#it was an odd one. i can't help but think im in the equivalent of a magical faraday cage. but! ill keep seeing what's up

[pearlescent-princess]

I had the worst time settling down last night. I don't know why it was so difficult, but I suppose I can guess a few things since I did the equivalent of kicking up magical dirt in my home. I made an anklet last night to help sleep and aid other magic stuff. I think I'll keep using it.

Otherwise, I did have a Strider dream even if he had to help me fall asleep in my restless state. The dream itself is hard to fully recall but I will try.

The beginning is difficult. It gets hard to grasp. But somewhere along the lines I ended up at my default dreamscape of my relative's home. Strider was there and he was watching over this group of kids. I went up to him and told "hey if you needed help, you coulda woke me up. You don't need to guard me by always letting me rest while you do everything." He let out a sigh. I think the dream did an internal mirroring thing it shouldn't have because it acted too much like an artifcially generated image, unstable and too many items in it. We picked up bubble blowers before some ghastly winds came.

The part didn't last long. I ended up with my mom at this antique fair. Something that was in town. One of the shops had these.. paintings. The best I can say is they were in Vetyr's style, but of figures from my othercrowd. I wanted a 100 dollar tapestry of a pink hand touching a purple one (they were almost palm to palm) with a purple planet with a ring disc around it. It had a quote on it that said, "Wherever you are, we're connected." I didn't think much of it as I looked at other items. Small figurines, pins, and trinket trays.

The store on the right side of the building had music going on. It was more antiques. But the song was "Intertwined" by Steam Powered Giraffe. I thought it was odd because I didn't expect to hear that song playing there. I recognized the bass of Zer0 and went "ohh this was the latest album" (latest being relative here). They weren't there as I peeked in. I ended up leaving with my mom and woke.

[livingfictionsystem]

BOOK REVIEW: 3/5

The story pivots between the three main characters--- Jin, who tries to rescue her sister who was sold off to the Walled City. Mei Yee, who is the sister who dreams of escaping the brothel. And Dai, who has his own agenda, playing with fire on a deadline.

I see a lot of people in the reviews call this 'adrenaline-packed', but I found nothing that happened really all that shocking. Granted, I do read a lot of, 'Homeless kids have to turn to a life of crime to survive and protect each other' fiction, so that may be on me. The Walled City was actually a real place in Hong Kong (Kowloon City), something I found out in the Acknowledgements in the back of the book. This lawless and densely populated area was torn down in 1987, which, given the book's chronological ambiguity, helped me gain context that the narration didn't. The inspiration had a lot of promise that the author fell short of. The characters were fine, but forgettable. Their POV and struggle for survival was interesting, but none of them really stood out as far as personality went. They seemed to simply Be their circumstances, a vessel for the story to continue. We have Good At Running, Has a Secret, and Traumatised. If you can't tell by the names, the book has a vaguely Chinese feel. And I do mean vaguely. It's primarily the names and the fact that pork buns and noodles are referenced so often. (One character even describes emotions as overcooked noodles?) It doesn't really have a lot of specific culture that I could catch. It could easily take place in just about any other country that also has drug problems, human trafficking, crime lords, homeless children, etc. It's also confusing because the characters were not speaking English, the dialogue is just translated for the reader's benefit. But they even had one character with an accent, saying, 'Let's get 'im!' Are we translating a version of English dialect to Cantonese? Is this a cockney version? Is he really skipping over the H's or is this an equivalent? This happens again when it's mentioned that 'Dai' rhymes with 'death', something one of the characters notes from their POV. How do you know that??? These characters do not understand English; there's even a scene where foreigners are in the same room and the character notes that she cannot understand it. So, it definitely has some identity issues. (The hilarious irony is that I, through hilarious coincidence, started reading this about the same time I read Kuang's 'Yellowface', about a white woman writing about Chinese culture so I tried not to linger too much on this. The author did actually live near the inspiration of this for at least a few months, so fair enough.) It's definitely gritty, and I do like that the author took it upon herself to tackle an issue like human trafficking, with even some nuanced nods towards PTSD. But in my opinion, there's more intensity in the setting than in the plot, and especially in the characters, but it wasn't a bad read. The prose and atmosphere make for good reading and the bond between the three does end up wholesome and rather sweet, but that also made for some odd tonal switches. So, yeah, it was a fine book. Not a good one, not a bad one, just fine.

TW for: Intense animal abuse, human trafficking, drug addiction, homelessness.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT:

. . . . . . . . .

Okay, so at the end, when everyone's scrambling for the ledger, it felt like a damn cartoon. You know how in Scooby Doo, you see the endless opening and closing of doors where the characters are both chasing and being chased by something? And the combination is changed up every time? That was this ending. I thought the Benny Hill theme was about to start playing. It also bothered me that apparently Dai and Jin both waited about two years to really put their plans to fruition. The book tried to draw out the suspense for making everything down to the wire, but it almost makes it funny when you sit there and think of Dai twiddling his thumbs or Jin being on the streets and having nothing to show for it. 

-Xanthe

[queen--kenobi]

*stares at lingerie Maul* look I'm not saying Lawyer AU maul should have prosthetics and then does this for reader, but im not not saying. Cause um. Yeah.

Actually, I did plan on him having prosthetics! I can't not have that be a thing because that's a pretty big point of his character. I'm just trying to figure out what the equivalent would be? I'll need to do research

I'm thinking that maybe what happened was that he and Obi-wan ran into each other while both blackout drunk and got into a fight. Obi-wan pushed him into the road and accidentally into the path of an oncoming car. Obi-wan felt insanely guilty so he basically tried to help pay for the rehab. Maul eventually found out that Obi-wan at least tried to help so that's why he's on speaking terms with him. He still doesn't like him and rightfully blames him for the accident, but they've reached an odd sort of understanding

Honestly he probably has to use a cane some days because of the pain. But. He'd be too proud to use a regular cane. I'm thinking the accident shattered at least one of his hips, but it was intact enough for him to use it as the handle. Because you know he would

But, getting back to the main point of your ask, I feel like he would if asked jhkdks I mean, he's absolutely going to be whipped once things move on to the lovers stage. He'd be hesitant because why would you want to see them, but he would eventually see the appeal. It just might take him a bit because he doesn't always like how they look

[percyaux]

Riverdale X Heathers Episode should have been CAOS instead. Hear Me Out.

Now I don't know about y'all, but im okay with Riverdale.

Not the best show, it has problems like all shows. However, my biggest problem was with the Heathers musical.

Why did I have a problem?

First of all Heathers is a dark, satirical play that deals with high school and its dramas. The high tiers of popularity and how a persons suicide could be looked at depending on their popularity.

Why wasnt it for Riverdale?

First of all, it felt like just picked randomly. Maybe it has to do with the popularity of Heathers in the past years due to the amazing Musical and its catchy songs.

I mean Candy Store is a bop and amazing to dance to.

But Heathers doesn't feel like a Riverdale Musical Episode.

Problems with Casting?

The casting of Cheryl Blossom as Heather Chandler made sense.

Heather C. Is the queen bee of Westerburg High as well as, in Veronica Sawyers wording, "A mythic bitch"

But Veronica and Betty as Heather McNamara and Duke, didnt seem to fit.

!!!Trigger Warning here!!!!

Heather N. Is a complex character, she goes through extreme things in Heathers from Date R**e, to bulimia, to suicidal thoughts hence why the song LifeBoat came to be.

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Yes, Veronica Lodge has her set of demons but they're not as extreme as Betty's own.

What I mean is that Betty is against a cult who has basically brainwashed her family. If anyone would have suicidal thoughts or actions it would be Betty.

Heather D. After learning of Heather C.'s death decided to be the new Queen Bee. She even wears Heather C.'s scrunchie like it belongs to her and also begins to bully Heather N. causing the aforementioned LifeBoat.

I understand that Camila Mendez and Lili Reinheart are part of the main actors but to just do Cheryls bidding felt off (To me that is). Maybe it they switched them with Veronica as Heather D. And Betty as Heather N. I would he less critical.

Josie as Veronica Sawyer felt meh. I understand why they chose Josie. Shes an amazing singer and her ranges do coordinate with Veronicas, but it felt odd.

I think thats all the problems I have with casting now on to songs.

Problems with singing?

The singing was good but I had a problem with the changing of lyrics. Im not the only one some people I know had the same problem. Some songs didn't feel like they made sense at times.

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Seventeen made sense for Betty and Jughead though since it spoke of living life without the worry of shit happening since shit will always happen.

But something about Seventeen did bother me a lot and this is just me.

Cole Sprouse's voice was a bit... Too deep for my liking.

I don't know but when I hear Seventeen I see JDs voice as both deep and high pitched and it spoke about his character. JD is unpredictable you dont know when he's gonna snap or not.

I dont know I guess I didn't like it that much...

The episode was meh. It was fine but not the best.

Why would Heathers be better in CAOS?

Well CAOS is a dark show by itself that deals with religion, sexuality, morality and bullying.

As of the making of this there is one season with the next coming in a month.

Heathers would be better in CAOS because some of the characters in CAOS could be counterparts of Heathers characters.

Sabrina Spellman is basically Veronica Sawyer by the end of S1. She ditches her mortal friends to be with the Wierd Sisters who are the equivalent of the Heathers.

She hooks up with a bad boy, Nick Scratch, and turns into something she isn't.

Her mortal friends (Roz, Susie and Harvey) are the Martha Dunnstock to her Veronica Sawyer.

Roz is the understanding part of Martha who sees why Veronica does things but at the same time is against it.

Susie is the bullied side of Martha.

In Heathers, Martha is bullied by the jocks and the Heathers to the point of her trying to commit suicide but no one cares because she isnt popular and is only seen as an attention whore.

No, I'm not saying that Susie will go to drastic measures as Martha.

Harvey is the side of Martha that still wants Veronica as a friend but backs away from her.

During the Musical, Veronica fakes a letter of Rams to Martha under Heather C.'s order to humiliate Martha. It works and Martha hates Veronica for that.

Sabrina seems to want to help Harvey but ends up hurting him instead causing him to back away from her and magic in general.

The role of the Heathers would go the the Sisters. After all there is 3 of them.

Prudence would be Heather C. due to the fact that Prudence is both a queen and a bitch when she can be.

Agatha would be Heather D. mostly because she seems to be an instigator of things. The incident in the mines is one. Also she would go against Prudence the same way Heather D. stole the scrunchie.

Dorcas would be Heather N. because of her sense of naivete. Dorcas is easily swayed by Agatha to cause the mining incident and is fast enough to blame Agatha when the consequences come back to bite her in the butt.

Now JD would be Nick. Why? Because he seems to be the change in Sabrina as was JD to Veronica. Hes not all of it but he's a factor to it.

Now it can't be Sabrina without Ambrose, Hilda and Zelda. So they will most likely be a Miss Fleming character. Seeing the chaos and not knowing what to fully do.

Madam Satan could also be a JD persona since she made Sabrina sign the Book Of The Beast.

Plot?

I think like a musical at Baxter High where Roz is picked as Veronica, Susie as Martha and Harvey as JD. Sabrina cant be in it because well... The Academy is demanding.

So instead Sabrina watches from the back ground.

The episode would deal with with the cast singing on stage and off about what they think and feel while having a supernatural theme around it.

Also Madam Satan thought of it.

I think thats all. This is just my opinions! Dont take them to heart!