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grumpygreenwitch · 3 months

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The Witches and Wizards Job 37-38

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THIRTY SEVEN

"You look old," Baba Yaga said at last into the deadly silence, her Russian musical and cold.

Koschei flinched as if she'd slapped him. Nate slipped behind the Hag and Fedorov until he stood just between them and Dresden; close enough to be seen, but no so close that either Koschei or Stone tried to stop him.

"It's not you," the Blackbird choked out. "It can't be you. I took everything from you. Everything!"

"You stole," she snapped at him. "You're always trying to take power that's not yours -"

"It's mine -"

"It's too much -"

"IT'S MINE!" he shouted, and half the lights went out. The dock was thrown into chiaroscuro patterns from the floodlights just outside it and two fluorescent lights hanging on grimly. "If you cannot hold onto power, then it belongs to those who can."

"By that measure, if I can take your power away, it's mine to keep," she replied, and there was such menace in her voice even the golem shifted minutely away.

"You can do nothing," the wizard gritted out. "A hundred years I have plotted and planned and prepared. You may be able to cast a glamour and light a few lights, but so what? You don't have your mortar, you don't have your pestle, you don't even have your shawl!"

"Neither do you," Nate said evenly in English before anyone else could speak.

"You be silent, mortal!" Koschei threw his power at Ford in a flash of green light.

But Dresden, faster than him, rolled to his feet and skid to a halt between the mastermind and their mark. Power bloomed from him, from the black feathers stitched among the feathery motif embroidered into the wrists and neck and hem of his dress shirt - the Blackbird's own feathers, snatched from him that first time at the MFA. The power crashed into a shield wrought and empowered by those feathers, and bounced off. Dresden had guessed that Koschei would be the sort of wizard that always made sure his own magic couldn't hurt him on the rebound. Surprising no one (except perhaps himself), he'd been right.

Stunned, Koschei came to a halt. Nate stepped out to stand beside Dresden, his hands laced in front of him, unfazed. He hadn't even twitched when the Blackbird had moved to attack him. "I haven't lied to you yet, have I?"

"I do. not. CARE," Koschei screamed, pale with rage, the cords of muscle along his neck standing out starkly. "Bring her! Bring a dozen gods. Bring a hundred! Can your wizard protect them all? Can he do that while protecting the Prince of Thieves, her little friend? Will he choose between you and them? Between you and the Hag? Between -"

"I don't think you understand." Ford shrugged. "Why are you shouting? You've already lost."

Koschei bared his teeth. "If that is true, then it will be my pleasure to have you all lose with me," he growled low. "Unless you believe your pet wizard can stop mister Stone from killing you all?"

"No," Ford admitted readily, then pointed at the opposite side of the docks. "That's what he's for."

Seven tons of niuhi, teeth and talons and blue striped skin on a frame made of nothing but muscle, charged through the side of the building as if it weren't there. The wereshark crashed into the golem, who barely had time to turn, shoving off Parker and Jessamine to try and put up a defense. They both went flying into and through one of the yachts and into the water with a tremendous splash.

Parker threw herself over Jess; Fedorov covered Baba Yaga with his body. Koschei clenched his hands and let out a furious, wordless yowl, magic gathering around him like a storm, hungry and deadly.

"Dresden!" Nate yelled.

The wizard shoved the mastermind against the back wall, took a step forward and pointed his wand down, shouting a single word. "Forzare!"

The dock exploded. Boards went to splinters as if a giant fist had smashed into them from on high, showering the water with hail; the last of the lights exploded into brilliant sparks. Both Dresden and Koschei plummeted into the frothing surf.

Parker dragged Jess into the boat-house proper, where Sophie, who'd never actually left the boat-house, was waiting for them; the grifter slammed the door shut behind them. "So he's a bad grifter and a sore loser," she declared archly. "Who's surprised. Are you both alright?"

"I think so." Parker was far more concerned with her friend than with herself. "Jess?"

"I'm alright," the young curator wheezed. "Did that man just blow up the dock?"

"It gets complicated," Parker replied tightly before turning to Sophie. "Eliot and Hardison?"

The hitter had just poked his head out of the other yacht, to stare in stunned disbelief at the destruction one word and one gesture from the local wizard had wrought. Then he raced along the deck of the boat and threw his hands out. "Fedorov!"

The Russian and his companion were stranded on the only side of the docks that didn't have a door, to either the outside or the boat-house. Nate, at least, had a giant shark-shaped hole he could've used. All three of them ran for Eliot. "It seems every time we meet I have to get handsy with you, Grandmother," Vanya said in Russian, his tone light in spite of the situation. "What will you think of me."

Baba Yaga, still wearing Sophie's seeming, laughed once again, short and sharp, caught by surprise. "I will think what I already did of you," she replied cheerily.

He picked her up and helped her onto the boat, to Eliot's waiting hands, while Nate jumped onboard.

The covered dock had been built against the shallow beach by digging down and reinforcing the space with rip-rap: rocks roughly the size of a man's head. The end result was a narrow area that looked deep, but wasn't. The yachts, for all their size, didn't break six feet on draft. At its deepest part the channel leading to the dock was fifteen feet, just outside the building. From there it angled up precipitously until it reached the more-or-less solid ground where the mansion's gardens began.

Which meant Dresden, who'd been closer to the artificial shore, could actually stand up abruptly from among the flotsam, choking and bedraggled like a half-drowned cat, climbing up the slope toward the hole the niuhi had left in the wall.

"Dresden!" Nate shouted a warning.

The wizard turned, thrown off-balance by his waterlogged clothing, just in time to throw his hand up and empower the feather-shield as actinic fire came boiling out at him from the water. It sloshed around the shield, making it ripple, pouring around and over it like poisonous syrup, and wherever it splashed the torn wood, drywall and plastic of the building crackled, froze and shattered.

Koschei, looking like a bird that's gone for a bath it neither planned nor wanted, rose to the surface of the churning water and stepped lightly on it. It froze where he went in awkward little waves. "I am going to make a footstool out of you, Dresden," the Blackbird hissed.

"No, thanks," Leverage's wizard replied blithely. "Not a fan of chintz."

The second yacht suddenly went stumbling sideways with an almighty crunch, crashing hard into the section of the dock that was still standing. Everyone on board stumbled. "Nate!" Eliot called out. "We're taking on water!"

A gale of wind came out of nowhere and threw Koschei back in the water. Dresden managed to scrabble onto solid ground and tried to race for the boat-house.

A massive sheet of ice erupted from the deep end of the docks and raced forward, jagged and vast, locking everything in its grip, flotsam, the sinking yacht, the ruins of its twin. Harry slipped and went down, and only one of the boat-house's walls stopped him, none too gently. The ice stopped the yacht from further going down for a moment, but then a hand punched through the ice and grabbed the aft ladder, and the boat groaned and shifted uneasily as mister Stone dragged himself partially out of the water, his fancy clothes in tatters.

Koschei passed up through the ice as if he were a ghost, power seething around him.

"Kostya!" Grandmother shouted in Russian. "Do not do this! You know how the stories always end. Let it go!"

"I have not come this far to give up now because of a fairy tale!" he spat at her before turning to Dresden and switching to English. "How dare you believe you, any of you, can stand against me."

"Reasons abound," the younger wizard wheezed. He'd managed to roll to his feet, ready to take on whatever spell the Blackbird threw at him.

But instead of attacking, Koschei drew the twisted, blackened staff out of nowhere and gestured at the ice, drawing up a mirror-perfect, thin sheet of ice the size of a door. Nate, from the boat, saw Harry's eyes go wide. A gout of fire came from the wizard, but Koschei threw up a shield as he spoke in a rough, growling tongue.

The mastermind exhaled sharply, and saw his breath come out as a plume in what should have been Boston's warm summer air, and the world slowed down to a crawl, ringing faintly against his ears. The darkness gleamed like reflections from a jewel, shattering all around him.

There would be no more comfortable lies for him. There would be no more denying. There were two wizards fighting on a plane of ice not fifty feet from him. A man that wasn't one was trying to climb onto their boat to get away from a shark that liked to walk as a man. The world was not what it seemed, it never had been, and Nathan Ford could no longer pretend that he knew all that there was to know. Leshy sprang out of the portal Koschei had summoned out of nowhere, and reality slammed back into place for the mastermind. So be it. If the world must change, he would change with it. The job still needed to be done. "Hardison, now!"

Leshy, Dresden had explained, were creatures of the Nevernever, the elusive world that paralleled Nate's own. But they were of neither. Unaffiliated fairies that only barely looked to Summer, they had no rules, but also no protection beyond their own numbers. Their behavior was defined by their nature, and their nature was that of a hare, always ready for a fight, to kick and bite - and always on the lookout for predators.

Hardison, just outside the hole in the wall, pulled out of his pocket the phone he'd gotten from the spider. In the seething maelstrom of magical energies coming from the boat-house it was the only piece of technology that was still working. He used it to remotely drive not Lucille 2.0 but the u-Haul van, the back of which was full of things he'd hardly ever thought he'd get to use, like cathode tubes and transistors the size of his fist. He had one screen, one radio transmitter, a keyboard that was so profoundly and mechanically loud he twitched at the very thought of having to use it.

And Mouse.

A black, sleek, unmarked van would have immediately pinged the awareness of the security staff at the mansion. But people are used to seeing u-Haul vans. They're used for much more than just moving, on reason of being both cheap and basically indestructible. The doors might not close, the brakes might need pumping, the gas might stick at fifty, a hundred things might be broken in it, but by golly it will get you from Point A to Point B, somehow. By the time the u-Haul van made it down the driveway and jumped the curb onto the perfectly manicured lawn, it was too late for security to stop it, and most of them were busy trying to keep the guests from leaving, anyway.

The hacker brought the van to a rattling, skidding stop next to the hole in the wall and opened a door, and the young Temple mastiff catapulted out with a snarl that brought the hackles up on every creature in the boat-house, even if they didn't have them. The leshy coming through the portal froze, every head whipping around to that sound.

Eliot took a running start and shoulder-checked Stone off the yacht. The hitter rebounded and fell on his back, stunned, his shoulder on fire, but Stone, his balance too precarious, went flying back and crashed through the sheet of ice, sinking like, well, a stone.

Mouse barked. It sounded like a gun going off. The leshy turned and tried to sprint back into the portal, but Koschei destroyed with a furious litany of curses. The fairy thugs scattered instead and the Russian wizard turned to point his staff at the dog gleefully chasing panicking rabbits all over the place. A beautiful right cross caught him on the cheek and sent him flying onto the last bit of the docks abutting the boat-house, too stunned to make a sound, unable to breathe, his staff flying out of his hands.

Vanya Fedorov, wearing the blessed silver knuckles, slipped lightly on the ice and climbed after the wizard with cold, deadly murder in his face. "I will not be sold," he said in Russian. His voice was lethally calm, his teeth gritted. Koschei made the mistake to try and get up, and Fedorov punched him again, sending him sprawling inelegantly. "I will not trust my fate to a man who sees me as a toy. I am not your pawn to be offered to your friends for favors, for power, for wealth."

"You are an ill-mannered child -" Koschei threw up a shield as he struggled to his knees.

Vanya brought up his other hand and punched right through the shimmering energy as if it were not there; the knuckles on that one were lead and iron. "This child knows how to make allies, rather than buying loyalty with fear and lies. I know that sometimes the truth is all you need. So here is some truth for you, Blackbird: stay down, or I will make you stay down."

Koschei struggled to draw one breath. "I will see you all dead for this," he gasped, turning on his back, lifting himself up on his elbows. He grinned manically up at the Russian enforcer. "You would be a hero, would you, little prince," he hissed in Russian. "Very well. Let's see what sort of a hero, you are."

The portal opened just shy of the nets that festooned the naked beams of the roof. A low, seething sound, the rasping of scales against scales, filled the air, and the chaos came to a complete halt in the blink of an eye.

A mass of shifting coils, each one as large around as a man, appeared out of nowhere and began to descend. Green and black, they glowed with an inner, vitriolic light, as if of a fire burning behind stained glass. There was no beginning or end to them.

Very clearly, in the abrupt silence, everyone heard Dresden's voice. "Oh, crap."

The leshy bolted. The dog, that eternal enemy, was suddenly not the top of their priorities. They trampled everything and everyone, including each other, in their panicked haste.

"What is it?" Nate asked of the false Sophie next to him.

"Zmei Gorynich," she replied, staring. "A Great Serpent."

Eliot didn't like the sound of that. At all. "A f- He - He called up a friggin' dragon?!"

The mass of coils began to disentangle itself, spreading out as it descended. Rippling vanes, sails stitched onto jutting, dagger-like bone, unfolded along its sides. A dry, cruel heat was beginning to radiate from it, a pervasive scent filling the air, of forests burnt to ash, homes reduced to rubble and coal.

"A young one, but yes."

Eliot didn't even know what to say to that.

"Out, now," Nate commanded. "Off the boat. We need solid ground."

"You will not ask me to help?" she asked him, curious and surprised.

"Well, we're here to rescue you," the mastermind pointed out as they all rushed to the other side of the yacht, where the ice and violence had pressed the deck of it closer to what was left of the docks. "Seems kind of rude to make you work for it."

She looked terribly amused.

"Besides, can you?"

"No. I do not have the power to singe his hair right now." She looked at the zmei. "But you do not need me anyway."

The zmei hadn't even fully uncoiled itself when Leverage's wizard shouted something out and force, invisible and irresistible, slammed it back up through the roof, canoes and kayaks, netting and roofing flying everywhere and launching the creature entirely out of sight.

THIRTY EIGHT

I had honestly thought that, even for Koschei, the Golden Bear was it. The limit. I could barely wrap my head around a wizard being able to summon what is basically a sort of, kind of, almost demi-god from the Nevernever.

I hadn't expected him to be able to summon two.

My first gut response was to try and throw the dragon back through the portal that had brought it in, but Koschei had already closed it. I saw Fedorov flatten the wizard one last time, but it was too late. The dragon was here, and it was here to stay. Unconscious or not, the Blackbird had cut a deal with it, and I very much doubted anyone there had a counteroffer it would be willing to consider.

I wasn't sure if the dragon of Russian fairy tales was an actual dragon. The name translates to a sort of serpent, Bob had explained to me. They're treacherous, cunning, greedy. Unlike the Golden Bear, which can be impressed into joining the good guys occasionally, the Great Serpent doesn't care to serve any interests but its own. They can spit fire, poison or ice, sometimes weirder things, like lightning or a combination of elements. Their scales can only be pierced by magic or by their own power, mirrored back at them, which was how they were defeated in most stories.

You know, typical fairy-tale dragon bullshit.

We were, once again, as outgunned as we'd been at the museum.

Mouse rushed to my side, staring up at the hole along with me. The dragon escaped my blast and came arrowing down, hissing like an angry teakettle. It wasn't fast, I noted distractedly. Agile, yes, it could turn on a dime. But it wasn't particularly quick when it flew, and I would have bet money it was because in mid-air it couldn't get proper traction. It touched down on the ice and it melted instantly. As it looked down in surprise, lifting up once again, I gestured at it with my bad hand. "Frigitas."

Ice closed in on it, the water freezing once again, trapping the gleaming coils. I didn't have my staff, and I'm much better with fire, but I didn't need a fine touch at the moment. I needed to hit hard, hit fast, and hit anything I could. I was counting on Boston to help me along, to maybe slow it down some.

I wasn't counting on the North Atlantic to pitch in.

I'd felt it the moment I'd fallen in the water. I'm used to the Lake; like I'd told Leverage, it's good for grounding magic, for getting your bearings, throwing off excess energy, that kind of thing. I'd tapped a storm once, felt the power of it coursing through me and I'd known then that it could kill me if I so much as blinked. You don't mess with Mother Nature unless you're willing to take your licks. But this was the ocean, the planet for all intents and purposes. We humans like to think that the dirt we stand on is the ruling principle of the world, just like we like to believe we're the ruling species. We're wrong on both counts. True power was the seething tide trapped beneath the ice just under my feet. Even Boston,with its neverending trickle of energy, was nothing compared to it. The storm had given me a chance; the North Atlantic wouldn't even notice snuffing me out.

Ice rose in jagged teeth, raced over the zmei, caught its coils and blew up in clouds of overheated steam, water sublimating, going directly from solid to gas. The serpent whistled in fury and pain, thrashing, sending chunks of ice flying in every direction. It turned on me; its eyes were a goat's, and somehow that made them even more unreasonably unpleasant on that long reptilian muzzle. Gills opened along its neck, and I threw my shield up, going down on one knee to try and brace myself. If the thing breathed poison I, and everyone else there, would be flat out of luck; no shield would stop that.

Instead, lightning crashed into my shield and sent me skidding back, sprays of sparks bursting out of the bracelet. The zmei paused after a moment, when it realized it was not getting through, head cocked and sails fluttering lightly. Electricity was crackling all over it, occasionally reaching a jagged line to touch the beams above, the boat-house, the walls - wherever metal or, more likely, the electrical systems in the structures nearby called to it.

"Koldun," it whispered, its voice a low, barely audible breeze.

"That's me," I admitted.

It blew another blast at me. My shield was still holding, but the bracelet was getting awfully warm.

The zmei stopped, this time in answer to movement out of the corner of its eye, where it had just seen the three people hiding behind the second yacht. Before it could get any ideas, I took the chance to give my shield a break, threw my hand up and called up the power thrumming just under my feet. "Aestus!

Water roared upward in a broad column, filled with blocks of ice as my improvised attack further shattered the sheet of ice Koschei had created. The zmei got thrown hard against the beams of the ceiling, and then crashed down onto the water when I let go of my spell. It launched itself a me, moving through the air like a snake moves through water. Its mouth was a nightmare of way too many teeth. I put my shield up and it bowled me over, into Mouse, who leapt aside and snarled at it, distracting it just long enough for me to call up a gale. I battered it with every piece of debris I could snatch up; it didn't hurt it, but it did distract it. I couldn't see Fedorov or Koschei, I could only hope they'd gone inside the house. I knew Hardison was behind me unless he, too, had gone around and into the boat-house. And I had no idea if Eliot, Ford and Grandmother were still hiding behind the other boat.

Teeth like filleting knives skid over my shield, leaving energy afterimages on it. I hadn't come prepared to take on a dragon, and even if I had, Koschei had taken most of my tools. All I had was what Parker had given me back and what Stone's people hadn't found when they frisked me: my pendant, the pin, my wand and my shield-bracelet. I was throwing magic by the seat of my pants, and while Boston could empower me, there was a limit to what even the city could do. My biggest source of power was also the most dangerous, lapping at my feet in rumpled little waves.

The zmei recoiled back and breathed lightning on me again. If I'd had my other bracelet, the one I'd improvised, I could have probably thrown at least some of that power back at it. And then I realized: I couldn't redirect that power, but I could ground it.

I was going to need a fine touch, though. When it stopped for a breath I threw a gout of fire in its face, just to make it recoil. "Mouse, find me a stick." My dog gave me such a look. "A staff! Something I can use as a staff!"

He ran off, scrabbling through the wreck I'd made of the area. I threw another shield up when the zmei came at me, dug into the power Boston was giving me and peeled off several of the big stones that lined the area, throwing them at its mouth, its eyes. I kept up a steady whirlwind loaded with shrapnel to tear at the sails on its sides; it was flying by magic, I knew that, but that magic had to be focused somewhere, and it was a little too protective of its 'wings' for me not to go for the obvious target.

It twisted and writhed, it turned into a knot and unraveled in mid-air, coming at me from every direction, its breath looking for any slip-up in my attention, growing angrier and angrier the longer I balked it. Behind it, I saw a tidal surge coming in our direction; something in my expression must have given it away, because it too turned to look and rose up for the safety of the ceiling.

The wave crested still a ways off and I saw Stone at the apex of it, struggling against something that wouldn't let him go. Nick rammed through what was left of the ice and docks; they didn't slow him down. He crashed, golem leading, into the ground, swamping the area minutely. I felt the impact through the soles of my feet. It was powerful enough that both golem and niuhi ended up partially out on the ground.

Moused whacked gently at my shin. He'd found part of an oar, the broad end gone. Tail wagging, he offered it to me.

"Good boy. Get out of here, go find Parker." A plan had come together in my head. It was a horrible plan so, you know. My usual. But I was pretty sure it was going to work. I may not be awake, or alive, at the end of it, but I was also used to that.

First things first, though. I pointed the staff at the churning water. "Aestus venitus!"

The sea answered; geysers of water rose up, hunting for the zmei. It blasted one with its breath, twisted out of the way of another. It was too busy dancing to notice I'd grabbed for my pendant, the one piece of metal I was wearing that I knew better than my own bones, and that didn't have a dedicated enchantment on it to get in the way of what I was trying to do. Through it I reached out to the first step of my plan.

All ships above a certain size need an anchor. When they get big enough, they need that anchor even when they're moored, but the yachts were small, as things go, maybe thirty, forty feet long. I didn't know if they'd been anchored to begin with, but I did know that at least in one case, it didn't matter, and that was enough. I reached out with my will to the metal of that chain, that anchor, among the wreck of the sunken yacht and somewhere in the guts of the other one.

Anchor chains are one of those things that you make out of metal both to show off and because anything else is going to get sliced through. I found them both exactly where I thought they would be.

The zmei lunged at me from the shadows of the ceiling, illuminated by its own burning inner fire. I brought my staff up and pointed it at the dragon. "Enough."

The chains came uncoiling out like vipers, one out of the water and the other blasting through the hull of the yacht, sending it further listing to that side. They darted and lunged at the zmei like living things, empowered by my will and my emotions. It tried, unsurprisingly, to breathe lightning at one of them, but the metal didn't care. The loose end punched the zmei in the face, shattered several fangs, and wound about its body like a constrictor, while its twin did the same in the opposite direction.

The dragon whistled and hissed in fury, writhing, coiling, uncoiling in every direction. I pointed my staff at the second yacht and yanked the anchor out of it, sending it tumbling into the water. When the zmei tried to breathe lightning, it instead went into the chains and into the water, where the ocean absolutely didn't care how many temper tantrums the creature threw.

The yacht was beginning to sink at an alarming rate, though, and from behind it I heard an irate "Dammit, Harry!"

"Sorry!" I yelled back at Eliot, belatedly realizing I had forgotten one key part of the plan which very much involved the yacht, namely the portrait currently stashed in it. The zmei, however, meant that plans were, unfortunately, secondary to dealing with it. The chains were holding, but the heat was rising, and I knew what that meant. Eventually the metal would simply melt, or grow soft enough for it to break its bindings. I had to get to the second half of my plan, fast. "Ford, can you hear me?" I said, hoping the little shard of enchanted mirror embedded on the pin at my throat still worked.

"Yeah!" Another shout from behind the yacht.

"Good. Get out. Now. Stone!"

The golem was trying to hold back the jaws of the niuhi as they bore down on him, Nick on all fours and pressing him down relentlessly. His clothing was mostly gone, revealing the seamless, flawless body underneath, literally. He had no wrinkles, no scars, no freckles, nothing. Not even nipples. "Wizard," the golem replied, his voice strained.

"Koschei's not your original employer, is he?"

"No. Mister Act was."

"I know a man who can make you a better offer than both of them put together."

Nick drove the golem a few inches into the shale and ground, but still couldn't get close enough to put another bite into him, taloned hands and feet digging furrows as he tried.

"Your price?"

"Walk away."

"Somewhat impossible at the moment."

"Nick, let him go."

The niuhi stepped back. It was so sudden that Stone actually nearly went down and had to catch himself on one hand. The wereshark chuckled, and it came out a horrible gargling sound. His black eyes never left the golem.

"Define walk away, wizard."

"I mean, stay if you want." I had been wearing really expensive black shoes to the party; I kicked them off and stepped barefoot into the churning water. It was shockingly cold but, beyond that, it was like touching the surface of the sun. There was so much power, so much energy, not dormant, merely untouched, answering to far more primal and basic principles than a single skinny wizard's will. I drew in as much as I dared, and then a little more. I felt as if I were coming undone, going to nothing, becoming part of that vast primordial soup, a little bit of life made to go to and fro with the pull of wind and moon and gravity. It took everything I had just to hang onto me, onto my sense of self.

I pushed.

The tide began to recede. The second yacht sank down, its hull grinding against the stones. The remains of the dock collapsed. The sounds of the surf faded.

Stone turned and ran. Nick turned, saw what I was doing and threw his arms out, laughing wildly, a deeply inhuman sound. The zmei fought wildly against its bounds.

It wasn't hard to do; that surprised me. The water, once pushed, wanted to push back. What was hard was not letting the wave become as big as it wanted to be. I pushed it back while holding onto the sides of it, trying to keep it contained, but I was a wisp of breath in a cyclone. I was not even a drop of water in the vast belly of the monster I'd awakened. Every bit of power I pulled on to try and keep control whispered at me to let go. To stop being. There would be no sorrow if I let go, no anger. There would only be the tide and the wind and the moon, the currents, the sunny shallows, the black abyssal depths. There would be no me to hurt anymore, no more loss, no more loneliness.

As offers go, I honestly can't think of many that have been so damn tempting.

But then I could push no more. The press of the water was too great, and I let go and fell back on myself. "Nick, you there?"

"Yes. I am glad to be here, wizard. To see what you have done." I felt one hand pick me up, the first awareness I had that I'd gone down on my knees. There was a low roar slowly building up all around us. The air, which the zmei had overheated, was swiftly growing cold, and a rising wind was blowing the steam of its power clear of the area.

"I'd like to remind you I need to breathe. Air. I need to breathe air."

Nick laughed cheerfully. He'd gone back to being a human, naked and tattooed and scarred. "I will not let you drown, wizard. You are far too much fun to have around." He picked me straight up in a bridal carry and ran right at the tidal wave I'd summoned. The last thing I heard was the panicked whistling of the zmei as its doom bore down on it.

#my writing #fanfiction #crossover #the dresden files #leverage #harry dresden #nathan ford #sophie deveraux #parker #alec hardison #eliot spencer #urban fantasy

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sylvies-kablooie · 25 days

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by the way i saw you complaining about tumblr recommending you fortnite posts and in case youre not aware of it you can do something in settings to make your main tumblr place your dashboard which is exclusively people you follow in order of newest thing posted instead of things the algorithm sends you !!!! i like it better than the for you page mostly bc i love it when something happens and i watch my entire dash explode in real time like everyone freaking out over a real life event or a new episode etc but if you like the fyp thats fine i just didnt know if you knew this since youre newer and i thought it might be useful

just reblogged another fortnite post because it had sylki in it and remembered this pro tip was sitting in my inbox. beloved mutual saves the day once again!!!!

#everybody say THANK YOU!!!#juni answers

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kodiescove · 2 months

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I know some people will perceive me as heartless but

But I just.....

About anything, this is not about any one issue, I cannot handle hearing all this negative news.

At least, I cannot handle hearing about it at the rate at which Tumblr is showing me.

Every other post is made about some terrible thing that's happening in the world.

And I just.... I just can't handle it. I can't.

I can handle reading the news a few times a week. I can handle staying up to date.

But I just can't handle that the sheer amount of posts on my dash that are about these horrible things happening in the world.

I am too overly empathetic/sympathetic/compassionate whatever the word is for what I experience for other people to handle it.

I can't handle the arguing.

I can't handle the bigotry that either is directly put on my blog, of that the OPs have to fight in reblogs.

And yes, I know I can scroll passed, but like.... I can't know these posts are about a terrible thing without trying to read them, and just reading a snippet of it is enough to get me upset with the sheer volume of posts that are showing on my dash.

I wish I was one of those people who could just read all these posts and feel nothing. Or at least not feel like their heart and head were going to explode from all the negativity. But I'm just.... I'm not like that. I've never been like that.

I dunno.

I feel bad blocking the tags but like... I might just have to because this is overwhelming.

I don't know what happened in the last hour or so that I wasn't using Tumblr but literally wvery other post is about some awful thing happening in the world! And this isn't even the first time it's happened either!

Its exhausting. I don't know why Tumblr algorithm does this to me. It's like the ~spicy~ picture and writing content I get, for some reason even though I don't interact with this content, Tumblr gives it to me, and they give it to me /HARD/.

It's exhausting, and I feel like a bad person because it's so exhausting.

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crimsonmoonscrypt · 11 months

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Blank below + sketches!!

RAHHH

#kyrukatart #ocs #solemn #hojin #my ocs #virustruck #homestuck #dancestors #gamzee #sollux #dirk #jade harely #nepeta #homestuck ancestors #neptune #jupiter #me thats me #my sona #reblog to explode the algorithm

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vivi-the-goblin · 2 years

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People just don't seem to get that many of the "flaws" of tumblr are by design, sometimes OUR design, and the only thing keeping us safe. Tumblr is a community garden. The mods are half-conscious landlords that own the lot, stumbling around without much clue about what's going on or even who thier tenants are. WE made this place into what it is. We grew this site ourselves, planted every seed, maintained every plot. All the content was grown ourselves and shared via reblogs, they're the heart and marrow of this place. Reblogs aren't theft btw, as I've heard many confused by. To continue the metaphor, reblogs are like spreading fertilizer. You're definitely still contributing, it makes notes explode and motivates people, gives people the energy to keep creating. Reblogs start chains that can increase activity by orders of magnitude. Likes are private words of encouragement that only you and I see, they're quietly saying "good job" as you pass. I appreciate it, I truly do, they're like a cool glass of water that gives me energy to continue. If you wish to help the whole community without ever posting, a quick reblog on something you like seriously helps. Even without tags or additions, that's fine, it still greatly expands the lot we have to work in. We all follow blogs that're just "someone with similar tastes reblogging things," a good half of the people I follow are. That's all I was on my original blog for like 10 years before I started this, no shame. Oh, and I was serious about the maintenance bit as well. We've had bots spring up like weeds in the past and the only thing that ever kept them in check was community effort to block-report them. I mean "got 5 new followers every day even on brand new blogs" sort of bad, but we beat them down through group effort. So if you have no title or reblogs and are wondering why people block you after you follow, it's because people think you're either spam or a burner account about to start sending hate. Personally don't block until something actually happens, especially now that I'm aware many of you just showed up, but I did think that like half of you were bots at first. Chaning your title to anything, even just "not a bot" will fix that if it bothers you though. Or just reblog something. I see an account completely blank except like, a picture of a spinning lancer, I know they're just someone's personal sideblog. This is getting a bit rambly, but point is that the "flaws" people talk about are primarily by design and what we've fought to keep for 15 years. Yes our landlords wander around incompetently, but that's just as much OUR design. We don't want massive corporations paving this place over to make another shopping mall. We want to stay the quirky little farmer's market living off word-of-mouth, not be replaced by "more convenient" superstore of the algorithm. The work we put in makes this place the wonderful, terrible, irreplaceable treasure it is. Enabling our self-destructive staff, maintaining our community, and making sure we're bottom-of-the-barrel for advertisers is how we do that.

#It's like an apartment complex that unionized #then realized if we kept the landlords drunk they'll just let us do whatever #like we gotta make sure they're happy enough to not sell to the massive agency and mostly fix things ourselves #Because they're a bit puritan #but they're better than the hell that is corporate housing

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zeld-anime · 7 months

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I swear this app is so broken my “following” tab is just everything I recently reblogged while the for “you tab” finally lets me see stuff the people I follow are posting and then literally every post I could have ever possibly not cared for. What is this algorithm. Not to mention while I’m scrolling it jumps me all the way back to the top and my phone feels like it’s about to explode. And to further prove my point my keyboard literally disappeared while typing this.

#tumblr #rant

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captainsnakepants · 2 years

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Hello Twitter immigrants! If you're back here from the porn ban of 2018, WELCOME HOME, CHEATER.

But for newbies to the Tumblr scene:

- No chronology we die like men

- LIKING POSTS DOES NOTHING. IT JUST LETS YOU KNOW IN THE FUTURE WHAT POSTS YOU HAVE LIKED IN THE PAST LIKE A RECURRENT SINUS INFECTION

- While you can use tags to organize your posts and reblogs, the cultural use of tags is a way to share your thoughts without poisoning the original post with them. This is a relic from before we had replies on posts, and we still do it so we're only embarrassing ourselves on dash and not in public.

- You cannot look at someone's blog by post type like you can on Twitter unless they were nice enough to meticulously tag their posts appropriately by type or medium. Explode. Suffer. (Affectionate)

- You cannot "hide" your blog the same way you can "hide" your Twitter account. It's password protection or nothing, baby.

- You will see posts on your dash from 15 years ago and you will contract diseases from their fetid, rotting corpses. I'm sorry.

- There is no algorithm. You are 100% responsible for the content that crosses your dash, and the Radar and recommended sidebar are worthless unless you like seeing the featured post of the week and people your mutuals follow.

- Unless you want to pay for the ad free Tumblr experience, get Xkit. I promise you will not regret it.

- While you can tweak your blog to make your followed blogs and likes public, why would you bare your bones for the eyes of God to see?

- Clout and follower numbers mean nothing here. That shit isn't public, and nobody cares anyway. In fact, posting your follower count will get you stuffed into a locker.

- Censoring your language will also get you stuffed into a locker. All we ask is that you don't use racial slurs or terms that are culturally significant to indigenous peoples who ask you not to use them (w*ndigo is a good example of a term that's appropriate to censor or avoid using as the culture has requested it)

- LGBT "slurs" are a case by case basis. Some people, like myself, don't care about the usage of queer, dyke, fag, etc. Others care quite a bit. You might actually have to ask another human being a question about their boundaries, don't panic.

- There's a lot more but you'll either acclimate (not necessarily conform) or get put off and scarper off to Mastodon. You will get a lot of disparaging remarks. We're just nervous that high traffic will make us more interesting to investors than we'd like and turn this site into a lifeless, soulless corporate hellscape.

#tumblr #Noogy speaks #some of my phrasing is a bit harsh and kind of facetious but I mean it to sound like a good natured but roughly humored dad #the rules are looser here #just dont be a jerk and youll be fine

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dreamingofyeo · 6 months

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Crescent: chapter 4 ☾⋆⁺₊✧

Passage to Reynyr

2022 words

Masterlist - playlist

☆彡~ Tumblr's algorithm works from reblogs so if you like my work please consider It :)

Playlist key

🎶 September instrumental

----------------------------------

You both slowly bring your hands up in a show of submission and then freeze. You can feel your heart trying to explode from your ribcage, all of this was for nothing. You're doing to die anyway.

You force your racing thoughts to into silence to attempt to figure a way out of this precarious situation, Hongjoong beats you to the punch though.

"We mean no harm, we are not threats." he states clearly, in a tone indicating ultimate submission of power in the situation.

The archer facing Hongjoong arches a questioning brow at him. He has blonde hair reaching his shoulders with half tied delicately at the back of his head. His features are nothing short of ethereal. He almost doesn't seem human, as if on cue you spot the slight point in his ears and subtly shining vine tattoos reaching out of his collar up his neck. Elf. Makes sense considering how they snuck up on you and a bandit of all people.

"It is hard to put any belief in those words considering your poorly hidden intentions to steal from us." he points out, hands on his bow not so much as twitching.

You decide to risk speaking next, looking between the long haired elf and his partner, who is equally if not more mesmerising. They appear rather similar except he is slightly shorter and his own hair stops at the nape of his neck in a slight mullet. Possibly brothers? His features are softer than his partner's, his eyes exude a degree of kindness- or more so the capacity for such a thing considering how his arrow has not left its target.

"We truly apologise, it was a foolish and selfish suggestion to take the rabbit, before that point we had merely been observing the mechanics of the trap so we could create our own. We were simply unsure of when we would eat properly again, the temptation became too great and formed a suggestion, for which I sincerely apologise."

The slight flicker of understanding in the eyes of the elf opposite you all but confirm your suspicions of him being a kind soul behind his defences. He exhibits feelings of pure warmth despite his raised bow. You decide that your best bet would be to address him as much as possible without appearing rude to his partner.

"State your business in our territory." the more intimidating of the two practically spits.

Hongjoong takes a moment to assess the best course of action before replying calmly, "we were not aware of this being anyones territory, for that we also sincerely apologise. We fled Igoras last night, for personal reasons. Considering the kingdom's fear of the northwest we assumed it would be the safest route, we're simply passing through." he concludes.

The kinder elf speaks now, and his voice practically melts you, it is utterly mellifluous.

"That is understandable, however we cannot in good conscience allow you to pass through without knowledge of why you fled, personal or not. It is too great of a risk for our people."

Yep, definitely a kind soul. You exchange a questioning look with Hongjoong, it is not your place to answer this for him. He offers you a reassuring smile and replies carefully.

"Understood, Igoras is a barbaric kingdom as you may know. My upbringing was far from acceptable in their eyes and though I turned from that life long ago, my previous partner had no trouble turning me in. I was due for execution but I escaped, I found refuge with Arla. I hadn't considered the position it would put her in so she'd seen coming with me as the safest option. Her other reasons are not my place to discuss and are irrelevant details for your understanding." He finishes with an edge of finality in his tone, of which you are grateful for.

The two elves exchange a quick glance, unspoken words filling the air for a moment before lowering their bows. The kinder of the two speaks.

"That could be a true account, and though I don't personally doubt your words, we cannot risk letting you past without first consulting our people. You will come with us. You will not be harmed, that is not our way. You will either be sent on your way, or accompanied to the edge of our borders and have your memories altered in order to protect our people if you bring about any form of suspicion. Our weapons are purely defensive, we will need you both to hand over your own for the time being." their postures are still defensive but more open than before.

You reply as calmly as you can considering the wave of relief crashing over you. "Thank you, that will be perfectly fine."

Hongjoong also offers his thanks and the two of you hand over your daggers before he asks, "may we have your names please?"

The elves once again glance at each other and nod, the taller of the two speaking. "My name is Hyunjin, my partner is Felix, We know your friend to be Arla but what of you?"

"My name is Hongjoong, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

The formality in his tone catches you slightly of guard, if this were a less nerve wracking time you might've had to suppress a laugh. Instead you offer a timid "likewise." towards the two, to which they return passive nods.

~~~ 🎶

The walk to the elven kingdom is like something out of a fever dream, it's utterly beautiful. You'd passed through a short cave system and emerged into a part of the forest which was surely enchanted. The colours are bright but not jarring, soft yet vibrant. The butterflies you'd seen previously clearly reside here considering their sudden abundance. Waterfalls and streams litter the area, with all manner of wildlife visible through the foliage if you observe long enough.

A stag is drinking from a stream to your left, he raises his head and gives you an almost human look of curiosity. To your shock, he doesn't startle, in fact he comes closer to you. You halt and tug lightly on Hongjoong's sleeve, pointing out the incredible sight, his features match your own wonder.

Felix spots this and closes the distance to you both, "They do not fear us, we give them no reason to. Every animal in Reynyr borders is under the elves protection."

You nod with understanding yet are quickly confused as you remember the trap, Felix must pick up on the inconsistency of his words as he continues,

"The animal in the trap you came across is not for us, we have an alliance within our borders which we cannot disclose until you're trusted more, they require meat so we supply it for them so they do not accidentally harm the animals in this area."

You nod with affirmation, you cannot bring yourself to form words as the stag is now inches from you, delicately smelling your hand. With the other hand, you tentatively reach out and as gently as you can, stroke the coarse coat between his eyes. He closes them and basks in the soft feeling before nudging you slightly and walking away, back to his spot at the stream. You let out a soft "wow." under your breath.

Hyunjin lets out a curt yet slightly teasing laugh. "You've seen nothing yet."

You can't imagine you'll disagree with him.

As the four of you continue walking you realise that there are many other elves above you, delicately perched or silently running across the branches. Observing this, that must be how Felix and Hyunjin snuck up on you so easily. They each move with unmatched grace and precision, one suddenly leaps from a particularly high branch causing your breath to catch in your throat. To your utter shock, wings suddenly sprout from her shoulder blades and carry her through the air over and past your heads . The gust of air the powerful movements expel hits you all, fanning your hair for a moment before she is no longer visible in your vision. The only evidence she was ever there is the look of wonder plastered on Hongjoong's face once more.

The markings decorating Hyunjin and Felix's necks are now practically glowing and you can't help but gaze at them. The once dull vines now standing out beautifully against their skin, they twist in a beautiful pattern and you wonder what the full markings look like. Their eyes are brighter here, you wonder if being in this part of the forest amplifies their magic. Felix catches you staring with a playful smirk and you look away, a faint blush dusting your features which he can't help but find endearing.

You all finally reach a clearing in the forest and you can't help but gasp. There are staircases winding up trees which seem larger than life, lanterns faintly glowing in the now fading day light illuminating the paths to the treetop balconies and buildings. From what you can see, it's an incredibly open space, with vine covered railings and few walls to keep out the elements. It is truly gorgeous, seemingly the very embodiment of serenity.

As you walk up the staircase, the reality dawns on you suddenly and you feel a spike of anxiety towards the situation. Felix said they would not harm you but you cannot help but feel on edge. Hongjoong seems to catch onto your sudden withdrawal from excitedly looking around at anything and everything and runs a comforting hand up and down your back for a moment. The movement catches you completely off guard effectively silencing your worries as you process the action. You don't know how to feel about the physical touch but a part of you resists the urge to smile.

Felix turns slightly to you before speaking in a hushed tone, "we're going to see our leader, Fraija. He will decide where we go from here. Watch your words and tone with him, being in his presence demands your respect."

You swallow the forming lump in your throat at his words, the feelings of anxiety resurfacing.

When you reach the top of the stairs you are greeted by a pair of untrusting, sharp green eyes. The pair of elves in front of you bow with an arm to their chest, you exchange a glance with Hongjoong before both replicating the show of respect. The elf which must be none other than Fraija turns and walks to the centre of the space you're now in, so gracefully that it is as if he's floating rather than walking.

"Who are these humans and why have you brought them to me?" He questions, the authority thick in his voice.

Hyunjin answers, clearly the more confident in front of the intimating figure considering Felix's rather tense form.

"We found them within our territory near the passage to Reynyr. Their names are Hongjoong and Arla, they claim to not be threats to us. They say they're passing through the northwest with the aim of escaping Igoras. We thought the best course of action would be for you to asses their level of threat. Should we have been inaccurate in our judgement, the cost would be too great for the risk to do anything otherwise." he concludes, the tension in your form easing slightly at his subtle admission that he believed you.

The elven leader nods, slightly distant eyes displaying him to be deep in thought before he replies. "Then you were right to do so." he turns to Hongjoong, "Tell me, what are your intentions once you cross our borders."

Hongjoong hesitates slightly, "Truthfully we do not have any as of yet, our goal at the present time is to simply evade any igorian search parties."

Fraija nods in acknowledgment at this, and turns back to Hyunjin and Felix with an unreadable expression. "Then they may be of use to us. Until I decide exactly how, they will be your responsibilities considering you brought them here. I will keep you both informed when necessary as to how our plans will be adapted."

<-chapter 3 ~ chapter 5->

taglist:

#ateez san #ateez fanfic #ateez x reader #ateez yunho #ateez jongho #ateez seonghwa #ateez hongjoong #ateez yeosang #ateez mingi #ateez wooyoung

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bones-plus-meat · 4 months

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Tumblr as a community

Early on into this semester we were asked if we thought internet communities were just the same as physical ones, and at the time I considered them to be similar but not wholly the same. I thought of online communities as too niche to really simulate the same scenario, but over the course of my research I’ve come to the conclusion that online communities don’t just resemble physical communities, they fully mirror them. None are a better example of that then maybe Tumblr.com, the disgraced and many times derided blogging plat form.

It seems that over the course of this class I’ve had a real emphasis on Tumblr. I use it for my class posting, I’m focusing on it now, and I plan to use it for the final project. While the reason for that largely is due to the fact that Tumblr is the soil form which I was birthed, it’s also due to the understanding that the website is nearly entirely incomprehensible to the general public. As Aja Romano said during a 2020 interview, “-people just don’t get the basic functionality of Tumblr.”

This in one such way it relates to a physical community, with real barriers to entry and cultural clashes. People don’t understand the edict, what is considered rude and not rude. They don’t know that liking art without rebloging is looked down on, they don’t know that using the default Tumblr icon will get you blocked, they don’t know how to appropriately tag their content. They don’t even understand the basic sense of humor they must be fluent in to grasp the day to day interactions. I can promise you if I said ‘Me and my three weed smoking girlfriends are at the children’s hospital after the human pet guy exploded me with hammers, but Misha said he likes my shoelaces’ it would make close to zero sense to most reasonable people. On Tumblr though the full comprehension of that sentence, and all the nuances, is expected as a form of tacet knowledge.

Tumblr has created its own vernacular and ways of interaction with each other (Bronner pg.23) which is more than a good indication of an independent culture forming. Along with that Tumblr has its own, fairly standardized, values. Years before things like the me too movement, or other such groups, Tumblr was already having in depth conversations about the legal system and mishandling of rape. Feminist thinking was already at a full roar, as well as several other social justice movements. (Popova pg.85) After all, in the words of a long lost Tumblr post, Tumblr is one of the only places where people are presumed queer till proven otherwise. With that a certain level of progressiveness is bound to be present.

Speaking of long forgotten Tumblr posts- That’s another aspect of the sight that makes it even more reminiscent of a physical community. It’s true that the internet is forever, well, except for on a place like Tumblr. Due to the truly disorganized and strange system of tagging and rebloging, most things are simply lost. Posts that you know for a fact exist simply vanish into the wind, and even if you look them up word for word there is a good chance you won’t find them. I myself have gone digging for posts I have personally made and been utterly incapable of relocating them. As such, unless a post is spread widely, there’s a good chance it will all but vanish.

In a way this reminds me of oral traditions. Most of those stories, those times, are gone now. Only that which was spread widely, and recorded by many, had a real chance of survival. And even then, the chances were iffy at best. Tumblr is one of the few places that truly rely on just the internet equivalent of word to mouth. That’s why it’s considered rude to like but not reblog, as likes do functionally nothing on Tumblr. There’s no true algorithm, not really, and the only way to pass information along is to physically reblog posts. To make another copy of someone’s words and place it on your own blog.

The community, as a collective, decides what will be a popular post. Not some code deciding that it was posted at the right time of day to be noticed or used the right tags. This is part of the reason that I suspect Tumblr posts are so frequently used off-site even if those consuming it don’t know. (Ramano pg.65) Unlike most sites the content you see fully found its way due to its own content. There was no post nepotism, or algorithmic miracle. You can’t even see follower counts on tumblr.

This is another way further reflection onto tumblr has shown me just how similar the online world is to real life. The reason most people don’t realize these screenshots they enjoy are from tumblr is there is an inherent bias against Tumblr and its users. This is due to the association between the site, and queer and feminist groups. Spaces deemed more ‘female oriented’ have long been discredited or viewed as lesser, even if the times are more progressive now. Tumblr, though online, is very much suffering from that age old stigma.

Which brings us to the interesting aspect of the screenshots. The archiving of these posts, all the while scrubbing their origins away to make it more palatable. Emily Midkiff and Sara Austin in their paper Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, remark that there is some difficulty in archiving the taboo. It seems the solution to that problem is simply to strip what is wanted away from its context to make the user feel more comfortable. This has long been the case in history, for almost every marginalized group.

So yes. The online world is much the same as the physical, right down to the bigotry.

Sources

Bronner, Simon J. “Digitizing and Virtualizing Folklore.” Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World, edited by Trevor J. Blank, University Press of Colorado, 2009, pp. 21–66.

Popova, Milena. “Tumblr Time: How Tumblr’s Temporal Features Shape Community Memory and Knowledge.” A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures, edited by Allison McCracken et al., University of Michigan Press, 2020, pp. 81–100

Romano, Aja, et al. “Under the Radar: A Conversation about Tumblr in the Public Sphere.” A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures, edited by Allison McCracken et al., University of Michigan Press, 2020, pp

Emily Midkiff, Sara Austin Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 31, No. 2 (108) (2020), pp. 179-181 (3 pages)

#anth3201 #tumblr #this is for a class #sorry if i sound insane

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