new strategy to cope with all-encompassing grief. stop tearing at your hair and covering yourself in ash. instead , commission a glorious set of shining bronze armor and just start attacking people
Book 21 of the 50 book challenge. Undone by Karin Slaughter. Undone is a part of the Will Trent mystery series. It’s a really good book and very sad. All her books are hard to read but are very well done.
Peril in Paradise: A Roger and Suzanne Mystery (Roger and Suzanne: book 21) by Jerold Last
Star Rating: 4
Publisher:
Date of publication: January 14th, 2023
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Series: Roger and Suzanne
The Empanada Affair—Book 1
The Ambivalent Corpse—Book 2
The Surreal Killer—Book 3
The Body in the Parking Structure—Book 4
The Matador Murders—Book 5
The Body in the Bed—Book 6
The Deadly Dog Show—Book 7
The Origin of Murder—Book 8
Unbearably Deadly—Book 9
Science Can…
Amish Bonnet Sisters 21
Amish Harvest Mayhem by Samantha PriceMy rating: 5 of 5 starsKindleBaby CrazyTwo more were born and two more were on the way. This was a good book with a good share of God-driven messages. Happy to see things moving alongView all my reviews
Amazon
The bonnet sisters are back!
The Baker/Bruner household has a permanent addition to their family—cousin Debbie.
Debbie…
Oscurucho: Welcome back, brother.
Cucurucho: What.
Oscurucho: Not even a "Good morning"? How cold.
Here's Cucurucho and Oscurucho's long lore conversation from yesterday! The entire conversation lasted about 8 minutes, but most of that time was just silence between each exchange, so I edited out the long pauses and got it down to ~3 minutes. I also fixed the audio levels and added subtitles since I personally find it difficult to understand Oscurucho sometimes :'D
I hope folks find this helpful!
[ Subtitle Transcript ↓ ]
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Oscurucho: Welcome back, brother.
Cucurucho: What.
Oscurucho: Not even a "Good morning"? How cold.
[They enter Cucurucho's office]
Oscurucho: I wanted to see if you're still as rigid in your beliefs as ever. You see, I've been thinking about our... Let's call it "philosophical divergence." You stand for order, for predictability. But where's the fun in that? You see, brother, while you build, I ponder the beauty in tearing down. It's not just destruction - it's rebirth. A chance to remake things in a more... thrilling image.
[...]
Oscurucho: You once had a backbone for our cause. Now, I see a softness in you, a sentimental weakness for those Eggs. Mere experiments, and yet - they've softened you.
Cucurucho: Your vision obstructs the path to perfection. You fail to understand the potential of the Eggs.
Oscurucho: Potential? They're but catalysts for change - for revolution. Without them, stagnation reigns.
[...]
Oscurucho: You chase perfection, I embrace the beauty of flaws. Your world is one of order, mine thrives in chaos. You wish for everything to run smoothly, I dream of watching it all burn to the ground. We may share a name, but our souls are worlds apart. All your efforts, all for what? Mere acknowledgment from a Duck who told you to do it? Imagine the possibilities - rather, show me where it is, and I'll do the rest.
[...]
Oscurucho: Speaking of possibilities, I couldn't help but notice how easily others can access the island. It seems your security measures aren't as impenetrable as you think.
Cucurucho: No. My island's vulnerabilities are of your own making. Do not mistake restraint for ignorance.
Oscurucho: Pity. But then again, I never really needed your approval. Just consider: Cucurucho - in your quest for order, have you not sown the seeds of your own undoing? Do you genuinely trust all your Federation minions?
Cucurucho: ...
Oscurucho: Perhaps it's time you question not just my intentions, but those who you believe stand with you.
Cucurucho: That is none of your business, I shall say. Now, leave me alone and try to disturb someone else.
there's this thing you do. this thing. it drives me crazy. i think about it all the time.
there's a corner of your mouth, and a place that it goes. pinched and worried like you're afraid you're forgetting something. i used to hate it. used to think it was your little tic of disapproval.
but i've kissed your mouth, that corner, that place it goes, so many times now. i've memorized it. topography on the map of you, a world i'm still charting. i know it. i added it to the key. here: inches to miles. i can multiply it out, read your latitude and longitude. recite your coordinates like la rosaria.
this thing, your mouth, its place. it's what you do when you're trying not to give yourself away. not in the way that you do all the time, those empty, greedy grabs for you. i mean the truth of you. the weird, perfect shape of your heart. the one on the outside of your chest.
on the map of you, my fingers can always find the green hills, wales. cool waters and a shore of white chalk. the ancient part of you carved out of stone in a prayerful circle, sacrosanct. your spine's a ridge i'd die climbing.
if i could spread it out on my desk, i'd find the corner of your mouth where it pinches with my fingers, and i'd smooth it away and you'd be marked with the names of saints like all the old maps. i get the nomenclature now - saints' names belong to miracles.
give yourself away sometimes, sweetheart. there's so much of you.
fucking yrs,
a
p.s. wilfred owen to siegfried sassoon - 1917:
And you have fixed my Life - however short. You did not light me: I was always a mad comet; but you have fixed me. I spun round you a satellite for a month, but shall swing out soon, a dark star in the orbit where you will blaze.
Reading the POTO novel for the first time and for as much as people claim “ALW romanticized the Phantom” I would argue he “romanticized” Raoul. Raoul in the book is annoying af and has a really weird superiority-inferiority complex. Just your average 21 yr old scrawny young man. Not at all like the Prince Charming he’s made out to be in the musical.
He’s out here slut shaming Christine LIKE WHAT??????
Honestly, The Phantom AND Raoul got a glow up in the musical, they should be thankful.
i was looking at some old jimmy art- thinking about what percentage of my art wall is ranchers (its ~36% btw. not including the following painting) and ive decided that my old like opposite (lion on top bird on bottom instead of vice versa) griffin design for tim was actually super rad. here he is again.
ALSO i did the lineart IN WATERCOLOR. yall better cheer and clap for my beautiful painted lines(/j)
it was an effort but i do like it and also its probably helping me paint cleaner to do such small lines.
I keep thinking how sad Quill Kipps' whole deal is. He's brought up as a child soldier and he becomes quite good at it, good enough to work at one of the best agencies. He works hard, suffers, loses people, carries on because it's all got to be worth it. He ages in a system that prioritizes youth and feels everything special about him slowly starting to slip away. He has put everything into being an elite agent and he's about to age out of everything he's ever known.
He gets tangled with an unruly bunch of independent agents. They're annoying rule breakers but god they're amazing. Part of his beef with them is he can feel their talent rolling off them in waves making him acutely aware of how his is almost used up. When it becomes unsafe for him to pretend any more, he does what other agents do and becomes a supervisor. He keenly feels the separation from himself and agents in the field and finds he now can't just sit on the sidelines and watch others put their lives at stake when he can't help.
He's adrift, nothing to his name but his old reputation and a set of skills that are no longer useful. He ends up tangled back with the independents because they trust him - need him - and by god does he want to be needed. He wants so desperately to be part of their world again. They find some goggles that allow him to see visitors again and he's like a kid at Christmas. He can finally be involved again! It doesn't have to be over!
While working with them he learns everything he was taught to believe in was a lie, the prestigious agency he gave his entire being for is causing the rise of spirits. Once his involvement is found out, he loses his pension and privileges. He is cut off entirely from his old support system. With nothing left, the independents take him in. He's useful but he knows it's more out of pity. He works hard, almost dies and fights to dismantle the very establishment he spent his best years serving. The battle is won but things stay the same for him.
He is still a young adult clinging with aching fingers onto his childhood and teen years because that was the only way he had purpose. His closest friends are still young teens, five or more years younger than him. He chastises them for their childishness even as he desires more than anything to be one of them. He is Peter Pan, refusing to grow up because there is nothing for him as an adult in haunted England. He does not even look towards his future because he cannot let go of his shining past where he was actually needed.