#cain/twelve/etc

[devilselbowhq]

* DEHQ PLOT DROP 001

While the Children of Mothman have never been a stranger to the citizens of Devil’s Elbow, the equinox festival sure came to many as a shock. Most thought the group was harmless up until now. The ‘vision dust’ as they called it was actually neurotoxic dust and it is not harmful to most in small amounts, but the effects are a different story. Giving people hallucinations without their knowledge is rather unsettling and sent bystanders into shock in reaction, thus causing a domino effect which led to an overall state of panic. In result, there were fights, accidents, crashes, and medical emergencies leaving the hospital and clinic backed up. Even though the Eastern Atlantic Army ( Owen Westfall and his unit ) was able to work with Devil’s Elbow Peacekeepers to get the fans disabled and the festival ended a little over ten days after it started, by the end of April 2125 there had been over one thousand people hospitalized or treated and twelve dead in direct relation to neurotoxic dust inhalation.  The citizens of Devil’s Elbow are outraged by the results and are demanding answers from both the EAG and Afterglow as a whole. It was discovered by some that there is a medicinal mist called Serene that Afterglow Research Solutions has had available the entire time that neutralizes most effects caused from mind altering narcotics. The catch of this product being that it is only available from the EAA and Afterglow clinics and hospitals. This rumor has added fuel to the already wary undertone the presence of EAA units and uptick of peacekeepers in the city has brought. A paranoid sense that the Eastern Atlantic and Appalachia as a whole is becoming a military state, despite there being no proof to confirm such reasoning. Still, in order to quell the public’s concerns, there will be a special council meeting with a town hall afterwards to address how to handle the cultists in the future and other problems brought forth. So far, no arrests have been made and no extreme action has been taken. All other factions ( Jackals, Shamrocks, and The Silver Lining Militia ) have yet to make their feelings known. Last but not least, it is now known that there are giant moths in the environment, some with red and some with purple glowing eyes. It is unknown whether the eyes are caused by radioactive elements in their mutation or not, though some are attributing them to supernatural forces. Leaders of the Children of Mothman have promised the Night Mother will be addressing the eclipse soon. Afterglow Research Solutions and entomologists in the area are looking to get their hands on one of the species or observe them to find out more about them.

* OOC :

that wraps up the spring awakening event, thank you for being patient while kit got all the details together. going forward we promise to have it wrapped when the event ends if there is an event associated with it. now, what does this mean for your characters? that’s up to you. in the coming week there will be statements released from the shamrocks, night mother, and silver lining militia. since there’s no jackals president, either the next highest ranking member ( currently archer caine ) is free to make one or the group can decide to stay silent and individually react or not to things. as a whole and in general, this is a plotting point for you to use or not with your characters in their personal plots with others, to make connections, etc. if you have any questions feel free to send them to the main or ask in discord.

[dykejugheadjones]

phoebe, she/her, i watch good movies and shitty tv shows, love love love music!

i am currently obsessed with yellowjackets, ethel cain and supernatural!! die hard sam girl and dean crit. have finished it <3 will always always always be a shauna defender

i do NOT ship destiel.. nor do i like the ship that much. i tolerate it i guess?

hate hate hate hate season 8 and most of season twelve. i love jack, rowena & kevin <3

Not a jackie fan… apparently an unpopular opinion now. favs are tai, shauna and misty <3

other shows i like are american horror story, attack on titan, riverdale, eva, the oc, buffy and most shitty tv shows

i am also a BIG resident evil fan…. will always be obsessed with claire <3 fav fames are biohazard, re2r, re3r and re6

i love horror movies, particularly texas chainsaw massacre, the exorcist, scream movies, saw movies, X trilogy and etc

i also like movies in general, personal favs are donnie darko, taxi driver & the royal tenebaums

i occasionally write supernatural fic but tend to write more about my ocs. i also do amv edit things of sam.

i love reading books and i read a lot! mainly 20th century american novels i guess

i like a bunch of music but mainly Ethel cain, nirvana, alex g, Hole, the smiths and creepy music from the 1930s

fav somgs are two children in a motel (demo), televangelism, Golden age, inbred, unpunishable, punish, antlers, ptolemaea, august underground, vacillator and dog days

mainly listen to ethel

listening to:

» [two headed mother] - ethel cain «

3:10 ———————————〇───── 4:03

⇄ ◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹ ↻

[keldjinfae]

these are a few (12) of my favorite things

Twelve characters from twelve fandoms, twelve tags. Nobody tagged me, but I have been agonizing over this damn thing for about five hours now, so I feel I owe it to myself to give it a go anyway. Some of these characters really did come out as a draw because I love them equally and I could not decide.

Teen Wolf - Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski

It took me an hour of trying to pick one of them before I decided "fuck it, they're a unit." They're two sides of the same coin, they're my OTP in a way no other pairing has been, I love them both equally for similar and different reasons. I identify with both of them so much that making a choice is like disregarding a part of my own thought process.

2. John Wick - John Wick

Curse this 'verse, seriously. Every character is so nuanced and interesting, even the despicable people (and really, they're all despicable people), and it was ridiculously difficult to choose between people like Sofia, Gianna, Caine, Winston, Charon, Nobody, the list goes on. But. John Wick is what binds them all in this particular story. And then there's the fact that Keanu Reeves made John Wick interesting--this is a character who had the potential to be buried in Main Character Energy, but instead, there are all of these subtle moments where you see John's underlying rage, his gallows humor, his fallibility, etc. He views the stories (legends) about him as running jokes; they happened, and they weren't even exaggerated, but he is annoyed that people keep talking about them.

3. Inception - Arthur

Again, it was so hard to choose between Arthur and Eames. Actually, I also had to watch Mal be sad and neglected in a window. Again. But I ultimately went with Arthur because he's my deadly cinnamon roll. I'm making myself want to binge-read Inception fic again, send help.

4. Supernatural - Dean and Sam Winchester

Like, even the overlying message of the show was literally "these two do not know how to exist without each other." Their codependency made me feral from the get-go back in 2005. The amount of meta I have written about these two, on top of all of the fic, just. Chuckdamn.

5. Dawson's Creek - Pacey Whitter

He's the mouthy, oft-overlooked son of a sheriff. He was my precursor to Stiles. Actually, he was my precursor to Derek as well, given how he fell for an older woman and the relationship wrecked him (not the same as what happened to Derek, but it still screwed him up for a while).

6. Song of the Lioness - George Cooper

Okay, he's the King in the Court of the Rogue--of course he's going to be my favorite. That's not to say that this choice wasn't also nigh impossible, considering the wealth of fantastic characters in this fandom, but George outclassed everyone in charisma. George and Alanna were also the first "age gap" teenage romance I ever read, so. That was formative as fuck.

7. Dragon Age: Origins - Zevran Arainai

Look, I'm basically here because otherwise I'd have to pick a favorite in the entire series, and that's just not happening--having to choose between Zevran and Morrigan was already difficult enough. If there's a personal avatar for me in this whole franchise (other than the player character), it's Zev. He's the one who hides in the open, who tells nothing but the whole truth, but tells it so abrasively that nobody listens to/believes him.

8. Dragon Age II - Fenris

If Awakening were also in this list (I figured that would be pushing it), then that would be a toss-up between Nathaniel Howe and Anders. As it stands, this one was a toss-up between Fenris and Anders. The only reason I went with Fenris is simply because I prefer his rivalmance over Anders's romance. I still have to clench my teeth to get through Anders's second act resolution without romancing him because it is good, but Fenris's rivalmance is delicious. That being said, both boys have that deep-set, impotent rage against the whole world, and I love how both of them deal with it. But. Fenris is voiced by Gideon Emery, and his romance cutscenes are all kinds of fantastic in their physicality.

9. Kingdom Hearts - Riku and Sora

Yeah, again, just like with Derek and Stiles, or Dean and Sam, these two boys don't like it when they're not together. The entire series is about the two of them trying to save or find each other. They also have one of the most awesome limit breaks in the entire series--I spam that one even when there aren't any enemies around.

10. Captain America - Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers

Same as above, but over the course of an entire century and more. They are each other's entire world, and *feral noises* Like, do you realize how many times I went to see TWS and CW in theaters? Do you? All I have to do is hear "End of the Line" and I go into a fugue state for hours just thinking about them.

11. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Spike

I'm cheating again here, thanks to the spin-off, and even then choosing between nearly every single member of the cast was a brutal death match. Cordelia and Oz and Giles came so close, and honestly, Giles should get honorable mention status. What I loved about Spike most was how he was unapologetically and unabashedly himself. He wasn't a mastermind, but he also knew just where to push to drive the Scoobies apart. He didn't mind being overlooked, unless it was Angel, and then he was all but compelled to get up in his face like "Genghis Khan" just started playing in the background.

12. Angel - Angel

Thank fuck there's a spin-off to choose from. I love Angel at his best (when he's with Buffy or Cordy), I love him when he's at his worst (also with Buffy), and I love him the most when he's petty as fuck, and nobody brings that out in him more than Spike. Out of the entire series, my favorite episode is "The Girl in Question" because it's one of the most perfect examples of their centuries-long relationship. They go seamlessly from fighting each other to fighting everyone else, and it just humanized Angel in a way that few others did. Like, yes, he has a soul, and yes, there's a prophecy that he will become human again. But in the meantime? Spike makes him fall back on his human nature just by being in his proximity.

As for the 12 tags... uh... @nerdherderette @greyhavenisback @ephemeronidwrites @ice-mage @jacyevans @twistedamusement @wildamongwolves @renmackree @allybugg888 @caseyvalhalla

And then anyone else actually reading this, if you want to play then consider yourself tagged.

[snowthornes]

💥, 😨, 🍧, 🎭, and 🔪 for Thorne sdjfgksg or whichever of those you want bc I recognize that that's quite a few lol. I just think he's neat

ASK GAME: THORNE BRIERS | SHEPHERDS OF HAVEN | OMNI

SDJDG Thank you so much for sending an ask!! And it's not a problem at all — I love writing about my OCs!!! No matter how much you send, I'll be over the moon. Thank you so much for liking Thorne, that makes me very happy!! 🥹🥹💐💐

As usual, I'll be answering in the context of the SHOH universe! Ah, here's the LINK to the ask game, for anyone who wants to do it!

Edit: Okay, this became. Long. Ridiculously long. I considered splitting the ask up, but I'm not sure how that would work. Will probably do it in the future, though!

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE ALPHA BUILD BELOW!!

😨 — when scared, do they go into "flight" or "fight"?

Flight! Thorne's not very big on the whole 'go out in a blaze of glory' thing — he'd much rather slip away from the enemy's grasp and live to fight another day.

Actually — and this is a bit off topic — he's not a very big fan of the whole 'self sacrificing' routine that a lot of the Shepherds seem to have going on. Scratch that, he hates it. Everytime Trouble or Blade or any of the Shepherds say something along the lines of sacrificing themselves to save innocents, his eye practically starts twitching in irritation. 🗿

He'd much rather that they all stayed alive, thank you very much. He refuses to tolerate any other outcome. Now that I think about it, it's a bit funny — he'd joined the Shepherds only as a means of self-preservation. He was so sure that he'd fade into the background soon enough, that the Shepherds would just be another odd chapter in his life.

Now he spends most of his time running himself ragged for the order and (secretly) worrying about his more self-sacrificial comrades' survival. Oh, he also spends a good chunk of his time worrying about Caine. His ass was not expecting to be a sort-of-guardian for a twelve year old, but here they are. Ah, how the turns have tabled.

Blade, Dead Serious: Are you willing to bleed for the order? To die for the order? That's what we demand from all our recruits. Thorne, voice floating from another room: It would also be ideal if you, you know. Didn't die. Less paperwork that way.

🎭 — Do they act differently around certain people? What's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?

Oh, boy. Given the fact that his entire surface demeanor revolves around concealing his true thoughts and emotions from others, I would have to say... yes.

HOW HE ACTS AROUND STRANGERS/FRIENDLY ACQUAINTANCES:

Around strangers or friendly acquaintances, Thorne's guard is always up. His charming veneer never wavers, cloaking him like a second skin — he smiles at the right time, laughs at the right occasion, and frowns at the right moment. Everything he does is a calculated mix of genuine and deliberate, engineered to make him come off as a smooth mix of charming, elusive, and trustworthy — elusive enough to make people think of him as mysterious, but pleasant enough to make people trust him.

He doesn't lie outright, however. Not if he can help it. Lies are tricky, and can leave too many threads to pull and unravel. Instead, he deals in half-truths: little bits of truth about himself that he can sacrifice to the masses, all while keeping the ones that he'd rather hide safely concealed behind his smile.

Strangers know him as the dark-haired mage who carries himself with an air of casual elegance, who possesses storm gray eyes that gleam with an intelligent and elusive light.

Others would say that he's a smooth-talking sod who knows more than he lets on.

Others still would call him a smart bastard who's absolutely ruthless in a fight.

Ah, well. Depends on who you listen to.

HOW HE ACTS AROUND FRIENDS/FAMILY:

Around friends or family — and let's face it, those two words are practically synonymous in this case — Thorne is a lot more expressive and reactive.

While it took him a long, long time to get to his point, Thorne begins to drop the calculated front when around the Shepherds. He becomes a lot more... relaxed, and as a result, a trace of his true personality comes out — though sometimes even Thorne isn't sure what that is.

He becomes a lot more mischievous, bouncing off of Chase and Trouble's antics by spearing them with the occasional dry comment or good natured jab. He also frequently comes to Blade, Red, and Halek's defense(?) by playfully coming up to bat with his arsenal of deceptively innocent quips whenever the others are dogpiling them, prompting Ayla to jokingly complain that he was a "bloody suck-up": an accusation to which Thorne responded with a look of mock-offense and a lofty, "I haven't the faintest idea of what you mean."

His terrible sense of humor also comes out in full force. Even the stupidest and flattest of jokes can coax a snort of laughter from him. He's a big fan of Riel's sarcasm, often snorting in amusement — eyes sparkling with poorly concealed laughter — whenever the other lets loose of yet another dry quip.

Overall, he's very different from how he was when he first joined the Order. When he first joined the order, he had treated them as he would any other stranger: charming, but distant, with the distinct air of someone who was sure to leave in the future. Now, he couldn't be any more different.

Trouble had once remarked on his change. He had ruffled Thorne's hair, ignoring his dismayed squawks, while thoughtfully commenting on how different he was compared to when they first met him.

"Oh?" Thorne had responded dryly, disgruntledly attempting to fix his ruffled dark hair. "What was I like when we first met, then?"

"Sort of closed off, even though you smiled a lot," Trouble had said thoughtfully. "Like one of those nobles. And you always kept your distance — almost like you were going to disappear any second."

Thorne had paused. It had felt odd, hearing this from Trouble. He hadn't known how to react. "... And now?"

Trouble had grinned, then, eyes warm and affectionate. He clapped Thorne on the back and slung a familiar arm around his shoulders. "Well, now you're stuck with us, of course!"

Thorne had let out a breath at that, rolling his eyes. There was a pause, the two of them blanketed in comfortable silence, before a quiet voice spoke tentatively into the air:

"Yes, I am."

🔪 — How do they react to injury / misfortune befalling their loved ones (significant other, family, friends)? Do they put themselves at blame?

Now... here's the thing. The more Thorne cares about someone, the more emotional he can get. The more he cares about someone, the less all the other things — logic, pragmatism, himself — matter to him. He's very much the type to love slower but harder. I genuinely think that life threatening injury befalling his loved ones would make him completely fling all his caution and inhibitions to the wind.

He'd be rushing to their side in a heartbeat. If they were on a battlefield, he'd be fighting his way to their side like an animal gone feral: all gnashing power and glinting arrows and a desperate need to get to their side, get to their side, before it's too late. Thorne knows how swiftly a person's life can be snuffed out; how one wound, one blow, can so easily drag them to a realm that no living being can ever hope to reach. He has to get to them. He has to.

His magic would probably start running rampant, responding to the cold spikes of fear cutting through his chest, to the ringing screaming in his ears. Rationally, he knows that he should conserve his magic and energy — that he shouldn't be so reckless, so careless, so impulsive — but all that would be drowned out by his urgent need to get to their side.

Ultimately, I think he'd either reach their side and haul them off to safety while debating between trying to heal them now or scrambling to a Healer (he's not the best healer), or someone else would step in and snap him out of it. If someone like Red (since he can translocate) told him to stay behind while they got the injured loved one to safety, Thorne would probably gnash his teeth but ultimately, stay and absolutely tear into the enemy. The moment the battle was over he'd be rushing off to go check on the loved one.

Once he sees them, alive and— well. Not well, but not dead, at least — he'll probably start crying. Tears run down his cheeks while he desperately tries to stifle his sobs, but it seems like the inhuman control he typically has over his emotions has fucked off to nowhere and he just keeps bawling his eyes out like an utter fool. Someone, either the poor injured loved one, (who now has a Mr. Thorne Briers bawling over their bed), or a trusted friend tries to comfort him, and he stiffens up so much that they fear he'll break. But then he grasps onto them like a lifeline, (or ever so gently, featherlight, if they were the injured loved one), and starts sniffling out a bunch of incomprehensible reassurances and apologies as he forcibly tries to calm himself. (It doesn't work).

He'll probably be extra clingy in the coming days, like a cat wandering around their favorite person. He won't come too close out of fear of smothering them (he probably still is) but he'll repeatedly attempt to ✨discreetly✨ poke his head into the infirmary to check on how they're doing and reassure himself that they'll be fine. If he's close enough to this particular loved one and feels secure enough to do so, he'll probably insist on doing his paperwork near them. The poor healers will probably have to shoo him out with a broom at one point.

Eventually, he'll start to relax and lay off on the clinginess, but — I think he'll be a lot more... forward with his affection than he was before. His masks and pretenses are still there — I don't think they'll go that easily — but they're a lot more transparent, and more easy to see through. For his loved ones, anyway.

Ah. This got long. I'm sorry, I think I just really like the drama 😔

💥 — What emotions do they have trouble dealing with?

Thorne... can be frustratingly complicated when it comes to dealing with emotion. He does a lot of mental gymnastics and unnecessary entangling when it comes to... how he perceives himself, and it can be a headache trying to follow him. Ironic, how someone so determined to never lose his composure is actually an absolute trainwreck. Still, I'll do my best to answer!

(Ah, and a reminder that Thorne's thoughts and opinions do not necessarily align with my own, and that they're not always, well... right.)

Thorne is the type to feel with everything in him — and it's a part of himself that he's grown to despise. Sadness, grief, longing, compassion, and hope: they will do nothing. They will accomplish nothing. He sees it as an unnecessary indulgence — something he lets himself feel just to validate himself. To pretend that he's a better person than he really is. That he can be better.

He can't.

Take compassion, for example. For Thorne, compassion coming from him is a useless token. Compassion is pointless when no action is taken, and he can't— he can't promise anything. And what good is feeling sympathy for anything when you can't do anything to help them?

Once upon a time, he had worn his heart on his sleeve. He used to be brighter, all smiles and laughter: a light that waveringly persisted even after the destruction of his village. And he had tried to help — to save people, to do good in the world. But after a few events that I won't get into right now, he... became disillusioned. Overly so, I would say. After all, what was the point in having a bleeding heart when you wouldn't be able to save them no matter how much you bled? When you would only make things worse? He began to harden and hold the world at an arms length. Slowly, he learned to conceal himself, to manipulate and charm and persuade.

And the more beautiful his mask became, the more he began to despise himself.

To be blunt, Thorne hates himself far too much to indulge in these emotions.

Sadness, grief, longing, compassion, and hope: he began to deal with them by either internally pulling away or leaning into his anger.

Thorne's anger isn't the raging, blood-pumping kind — not usually, anyway. His anger is focused, deliberate, like ice and frost creeping up a metal chain and delicately shattering it to pieces. Anger is easy. Anger is cold. Anger lets him look at the world with a knife-like clarity, lets him ignore the steadfast ache in his chest. Anger lets him ignore the emptiness that follows him wherever he goes. Anger... is protection.

Yes, not a very healthy way to cope. But he'll be having some hefty character development throughout the course of the game! :D

🍧 — Do they still have any objects from their childhood? What significance does it have to them? What would their reaction be if they lost it?

Thorne has a bracelet made of twine, with little wooden star-shaped beads woven into it in pretty patterns! His mother had been the one to weave the bracelet, while his father had been the one to carve the wooden stars.

It had been his thirteenth birthday gift; his father gave it to him the day before his Wreath Day. His mother had woven it for him when she fell sick with the Grey Waste. The Grey Waste was deadly, and she had known that it was very unlikely she would be able to pull through. So, shakily, laboriously, she created one last gift for her son, to be given on his thirteenth birthday.

Thorne had cried for hours when he received the bracelet, burrowing into his father's arms as he bawled his heart out. Now, the bracelet is old and worn; he keeps it in a pouch he wove himself, embroidered with patterns of his parents' favorite flowers in honor of their memory. He would be absolutely devastated if something were to ever happen to it, and would probably be shattered for days before painfully accepting that it was gone.

[bakerstreetbabble]

It was the best of Holmes, it was the worst of Holmes...

I've often encountered lists of the best Sherlock Holmes stories, compiled by fans of Holmes, and even by Arthur Conan Doyle himself.  In fact, in 1927 the Strand Magazine published ACD's list of his twelve favorite Sherlock Holmes tales.  It looked like this:

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

The Red-Headed League

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

The Final Problem

A Scandal in Bohemia

The Adventure of the Empty House

The Five Orange Pips

The Adventure of the Second Stain

The Adventure of the Devil's Foot

The Adventure of the Priory School

The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual

The Adventure of the Reigate Squire

Not surprisingly, I've never seen a list of the worst Sherlock Holmes stories (or at least, a list of readers' least favorite stories).  Let's not pretend that all of the canonical Holmes stories are of equal quality.  Many readers and scholars seem to believe that, by the time he wrote some of the stories in His Last Bow and The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle was really getting tired of the character, and it began to show in his work.  Be that as it may, a Google search for "worst sherlock holmes stories" failed to turn up any lists of worst stories.  It did, however, find several lists of worst adaptations, worst actors, etc., one of which I have included below for your entertainment and edification:

A Study in Error: the Ten Worst Sherlock Holmes (from www.shadowlocked.com)

Roger Moore in Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976)

Stewart Granger in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972)

Charlton Heston in The Crucifer of Blood (1991)

Peter Cook in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)

Tom Baker in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982)

Christopher Lee in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991)

Richard Roxburgh in The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002)

John Cleese in The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It (1977)

Nicol Williamson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)

Michael Caine in Without a Clue (1988)

By this list, at least, we may deduce that the 1970s may have been a decade in which it was a particularly egregious idea to make a Sherlock Holmes film.  But my point is this: while Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts have no inhibitions about critiquing adaptations of the detective and the stories in which he appeared, they seem to be considerably more reluctant to critique the canon itself.

So my question for readers is: which Sherlock Holmes stories are your least favorite?  Feel free to comment on this post with your list, be it top five, top ten, or maybe just a couple that you don't particularly enjoy.  Or...let me know if I am spouting heresy here.  Perhaps you think that all of the stories are equally brilliant?  I shall be endeavoring in the near future to come up with a "worst" list of my own. The game is afoot...I look forward to hearing from you.

[radprinceland]

I hope one day they give Jack Sugden Jr a storyline, whether it's one where he resents Debbie for whatever reason (maybe she has yet another new partner that he knows if he bonds with, they'll leave eventually)

Surely he's got some trauma from being pushed aside after he saved Sarah or from all the constant rotation of step-dad after step-dad, there was Pete, Ross, Joe, Al and whoever Debbie could be with now

He hasn't seen his family in years and he could act out due to him missing Cain and Charity (running away etc)

He could have a storyline where he learns of what his parents did back when they were younger (andy abusing Jo, Debbie helping to cover up Cameron's murders and the murder of Shane) and see his parents in a different way

Just bring him back, as he's got a new uncle after all and the boy is 12 soon surely they should be celebrating that or it should be mentioned by Charity like "Oh this is for Jack, he's twelve and I'm going to see him."

[tumblingghosts]

yes!! i’ve got quite a few :D

should’ve kept every grocery store receipt (cause every scrap of you would be taken from me) by angelica_barnes (finnick/peeta where everything is soft and tragic all at once- also, this author as an amazing remus fic too since you’ve been thinking about him)

don’t flinch by lorata (cato, clove, and the way things change if either of them were to win)

and we don’t notice (the time pass) by cosmicAbsurdism (sort of character study of katniss, and also katniss/madge)

butterfly by Way_Out_There (how things might have gone if other tributes had won the 74th games)

not even death is an escape. by clairvoylance (peeta is in a time loop and it’s a tragedy)

Literally No One Communicates (oh yeah and there’s the ongoing death arena, that too) by General_Midnight_of_Ardar (multiple time travellers are back for the 74th reaping- they’re all human disasters and i love them)

Bluebird by Shaylinne (highly recommend this entire series!! it follows capitol oc catalina cain & her relationship with people like finnick, plutarch, cinna, seneca crane, etc. i don’t want to spoil but wow wow wow <333)

A Flower from District Twelve by Blue_Sunshine (one of my all time favorite fics- prim time travels back to her 12th birthday)

Fox Games by Farla (peeta eats the berries he finds in the bushes, and katniss is left with foxface)

May You Never Meet Her by ketren (both katniss and prim in the games, katniss can’t volunteer for prim so she sneaks to d3 and volunteers there- everdeen sisters <33)

How Rue Became the Mockingjay by aimmyarrowshigh (an alternate chronology where rue and thresh win the 74th games)

i’ve been trying to branch out more and read some non-tbosas thg fics so if y’all have any recs lmk!!

[stephanie-brown-deserved-better]

i love the reverse robin au bc it gives so much good ideas with different backstories, changed dynamics and new roles and etc but has anyone thought of a reverse batman au?

like oh no twelve year old bruce wayne loses his parents and butler in tragic accident and suddenly about ten adults want to adopt him. police officer dick grayson who was the first responder at the scene of the crime offers to take the kid in. local community leader and founder of a well-respected orphanage jason todd also offers. drake industries ceo tim drake is another contender and cites being business partners with thomas wayne as a connection. cassandra cain, bodyguard to the waynes but was off duty during the attack, also offers. damian al ghul, new to the city, claims to be from a far off branch of the wayne family tree and offers to take the kid in as well. duke thomas, having experienced the same thing happen to his own family and is a known advocate against gun violence, also offers to take care of him.

all these adults fighting to want to care of him meanwhile bruce is just sitting there and there with all of his twelve year old rage and is picking his foster parent based on who would be the most likely to let him wear a bat costume and track down and then beat up the guy who killed his family.

[narcissisticmf]

it's over | dean winchester x fem!reader

description: after dean is cured from being a demon, y/n visits him in his room.

trigger warnings: mentions of death, description of minor injuries, spoilers from season ten, etc. read at your own risk.

word count: <1k

With your tired eyes skimming through the Men of Letters books, you let your fingers trace over the pages. The chapters were filled with vague information on the mark of Cain. While Dean had been cured from being a demon, you still had the mark of Cain to worry of. You sat at one of the tables in the library, as Castiel was stood up, looking over some of the books you had piled around.

"Cas, what if there is no way to get rid of the mark?" You lifted your head and looked at him as he gazed back at you with his lips parted.

"There's always a way, Y/N," He offered you a soft grin, making you nod slowly. "We just have to find it."

"This could take forever," You sighed softly and lowered your head back down to read over the opened books.

"You could take a break," Castiel started, causing you to furrow your brow and look up to him again. "I'm sure Dean is eager to speak with you after everything."

You thought about it for a moment before nodding softly. "Yeah, I guess a short break would be fine," You smiled gently and pushed yourself out of your seat, "Uhm, do you mind if you keep looking for anything that could help us? I won't be long."

"Say no more, Y/N, I'm on it," Cas smiled at you as you thanked him quietly before exiting the library. Your heart sunk into your stomach as you had been nervous to talk to him after all that's happened.

.

Taking your fist, you knocked softly against his door. Your hands were shaking as you did so, you were unsure of why you were so nervous. Dean was your best friend and you couldn't remember a time where you were ever nervous to talk to him.

"Yeah?" Dean called out from inside his room. He sounded tired. You slowly opened the door by turning the cold knob and presented yourself to him through the doorway. His gaze went soft when he saw you.

"Hi," You offered him a soft grin, fiddling with your fingers.

"Hey, sweetheart," Dean forced a gentle smile. You noticed the photos he had in his lap. You hesitantly walked over to the edge of his bed. You looked down at him and asked with nothing but your eyes if you could sit next to him as he sat up against the headboard. He slowly moved over to make room for you as you climbed onto the mattress.

"You feeling okay?" You looked at him with blown out pupils.

"As good as I can be," Dean mumbled and lowered his head as he looked over the photos. You looked over his shoulder and smiled when he was looking at a photo of you, himself and Sam. You must've been about twelve in that photo, Sammy was probably just about eight.

You were all playing in a sandbox together, the day was warm. You could remember it very clearly. Bobby had watched the three of you while John Winchester and your father were on a hunt together.

"That was a fun day," You gently rested your cheek against his shoulder as you looked down at the photos he flipped through.

"Yeah, Bobby always let us be kids once in a while," Dean grumbled and rested his head against yours as the two of you sat in the comfortable silence.

"Do you remember everything, Dean?" You asked in a whisper as you kept your gaze on the photos.

"From being a demon?" He questioned and you nodded against his shoulder. "Yeah, I do. I tried kill you and Sammy.. I'm still wondering why you feel comfortable being next to me right now."

You lifted your head and stared at him, parting your glossy lips as your chin rested against his shoulder. He looked back at you, his eyes sunken.

"It wasn't you," You breathed out gently and reached one hand up to caress his face. He closed his eyes and leaned into your touch. "It's over, Dean," You whispered with a soft smile growing. "You can rest now."

Dean fluttered his eyes opened and grinned at you sweetly, with his lips enclosed together. "Bring me some pie," He whispered gravely. You giggled and slowly pulled him close to press a warm kiss to his mouth. He hummed in response and closed his eyes, allowing both of your lips to mold together perfectly. The taste was sweeter than ever and you thanked your lucky stars that the treatment didn't harm him permanently.

.

a/n: hiii cuties!! i think this was my favorite episode of season ten, it really made me see the relationship between sam and dean in terms of how much they both really care about each other even when they fight sometimes 🥺 anyway, sorry about that djdksndk thank you for reading babies!! mwah! much love. — angelina.

[eraserdude6226]

A hundred and twelve years ago, in 1907...our great grandparents were first able to buy the rifle pictured. The semi-auto Winchester Model 1907.

This is a gun they could buy from a Sears catalogue and have delivered via US Post. It was/is a semi-automatic, high powered centerfire rifle, with detachable, high capacity magazine. About 400,000 semi-automatic rifles were produced before WW2. Civilians had hundreds of thousands of these for 40 years, while US soldiers were still being issued old fashioned bolt action rifles. The 1907 fired just as fast as an AR15 or AK47 and the bullet (.351 Winchester) was actually larger than those fired by the more modern looking weapons. The ONLY functional difference between the 1907 and a controversial and much feared AR15 is the modern black plastic stock.

The semi auto, so-called "assault rifle" is 110 years old. It isn’t new in any way. The semi auto rifle was not a weapon of war. The government MADE IT a weapon of war 40 years after civilians had them. The semi-auto can be safely owned by civilians. The proof is that literally 3 generations of adults owned and used them responsibly and no one ever even noticed.

Want to fix the horror of mass shootings? Fix the things that have changed for the worse in the last 50 years. Family Values, Prayer from Schools, Ten Commandments from court houses, Spanking Kids, Morals, What is socially acceptable, Confusion on Genders, Left Wing Liberalism, Socialism, etc because the rifle technology in question was here long before this insanity.

GOD SAVE THE USA.

I did not write this but rather re-posted it from a friend on FB.  I thought it was however a good reminder that guns don’t kill people - people kill people and that the gun is just a tool.  

And just remember - when Cain killed Abel, the Lord did not get rid of all the rocks.  He blamed Cain and not the rock.  In this country, we have a sin problem and not a gun problem!!

[indiekidsupremacist]

thank u for tagging @raylangivins

1. picrew

grrr the constant battle of making idealised self vs actual self. this is pretty close to how I really look though. i think

2. put on repeat playlist on shuffle and post first 10 songs

Manic Street Preachers - Miss Europa Disco Dancer

Jimi Hendrix - Crosstown Traffic

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash - Girl from the North Country

George Harrison - Far East Man

Lana del Rey - A&W

Ethel Cain - American Teenager

Chris Stapleton - You Should Probably Leave

Elliott Smith - Ballad of Big Nothing

Lana del Rey - Florida Kilos

The Rolling Stones - Jumpin’ Jack Flash

3. questionnaire

Tea, coffee, or soda? soda (i am twelve actually)

Dogs or cats? cats probably

Can you play any instrument? rudimentary ability to play the piano in spite of like seven years of (quite unenthusiastic) study

What's your sun sign? scorpio ♏️

First song lyrics that pops into your head? give me a smilllllleeee... close your eyesssssss.... don't sayyyy a wordddd....

Do you have any tattoos? yes! got it just this month -- its a dragonfly by my navel

Favorite place you've travelled? probably prague

What's the last movie you've watched? meet me in the bathroom

What languages do you speak? english, hindi, passable spanish + bits and pieces of a few others

Do you have any hobbies? yeah one or two (reading, writing, photography etc. nothing you couldn't figure out from looking at my blog tbh)

You can hang out with one fictional character for an hour, who do you choose? gonna go for a wild one and pick the narrator from my year of rest and relaxation because that woman is insane.

Compliment yourself: dark circles are so charming and attractive actually and you do not look like a crackhead at all promise

tagging (no pressure): @whitealbum @defeatdarrencriss @auroraleigh

[bigskydreaming]

In Bruce’s defense, anyone who blames him for putting his children in the line of fire does not like...get his children.

Bruce adopting and training these kids is absolutely the only thing standing between them and even EARLIER deaths than the ones in canon that they all basically just...refuse to let stick.

Like, these are six incredibly determined little dumbasses.

Dick Grayson: breaks out of juvie and runs around rooftops tracking down the mob boss that ordered his parents killed in order to ruthlessly avenge them when he’s EIGHT.

Jason Todd: at age twelve, is caught stealing the tires off the goddamn BATMOBILE and upon being caught, his first instinct is NOT flight, its HIT THE GODDAMN BATMAN WITH HIS TIRE IRON.

Tim Drake: as early as age ten, spends his free time running around Gotham’s rooftops and back alleys stalking Batman and Robin with his clunky camera and absolutely no prior experience or training in either acrobatics or surviving Gotham’s back alleys.

Cassandra Cain: Upon learning Lady Shiva is her mother, ignores Batman yelling CASSANDRA NO and tracks down the most lethal and feared woman on the planet and bullies her into training her further, with Shiva going okay but then we gotta battle to the death and Cassandra going sure, makes sense, when do we start.

Damian Wayne: Early in life, is ordered to hunt and fight a bunch of dragon-type creatures. Adopts one as his pet. Finally meets his father, who does not trust him. Steals the Batmobile. Is fired from Robin and forbidden to leave the Manor for his protection while there’s a hit on his life. Calls himself Redbird and resumes Robin duties, citing that he was only forbidden from leaving as ROBIN, specifically. Is sent home during an attack on the city by a zombie army. Turns around and wades into the zombie army on his own. Etc, etc.

Duke Thomas: At age ten, the Riddler shuts down all the power in Gotham and says he’ll only restore it if bested with a riddle. Duke hears this and decides, this is a job for...Duke Thomas. Around age fifteen, he’s put in the foster system after his parents are affected by the Joker’s mind-altering gas during an attack, hears that some of the Joker’s victims have been found wandering around the sewer system that’s noted for being home to like....a cannibalistic crocodile villain, among other things, thinks well, guess I gotta go personally cover every inch of Gotham’s sewers on my own, by foot. Accidentally stumbles across a plot to bomb all of Gotham and decides, this is a job for...Duke Thomas. Etc, etc.

In summation, the Batkids’ shared family trait is Absolute Dumbassery and a Willful Disregard for Self-Preservation, and no, they do not accept constructive criticism. Bruce’s training them all as his partners was 40% fatalism, 60% Hail Mary. 

He actually tried getting Dick to choose colors for his costume that would actually blend into the shadows, and eight year old Dick went nah, I’m gonna stick with bright red, yellow and green, thanks though. 

He actually tried teaching Jason Todd how to prioritize speed and evasion against bigger opponents, and 5′4″ Jason Todd went nah, I’m just gonna punch ‘em, thanks though. 

He actually tried sending Tim home when Tim first showed up, and Tim went nah, I’m just not gonna do that, thanks though. 

He actually tried getting Cassandra to be more careful and selective about inserting herself into every single dangerous situation she came across, and Cass went, sorry, lost my phone when I weaponized it against the bad guys and also I’m in Hong Kong right now about to face off with my killer mom, see ya when I get back, bye. 

He actually tried benching Damian repeatedly, and Damian went, LOL. No. 

He actually tried stressing to Duke the importance of leaving dangerous situations to the professionals, and Duke kept showing up at every dangerous situation in Gotham and being like oh hey, so weird we keep running into each other. 

Every time another adult hero clucks at Bruce disapprovingly and says he really should’ve kept his kids out of the hero life, Bruce’s eye twitches and he grinds out: “Oh gee. If only I’d thought of that.”

[gone-series-orchid]

I know you've said before that you think Caine and Drake are pretty one-dimensional (and I agree completely). I was wondering if there were any other villains that you wish had been explored more instead of giving those two more page time in later books. Or if there were any characters that you thought could have had villainous potential that were unexplored??

wow, interesting question! i think my main problem with caine and drake is that they’re just kind of blandly evil, one-dimensional like you said. i think, ideally, villains should feel like real people.

funnily enough, i think zil probably comes closest to embodying that in this series. he’s mean-spirited from the beginning, but it’s only under lance’s influence (from what i remember) that he becomes a real threat due to his gaining confidence. i think it would have been nice to see more of him in the series—he’s insecure in his role as leader of the human crew, which makes him fallible. he’s also kind of unnerved by lance’s neo-nazism. he’s arguably the most intelligent out of the crew aside from lance. he’s not sympathetic, per se, but he is compelling.

i would’ve liked to see him interact more directly with the protagonists—especially astrid, because i think she should get a chance to one-up him in some way after he was thinking creepy thoughts about her in hunger. also, i think astrid, being the smartie she is, would probably be most likely to try to persuade him to turn over a new leaf—she’s a normal, and a white, aryan-looking (gag) normal at that, which would probably satisfy lance, and she still has distinct power in the fayz. though zil could probably poke a hole in her argument by pointing out that she only really has that power because she’s sam’s girlfriend, which is true. anyway, they could have words about it.

i think zil is compelling because he has the potential to be redeemed. it’s a slight potential, because he’s already done some pretty evil things, but he’s not totally evil—he has to justify the violence he commits in order to accept it, which is more than caine or drake does. we never forget that, at the end of the day, he’s still an insecure, blustering twelve-year-old. he’s an anti-moof bigot, but he could change. i think lance, more than zil, represents total irredeemable evil. he represents what zil could descend into being. he’s the devil on his shoulder (astrid could potentially be the angel if she maybe switched tactics from lawful punishment to direct emotional manipulation).

i’m a sucker for human villains and natural disasters being the principal antagonists, which i think is why the first four books work so well? i think fear and light suffer from the gaiaphage taking control of the narrative, villain-wise, when i think it worked best when used sparingly. gaia is pure evil, nothing more. she’s fun to read about in her own way because she’s so villainously campy, but that’s kind of it. she’s not really interesting, imo.

i think the reason why i harp so much on the insufficient “humanity” of antagonists like caine and drake is because that’s the principal strength of books (lord of the flies, battle royale) in the ��kids trapped in place and forced to survive” genre: what do the actions of the characters say about human nature? about society? about morality? in lord of the flies, the message conveyed is ultimately a bleak one: the kids all descend into savagery in one way or another, with the purest one of them all, simon (the jesus figure) being driven insane, and the intellectual (piggy) being murdered. the story is all about “the darkness in the human heart,” to paraphrase the last line of the book.

in battle royale, on the contrary, the message is ultimately one of hope. despite the characters living in a dystopian fascist society that sacrifices one class of students to a killing game, the main character shuya clings to the idea that he and his classmates can figure out an alternate way to survive the titular battle royale aside from murdering each other. his compassionate view of humanity is validated by the pov vignettes given to all his classmates. all of them are given distinct personalities; some are kind, like shuya and his allies noriko and shogo, and some are drake-esque sadists, while the majority fall somewhere in between (my personal favorite characters are the girls that team up with one another in order to protect themselves from possible sexual violence from the boys. they hole up in a lighthouse!). but all are tragic in the sense that they’re children thrust into an unfair and cruel situation. even then, though, the nobility of certain characters shines through.

for instance, there are two girls at the beginning of the game who are best friends and don’t want to kill anyone. they (foolishly or bravely) use a megaphone to call out to the other kids in hiding, asking if they can all band together. shuya and several other characters are tempted, but sadly the girls are both fatally shot soon after their announcement. they die in each other’s arms after affirming their friendship, tears in their eyes. shuya and several other kids are devastated by the girls’ deaths. while some more callous characters deride them as being stupid and naïve, the reader is ultimately meant to mourn their deaths and the lost potential of a class-wide alliance. they know that their enemy isn’t their classmates, but rather the fascist government that makes them kill each other in the first place.

anyway—tangent aside—i think those two aforementioned novels are really solid examples of the genre gone is in. gone has more of superhero vibe to it, given the focus on powers and mutations and paper-thin evil villains, but i almost think the way that’s executed almost detracts against the aforementioned “kids surviving, etc.” genre? like, that’s all about the messiness of morality and human nature and whatnot, and while superhero comics can weave that into their narratives (watchmen, the brat pack) those are usually deconstructions of the genre than straightforward examples of it. the superhero genre is usually morally black-and-white and really action-focused. this is why i think we get the strange tonal mixture of kids reacting realistically to the trauma of starving versus reacting fairly unrealistically when faced with brutal superpowered violence, such as when brianna decapitates drake like it’s nbd. or anything brianna does, really.

there’s a shift from the realistic to the unrealistic that’s fun, but tonally dissonant from each other. so there’s this sort of disconnect, at least for me. i sympathize greatly for astrid when she’s slapped by drake and forced to call little pete a slur, for instance, but how many times does drake or caine murder a kid in cold blood? at some point it gets...idk, old? as the violence gets more cartoony the less it interests me aside from morbid fascination, and there’s just so much of it. it gets desensitizing after a while. i think that’s why, even though i think it’s handled fairly believably in gone, i had a lot more trouble with the monster trilogy’s blend of absurdism (the animorphs-style mutations like dekka turning into a cat woman with medusa hair and another character turning into a praying mantis with super speed, etc.) vs. grimdark realism (ICE forcibly deports a character’s father, terrorist violence is a common theme, the san francisco bridge is destroyed, a baby boy is mutated into a giant fuzzy caterpillar and then gets blown up by the military—like this is budding dystopia-level dark and the narrative doesn’t seem to realize it). it just feels too heavy and too light at the same time. the contrast of tones does a disservice to both of them. idk what i’m saying let’s get back to your actual question lol

as for characters with villainous potential...hmmm. tbh i think astrid has villainous potential? i mean, i like the idea of her moral righteousness escalating in a way that makes her more morally gray. she’d have to probably latch onto more powerful kids in order to have any leverage over sam and the gang, given her powerlessness. maybe she could manipulate orc into being her bodyguard while she plots to usurp sam or something asgjsjk. i think she could be a powerful threat if she wanted to be! it’s fun to ponder. i heard of an au where she joins the human crew that i thought was sort of interesting!

what do you think, @goneseriesanalysis? any villains you wish had been dived into more, and/or characters with villainous potential you think would have been cool to explore?

[cartooncas]

Helloooo ,So I’ve compiled all the demon dean fics I’ve read

it's pretty hard (at least it was for me lmaoo) to find demon Dean fics that are plot heavy and/or explore what it means for dean to be a demon , like what it feels like etc , so  a few of these are not fics I would usually read , but I was desperate for #Lore ,so !!! , also it's been a few months since I've read these so I might be forgetting stuff. All of these are most likely bloody gory violent etc , like it's demon stories.. beware :0!!

-Kintsukuroi: This one is pretty fast paced and really well written , it does a good job of exploring what dean feels like now that he is no longer human,! 

- help i've fallen and i can't find my grace : this one features demon bela talbot, who was ordered by Crowely to supervise Dean as he does what he wants as a newly turned knight of hell .. it's pretty fucked up ngl! But dean's pov was pretty interesting .

- Gonna sink under you: this one isn't demon Dean but it's about Dean experiencing memory loss because of the mark of Cain

- Take me home country roads : another really well written one, focuses on cas and dean!!! the characters are really well captured.

- twelve arches facing the sea:  this is one of the ones that are mostly focused on how Dean feels inside ,like what It feels like to be a demon etc . It was an interesting read, it's very gory and bloody though, so beware of the tags.. it's a pretty brutal one , but it’s also the one I remember the most when I think about demon dean fics. 

- the good fight: okay this one is very plot heavy and it's very long, so like if you want a lot of demon Dean content.. voilà. Basically, Dean keeps hunting with Sam even as a demon , and he keeps in control by working for Crowley at night, killing Abaddon's loyalist demons , and such. I read it a looooong time ago I don't really remember much else. There are ooc moments but yeah the plot is pretty entertaining... 

- fata morgana : of course im gonna add farta morgana to this list because it is SO good. Bela is a demon in hell, and the new king of hell is Dean, ,, you see the story unfolding through bela’s eyes. 

- the demons within: this one is  very sexual  and fucked up tbh .. All I remember is Dean is pretty confused about who he used to be before becoming a demon, but he knows he always feels this urge to save Cas (who is weak because of stolen grace , in this fic), he keeps following him basically and, well, a very toxic relationship ensues. Mind the tags!! ..  

That’s the only ones i could remember :O hopefully this helps <3 

If you know of other good ones lmk... 

[space-whalesharks]

More Burke & Cain since y’all seemed to like it:

Rick’s hypothetical kids were also “Douglas and Harry,” “Rick Junior, Thomas and T.C” “Lorelai and Rory”, “Diana and Talia”, “Luke and Leia” (because it’s Star Wars Day). He’s furious when that doesn’t tip off Burke that the kids are fake. Burke is just “Oh, so you and the missus are Star Wars fans, huh?”) . In the No Cult AU, Rick also comes up with “Cal and Hobb”, and when Burke finds out Nic’s son’s name is Cal he jumps to conclusions about Nic being Rick’s ex wife. Rick is scandalized: “how dare you, she’s practically a child!” Nic in the background: “I’m 30! Twelve years isn’t that bad of an age gap!” Rick, immediately: “Not the point... ... Babe 😈😇” . Still, worried about the rumor spreading, when he sees John and Nic around town he tells John about the Cal fiasco just in case.

One case elevated to a car chase and Rick hatched a plan to get of their car to try to make his way into the other person’s truck. The timing was genuinely bad, but Burke did slam on the brakes a little too harshly at the last minute, making Rick fall the rest of the way out of the car window.

During the actual Hope County arc, Whitehorse sees all the reprimands and such against Rick after doing some digging and wonders if losing Burke and gaining Rick made things worse. But what he doesn’t count on is that Rick’s a pretty decent guy and a better Marshal. He collaborates, he listens, he’s warm and welcoming while talking to people, etc. Whitehorse tells him as much one day, then asks what his issue with Burke is all about. “Sir, have you met the guy?” “Fair point.”

[ruoyeming]

My Fav Books, another chaotic list

Another quarantine review fest! I know I ranked my top anime but this is seriously too hard so I’m just going to list them to avoid hours of debate. Enjoy!

1) The Skulduggery Pleasant series

This whopper of a series (now at 15 books jesus christ I didn’t know there were that many I’ve only read about twelve) has a special place in my heart. I was FULLY obsessed with it throughout my tween - and teen - years, and for a reason. This shit just butters my bread like nothing else. The story follows a young girl Valkyrie Cain (who eventually becomes a young woman through the series) and her partner in crime, a fashionable living skeleton called Skulduggery Pleasant. They’re MAGICAL DETECTIVES!!!! Bitch!!! They use elemental magic - water, earth, fire, air - to fight off magic-wielding bad guys and look good doing it. The duo is hilarious and seriously shaped my sense of humour, the dry wit and comedic writing style stuck with me and influenced my own writing style to this day! As the series progresses we get a massive cast of characters but to me they’re all memorable, likable (mostly) and well-developed so that’s not an issue. I have no fukcing clue how Derek Landy comes up with his stories because every book in the series has an absolutely wild (yet unique) plot with its own twists and turns. It gets REALLY dark and depressing at times, gory, brutal etc etc especially in the later books I have no idea why this is labeled as a kids series.

10/10 for badassery, humour, and MAD codependency issues

2) The Feverwake series

This bitch is one hell of a YA series. It’s actually only a 2 book-series which is rare, but that’s not the only thing that sets it apart from other creations of its genre. It’s hard to explain the setup without waffling so I’ll just quote the blurb of the first book: “In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.”

As you can tell from this, the series is heavy on its politics but in a grounded, realistic and relevant way which is different to many other YA series. Marxist theory is brought up, and you can make some pretty strong links between the books and real events. The magic also has a semi-scientific explanation which is cool and adds to the realness. Anyways this series is action packed and full of twists, plus there’s a bisexual main character and queer romance at the core!! Wig!!! Very good for moral debate - how far is it acceptable to go to protect the oppressed before you become one of the oppressors? Dark and exciting series.

10/10 queer representation and political themes.

3) Spin the Dawn

It’s probably obvious that I’m biased towards YA books but they’re just so exciting and cool! Anyways this is about a girl living in a kind of alternate universe ancient China where magic exists. Maia Tamarin is a skilled seamstress who dreams of being the Imperial Tailor, a position that can only be held by a man. She poses as her brother to go to the royal palace and enter a competition full of skilled tailors, all vying for the role of imperial tailor. She also meets Edan; a mysterious, annoying, but SEXY mage who seems to know her secret identity? Oho? IMO this would be an elevated book if Edan had been a girl but that’s just me being gay. As the final challenge Maia is tasked with making 3 dresses from the sun, moon, and stars - a mission that takes her to the ends of the world in search of these magical materials (obvs Edan goes with her and they kiss kiss fall in love). It’s a fairly classic YA plot and characters but the combination of Project Runway, Mulan, and kind of Lord of the Rings(??) vibes makes for a very entertaining read. It’s also really fun to imagine what the clothes look like, plus the romance between Maia and Edan is very cute. Second book is yet to be published but sounds lit.

10/10 magic fashion and romance (despite its heterosexuality)

4) Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Usually I steer clear of angsty gay stories because I’ve consumed too much of the depressing narrative which is all about suffering because of being gay, but fuuuuuuck this book is like the definition of bittersweet. Mostly bitter to be fair but it has a happy ending which was lovely after the emotional torment of the book. It’s about two teen boys - Aristotle is angry and repressed, Dante is eccentric but kind, and the two eventually form a strong friendship after meeting at the local pool. It’s kind of obvious that Ari is in denial about a few things, which leads to some real sad boi hours. There’s also a devastating moment around halfway (not sure) through with a car accident which makes the whole thing 10x heavier. Despite all this, the book has its sweet moments - parents play a big role, but not in the way they usually do in queer stories - and like I said the ending is the bandage for your broken heart. I’m not sure what it is about the writing style, maybe the way it just cuts between scenes randomly or perhaps the way the dialogue and actions are so realistic, but it’s so different to any other book I’ve read that it’s stayed in my mind for a while after reading it.

10/10 really good philosophy plus supportive parents

5) The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

Okay if this was a ranked list, this bad boy would be on its way to the top spot. It’s got everything: historical setting, gays, pirates, alchemy, humour, adventure, angst, character development, and some healthy second-hand embarrassment. It’s not complicated or philosophical but reading this book all in one go is like taking five shots and diving into a pool. It’s exciting and witty, but deals with darker themes like child abuse too. One of the MCs also has a disability and doesn’t treat it as something to be cured, which is a lesson our protagonist has to learn. Speaking of protagonists, Henry ‘Monty’ Montague is a great main character. He’s obnoxious, oblivious, and hedonistic yet quick-witted and passionate, and he has a good heart. Sometimes you just want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him for being such an ignorant idiot, but throughout the book he grows and learns to open his mind more (as well as becoming more humble). He’s a great example of a flawed yet likable main character. He is also a bisexual icon.

Oof forgot to even talk about the story. Monty embarks on a tour of Europe, usually taken by lads his age to get all cultured before they settle down and inherit the family company or whatever. With him are his younger sister Felicity, a girl with a brilliant mind for science who isn’t taken seriously by anyone because of her gender, and the lovely Percy, Monty’s lifelong best friend (and crush). Monty ends up stealing a very valuable object that turns the Tour into a manhunt across Europe, and drags the trio into a big ol’ conspiracy involving something that may or may not be the philosopher’s stone????

Issues of race, gender, and disability in historical context are really well done, and it’s an absolute banger of a book.

10/10 very exciting adventure, plus GREAT GAY ROMANCE

6) Heaven Official’s Blessing

HOOOOOO BOY. This is probably my absolute fave on this list. It’s a webnovel (originally Chinese but the full translation is online). Set in ancient china in the cultivation world (difficult as shit to explain if ur not into all of that but I’ll try), basically there’s three realms - the heavenly realm, the human/mortal realm, and the ghostly realm. If a mortal reaches a certain point (good deeds, power etc), they ascend to become a god - or if they fall far enough, they become a ghost. 

I’ll just quote the author’s description again cause I don’t have the brain cells required:

 “Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Xian Le kingdom. He was loved by his citizens and was considered the darling of the world. He ascended to the Heavens at a young age; however, due to unfortunate circumstances, was quickly banished back to the mortal realm. Years later, he ascends again–only to be banished again a few minutes after his ascension. Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavens for the third time as the laughing stock among all three realms. On his first task as a god thrice ascended, he meets a mysterious demon who rules the ghosts and terrifies the Heavens, yet, unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this demon king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time.”

It’s hard to describe the enormity of this story and all the emotions it encapsulates, you really have to read it for yourself. But bitch the undying, pure, Hozier-devotion-level LOVE is by far my favourite part of this story. If you’re looking for an epic, god-tier gay romance, then this is it baby!! This story has comedy, action, and downright harrowingly depressing moments, but throughout is this achingly beautiful love between fallen god and last believer.

I don’t wanna give too much away cause there are some big ol’ plot reveals, but oooh this shit made me cry. The protagonist is MY FAVOURITE EVER I didn’t think it was possible to like a protag so much!! He’s legit my fave character! At first he seems oblivious and carefree but he’s just doing his goddamn best after all he’s been through and he’s so fukcing kind and just wants to help everyone for fuckcs sake excuse me I need to go have a breakdown.

Okay I’m back, anyway there’s a great cast of characters, even the background characters are all incredibly memorable and all given their time to shine and develop. My faves include Quan Yizhen, a rowdy himbo who just wants to fight, and Shi Qing Xuan, a friendly genderfluid god who controls the wind. Read this shit I’m not joking it’ll change your life. 

10/10 for everything