#apparently people are giving really good reviews so i'm actually really excited

[nukaposting]

getting my ssd for starfield installed tomorrow

[paper-mario-wiki]

Shangri-La Frontier mid-season review

This is by far the best fake video game I've ever seen written in fiction.

Most MMO-centric isekai stories have trouble with providing accurate and realistic depictions of the complexities and minutia that give MMOs the allure they have. I've seen so much handwavey bullshit tacked onto fake-games that introduce unrealistically overlooked mechanics for reasons like giving the protag immense power just because they're the protag and the story is about them. A good example of this is another MMO Isekai airing this season, "A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life", wherein the main character becomes extremely rich, powerful, and famous by episode 2 because he stumbled into a stealth archer playstyle, a build which apparently no human in that universe had ever conceived of before, and then making a fortune by selling basic potions to everyone after NPCs stopped selling them (another thing he was uniquely able to do because not a single other player had the forethought to spec into alchemy). These lesser, dime-a-dozen isekai add up to be boring fantasy strories with gaming elements clumsily put in so that the author can demonstrate how powerful the world's inhabitants are by showing their stat allocation screen instead of, say, explaining anything about what they do that's so uniquely powerful and how they figured it out. Ya know, stuff you'd hope to hear about from any competent story.

Shangri-La Frontier is a breath of fresh air for anyone who, like me, is sick of authors ignoring the things that actually make video games compelling in service of creating a stock-standard narratives in fantasy worlds because it allows them to get away with bullshit. I've always found it very convenient that many isekai narratives indulge in things like chattel slavery, because it's societally normal enough for the protag to purchase a beautiful, vulnerable girl to add to his harem (dont worry, she is always inexplicably in love with him no matter what because he's SUCH a kind master). And it never really seems to go anywhere. Because the Video Game Isekai, while an interesting premise in theory, is more often than not used exclusively as a means to simplify the structure of a world's power scaling to abide by an arbitrary set of omnipresent universal rules (e.g. what people who have never cared to look into game development think of video games). This anime, by comparison, is VERY clearly authored by someone who plays a LOT of games.

Every piece of logic used to drive the plot forward, so far, is congruent to a real-world example of video game conventions, and I'm not just talking about levelling up and selling monster parts. Story elements that I've rarely (if ever) seen explored in other isekai are ever-present and genuinely clever and amusingly introduced. My favorite example of this so far has been the way the protagonist has been able to go head to head with so many overlevelled foes in the first 9 episodes. The story of course makes note of how good of a gamer Sanraku (our hero) is, but much like in real life games, being super duper good at dodging attacks doesn't really make up for a 70 level gap in items and learned skills. For that reason, he gets his ass whooped more often than he actually outsmarts others (so far he hasn't beaten a single player in pvp). So how is he getting out of these situations without dying so frequently? Simple: he got access to a later area too early relative to his level (sequence break) and got access to a high level follower NPC that's been carrying him. This is something he acknowledges directly several times, specifically using words like "Emul has been hard-carrying me for a while." This, to me, is extraordinarily meaningful. That's something you can exploit in Skyrim, man. That's REALISTIC CHEESE STRATS. The excitement and wonder I find in this show doesn't come from watching the protag do something unexpected, but by watching him do something that I would think to do.

This knowledge the author has demonstrated regarding modern gaming culture extends further into the actual realistic nature of game design and community. The story exists in a reality where full-dive VRMMOs are the be-all-end-all of gaming, and given the prohibitively expensive nature of developing and designing expansive, immersive worlds, most games are pretty shit. It's been hinted at so far that this is due to a monopolistic megacorp which is one of the only entities rich and powerful enough to make a good game (the game in question being the one that shares the title of the anime), but so far the strife of the characters have been pretty centralized to the happenings of the game world and its politics. By the way, lets talk about the game world's player base politics, which I'm also quite pleased with. It exists in the form of guilds and clans who struggle for power not by participating in seemingly random pvp with other powerful players to see who is the most epic and badass warrior (again, like many contemporary isekai typically opt for), but by gaining actual realistic support from a fictional playerbase with realistic desires and playstyles. Some guilds are interested in lore, some gather for alliance and boss raids, some for things like animal husbandry, and (naturally) at least one is dedicated to trolling and PKing. Each of these factions, through the very little that we've seen of them so far, communicate on forums and only know as much as is reasonable for them to know. The only reason they give a shit about the protagonist at all is because he gained access to a high-level unique scenario quest that they want information on how to access, and the only reason word of that got out in the first place was because someone posted a screenshot of him with a unique NPC onto a forum, asking about it as "where can i find this pet summon, its super cute!" That's real. That's video games, baby.

I like this show a lot so far. I like that it cares about video games, but I also like its writing. I like the main character and how hes less of an ultra badass super cool guy, and more of an earnest challenge-run lets player. Like, a lot of his dialogue straight up sounds strikingly similar to Japanese youtubers. And he's naturally always quick to point out inconsistencies in the game world's logic. I ALSO really like his community of pals from a janky old fighting game, and I ADORE the girl from his school who has a crush on him and also just so happens to be an exceptionally high level player from a top clan, and how she had to spend 9 episodes working up the courage to send him a friend request. I love that so, so much, dude.

I highly recommend this show if you're into a single thing I've mentioned. The animation is great. The world is beautiful. The character design is immaculate. And I'm looking forward to watching it continue.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Time the Series - Episode 1

Another time traveling show. This time by expectations are basically on the floor.

So before I say anything here's the official synopsis: Foam, a famous actor, saw Chris, the lover, killed in front of him by the police. But fate gives Foam a chance to go back and correct the past for what he did wrong, causing Chris's death. When a mysterious man gives a clock that can travel back in time to Foam, will Foam be able to fix the past and save a lover's life? Only time will prove it! MDL You can watch it on YT, Gaga. Uncut on WeTV.

I watch the cut version, if anyone watches the full version please let me know what I missed. Not that I'm all that invested but still. This is basically a "I watched it so you don't have to" type of review so obviously, all spoilers from here on. Skip to the end for my short review.

We begin with a police chase that ends with Chris being caught but then there's a sniper and he gets shot. Very exciting already.

Cut to Foam waking up in bed and promptly pouring himself red wine while he cries and reflects on his lost love. Warning for singing and guitar playing in flashback.

The next day he's passed out and won't answer his phone and everyone is very upset, cause he's an actor and there's a lot of people waiting for him to shoot a commercial. There's already a war of managers happening btw. The one in pink is Foam's manager, the other one wants to be his manager. I'll be calling her the bad manager from here on for reasons which will become obvious.

So eventually he arrives and they shoot a commercial for some skin product that is amazing for the skin if we believe the people that show up to help Foam with his lines, cause the boy is struggling.

And apparently it's his birthday and he makes the weirdest call to his mum to ask her to wish happy birthday and the subs have the mom saying "Hello, dear" but there's actually no sound from the other side of the conversation. Amazing.

After this the drama really begins. And I mean there's so much happening and none of it is good.

So really quickly: - Birthday party where Foam is the DJ and there is some really bad dance acting happening. - The bad manager drugs Foam and assaults him and is interrupted by the good manager. - The two managers insult each other in front of passed out Foam and a physical fight ensues. Slap, screaming, slap, insult, slap, begging, more slapping. This is all very dramatic btw, almost lakorn level dramatic. Glass on the floor, bad manager picks it up and stabs the good manager. - Bad manager's bodyguards take her and Foam wakes up with the bloody glass shard on his hand.

Panic sets in, everyone comes and for some reason some dude is filming this whole thing. And we get our second police chase of the episode. This time Foam is the one doing the running.

Foam hides in a dark ally where he meets a stranger with a shining pink necklace that invites him to his place and of course he goes, because why not?

Then he recognizes the necklace/watch because he gave his boyfriend one that looks exactly like it. And then this:

Guy in alley - gives Foam pink shiny watch - dead boyfriend appears.

They immediately jump each other, as you do when all of a sudden your dead boyfriend is in front of you again, and Foam wakes up thinking it was all a dream. But was it? I have no idea.

Foam wakes up, hits himself, hurts himself and wonders why he's in his old apartment. He goes outside and it's five years before Chris died. The end.

So... to recap. I don't even know what to say. This is from MFlow, the same company that brought us the mess that was Beyond The Star so my expectations were really low.

With that said, I can't in good conscience tell any of you to watch this. It's not good. From the previews it seems Foam is going to meet Chris all over again except he won't remember him. Fun times all over again. I'll be honest. I probably won't be watching this, but come next tuesday if I have nothing better to do I might check it out. Depends how much I remember the experience and how curious I get about how they will deal with the time traveling. I obviously have not learned my lesson.

If anyone watches it please let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.💜

[lutawolf]

Between Us Episode 4 Commentary and Review

For those that haven't read my other reviews. They can be found here. It's right underneath the UWMA reviews. In previous posts, I talk about how Win is possessive but not jealous. There is a difference, and I explain that here. Let me say that for those who are new to me. I am a kinkster, and I write from a kinkster perspective. This is, of course, artwork so it can be viewed differently by other people. However, I will say that kinksters don't hold some of the negative connotations that most view in vanilla relationships. So yes, my perspective tends to be vastly different.

Let's begin! I'm super excited while also nervous. WinTeam have amazing communication skills except for when they don't. I love this brother dynamic so much.

Honestly, this is exactly how my siblings and I act. Grown up? What the fuck is that when a sibling is around?! Well apparently, Win. 🤣🤣🤣 Gamer Bro gives me only child vibes more than the oldest. Win is more like the oldest. Ahh, there is the big brother coming out. It's in there just well hidden.

Is anybody else thinking about a certain Daddy scene? No, just me? 👀

T-Rex, if you haven't figured it out yet, you are an idiot. There has got to be something behind those fierce eyebrows. Apparently not. Congratulations, you've won the white crayon award. As in, he is not the brightest crayon in the box.

Awww, baby bro. You can be anything you want cause Win will make sure of it. They are cute, but damn is sunshine happy. Damn your younger brother knows more about love than you. You might know sex buddy, but you don't know intimacy. Listen to tiny bro. HAHAHA! Okay, sunshine is perceptive. I love it! And omg, the acting!! The way Win suddenly looks like he has been gobsmacked.

The alphabet gang. Um, was he expecting him to come? I thought we all knew he wouldn't. Oh, but he did come, and you guys owe your buddy an apology. There are so many side couples, though. Damn.

A locker full of drinks. That's more romantic than most guys actually get. I like it. Then, back to the group project. Bee is like bitches get out. Bee got one thing on his mind and it's a certain Prince. His crush is so obviouse.

Back to Team. Then to Win. Then back to Team. I'm getting whiplash, guys. Oh no, nightmares again. Win you might be upset now, but not for long. Sure enough, not for long.

Tell us how you really feel Win. They already have sides of the bed. I love it. Ugh, I'm gutted. Look at that gentle touch and the arms open. He's asking. It's completely up to Team, but he's asking because he know Team needs it but won't ask. The soft smiles from them both. One is looking forward to holding the other, and the other is looking forward to finally having a good night's sleep. They both found comfort in each other. For different reasons, but they've found it.

Win like, I'll be your wife, husband, and daddy, but I'll be damned if I'm your mom. FYI, for an amazing read about why the intimate verbiage from Team to Win is so important, check out @notfreetoday and @ellaspore posts. Both can be found on the Coconuts Mafia side blog.

Look how soft Win is when he is with his brothers and Team. Not just anyone gets this side of him. Not even his close friends. That should tell you that Win has long since chosen Team even if he himself hadn't completely realized it. Team is me after a night of drinking. Crawl on the floor and totally excited about food. Now notice that Team brings up his mom and Pharm cooking for him, and that smile never leaves Win's face. Jealousy is not there.

Win is doing everything he can to extend the time he has with Team. That smile never left his face because the time he does have with him is precious to him. Team is just as into the time they have together. Look at him talking about a movie tonight. He himself extended their time.

Win is having to work hard to get Team on the back of that bike. Team isn't an adrenaline junkie; he knows too much the consequences of that. He likes steady and steadfast. He craves security. Hai used the magic words, though. He said, "Trust me and come on." See how easily Team gives in. He is a brat through and through. He isn't happy about it, but he respects his Dom so fine. "Please drive slow, though."

Win won because he got those arms securely wrapped around him. OMG, I love the casual touches. The arm over the shoulder. The natural intimacy. The way Team says Hia and gently pulls on the back of his shirt. I know that a lot of people are thinking of this as whining, but please note that a lot of Doms like to be addressed. That's what you do when you put the name or title first. It's hard to explain. Think of it as a letter, how you address a letter. To whom it may concern or the name. It's addressing, showing respect before just going into dialogue. Now, from my understanding of some kinksters on here, that is not as prevalent everywhere as it is where I am from. I do feel that is actually what Team is doing here with Win, though. A reminder of, yes, I recognize that you and I have a more intimate tie than most.

Yes, Win he digested all his breakfast. A lot of energy was put into holding onto you on that bike. Ahhhh, look at that naturalness again. Team just grabs Win's hand without issue, and Win naturally lets him.

Team is such a foodie. Don't stop him Win, for a foodie like Win it's an act of love. HAHA, you are all equal, huh? Team, you're an idiot. Why would Win care about how girls think of him. Win sets him straight, though, letting him know it doesn't matter what girls think of him. Yesssssss, and he fed him the shrimp. Look how happy Team is. Sharing food with a foodie is the ultimate act of love. Guys, I'm telling you. Food is its own love language. It engages the senses and creates a connection. When words are hard to use, it's an easy way to express oneself.

"I thought you wanted to go grocery shopping. Why aren't you buying anything." 🤣🤣🤣 He just wanted time with you, Team.

Looks are subjective girls!!! Please stop knocking yourself down. Yes, Phreuk, come cheer. Oh, look at that gentle hand to Menow's back. Ahhhh, so cute. I love all the little detailed touches!!!! I adore Phreuk. They are cute. I'm dying. That was smooth, dude. Don't even ask, just tell. Wait, who was arguing with me that Phreuk doesn't have it in him to be Dom???? Did you see that move. I am cackling. So cute!

Here comes the possessiveness. Win isn't jealous of who Team is on the phone with. He is possessive of their time together. This is his time. Then he sees that Team is looking up movies, and they are back on track. I'm dying over the product placement of Iqiyi while I'm watching iqiyi.

I love Win's "The audacity of this Bitch" face. 🤣🤣🤣 Even I'm laughing at you Win. Yeah, you are still cool but maybe not right now.

Team is totally taking advantage of this, and I love him for it. Team is having fun, but you can tell he cares for Win. He changes the channel and easily agrees to keep it to himself. Then Win flashes back to talking to his little brother, and we get this beautiful sequence of love and adoration.

Thank you, Ray of Sunshine! Again, with the casual touches and shared joy.

Ha! Win got Team back on the bike. Win wants to know if Team is used to the bike yet. Team brings up girls again, and Win is not understanding. See you guys, Team IS jealous. He is not secure in the knowledge that Win is his. Now, he could recognize this as a negative emotion and push those feelings down. The healthiest thing to do, though, is exactly what he is doing. Bringing them out into the open to be addressed. He isn't starting a fight, and he isn't accusing Win of anything. He is telling him what everyone says. Win says, "How can he help what other people think?" This isn't an unhealthy conversation. It's a healthy one because emotions are not getting bottled up.

T-Rex, are you trying to die.

Conversations goes right back to where it was with a lot of misunderstandings cleared up. See, intense but not unhealthy. They both walked away from that conversation happy.

The sub trio!!! Each of them teasing why having their own secrets. Run Pharm Run!

Dom trio!!! Look at you calling people out, Win. HAHAHAHA! Love Deans response. Oh, you wanna bring someone extra. 🤣🤣🤣 I love the fact that all of them went for kids from the same friend group!

Ohhh, they got questions about Team. Back off, you can't stop Win. Good, you told him you trust him. I really like that despite Dean being Win's bestie, he is a good guy. He cares about doing the right thing and being a good person. He isn't gonna just side with Win because he is his friend.

"That's how our relationship started." "You started that way but how are you going to end?" "I don't know, but whatever we have right now it is already good." Ugh, how is Team gonna take that. He doesn't look so happy. He missed win saying it wasn't just about the sex and basically admitting he is head over heels.

When in doubt, head to your bestie. Ahh, what is love question. Team says that everything Pharm is describing can be attributed to friendships as well. Including theirs. Pharms says yes, but there are no feelings of possessiveness. 👀👀👀 Oh gee, who could have said something similar. 👀👀👀 hmmmmm. "Because you want to possess him." 👀👀👀

That face of Win's. Dead. But notice how Win waits until he is acknowledged. He doesn't but in to interrupt Teams time with Pharm. He can tell they are having a conversation. When he is acknowledged, he moves towards team, telling him, "Let's go home." Team agreeing but not moving fast enough so Win grabs him by the hand to take him away. I'm sure there will be some of you that think this is jealousy and you are wrong. It's possessiveness. Notice how Win tells Pharm that Dean will be out in a few minutes and how Pharm is smiling because he knows that this is Win being possessive. Win knows Pharm is Dean's. It's just that now it's his time with Team, and he is possessive of his alone time. Remember, Win isn't used to having something that is ALL his. And he doesn't desire to keep Team all to himself but be damned if he doesn't savor those moments when he does get him all to himself.

Win is gone. Gone.

We know why you like the bike Win. You ain't fooling, nobody.

OMG, this was such a good episode. And the side story!! So cute!!! I don't care that it was a promotion. It was adorable. Hope you guys enjoyed it as well 💜💜💜 As always, this is dedicated to my amazing followers and the Coconuts Mafia.

[mrmallard]

So I just sat down and watched the Nintendo Partner Direct. I didn't know what to expect, though I do generally like Nintendo Direct presentations.

Legit, it had a few reveals that had me reeling. I'm really excited. And overall, it was just a really good set of reveals.

Grounded was an unexpected announcement, but I'm into it. If I can get my controller fixed, I'll give this one a go for sure.

Arranger is cool. Puzzle games are underrated, and while I probably wouldn't go for this one, I think it's a novel idea and I'm sure it'll hit with the exact audience it aims for.

I'm not a Monster Hunter guy, but I would consider playing the RPGs. The first one on 3DS is finally getting remastered, so if I was gonna play any Monster Hunter game, I would play this one and the sequel. Good call by Capcom, don't split up your sequels like that.

I was surprised that the Epic Mickey game was a remake and not a remaster. Not interested but it's certainly notable.

Star Wars Battlefront is an inspired choice. Aspyr has been on fire lately, they're remastering games left and right with their new engine and they just launched a solid trilogy of Tomb Raider remasters that fared pretty well review-wise. Battlefront is notable because the original devs were apparently working on a third instalment for a while, until EA got the license and shuttered the project.

The first of EA's Battlefront games was extremely light on content, built on the same iteration of the Frostbite engine as Battlefield One but with very little variety to actually play. There wasn't even a campaign. Then Battlefront 2 got blasted for predatory microtransactions that offered gameplay enhancements, and which resembled the effects of a slot machine when players interacted with the lootbox system. EA's Battlefront 2 started a nuclear fuckstorm that we're still seeing today, leading to multiple countries looking into regulating lootboxes as a form of gambling being aimed at children.

So after that entire saga, to see the original Battlefront games come back? I do think it's an inspired choice. I feel like no-one expected this to happen given EA's iron fist over the deal they signed with Disney, but then again - Star Wars games have been coming out in droves on the Switch. Very interesting reveal.

The Gundam game looks cool, and fuck yeah new Monkey Ball!

I'm looking forward to a potential Snapcube VOD because of games like Penny's Big Breakaway. This is where the Direct began to lull for me, but it absolutely obliterated me with the last two announcements. Pocket Card Jockey is a great get though, and I'm very cautious about the new Contra game but I hope it's good.

SNES Killer Instinct. I physically have the cartridge for this game in my apartment. This was my first fighting game, and I LOVE it. I haven't renewed my NSO subscription in a while, but I absolutely will so I can play KI again. I was just talking about how I found Maximillian Dood over his fandom of Killer Instinct, and now it's back in my life - I'm so happy.

And I have to just talk about Endless Ocean: Luminous.

A part of me feels weird seeing 30 players exploring the same sunken ruins. It reminds me of the commodification of the ocean, and the associated waste and disturbance that comes with droves and droves of people boating out to go diving. That's a personal issue that isn't an issue with a virtual game world, I just felt weird about seeing all those players.

It's interesting that the game is going for a randomised game world. An endlessly replayable Endless Ocean game is really cool on paper, but a part of the experience used to be in exploring set areas and slowly uncovering a map as you upgrade your stuff. I'm concerned about if the game's randomised chunks that it constructs the game world out of can flow seamlessly and not come together as a bunch of obvious pre-fabs stuck together like glue. I like roguelike games like A Robot Named Fight which do have very obvious chunks it draws from, but I kind of need this new Endless Ocean game to nail the execution.

And the reason why I'm being so critical is because I LOVE ENDLESS OCEAN

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT TOTALLY CAUGHT ME OFF-GUARD AND I POPPED OFF SO HARD ABOUT IT

I had the second game, Blue World, on the Wii. This was years before the Game Grumps played the series on their show. Blue World is an incredible game with a fantastic soundtrack, they used licensed music from a group called Celtic Woman and it pops off. The title screen music is a song called Carrickfergus, which seems to be an Irish folk song about youth and reminiscence. It's very bittersweet:

And you have Nella Fantasia, which is absolutely gorgeous:

And The Prayer:

Beautiful songs, combined with the unique, serene gameplay where you swam, fed fish, searched for treasure and advanced a surprisingly riveting story full of stuff like survivor's guilt and conservation of the ocean. Incredibly underrated game, even with the Grump Bump.

I played Abzu because of Endless Ocean. They're very different games, but they share the fact that you can identify sealife, see their names and even physically interact with some of the fish. The biggest downside was that the original games had those janky PS2-era human graphics where everyone looked like a wax statue.

Here's what I want out of Luminous:

Treasure hunting. This was my favorite part of Blue World.

An actual narrative, singleplayer or not. I want to uncover something beautiful, mysterious and unknown. My hopes are high given that the game has fucking Anomalocaris in it.

Everything else looks good, but these two aspects of the game would make this the easiest game purchase I've made in almost ten years.

This Direct was worth it for KI and Endless Ocean alone. Everything else was a bonus.

[libertyreads]

March TBR--

I'm hoping the month of March goes a little better for me reading wise. I felt like I got a decent amount read in February (while still sticking to my goals for the year) but a lot of it was so mid. I'm ready for any of these books to just grab me by the throat and keep me hooked. I have two rereads in preparation for new releases later this year. I also have two NetGalley ARCs and a hockey romance (because I've read one every month of the year so far, why not keep that going?).

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah-- This is one of those books you hear about a ton on the bookish spaces of the internet and I decided it was finally time to see what all of the hype is about. In this one, we follow Loulie al-Nazari as she and her jinn bodyguard are forced to help the sultan find an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land. There is a ton more in the synopsis, but like a lot of reviewers these days, I feel like synopses are starting to give too much away. I'm hoping for some City of Brass vibes and lots of adventure.

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten (Reread)-- I read this one a year ago and I'm excited to dive back into it before the next book comes out. In this one we follow Lore who escaped from a cult beneath the city of Dellaire over 10 years ago. Lore's job as a runner sustains her, but when a run goes wrong and her power is revealed she's forced to work for the Sainted King to find the person in his court responsible for the deaths of entire villages on the outskirts of the country. Thrust into the Sainted King's glittering court, Lore becomes tangled in politics, religion, and forbidden romance. This was my favorite book of January last year so I'm excited to reread.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu-- A first contact with aliens story that's been translated from the original (and set to be released as a Netflix show soon) and follows the outcome of a secret military project that sent signals into space to establish contact with aliens. Will the alien civilization on the brink of destruction be welcomed on Earth or will there be a fight against an invasion?

Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo (Reread)-- Before the next in the graphic novel series comes out, I plan on doing a quick reread of this one. Number one in this series introduces us to Raven who is forced to move to New Orleans following the accident that takes her foster mother's life. But that accident has also taken her memory. Then strange things start happening. This is a fun series and I'm glad I get the chance to reread it.

No Coincidence by Rafat Kosik-- Translated from the original Polish, this is the first novel in the Cyberpunk 2077 series. Apparently, this series includes collected editions of limited series, standalone graphic novels, and also full length novels. There are four authors who have contributed to it. It is all based on the game Cyberpunk 2077. My understanding is that you can start in a few different places. I hope it's true. Let's talk about the actual book now. This one appealed to me because of the cover. But the synopsis really got me. A misfit group is forced to do a heist thanks to some good, old-fashioned blackmail. The gang includes a veteran turned renegade, a Militech sleeper agent, an amateur net runner, a corporate negotiator, a ripperdoc, and a techie. They must come together to pull off the deadly heist. Also...is this the third book in this TBR about people being forced to work for people above them??

Must Love Hockey by Sarina Bowen (Kindle)-- This short hockey romance follows a woman who has an allergic reaction at a hockey game and is rescued by an equipment manager whose name she doesn't manage to catch. I've read and enjoyed Sarina Bowen before so I'm hoping this is a fun and quick read.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark (NetGalley)-- The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats. Nor do they have tails. But they are most assuredly dead. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins--resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories--have only three unbreakable vows. First, the contract must be just. Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Third, once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. Eveen's newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn't supposed to remember and a vow she can't forget.

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes (NetGalley)-- When I tell you that I was squealing the day I found out I got access to this book, please, do picture it as a cute and dainty squeal instead of the insanity that actually unfolded. I loved Dead Silence from this author so when I saw they had a new space horror novel I HAD to try to get an ARC. Space exploration can be lonely and isolating. Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray is assigned to a small exploration crew and she is determined to make a difference. But as they begin establishing residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that the crew is hiding something. Her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure than opening up to her. That is, until their pilot is discovered gruesomely murdered. I cannot wait to read this one.

This TBR is giving me such a good feeling. There's Sci-Fi, there's Fantasy, there's Romance, there's Sci-Fi/Horror (a beloved genre pairing for me), there's a graphic novel. I'm just hoping March is such a good reading month. I kind of need it.

[cj-writes-stuff]

Reading Wrap-Up | April 2024

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human by Kimberly Lemming Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulsen Garlic and the Witch by Bree Paulsen Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins Nimona by N. D. Stevenson

[mini reviews/ratings below the cut]

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human by Kimberly Lemming ⭐Rating: 3.5/5

After reading the previous two in the Mead Mishaps series, I was so excited to get my hands on this book. It follows Cherry, Cinnamon's sister who for two books we've thought to be dead, and Dante, another character who we've gotten to know. Turns out Cherry didn't die, she was kidnapped by a dragon and forced to live in a tower.

This series for me is like splurging at a diner; sure, I could spend the time putting thought into my meal, enjoy the prep time, savor the journey, and come out of it a changed person... or I could go out and relax with a drink and eat similar food but without any stress, I'm just here to have fun and laugh.

Not to say that there aren't complexities to these books as the worldbuilding is thoughtful and interesting the more we learn, and they do poke a lot of fun at certain tropes used in other books of its kind. The characters are fun and likable, there's a lot of sex that I could give or take but it's not terrible, and for the most part, I enjoyed Cherry and Dante's romance for what it was. I know what I'm signing up for when I pick up one of these, so even though the whole mates situation isn't really my thing, I've learned to go with the flow and have fun with it.

I did feel this book was a major improvement over the second book, which I was disappointed by. Also, upon reflection, I think I appreciate the first book a lot more now that I've read all three.

I'm honestly sad there isn't a fourth book out yet, but I'm keeping an eye out.

Garlic and the Vampire / Garlic and the Witch by Bree Paulsen ⭐Rating: 5/5

I'm putting these two together since I don't have too much to say. These are the sweetest, most wholesome graphic novels I've ever read, I adore them. I've had a major reading slump this month and I thought if I could just pick something quick and easy up, it'd make it easier to transition into something else. Hence these books.

The art is beautiful. I love Garlic, she's a little ball of anxiety and honestly, same. Her and Carrot's relationship is so sweet. Witch Agnes and Count are great. These stories are about little Garlic being brave and going on cute [and kinda scary] adventures and they made my night.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett ⭐Rating: 2/5

This one is... difficult. I liked it? I think? But also, it was a massive disappointment. It's frustrating because it didn't have to be. All the pieces were there for a fantastic story! Hell, at points, this book had me... but then it would quickly lose me.

This is the story of Emily Wilde who goes to a small town to study their faery folk but she struggles with the townspeople given she's not really a people person... but then her academic rival/friend Wendell Bambleby shows up to assist her.

The problem with this book is it's written in journal entries... journal entries that apparently recount everything, including long conversations and events with quite creative prose, that happened in journal form... as in it's a lot of telling, a lot of feelings being separated from the story that when the romance suddenly happened, I was like, "...Really? Like, actually? You two were better off as friends because this came out of nowhere??"

The journal structure is this books biggest downfall and I hate it because there's a good story in here. Why is it written like this??

I liked Emily a lot as a protagonist, but because she's journaling all of this research and tends to leave out a lot, I feel like there are crucial chunks missing. Poe was probably my favorite character, though. Bambleby was.... ugh, he could've been interesting but I'm starting to see a pattern in every fae romance I read: the fae love interests are all man babies. It's getting old real quick.

I have zero interest in picking up the rest of this series, which is unfortunate. I had high hopes for this. When it was good, it was really damn good... but that's not enough to make up for the bad.

A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins ⭐Rating: 2/5

Right. So, confession time: I haven't read The Hunger Games Trilogy. I didn't pick it up when it was popular, I didn't have a YA dystopian phase, and I never felt any reason to pick up until now. When the first movie came out, I saw it and thought it was good. Never watched the other ones.

Until this month. My buddy Pi and I marathoned all four Hunger Games movies, and then the prequel movie. I enjoyed the movies, they were fun to discuss, so I thought y'know what? Why not? Why not give them a read now? And since I'm in a unique position with all the books out and on my shelves, what if I start with the prequel book about President Snow before jumping into the main trilogy?

So that's exactly what I did.

I severely underestimated how insufferable Snow would be for 500 pages.

I honestly don't know how I feel about this book. There was a lot I liked, a shit ton I didn't like, and a lot that draaaaaaagged on and on and on. I would say that the first two parts of this book are pretty solid. Part three is when it falls apart until the very end when it picks back up again.

Snow is annoying and his name is stupid. Yes, I suppose I have more insight that should make moving forward with the series interesting... but consider: I hate him and I hope there's an all-you-can-eat buffet of cabbage in hell for him. Of all the characters we could've had a prequel book about, we just had to go with him?

Lucy Gray I'm mixed on; she started singing at her reaping and I was like "ah, pixie dream girl, are we gonna do something interesting with that? perhaps subvert it?" and to my pleasant surprise, yeah we did play with it in an interesting way. There were moments where she made me roll my eyes, but I liked her well enough... except I didn't like her romance with Snow from the beginning, which was a given.

I spent the entire book hoping that Dr. Gaul would get eaten by one of her creations but alas, no such luck.

Sejanus Plinth deserved the world and then some. This dude, my guy... he was so ready to throw hands with Dr. Gaul at any moment and I love and respect and cherish him for that. Even now just thinking about it, I'm so pissed off and heartbroken about everything that happened to him.

Again, there were things I liked about this book, but I think I need more time to actually process it. This really isn't the place for me to write an essay on the bullshit that was Snow and Sejanus's relationship or the ghost of Lucy Gray or how Katniss was a swamp potato the entire time.

Nimona by N. D. Stevenson ⭐Rating: 4/5

I needed something fun to wash the bad taste of Snow outta my mouth, went to peruse my shelves, and found this. This one is a reread. I first read it back in 2016? I believe? Around that time, and I enjoyed it then just as much as I've enjoyed it now. I haven't watched the movie yet but now I probably will.

The art style is cute, the characters are fun, and it made me feel better. Not much else to say, really. It did what I wanted it to do, but I don't think I was as charmed by it as I was the Garlic graphic novels, y'know?

[gettatranslations]

I'm Back…& What's in my Pencil Case Yumigeta Ako (23.10.13)

Good evening🌛

I'm Yumigeta Ako🛑

Thank you very much for your comments the other day！

I'm glad you all like Aoyama-san's suits✨

...

Yumigeta's health declined again but now I'm fully recovered！

Lookー！A photo our Manager-san took for me at our 「 Suggoi FEVER！」 MV shoot✨

Isn't it like the Energy Ball from Dragon Ball？！

This star🌟 was actually light and squishy❗️

The first time I saw it up close I was surprised by how big it was…

I also took a Sazae-san version！

I want to post it someday…

🦪🌊🐬🐠🐧🐢🐳🐙🐟🐚

...

Also have you watched Suggoi FEVER！'s s dance？！

I want to dance it with you allー I bet it'd be funny〜

And、And、

I bet you all already heard it in the MV、the man's voice going 「Sugoーi」…

It's kinda weird right🤣

During LIVE performances and such you all shout 「Sugoーi」、like at our Iwate performance the other day your 「Sugoーi」 was so clear tat it surprised me👀

What would 「Sugoーi」 be in Kansai dialect？

Would it be「Gottsui」？

Maybe just the intonation would be different？

Ahh〜 I'm so excited to go to Kansai❗️

The takoyaki I ate at our First Event was delicious so I want to eat takoyaki again🐙

Please let me know if you have any takoyaki shop recommendations❣️

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Well then it's time for today's 【Gettaa Life】✨

I spent the whole day at home today、so I did some writing！

I thought the contents of my pencil case were pretty interesting so I want to show you all♡

Sorry that a totally unaesthetic photo 😂

First up is my actual pencil case！

It's cute right‼️

...

My friends often tell me

「Ako's pencil case so distinctive that it'll never get lost」

Which is pretty funny、right

Then there's the papers in front！

First is the piece of paper laid flat that has 「Joule」 written on it…

It was like a mini test before my physics class at school、and there's always 5 review questions。The teacher gives us a small piece of paper and we do all of the questions starting from ① and then we swap with the person next to us to mark…

But、I'd totally forgotten about this mini test on this day so I was totally unprepared。

So as you can see I could only answer ① so the person next to be gave me loads of corrections in red pen、hence this paper❗️

I never do quite this bad on tests so I kept it as a memento✨

Next is the piece of paper that's been folded lots of times…

This piece of paper、is really quite precious to me！

So you know how you write thank you notes after sports day to people in other year groups who were on the same team as you！

8th grade Yumigeta Ako found some paper （A4）during club after our school sports day

I heard that 「If you can fold a piece of paper 10 times it'll reach the moon」

I was immediately intrigued so I challenged my self to fold a piece of paper 10 times❗️

So even though I was the club president I ignored alーl my responsibilities to just fold、and I kept going during morning registration alーl week、and I kept folding the whoーle lunch break while talking to my friends‼️

And、I managed to succeed at folding it 8 times so when I went to tell my friend she replied

「You know it wouldn't reach the moon even if you did fold it 10 times」

She was totally deadpan as she said it。

Apparently I was wrong。

It's actually

❌「It'll reach the moon if you fold it 10 times」

⭕️「It'll reach the moon if you fold it 42 times」

Ahh I was totally wrong。So I gave up on my 「Folding a piece of paper 10 times」 challenge。

But I worked really hard so I wanted to keep my piece of paper that I managed to fold 8 times so I've kept it in my pencil case for about a year now♡

Sometimes I use it as note paper… It's surprisingly useful。

I bet I'll never throw it out♡

Maybe someday I'll reach the moon！

I Getted 「A far off dream」✨

Everyone what has lived in your pencil case forever that you really treasure？

Please let me know in the comments♪

That's all！This has been 【Gettaa Life】！

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T/N News and information has not been translated

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I'm having stew for dinner tonight so I was going to try 「stew with rice」 like you all recommended！But apparently we have seasoned rice🌸

I don't think the flavours would mix well so I'm too scared to try😂

Next time♡

...

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Well then I'll see you tomorrow！

This has been YumiGettaa Ako！Good night🦉🦉🦉

[folksydming]

Session Zero

I'm in the middle of playing in a different campaign when I begin to wonder if I could give DMing a try. I have a lot of fun being a player and working with my group, but a part of me thinks it might be fun trying to take the reigns and run the story. A part of me is terrified I'll be really bad at it, and no one will have fun, but my excitement for trying is winning out.

I start off by looking at available pre-written adventures. A homebrew campaign would be really cool, but for my first go, I will probably need all the help I can get. A pre-written adventure takes a big load off my shoulders, world building and plot wise. I do some google, youtube, and reddit searching, looking for the most recommended ones.

The obvious first pick is Lost Mines of Phandelver. An easy start for both DM and player. However, the group I'm currently playing with started with that adventure, so I don't think that will work. A lot of people love Curse of Strahd, but I'm not feeling the horror vibe. Candlekeep Mysterys has just come out, and people are saying good things, but it's an anthology, not quite right. Waterdeep Dragon Heist looks and sounds amazing, but i realize fast it sounds like a campaign i want to play in, not run.

While searching, i come across a video discussing pre-written adventures, and one critique of one particular campaign catches my ear. "It's like a good skeleton, but you have to put together all the meat and guts." Gruesome way to describe it, but I'm actually kinda intrigued. I don't know it yet, but as a DM, I will find I like giving lots of options and letting the players decide what they want to follow and building off that. So that description leads me to what eventually becomes my pick.

Storm Kings Thunder

An epic tale of Giants, Dragons, and a ragtag group who is trying not to get squished by either. Also, there is a random Kraken. Love that. I know a lot of reviews warn that it's not structured great and that you have to do a lot of work for it, but I've gotten really jazzed for it. Can't stop now.

Okay, so I picked my adventure, now I get the group together and play, right? Apparently, wrong. While doing all my campaign searching, a bunch of the sources I came across kept talking about the importance of a session zero.

I honestly don't know what that is. When my group started, we all were nee to dnd. The person who stepped up to dm just told us make a character, tell them when we are ready, and then we would start. And thats what we did. So this session zero concept is new to me. I watch some videos and read a little and quickly realize how important a step it's gonna be.

Session zero is where i can set up expectations, lay out some ground rules, and also draw some firm lines on what i dont want and what my players don't want. I love the game i currently play with my current group, but the start was bumpy. Everyone had a different idea of how to play, and it caused some issues at the start. And that wasn't the DMs fault. We all had no idea what we were doing. But we also worked it out. And now, with this knowledge in hand, I can avoid that issue all together.

I let my group know that I would like to try DMing and that I already have a game in mind and would love to do a session zero. After explaining it all, they say they are game for it. I make up a sheet based off some I have come across online of things the players would like or not like in game as well as parameters for making characters and email it to them to read before we meet.

This is gonna be a fantasy high travel game. Their character needs to be from the sword coast. The story involves a lot of giants and dragons as well as several organizations up and down the sword coast, so i want characters tied to at least one of those things in some way. I mainly want them to pull from the in-game pantheons of gods and not from ones added from real life like the Greek and Norse gods. I also don't want to deal with homebrew race's or subclasses cause this is my first time DMing and i want to try and keep it simple.

Things go pretty well. The group seems to like the form, finding it helpful in setting up boundaries and expectations. They like the premise of the game. And they already have some ideas of what they might want to play.

2 players throw me some slight curveballs a few days later. One wants to play an arcane trickster rogue, but instead of the usual spells they get, they want to pull from the cleric spell list. The other wants to play a fighter who used to follow 2 gods that they want to create specifically for their backstory homeland. Both are very excited.

Now I know I said I didn't want any homebrew stuff or nondnd pantheon gods, but both these asks don't seem that bad. The fighter wants to make up gods for their home, and that doesn't seem like a big deal. The rogue one takes a little convincing, but after talking to another DM, I feel okay letting it go as long as i pick the spells they can choose from. They agree and happy finish making their character.

I'm thrown for a loop a 3rd time when i got back the little backstory pages I asked my players to write. A 3rd player has in their backstory that while they mostly live on a boat that travels the sword coast, one of their parents is from a place further east, and they visit there frequently on boat trips. While again, it's not a huge deal, I am a little perturbed, if only cause it's another skirting of the rules I set. But i let the other 2 do the stuff they aksed, so I let this go too.

Bless the 4th and final player. They make a player firmly in the parameters I asked and a cool one at that. And deep sea warlock. Which means the random Kraken in the game might actually become a bit more important.

So now everything is all set. I have my players, a rogue, a fighter, a sorcerer, and a warlock. I have my setting. I've made an outline of my story. I think I'm ready to go. Now, it's time for the first session. I cross my fingers, hoping I can pull this off and set a date.

Time to play.

[solarishashernoseinabook]

Solaris reviews The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean (2022)

Oh hey, my first topical book review!

Summary: Devon is a book eater: a being human in appearance but monstrous beneath the skin. She and her race live off of books, and by eating them they absorb their knowledge and stories. Her son Cai, in contrast, is a mind eater: he feeds off people, absorbing their knowledge, memories, personalities and lived experiences. There's a drug that can save him, suppress his disastrous appetite and allow him to live a relatively normal book eater life, but the people who make it are gone, apparently disappeared into the English countryside. Devon is determined to find them for her son's sake.

Content: This book was dark, but imaginative. We get musings on the nature of love, morality, and how to move on when life seems bleak. It's heavily character-driven to contrast a very straight-forward plot, but it never feels either stretched to fill up space or rushed to get things over with. The book jumps back and forth in time quite a bit, covering Devon in the current day in her quest to save Cai, and her early life and young adulthood. Through the present-day narrative, we get action, suspense, and interesting character interaction; through the flashbacks, we get worldbuilding, insight into book eater lives, and an understanding of how Devon came to be who she is when the book begins.

Who I think would like it: I think this would appeal to anyone who really likes character-driven stories, because as I said, that's the main focus of the book. You won't get any fake-sounding science about the biology of book eaters (thank fucking goodness, as that can all too easily backfire), so people who aren't normally sci-fi fans don't have to worry about being put off by technical descriptions or scientific jargon.

Things it does well: I really like Cai and Devon as characters and their interactions with each other. Cai especially would have taken a lot of work for the author to write, and I think she did it well. I also liked the flashback chapters, because it was nice seeing Devon's character development.

Things that could be improved: Honestly, not much. There's one little hiccup in the timeline, but that's little more than a typo. This isn't something that should be improved, per se, because it's a stylistic choice, but Dean's writing style uses a lot of sentence fragments, and while they're not exactly to my taste, they do fit the tone of the novel fairly well.

My review: My elderly neighbour heard about this book first and was excited to read it, and she told me about it. I picked it up not long ago and I'm glad I did. The plot itself is very simple and direct, but with enough character development and world-building that this never feels like a bad thing - actually, having too much of a complicated plot would have caused the story to get lost in itself. The grim tone makes it a nice October read (I say, in September), and taking place in a modern-day setting with some mild sci-fi elements give it a broad range of appeal.

Does this book have…: ✅= yes ❓= not sure ⭕= possibly/mixed ❌= no

Romance? ✅ Not a huge amount, as the relationship Devon forms is very much in its infancy by the end of the book (and we're not even sure if it'll be a relationship after the story ends, as it comes very late in the story). Just enough romance for me to say it's there, but it's not a main focus of the book.

Sex? ⭕ No on-page sex, but sex does happen, and it's more something Devon endures than enthusiastically consents to. It's given little-enough mention that I don't think it'll be triggering to people who have issues around sexual violence, but do be aware that Devon doesn't enjoy sex.

Racism? ❌ Nothing that I could detect. Some unsympathetic characters are mentioned to be ethnically Mediterranean, but so are sympathetic characters, and Cai is ethnically mixed. Note that I am white. A person of colour reading this book might have a different opinion on this than I, so do not take this as authoritative. Dean herself is of Asian descent and was raised in Hong Kong, and her experiences with race and racism may well have been represented in the novel in a way that went over my head.

Sexism? ✅ Book eater society is heavily sexist, which is something Devon has had to struggle against. Be prepared for sexist comments made by male book eater characters, and be prepared for poor treatment of women by them.

LGBTQIA-phobia? ❌ One comment from a character in an early chapter saying that girls don't marry girls, but this character is heavily sheltered. There's a semi-prominant asexual character and some characters who experience same-sex attraction, all of which is portrayed positively.

Ableism? ❌

Swearing? ✅ Like, so much swearing. Lots of swearing.

Drug/Alcohol references? ✅ Devon is an alcoholic, though once the main thrust of the story starts she doesn't have much time to touch alcohol much. Nevertheless, early chapters contain plenty of references to alcohol, and so do the flashback chapters. There's technically drug use as well if you count the medical drug Cai needs.

References to or actual violence or suicide? ✅ A lot of violence, and in some places it can get rather gory.

References to or actual animal death or cruelty? ❌

Recommended: Yes

[green-socks]

Endless Nights

Pairing: Benny Miller x gn!reader (no descriptions or pronouns)

Summary: You and Benny can't seem to get enough of each other's company. Could tonight be the night you find the courage to do something about that crush?

Words: 2,101

Warnings: Nudity but not the sexual kind, food/eating. Almost zero editing and a tired writer.

Notes: I don't always participate in Writer Wednesday, but when I do I take one look at the picture, get an idea and then go completely off the rails. Sorry. So the pic doesn't really have a lot to do with the rest of the fic but I hope that's okay. For this week's @autumnleaves1991-blog Writer Wednesday, thanks for organizing it every week!

I had the idea for midnight shopping at the supermarket with Benny and then realized I didn't want the night to end there... So it didn't. I actually like this piece, even if it probably suffered a lot from my fast writing and non-existent editing. Reader is mentioned having shorter legs than Benny but other than that I think there are no descriptions or pronouns used of reader, lmk if I'm wrong.

MASTERLIST

You and Benny have been driving around aimlessly for a couple of hours already, taking turns in picking the music, and talking about this and that while sometimes falling into a companionable silence. It still amazes you how easy and comfortable everything is with him. You have never felt like this with a crush before, used to the feeling of always obsessing over what you felt like you could and couldn’t say or do, or spending a lot of time and energy into trying to figure out what the other thought.

No, with Benny you don’t have to pretend anything or force yourself to keep the conversation running in fear of those horrid awkward silences, because both of you know that you can talk for hours on end when the mood strikes. You met through mutual friends only a few weeks ago, but the connection was clearly there. As was the obvious mutual attraction.

Strictly speaking, though, you and Benny are just friends. Nothing has ever really happened to indicate otherwise in any case. But friends don’t usually try this hard to find any excuse just to hang out, nor do you stay up late every night talking to your other friends. And when you hang out in a group you always seem to gravitate towards one another. What’s more, somehow it always seems to be just the two of you left at the end of the night, often not even noticing the others leave.

Your interactions always border on the line of obvious flirting with your touches and already formed inside jokes, but neither of you ever dare do anything that couldn’t be brushed off as innocent behavior between friends. You guess you’re both just kind of scared to take the leap - you have been burned before, and so has he.

It’s not that you doubt your own feelings for Benny, or indeed his feelings for you. Even you have to admit that he does seem pretty interested in you, but you still wave away your friends’ squeals of “he’s totally in love with you!”, mainly not wanting to get your hopes up too much.

Because a small part of you still finds it a little hard to believe; someone so handsome and funny and kind wanting to be with you? What if he likes you, but just not as much as you like him? What if you were just a second choice for someone you really like until something better comes along - again? That scares you, both of you.

Tonight has been like many other nights lately; you had been to the movies with some of your friends, but after the movie ended you had been grasping at straws to come up with a way to continue the night so they (Benny) wouldn’t go home just yet. Benny had helpfully suggested just driving around and seeing if any ideas came to mind.

Santiago in turn had rolled his eyes at you two knowingly (making both you and Benny fluster and try to fake complete nonchalance) before saying good night and leaving with the others, who apparently didn’t feel the compulsive need to continue spending time together.

--------

The sun has gone down already but you two are still enjoying each other’s company too much to go home yet.

You end up in the 24/7 supermarket parking lot, craving a midnight snack. You are reminded of your teenage years, when you used to hang around different parking lots, popping into the store to buy a soda or a candy bar, spending all day outside with friends.

The only other customers doing their midnight shopping are tired people just off their shifts or young people staying up late just for the hell of it, much like you and Benny are, in fact. You wander around the huge store together, pointing out different products you’d like to try and reviewing stuff one of you already has tried.

Before long you realize that you have already spent almost forty minutes idly wandering around the supermarket, collecting new soda or chip flavors to test. Neither of you thought to grab a basket at the entrance, so your arms are starting to get a bit full.

“Benny, do you think this might be enough?” you ask while struggling to maintain your hold on the different bags of chips.

Benny looks back at you from where he is pondering over whether to get some ice cream. “Huh, I guess. I do still wanna get a sandwich, though!” he exclaims and promptly takes off in the direction of the deli counter where they sell sandwiches and salads left over from the day.

You try to keep up with his long strides, certain that you must look a bit comical half-running after a man with your hands full of treats. Oh, well. Benny often complains about how much focus it requires of him to “modify his steps” to fit your much shorter legs, and he always forgets about it when he gets excited.

When you catch up with him, he has already picked a sandwich for himself and one for you. “I got you salmon, that’s your favorite, right?”

“Yeah, thanks!” you say a little breathlessly after your speed-walk, taken that he remembers.

As you finally get to the cash register and start loading your stuff in your bag you see Benny sneak one more candy bar among the rest of your purchases. For someone in such good physical shape he sure does like his candy.

“Where to next?” Benny inquires as you get back to the car.

“Hmm, how about this one waterfront type swimming spot? It’s pretty secluded, has a pier, and there’s a nice view to the sea. I sometimes like to sit there on the cliffs to watch the sun go down,” you suggest, and offer him directions to the place.

It’s a short drive and you show Benny where to park his car. Even though it’s somewhere around 1 a.m. and the sun went down hours ago, the night is still light enough that you can easily see where you’re going and it doesn’t feel like you’re just sitting in the dark.

You settle down on the small pier with your sandwiches and sodas and chips and munch away happily.

Benny hands you the candy bar you saw him grab earlier at the cash register “for dessert”. It has a cheesy text on the packaging about giving this to someone special. He grins and shrugs, “I know you love these”.

It’s such a simple gesture but you can’t help feeling really flattered and even more smitten with him than you already were. You don’t read too much into the text on the packaging, but even the fact that he would buy you a candy bar he knows you love - just because - warms your heart.

(What you don’t know is that the candy bars have lots of different texts to choose from, and that Benny specifically picked “give this to someone special” instead of “give this to a friend”. There was also “give this to someone you love”, but Benny worried that might scare you off.)

--------

After you’re both done with snacking you try to think of what to do next, still reluctant to pronounce this night to be over, you get an idea.

“You know what I would really like to do right now?” you ask Benny, looking out over the water that looks so tempting. “Go swim,” you announce, turning to look at him.

“You don’t have a swimsuit with you, do you?” Benny asks, turning to look at you too.

“No… But there’s no one here,” you point out with your eyebrows raised in challenge.

Benny looks at you for a few beats with a blank expression on his face, before shrugging “Alright,” and throwing off his hoodie and t-shirt, jeans following next. “What are you waiting for?” he shouts over his shoulder as he jumps from the pier into the water.

You’re left sitting there with your mouth open, blinking rapidly as you try to catch up with the fast turn of events. Shaking your head, you stand up and shrug off your clothes before quickly running after Benny and getting into the refreshing water.

The night is still warm, and the water feels wonderful. You swim to catch up with Benny.

“You know, it’s pretty dark here but I’ve basically seen you naked now,” he remarks, waggling his eyebrows, and you snort with laughter.

“Benny, you’re not allowed to make me laugh in the water or I’ll drown,” you try to say sternly.

“Oh sweetheart, I wouldn’t let you drown,” he answers in a surprisingly serious voice.

Suddenly the energy between you is full of.. something. Something new and buzzing, sort of scary but also exciting. Something you can’t quite explain. You’re swimming around each other, looking at each other intently, but not daring to say anything that would break the moment and burst the bubble.

Someone else does that for you.

A couple of teenage girls, you’d guess around 18 years old, stumble on to the pier and immediately notice you two in the water. The other girl lets out a shriek and tightens her hold on the towel around her, and before you can even try to reassure them that everything is fine, they run off giggling and shrieking some more. Evidently, they had had the same idea for a nighttime swim but found the place already occupied.

“Yeahhhh, maybe we should put some clothes on before someone calls the police,” Benny suggests dryly.

You two climb out of the water giggling and grinning broadly. You don’t have any towels with you since you didn’t exactly plan this impromptu skinny-dipping session, but Benny gives you his hoodie to help keep you warm.

Sitting back down next to Benny you’re even closer together now than earlier, ever so slowly inching closer and closer to each other. Both of you think you could pass it off as huddling for warmth if the other were to question it, but somehow you know that won’t be an issue.

Soon enough you’re snuggling together on the waterfront overlooking the sea. You stay quietly like that for some time, maybe fifteen minutes, maybe more. It’s hard to tell when the world is so still and quiet around you.

Suddenly you think that this is it, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. In all honesty you sort of enjoy the pining stage of new relationships, but right now you feel like you might burst if you keep these feelings inside you any longer.

You turn and burrow your head into the crook of his neck and decide that you will have to take the leap now. You start pressing gentle kisses on his neck and hear Benny’s breath hitch at the first contact of your lips on his skin. He goes still as a statue, but you can feel more than hear his unsteady breathing at your actions. You’re practically vibrating with nervous excitement as you work your way up to his jaw and towards his lips.

Taking one final deep breath you close your eyes, not daring to look at Benny in the eye right now, as you bring your lips to meet his.

The kiss is sweet and unhurried, and yet your head is swimming and your whole body is buzzing with it as you melt into each other. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever felt, which just proves that everything really is different - better - with Benny. You pull away when you find yourself quickly out of breath just from feeling so much.

You finally dare to open your eyes to find Benny gazing at you with a dazed expression that surely mirrors your own and you slowly beam at each other, not feeling the need for words just now. Maybe you couldn’t even find them if you tried.

You settle back against his chest and the two of you stay like that for the rest of the night, sometimes spending long moments just kissing each other, sometimes talking quietly, sometimes just enjoying each other’s presence.

--------

Around five in the morning, when the sun is already getting up, you finally start to really feel the need for sleep. But this time it doesn’t feel wrong to leave and go home, since you’ll be going home together.

Later that day you wake up to a good morning, sweetheart in Benny’s arms where you fell asleep on his couch, tired but happier than you’ve ever felt in your life.

[confusedwitch]

Witch-Related Books to Grab off Amazon: Masterpost Part 1

First off, I'll be sectioning this into different parts based off of what type of witch you are/want to be/want more info on, or what practices you wanna add to your craft :)

Green Witch/Magick Herbalism (a classic):

The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock - $9.69 (Hardcover): This book had incredible reviews on amazon, and a lot of the written reviews said that the book wasn't specific to a religion and didn't try to push a religion on you, which is so wonderful because not everyone wants to be religious with their craft.

Plant Witchery by Juliet Diaz - $25.19 (Hardcover) $18.99 (Paperback): Again, stunning reviews, just a less popular book. This book isn't about general stuff, but instead it's more focused on mother nature and the useage of plants (non-herbal as well, so your houseplants might be mentioned too), which is great if you wanna center your practice around Gaia and the healing energies of the earth.

Herb Magick: An Introduction to Magickal Herbalism and Spells by Patti Wigington - $14.99 (Paperback): here's a review from a verified person- it explained this book WAY better than I ever could:

The focus of this book is on the folkloric and magical uses of herbs, rather than medicinal applications. It provides a few traditional uses of herbs, but the overall theme is knowledge of the plants and their associations, and incorporating them in your spiritual workings. This is an Introductory to Magical Herbalism.

The author's spiritual practice is rooted in traditional American and European Folk Magic. She is a licensed Pagan Clergy and is the founder of Clan Of The Stone Circle, a Celtic Pagan Tradition. (Funny, anything Celtic has been pulling my attention feelers lately, no wonder why I loved this book.) Her spells are derived/based upon the traditional folk magic practices of Western Europe and the British Isles, and the author's own experiences. They are positive spells for magical intentions of healing, love, prosperity, and protection. Baneful or negative workings with herbs are NOT used in this book.

The aesthetic of this book has my little, beginner herbalist heart gushing! The blue, green, and yellow earthy tones and hues used were perfect for the topic of herbs! The cover is GORGEOUS! It's so pretty and flowery, the illustrated pictures of the herbs were extremely helpful because I had never seen some of the plants before. This will make future identification much easier for me!

Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham - $16.43 (Paperback): A couple reviews describe it as being in a cookbook format, and overall an amazing book, like most of Scott Cunningham's other works. Apparently the Amazon shipping was literal trash for a bunch of people and they essentially left the book loose inside the box to bang around and get all sorts of messed up :((

The Witch's Herbal Apothecary by Marysia Miernowska - $18.69 (Paperback): Described by reviewers as the PERFECT book for recipes and rituals, even one of Marysia's personal students spoke very highly of her, saying that she's the real deal. Other reviews state the book as being very beginner friendly, and beautifully written and illustrated :))

Blackthorn's Botanical Magic: The Green Witch's Guide to Essential Oils for Spellcraft, Ritual, and Healing by Amy Blackthorn - $15.79 (Paperback): again, phenomenal reviews, just a lesser-known book. Again, here's a review from someone who explained the book a bit better than I could:

This book is way more than I thought it would be. I thought it would be like a dictionary - you look up the essential oil and get the definition. It is that but it's also got a few introductory chapters about oils and products and rituals to give you a nice and concise overview of a lot of things you might need to know as a novice. I also like the way you can reference different oils in alpha order but also look up your purpose and find the oil you need.

From the looks of it, this book is specifically about Essential Oils. Is that still Green Witchery?? Lol I'm not sure, but i felt like it should go in this category.

Kitchen Witch (another classic):

Blackthorn's Botanical Brews by Amy Blackthorn - $14.49 (Hardcover): this is mainly a book of recipes for drinks and cocktails and stuff. There was one review complaining about how it didn't have correspondences, meanwhile the book is literally described as being a recipe book? It's an AMAZING book if you enjoy/want to start making homemade elixirs and cocktails :))

The Natural Witch's Cookbook: 100 Magickal, Healing Recipes, and Herbal Remedies to Nourish Body, Mind, and Spirit by Lisanna Wallace - $20.69 (hardcover): This is again just a book of recipes, and the reviews are really good. Here's one of them:

I wanted to write the review as soon as I got the book. I was not expecting this book to be so fantastic. The recipes are very nutritious and the names are very inventive, but I could see that before I tried the recipes. I held off on writing the review until I tasted a few of the recipes. Even my kids were very happy with the flavors of these recipes. They are mostly easy to make and they are very delicious. Be aware though that the food can only be as great as the quality of the ingredients that you get. These are not recipes that call for complicated or fancy ingredients, or even a lot of ingredients. As a result, you have to use the best that you can find/afford to get the best results you can. I did not use expensive ingredients, but everything I used was very fresh and it does make a difference on the outcome. Overall, the book have some great recipes, easy to follow and the end result does look like the ones on the picture.

The Book of Kitchen Witchery by Cerridwen Greenleaf - $12.89 (Paperback):

I am so pleased with this book. It’s so magical and warm. Sometimes the new age genre can be a little too technical or focus too much on religion or putting down particular religions... this was not like that. There are so many lovely tips and easy spells and recipes that are kept fairly light so you can make them your own. The book just makes me happy, it has an energy to it that goes right along with it’s artsy illustrations and at-a-glance format. This will be a great reference. Very grateful to everyone who made this book possible.

A former editor said that there were a few editing mistakes, but nothing too crazy. If that's one of your pet peeves, just beware when buying this book lol (btw the editor still have a 4 star review because they said the book is still very good)

Potions, Elixirs & Brews by Anaïs Alexandre - $12.79 (Hardcover): I just had to include both of these amazing reviews, since both said what the other review did not.

This book is so gorgeous and everything I have been looking for in regards to potions. I love her writing style and the way the book looks. Highly informative and I can feel her good intentions behind the book. She is very intelligent. I respect her and I am inspired by her! I found her by chance looking up books for potions, she also has Instagram! Very grateful, amazing book thank you:-) so happy to be the first comment:p excited to see what else amazing things come from Anais!

And

I adore this book. The art and setup is simplistic and beautiful. There is a system that tells you exactly how difficult each potion will be to make, whether or not it’s alcoholic, and what is the ideal season to make it in. The instructions are clear, the preliminary information is well done, and there’s even a section for brewing large batches which I LOVE. The weight of the book is nice and it feels of good quality. The papers are glossy and, I haven’t yet, but I feel like it won’t be a disaster If you get some of your creation on it. The book is separated into types of potions depending on your intent. This is a perfect book for anyone new to making potions or is interested in a magickal recipe book!

The Witches Feast: A Kitchen Grimoire by Melissa Madara - $35 (Hardcover): This book actually isn't out yet, but it'll be released on October 26th of this year (2021). It looks promising, which is why I put it on the list, and for that much money, it better be good lol

Lunar/Moon/Astrology Witch:

The Complete Guide to Astrology by Louise Edington - $9.49 (Paperback) $22.99 (Hardcover): There's amazing reviews on this book, and one of them said that she's been researching astrology for 23 years!! Here's the review in it's entirety:

I've been a student of Astrology for the past 23 years now, and have read most of the books on this subject that are considered foundational. Many guides to astrology that I page through in a bookstore are fine, but covering information I already know. What I so appreciated about Edington's new book is that she brings a new angle to even the basics of Astrology. Her book feels like a fresh update, more appropriate to our current time in terms of language and sensibility. There are no "evil" aspects or transits in Edington's view, no dark warnings of disaster; her evolutionary perspective encourages us to see the opportunity in even the most challenging times, what can be learned, what can be accomplished. As she says in her book, she doesn't look at the natal chart as something fixed, unchanging, rather a "blueprint rich in meaning and possibility."

I also admired Edington's extensive knowledge of the stories behind the names and symbology used in Astrology: sharing her interpretations of them, how they are useful, how they can be limiting. Concepts I thought I already understood have been unpacked in greater depth by the author, so that I see deeper layers.

This text is beautifully written, well-organized, offering a fresh update, as well as a deeper dive than many astrology texts. This book is an invaluable resource I'll be returning to, and consulting, with appreciation.

Moon Spells: How to Use the Phases of the Moon to Get What You Want by Diane Ahlquist - $11.35 (Paperback): This book is a bit older fashioned in the sense that it's VERY heteronormative, we're talking about love magick SPECIFICALLY for men and all about being a father, and a section of love magick SPECIFICALLY for women and being a mother. So if this gets on your nerves, then i wouldn't recommend this book. Other than that, the reviews are very good and they describe the book as being a must-have for lunar witches.

The Complete Book of Moon Spells by Michael Herkes - $13.49 (Paperback): Yes, this book was written by a man. If that's something that might make you not want to purchase, please look at this and also keep in mind that SO MANY of the most highly esteemed witches of the world ARE MEN. So if you wanna be closed off and refuse their help and their knowledge, go ahead sis, I'm not stopping you.

He's most definitely not just "some guy". Aside from that, this book has very good reviews. Some people called it "fluffy" and a bit less serious then they anticipated, but it's very good for beginner witches who are finally wanting to start doing spells. Here's a review.

In this book you explore ways to conjure the mysterious power of the moon to manifest your intentions to achieve abundance and balance in your life! Each chapter is devoted to one of the eight phases of the moon and includes various spells, tarot spreads, crystal grids and potions that reflect that phase of the moon!

This is an overall amazing book if you want to build a foundation of learning about the history of the moon, astrology, cycles & phases, ritual tools, crystals, herbs, and essential oils- as well as the moon spells and rituals.

This is one of my new favorite books! I feel so connected to the moon and this book is a great reference for learning the best rituals and spells to use for the different moon phases and energies surrounding them! It’s easy to follow and the lunar rituals, mystical spells and magical drinks are so vibrant, creative and helpful in my spiritual journey. I’d recommend this book to anyone that loves the moon like I do.

Moon Magic: A Handbooks of Lunar Cycles, Lore, and Mystical Energies by Aurora Kane - $19.99 (Hardcover, although there's only three left when I'm looking at it) $9.99 (Kindle):

One review said that the book much surpassed their expectations, and another review said this:

I absolutely adore this book.

If you're just a beginner and want to understand the different moon phases, this is the book to get.

The information inside was extremely helpful without being overly complicated.

Well worth the money spent.

Astrology: Using the Wisdom of the Stars in Your Everyday Life by DK - $14.59 (Hardcover):

I saw this in store and was immediately drawn to it's beautiful and shiny cover! But when I open it, the inside is just as beautiful! I love looking through the pages. I would say it is a very good basic astrology book, but I have another one that gives much more detail. I like this one for more of a quick reference kind of book. It's more of a bullet point style book, where it gives little tidbits instead of paragraphs going in depth. (Though some pages do have paragraphs) BUT, it covers just about everything including all the houses, moon signs, and ascending signs. It covers everything, but it just covers he tip of the iceberg. (In my opinion) I still absolutely recommend it!

Apparently this book is also available in Barnes and Noble, so if you have access to one, you might wanna look there for the book before purchasing off of Amazon :)

Misc Books (General):

The Spell Book for New Witches: Essential Spells to Change Your Life by Ambrosia Hawthorn - $10.19 (Paperback) $20.69 (Hardcover):

This book... It's a very good spell book, and is true in the spells it contains, but MY biggest problem with it is that it's V E R Y Wiccan, and seems almost preachy about the "Threefold Law" and what they like to call "karma". Choosing not to do dark magick is PERFECTLY FINE and being Wiccan is totally okay! But don't be like Christianity and rub it in people's faces, dude. The book talks about how you can ONLY practice "love and light". Other than that, this book is AMAZING and rated literally 5 stars with over 11K reviews. If you lean more Wiccan, by ALL means, buy this spellbook. It's the one for you.

Practical Magic for Beginners by Maggie Haseman - $13.49 (Paperback)

This book is fantastic for the witch who wants to learn more about her craft but doesn't know where to start. Each subject is broken down into easy to absorb bits of wisdom without being overwhelming. A great jumping off place to decide where to dive in deep next.

This book is very comprehensive, and is a great reference guide for beginner witches, or witches looking to add another book to their collection.

Candle Magic For Beginners by Mystic Dylan - $10.86 (Paperback) $21.99 (Spiral bound)

This book is a must have for anyone looking to deepen their connection with the magical element of fire, ritual, and spell work through candle magic! Dylan not only teaches you how to use candle magic for things such as protection, abundance, love, healing, and more, but takes you through the fascinating history of the power of fire & how to properly charge, cleanse, and consecrate your candles to begin manifesting your deepest desires!!! Overall, the book is beautifully written with gorgeous illustration and will hook you from the start!!!!!!!

This book is perfect for beginners to candle magick, or beginners to the craft in general. I personally LOVE candle magic because I've always been attracted to fire. I could void out and just stare at a flame for hours on end lol

Crystals for Beginners by Karen Frazier - $8.99 (Paperback) $20.95 (Spiral bound)

Absolutely love this book!! It’s so informative! I am a beginner and this book explains a lot. Everything a beginner would need to know about crystals is in this book. I am so pleased with it. Best purchase of the week! Definitely worth it. The author explains crystals, chakras and energy so enthusiastically and in a way that is easy to understand. At the end of the book, is a “resources” page with all the websites, books and apps that the Author recommends.

Again, very beginner friendly, but this time it's not spells, it's crystals and such. I've personally been wanting this book for AGES

The Crystal Bible Series by Judy Hall - $38.99 (Volume 1-3 shrink-wrapped set, paperback):

This is my first purchase of the three-part series by Judy Hall. Volume 1 covers over 200 crystals! I can already tell you I'll be purchasing volumes 2 and 3 (each of which cover 200+ MORE crystals/stones, not included in volume 1) I love how each crystal description includes photos to further help in identification. I also appreciate that rarity and sources were included. Information about the spiritual and physical impacts of crystals on the body is in there as well! This book is loaded with a lot of great information and is the perfect quick reference. It's also small and fits easily in my hand. I highly recommend it for beginners.

This is a review from just the first book, and it's from a verified hauler/buyer :)) these aren't exactly newbie friendly, and some people say they're a bit harder to understand.

[savrenim]

hi hi hi. so I just got into the Hamilton fandom, I swear I am four years late where did everybody go, and, well. I am apparently a hamburr shipper. bcs that is my life now. anyway I saw your fic ifmlam and I swear it is my favourite of all the fics I've ever read (and trust me I've read literally thousands). I love it so so much, how do you write fics like that??? I cried about four times during the whole thing, I stayed up till 4am reading it even when I had to wake up at 7 because it is just. that. good. I could not stop thinking about it for days afterwards and ifmlam has just ruined me. I can't think of listen to Hamilton without thinking of ifmlam anymore.

on to my qursttion: is it abandoned? of course it's perfectly FINE if it is. don't let anyone tell u differently, your fic is YOURS and u are amazing.

but pls I really need closure from ur fic, it has been haunting me if its abandoned or ongoing and I've read ur other fics and they are just chefskiss and thank you so much for writing them all. thank you thank you thank you, I will never be able to thank you enough for writing this fic and for everything it's done for me. I am probably thousands of miles away but I am sending you virtual jugs through a co.puter screen right now.

(don't feel pressured to reply to this or update it flam, I know how overwhelming it can get with so many messages and after a while u get desensitized to it. u can literally reply "thx. itfmlam is abandoned" and I would still be amazingly star struck. anyway has gotten way too long and I need to sleep and I'm sorry u probably won't see this so I'm just talking to myself right now but bye!!)

and thank you so so much for writing itfmlam.

aaaah hello anon!

thank you so so much???? I am so??? honored??? that ifmlam rates so highly to you, and also that you've read my other fics??????

the answer to the "is ifmlam abandoned" question is probably the worst possible one, which is pretty much "I do want to finish it, both for the folks that still want closure as well as it bothers to me have abandoned projects that are in the public eye/ already partially published, but also, it is last on my current writing projects list"

my current actually active writing projects list, kind of in order of priority, is

I'm literally three chapters away from being Actually Fully Done with the not-quite-first-not-quite-second let's call it 1.5th draft of an actual?? full?? original?? novel?? Opus which of course then goes out to beta readers and then gets who-knows-how-much edited and then maybe beta readers again if a lot does change and then a copyeditor my mom, my copyeditor is my mom, and maybe my little brother he's one of the betas but is very good at catching typos and then I!!! get to publish it!!!! which is the single thing I am most excited for!!!!!!!!! this should be closed up in the next week or two, and then take a while for people to actually read the draft and get back to me.

I really desperately want to finish my open-but-like-90%-written fic, which means we raise it up, the final chapter of to the bottom of the river bc I realized that it was kind of incomplete, and the second chapter of a buried and a burning flame because any more work there will need to wait until the author publishes the next book in the series. this should be closed up in the next month or two.

Speedwrite the draft of the second book of the Opus series so that hopefully by the time book 1 edits are happening, I have an almost complete draft of the second book. this is mostly me side-eyeing myself about taking nearly four years to write the first book, but that is solidly in part because I had so many other open projects which point 2 is about clearing that docket. this should be done in the next year.

And then just have my major projects be, at least until books 1-5 are written and published, books 1-5 of that because that is arguably the first major 'plot arc' of the series, so if I'm looking for a pause point on writing, that's probably where to stop.

There are two or three other short side projects (a weird fun second person short story tentatively titled witch-queen, a collection of four short stories Memoirs about a not-so-evil necromancer and the shenanigans he gets up to trying to rule a kingdom, working title Perfectly Normal Recipe Blog which is a collaborative project about a perfectly normal recipe blog that definitely doesn't include anything out of the normal) that will happen when they happen

There are other projects that are on the backburner -- The Numanok Files, a series of probably 12-15 short novellas about a mercenary/ bounty hunter esque person in space whose specialty is dealing with hauntings, but, like, 80% of their jobs is actually "you are effectively a space home inspector pointing out faulty wiring reacting to solar flares/ there's a weird alien fungus/ it's carbon monoxide okay change your atmosphere filters" and 20% of it is punching ghosts; there's a post-post apocalypse novel that I want to write that I know characters and general pacing and half the setting but need to work out the other half and figure out how much aesthetic I want to commit to; there's Strangeside7 aka spacerace book that is my reaction to how much I love how Redline the anime movie commits itself to "no we are about a race, like 60% of the screentime is just fully going to be an utterly ridiculous sci fi space race"; there's even a ridiculous YA trilogy that I would have to completely transplant the setting but might end up writing because the interplay between angel-physics and physics-physics was one of my favorite things in the world. and I guess the weird ridiculous technically a sequel series to ifmlam that was going to be published as original books that was basically me having fun with 'okay I fucking love star wars prequels old rotting space bureaucracy galactic republic style' except with seers and that also still might happen because it does have some of the coolest sci fi concepts and honestly I thiiiink that's all?

but the tl;dr of that timeline is I'm trying to finish a punch of projects Right Now, so that I can write books 2-5 of Opus, and then when I'm done that (which honestly, my average fiction-writing output is close to 100k a year. if I'm concentrating purely on one project, and writing books that are about 100k, we are talking four years. although my job situation is super up in the air in that period and writing might get put solidly on the backburner as I try to make it in academia, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) I will re-evaluate which projects go next, and that's when ifmlam is likely to come up for review.

I do not have any expectations that I will make it as an original author. I'm planning on posting all of my stuff online for free, but, like. it is incredibly difficult to convince people to try out even a piece of free and easily accessibly original work even if one has a huge following, I am a very small fanfiction author, and from what I can tell the majority of the people who are interested in my work are mostly interested in me finishing ifmlam. writing is a hobby for me, and while I'm writing mostly for me--and hence the for me bit at least for the next five years is pretty solidly going to be this series that I am deeply excited about and have sunk my heart and soul into every single aspect of--I'm human, and I don't really like shouting into the void, and I expect if I spend five years publishing to absolutely no response I will either stop writing for a while and do other things gods know my life is busy enough, return to fandom in general to write some other fanfic about whatever I get deeply into, or return to a work that I actually get response to. so ifmlam will probably start getting worked on a bit at that point one way or another. unless, of course, we are in the incredibly rare timeline in which I do make it as an original author, there are people who are deeply hyped for my original works and an actual demand for them, in which case as you may have noticed there are enough ideas there to keep me busy for a decade or two, and they will just get my full attention instead of fanfiction*. in this timeline, I will do what I was considering doing a few years ago, which is officially declare ifmlam otherwise abandoned and make one more giant chapter update which is a full and cleaned up outline of what I was going to write, interspersed with the scenes already written, and have ifmlam be given at least that closure.

*I want to make it clear that I very much love fanfiction and am proud to have been a fanfiction author and in my heart of hearts would keep writing it forever, I just also have a lot of ideas for characters and settings and magic systems and Aesthetics and I have been biting at the bit to write something that is //mine// and all mine and only mine for a while, I don't see original work as superior so much as there are a dozen fandoms that I am currently in and bursting to make content about except oops these fandoms currently only exist in my head, and I want to correct that

of course given how much as writing is my vent activity and I write what I'm in the mood for, there's a chance I'll feel ifmlam cravings before then, just... expect it to take a couple of years for an update, but also for there to be an update one way of another in a couple of years? but as for right now, I'm turning to original writing, because that is what brings me joy.

but I am really deeply honored that it brought you so much joy!!! and while I will never publish spoilers in a public place, if you message me off anon I am perfectly happy to give a run-down of my current plans for the ending, bc I know "wait a couple years and see" is not the most satisfactory of answers! and hey maybe you'll be like me and once you've given Opus a try you'll decide you like it better too, it does have Seers although they are deeply different Seers than in ifmlam but imo it's very gay and fun and at least politics on one side

[athenagrantnash]

I read a review on IMDB where someone criticized Oliver’s acting when it comes to bucktaylor scenes and now I can’t stop thinking about it. That person is so right, honestly. All those expression Oliver does are so unnecessary and out of place? He’s getting so bad. I was so excited for bucktaylor at the end of season 4 but now I’m just … I feel nothing. I think he doesn’t like this storyline and he finally seems okay with buddie happening. Which good, people are entitled to like or hate a ship but like it doesn’t make sense with him now? I could understand if he was on board with buddie from the beginning but as we all know he definitely wasn’t ( to clarify: I used to ship buddie too but I’m okay with it happening only if and when they finally recast eddie but since it seems unlikely I don’t want it) So what’s all this, then? And I’m not talking about him liking buddie edits on instagram, that’s quite nice, but that story he posted after the episode aired with his face covered by this emoji 😣? Like that can’t be a coincidence ahaha he had no reason to post that.

Buck used to be my favorite character but Oliver is making it very hard to keep liking him, just like I used to love Eddie so much but the moment g*zman turned out to be problematic I stopped liking him and I stopped shipping buddie and now I can’t even stand that face on screen anymore. Also, Oliver apparently supporting the ship involving the problematic actor doesn’t sit right with me. I don’t care how much the fans want buddie to happen … let’s not forget what an awful person R*an is and how he shouldn’t be employed in the first place after what he said last year. Oliver hates bucktaylor and wants to give us bi representation? He can push for the buckravi agenda, that would be something I would watch with extreme happiness.

I honestly don’t know how Megan manages to work with him and his expressions but kudos to her because she was the only one who made me feel things in all their scenes ( her face when she says I love you to buck??? She’s so adorable 😍😍)

Sorry about this huge rant ahahah it’s just that I’m so disappointed in him. What do you think about this?

Okay so... I actually spent a while mulling over whether or not I was even going to answer this, because I really don't think you're being fair to Oliver here.

And yes, my opinions on his talent are fairly well documented (briefly - I think he has potential but doesn't seem to care to utilize that potential as much as he should, which results in some performances that are very good and others that are... mediocre at best). But like? I thought he was fine in this last episode, and he's been fine for most of this season with only a few cringey moments. I think what he's doing with Buck is trying to portray the overlaying sadness that he's going through this entire season over Maddie being gone and Chimney currently hating him. That doesn't mean he can't feel joy with Taylor, and it doesn't mean he doesn't love her. It just means that his prevalent emotional state is sadness and grief over his family being gone.

Here's the other thing. Oliver is allowed to like buddie. He's allowed to dislike BuckTaylor. What he likes or doesn't like isn't going to have any impact on what the show itself is going to do, and it's very clear which ship the show is going with. And the fact of the matter is that, even if he HATED Ryan and hated working with him, he would still need be able to make the fact that he HAS to work with him bearable. And if that means trying to view Buck and Eddie through the lense of the fandom, well that's his prerogative.

And honestly? Oliver just seems to be a really weird guy, so if I were you I wouldn't overanalyze everything he posts to social media (and then immediately deletes) that much. For all we know, he's trolling people. Or maybe he's not. I'm not inside his head, and can't tell you where he's coming from.

And while I do get being frustrated that he apparently hasn't been showing much support for BuckTaylor (especially with all of the BS BuckTaylor fans get from buddies ANYWAY), I'm not sure it's quite fair taking it out on him. Because if nothing else, we know that buddies would make his life hell if he actually was as supportive of BuckTaylor as some fans would like him to be.

[shinahbee]

December favorites 2020!

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GREETINGS

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 Hello,

 So we have finally reached another year happy 2021! let's all hope this year will be kind to us, as I have mentioned in my previous favorites post, I finished my work term and now will be working on my art more

so please look out for more art coming soon!

also this maybe a little too early to think of but I was thinking of opening an etsy store to sells stickers/ keychains, this was a project that was on my mind for many years actually, but I have never really considered starting it

Please let me know if any of you would be interested if I do start one.

I would also like some ideas as to what type of characters from what show would you like to see merchandise from. I know there are some franchises that are not well known and most people wouldn’t be able to find so much as a fanart of that particular character/show

so if you could all let me know what you’d like to see in the shop I will highly consider it, with that being said I don't have any anime recs this month, mainly cause I was very busy in the month of December and have not watched any dramas or anime in a while,

so just a heads up, that part will not be included this month. The only thing I was watching is bunch of end of the year award shows, so like the drama awards and melon music awards and MAMA awards...haha that seems really boring to discuss so i'll skip that.

My friend and I were discussing and thought that they should rename these music awards as the BTS awards because they won so many lol.

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MANHWA/MANGA/WEBTOONS

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 This section of the favorites is on fire! you don’t even know how far deep the rabbit hole i`ve dug myself into.

I finally was able to save my progress and crawl back up to list a few of my favorites/ updates of the old favorites and a special segment to ones that triggered a raging response due to utter frustration

Let’s start with a review of the manhwa I have read and discussed so far

 Recap:

 1) Whose baby is it? (ongoing)

2) Social temperature (ongoing)

3) Salad days (ongoing)

4) To be or not to be (ongoing)

5) Path to you (completed)

6) Here u are (completed)

7) BJ alex (completed)

8) No way, vampires don't exist (ongoing)

 so some updates on the previous ones that I have listed out so far, with the exception of the completed ones.

 1) Who's baby is it? ; last time I read up to chapter 72 and now they have up to chapter 126 and I have to say so much more has happened in terms of story and relationship development and I especially love the development between

yi yun and his relationship with jinyao, they are acting more and more like a married couple without even knowing it. You see a gradual change within the two of them that shifts from being very comfortably being able to talk about their problems to one another to

physical touches that would make them  both nervous, I don't mean physical in a sexual way...it's not at that point yet, it's just holding hands and being near each other makes them, nervous and as an audience I felt that nervous energy

and it makes as the audience appreciate the development even if it is slow, it becomes more realistic over time.

Needless to say, I am still a giant fan girl of this author and her story and I can't wait to see this week’s chapter

 2) social temp; I said that I have read the novel so I pretty much knows what happened in the new chapters that were just out, this manhwa is updating a little slow so I have to wait to really comment

When they go further, there is a scene soon that will be the turning point of their relationship so I am excited to see that in the manhwa

 3) salad days; There is also a slow development here as well in terms of relationship building, so far they are working on their careers as professionals and dealing with bullying and jealousy from their peers

But it's all part of life so I appreciate that the author included these aspects as an important part of the story and not just focusing on romance alone.

 4) To be or not to be; you'd think a person who had studied Chinese for 8 years would be able to read the raws....nope,LOL

So far the story is going into a good direction so I'm hoping to see how this new development will play out in their relationship

 5) no way vampires don't exist; I have and fanart and long post dedicated to this alone, so please refer to those for more details. I am happy this is updating again and hopefully all of it will be translated in no time for others to enjoy

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Welcome to heaven

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Okay so that is all for the old ones that I have read, I will include updates throughout my favorites now and then if it is still ongoing.

now let's look at some new ones that I have found this month, these are just a few of the ones I selected out to talk about, but I have read much more as I have said and these were the ones that were the most memorable

 1) Unintentional love story- "Wonyoung gets unjustly suspended from work after getting caught up in a corruption scandal. But when he accidentally discovers the chairman's favorite artist Yoon Taejun living under an alias, he is tasked with a tricky new mission. Could this be Wonyoung's chance to get his job back?"

 This is the summary from the licensed lezhin website, and it pretty much sums up the story, it is still ongoing right now so I can only comment on how I feel about it so far.

I really like this story its really straight forward and focuses mainly on the two characters and how their relationship went from business partners to eventual lovers

it has minimal drama and works on moving the relationship buildup between the two main characters and I really appreciate that, it makes me less frustrated, since you know there is always that one a-hole that will never take no for an answer

i will discuss that later for the other ones I plan to discuss. But so far the story is straight forward and cute, and I really like wonyoung he is really adorable. This is a manhwa but not in the form of a webtoon, so it's black and white and read in traditional manga style

if you like a straight forward story and development please give this a read, you will enjoy it.

 2) Karasugaoka Don't Be Shy!! - "Sou Izuhara, the leader of the crime prevention group "VOICE" that protects east Karasugaoka, realizes he's in love with the man he keeps butting heads with and leader of the rival group "Karasukai," Tetsuji Shinba...!?"

 omg finally a manga recommendation? lol. you have no idea how much trouble I had remembering the title of this manga, I didn’t save it into my bookmarks and I usually did that if I was going to talk about it in the favorites.

I went through 5 websites to figure out the name but at least it was found. This story is both comedic and cute and it was a perfect break from the dark stuff I have been reading, I don't believe it has been updated in while so I'm not sure if it will ever be picked up

but there is a decent amount of chapters to get started on. But as the description says that it is a story about two crime prevention group leaders, they look like thugs but they prevent crimes from happening, so like an anti bullying campaign that recruits volunteers. two of the leaders from the largest groups apparently doesn’t get a long

on the surface but one of the leaders Izuhara really in fact admires the other leader Shinba. they start to get along after shiba went to izuharas territory to take care of some suspicious activity on that side and accidentally discovers a whole new side to izuhara due to the fact that he wasn’t wearing his glasses and didn’t know he was talking to shinba

and invited him to hang out together for that day. lol. You probably know the direction this is heading; it all starts from interest in a person right?

anways, I never recommended a  manga yet so this would be a good one to read,it has a balance of a good romantic comedy.  

 3) Semantic Error- "Computer science major Chu Sangwoo is the epitome of an inflexible and strict rule-abiding person. While working on a liberal arts group project with freeloaders who don’t put in any effort, Sangwoo reasonably decides to remove their names from the final presentation. But he didn’t imagine how involved he would become with the person whose study-abroad plans were messed up because of that project. The involved person: the campus star who everyone knows, Department of Design’s Jang Jaeyoung. He has everything from skills, looks, family background and good relationships except for 1 big problem: Chu Sangwoo. What happens when an engineer and an artist whose personalities are like oil and water have to work together? Jang Jaeyoung is like a semantic error in the perfect world of Chu Sangwoo. Will Sangwoo be able to debug this?"

 this has got to be one of the most accurate portrays of an antagonist relationship start off ever, it was really comedic and relatable at the same time, if you are in current group assignments and are or have suffered the same as sangwoo, please let me know cause I know I have.lol.

there’s only 16 chapters so far and I believe it hasn’t been updated in a while either so I don’t know if it is discontinued or not.

I can't wait to see the development between the two male leads, because their relationship right now in the manhwa is really hilarious and worth the read.

side note, not that this will ever be considered as a k-drama but I would like to see sangwoo being played by kim soo hyun, because he looks like him in the drama it's okay not to be okay.

 4) Tied up in twins- " The story starts off with three friends Jiwoo, sohee and woojung who had been friends since high school began to developed complicated feeling towards one another, woojung had been in love with sohee and sohee had been in love with jiwoo who was in love with woojung, things turned for the worse when jiwoo got drunk one night out and decided to confess his feelings to woojung by going to his apartment, he found 'woojung' standing outside and invited him to go drinking, he finally was able to let out his feelings and 'woojung ' accepted them without hesitation. Jiwoo felt like he was on cloud nine at the moment and slept with 'woojung' that night after thier feelings were made mutual. Turns out 'woojung ' was not actually woojung himself but his twin brother sarang, not knowing this fact he spots sarang with a man from his past eunji that used to bully him during his military service which made him confused and angry that 'woojung ' might be playing with his feelings. Sarang then confessed that he is the twin brother  of woojung and both of them decided that that night was a mistake and that they should just forget about it as it didn't happen. Of course fate had other plans as they keep running into each other during difficult times and decided to become friends. It didn't take them long to be attracted to one another which lead them to end their previous relationship, sarang especially was suffering from his cheating boy friend's abuse and jiwoo with his one sided feelings for woojung. After a series of events sarang and jiwoo found that their feeling for each other were mutual and started to dating, which poses a lot more obstacles than either of the two had bargained for...."

 This is actually my very own summary since I can't find one for this manhwa, I also did and fanart and discussed why i really like this story in that fanart, so please check out my art for my thoughts on it! Shameless self promo....

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Welcome to hell

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ooo now it's time for the fun part.LOL. Now let me just say that there is sometimes a fine line that defines what shounen ai and Yaoi are, sometimes stories is listed as both because one story that starts off like shounen ai will suddenly become yaoi

I define yaoi as a story that includes all the things that i'm uncomfortable with, which is emotional trauma from sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape, physical abuse, suicide etc

 these stories usually include some or all of the listed above and could make you uncomfortable in many ways, so as a warning if you are bothered by any of that even a little please don't read the ones I’m about to list, because there is a lot of it and there are situations that made me really sick while reading them. on the upside there is a lot of whole heartedness from the love scenes between the two main characters, although it’s like pages of sex scenes, you know from reading that it is between two people that love and trust each other.

 so you have been warned, i'm not going to spoil it in terms of story but there is something these ones i chose out have in common and that is a SICK A-HOLE THAT EVERY PERSON WANTS TO KILL.You should have seen all those comments about calling sangwoo (killing stalking) to kill theses mofos and I could agree more, these disgusting human beings made me sick.

 so let's begin...btw these are in no particular order, I was going to list these from the least worthy of dieing to most worthy of dieing but you know in the end they should just all die...lol.

1) My Suha -"A skillful secretary by day and choosy cruiser by night, Suha is a young professional who’s in search of some no-strings-attached action. He hasn’t had much luck lately, though, since a handsome face doesn’t always match what’s in a guy’s pants. This might be why he finds himself wondering about his dreamboat boss, Director Park Jiwoon. But there’s no way he can mix business with pleasure… That is, until Jiwoon and Suha run into each other in the gay bar bathroom."

 so where to begin, um this pretty much includes all those listed above but it mainly focuses on the relationship between jiwoon and Suha, and it is not abusive and very loving in fact,I'm glad that they show the contrast between how suha's previous realtionships don't work out because of his trauma

and how jiwoon despite being an unwanted heir in his grandmother's eyes was able to give love and protection to the person that matters to him the most. So there's this scum bag...I even forgot his name but the red haired dude in this story he`s the legitimate heir to the family, who is the absolute worse and not only sexually abused Suha when they were younger and also emotionally scar both jiwoon and suha

making them feel incapable of being loved. I didn’t get a good feeling form him when he was first introduced and I was right...lol. But at least the comments section was in agreement; let me sum up my feelings in the form of this gif alone...

 you get the point...

I heard it was going to finish soon so hopefully these emotional scars can be resolved and that suha and jiwoon stick together to get through it all. That would be a good ending for them after everything they have been through.You really need to read it in order to under stand why these events happen the way they do but please remember that suha`s inability to feel love stems from the all of his previous relationships not lasting long yes...but started with this red haired mofo. I am never going to let this dude live, let`s just say that.

2) Crash into me- " Seung-chan is stressed. He has enough on his plate with the long hours at work, and now he can’t even get any rest at home! Every night, the lustful moaning and violent banging from the apartment upstairs keeps him awake. Just as he’s at his wits’ end, he chances upon the gorgeous, enigmatic Hyesung outside his building. Surely all those filthy sounds couldn’t be coming from such a pretty mouth? But as Seung-chan soon finds out, there’s a lot more to Hyesung"

 from that little description you’ve probably figured out what’s going on with the neighbour next door keeping seung chan awake right? well no surprise sexual abuse, after hyesung was forced to suffer from a ordeal that wasn't his fault the brother of the person that died made it seem like it was his fault and sexually assaulted him

and so this ongoing sexual abuse progressed for several years which lead hyesung feel like life is meaningless and he should just die, until he locked eyes with seung chan walking back to the apartment and thought of jumping out the window, because he had a strange feeling that seungchan who he has not met before would catch him if he did.

I just almost cried from what I just wrote...to think there’s is some a-hole out there that would drive a person to suicide like that just to satisfy his own needs or whatever...i don't even know cause it’s still ongoing...i don’t think any amount of back story will justify any kind of sympathy for this person..

from what I have read so far it seems so be going ending soon so i hope seungchan and hyesung will be able to get through all this and live in peace because of suengchan, hyesung was able to love again and find his worth and is able to fight for himself and I’m sincerely glad that he had met and trust him whole heartedly.

3) Dine with vampire- "Caught in the clutches of an abusive relationship, Sooin longs to escape. A vampire who finds human blood repulsive, Chi-hwan only drinks the blood of other vampires. When chance brings the two together, Chi-hwan makes Sooin an enticing proposal. Chi-hwan will help Sooin get out of his living hell, and in exchange… Sooin has to let Chihwan drink his blood. Will this proposal change both their lives for the better?”

 y'all don't even get me started on the mofo in this story....I’ve never felt so much rage from staring at a 2D character on my screen, the amount of times I hissed at him...you don't even know

like I have mentioned before ever since my twilight phase I didn’t consume anything vampire related in a while, I don't really care much for the vampire aspect but I guess it's still important over all

once you start the first chapter you will immediately know why I hate the harry potter a-hole in this story..he is despicable and that’s putting it lightly...but you know he doesn’t last long cause vampire tsukiyama (lol, not his name but they look alike) shows up and kills the mofo

and saves sooin who is the person who harry potter had been sexually abusing...to the point where you guessed it, he wanted to die.

chi hwan agrees to grant any wish sooin wanted in exchange for his blood because being vampire by nature he had not been drawn to anyone’s blood for some reason and had only consumed the blood of other vampires.

of course it was a small price to pay for sooin considering all the misery he had gone through. slowly sooin discovered that love was not abusive through the many times chi hwan...lmao i almost called him tsukiyama again...and he had sex, he discovered that it was safe and gentle and enjoyable

nothing that he had ever felt before, and so they became drawn to each other more than they thought they would to the point where they genuinely care for one another, though of course chi hwan knows that one day sooin will die and he will have to live on forever alone, thus the fate of his vampire blood.

 but here’s the catch..it's not a spoiler really cause you knew it was too easy when main villain dies in chapter 4...and he’s on the front cover...which means yes harry potter mofo is back...ugh...he should have burned his body...WTF and as a vampire no less..

i'm like great now look what happened, you should have chopped him up and threw him into the incinerator!

you know that saying " mistakes were made..."

anyways, now he's back meaning shits about to do down and i'm not ready to see it happen, right now they are going through his back story and i’m like sorry author...whatever you try to feed me there’s no way i can have any sympathy for this dick...

 so that's all i'm going to rant about for these yaoi titles...i had to go back and read some it again to know what i'm going to write about and i revisited a lot of things i’d rather not.I think the rage I felt was ignited again all of a sudden and I felt utter frustration to finish reading it again, what I am trying to say is, ya`ll need to read this once and that`s it...these aren`t stories you`d want to revisit.lol

so if you like this hell segment let me know and i'll continue it cause there’s an endless supply of content for this genre, I have a few more but i'll save those for next month.

and i'll probably come across more in the mean time to discuss, but I guess this is where fiction and reality divides, cause you know in real life if this crap exists absolutely no one will take this bull crap!

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MUSIC

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 I have been listening to the Start up soundtrack and found a lot of songs i like from it, I don't like the drama and have not finished it, but the soundtrack is bomb

I have also been liking some old pop songs and went down the rabbit hole of 90`s pop songs...Britney spears especially

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 so that is all I have for this month, I'm sorry its manhwa and manga focused, i'll have time to watch anime that I need to catch up on and start some drams now so i'll have more

to discuss in the next month hopefully, so please take care of your selves in the new year as well!

take care,

sheena

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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INSTAGRAM: shinb_art

TUMBLR: shinahbee

DEVIANTART: she-be.deviantart.com

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[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The Lost Cargo of Kit Cloudkicker!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Ben Siemon, Bob Snow, Tanner Johnson

Written by: Colleen Evanson & Tanner Johnson

Storyboard by: Vince Aparo, Kristen Gish, Victoria Harris, Ben Holm

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

Spin it!

Before doing research when Don Karnage first came to the series, my knowledge of TaleSpin began and ended with me having that awful Genesis game as a kid. I do know that the show took place long before the modern day, which is when DuckTales 2017 takes place, and it appears that the events of TaleSpin in this universe still goes with that. Why do I know this? Because this episode does not start with Baloo piloting the Sea Duck...

...but a grown-up version of his surrogate son, Kit Cloudkicker, who is now running Higher for Hire by himself. However, while things have definitely changed for Higher for Hire since Baloo's apparent retirement, mostly for the worse, some things remained the same. Namely, he is still being tormented by the nefarious Sky Pirate of the Skies, the corsair of the air, Don Karnage. Or Dan, as he calls him much to Karnage's annoyance. The good news is that Kit is now an ace pilot who can easily fight off sky pirates like he did back in the glory days. The bad news is that he can still do what he did as a kid with a giant cargo plane. He even says it, and with most of his dialogue in this cold opening suggests this is going to make him look foolish.

Even worse news for the business is that the fragile box addressed to F.O.W.L. is just sitting in the center of the cargo bay with no security whatsoever aside from a caged chicken and a goat. After rocking back and forth due to Kit fending off against Don Karnage, the box breaks to reveal a rock with a blue lion carved into it, and when that aforementioned chicken and goat touch it, they both turn into some sort of chicken-goat hybrid that Kit has to fight. How is able to fight this goat-chicken while piloting the plane? Simple: he puts a crowbar in the steering wheel, just like Baloo did in the original. Here, the idea is played as silly as it would be to someone who had never heard of TaleSpin. It is doubly sad when one considers Kit treats this crowbar like his only crewmate, because it is.

I do like that this first scene introduces this show's version of Kit very well. He's obviously an incompetent pilot, and not one that is lovably incompetent like Launchpad, and this incompetence is pretty well known among his customers judging by this line:

Kit Cloudkicker: Who's the terrible pilot now, everyone?

He's surprisingly cheerful about that, which, again, makes him look foolish. Despite all of this foolishness, he does appear to still be competent at coming up with plans to defeat his enemies, whether they be sky pirates or mutated goat-chickens, even if those plans end up putting the cargo he was supposed to deliver into the water. This includes that lion stone. He looks onto this and says "my bad" in a way that shows that his business is definitely going to be in the red in a few years.

A few years later, we see that Della is taking Huey, Dewey, and nobody else to Cape Suzette, and she's even allowing Dewey to fly the plane along with her. It is easy to see why Huey is extra prepared even if Dewey is doing surprisingly well, as Huey is not only using extra seatbelts, but having a Safety Boy helmet as well. Huey's also prepared with the knowledge of that Lion Stone we saw go into the ocean in the previous scene, which, you guessed it, is a Missing Mystery of Isabella Finch. Specifically, it's the Stone Of What Was, which was described with the mysterious phrase "what was once two becomes a-new." Huey does not seem to figure that one out. The good news is that it was found, but the bad news was that it was found by F.O.W.L, but the better news is that they lost it, but the worse news was that the stone was made of potassium benzoate. Okay, that last one was made up. There's a few throwaway lines to fill in how Huey even knows F.O.W.L. had the stone in other scenes, and those plot holes are really not that important.

After nearing their destination, which we learn was based on a clue from an intercepted F.O.W.L. transmission from a throwaway line from Huey slightly later in the episode, Della has the bright idea to let Dewey land the plane. Letting a little kid fly a plane? Not a good idea. Letting a little kid land a plane? Also not a good idea. Telling that little kid that there's nothing wrong with a basic landing? May be a good idea in the off chance it could even come up, but definitely not a good idea when it comes to Dewey. To Della's credit, at least it was Huey that did that last one.

After the crash landing, and not a Launchpad-type one, they arrive at Higher for Hire, which shows an advertisement showing its legacy playing on a television screen with plenty of TaleSpin references. This includes one shot of Baloo and another shot of a younger Kit and Molly Cunningham riding on an airfoil done in the style of the original show. This is great for people who were not aware of TaleSpin, which the target audience for this show may not have seen unless they have Disney Plus. Kit, still shown to be the sole employee years later, assumes anyone knocking at his door is the bank demanding payments, but he's delighted to see one of his former classmates at pilot school. He constantly has to tell Della that he is an ace pilot now. Most likely, he's telling that to himself too, as we'll see in the next scene. He at least has reason to believe he's a better pilot than his former classmate, as it doesn't look like her plane is in good shape. Della could have explained that this state was because she let one of her less competent sons fly the plane...and that would have probably made her case about a thousand times worse.

That television commercial also inspires a sort of B-plot that also ties into Kit's character arc, as seeing young Kit cloudkicking makes him want to do it, too. Despite his failure at even mimicking it, Kit is happy to see a fellow cloudkicker and would be glad to teach him the ropes. Della is not too excited by this prospect, but ends up allowing it, because she doesn't want to be the mother that does not support her kid. They aboard the plane, which ends up being a very bumpy ride, and Della goes to investigate, only to find that Kit was in the bathroom, letting his only other employee, the crowbar, be his substitute.

Kit tries to stop what he calls "mutiny" by saying that he's the only one who knows where the cargo could be, only for the crowbar to slip and reveal that he's been keeping a map in the glove compartment. The map actually has some Xs and a circle on it, which suggests that Kit may have been trying to correct his previous mistake, but either never getting the motivation to go through with it, or, more likely, he isn't competent enough to deal with whatever is on that island he circled. Maybe I am thinking about this too hard, but I would say it would be fitting.

Kit decides to distract everyone from him getting kicked out of the pilot's chair by giving Dewey his airfoil and the cloudkicking rope for him to hold onto, and a shot of Dewey's excitement instantly cuts to Dewey screaming for his life, holding on for dear life as he can't seem to. The parallel between a former cloudkicking guy who isn't really a good pilot, and a kid who can actually fly a plane who isn't really a good cloudkicker is easy to notice, and the episode plays around with this. For starters, similar to Kit and his not-so-ace piloting skills, Dewey also tries his hardest to hide how terrified he is at the cool new thing he wanted to do. Of course, it is very possible that Kit is acting the way he does because he's in a certain someone's shadow. Dewey just does it because that's how he is.

Despite that difference, this parallel is enhanced even more when they get attacked by the Sky Pirates, and Kit has to intervene and show that he, at the very least, can get Dewey out of the danger that Kit himself has caused. And yes, Don Karnage's Sky Pirates are now working for the very organization that they indirectly harmed years before by attacking that cargo plane and making them lose that precious stone. That does not come up at all, not even as a throwaway line. What does come up is that Don Karnage is delighted that one of the people after the Stone of What Was is his new arch-nemesis, Dewey. It's a long story that started all the way back in Don's debut in Season 1. It's neat to see these old references. After they all make a landing on the circled island, some more safe than others, they get to meet the wildlife of the island. Let's say there's a good reason why this island was circled, and why Kit could not handle it by himself.

It's a rhino and a gorilla crossed together, either a rhinosorilla or a gorillanoceros depending on whether one likes Dewey's word for it or Kit's. Clearly, this is the result of the Stone of What Was...what was...Wuz...Wuzzles! Admittedly, the Wuzzle was also not a show I grew up with, though that could be because it lasted only a season. In fact, I just now notice the lion carved into the Stone of What Was happens to have bumblebee wings. These animals are a little more realistic here, as they don't talk, and they're not cute or fuzzy like the original Wuzzles were. In fact, the character this gorillanoceros was based on was actually a monkey-rhino. There is a difference, even if they are very similar species genetically!

They eventually get to the stone, only to see that Don Karnage and his crewmates have found the stone first. Hiding, they see Don Karnage command Hardtack Hattie, his strongest crewmember, to lift it up. Unfortunately, she happened to lift it as a bunch of ants were crawling on it, turning her into an ant centaur to her and Don's horror. Despite that horror, and fitting for someone who just wants to finish his mission, he tries to get some of the other crew members to lift it...

...leading to these freaks of nature, which is what Don Karnage actually calls them. DuckTales 2017 isn't too afraid to show the horrifying nature of some of these fusions, continuing with the theme of how they portray the Wuzzles as these monstrous beasts. I would not call it nightmare fuel, but I would not be surprised if it already has an entry on TV Tropes. What makes these even worse is that there is no way for these guys to revert back to their normal forms. There's no "if the stone feels like it, it'll separate you" clause here, that snail-dog is permanently a snail-dog, and that pirate will have to live with a hand for his head for the rest of his days. These guys just end up getting forgotten.

Della tries to sneak by climbing around this horrific scene, only to be caught on some sort of sticky rock. Dewey decides to try to save her with his airfoil-riding skills, much to Huey's disagreement. Dewey's got to Dewey it! Oh yeah, I forgot, Dewey ends up doing "Dewey" puns for most of the episode. It's not funny, but I have a feeling it wasn't meant to be funny, and it's certainly not funny when he ends up falling down near the pirates. Face to face with someone who considers him his arch-nemesis, he tries to save face when he notices Kit stole Don Karnage's plane...which he immediately crashes into a rock.

As for the rock that Della was stuck on, it turns out it wasn't a rock. Nor was it a rock lobster, either!

It hatches into another classic Wuzzle character: the Butterbear, or the Bear-terfly as Don Karnage calls it. They never quite match the original Wuzzle names, and it is not like they would know them. There is one part of this where Kit and the Bear-terfly cross paths, and it almost seems like they're going to bond because they happen to be a similar race. Then, it instantly cuts to Kit running away from a rampaging Bear-terfly. How are they going to continue from this? Have the Bear-terfly get caught in some rope, and have it run in a way that ties up the stone, and have it fly away with Della still on its back. It is a bit convoluted, but it works in the end as it is a way for the stone to travel without it mutating even more people. Whether any of these fusions can use the stone to combine into other fusions is left unanswered, which is for the best.

One may notice I didn't talk a whole lot about what Huey did, and that's because he really didn't do much for most of the episode. He delivered the exposition, he tries to stop Dewey from "Deweying it", and that's about it. However, he does have a major part in the episode: he gets to take part in the scene where the two bumbling fools realize what they have been doing was foolish. Namely, they needed to realize that they should do what they were good at: Kit should cloudkick and Dewey should fly the plane. It is a good lesson that had some good buildup. Sure, they were pretty much failing throughout the episode, but there were scenes where they were surprisingly competent, like the scene where Kit rescued Dewey with his Cloudkicking skills, and Dewey managing to fly the plane in the beginning before he decided to "Dewey it" and crash it. It does not come out of nowhere. Speaking of which...

Dewey: Okay, let's do it.

What would be an unremarkable line actually works really well here, mainly because he decided not to make a pun on his own name, which he did way too much. It does show development, as if this fun-loving showboater is actually learning his lesson throughout the episode. I expect this from DuckTales 2017, and there are certainly cartoons where I don't.

Fittingly for a TaleSpin episode, this all ends with a flight chase scene. No, not the usual DuckTales 2017 fight scene, though there are some fights here and there, especially with Kit and Don Karnage, armed with that crow bar and sword, respectively. The scene actually manages to make Dewey keeping the plane steady an action packed scene, as he has to save his Mom while trying not to let the stone fall into the ocean and make an octopus-fish-squid hybrid that would rival the Eldritch horrors. Again, whether any of these fusions can use the stone to combine into other fusions is left unanswered, which is for the best.

It's not really a spoiler to say the good guys win, but I will say the TaleSpin part of the plot is very much all tied up in the end. If Kit only makes a minor appearance in the finale, and I'd actually be surprised if he didn't appear considering how packed the clips were, it would be completely understandable. Also, there's a cliffhanger and we finally get to hear Don Karnage sing another song, if a very short one. It seemed like he just couldn't do it in his other appearances.

How does it stack up?

With the genius way of using not just one Disney show's legacy, but another Disney show as well, there's a lot to love about this episode, though I wouldn't say it's among the absolute best. Four Scrooges.

Next, Scrooge gets indicted.

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