#i want FANTASY goddamn

[elvhendis]

Are there any good books that are not fantasy romance but more like... romantic fantasy? Like I DO want my romance plot/subplot and I want it to be in focus, but I also want a really well fleshed out and vast fantasy world with high stakes and a lot of action??

[knifearo]

ultimately when it comes to shipping and fandom space treatment of aspec characters i just don't accept "aro/ace people can still date/have sex" as an answer from nonaspecs. like yeah. mhm. okay. now i think we both know that you're not saying that out of real interest in the diversity of aspec experiences. so you can turn in your seventeen-page essay on why and how you plan to examine this character's aspec identity within the context of a romantic or sexual relationship complete with evidence from canon and peer reviews from multiple aspec people within the next week or i'm putting you in the pit from the edgar allen poe story

[trentcrimminallybeautiful]

i have this really stupid idea in my head that im frankly a little obsessed with and the idea is this: trent crimm doing a drunk history episode on ted lasso's first tenure at richmond. is that how drunk history works? i don't think so. do i care? absolutely not. it's a special episode who cares because this image is not only hysterical to me but treasured. i treasure this image. i hold it close in my heart and also laugh and laugh and laugh.

[dragons-bones]

FFXIV Write Entry #7: In Pie We Crust

Prompt: morsel || Master Post || On AO3 (coming in October)

A/N: This is one time I'm not sorry for a pun. This is your only warning about what's coming, have a snack ready. YOU ARE WELCOME.

---

Rereha was a grown woman, halfway through her thirties, had helped save the world multiple times over, but absolutely nothing reverted her to being a twelve-year old sproglet like Angharad Greywolfe’s baking.

The kitchen in the Greywolfe ancestral seat wasn’t as familiar to her as the one in Isolde Greywolfe’s ostentatious manor was; the furniture was different, the shelves of different placement and style and material. But the layout was, almost to the ilm, the same, with a great table as the centerpiece. Aunt Angharad’s influence, certainly, as even with a score of servants manning the household, the Greywolfe matriarch preferred to make the kitchen her domain, to her good-sister’s continued bafflement.

Considering how large and heavy the table was, how darkened and worn the surface, Rere suspected that whatever Garlean household had squatted here during the occupation had decided trying to move the thing was more trouble than it was worth.

The chairs, though, were new, more like stools to accommodate the height of the work table, and Rereha perched on a lalafell-appropriate one, hands flat on the tabletop as she watched Aunt Angharad flit about her kitchen like a hunting hawk. Next to her, Lyse did similar.

“I think the last time I had a proper fruit pie,” Lyse said, her voice dripping with wistful lust, “was just before that damned banquet.”

Aunt Angharad nearly tripped over her own feet in her haste to pivot and stare at Lyse, just as Rere whipped her head around with a horrified squawk. “Lyse.”

Lyse nodded. “S’true. The Resistance cell that Papalymo and I stayed with when we snuck across the Wall had a good supply line, but any fresh fruit they got was dried for better storage, and wheat was for bread and hard tack—”

Rere and Lyse both went rap-rap with their knuckles against the wood, and shared a conspiratorial giggle.

“—and whatever pies were made were meat ones,” Lyse finished. “Pretty tasty, though! I’d forgotten how much I loved gazelle meat. But then we were scrambling back home, and the whole thing with the Griffin…” She paused again, breathing deep, and Rere leaned over to hug her as Aunt Angharad pushed a mug of spiced tea towards her. Lyse returned the hug, then sat up to reach for the mug and sip from it. “Thanks. So, the huge disaster Ilberd made, and then we were running around Gyr Abania and Othard and then I was suddenly given a leadership position and staying in Ala Mhigo, and here we are! I mean, sure, I’ve attended a few formal functions in Eorzea, but those only have the cute little cakes and cookies for dessert. And I’m a good little Gyr Abanian girl, I can and will fight Synnove for the last piece of kunifeh, but pie.”

“Mother Miounne’s blueberry pie,” Rere said dreamily.

Lyse moaned and thunked her head against the table. “With peach ice cream from the Bismarck! Oooohhhh, the way it melts right into the blueberry and makes this cold-and-hot sticky yummy fruit mess on the plate and in your mouth…”

Rere could taste the memory on her tongue as vivid as if she had just shoveled blueberries and ice cream into her mouth, and groaned rapturously.

“Well,” Aunt Angharad laughed setting down a pie tin, “it’s not blueberry, but something tells me that won’t disappoint you girls.”

Rereha and Lyse leaned forward, oohing and aahing in excited delight.

The top crust was perfectly golden brown and no doubt delicious, strips of dough layered into a lattice work as tightly-woven as any picnic basket and encrusted with a cinnamon-sugar mix before being baked. The edges had been neatly crimped, then pressed down with a fork so that the tines made pretty little impressions. A few strategic openings in the lattice allowed steam to escape, curling and dancing upwards and bringing with it the familiar scent of rich cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg and most importantly, cooked, tart apple.

Rereha and Lyse both took deep, appreciative lungfuls, holding the deliciousness in their noses before letting out sighs of pure happiness.

Aunt Angharad chuckled, and made the first cut. The pastry cracked satisfyingly and a shiver went down Rereha’s spine. Aw, yeah, she thought, reaching up to wipe away the drool from her mouth, Angharad Greywolfe’s own pie dough.

“Pie! Pie! Pie! Pie!” Lyse was chanting quietly, staring with huge eyes. Rereha started thumping her hands against the table in accompaniment.

One slice, two slices. With the deft expertise of the experience home cook, Aunt Angharad plated each one without losing any of the filing. Beautiful, spice-covered slices of apple glistened in the kitchen light, before it began to gently ooze out of shape and onto each plate.

Lyse’s stomach made a gurgling noise. Rereha’s followed.

Aunt Angharad’s expressions could properly be called “deeply smug.” She set a fork on each plate, and then gently slid them so they sat perfectly in front of them.

“Do enjoy, girls,” she said, sing-song, with the assurance that would do nothing less.

Rereha picked up her fork. So did Lyse. They clacked forks together, then used them to cut off a large piece of apple pie, and shove said pieces into their own mouths. And moaned.

The crust, as always, was perfectly flaky and soft and good in its own right, made with a combination of sweet cream butter and lard to create the lovely little layers. The crunch beneath Rereha’s teeth was oh-so-satisfying, especially against the soft apple slices.

The sugar-spice blend was cinnamon-dominant, as it should be, the other spices mixed with it added sparingly to enhance rather than overwhelm. Just a hint of the nutmeg, the warmth of ginger, and ooooh, yes, there was the star anise. Rereha continued to chew slowly, savoring each and every bit of this truly divine experience. Along with the sugar that Aunt Angharad had tossed the apples in, it was almost candy-like with how the sugar had caramelized as it cooked. Not quite enough to be a chewy treat in and of itself, of course, but more like a sauce, thick and rich and sweeeeeeeet. So, so, so good. And then the wonderful tartness of the apple, bright enough to cut through the sweet and ensure that the fruit was all that was left on the tongue in delicious memory as Rereha swallowed.

Rereha closed her eyes and sighed. “I love you so much, Auntie,” she said, opening her eyes to claim another bite. Beside her, Lyse was still making frankly obscene noises, cheeks bulging as she continued to chew her first huge bite.

Angharad’s laugh echoed from the other end of the kitchen, and she poked her head in from the cold room. A devious smile was on her lips. “Want some vanilla ice cream for that?”

Lyse nearly choked as she joined Rere’s shriek of, “YES!”

[separatist-apologist]

Calling the IC nepo-babies is the most hilarious thing I've ever heard because what do you have?

The High Lord, who is the product of a lesser fae woman and the magically chosen High Lord that doesn't get a say in if he's chosen by the gods to rule or not, who is also discriminated against by his own court (and the people outside it) for not being full High Fae

A bastard-born general who never knew his father and whose mother was murdered for being sexually assaulted, and was raised in a war camp for the first decade of his life

A shadowsinger who was likely also the product of sexual assault at the hands of his powerful father, who then punished Azriel for his OWN discretion by locking him in total darkness for 11 years and allowed his two older sons to torture the Azriel so severely he still carries the scars

An ancient god that spent 1000 years trapped in a prison

A woman whose only value to her family was her reproductive organs and when she no longer served that function, had a note nailed to her body before she was dumped over a foreign border where, lets be real, they expected her to be killed

And a badly neglected human girl who literally died at the altar of freeing a land that she'd been terrified of her entire life.

But like. Hell yeah. Go off, overthrow those nepo-baby rulers which DEFINITELY isn't it's own illiterate take of the reading.

[girlscience]

i am so goddamn tired of every single fantasy story being about men. i am so goddamn tired of women being side characters and love interests and set dressing and an afterthought. i am so goddamn tired of women who are powerful but feminine. women who are "dressed to kill" and they are wearing eyeliner and a dress and heels. i am so goddamn tired of women always being healers and having water magic. i am so goddamn tired of men going on adventures and dying nobly. i am so goddamn tired of never being able to find a story about women that i can fall in love with. i am so goddamn tired of all fandom being about men.

[willosword]

THIS SHIT HURTS WHY AM I PLAYING SOCIAL ANXIETY SIMULATOR???????

[bookwyrminspiration]

you’re reading fourth wing . . . oh my goodness good luck soldier i hope you’ll be able to get though it with your sanity intact . . . let’s hope you still like dragons after this

Everyone keeps saying "goodluck" or "godspeed." have faith, soldier, in my love for the trenches.

i've braved dastardly pits before and I'll brave them again 🫡

[sdmsims]

fuck it. who cares anymore. quadrupedal creature sims

[an-unexpected-trollogy]

Oh to be Suzanne Collins and have little social media presence and to write a book regarding whatever current societal trend is bothering her at the moment.

[kloudiday]

Jill in game: i want to leave the Twins and explore the world! The Twins are too small for me and I must spread my wings!

Jill in fanfics: pregnant housewife

authors write women with a personality other than “baby carriage” challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

-_-

[squarebracket-trickster]

what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck

how did I end up figuring out the entire plot arc for WIPV??? That's the WIP I had worked the least on?! Not only do I have a whole ass plot I have also figured out the whole SEQUEL???????

How did this go from my furthest behind WIP to among my furthest ahead in the space of like 1.5 hours?????? what

[justanisabelakinnie]

I was pretty bored yesterday and in a bitter mood and so I ended up spam-reblogging a shitload of anti-Madoka Magica posts(and no I’m not sorry, because no matter fucking what I will never stop hating on that trashfest of an anime), and obviously there’s nothing much really that I can say about it that hasn’t already been said by both me and other people in the past but lemme just say how FUCKED up it is…that grown men can look at a genre full of light and hope and female solidarity and empowerment for girls that teaches them that they can be whatever they want to be and that they should never stop believing in themselves and striving for greatness and go “nope, fuck that, instead of all of that happy fun girl power shit let’s write an edgy grimdark dystopia where being a girl with dreams and a desire to strive for greatness is a bad thing that can only end in suffering and punishment, where the survival of the universe and progress of humanity literally hinges on girls being tortured and killed en masse for wishing for something that would make them happy, where girls are universally portrayed as overemotional and impressionable and susceptible and weak and must slay each other in order to survive because they’ll go berserk and monstrous once their power inevitably gets the better of them, and where the only way to escape this ending is by dying and being erased from existence, because that’s the best girls can hope for, and as the icing on the sour cake, let’s aim it at an adult male audience so that they can watch girls suffer and perish and be psychologically broken for their own entertainment, all because they wanted something for themselves and had the gall and the selfishness to go after it.”

And instead of people seeing it for the sexist torture porn that it is it gets glowing reviews on every platform, people eat this shit up and say that this sleazy adult male-aimed show about barely adolescent girls suffering because they wanted something more for themselves is feminist actually, that actually all of the turmoil that the girls go through is a totally girl power metaphor for how girls suffer at the hands of patriarchy in the real world, and how the torture porn got subverted at the end when really all the end did was show the girls continuing to suffer because of their wishes but hey at least they’ll get the sweet release of death in the end, and how the all-male writing staff definitely meant for this to be the next feminist coming of Jesus despite the fact that they say they weren’t inspired by any Magical Girl works that came before them and were instead inspired by porn games…Madoka is the most progressive and revolutionary anime ever really, even more so than those insightful shows about Magical Girls that are actually aimed at girls and actually feature female empowerment and angst done well and not just for the sole purpose of letting men watch female characters suffer, those other shows are just stupid and shallow and bland and don’t know what they’re talking about, Madoka is where it’s at. Take it from me, a 35-year-old man who has never seen a single Magical Girl anime in my life except for Madoka Magica. If you don’t agree with me or if you dare to critique my soulless male gaze moebait, then you’re obviously just dumb and ignorant and don’t understand the deep philosophical nuances of this shoddy anime, I mean just look at Madoka’s mom! She’s the breadwinner of her family! Sure she’s not important to the plot on a whole and it’s not like Heartcatch Precure has done this character archetype better or anything but she’s proof that the writers are feminist icons who set out to empower women! Now watch as me and the rest of my Madoka-loving friends proceed to bully and harass the shit out of you for not sharing our vapid opinions until you either delete your account, change your tune and say you like Madoka now and were so wrong and stupid before, or stop talking about how much you hate Madoka entirely. And anyway teenage girls really ARE irrational, hysterical, and constantly on their cycles. Of course they’ll get taken advantage of for it! That’s not misogynistic to point out, that’s just the biotruth!

[entropyvoid]

If I see one (1) more post of someone getting pissy that more people are not into (insert genre or medium of thing here) that DOESN’T include a recommendation list I’m actually going to strangle someone

[unreadpoppy]

stopping da2 for now because the amount of spider jumpscares i'm getting is making me very triggered

[dragons-bones]

it has been three and a half hours since I finished Margrat's Custom Delivery story and I'm still crying