#or at least it felt that way

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (23-29 Apr 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰👂‍Something Wild & Wonderful (Anita Kelly, author; Mark Sanderlin, narrator) - really enjoyable contemp romance about 2 guys who meet hiking the PCT - great MCs, great supporting characters

😍Backhoe (Zenaidamacrouras1) - 123K, no-powers modern AU with a smol Steve & beefy Bucky - absolutely incredible fic where Steve's an art grad student/activist & goes to protest a pipeline in Appalachia, which is going to be built across Bucky's family land - this fic was fantastic! Great (& authentic) sense of place & community, well-developed OCs (Bucky's sisters) - it's a meet-cute followed by all the work an actual relationship takes, very real & genuine with the emotions & hurdles that come up.

🥰Gravity's Got Nothing on You (zosofi) - 86K, sterek au, fake dating, frenemies-to-lovers with the encouragement(?) of some magic wolf figurines - it's probably been 8 years since I read this and it's as delightful as I remember - they're both so emotionally constipated it's hilarious

💖💖 +143K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

All I'm Saying, Pretty Baby series (IrisLanding) - Stranger Things: steddie, 21K - "Steve and Eddie stumble into a series of dirty talking sexual adventures that may actually lead somewhere."

turn down the lights, turn down the bed (rockinhamburger) - Ted Lasso: Trent/Ted, 25K - Trent, drunk & thirsty af & bemoaning his life, accidentally texts Ted instead of his bestie. Some really good dicking, angst & emotions ensue.

Love Runs Wild (DevilDoll) - TW: sterek, 9K - a fucking forever fave classic from the "Neckz 'n Throats" universe

Thursday Nights with Bucky Barnes (Ellessey) - MCU: stucky, 4K - short but super duper meet cute with grumpy Steve and NOT the normal laundromat guy

Not In The Answer But The Question (aimmyarrowshigh) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 27K - reread this fantastic shrunkyclunks with cap!steve (who's busy not processing his trauma) meeting queer disabled jewish deli owner bucky. So fucking good. Plus it will make you crave BEC bagels (which I 100% ordered from our local place this AM)

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Dirty Laundry - s2, e11

Um, Actually - s1, e5; s6, e2-6,8-12, s8, e3-4

Shrinking - s1, e1

Schmigadoon! - s2, e5

The Brokenwood Mysteries - s9, e3

Ted Lasso - s3, e7 [x2]

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Weird Al Yankovic

Into It - Roy Wood Jr. Is Ready for Late Night

Switched on Pop - Who killed the key change in pop music?

⭐Desert Island Discs - Dara Ó Briain, comedian and television presenter

99% Invisible #534 - For Amusement Only (Free Replay)

⭐Vibe Check - You About to Lose Yo’ Job

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Harry Belafonte

ICYMI Plus - We’ve Learned Nothing From West Elm Caleb

Decoder Ring Plus - The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained

Ologies with Alie Ward - Delphinology Part 2 (DOLPHINS) with Justin Gregg

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Last Wild Apple Groves

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Telling Time through the Trees with the Places Team

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Caring for Canids

Shedunnit - Bonus: What is "Cosy"?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Moose Boulder

Into It - Are We Into Ed Sheeran's Lawsuit, Tucker Carlson's Firing, and Timothée Chalamet?

Endless Thread - The Birds and the Bugs

Sidedoor - Bill Nye the Sidedoor Guy

You're Dead To Me - The Rise of the Tudors

⭐Hit Parade Plus - The Bridge: Video Pilled Suburbia’s Child

ICYMI Plus - Should We All Be Pirating More?

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Paul McCartney

Presenting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Instru-Metal

Emily King

Presenting Dio

Presenting Iron Maiden

Alestorm

synthwave radio [Lofi Girl]

Presenting Alice Cooper

Presenting Rush

The Look Of Love - The Very Best Of ABC [ABC]

[honestmouse20]

this is very random but i just started reading your Sing It Out collection of fics and i literally love them so much that i was up til 4am reading them

i saw you put the last one on hiatus cause of personal life so i also just wanted to say that i hope you're doing well and life hasn't been too rough on you lately :)

Aw I'm so glad that you're enjoying those fics! Sorry about the lack of sleep tho lol. And thank you! Things are going well, honestly, I just have to give myself a bit more time before I finish it yk. I started that series years ago and a lots changed since then lol. I will finish that last fic in the series, I promise, I just can't say exactly when. Truthfully, I'm barely in the fandom anymore so it's not really something I'm as fixated on as I used to be.

But yee, thank you so much for reaching out! It really does mean a lot. I might have to go back through and read a couple chapters now haha

[twinstxrs]

so much happened in this whole episode but i’m still on fig infiltrating ruben’s dream, making it look like the place where his friend was murdered, and then disguising herself as kipperlilly & repeatedly saying different variants of “somebody needs to take the fall for this, and it’s not going to be me. it’s going to be you.” while adaine as the elven oracle shows up next to her. can you imagine waking up from that, the idea of a horrible truth being pinned on you by your friend to save her own skin while the personification of fate and destiny stands there, almost as a promise that this is GOING to happen to you. we don’t even know if this kid is guilty. my god.

[stil-lindigo]

reverb in an empty hall.

prints (all proceeds go towards aid for Gaza)

[nell0-0]

Hyrule Warriors but instead of the lil' hero of time there's the hero shade :)

[sableeira]

ode to a failed partnership

[sunnibits]

decided to join in on @quezify’s eggtober again this year as a little art warmup and I actually ended up really enjoying it!! it’s obviously way outside of my usual comfort zone so I’m very happy that I was able to create an end result that I’m proud of :)

[kenobihater]

made a post a while back on how javert's suicide is often poorly portrayed in film adaptations to the point of accidental comedy, and how the 1978 movie in particular is the most unhinged example. audio warning for a loud trumpet blast, don't turn up your volume

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

years later someone buys the plot, turns on the lights and is suddenly worshipped as a sun god by a bunch of puppets falling apart at the seams

pov you break into the spooky abandoned Playfellow Studios building for shits and giggles

[inkskinned]

one of the things about having an unstable parent is that it can so easily ruin your future. you want to get out, but getting out takes having agency. it takes the resume and the grades and the stellar community service history.

but you have to choose your battles. you know if you sign up for an after-school activity, it'll be okay for a while, so long as the activity is parent-approved and god-fearing. over time, like all things, it will become an argument (i can't keep carting your ass to these things) or a weapon (talk to me like that again, see if you get to go to practice). sometimes, if you love the thing, it's worth it. but you also know better than to love something: that's how they get you. if you ever actually want something, it will always be the center of their attention. they will never stop threatening you with it. telling you of course i'm a good parent, i came to all of those stupid events.

you learn to balance yourself perfectly. you can either have a social life or you can have hobbies. both of these things will be under constant scrutiny. you spend too much time with her, you should be at home with family is equally paired with you're acting like this because you're addicted to what's on that goddamn screen. you cannot ever actually win, so everything falls within a barter system that you calculate before entering: do you want to learn how to drive? if so, you'll need to give up asking for a new laptop, even though yours died. maybe you can work on a computer at the library. of course, that would mean you'd be allowed to go to the library, which would mean something else has to bleed. nothing ever actually comes free.

and that bitter, horrible irony: you could be literally following their orders and it still isn't pretty. they tell you to get a job; they hate that your job keeps you late and gives you access to actual money. they tell you to do better in school; they say no child of mine needs a tutor. they want you to stop being so morose, don't you know there are people who are really suffering - but they revile the idea you might actually need therapy.

you didn't survive that fall the way other people would. you've seen other people scramble and get their way out, however they could. maybe you were made too-soft: the answer didn't come to you easily. it wasn't quick. it was brutal and nasty. some people even asked you why didn't you just work hard and escape during school? and you felt your head spinning. why didn't you? (they control your financial aid. they control your loan status. they love having that kind of thing). maybe in another life you got diagnosed sooner and got the meds you needed to actually focus and got attention from the right teachers who helped you clear hurdles to get up out of here - but for now? here?

the effort of trying. the effort of not-dying. that kind of effort was absolutely agonizing.

[beskarfrog]

i didn't expect it to be someone like you, i didn't expect you to be like me

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

okay they seriously outdid themselves with the new SAB weapon set this year. just LOOK at these things!! my hands are going to die a noble death collecting them... but it will be worth it.

[lunarharp]

eh..random pokemon scribbles i found..I LOVE RIKA

[stil-lindigo]

craters.

a comic about a love story between two girls who only have each other, and take a chance on it.

Buy “Soliloquy Down To Three”, an anthology of blood stained sapphic comics (including this one) here.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Elim Garak: fucking around vs finding out

[invinciblerodent]

So, uh.... my boy has finally got a boyfriend, I finally got Gale's second romance scene, and... man. I have a LOT of thoughts and feelings, and woefully few words to describe them. (But I'll try to keep it vague, lol.)

I honestly love how the writers didn't shy away from writing this to be something so earnestly, unapologetically STRANGE, but so heartfelt and romantic. That Weave scene, while it sounds weird on paper, I honestly don't think I've seen a romance scene that was more representative of a character before. I already felt like I related to Gale quite a bit, but now, I feel like I see him on almost a whole new level. Now, he showed just how deeply INTENSE a man he is.

Yeah, there is a bit of showboating in him (though I've always kinda seen that as less of a "look how awesome I am" and more a "look how useful I can be, please like me"), and overall he presented a pretty restrained image- but now, with that recolored by this, I feel like it all goes to show how he really just YEARNS for someone to know him. It most shows in how after telling him that you love him too, he immediately throws all his doors open, invites you in, whisks you away to the part of the world that feels most meaningful to him, shows you all that he feels important- the Weave included.

He wants to show you everything, to share all that he feels is himself with you, be DEEPLY, INTIMATELY KNOWN by you... and he just wants to GIVE you so much, show you so much love, so much pleasure, so much OF HIMSELF, that just one set of limbs, just one of him isn't even enough! He wants to melt into you, hold you with more limbs than a human could ever possess, become one with you and give you all that he is while taking in all that you are...!!!!

And all he wants in return is that you accept him, with a his... unusual, eager, awkward, kind, smart-mouthed, somewhat melodramatic, loving, silly, deeply DEVOTED self, and his love that feels so vast, he wouldn't be able to fully express it even if there were three of him. This man is so full of love for you, he's all but bursting at the seams.

I feel... emotional. I don't think I've ever been THIS moved by a video game love scene (I can't even bring myself to call it a sex scene, these mfs didn't just have sex, they made love), like I know that feeling!!!! I've FELT that before!!!!! And I, as myself, a person, not as someone roleplaying a character, felt weirdly SEEN just now!!!!

I'm just overall very impressed.

.... Oh, and the way he drops on one knee to kiss his new, dwarfy boyfriend? Just adorable. I know all companions do that when they touch a shorter player character (I still love the way Karlach crumpled into my boy's arms in the hug scene), but it still feels kinda special.

(You just know these two assholes are going to be so deeply OBNOXIOUS about being in love. Like yes, they already were, but now that they know their feelings are mutual, they'll be like... fkin holding hands while traveling, and cuddling by the fire, and all that cutesy shit. God, I'm so endeared.)