#honestly i'm so exited to fully dive into this

[williamvapespeare]

You know I have to ask about Fae boy romance

omg freckle thank you for asking this because i LOVE this project so much and talking about it makes me so happy. :)

the most basic premise is: a monster hunter tries to banish some faeries and accidentally binds one of them to him instead. (he's in over his head and needs to take a nap, it's a whole thing). the faerie he binds is obviously not pleased; he is also not pleased. the contract includes lots of forced proximity-relevant clauses and the two of them have to travel to the fae realms to undo it. there is a slow burn, enemies to grudging allies to friends to lovers, bdsm undertones and overtones, etc etc

[mediasploshion]

thoughts on prison of plastic

it's been over a week now and of course I'm still in brainrot so might as well get some of it down. Of course I'll be getting into some spoiler territory, I'll just keep it all under a read more

let me start off with saying of course I adored it all, the voice acting in the audiobook was amazing and really helped bring out the best in it all. I don't think I could ever read the book without hearing everyone.

I love Rick and Naven so much and want to see so much more of them already. I want to see just a bit of Rick running around the STEM building trying to make friends and just seeming unhinged to everybody and Naven having to relax his staff like "don't worry guys he's not some random bum that slipped past security. Yes I know what I'm doing, stop making that face."

Rick is honestly such a delight and a sweet babi when he finally calms down and I absolutely loved going in just expecting Naven to be some kind of soft meek pushover but then he's just this big sass master that will stare into your soul and call you pathetic.

The neo trio are my new adopted daughters and no one can stop me. I loved their dynamic through the whole book. I was instantly in love by just the prologue alone.

Giovanni also being a massive highlight as always. From him being as dense as a rock to fully knowing the problems around him. Also him immediately becoming enemies with Martin and kidnapping Molly is the greatest move of all eternity yas Gio slay! Part of me hopes he may go back for Lorelai and steal both of Martin's most valuable treasures and either they live happily ever after like that or Martin actually shows care and concern and his daughters can yell at him for being more garbage than the literal garbage island.

I did come around to liking Lorelai in the end, at first I really didn't like her because she just seemed like a bitchy sister. But her interacting with Giovanni and also getting a full deep dive of her trauma and feeling called out because I also cope with escapeism really did bring her around for me. I want both these girls to catch a break.

MOLLY BEING THE MOST ADORABLE BEAN EVER AT THE END AND GETTING TO PLAY WITH HER FOOD AND JUST FEEL LIKE THE LITTLE KID SHE IS IS WHAT KEEP ME BREATHING.

Overall this book was great, I think the only qualm I had was Trixie's deep dive into her insecurities felt almost a little off to me. Like it feels like you're on the highway and you see something off to the side in the next exit you're about to pass and your dad hard swerves to get to the exit.

That's also another thing, not particularly a qualm but as you read you very much start to notice that Jello LOVES comparative descriptions. A lot of things are like a lot of other things. It's nice to see and I think does help build the particular charm Epithet Erased has but I remember seeing a post saying you could make a drinking game out of all the comparative descriptions and I feel that's a hospital visit waiting to happen.

But yeah, this book is amazing. If you love Epithet Erased PLEASE go get it yourself along with the audiobook.

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

Maybe I'm being ignorant, but is Earl genuinely seeing nothing wrong with Homeworld? A place where the slightest mess up can get you killed by the higher-ups and your place in society is decided for you based upon your gem, with you having no say in the matter? Yikes.

Hmm.. I wouldn’t call it ‘seeing nothing wrong with Homeworld’. That’s simplifying things a bit, especially because we’ve had in-comic evidence that Earl is uncomfortable when discussing Homeworld stuff. 

 But escaping damaging cultural practices - or oppressive systems - is not as simple as just deciding ‘ok that sucked let’s move on! I’m a rebel now!’ Even CG Pearl took 5000+ years to fully cast off her internalized Homeworld beliefs that she’d been forced into - despite being an otherwise exemplary Renegade Pearl! 

(Don’t @ me about her issues with putting Rose on a pedestal. I know. I also hold the belief that this was something more complex and nuanced than just her following ‘her diamond’.)

For Earl, this long trek out of her ‘programming’ so to speak is still in its early stages. She has only been ‘free’ for 14 years, and the majority of them she’s spent wondering if White Diamond would straight up shatter her for running away (when Steven was a baby). She spent the good part of last year slowly learning that Steven ISN’T like that, but her feelings on the matter are muddled. 

Add to this the fact that we KNOW her feelings for Pink Diamond to be muddled. Out of all the other diamonds and their Pearls, Pink and Earl seemed to have had the most amiable relationship.

I’m in no way saying this excuses the damage Pink did, but the fact of the matter is, even in SU: Future, Volleyball Earl doesn’t BLAME Pink for her accidental injury due to the tantrum. She refuses to even acknowledge that Pink hurt her and excuses it with the fact that it was not done purposefully.

From this condition, do we really expect her to springboard into a full-fledged, anti-Homeworld rebel? She’s got TONS of stuff to work through before she even begins to heal. 

Compare it to exiting a cult, if that helps. People who are in cults sometimes recognize the damaging mindset of the community/culture of said cult and try to get out on their own - and that’s comparable to what Rose and Pearl did. 

But in Earl’s case, it was more that she was pulled forcefully from the cult and plopped into a completely new world with new ideals and very different mindsets. She has to unlearn all the damaging rhetoric she has been taught, she has to emotionally understand what happened to her, and how that is wrong - and she has to somehow do this while understanding that she has nO IDEA what is going to happen when Homeworld comes. If she rebels and joins the gems, her life is most certainly in danger, as well as possibly Steven’s. If she doesn’t defect Homeworld, she has a higher chance of surviving, and possibly helping Steven survive if they pretend to be part of the system. 

I get that it’s easy to point a finger and go ‘that’s bad!’ but we must also consider how this world looks from HER point of view as well. Recovery, changing your mind, escaping an abusive system - none of those things are easy, and we shouldn’t expect the people who suffered under them to make a quick turnaround because it’s honestly not realistic and sets impossible expectations to those that are in recovery from those systems. 

Above all - it takes time and it takes introspection. Diving from one ideology into another without examining it thoroughly is, arguably, even worse than remaining in the same ideology. Because if you don’t take the time to think about what you believe in... well...