cute as this is sugar, I think I’d prefer what’s underneath even more.”

Jake’s words bring a further flush to your cheeks rather than the hot sun in the sky, you nod down at him to give confirmation for what he was about to do.

He pulls slowly at the string on your right hip, watching as it comes undone, the side already falling to expose more of your skin. Moving to the next one, Jake pulls just as tantalisingly slowly. Once it’s undone, he pulls the glorified scrap of fabric away from you and drops it to the floor.

“Fuck.” Jake breathes out.

He’s so close to your center that you can feel his breath on you, making you squirm.

“If that ain’t the prettiest sight I’ve ever seen,” he smirks.

You make a sound that mixes between a whine and a whimper and jut your hips up towards Jake’s face. He gets the hint, tongue darting out to lick a fat stripe from your entrance to your clit.

“Shit, Jake,” you breathe out, hands coming down to grab at his blonde locks.

Jake takes this as encouragement and immediately gets to work, tongue lapping at your clit languidly. Your hips jerk slightly at every flick, prompting Jake to place an arm over you as an attempt at stilling your movements.

The wet noises coming from where Jake’s mouth meets your center should be embarrassing, but it just serves as fuel for him to carry on. His tongue dips down to your hole for a moment as he laps at the wetness, groaning into you at the taste. Jake’s free hand wanders up your thigh to to play with your clit, middle and ring fingers drawing circles into the bundle of nerves.

You’re wary of your surroundings, but it’d be pointless to try and hold in your moans. They come out in squeaks and guttural sounds that please Jake to no end. He’s almost as vocal as you are, mumbles and groans sending delicious vibrations through you.

“I’m close, Jake,” you whimper out after a particularly salacious swirl of his tongue.

He looks up at you from his position between your legs and continues his motions, sending you over the edge with a high pitched whine. Jake coaches you through your high, legs spasming around his head from the pleasure.

He pulls back after a few moment to allow you to catch your breath, legs still shaking. You can see some of your arousal glistening on his chin, bringing heat to your cheeks.

“That good, sugar?” Jake drawls.

You roll your eyes. He knows it was. Instead, you wrap a small hand around the back of his neck and guide his lips towards yours. They’re soft, and you can still taste yourself on him which makes your shiver in excitement. Jake’s lips move in tandem with yours perfectly as you allow his tongue entrance, and something foreign twinges within him that he’s not felt before. Your hand is still at the back of his neck, fingers fussing with his slightly longer hair than usual.

You’re the one to break the kiss first, pulling back just to peck at his lips a few more times. Before Jake can speak, your phone is pinging on the table beside the two of you, stealing your attention from him.

“It’s Addy,” you smile apologetically, “she’s gonna be back soon.”

At the mention of his sister’s name, Jake is reminded of his somewhat unfortunate predicament; sat with her naked best friend in his lap.

“Yeah, of course,” Jake shrugs.

You move to stand from him, not before pecking at his lips once again, and bending down to pick up your discarded bikini. Jake smirks at the sight, alleviating his dulling mood by reaching a hand out to smack lightly at your behind. You snap back up with a gasp and point an accusatory finger. Jake raises his hands in mock surrender and defends,

“you’re the one flaunting that thing sugar!”

You scoff, trying to mask your smile, “creep.”

Jake laughs and goes to reach for you again as you slip away with a giggle. He watches your retreating form with a sigh falling from his lips. He should probably take care of his raging boner before his mom got back from book club.

Jake can’t sleep again. This time, his internal debate has been on whether or not he should try and sneak into your room. The noises you make, the way you taste, and the way you look when you’re so consumed with pleasure is all Jake can think about. You’re infuriating in the best way possible.

Once everyone had returned shortly after your garden escapade, you had descended the stairs in a little ditsy sundress that had Jake reeling. His older sisters and family had joined for dinner as well, Jake was blatantly ignoring every look that Josie was trying to send his way. She was the little moral compass angel on his shoulder, trying to steer him clear from anymore damage he could make. It was annoying because he knew she was right, she always was, and the way she eyeing him down after his gaze often lingered too long on you meant that she was well aware that something had already happened.

You were worth it he had decided at dinner, and he reiterated that as finally removed himself from his bed in lieu of finding you. He opened his door quickly and jumped a little in surprise when he looked down and saw you already there, looking up at him with the same amount of shock. He wonders how long you’d been out here, debating whether to knock on his door or not. Jake figures it’s best not to think about it too much in fear of falling any deeper into what was already becoming much too complicated feelings for you.

Instead, he takes in your attire, you’re clad in a large sleep t-shirt which ends at around your mid thigh and what Jake hopes is nothing else.

“I was just-” you begin.

“God, come here.” Jake sighs, scooping you into his arms.

You oblige happily, jumping into his embrace.

“Gonna make it worth my while, cowboy?” You tease.

Jake plops you down onto his mattress and towers over you for a moment.

“Is that what you want sugar?” Jake questions.

You reach a hand out to palm at the already growing bulge in Jake’s boxers, and smirk,

“more than anything.”

next part

a/n: ahhhhh here’s ch2!! i hope it’s up to standard 😭

thinking perhaps jake is in a tad over his head atm hehehe

i would love to hear everyone’s feedback and what u want to happen next so comment, reblog or send me an ask, i love to hear from u guys!!

tysm for reading :))

- honey <333

tag list:

@blairfox04 @eddiemunsonreader @aemondssiut @girl-in-the-chairs-void @1111zxc @flrboyd @morpheusmybeloved @moonbxtchsreblogs @moonbxtchsblog @fox-bee926 @djs8891 @dempy @daggerspare-standingby @potato-girl99981 @lilylilyyyyyy @bcon24 @abaker74 @callsign-viper @whatislovevavy @cherrycola27 @shanimallina87 @pulisvertz @hypatia93 @fudosl @hotch-meeeeeuppppp @onethirstyunicorn @alana4610

[sout999]

adhd talk

the third truly unsung project alongside my film and dissertation was the weird amount of targeted effort i had to put into Completing Anything Big As A Neurodivergent Person Whose Brain Is A Crazy Off The Rails Train Staffed and Patronised Entirely By Multiple Exact Copies Of The Squirrel From Ice Age

which is a description like 99/100 people reading this can relate to, but i think a sentiment i see less often and therefore feel kind of stupid and stubborn and lonesome about is "adhd is innate but is also exasperated by hectic lifestyle/modern instant gratification machines so if i fix my habits around those i can cure myself forever". which is silly and wrong but also i feel abit disconnected from adhd social media culture and cant cope just relating to it (which is all it seems to be sometimes) but learning to harness or tame it to do the things that are really important to me

i felt really cringe tbh having to look up youtube videos of HARVARD STUDENT REVEALS PRO STUDY TRICK and then narrowing it down to specifically adhd-focused study videos and keeping a planner and setting aside specific time to study studying and practising anti-academic meltdown journaling techniques and reading fucking atomic habits but i really didn't want to contribute to my abhorrent academic record following me all through undergrad. in fact i wish i had done this sooner but i was not self aware enough to consider the fact

probably the best change i made was severely cutting down or being mindful of social media time, i don't backread my tl anymore and have more moments of awareness when i find myself dumbly scrolling and realize i dont want to be doing this, and then wondering what i actually Do want to be doing. i keep a book nearby to read, and have also swapped a lot of social media time to sketching-off-pinterest time. reading about the psychology behind social media apps is also super interesting, although i always feel like a paranoid wacko conspiracy theorist talking about it. stuff like how negativity and judgemental behaviour is good for engagement (and therefore ad revenue), and how if all posts on your tl were interesting you wouldn't be as addicted to social media as you are, therefore microblogging employs a slot machine/gacha system where you "roll" for posts by logging on and hope to get a good one. it's a little full on but the more i think of it as a revolting and evil machine the more incentive i have to do something else with my time ^q^

a harder thing to do was, in the late stages of the project, the real crunch time month, avoid everything that could become a huge hyperfixation, and then eventually even minor distractions or fixations. because i know if i got super obsessed with something i'd just be up posting about it or drawing fanart. i had to bar myself from persona 3 remake and elden ring dlc and all these other shiny new releases, and the mobile games i was playing... i look forward to catching up on them now. i took up reading books a lot more because unfortunately thats just not as exciting. in the last month of film work i stopped listening to music on my computer so i wouldnt get drawing or animation ideas to distract me from film work. as of writing this i havent listened to music in like 40 days guys 😱 at the same time i am the kind of person who needs background noise to work, so i have:

watched novum's four hour hereditary video essay three times

watched novum's seven hour midsomar video essay three times

watched that one five hour bojack horseman retrospective twice

listened to audiobooks of the Britney Spears biography, Jennette McCurdy biography, three Playboy Bunny biographies (i was on some sort of lady bopgraphy kick i guess), and a few fiction books

rewatched all of bojack horseman

started on House MD and got a few seasons in before i finished the project, amazingly the perfect show to look away from bc of all the medical stuff, how many lumbar punctures do you need to show like seriously

honorable mention to the learned skill of communication and being honest and picking your battles and killing your darlings which is a larger part of managing mental illness than i cared to admit but one of the hardest ones because it involved confronting things and making big painful drastic changes and then having to tell the faculty about them. sometimes i'd be stuck on a piece of animation work for weeks/months, then go back and change the underlying idea to one i'm actually passionate about, and do the animation work in one day using newly found magical hyperfocus passion power. it's crazy! but being able to be confident about taking those steps rather than keeping on with what you're "supposed" to do went a long way.

i very much look forward to listening to a music and playing some video games properly now and being pulverized like a small victorian child from the sheer amount of fun i'm having. i'd say it was all worth it and a fun experiment in channeling the magical humours of passion and boredom and i hope it will help me with future projects too. i Am super burnt out though x__ x thanks for reading and for all your support up until now!

[skyfallscotland]

Ok, House of Sky and Breath live reactions, final part! We're done! Only one more Maasverse book to go. Thank fuck

• Ithan noooo! How will Tharion ever survive if you die before he realises how perfect you are together?

• Oh, Tharion's actually here? Don't worry Dumb, Dumber is here to make sure you're ok 😭

• Wait??? Is Tharion with Hypaxia?? I mean...that's ok, she thinks Ithan's cute? We could make that threesome work??

• Ooooh Ruhn setting up his own Cinderella moment? 🥺 top tier shit!

• Ruhn's Cinderella moment getting ruined by the evil step-sister? Not top tier shit 😤

• WAIT, Hypaxia and Celestina?! Ok, that one I didn't see coming! Literally everyone in this fic book is in an arranged marriage and none of them want to be in it and honestly, I'm so tired of SJM using consent and rape as a plot device and barely ever touching the consequences

• Almost as sick as I am of Bryce and Hunt's sex drive. Shut the fuck up, honestly, you're insufferable!! I'm almost finished this book I think? I hope? And there's been barely any (worthwhile) plot whatsoever. I'm here for the smut, I love smut, but there is such a thing as too much and these two are so boring, I can't even. I'd rather eat stale bread, bye

• Lidia 😭😭 Imma take that as confirmation that I'm right and Day is the Hind. I have such a soft spot for the sister who was discarded and turned into a vicious little thing, may she get her own shadow wielder, she deserves it 😭🖤 Remi 🤝 Lidia forever

• "I don't have a foot fetish." You're BITING HER TOES 😭 I hate them istg

• Oh, we're talking about a war? Yeah, must be the last 200 pages.

• Tharion is such a fucking idiot. Maybe that’s why I ship him with Ithan—just...dumb and dumber.

• Baby Baxian being Danika's mate? Danika not telling Bryce a single thing? No, no, nope, not having it. Firstly, Baxian deserves better tbh. Secondly, Bryce is an idiot if she a) missed aaaall this and b) still thinks Danika was ever her friend, what a [insert c word here]

• It’s actually incredibly depressing how much emphasis she places on sex and the way the men are always thinking about sex. Like?? I’m not here for realism gal and I’d like a side of feelings with that. Ruhn is at least more interesting than Hunt in that regard, but still…ugh.

• “Your starborn bloodline specifically hailed from a small isle a few miles from the mainland….the isle existed in a near-permanent twilight” ACOTAR Dusk Court???

• Celestina being a backstabber? I was surprised tbh, you lulled me into a false sense of security in those many, many pages, good for you SJM, but also, fuck you for handing her someone as nice as Hypaxia, unless she's about to turn into a hidden psycho too

• YAY, the internet's worst kept secret is here! Hiiiii Rhysy! 👋🏼

• Also the internet: what if Azriel is Bryce’s real mate??? Me: what if Azriel and Bryce are related??? 👁️👄👁️ Not sure how my mind jumps to the complete opposite place of other people all the damn time but…here we are 🤷🏼‍♀️

Final impressions: • fuck that was a big book for not much happening • why the fuck did i ever need to find out anything about sofie or her brother at all, what a waste of time, really • danika's still winning the world's worst friend award, two books running • if i ever have to read about bryce and hunt having sex again it will be far too soon.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for telling my two friends that they might be “soulmates”?

okay for privacy sake i will use abbreviations… so i (27NB) have two coworkers-turned-friends named T (28M) and B (27M)… they had known eachother before i ever met them and were both to my knowledge straight and cis

the three of us game a lot and have hung out every week over the past 8 months since i met them. T and B feel like they could have been my brothers separated at birth; we get along great and have the same humor. they treat me like “one of the guys” and it gives me a lot of euphoria as a transmasc enby

some nights we spend listening to eachother talk about specific interests that each of us has. B is a DM and is obsessed with D&D, T loves politics and history so he rants about it a lot, and i’m into psychology and personality typing. we each like talking about these things but are casual-enjoyers compared to the respective person who has more of a die-hard obsession. it’s a good way to unwind; getting drunk or high and listening to somebody else go off the rails about a topic you enjoy

i just recently got a new book about personality typing. to sum up, it deals a lot with how others interact with eachother and what each person values (it’s a socionics book). tbh it’s all just fun for me, i love reading theories about behavior. both T and B have had me “type” them and they’re entertained by it so when i got this new book and we hung out two nights ago i was excited to have some drinks and rant about the book i’m reading…

they were excited, too. i was tipsy while ranting but i remember a lot of laughing and me pacing around while i talked. i may or may not have accidentally knocked over one of B’s lamps when i walked past it. but it was all just positive reactions to what i was talking about. i talked a lot their own personalities, but neither of them seemed bothered. they’ve said before that they kinda like it when i “psychoanalyze” them…

here’s where i maybe am an asshole.

after i got too drunk to keep ranting, we started playing mario kart. playing mario kart while drunk is hilarious tbh and we aren’t competitive people much. T and B are always pretty nice to eachother about it. so, in the last round we were playing B knocked T out of first place at the last second and other than a playful slap on the arm/joking insult T didn’t really seem to mind. he even complimented B on managing to do it while drunk. i’ve definitely had friends play mario kart and attack me for doing a lot less than what B did

so, stupid and drunk, i made the connection in my brain what two types they might be from the book i’m reading. i told them as much and they both seemed interested but want to know why i thought that. i pointed out that they are both a little soft around eachother and tend to have similar values. i explained the two types i thought they each fit and they seemed to agree up until i explained… that those two types are considered “soulmates” (the book also calls it “duality”) which might be why they are so close

immediately T got kinda defensive. he asked me what i meant by that and i stupidly told him more about it rather than noticing his tone. he was a little too quiet after i finished talking so i tried to make it better him by telling him it was “just pseudoscience” because honestly it is. when T didn’t speak for a minute or two after that, B got up to go to the bathroom.

i don’t have a super clear memory of what B’s reaction was since i was focused on T, but i vaguely remember him looking happy about it before T spoke and until i saw his face when he got up i figured he hadn’t been bothered. B is a bubbly kinda guy, always smiling, but when he left he looked hurt, sad…

i was pretty confused. i’m not great at social cues and even worse if nobody tells me how they feel. jfc add drunk on top of it and i’m lost. T and B are usually patient about that and talk it out with me but we only ended up hanging out for maybe 20-30 mins afterward and when T and i left to go home nothing had really been resolved.

i had kinda forgotten about it when i went to bed that night but the next day i woke up to a text from T that essentially said “can you not talk about B and i like that we’ve had this issue before and we’re not gay”

as a queer person, both trans and bisexual, this is always a weird situation for me to be in. i’m not sure how to explain to a straight cis guy that “soulmates” can be platonic. i just texted back saying okay and kinda left it at that and B hasn’t mentioned it not even when i saw him at work yesterday. he seemed kinda quiet once or twice but not much different.

but tonight i have a shift at the same time as T and i’m worried i was already an asshole but that i’ll be an even bigger asshole if i push this topic any further. idk it feels unresolved

tl;dr i implied two of my straight cis guy friends were “soulmates” and one of them got very awkward/defensive about it but the other got kinda sad. i want to ask them more about it and talk about it with them. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[odyssean-flower]

the winding path of fate chapter 13 sneak peak

(this is the second half of the first part. I want to rewrite the first half. tbh i'm thinking of posting the first part of chapter 13 since it is relatively long. ngl i feel like i put too many events in a single chapter sometimes. will put up a poll tomorrow when i finish the rewrites.)

With the new day and the cozy safety of your room, the events of last night seemed like they happened a lifetime ago. The fear had mostly subsided, leaving mortification and regret in its wake, especially as everyone was acting so considerate towards you. Looking back, you had no idea what you were thinking, and you realized once again just how lucky you had been.

Your ankle’s swelling had gone down considerably the next day, but it still hurt whenever you put even the slightest bit of pressure on it, so you spent most of the day in bed, reading books, drawing, or staring out the window at the gray sky. Your knee didn’t hurt quite as much either, but you still had to change the dressing regularly. You weren’t without company, though, as Marie sat with you in your room often, bringing you food and helping you put away your newly bought clothes in your closet. She had been horrified when you came home last night, injured. “Oh, Madame, you should have asked someone to get me!” she had lamented. “The streets at night are no place for a young lady to walk by herself!”

Marie wasn’t the only visitor to your room. The Melusines, including those who hadn’t gone shopping with you, also came to see you throughout the day. You supposed that Neuvillette told them about you, for they all brought you cakes and other desserts as get-well presents (you also suspected that they also reported back to Neuvillette about your condition, for when you mentioned to one Melusine how you would like to drink some Fonta, your wish was granted by the next Melusine who visited. However, she also heartily recommended that you drink water from Snezhnaya instead, which held a coolness that was good against swelling, and if you wished, you could ask Marie to fetch a bottle of it for you from Monsieur Neuvillette’s personal stash. She also added that you need not hesitate to ask, as he had more than one bottle. Perhaps all Melusines shared his specific tastes in water, but you didn’t quite believe that was the case).

Rhemia and the other Melusines who had been with you yesterday had been the most distressed upon seeing you bedridden. “I’ll stick to you like glue from now on, Madame! No criminal will escape my sights!” Rhemia had declared, and her sisters nodded vigorously in agreement.

“There really is no need for that,” you tried to decline her offer. Privately, you thought that there wasn’t much a Melusine could do against muggers anyways. “The whole incident only happened because I was careless and in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ll be much more careful next time, so I doubt it will happen again. Just because I’m Neuvillette’s wife, it doesn’t mean that I deserve special treatment or anything of the sort. And if he put you up to this, then—”

Rhemia blinked at you in confusion. “But this has nothing to do with Monsieur Neuvillette. Not entirely, anyways.”

“It doesn’t?” Now you were confused.

“Nope! I’d do this for all the people important to me! Oh, but I guess you’re more than that, since you’re married to Monsieur Neuvillette! That would make you our mother, I suppose.”

“Um…” There was the m-word again. You considered correcting Rhemia, but she continued on, seemingly not noticing your discomfort.

“You’re always so kind and patient with us, just like Monsieur Neuvillette. You greet us whenever you see us, and you always ask us about our days and listen to our troubles. Oh, and Madame, you’re such a good teacher too! I’ve gotten so much better at drawing humans thanks to your lessons!” Rhemia turned to her friends. “Am I right?”

Her friends nodded enthusiastically. They began recounting all the times you’ve spent with them.

“I’m glad to hear that you all think of me as your friend,” you said after they finished, a little embarrassed but also pleased. You hadn’t expected them to remember so much about you. But you felt a little guilty as well. At first, you decided to become friendly with the Melusines because everyone knew that Neuvillette treasured them greatly and you wanted to be in his good graces so that he wouldn’t have any reason to kick you out. They had always been the ones to come up to you first, especially in the first few weeks after your marriage, and while you didn’t consider yourself to be a particularly friendly and warm person, even you weren’t heartless enough to be cold to such a cheerful race of creatures.

“It’s not just us! I’m sure all the Melusines in the Court of Fontaine feel the same way. You’re just as important to us as Monsieur Neuvillette.”

“Oh…” Looking at their bright, earnest faces, you didn’t know what to say. Your eyes suddenly became misty. Before this marriage, you hadn’t really given much mind to Melusines. They were just the public servants you would occasionally pass by on the street. But now that you were connected to them through Neuvillette, you were belatedly learning just how wonderful they were.

“Thank you,” you said at last, patting each of them on the head. Your hand still stung a little from last night, but you ignored it. “It means a lot to me that you think so highly of me. Truly. Still, you don’t need to follow me around. If I ever need help, I promise that I will come straight to you. And…I hope that you would all come to the sunflower viewing party we’re holding here next month.”

“Of course, Madame! We wouldn’t miss it for anything!” the Melusines chirped in unison.

By evening, the deluge of visitors had finally ended. You sank into your pillows, feeling exhausted. You weren’t used to having so many people fuss over you. It was unfamiliar territory, one that you weren’t quite sure how to navigate.

Still, as you gazed at the teetering pile of confectionary boxes covered in Melusine stickers on your bedside table and remembered all the get-well wishes you received, a rush of warmth flooded your heart. How did I get so lucky? You wondered. Perhaps even after I leave Neuvillette, we can still be friends…

As you were lost in your thoughts, Marie came into your room again.

“Oh, Madame, I completely forgot to give you this because of everything that happened yesterday. It appears to be from your family.”

Marie handed you an envelope made of thick, creamy paper. You recognized the stationery as the kind used by your father for formal correspondences, and the address written in familiar, flowery cursive on the front was indeed that of your family’s house.

“Ah, that would be from my sister,” you said, tearing the envelope open and taking out the contents. The enveloped contained two cards made of similarly thick paper. They both had an elaborately drawn border of Lumidouce Bells and Rainbow Roses and had an invitation written in the center. This was new.

You are cordially invited

To a celebration

Honoring

Justine’s nineteenth birthday

Semi-formal attire requested (Floral themed outfits are preferred)

P.S. Sister, please tell me if Monsieur Neuvillette has any allergies or requires any accommodations!

“Ugh…” you groaned, putting your palm over your face. “I still haven’t gotten her a present yet!”

That had been the cause of this trouble in the first place, and yet you hadn’t even accomplished your goal in the end.

While we’re on this topic, shouldn’t she have sent the invitations much earlier if she wanted people to RSVP? It’s just like her to do things last minute! And why is she acting like it’s already decided that Neuvillette’s coming?

“Marie, could you please fetch me my pen and paper?” you asked the housekeeper. After you received them, you began to write a reply to tell Justine that while you were coming, Neuvillette definitely wasn’t. But just as you got to that last part, you paused. The idea of the Chief Justice attending a teenage girl’s birthday party all the way out in the countryside was absurd, of course. You tried to picture him sitting at your family’s worn dining table, singing “Happy Birthday” eating the butterscotch cake your housekeeper always made for birthdays, all the while fending off the barrage of questions from your family and friends. I can’t imagine it! It’s just too ridiculous!

It would be better if he didn’t have too much contact with your family, in order to avoid them asking too many questions, and to make the eventual divorce go smoothly.

He rarely even attended the far more glamorous functions of high society, so something like this would be out of the question. His answer would go without asking.

Or would it?

You didn’t really know why you were entertaining the idea. Perhaps being with Neuvillette these past few months had greatly inflated your sense of self-importance—but then again, you thought that the two of you had gotten close enough where asking him wouldn’t be so preposterous. You were friends, and wouldn’t it be ruder to not at least extend an invitation to a friend? Wasn’t the act of asking in itself greatly appreciated?

And…there was a little part of you that would like to show him around your hometown. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and all you could see for miles around were fields of wildflowers and mountains—a common sight in Fontaine—but there were a few spots that you had fond memories of. Since Neuvillette showed you his favorite places, it was only right to repay the favor, even if none of your favorite spots were as exciting as the giant willow tree or Merusea Village.

Recent events, including the latest incident, had taught you the folly of making assumptions, even for seemingly inconsequential things like this. Just because you thought

The worst thing he could say is no, you reasoned to yourself. And it’s not the end of the world if he does. Sure, Justine will be disappointed, but everyone knows how busy and reclusive Neuvillette is, so she’ll understand if he declines.

As if on cue, you heard the front door open downstairs. Neuvillette had returned home. After a brief conversation with Marie, the sound of his heels briskly ascending the stairs and heading in the direction of your room until it stopped in front of your door. There was a soft knock.

“Madame, may I come in?”

“Yes,” you called out, and Neuvillette opened the door and stepped inside your room. He was about to close the door behind him, but then he looked at you. A thought seemed to cross his mind, and he left the door ajar.

Um, why is he just standing there? You stared at him, confused when he didn’t take a seat right away. He simply stared at you, his gaze a mix of worry, uncertainty, and something else. For a second, you wondered if he was that caught off guard by your dishevelled appearance that was a result of staying in bed all day. It took you a minute to realize that he was waiting for you to ask him to sit down. Really, this man… I thought we’re past such formalities.

“You can pull up a chair,” you said, nodding towards the cushioned chairs in the center of the room. He complied, clasping his hands in his lap after settling in his seat and leaning towards you slightly. He stared at you intently, as if afraid that you would disappear before his eyes. You squirmed uncomfortably, suddenly very aware of the fact that you were wearing only your rumpled nightgown and that you were lying in bed. You surreptitiously pulled your covers up to your chest.

Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve ever had a man who isn’t my father in my room, you mused, though you were also aware that this wasn’t really the occasion to think about such things. Well, I guess it technically isn’t the first time, since he carried me back here when I fell asleep in his study that one time. First time that I was conscious, then.

Thankfully, Neuvillette broke the silence and (once again) prevented your thoughts from going in strange directions.

“The robbers will be tried in court shortly,” he said. “It will be a short, simple trial, considering the number of witnesses at the scene. I will not be presiding over it, however.”

“I see,” you nodded. “I’m very glad to hear that.”

Despite that, his brow remained creased with worry. “How are you feeling, Madame? Should I take you to the hospital after all?” he asked.

“No, that really won’t be necessary,” you shook your head vigorously. “It’s only a bad sprain. I’ll probably be able to walk again tomorrow.”

“It is highly unwise to rush your recovery. What will happen if you worsen your injury? The meeting with Furina can be postponed—”

“Don’t postpone it,” you said, leaning over to grab his sleeve and stared into his eyes. “The sooner we get this over with, the better. I’ll drag myself up the steps of the Palais if I have to.”

Neuvillette looked like he wanted to argue, but he swallowed back whatever he was going to say. “There’s no need to exert yourself in such a way,” he said at last. “I would be happy to carry you into my office, if you should ask.”

“Carry me into your office, huh?” you leaned back against your pillow with a smile. You sometimes wondered if Neuvillette realized how unintentionally funny he could be. “Wouldn’t that give people the wrong idea?”

“You do have a point. Then, I propose that we arrive at my office early in the morning, before the Palais employees come into work.”

“How about instead of carrying me, I borrow your cane?”

Neuvillette seemed to be pondering your words seriously. “But that would also run into the problem of rousing people’s suspicions. Someone might wonder why my cane is in your possession.”

You turned your head away to smother your laugh.

“It seems that the Melusines have made their visits,” Neuvillette said, looking at the tower of boxes on your bedside table.

“Yes, they were all very sweet. Although, I’m not sure how they expect me to eat all these…” You liked dessert and all, but not to this extent. Perhaps you could bring some of them back home with you to share with your family and friends.

“Clorinde also asked me to pass on her well wishes to you. She was very sorry to hear what happened.”

“I see. Please thank her for me, and tell her not to blame herself for my foolishness.”

“I will do that,” Neuvillette nodded, then was silent for a moment. His solemn gaze as he looked at you made it seem like you were diagnosed with some terminal illness rather than merely spraining your ankle badly and hitting your knee against the ground.

“Neuvillette?” you called out his name in hopes of getting rid of that grave look in his eyes. It made your chest feel heavy.

“Ah, by the way, I consulted with a friend of mine about your injury. She made this drink for you,” Neuvillette brandished a green, ridiculously adorable cup from out of nowhere. It reminded of you of the cups toddlers drank juice out of. “She says that it will help your body recover quicker.”

“A friend of yours?” you repeated, your interest piqued. While Neuvillette would happily talk to you about the Melusines for hours on end and occasionally talk about his (human) acquaintances, you had never heard him call anyone his friend before.

“Yes. She is the head nurse the Fortress of Meropide’s infirmary, and one of the kindest and considerate people I know. I hope the two of you can meet one day.”

“That’s high praise coming from you,” you said, making a mental note of this mysterious friend. “Why don’t we invite her to the sunflower viewing as well?”

“What a wonderful idea. I shall do just that,” he said, then held out the cup to you. “Now, Madame, you should drink this.”

“Alright,” you took a sip of the drink and nearly spat it out. “Bleakness” was the only way to describe the taste. It almost made you want to get out of bed and walk so that the pain could distract you from the torture of your tastebuds. For a heartbeat, you wondered if Neuvillette was trying to poison you. “A-Are you sure this is h-healthy?”

“Of course,” Neuvillette said, looking baffled by your question. “I’ve drank it on numerous occasions, and I’ve always found myself quite refreshed and invigorated afterwards. I asked Sigewinne to make it taste more palatable for you, as I’m aware that her concoctions are not for everyone. She truly hopes it makes you feel better.”

This is palatable? You thought. Did I do something to this Sigewinne person? Whoever she was, she shared the same incomprehensible sense of taste as Neuvillette.

Speaking of Neuvillette, he was looking at you expectantly. Oh Archons, is he expecting me to finish it in front of him? Just as you were trying to come up with an excuse to not drink it, those efforts were dashed by his next words. “Is it not to your liking?” he said quietly. You were vaguely aware that it had started raining outside.

“I…um…” you didn’t know what to say or where to look. You suddenly had the impression that a large puppy was at your bedside, staring at you with sad eyes. Gah, he must be doing this on purpose! Either that, or he must really be fond of that friend of his. “Well, when it comes to medicine, it’s not really a matter of liking it or not liking it, right? A-And since you’ve gone to the trouble of asking your friend to make this for me, it would be rude of me to not drink it, right?” You sounded like you were trying to convince yourself.

“If you do not like it, then you do not need to force yourself—”

“No, no, I mean, I’ve taken plenty of bitter medicine when I was little, and I survived. This will be no different,” you brought the straw up to your mouth and held your breath. Let’s just get this over quickly, you thought, then emptied the cup in one go. Fortunately, there wasn’t much to drink. However, the lumpy texture was still a struggle to swallow. You felt as though you had just eaten concrete.

“That was…certainly something I’ve never drank before,” you managed, flopping back onto your pillows to recover. You opened a box of lemon tarts and shoved one into your mouth to get rid of the taste. Honestly, you wanted to drink some Fonta instead, but decided that it might be a bit uncouth. Of course, some might say that it was unladylike to eat cake in bed in the first place, but you doubted those people ever had the misfortune of having to drink that so-called “healthy drink.” “Please thank your friend for me.”

Neuvillette nodded, watching you as you ate a second, then a third tart. Lemon wasn’t your favorite flavor, but anything would do right now. YYou offered one to him, but he politely declined. His gaze dropped to the papers in your lap. “…Were you writing a letter to someone?” he asked.

“Oh!” you had almost forgotten about that. “My sister Justine sent us invitations to her birthday party. It’s a bit short notice, but it’s in a few days.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve heard you mention it before,” Neuvillette took a pause, as if he had only just taken in the entirety of your words. “Did you say ‘invitations’?”

“Yes,” you nodded. Your hands suddenly felt sweaty. What were you so nervous about? “Since we’re, you know, husband and wife, it’s only natural that invitations would be sent to the both of us. Funny thing is, Justine thinks you’re already coming and has asked me if you require any accommodations, but of course you haven’t given any answer as to whether or not you’ll be attending the party. I-I know that you usually don’t attend public functions, but birthdays parties in our party don’t tend to be very extravagant affairs. It’s usually just a small gathering of close friends and relatives. We can even make everyone sign a contract of confidentiality, if you want. You don’t have to bring any gifts either. I think your presence will be a gift in itself for my sister, haha…”

Oh no, I’m rambling again…why do I keep doing this in front of him? You toyed with the edge of your comforter, suddenly too nervous to look at his expression. Would there be a look of disgust there? Why would there be? Your brain argued back. You haven’t asked anything offensive!

Finally, you dared to sneak a peek. He was staring at your face, as though scrutinizing it for answers to a difficult question.

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” you said, thinking that he must be trying to find a way to let you down gently.

“…Do you want me to attend?” he said at last.

You hadn’t expected that question. “What do you mean?” you frowned.

“What I mean is…would it please you—would it make you happy if I attended your sister’s party?”

Ah, so the answer is no, then, you thought. That was expected.

“Well, it’s not my party, so my opinion doesn’t matter,” you said slowly. “Justine would like for you to come, but there is no obligation on your part to say yes. If you like, I can make up some excuse about your absence to tell everyone.”

“But your opinion does matter quite a lot to me,” Neuvillette said. He was oddly insistent about this. “I would like to hear what you think.”

“As I said, it’s not my party. It will not affect me one way or another should you choose to come or not,” Realizing that you might be sounding too harsh, you softened your next words. “It’s okay to say no. I’m sure everyone will understand if you can’t come.”

Neuvillette stared at you for a long while, his eyes unreadable. You could hear the rain pounding against your window, and you turned your head to it. The sky was a dark, leaden gray. It’s been raining pretty frequently these days, hasn’t it? You thought distantly.

“Unfortunately, I have a trial to oversee on that day,” he said. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw him clench and unclench his fists. You wondered why he didn’t mention the trial earlier. “I do not think it would be wise for me to attend, in any case. It would be a needless distraction.”

“Alright then. I’ll tell my sister you can’t attend,” you said lightly, then turned your attention to your unfinished letter. You picked up your pen and began to write. Focusing your mind on producing the words helped distract from the tumult of emotions within you—emotions that you didn’t know quite what to make of. Was it relief you felt, or disappointment? Relief for what? Disappointment about what? You couldn’t tell at all.

In any case, it’s over and done with, you told yourself firmly, signing the letter with a flourish. Maybe too big of a flourish. I’ll post this first thing in the morning—that is, if I can walk by then.

You glanced up to see Neuvillette still sitting there. He was drinking from his cup, but he was watching you over the rim. You had long gotten used to him studying you like you were some kind of strange specimen, but it was still awkward, especially in this silence. Your room, which had always felt needlessly spacious to you, suddenly felt very small.

Just as you were debating whether or not to fake a sleepy yawn and ask him to leave, he spoke again.

“You haven’t yet bought a birthday present for your sister, yes?”

“That’s right,” you replied, wondering what he was getting at.

“I won’t have any time tomorrow, but I do have an hour or two to spare after our meeting with Furina. We shall go pick out a present together then.”

You gaped at him. “Are you serious?”

“Why would I not be? It is customary for married couples to give presents as a pair, is it not?”

“I…suppose so,” you said. Neuvillette was so hard to grasp sometimes. Sometimes, he was clear as a fresh water spring. Other times, like now, you had the sense that you were staring into the sea, unable to see all the way to its bottom.

“Then it is settled,” he said with a note of satisfaction in his voice, then leaned forward and cupped your cheek. It happened so quickly that you didn’t even have a chance to react. “W-Wha…” was all you could manage to stammer out. There was only a millimeter of space between your faces. Your heart sped up a little when his gaze moved to your lips. His thumb moved to the corner of your lip and brushed against it. It took you a moment to realize that he had flicked off a cake crumb.

“I still have some work to finish, so I’m afraid I’ll have to take my leave now,” he informed you, removing his hand from your cheek. Despite that, you could still feel the smooth silk of his glove and the latent strength in his long fingers. “Please rest and get well soon, Madame.”

You could only nod as you gazed up at him. He stared into your eyes for a moment longer before turning on his heel and leaving your room. It was only when you heard his footsteps recede to the other side of the house that you realized that it was no longer raining.

[misterier]

kacey procrastinating??? no he'd never...

take some short fruity cowboy game hcs for my obsession and the soul<3

Arthur Morgan with a gn/male(could be seen as fem ig?? but it's intended for masc) s/o 😻

tw: eating problems bc we all know Arthur probably doesn't take care of himself

He's literally stunning stfu😭

- doesn't care about his s/os gender, just that they treat him well

- probably touch starved but won't admit it💀

- also doesn't like pda, he'll hold hands or put his hand around their waist if something happens but he keeps it pretty private

- easy asf to fluster, a couple of well done compliments to him and he's hiding his face with his hat and trying to deny them and compliment them back

- draws his s/o all the time and sometimes feels bad because he doesn't think he did their beauty justice, but if he lets them see it and they hang it up in their tent all proud his mind would ease slightly

- likes holding hands allot in private, he likes touch he just doesn't accept it well so I think he'd keep touches small but meaningful

- he can flirt well unintentionally but if he tries he ends up really shy😭

- real protective but he won't stop his s/o from goin' out with him but he will be extra cations if he knows it's especially risky and will constantly ask of they're sure they want to go

- when he's drunk he'll get really clingy and emotional for his s/o, holding onto them more than he normally would

- he likes having his s/o around and just doing nothing, like just having them in the same room is all he needs, not big extravagant dates

- probably not very jealous, sometimes he gets kinda nervous though but he snaps out of it easy

- he trusts his s/o and he expects the same from them, probably gets confused or starts laughing if they're the jealous type

- I think he'd read to his s/o sometimes ☹️like they're both cuddled up in bed and he just pulls out a book and just quietly start reading to them

- like stated before he not one for pda, but he does love being touched while alone and comfortable, he adores cuddles and falls asleep that way. He prefers having them lay on his chest or cuddle up to his chest, but if his s/o can't sleep like that or he needs comfort he's a little spoon, he adores being held by his lover, he honestly thrives on touch and people

- he listens allot, not really very talkative, just listens to his s/o rant about whatever they want, occasionally writing notes about what they say in his journal while drawing them as they speak

- he's not a stalker, he just likes to watch his s/o from a distance sometimes, he loves seeing how they react around different people and how their eyes light up around the people they care for

- he really likes his s/os hand tbh, like he'll hold them constantly and just gently kiss their knuckles and rub the back or the palm, watching every movement with the most adoring eyes

- this man takes care of everything but himself, like his s/o has to force him to bathe sometimes, full-on pulling a Grimshaw sometimes 💀 also gotta watch his eating, he just goes off for days and forgets about food and even when he comes back he just ignores it, his s/o has to remind him or he'll forget until it's actually painful and he has to slowly eat something to regain strength

-he can go weeks without talking to his s/o and will bounce back as if nothing happened, if they get awkward and need time to adjust to him being back he'll be alright with it and slowly ease up their comfort again by quietly helping them with their horse care or bringing them coffee after they finish their chores, bringing them stew when they come back after a short job

-he loves them a lot tbh, but he only shows it in small ways, soft touches, kinder words, flicks to the forehead and arms, small gifts, remembering important dates(good and bad), will intentionally track animals if he knows something is coming up and his s/o likes a specific meat he'll make sure to hunt it and bring it back for pearson

[sleepy-vix]

book review of what i read today because i'm a nerd with nothing better to do!

today i just borrowed 'caraval' by stephanie garber from the library and finished it all within 4-5 hours. here are my brief thoughts:

(btw this is pretty spoiler free bc i dont talk abt any specific things abt the book)

for the first 100 pages, i hated the book. the romance was gross to me and i couldn't care less about the main character (actually i still couldn't care less about the main character tbh).

also i saw a review video after reading the book and the reviewer said that YA is a genre with a spectrum where on one end, it can be mature so adults can enjoy it but on the other hand, it can also be for readers that are quite young (eg preteens? im guessing??) and caraval falls under the latter category and that is VERY TRUE AND IT IRRITATED ME SO BAD but oh well that's just a me thing prolly

thankfully, half way through the book, things started to build up and everything was mysterious and intriguing which was what i wanted from the book

it didnt really get good until near the end though, around the last 150 pages. things kept piling up on eachother and i had no idea who to trust or what to expect, which i loved.

by the end, (as i said before) i couldn't care less about the main character, but i found that i was relieved by her "happy" ending (i used quotation marks because i'm not sure what will happen to her in the next book). i guess the romance was good because i did wish for julian to have a good ending, but ehh they don't make me sob or blush or whatever i'm supposed to (actually most of their "tension scenes" made me physically scowl and i had to skim over them. that's probably just me tho T-T)

anyways i was pretty conflicted over whether i wanted to read the next book in the trilogy, but after a bit of research i decided that i will!

I'm looking forward to that. caraval was a fun read i got to admit, even though it was really only 3/5 stars at most for me.

i hope i enjoy the rest of the trilogy alot more (i have hopes, since the next book will have a diff mc) because i want to read stephanie garber's other series, 'once upon a broken heart'- they aren't books that i usually read but i'm forcing myself to expand ny tastes and familiaries myself with popular books (for convo material- hopefully)

that concludes my book rant for now :)

[ribbonsandhair]

Hello! Glad to see this!

In that case I'd be happy to request for Valeria with a bestie readerrr YESYESSS😈😈

Tbh I've been starving for this for months.

Idk, just them bonding so well, maybe the reader is in the cartel with her, or is a simple civilian that valeria ended up being deeply fond of!

A kind-hearted and kinda dumb-ish(not naive though) reader and her just being like, "[name], please💀"

And reader having this really gen-z-ish humor, i just think she'd be so confused and pissed cuz she doesn't get the joke sometimes. Maybe reader is just like 2-1 year(s) less than her? + If they're hispanic too!😭😭😭

Sorry for my rambling💀💀💀

OH MY GOD HELLO AGAIN!!!! I LOVED WRITINF THIS SO MUCH I WAS ON A RAMPAGE 😭😭😭 I hope you enjoy this just as much as I enjoyed writing this!! Thanks for requesting babes!!!

Valeria Garza

Where do I START.

So, first, you’re Latino. Duh.

You’re a civilian that was lucky enough to meet Valeria.

You two probably met while getting coffee. You thought she looked pretty, so you complimented her.

“Hola, nada mas quería decirte que me gusta tu cabello!”

She was a little confused why a random person just complimented her hair. She still liked it, nonetheless.

“..Gracias.”

You were a little scared that you made her u comfortable, and after you got what you wanted from the cafe, you went home to cry.

“SOY TAN TONTA. OSÉA!”

You went back to the cafe, since it was your regular spot to just hang out to read a book. You were familiar with most of the employees.

And then, you saw HER.

YOU SAW VALERIA.

You didn’t know if you should just go up to her and apologized while making yourself look even more stupid, or just sit there.

She just SUDDENLY SAT DOWN IN FRONT OF YOU AND YOUR MIND WENT INTO PANIC MODE.

“AY! Oh. Hola!”

She just chuckled and said hi back.

And that’s how your closest friendship bloomed.

Since you’re younger than her, it’s most likely your humor is pretty deranged.

You’ll send her random pictures of god knows what, and say hi right after.

“[Name], por favor.”

You text her super late at night, like three AM.

“Si no te chingo por despertándome en las tres de la mañana–”

Either that or you rant about how you’re glad that she’s your friend because you just finished watching a super sad movie.

“[Name], are you fucking crying.”

You playfully scold her everytime she curses. Which is like in every sentence.

You’re a little dumb, so you end up being pretty clumsy. Without her, you’d be dead by now.

She uses that against you every time you don’t wanna do a favor for her.

“Remember that one time I saved your ass from falling face-first into the concrete? Yeah, that’s what I fucking thought.”

You aren’t aware of her being the leader of the cartel that has corrupted Las Almas. So sometimes she’s hesitant with you.

She won’t respond to your messages for days due to work, so you end up worrying about her. If you ask her why she was gone for so long then she just responds with, “I was pretty busy.”

But she makes it up by hanging out with you for a while, specifically drinking.

On a similar note, you invite her over to have a few drinks with her. Just chill.

When you drink, you become more jokeful and just insane overall.

“Haha, kinda wanna kill myself. Anyways, how’s your day?”

Sometimes concerned with your humor. Can’t tell if it’s just how Gen Z humor is or if you’re that mentally I’ll.

And whenever you two drink together, you guys turn into those Latina moms that will go insane at parties. (I have a good amount of experience with this as a Latino myself.)

Dancing together, blasting music, it’s entertaining.

You also end up talking about chisme.

“Did you hear that my neighbors just got a divorce?”

“Dime más.”

And whenever she goes to your house, she always has a gift. Especially an expensive one.

It can be from some good wine, to straight up clothes and perfumes.

“How did you get the right size?”

“… Instinct.”

(She somehow got information about you.)

Valeria just hopes that she can keep you safe from her job, and doesn’t get you killed. She tries to avoid starting anything that’s super close to you.

[rottenbrainstuff]

Haha ok I am convinced. It takes a LOT to motivate me to watch a new show, but I am so convinced by what I've seen of IWTV that I am going to give it a try tonight. I even have one single glass of red wine left for it!

The thing is: I am extremely ambivalent about this whole... what.. franchise? Series? Little coven of crying gay babies?

I was a big giant fan of the vampire chronicles in the 90s and 2000s. I really do legit love the characters that were created: I love their damage, I love how articulate Anne Rice was about describing their issues, how vampirism has fucked up each and every one of them. I loved how sensual the books were, the beautiful descriptions of everything. I found it so interesting how everything could be so sexy when it very specifically contained no sex. I loved her vampire lore, I loved her take on traditional vampires. I know sensual romantic vampires are a bit of an eye-roll these days but I feel like back in the 90s it actually was something a bit more fresh.

Interview especially had some really amazing ideas in it. I remember really loving that book.

Lestat was an interesting book but tbh she lost me a bit with some of the lore. It really put a lot of Interview into perspective though. (is Lestat's mom in this show??? She seems like a bad bitch I'd like to see pop in)

I read about half of Armand and oddly couldn't make myself finish it, or read any more of the chronicles. I actually don't even remember what happened in that book anymore.

(I had a copy of Queen of the Damned but I can’t remember if I read it or not. If I did, I don’t remember anything from the plot)

As much as I remember enjoying reading Interview, I found it increasingly hard to reconcile my enjoyment of the books with my knowledge of what a nasty person Anne Rice was, and the extremely shitty things she did in (or I guess TO) the fandom. As the books went on I found the writing style less interesting and more irritating and pretentious. I gave an attempt to start that witch coven series and was surprised by how I couldn't get into it. I tried reading her Sleeping Beauty series and got viscerally disgusted. (disgust aside, it was a shock how poorly written I thought it was) Again, her reactions to the fandom for that were bemusing as well. Her weird and personal obsession with her own characters is extremely reminiscent to me of Stephanie Meyer if she was goth instead of mormon, and it makes it difficult for me to take it all seriously sometimes.

So........ I'm in this position where I think I do genuinely like the characters and the ideas, but I intensely dislike Anne Rice and view her as generally overrated as an author, and that soured the whole series for me. But I've been seeing all these clips online and I dunno. I like what I see. It feels the characters I like were pulled out of her weird mean hands and dusted off. I like that absolutely no clips I've seen really match anything that I remember reading in the books. I like that it looks actually, unambiguously gay. I like that in almost every single clip I've seen, all the characters ever seem to be doing is screaming at each other for stupid shit. I like that it looks ridiculous and deranged. I dunno. I kinda have high hopes that with this show, I'll be able to learn how to like these characters again.

(I'm being smacked in the face btw with my age once again - so many of you mention that you never watched the old (not very good) Tom Cruise movie. If you were a teenager in the 90s I think it was impossible to have avoided it. Or is it just that my friend group was particularly strange?)

I'll pop my thoughts in here but I'll tag appropriately, so if you don't want that nonsense, you don't have to see it.

[tricoloured-cat]

what better way to procrastinate than to write random stuff

reviewing the works that the abilities were based on

Part 1: Armed Detective Agency

I just realized that I've finally read all the works attributed to the abilities of the author's BSD counterparts, at least for the ADA. I plan to do this for all organizations in the BSD universe so I can direct my reading and actually finish something HAHA

DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert on literature, let alone Japanese literature, and my short reviews are solely my opinion as a casual reader. These are all for fun so please don't take these so seriously!

Nakajima Atsushi Ability: Beast Beneath the Moonlight Original Work: Moon Over the Mountain

This short story has the vibes of a folktale but with existential dread sprinkled throughout. The prose is calm but the agony still reverberates. I liked this more than I though I would, perhaps because of how clean it felt. Honestly this would be one of the OG works I'd recommend to a BSD fan who wants to try classic Japanese literature.

Dazai Osamu Ability/Original Work: No Longer Human

This is probably the one novel/work most BSD fans would pick up first - and for a good reason. The themes are pretty universal albeit heavy, the tone of the narrator throughout the entire novel is gripping, the translation by Donald Keene is very readable, and it's just in the most general sense a summary of Dazai-sensei's own life. The last point must be taken with a grain of salt, however, as he's a master liar - something you'll find out if you dig more into his life and other works. If you'd like to see depression in book form, this is for you.

Kunikida Doppo Ability: Doppo Poet Original Work: Doppo Collection (probably)

Here's a case of "I can't really find the original work so I'll be reviewing something else instead"

Reviewing: Those Unforgettable People

I chose to talk about this one since it's the one found in the Penguin Anthology. It's an interesting mix of forms: technically, it's a short story. However, the elements of poetry and even of the essay are present - mostly the latter, tbh. Of course the whole "ideal" thing is such a Kunikida-sensei thing that it appears it almost every story he wrote, yet somehow in this one you'll have to squint a little bit more to see it. The point of this story-essay-poem thing is at the very end (the first half is quite dragging imo) is what gives it a little oomph, but honestly I much prefer his other works (specifically Old Gen and Death).

Tanizaki Jun'ichirou Ability/Original Work: Sasameyuki

You like a slow burn? You like pain? Familial drama? Maybe you'll like this. Maybe you won't. It's a mammoth of a book that feels like a series of extremely detailed telenovela episodes - not that it's necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed it despite the length because the way it ends, although hardly strong at all, ties the themes and messages of the novel cleanly into a single scene.

Miyazawa Kenji Ability/Original Work: Be Not Defeated by the Rain

It's a poem every Japanese elementary student would know. The message and style is so simple yet beautiful (I read Sulz's translation). It's joyful and so sunny... until I read the background on it. I cried over his work. Again. (Night on the Galactic Railroad PLS) Man I just love this author so much. But I'm not really a poem person to begin with, so take this review with a grain of salt HAHA

Yosano Akiko Ability/Original Work: Thou Shalt Not Die

The only complete translation I could find is written in painfully archaic English, so I won't comment on the style HAHA. But I do think the original was just as pointed in its words and message; its anti-war sentiments and middle finger to the Japanese emperor and military (at the time) so characteristically Yosano-sensei. It's sad she'd support WW2 later on - come on sensei WHY

Personally, however, I prefer her shorter poems, specifically the ones from River of Stars. But I'm not really a poem person to begin with, so take this review with a grain of salt HAHA

Izumi Kyouka Ability: Demon Snow Original Work: Demon Pond

It's been a while since I've read a play, and perhaps that's why I had a hard time getting through the first half - either that or it was quite lackluster as most of the actual story happens in the second half. Its influences from folktales and traditional Japanese theater (i.e. kabuki and noh) are very apparent - I wish I could have seen it instead of read it because of that. I think this is the first work of Kyouka's that I actually liked (I've read some of his short stories and one of his other plays) so I'll definitely recommend this one if you want to start with this author. There's also a movie adaptation of it that I haven't watched yet (but I do plan to). I think it could be much better than just reading it as is because of the visuals and mood setting, but a review on that soon. Maybe.

Fukuzawa Yukichi Ability: All Men Are Created Equal Original Work: An Encouragement of Learning (Sec. 1-2)

I couldn't be bothered to read the whole thing, but the essence of the ability only comes from the first two sections (which I'll be reviewing).

It's an essay that imo serves as a good introduction to Fukuzawa's philosophy. His views and arguments are built primarily on morality with logic acting mostly as a way to expound on his points. It's interesting, nothing really new for a contemporary reader, but at least it gives a nice background on the changing environment during the early years of Meiji-era Japan. Of course there are personal biases here (specifically the one with China - one of the greatest criticisms against Fukuzawa, even though he was supposedly progressive for his time) but imo that reflects some views of many Japanese at the time - not that they're right, of course.

But what about our special non-gifted boi?

I guess let's look at what one of the episodes was based on instead lol

Edogawa Ranpo Episode: The Murder on D. Street (S01E05) Original Work: The Case on D. Hill

I will tell you now: they have almost NO similarities whatsoever. Doesn't mean it's bad tho...

Okay ngl I was pretty disappointed HAHA. It's the same type of disappointment I had with Poe's Murders on the Rue Morgue (which was ironically referenced in the story) but it at least had some sense to it. I blame myself for not seeing it coming tho, given that this story is very typical of Edogawa-sensei. If you do plan to read it, however, be warned that there are implicit (?) themes that may be uncomfortable for some readers (this warning applies to most of Edogawa-sensei's work not made specifically for children HAHA).

[redr0sewrites]

i wanted to kinda talk about my opinion on some things related to Ana Huang and the romance genre in general- sorry for the rant!!!

finished king of sloth by ana huang and urgrhrgrhrhrh i actually really really enjoyed it!!!! (i say that ab everything i read tho tbh, i've just never been the type who criticizes the media i consume so PLEASE don't ever base ur opinions off of mine :)

my post isn't about the book specifically or even the author. i lowkey have a bone to pick and its NOT with ana huang or the book but moreso the reaction i've been noticing about the book (specifically from people who have been making fun of it and/or people who read it)! this isn't meant to start discourse or anything but i am open to polite discussion about some of the points im bringing up. this is generally focused around ana huang but also a lot of majority-feminine centric media has this same problem.

anyways, i'm gonna try to express how i feel as best i can without being rude or offensive ajshsjs-

it just lowkey irks me that sm people have been hating on ana huang now that she's getting attention, and since she's a romance writer, her fans and fanbase is mostly women and/or girls, (which is totally ok)!! however, i genuinely feel like this is just another barbie movie or sarah j mass or taylor swift scenario where the second something/someone that a lot of woman like starts to get publicity, people (mostly men) start excessively hating on it.

i have genuinely seen sm people dissing not only ana huang but her writing as well. now i don't know much about her as a person and i know that a lot of people are flawed so if she's genuinely done something wrong PLEASE lmk, i don't keep up w that stuff. and hey, maybe you just didn't like the book and thats ok too!!! its totally valid to not like something, but to make fun of an author and the people who enjoy her content just seems.. ehh.

a lot and i mean a LOT of people claim that she's only popular because of her smut but i actually enjoy her books more than just for the smutty/romance aspect. maybe that's just me, but i genuinely find it interesting and a lot of other people i know also enjoy it for the plot. and if u are reading for the smut that's ok as well, this is a totally safe space, and nobody should judge u on your reasons to read a book. the books are INTENDED to be fluffy and spicy and overall are just fictional romantic stories. they're smutty, funny books, not the bible. it shocks me how much people make fun of them.

i just keep seeing this trend of people negatively nitpicking anything and everything about authors and their writing ESPECIALLY when its romance and it just rubs me the wrong way. ive seen a LOT of people upset about huang including cameo's of her other characters in her latest book, and if you don't like those other characters so much then why... are u reading it??? THAT SOUNDS SO MEAN IM SORRY but its just so strange that people are upset about her including her own characters from her own series'?

its just disappointing that whenever someone or something becomes popular, there are always people who are just trying to be negative and diss it along with the people who enjoy it. i'm NOT making this post to be rude or offensive to people who genuinely don't like the author or the series, ur absolutely entitled to ur own opinion!!! however i have just seen this link SO MANY TIMES of people suddenly disliking something/someone bc a lot of woman seem to enjoy it and it just makes me a bit sad and disappointed.

(also side note can men stop hating on the romance genre and books they haven't even read? please??? can feminine people like anything anymore??? romance exists as such a successful genre bc the majority of readers are WOMEN who have to create fictional scenarios about being loved by seemingly "unachievable" men that are literally just doing the bare minimum. women fantasize about being treated with BASIC HUMAN RESPECT as though that isn't the standard, bc honestly, it isnt.)

THIS POST IS NOT MEANT TO EXCLUDE ANY OF MY FELLOW NON-FEMALE/NON-WOMAN OR GENDER NON CONFORMING FOLK WHO ALSO ENJOY ROMANCE!!!! THIS IS JUST A GENERALIZATION BASED ON THINGS I HAVE NOTICED, AND I AM NOT EDUCATED/HAVE A DEGREE ON THE MATTER!!!! THIS IS SIMPLY AN OBSERVATION!!!!! IF UVE READ THIS LONG, MWAH MWAH MWAH!!!

[sumbreon]

more book thoughts

the shops back up you can now buy these books

ive not read anymore yet, using it to bribe myself into doing laundry but ive been stewing on things. this will be even less coherent cause im just gonna throw my thoughts out here as they come to me unlike before where we had a mild focus

what is machas plan here? turning up as félix to fuck with islin about cypress like what was the intent there because i doubt it had the intended effect with islin going 'it should be me courting you félix!' which also islin my man... ya coulda!!! oh no i just remembered hesper signed the fuckin courting card or whatever with a little paw print really good! the whole thing with cypress is really good too honestly. the pacing for after félix gives bowman (françois) the ultimatum was so good it felt like so long not being in félixs pov and seeing it from bowmans i was absolutely losing it like let me into that little bastards head again what the fuck is going on??? to then finally get his pov again and just... i dont think that could have been done any better it fuckin killed me. anyway macha clearly still wanting to fuck with félixs boys but tamer than in the first book but what for? im also both dreading and looking forward to whenever they and félix meet like its your bosses new little guy vs its the fucker who tried to kill your friends (maybe? dont know for sure that macha intended for anyone to die but they definitely could have/almost did!) so fucking with islin by being félix and fucking with bowman by attacking rangers as a viper tbh even less clear on how that ones meant to a work out whats gained from turning the rangers against the viper? whats esks relationship with the rangers? cain made a comment to bowman after the whole graveyard incident and what did you mean by that man? whats your damn deal macha?

also every bowman chapter is accompanied by the mild apprehension of 'there was a warning for intentional misgendering its probably gonna be against bowman' who the fucks gonna do that to my boy? and i love that esks general response to bowman having to avoid saying hes the supposedly dead mercier girl is why is this even an issue. esk continues to not be helpful! but i am delighted by bowman and esk throughout this book so far me everytime its bowman time:

to be clear im having a good time, bowman less so. still makes me laugh that esk referred to félix as 'the pony'. and i loved that little scene on the train with félix and esk about félixs body and i think esk was maybe already aware? when the supposed viper attacked the rangers esk says a powerful black horse could maybe do that and says félix couldnt do that being so young a black horse? wonder just how much of esk not being helpful is being a bit of an ass and if any of its lingering effects from being stuck in that trophy room? god that was a horrifying scene and from what we see of tua it affected the weapons badly, esk wasnt there as long but it was still there

senca... girl whats your angle here? what sort of game is this to you? what are you getting out of it? i believe her when she tells esk that shes on the boys's side but im still not 100% trusting her

just how many times has léa threatened to cut bowmans dick off? enough that félix didnt let her finish the suggestion. and i keep thinking about léa telling félix about bowman not counting it as cheating with félix specifically like could you boys make this any more complicated? how the hell is félix meant to deal with that info? also made me think of that post where a girl had been having gay sex with her friend for like a decade and was like sex with her doesnt count and it ended with her saying to her boyfriend if it was cheating shes cheating on her friend with him then and not the other way around (i might try and find that post again. ill probably fail)

okay laundry done i might come back and add more or i might not

[violivs]

NMTDaily: Project II - One Shot

- Dogberry and Verges accidentally photobombing is cute. They’re so panicked about it!

- Love how the crew tries to pretend they’re not all one big friend group, and yet they all sit together at lunch.

- Ben, why would you bring something so messy and cumbersome as a whole mango to school? Slice it at home at least! Oh my god, evidence that Ben’s parents are slightly neglectful because they don’t notice or stop him from packing weird lunches? I don’t know, just wondering.

- Ben and Bea hate each other so much that they make sure to sit as close together as possible without actually being at the same table. I see you guys.

- Peter mugging for the camera and blowing it a kiss! (It is now an active struggle to remember we were calling him Pedro at this point, I always default to Peter.)

- The boys just talking about food as their intro-to-scene chatter just tickles me. Mango and chili, chocolate and chili. Ooh- things you wouldn’t think would go together but actually really do work as a pair? Hmm… (I haven’t tried them, but just go with me here)

- “We’ve known each other for a long time, right?” Oooh, another “I know you of old.”

- Ben’s name spiel, truly spoken like someone who has been fighting the “just call me Ben” fight for years. I bet his least favorite day of school is the first day, because he has to endure the two minutes of being laughed at when the new teacher calls roll and everyone is reminded of his full name again. Before he gets the teacher to put a note in the attendance book so that won’t happen again.

- And then Beatrice deliberately ignores him and keeps calling him Benedick, because of course she does.

- Honestly I just had to sit back and watch the rest of this episode. It’s too damn good to even liveblog, you’ve just gotta let it happen. I love it so much. I did rewatch to finish the liveblog but it’s such a tight episode it’s hard to know what to say.

- I mean. The fact that for as long as they’ve known each other, Bea and Ben have literally had a game on with their friend group of “let’s argue about stupid stuff for fun”- brilliant. Perfect. So them.

- Also love how resigned their friends are to B&B’s arguing. It’s just normal to them. Sometimes Pedro or Meg or Claudio try to intervene, but they know it’s useless in the end. But it’s ok because they also find it pretty funny for the most part, at least for now.

- Obsessed with them citing academic studies of mango skin back and forth at each other. To be reading academic articles in their spare time, they are both such a specific type of nerd. I love them.

- Ben fishing for a compliment from Bea is adorable and cringy. Everything he does makes me more sure this was a “Ben fell first, Bea fell harder” situation. They’re gonna be in LOVE.

- “You said I looked ‘mighty fine!’ ‘Babein’!” Oh my god the origin of “Babein” was here and not in PIZZA?! Mind blown.

- I don’t think I ever caught that the flamingo argument involved “would you rather be pecked to death by flamingos” before. Ben’s argument is definitely that flamingos are too majestic and amazing to be violent, and Bea’s argument is that that’s stupid because they’re still wild animals and wild animals can mess you up if they want. They never even get to the other half of the would-you-rather!

- *smacks both Ben and Bea for the ableist would-you-rather, high-fives Claudio not finding it funny, then smacks Ben again for jokingly saying ‘that’s racist’ about British stereotypes*

- *smacks Claudio for ‘you sound like a gay Australian’* *high fives Pedro and Ben for telling him to shut up* *wonders whether Pedro was already questioning his sexuality by now*

- The making fun of each other’s accents does crack me up. Low-hanging fruit though, they’ve both got better insults.

- “Queen Elizabeth is gapping it over here to come scissor-kick you in the head!” And “How do you know about the microchip?” Some of Ben’s most iconic lines tbh.

- Ben is SO performing in this entire scene. Trying so hard to make everyone laugh, asking for high-fives, trying to one-up Bea at every turn. He’s holding court, honestly. And you only really know that he’s acting and putting on a show of confidence upon rewatch.

- Whereas I do feel that Beatrice is always 100% herself. She says what she feels. And she always gets the last word. Though he does bite the mango at her, so he gets the last action, lol.

💖🥭🦩

[tenrose]

I gave up, the website is too shitty, literally nothing functions. Idk if the payment really failed or if those suckers are just not able to properly write 'it's sold out'

Now that I'm slightly annoyed...

I'm gonna rant.

First of all theaters can go fuck themselves if they are not able to provide proper services. The cinema I'm talking about in particular is not indie by the way, it's one of the biggest chains here (fuck you UGC) so the bare minimum they could do is provide with actual functional website so people can actually use it and make reservations. Don't even get me started on the price. 11,60€ for me to fucking go out and see people???? And we know seats aren't as good as they used to be in the past. Don't know about the snack prices, I bet it costs two kidneys.

That being said...

FUCK STREAMING PLATFORMS TOO OR EVEN ESPECIALLY

obviously I ain't paying for any. I won't pay for 10 different platforms, and especially not Amazon they can literally rot in hell. Don't even get me started on netflix. I used to pay sometimes back then. Honestly they had something. They used to do an actual effort and trying to show different stuff. They let creative direction to their writers. We wouldn't never have sense8 with today mentality tbh. Everything is just a reboot, a book adaptation emptied from its substance, a reboot, and book adaptation a reboot, a book a- you see the thing. I mean I shouldn't be bitching as pretty much never watch anything new for years so what do I know? I mean I would like to, but every time I watch a trailer, I'm tired just by watching it. Latest exemple I'm thinking about is the three body problem... Like having read the book just watching the trailer you could see the Americanism all over it... For a chinese book. And it's the problem with everything. I mean American TV shows have always be like this, maybe being younger I wasn't aware back then idk. But it feels so empty, so soulless? They can give me all the diversity they want, that doesn't change that it's still empty. And for TV shows (actually I'm talking more specifically about TV shows cause I'm not a big cinephile so I don't have the legitimacy to criticise) I know it's because of that stupid ass 8 episodes format. I've already talked about it. But it's literally draining the whole industry imo. Also writers clearly having little creative freedom since they have to make stuff that sells. But yeah, TV shows lasted physically and in memories because we were watching them slowly instead of this boulimie stuff we have now. Everything is like consume, forget, consume forget and pay shit ton of money.

And I'm thinking I am actually not built for this shit. I felt so burn out not being able to enjoy anything. So now I don't even try. I don't try new shows cause it's not worth it even when there's an actual good one. Because it's gonna be cancelled anyway. Who wants to emotionally invest in shows that get cancelled (I did so many time).

But when I do.

Be sure I will pirate the shit out of it. None of these industries deserve our money.

To finish on a positive note, if there's one thing I'm really happy for in the end. It's books. Sure the book industry is oversaturated too and there's ton of shit to criticise too (but I won't here). But it's so vast there are books everywhere for everyone, and even if tomorrow not a single book would be published (which I don't believe in), there are enough books for my entire life anyway. But yes books, even if formatted too (looking at us french snobs with our novel format), are like the only place writers can still let go of their creativity. Plus you can have cheap books (I'm starting to get there) and obviously free books thanks to libraries, and also you can pirate books too. Yes I pirate books too but tbh it doesn't even compensate how much I spend buying books so I'm not feeling guilty and I either pirate popular books or old books (if they are really old it's free anyway). But yes if you go out unlike me go buy books if you have money, to your local bookstore, or if you can't library is your way.

Reading is my anchor ⚓

[inastarlesssky]

Okay so here's my actual thoughts about The Crimes of Grindelwald. That last bit was like me processing really quickly what I thought but this is a more...in-depth thing. Not promising a play by play analysis of the plot and everything but what I thought of the story in general and more specifically about the dynamics of Newt + Leta, Newt + Tina, and the Credence plotline.

Okay so last night, I finished Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and I didn't think it was such a bad movie. Not the best, for sure, but I have seen worse. I was just struck by how much was going on. . .there was the overall Grindelwald's evil agenda and him being a creepy af villain. Kudos to Johnny Depp for pulling off the creepiness. And the costume designers/makeup people. All of that (his appearance, and the man's acting job) contributed to very much "This guy is Bad™ and he won't hesitate for a second to do what needs to be done". Though I am still wondering what the hell happened to his eye to make him look weird like that. Was he born that way? (I haven't read the books but I might one day.)

I liked the escape scene; the rain, and the Thestrals were pretty neat but I might have appreciated some explanation or reference (was it referred to in the previous movie, Abernathy's abilities?) Or was it Grindelwald making it possible to switch places with him in the coach? I mean cinematically, it was kind of neat, but I was really confused. Same with the part, later, when Abernathy shifted from looking like a woman to himself to get inside the Ministry. I'm just used to seeing wizards use wands, given that we see that in HP. Granted, okay, some of them just don't, like Graves/Grindelwald in the first movie when he just did with magic with a swish and flick of his hand...but still.

Then there was the whole bit about Dumbledore enlisting Newt's help to find Credence. Not gonna lie, though I liked Dumbledore a bit in the HP movies, I didn't like the idea that he was foisting off on Newt this job. Newt asks him at one point, "Why can't you do it?" and we later find that he can't fight Grindelwald because of a blood pact. Understandable, but Idk I just feel like Dumbledore just doesn't want to get involved. For whatever reasons that may be (perhaps I'll discover this in the third movie...) Which brings me to the point at the very end of the movie, when Newt brings him the phial containing their blood pact thing. When he asks Dumbledore if he'll destroy it or try to, the latter says, "Maybe, maybe" in a way that seemed very much to me like a "I'll tell you maybe but it's a Slytherin way of saying 'no'." I'm not trying to bash Dumbledore here, trust me, this is just what I think of him from these actions.

This little sideplot of Credence and Nagini...it didn't really grab me. Maybe he really is like this, but Credence just seems very mopy and I'm not sure how to put it....he doesn't really make me feel any particular way about him. Like it's different with Grindelwald and Newt.

Grindelwald:

Okay I see him, he looks like trouble,

Lie after lie spills off his tongue,

He's vicious and all of the above = he's bad and I don't like him.

Newt:

He's a little spacey but he knows what he has to do.

He says he doesn't want to take sides, but his heart is in the right place, and he will devote himself to the good.

He's quirky, he looks quirky and there's just this awkwardness about him that makes him endearing = you develop a soft spot for this guy.

But Credence? I pitied him in the first movie for how he suffered, but I just don't think I understood his character enough in this movie to feel anything more.

Okay, now about Leta and Theseus. I was downright confused about the relationship with Theseus and Newt tbh. In one moment he's hugging him and offering him assistance and then at the Ministry, he looks like he legit wants to kill Newt, and I think Newt even makes a remark about that. But then, at the very end, they hug because well, they've both lost Leta.

As for Leta....I wasn't sure what to think about her and Newt As I said before, there's that flashback to Hogwarts where we see her upset because of the other girls' bullying, and she runs off and finds Newt with a raven chick. Then Newt finds her and takes her to see a Bowtruckle (was that Pickett by the way, or just one of the Bowtruckles that he'd found in that tree there?), and it's sweet because we see just so how tender he is. And he's looking at her with a kind expression, but I didn't get the impression that either of them had anything romantic, really. I think I was just really confused.

The Newt and Tina part of all this....So personal note here--I sort of just initially started shipping them because they looked like they could be a thing. In the first movie, he was sort of just thrown into an adventure with her and they had to figure everything out. The last scene of FB had me thinking, will they, won't they? Then, in CoG, when Queenie tells Newt that Tina thought he was engaged to Leta and thus started dating Achilles, the camera goes to him and I saw him maybe a little devastated, disappointed, at the news. He pretty much visibly deflated, and then we see him looking for how to find her, to explain the truth. Why would he be so desperate to do that if he didn't actually care how she felt about that?

I also picked up on that part when they're in the safehouse, and they're taking care of Yusuf. Whenever Tina calls him 'Mr. Scamander', he just has this look on his face...like he feels the distance she's putting between them. Then there's also the scene in the French Ministry. Newt was basically scrambling to explain to her that it was a mistake, that in his words, he wasn't truly happy or engaged, despite what she thought. I felt like it was pointed, when he said that to her. She asks him "Are you here to win [Leta] back?" and he answers with "I'm here to--" to what? To win Tina back? Maybe.

Newt: Please don't be happy. No, I--sorry, I don't--obviously I want you to be, and I hear that you are now. Which is wonderful. What I'm trying to say is, I want you to be happy, but I don't want you to be happy that I'm happy because I'm not. Happy. Or engaged. Tina: ...

Was this him trying to tell her something? I'm not sure. We don't see much more of them talking like this later in the movie because of everything else that happens. I'm kind of a little bummed about Queenie, though...I mean she was never my favorite character, but I liked her. Except when she crossed over to Grindelwald's side, I was like "No! You're better than this." Jacob was, understandably, upset. As for Leta's fate, that was unfortunate. When she said I love you, that was for Theseus, her fiancee, no? That's what I thought at least.

And in the end, Credence is supposedly Aurelius Dumbledore, surprise. A LOT of stuff happened in this movie that I think could have been either two movies or not stuffing so much into one. Like it had promising points, but it was just too much. At least too much to take in at 11 at night before going to sleep, imo. It wasn't too bad though. I'm looking forward to the 3rd movie!

[bisluthq]

I'm new on your blog. So if you allow me to ask, which kind of books do you usually read?

I personally usually read thriller/suspense, mystery like those books that have people disappearing or there's criminal investigations, the romance genre in general but I specially like historical ones (but not like connected to royalty, more like historical periods. I read a lot of books with World War I and II as background. Just finished the other day an autobiography kind of book of two jewish brothers that ran away from the nazis) and those where there's a lot of drama and suspense with the romance as in it's not like plain romance. I noticed the book you mentioned is historical romance, even though I never heard of it. Have you ever read anything from Lesley Pearse? She's the one that got me hooked in that genre.

I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy and sci-fi - just general genres that start for reality -, but every once in a while I give it a try if something catches my attention. I usually also don't read YA books or those recommended on tiktok, because I feel like that kind of writing is not really for my age range anymore 😂 I'm not exactly a teen, so the romance in those books is like eh...I usually say it's too much water with sugar

I have been trying to catch up on reading a lot of those classic books, cause I confess that I was never really into reading them. Since my first language is not English, the books you are required to read for school are the classical ones of my own language yk so it was never really a requirement, but I do think it's important. I even caught these beautiful editions that was like a magazine collection thing every two weeks. They did it to more than 50 classical books and I got a handful. I'm a sucker for beautiful covers 🤭

I read a looooot of different things. I have read some Lesley Pearce books. If you enjoy that kind of stuff, some other quite mainstream writers to look at would be Lucinda Riley (I really like her work - it’s super well researched, like I’ve legit learned things about places/historical periods in those places from her books and the storylines are really great), Kate Morton (she also takes inspiration from a range of genres), Mary Chamberlain (again, insanely well researched because she’s a history professor actually but there’s always a lot of romance and stuff and also she’s a very cool person idk), this is a specific book that I think you might enjoy - it’s kinda a historical detective story but in a weird way and there’s a lot of personal intrigue which is When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro and you will almost definitely enjoy The Remains of the Day also by him (but most of his other stuff is fantasy/sci fi tbh). Ken Follett writes epic stories (he does both detectives/thrillers and historical books but not really heavy on the romance - always a bit but not like romance books per se). Also you could try Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (not strictly romance but there is some and it’s such an interesting story and history that I’d known very little about). Idk those are some to try that I think you’d like. If you’ve read any of them lemme know and I can suggest other things too lol.

also it’s quite dreadfully written (but not as bad as a lot of BookTok faves actually) but Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance (not the sequels) is a fucking EPIC story lmao. It’s also easy to read. And the sex scenes are weirdly kinda hot lmao even though it’s very fade to black haha. Like it’s not as good in terms of trying to read to improve your English vocab or interest in literature but the plot is 👌🏼😂

As I say, I’m always happy to suggest books to people because I read a lot! I try to do like at least two “serious” books a month (either nonfiction or contemporary fiction of various genres or whatever) and then I read a couple romcoms/random detective things sometimes parallel to that if I just want something that’s fun or some poetry parallel to it if I find something new or a poet I like releases a new collection and like maybe once or twice a year, I read a classic-ish thing I haven’t read before but because of how much I “had” to read when studying and “have” to read to teach, there aren’t thaaaat many I haven’t read and actively want to lol. So yeah I’m always reading something or several somethings.

In terms of The House of Doors idk man it’s a bit of a weird book so I can’t say I’m not enjoying it but it also wouldn’t specifically be something I’d be recommending, it’s just something I’m trying rn.