#rereading books i read as a kid or started and never finished as a kid

[frecht]

i hate how many memories i don't have how many i can't access. i should be able to recall every single thing that has ever happened to me everything i have ever thought

[c0rpsedemon]

oh yeah. the reason why i decided to reread tbhk (and thus it was able to hit me like a truck this time around) was actually not bc of mitsukou going canon but actually bc i maybe accidentally started a tbhk book club w my kids at work and wanted to check the contents of it justttt in case before i put the books in their hands

[lazaruscorpse]

trying to remember what books i read as a kid is fun

tempted to get into sweet valley high again lol

[wutheringmights]

After I finished reading The Epic of Gilgamesh today, I entered a fugue state where I sat down and read the entirety of Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce.

On the record, I have had a lifelong love and adoration for Pierce's Tortall books. I first read the Song of the Lioness quartet when I was 11, and they rewrote my brain. I love them so much. I reread them and the other Tortall books on a semi-frequent schedule.

It's been a while since I reread any of the Alanna books, if only because my sister took our shared copies when she moved out. I've been meaning to buy my own set for a long while now but haven't been able to justify the purchase. The other week, I just so happened to find the first two volumes at my local indie bookstore. I bought them immediately, as well as ordered the third and fourth book. (And discovered that the store owner knows me by name-- when I went to pick up my order, she saw me and said, Hi Frankie! I got your books over here.) (I may be spending too much money there.)

So I have been in a bit of an emotional rut these past few weeks. Work sucks. Life stinks. The temptation to run off to Tortall and curl up in the fantasy story that captivated me as a kid has never been stronger.

Ergo, I ran off to read the first book as soon as I could.

If you're looking for any critique of this book, series, or Tortall in general, I will never give it. Sure, it's problematic and dated, and in many ways imperfect, but someone else can list out all of its issues. They're all perfect to me.

Anyway, the book. I should say something about this book in particular.

One thing I appreciate about Pierce's writing is how she handles school settings in fantasy. Learning and training is so mundane. All of her heroines have to work hard and put in extra hours of study in order to improve, much less keep up with their peers. It's so normal that it circles around to being weirdly refreshing.

Also, there is still no other fantasy author who handles period talk and birth control the way Pierce does. We make fun of the trope of fantasy birth control nowadays, but I rarely see it presented as it is here: as a part of normal puberty lessons and given long before sex is in the girl's radar. And even today with the glut of YA fantasy stories out there, I still have yet to see menstruation be portrayed as frequently or as bluntly as Pierce writes it.

There was a period of time publishers really tried to push the Tortall books as straight YA, which doesn't work for that reason alone. You gotta market them to middle schoolers. They're the ones just starting puberty talks, and getting scenes like this is so good for their brains.

Moving on: I fucking love these characters. Alanna was an icon of brash, temperamental heroines that have shaped my taste to this day. I love how even in the first book, Jon is kinda shitty. I adore George Cooper. Talk about a taste maker the way this man sets a standard.

I just can't be coherent when it comes to any Tortall books. I have no thoughts. Head empty. I am going to binge the rest of this series as quickly as I can before my library book comes in. Then normal book content will resume.

Before I go, I need to talk about the book covers.

Growing up, my sister and I had these covers:

Which, god. I love them. The black is striking. The art is incredible. Alanna looks so good. They were the perfect pocket-size too. I was going to buy the same edition for my copies, but instead I got the 40th anniversary reprints:

Not bad at all! These books have had some seriously bad covers, and these look great! Very anime, which will appeal to the 11 year olds who need to have their socks rocked by this series.

But, man. I really miss those black covers. One day I will splurge and buy a second set of them just so that I can stare at the art.

[hqbaby]

two — you’re so pretty

tag, ur it! — sakusa ? iwaizumi ? osamu ? 

*ੈ✩‧ love is a losing game your roommate, your ex, or the guy you totally haven’t been seeing—the choice should be simple, right? right?

previous — masterlist — next

word count. 1.2k content. mentions of sex, alcohol consumption, profanity

It’s these moments that Sakusa loves best.

It’s late at night and the two of you are in his room. He’s on his bed, reading some book or other (he’ll totally forget the plot and have to reread it later), and you’re by his window, standing in front of his easel. From the bed, he can watch you paint, your body covered by an old shirt of his, drowned in the moonlight.

“You know, you could make the colors—”

“Are you really micromanaging my art right now?” you ask, but he can hear the smile through your voice.

You turn back to see him grinning at you and you drop your brush, launching yourself onto the bed beside him. He laughs as you start trailing kisses across his neck and down his chest.

Sakusa’s never been this happy before, it’s getting to be a little silly at this point.

“You’re so pathetic,” you tell him, burying your face in his chest to hide your smile.

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” he says. “Like so pathetic. You wouldn’t believe it.”

He places a finger on your chin and tilts your head up. He swears you’re the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

You scrunch your nose up, growing a little self-conscious under the intensity of his gaze. “You know, people are gonna start catching onto us.”

He kisses your forehead. “And would that be so bad?”

Your face drops a little at that. You probably think he doesn’t notice, but he does. The way your eyes lose focus, the way your smile falters.

You’ve never told him why you’re so keen on keeping this all hush-hush. It never used to bother him, especially when things between the two of you were just starting. But he can’t help the nagging feeling that he won’t like whatever it is when he finds out.

So he doesn’t ask.

“I should head home,” you say quietly. You’re still smiling at him, as if convincing him that everything is fine.

“Oh, right,” he says, holding back his disappointment. “Sure.”

You kiss him one last time and get up.

And just like that, the moment ends.

You really should’ve read the group chat. It was blowing up a few hours ago, but you were too busy getting railed to even notice. If you had just checked your damn phone.

“Drink up, drink up,” Oikawa insists, handing you a shot glass of vodka. “I’m peer pressuring you. You have no choice.”

You roll your eyes as you down the drink. “How much have you had?” you ask, looking over at the other boys gathered in your living room. There are at least three other bottles of alcohol on the coffee table, all of them empty.

“Not a lot,” Hanamaki slurs. His head drops onto the table and Matsukawa forces it back up. “Quite a bit.”

You chuckle, dropping your bag on the couch and sitting down between Oikawa and Iwaizumi. You look over at your roommate. “Why are we doing this?”

Iwaizumi—also wasted, but trying to hide it—nods at Matsukawa. “Girlfriend dumped him.”

You grimace and reach over to pat your fallen comrade on the back. “Sorry, bro,” you say, taking the bottle of vodka and filling everyone’s glasses up. “Why’d she do it?”

Matsukawa lets out an exasperated sigh. “I didn’t answer her calls,” he tells you. “In my defense, I was just taking a shower. She’s the one who called like fifty times.”

“What did I say?” You tut. “Always—”

“—answer your girl’s calls,” he finishes for you. “I know. She just gets fucking insane sometimes, you know?”

You take another shot and nod. You know what he means. You only met his girlfriend a few times, but you could tell she wasn’t going to stick around for too long. She was a regular college kid, insecure and needy, just like the rest of you. 

You figure that’s why a lot of relationships at this age don’t last. Speaking from experience.

“So where were you?” Oikawa asks, his head falling on your shoulder. He’s all red and woozy, almost like he’s the one that has to drink his heartbreak away.

You frown. “Nowhere,” you tell him. “Library.”

“Bullshit.”

“Not bullshit.”

“No, no,” Hanamaki chimes in. “Bullshit, baby, bullshit.”

You groan as all three boys now turn to you for a proper answer. “I was just visiting a friend.”

Oikawa wiggles his eyebrows and presses himself further against you. “A ‘friend,’ huh?”

“For fuck’s sake.” You reach over and drink his shot for him. “It’s nothing!”

Matsukawa leans over the table and moves his face right in front of yours. You can smell the alcohol on his breath, and you put your palm on his face to push it away.

“Holy shit!” he exclaims when he drops back down in his place. “Were you visiting him?”

Hanamaki gags. “I thought you were over this!”

Oikawa turns to you with a disappointed look on his face. “You were with him?”

You shake your head urgently. “Fuck no!” you exclaim. “I’m done with that.”

“Sure,” he says, unconvinced. “So you’ve just been sneaking around with some random friend.”

“Do you guys want chips?” you ask loudly, trying to distract them. You get up. “I’m getting chips.”

“I’ll help,” Iwaizumi says, dragging himself up and following you to the kitchen.

There’s a strange tension between you and your roommate as you both look through the cabinets to find something. You don't know what it is.

You’re grabbing a bag of chips when you hear a thud behind you. You turn to find Iwaizumi on the floor, a stunned look on his face.

“What the fuck happened to you?” you say, laughing as you go to check and see if he’s hurt himself.

He shakes his head and starts laughing. “I dunno,” he tells you. “Room is spinning.”

“You’re so drunk,” you say, joining in on his laughter.

It’s not every day that you get to see Iwaizumi like this, plastered out of his mind. He’s usually the one who keeps all of you in check, managing his liquor so he can make sure you don’t do something illegal or get yourselves killed. It’s refreshing to see him let loose every once in a while.

“Don’t tell me your girlfriend dumped you too,” you tell him, grabbing him a glass of water. You sit down beside him as he takes steady gulps.

“Don’t have a girlfriend, you know that,” he grumbles, placing the glass on the floor beside him. His eyes land on yours and he tilts his head to the side. “So you’re really not seeing him again?”

You furrow your brows. “No,” you say, then, “Would it bother you if I was?”

He hums, still staring at you. He reaches over and brushes a strand of hair from your face. His hands linger on the side of your face. It’s a drunken action, you’re sure, but you’d be lying if you said it didn’t have an effect on you.

And nothing prepares you for what he says next.

“I don’t want you to be with someone else.”

Your eyes widen. It’s the alcohol talking, you remind yourself. But, then again, a drunk tongue speaks a sober mind.

“Why?” you find yourself asking. Your voice is quiet. When he doesn’t answer you, you find it in yourself to press him. “Why don’t you want me with someone else?”

You become acutely aware of his hand still touching your face.

“Because,” he says, eyelids drooping a little, “you’re so pretty.”

notes. 🫣

[diangelofan]

An Unexpected Friendship

I guess most people in this fandom wouldn't probably celebrate Percy Weasley's birthday, but I really like him (despite being such a stick in the mud sometimes). So (belatedly) here's some Percy and Oliver friendship!

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

September 1st, 1987

“Are you sure you don’t want to sit with us on the train ride to Hogwarts?” “Yeah, Perce, it’ll be fun! We’ll introduce you to our mates!”, Bill and Charlie Weasley stared back at their younger brother expectantly.

“I am sure. I wanted to get up to speed with my reading”, Percy raised his arms to show his heavy volume of Hogwarts: A History, “I would like to have finished it by the time we arrive at the castle.”

Maybe he should have gone with his brothers’ proposition. They, being the popular and “cool” older brothers they were, would probably never ask him to sit with them again. His two younger brothers, twins Fred and George, always made fun of him for being “such a huge bore” (thank Merlin, there were still two years before they came to Hogwarts as well; Percy shuddered just thinking about all the trouble those two would get into).

But he hadn’t lie when he said he wanted to finished his book. He had stopped at the chapter dedicated to the Ghosts of Hogwarts and it was quite fascinating…

“Okay, Perce. Enjoy the ride!” “Yeah, who knows, maybe you’ll make some friends of your own!” And with those words, Percy’s older brothers closed the door of his compartment closed, waving as they went. Percy waited till he could no longer hear their loud footsteps and voices before submerging himself in his reading.

Friends, sure, I’ll make some, Percy thought bitterly. He had never been able to form a friendship with the twins, who were the closest to his age (Molly homeschooled all her kids, so he had never spent much time with children his age), and, instead they always found something to mock him about. But, sure, maybe he would make friends.

The pass of time became irrelevant, as Percy sat and read for what could have been many minutes or hours. He had long since finished the Ghost Chapter and was nearing the end of a chapter titled The Chamber of Secrets (probably all just some legend, but interesting nevertheless), when he heard a knock on the door, followed by a small head peeking into his compartment.

“I am sorry, but all the other compartments I’ve been to were full. Could I sit here?” The other boy was also wearing plain black robes, like Percy, meaning he was another first year. Percy would have preferred to stay alone for the ride, but it seemed too mean to just deny the other first-year boy’s request when his compartment had more than enough space for the two of them.

“Okay. However, I am reading, so if you could please remain silent, it would be highly appreciated.” There you go with the “pompous” vocabulary, thought Percy, now the boy is going to look at you weirdly. It had happened before during dinner time. Percy would make a comment on the topic of conversation and he would only received confused glances back. A consequence of reading too many classic novels, textbooks and dictionaries, probably… oh well…

To the red haired boy’s surprise, the other boy just nodded and smiled, taking a book from his satchel: “That’s fine. It gives me the chance to reread my favourite book Quidditch Through the Ages for the second time today.”

And thus, the two boys spent most of the train ride in this manner, sitting quietly beside each other while reading their respective books. It was quite enjoyable, in Percy’s opinion.

It must have been a couple hours later when Percy’s reading was interrupting again (he was just one chapter short of finishing) by a tiny cough and a nervous voice stating: “I finished my book… It was quite interesting! Even though, I’ve read it almost like a million times before, I always get so surprised when reading about the origins Quidditch and how it all started! It’s truly fascinating…! I love-! …Sorry, I realize I am rambling like a fool… I just wanted to introduce myself: I am Oliver Wood and I am first year, which I think you are as well… right?”

Oliver’s face had quickly passed through different emotions during his small speech: from nervousness, to excitement, to joy, to embarrassment, and then back to being nervous. While Percy’s first idea had been to quickly answer with his name and continue reading quietly, something in the other’s boys words had really resonated with him. That excitement which what he read had incited in him, as well as the embarrassment when realizing he was rambling about a very niche and bookish topic, was something that Percy had experienced a couple of times before. He knew how it felt to have his “boring” interests dismissed (even if that had not being the person’s intention at all) and he refused to do it to somebody else if he could help it. Afterall, he could read the remaining chapter before going to bed that night.

Thus, he closed his book and smiled, answering the other boy’s question: “Nice to meet you, Oliver. My name is Percy Weasley and, yes, I am also a first year.”

“Oh, great! Finally someone I can commiserate with! I am sooooo nervous about Hogwarts… though it’s also all really exciting!”, exclaimed Oliver.

And that’s how the two boys spent the rest of their ride to their new school. They talked about their families (Percy going into a rant about the troubles the twins could get into with their little pranks, while Oliver told him how his parents had spent weeks telling him stories about their time at Hogwarts in anticipation for the event), what house they would be in (both mentioned that it was very probable it would be Gryffindor as that was where most of their family members had ended up in), and the things that most excited them about Hogwarts (for Percy, it was learning about magic in all those new different ways, while for Oliver, as the huge Quidditch enthusiast he seemed to be, it was watching and, starting in his second year hopefully, playing at the Interhouse Quidditch Cup).

Percy didn’t know Oliver’s opinion, but when both boys got together into one of the little boats that would transport them to the castle, the red-haired boy thought to himself: Well, this seems like the start of an unexpected friendship. Maybe his brothers had been right, after all, and he had nothing to worry about in the friends department. Yeah, just maybe…

[ash-lash]

school bus graveyard headcanons!! (Just my opinion)

Ashlyn🎧

When she’s practicing ballet she has her music low. So when anyone walks in they don’t hear it and wonder what the absolute what is she doing.

Ashlyn refuses to be around Aiden when he’s eating jolly ranchers because he crunches on them and if she has to hear that one more time she’s sticking them to his bedroom window

Prefers soft food over crunchy food due to how it feels in her ears and how it sounds. (you know when you hear the food you eat? That’s what I mean)

When she goes to ballet practice she always looks out for Aiden ever since she showed him where the studio was. He showed up once and Ashlyn had the instructor lock him outside.

Aiden🧩

Loves puzzles to the point where he has a stash of them that he hasn’t completed in a box because one day he knows he’ll finish them. (Spoiler alert he gets side tracked and never does)

Tries to break his habit of crunchy on jolly ranchers around ash to make her more comfortable. But she did stick one to his head once and now he prefers the gummy jolly ranchers.

When he shows up to Ashlyn’s dance studio he always tries to go around the back but ash always seem to know his next move and locks his entrance points.

Ben 🥊

Throws hands with parents that hit their kids. You cannot tell me he has not had the internal fight of trying not to slam a parent into the clothes rack when they spank their kids in public.

He once helped a cat stuck in a tree when he was a kid and it scratched him. And while he was disinfecting them Aiden had a talk with him about not getting close to things that’ll hurt you.

Aiden managed to make him dye his hair blonde or match him once and that’s why his hair is so short cause he had to start over cause of the bleach.

Tyler ⚾️

Hates cold weather, will immediately go back inside when it’s cold or later himself up more.

Him and Taylor used to have staring contests as kids and neither of them would look away until their dad or mom grabbed them and moved them away from each other

Judges Aiden whenever Aiden says something dumb. He thinks how can he be rich and dumb. But he never says it out loud cause he has respect for aiden since most of them know aiden is actually really smart.

Taylor 🪛

Once cut her hair to match Tyler’s and their mom couldn’t tell them apart for days

Once made a robot to attack Barron with but Tyler dismantled it and talked to her about it.

Thought about joining the cheer team since some of her friends were on it but decided against it.

Pulls all-nighters to finish projects and mechanical stuff.

Logan📚

Loves reading. I kinda think he’d read books off of booktok and when he does he’d honestly be to scared to even go back on the app.

He used to always wear long socks but them changed to leggings instead to be a bit more fashionable.

Thought about getting contacts but putting anything near his eyes makes him shudder and he’d rather not.

His grandparents make good food and so he invites the group over sometimes and they have a good time eating

Once discovered how to make a hallucinogenic concoction when he was making mulch and mixed two flowers together.

Has books all over his room. Tyler once came over to help him organize. And the next day it was back the way it was.

Logan has his favorite books on a small shelf in his room and rereads them every morning and night.

[sarascamander]

Reading the cursed child (scorbus, norvelize version in a03). I read the script years ago when I was 11 (funfact it was the first harry potter book I've ever bought). So I'm rereading it again because I have a scorbus brainrot suddenly (11 y/o me shipped Scorpius and Rose so hard but now I grew up let just say my taste had change lmao).

List of thought gonna go longer as I read:

- yo Albus surly personality is basically me when I was 15 it was like looking into a mirror. Hold on there baby I understand you 😭

- I want to write a whole essay on Albus and Harry's relationship. They both are so precious but they just have a hard time with each other.

- Scorpius is the sunshine most sunshine cinnamon role ever. I would kill for him. I would die for him.

- ALL THOSE BULLY BETTER STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY OUTCASTS BABIES.

- “And be my good friend.” what if I die.

- why do people love to torture the cinnamon roll??? I want to hug Scorpio so bad like baby you deserve the moon and the sky and the world. And the fact that he's still trying to be so cheerful and optimistic. THE WORLD DOESN'T DESERVE HIM.

- Albus and Harry's father and son angst is killing me but it is also so delicious I relish in it (it's just so complicated I love it).

- "you’re kind, Scorpius. From the depths of your belly, to the tips of your fingers." Is the sweetest thing I've ever heard anyone said. I love this quote so much I want it tattooed on my forehead.

- Again, Scorpius deserve the fucking world.

- Scorpius and Draco's relationship is SO GOOD, SO PURE, SO SOFT. They love each other so much 😭

- brb I'm going to cry at the fact that Dark AU Ron and Hermione die in such a terrible way a few minutes after they finally confess their feelings (they were scared). 😭😭😭😭😭😭

- Snape is so dramatic. Girl "you're giving up your kingdom for Albus... All it takes is one person." he made it sound like they're in a romance fantasy novel (they are).

- Head empty. Scorpius happiest memory with Albus is strong enough for him to produce a patronus.

- Scorpius is once, again, a cutie pie that deserves everything.

- Delphi is more manipulative than I realized when I first read this lmao.

- GIRL the way Albus said that he and Scorpius ran away to start a new life in the muggle world as an excuse — what do you mean you're eloping at 14??? (Out of chronological order but I just remembered this)

- Delphi when I catch you —

- Never thought I'd be rooting for Draco and Harry duo yet here we are (did I say I love Draco as a dad?? I don't think he's appreciated enough. He's a brilliant dad! THIS is his best redemption arc).

- "What did you say to our son, Harry?" GO OFF QUEEN (Albus is a confirmed mommy boy)

- RON WANT TO MARRY HERMIONE AGAIN. I don't quite ship them in the book/movie but they're just the sweetest in here 😩😩

- I just had the sudden realisation that Scorbus might be the only couple that I ship in hp that is so close to canon (and was canonised by some play if I heard correctly).

- that time where they were in godric hollow and Scorpius was surprised that Albus never knew the full story of his grandparents or visited the place just bc he was being a petty, moody uninterested teenager hit so hard (he is me and I am him). And the shame he felt was real too. I always regret those years in my life where I acted like that and I don't even have a daddy issue like Al did, what's my bloody excuse lmao (I blame fucking hormones) 😩😭

- okay so finished it!! When I was a kid I don't quite like the time travel thingy and find it very confusing but I think it's because it's a screenplay yk, and it was meant to be watched not read. But the novel version did help a lot (and I give the author my hundreds of gratitude, her writing is absolutely beautiful! And she captured the characters perfectly! If you're scared to read The Cursed Child, read her novel version in ao3!!!).

I'm surprised that I actually love the plot more than I thought I would. Yeah it can get a bit unrealistic at times but all in all it's very entertaining and Albus and Scorpius are very well written, very rounded and nuanced characters that carry the book. I'm glad their parents didn't overshadow their personality etc (like them being mini-copies of Harry and Draco). They're their own person and I love that about them!!

They're not Drarry or even Jegulus as I've seen people say, they're in their own league. There are no enemies or hatred or tension between them; Scorpius and Albus genuinely like each other so much from the first they laid their eyes on each other and I adore them for it.

I read a theory that Albus was sent in Slytherin because he subconsciously wanted to be in a house with this kind boy met on the train and it made me want to cry (they were made for each other). (Although I do think Albus have many Slytherin traits, Scorpius I was less sure he screamed Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw to me but admittedly he can be cunning to).

So yeah, I don't think it's that bad as everyone said (and my 11 y/o self). It's fun and I actually cried a lot at the end of it (I have to watch Jily die, do you have any idea what that did to me???) (I don't even ship them but i swear this book set me to default back to canon).

I really want to watch the play, would die for it but it's impossible and I can only dream.xoxo

[vorbarrsultana]

the vampire lestat reread, pt. 1 (lestat and nickistat)

also known as "i decided to reread tvl after the season finale because some takes i've seen online give me the impression i read a completely different book two years ago". i've finished it two days ago, and turns out i have more than 5000 words of notes that significally exceed tumblr character limit. so, i had to split them into three parts.

here is part one, all about dramatic theater kids full of love, sad violinists of infinite beauty, and friends-to-lovers romances doomed by the narrative.

i love lestat.

i forgot how fun and likable tvl lestat is from page one. and how different he is from his fanon characterization!

lestatposting is fun, i get it, but i am starting to get annoyed at the amount of fanfics where lestat needs someone to help him adapt to modern times. he is doing fine on his own, thank you. it took him less than two weeks to start a rock band.

(and the whole iphone thing from "prince lestat" is more about him not seeing it as something useful since he has a mind-skype ability to talk to any vamp on planet earth, and they cannot decline the call.)

lestat is not stupid. impulsive? yes. stubborn? of course. but clever, resourseful, and cunning when he needs to be. all of this makes him a great hunter! also, really thoughtful when the mood strikes, and his quiet, existential moments have some of the best prose in that book.

i wish someone smarter than me wrote a good meta about lestat & social class because he really seems to buy into the idea of "noblesse oblige" i.e. the belief that aristocrats are obliged to take care of those less fortunate. it's present in the way he kills the wolf pack for the villagers (who live on his father's land), and later takes responsibility for the theatre troupe & remnants of armand's coven, even though he doesn't owe them anything.

also, characterization of lestat as someone socially cluesless is simply untrue. sure, he plays dumb on occasion (and hates it every time because early life illiteracy trauma), but he is also good at reading people. like, he got a pretty accurate read of armand behind the angelic facade during their first face-to-face meeting. the only people he has trouble reading are those closest to him because he heavily projects his abandonment issues on them.

lestat's struggle of being "too much" contrasts nicely with the struggle of never being enough which is so crucial to louis. hashtag made for each other.

and juxtaposition of lestat's desire to be loved for who he is and louis's struggle with identity is also delicious.

this time i also related so much to lestat's "malady of mortality" and his search for meaning in the world. which ultimately fails because he is forcibly turned into a monster, and now every ounce of happiness he might bring into the world (and lestat desperately wants to do good!) is outweighed by him killing to survive.

and marius later reinforced the belief that vampirism has no higher purpose, and no wonder that nola!lestat is a shell of his former self.

lestat's turning is the most classic horror moment of the vampire chronicles to me. the mina harker of it all. the creature of night shrouded in terror snatching an innocent victim from the arms of their love right before bleak november sunrise.

also, all the implications of what magnus has done to lestat were even more clear during this reread, and i wonder if that was the reason rolin "i-love-narrative-parallels" jones added bruce into claudia's story.

the book also explains perfectly why lestat is so well suited for vampirism. his curiosity, thirst for new experiences, and adventuring spirit are his eternal engine on the devil's road :)

however, the downside of that personality facet is that lestat steamrolls over his trauma telling himself "this is fine! look, satan, i am making the best of it", which in turn leads to the iwtv nola mess.

and i feel like this constant search for positives in vampirism (that unwilligly turned lestat & claudia share) is why they can't really relate to louis, who chose it for himself. if these two start to get too existential, the temptation to throw themselves into the fire might become unbearable.

lestat equating his loneliness with his evilness is interesting, but i have nothing to say about that for now other than equation being there.

lestat's explosive temper is also present in the book. there is a constant pattern of lestat doing things he regrets the most (like the theater performance fiasco or eating people at notre dame's steps) when he is angry or upset.

let's talk about nicki. i love him, despite half of fandom hating on him for some reason.

lestat has a type, which is "good catholic boy" with narrow view of good and evil. except louis is of a parent's favorite, conforming variety, and nicki is the rebellious one, driven to the utmost cynicism by religious dogmas.

however, despite being a self-proclaimed cynic, nicki practically drowns in catholic guilt, almost reveling in the fact that everything he does, from playing violin in the boulevard theater to having an affair with lestat, is wrong. there is no meaning in anything, and he is doomed to die a sinner's death.

he is doomed! by the narrative though.

lestat and nicki's philosophical difference seems to be that nicki (unlike lestat) does not believe in inherent goodness of the positive emotions. for him, "sin always feels good", therefore happiness they bring performing = sin.

but still, nickistat's love is so touching. after lestat ghosts nicki to protect him, he still trusts lestat's love for him and the troupe, thinks best of him, and shuts down all nasty rumours. in turn, lestat equates all the good that was in his mortal life, all his hopes and dreams with nicki. he is a symbol of everything magnus took from him.

AND THEY COMMUNICATE THROUGH MUSIC, AND IT'S THEM AT THEIR BEST, AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

nicki almost became lestat's charlie. when they meet face to face for the first time after lestat's transformation, he can barely contain his hunger magnified by attraction.

the most terribly sad thing about nicki is the unfairness of all that happened to him. he had seen lestat being shot right before him, then he disappeared with dying gabrielle, then the coven kidnapped and tortured him until he lost his mind.

and for nicki, the dark gift is a confirmation of everything he believes in being true. the meaninglessness of it all. evil being the only certain thing in the world. the way to fall into a deeper, darker abyss than the one that was before the mortal him. and it is a confirmation that lestat's inner light he loved so much will eventually burn out.

(his spark in the dark, if you will.)

(and lestat's dream before turning nicki hurts, because he dreams of growing up and growing old together, of maturing past magnus's eternal lelio with sunlight in his hair and summer sky in his eyes. oh, the lesdaughter of it all.)

there is certainly a parallel between nickistat's bitter "in darkness, we are equal now" vs loustat's comforting "in the quiet dark, we were equals".

[kisaraslover]

DO U HAVE ANY BLUESHIPPING FIC REC?????PLEASENIMSTARVINGKSKSKKS

anon kskkasak ITS FINE ILL SAVE YOU OK? here goes:

Scenes from a Kaiba Marriage and Temptation by my blueshipping queen @kisara-kaiba as the opening. the peak of modern life blueshipping fluff, very lovesick, when im reading them its heart full, head empty. youre gonna be lucky to start them now cuz ill be rereading and drawing scenes from them this week👀. itll be like premium fanfic reading.

Enjambment -> this fic might be the single best written blueshipping fic by the virtue of MIRRORING their encounter in ancient Egypt beat by beat, including BOTH of their character arcs and the netflix show vibe of suspense and the sharp, cold and bleak setting is chefs kiss. changed my brain chemistry. still one of my favorite portrayals of Kisara.

Maiden with Eyes of Blue -> Sometimes time needs to slow down and a single scene should be a character study/ hashing out of things you needed acknowledged by canon, the situation is ESPECIALLY dire for Seto Kaiba as ive made my feelings on his writing known many times. This is it. Kisara isnt reincarnated in this one though, but her love for him can be felt in the air. Ngl you could just incorporate this into post canon and it would be fine. canon compliant+ canon enriching.

Shades of Water, Ice, and Sky -> I'm skimming through each fic to see what they were about and i just gotta say: why so heart-wrenching if so short?? theyre in love your honor.

Their Promise: Book I -> ok gonna be honest w you i havent finished this one and the main reason is that i cant go past the SPECTACULAR first chapter. ive started and failed to draw it in its entirety. i open it, i chew on the first chapter like a rabid dog, i close it more often than not. the second reason is it has a lot more angst and heartbreak than most blueship fics do and im weak to that sort of thing. still, if we follow their ancient egypt encounter beat by beat, which is a fantastic way of following and enriching the canon, their first meeting needs to be as kids with him saving her from a cage. chefs kiss.

who are you? -> JUST the right amount of Seto Kaiba immediate fixation obsession on Kisara (which means insanely obsessed)

You Will Crave Your Ancient Roots -> this is so good and so heartbreaking man. Seto and Atem are shot back into ancient Egypt and Seto is only able to slightly alter the events around Kisara. hes fated to fall for that woman every single time and *starts sobbing*

Ancient Rules -> all i gotta say is this Seto Kaiba gives me brainworms. hes chuck full of Passion and Cockiness and Insanity. blueshippers sometimes take out his insanity. he is very unsettling here i love it. Kisara is truly at his mercy..

never forget your first dream -> fem!Set and Kisara in ancient Egypt, this story twists more than just Seto's gender. im a yuri seto truther so its great to have written proof of it. jokes aside, very well characterized Set and Kisara, rich writing.

One in Forty -> pretty short but this one fundamentally changed how i viewed Kisara's canon influence over BEWD cards and her constant and unbendable favor around Seto. canon compliant + canon enriching.

ok so these are the cream of the crop for ME personally, might have forgotten some in my other folders, i might have missed reading some, its probably not all encompassing. but frankly ive liked and saved fics for a single resounding line, single funny joke, one interesting implication about the story or the characters the author wrote up so in my heart theyre all worth checking out, always. fanfic writers are carrying this ship on their backs and theyre all 9 ft tall and im just walking around them, clearing the path, giving them a sip of water and snacks etc. so THANK YOU BLUESHIPPING AUTHORS I LOVE YOUUUUUU

[six-of-ravens]

FINISHED MY SONG OF THE LIONESS REREAD!!!!

(if this makes no sense please bear with me, it's after midnight)

Overall, some parts of the series didn't hold up as well as I thought they would, but many parts did. Alanna is still my homegirl. The swordfights and sorcery and all that never fail to entertain. There is a bit more sexism than I remember, and some of the parts with the Bazhir didn't age very well, but it remains a classic.

BOOKS RANKED BASED ON HOW MUCH I LIKED THEM:

1. Lioness Rampant - I think this is the book where Pierce really hit her stride as a writer. The world seems fuller, the plot thicker, the characters more established. The pacing is a lot better, too: this book is about 100 pages longer than all the others and Pierce uses those pages well. The final battle against Roger is a little anticlimactic (though it's preceded by like four other battles) but well earned. I hated Liam for the most part, because frankly he's a shit boyfriend to Alanna, but also she dates 3 men over the series and I guess one of them had to suck for real. I did love Thom though - I think he and Raistlin cemented my love for asshole fuckup mildly, ambitiously evil wizards early on.

2. Alanna: The First Adventure - this one is kind of tied for first place. It's a shorter book, but the pacing is decent and we get all that wonderful knight school content. Extremely entertaining, and a very fun start to the series.

3. The Woman who Rides like a Man - a nice breather of a book after the events of the first two, lots of character growth for Alanna, with cool desert sorcery and fighting and all. I think this book is what really set the pattern for The Immortals and the Circle of Magic books - Pierce looooves writing kids learning magic, and she's good at it. That said, there are obviously a lot of Issues with the portrayal Bazhir (clearly based off a combo of Islamic folk and Native Americans) as violent and sexist, and Alanna and Jonathan (especially Jonathan, as the Voice) take on kinda cringe white saviour roles. It's not the most explicitly horrible thing ever but it does grate a bit.

4. In the Hand of the Goddess - well, someone had to be last. This is kind of the weird middle child in the quartet, where Alanna is in the midst of becoming a knight but there's a lot of random events that happen in that time. Most of the book is told in a series of vignettes - mainly incidents where Alanna or Jon narrowly avoid death or injury due to Duke Roger's schemes. However, they're a little too disconnected and Alanna's motivation (or lack thereof) is a little too vague until the final scene to satisfy me. The official explanation is that Roger was veiling Alanna so she just kept forgetting to report him, but we never actually see this in the story. She just builds up all these theories and is 100% certain it's him but doesn't tell anyone but Myles because she's certain no one will believe her (and why would they - at this point he's a respected noble). Idk, I just wanted more like....harmony between the ending and these vignettes I guess. Also, there's the horrible cringe subplot of everyone, including the goddess, treating Alanna like she's some frigid old hateful spinster when she's 15 and doing the normal teenage thing of going "I'll never have a boyfriend!!" I just wish some of the patronizing speech had been cut and Alanna discovered her sexuality without all that BS. Also, George is quite creepy in this one, he's quite a bit older than Alanna and she's still underage by modern terms so I didn't enjoy his attempts at romance as much as in the next book.

ANYWAY. Childhood favourites, like 8/10 will read again, just have to brace myself for the 80s-ness of certain things and remember this was the author's first series and she was still experimenting with style.

[eomma-jpeg]

trigun fic rec list - from lace!

alright, FINE, twist my arm

FIRST UP: @squid789 Blank Ticket - vashmeryl/milivio

so i have a personal fanfic like... catalog LOL and i make little notes as i read and here is the note i left on BT right after i finished it about a year ago

seriously sooooooooooooooo good. squid does an incredible job at post trimax work

blank ticket is so good if you like post trimax stuff (like I do >:)) and squid is so good at representing vash as he ought to be (a brat with a bad attitude and abandonment issues)

Sea Foam - vashmeryl/millywood

once again i have notes from my catalog LOL

PERFECT STUPENDOUS INCREDIBLE I LOVE SQUID AND THE DRAMA AND TRAUMA THEY GIVE ME

SF is a mermaid au and i adore ANYTHING THAT GIVES ME MERMAIDS. It is such an amazing exploration into so many characters, and especially knives WHOM I LOVE TO HATE IN THIS FIC. hes such a brat and yet is just a kid who never got to be a kid and i love him

After Eden - vashmeryl/milivio

I don't have this one in my catalog !!!!! a tragedy !!! (i stopped updating my catalog when i started writing what a shame T-T)

But i can chat about after eden bc i was there for its conception!!! and I beta for it teehee

but its an exploration of BT and i just

it hurts me

squid loves to hurt me

but it hurts so good T-T

if you love to see manga vash act like a spoiled brat and enjoy meryl whump, you will LOVE after eden

Not a Chance - vashmeryl

a lil fic written in the in the meadow universe and its by squid and i love squid and this is my favorite thing in the world

meryl contemplates why she had to fall in love with this doofus

Now, for just a HUGE line up of fics !! these will include my initial thoughts that i have saved in my catalog teehee:

vashmeryl

Truth of a Memory by @fullcry

Vash and Meryl experiment with Vash’s telepathy and memory sharing.

one of my favs just because meryl and vash are so sweet to each other T-T

The Art of the Date by fullcry

Meryl and Milly pity Vash for being a terrible flirt, and Vash dares Meryl to a date to teach him to do better. Vash does better than anticipated.

i go back and reread this one often lol

Memories on Film by fullcry

okay.... this one is spicy and I'm not a huge fan of explicit content....

BUT THE GROWTH AND THE SWEET TENDER MOMENTS AND VASH BEING OBVIOUS MAKES ME SWOON ITS SO GOOD

Other Ways to Speak by fullcry

Meryl kisses each and every one of Vash’s scars

inspired by this

OH BABY THIS ONE IS SO GOOD.

No Reason by @eilwen

this is more of a collection of one shots rather than a complete story, but it has some very cute chapters.

LITERALLY ONE OF THE BEST TRIGUN FANFIC AUTHORS OUT THERE !

Seriously one of the best fics. I'm still not completely caught up bc i have zero time, but its so incredibly written. i wanna be like eilwen when i grow up

Distractions by eilwen

eilwen at it again !!! their stuff is so good !!!!!!

this is an incredible exploration of meryl’s character and the growth of their relationship through the books she reads.

The End by @ginger-mosaic

Long fic. It is a vashmeryl fic but it is MORE of an exploration of Vash and Knives’ relationship after the events of the manga.

currently unfinished and I want to die because I need more. I love Livio

ITS ALMOST DONE AND AHHHHHHHHHH CHRONICAAAAAAAAA

seriously an INCREDIBLE FIC. it is a book that could be published at this point its so good. not incredibly vashmeryl heavy, but it is there and i adore it sm T-T

The thomas in the room by @anime-grimmy

Paired with a comic by the author, this takes place after the events of the movie Trigun: Badlands Rumble.

Meryl is acting weird and Vash is determined to figure out what he did to make her so angry at him.

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEYRE SO DUMB AND SO IN LOVE GRAHHHHH

Saving Grace by anonymous

TRIGUN SPOILERS - biblically accurate vash. big angel boy

Meryl gets injured and vash tries something new in order to help her

uhhhh if you like monsters and big angels and kisses then uhhhhh this is for you

Roots by @magadauthan

Meryl and Vash have a… whirlwind of a relationship. Vash notices something strange about his hair. Meryl makes him clean the bathroom.

soooooooo silly and domestic and dumb they heal each other its cute.

Interjacence by herdedcats (jaina <3)

Vash and Meryl can’t sleep and decide to make donuts in the middle of the night. Unfortunately that also leave a lot of time for evaluating feelings and confessing thoughts.

no comfort :(

this one is SO GOOD BY WHY DID IT HAVE TO HURT ME SO

Flying or Falling by @madnessmadness

MAXIMUM RIDE AND TRIGUN MIX AHHHHHHELFJFLEFJELKJFLEKJFLJE

my two niche interests slammed together and its so good aldkjfsljdflkj

Bluebells by @needle-noggins

once again, i don't like explicit content, but sav gets me HOOKED IN WITH THE COMFORT AND THE CHARACTER BUILDING AND THE WAY THESE TWO LOVE EACH OTHER SO DESPERATELY THEY WANT TO HELP EACH OTHER SO BAD

Like a Limb by @commander-goo

points aggressively

you like post trimax ? you like feathers and hurt/comfort ???

YOU LIKE THIS

READ THIS

Wait, he can do that? by anonymous

SOFT

FEATHERY AND SOFT AND GOOD

meryl gets a glimpse into vash's ..... dreams.... and gets a bit flustered

millywood

Absolution by SMP

companion piece to tension, describes the intimate moment between Milly and Wolfwood just after he kills Zazie and before [MAJOR TRIGUN SPOILER]

one of the best millywood pieces out there. seriously so good and so soft and has some of the best imagery

i can see a lot of life in you by procrastinatingbookworm

Milly and Wolfwood share clothes

some trigun spoilers because of Wolfwood’s guilt :/

VERY POETIC AND VERY GOOD

In Eden by MicrosuedeMouse

a 98 fic where wolfwood happens to be alive 1!!! and he’s scared to come forward and see milly………….

but then he sees her

millynai

Zirconium Blues by @madnessmadness

alt au where Nai is the hero and Vash is the villain……..

ITS SO INCREDIBLE AHHHHHHHH I LOVE THIS ONE ITS SO POETIC AND AWESOME AND I LOVE LENI THEY FRICKING CATER TO ME AHHHH

milly takes care of an injured nai and shes so country i love her so much

In the Moonlight by @veilder

THIS WAS WRITTEN FOR ME ITS IN THE MEADOW CONTENT T-T

I LOVE VEIL SO MUCH THEYFJEFLEJFLSJD THEY DID THIS FOR ME AHHHHHHH

How to say "You are the sun to my moon" in Flowers by FullmetalDude1

a cute fic inspired by in the meadow and its suuuper sweet

this is a flowershop au where knives is essentially domesticated by milly and i love them so much

Interested in the fics i didn't mention? here you go Lace's Fanfic Catalog

[wickedcriminal]

Hey, again, wickedcriminal, I see that the half brother au posts have returned and I am so happy I was going through withdrawal I had to reread all my how to train your Dragon books in order to pass the time. I also wanted to thank you for inspiring me to reread them. The books were so much darker and better than the movies. I would be able to finish all of them if I had them ALL!?! Seriously I have books 1-8. I have trying to get the final ones but my local book stores never have them in stock! Though seriously, I wanted to thank you for posting such an amazing little alternate universe story, I cannot wait for your story to start getting some more attention, and your book based of it to start I will be their to start reading it as soon as it comes.

I would like to go onto my asks now, as with the new law that I’ve recently seen I’ve had a couple of questions that I now have, so if if the twins are keeping a score of how many times one the kids get kidnapped doesn’t that mean that all of them have been abducted at some point? Also what are those situations even like cause if the twins are keeping score than Elder and Youngers friends must have some pretty memorable abduction stories they have to talk about. Wonder who has it worse?

Hello again!! Omg thank you for all your kind words!!! I'm so happy to see you're still enjoying the au!! :DD

The Twins keeping score is hilarious, and I'm sure all of the Riders have gotten their fair share of snatching at some point, with the Twins keeping a nice little tally board on the wall of the clubhouse and the Hiccup brothers are in the lead by a LANDSLIDE 😂 what can they say, they're just very kidnappable ASDHKLSGK

As for who gets kidnapped more; that's a great question! They've both been kidnapped by plenty of people ever since they were kids and all through the canon. The Danger-Brutes, the Romans, the Hysterics, the Berserks (especially when Dagur became chief), and eventually the Dragon Hunters (who are the Lava Louts in this au) all capture and hold the boys prisoner/hostage/ransom multiple times. It's easy to say they probably lost count.

But when it comes to getting snatched by their personal enemies, there is a winner!

Hiccup E has a nice little group of people that want to snatch him and have snatched him multiple times, including Madguts the Murderous (taking the place of TV Alvin in R/DOB and snatching him and Toothless several times), Viggo and Ryker (both separately several times in RTTE), and Krogan (Midnight Scrum in RTTE).

Hiccup Y has a smaller roster by only one person, which includes Dagur (taking Younger instead of Gustav in RTTE), Alvin the Treacherous (the 2nd and 3rd books in R/DOB and the 8th book in RTTE), and Norbert the Nutjob (book 7 in in RTTE).

So its looking like the contest for the most kidnappings goes to Hiccup the Elder!!! 🎉🎉 Someone get that boy a prize!!

[rayssion]

Let's chat about Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard!!

So not me saying 'tomorrow' then proceed to delay that tomorrow for as long as possible, not my fault though! Each time I decide to write the review people just be like "oh, look at her, she seems at peace, let me just go.... Annoy her" that's my family summarised btw.

But yeah, we're finally here!

First off, the general rating for me is 4.5 for the entire series.

Now let's talk about somethings:

As a matter of fact, there's nothing I hate in this books like wth why dose it have to be this good??? Which translates to: I'm just going to fangirl, that's it, just FANGIRL.

I also want to establish that I didn't know not even a single thing about Norse mythology before reading these books. I didn't even know what Norse meant guys, I'm hopless like that. And even after they explained them a little my brain is still stuck at the "they're fancy vikings" setting lol I'm sorry.

So my whole Norse "knowledge" comes from, you guessed it, how to train your dragon🤡. It's bad, I know I know, yet it's still a start right? Like dude I never watched any Thor movie before (in my defense, it's not horror, and I enjoy horror) so just to put it simply, I don't know shit about Norse mythology.

Which is good btw!! Me not knowing anything about the mythology is actually good to measure how much Rick is good at explaining things that are totally new.

The first book took me two days to finish because it's like an introduction, so there were many new words and terms that my small brain couldn't keep track with, so I suppose you can really enjoy the series as a reread more than first time reading. Guys, it took me days to learn how to pronounce ginunngagap. So unless you already have a background on Norse mythology (not jumping into the books like stupid me) I feel like one's can't see the books true potential.

Alright, so we laid the ground about me being an uncultured swine, now we have the writing: we got the classic Rick's first person pov writing style that he went for in the original series pjo. But I got to note that it clearly improved, I can see that he was trying to step out of narrator Percy's shadow as he wrote mcga and toa, seeing that he wrote Magnus as an oblivious kid who's trying to stay out of everyone's business as much as he can, and he wrote Lester with no heroism in him whatsoever at the start. So clearly he wanted something to add contrast and volume to his universe and that's quite good. He achieved his goal with toa much more than in mcga in my opinion. Magnus, as lovely as he is, still finds time to roast people the good old Percy Jackson way, in other words you can see the resemblance between the two characters at some points. (I didn't include tkc because for me, Sadie and Carter are like Percy devided into two people, the fierce rushy personality went with Sadie, and the trying-to-pretend-to-be-calm-so-as-to-improvise-a-plan personality went with Carter, yet the two of them can be be snarky at their times).

To be Frank with you guys, not much of a character development happens during the books, I mean yes, Sam stands against her dad, and we get Amir into the picture, but yeah that's it. I guess the character who got the most change was Randolph, we love a little remedy arc at the end.

Oh other thing I like to point, Muslims don't call mosques you know "mosques" we call them Masjids (Masjid, sing.) I see it's a little slip but I prefer if it never happened, because mosque actually means "house of mosquito" so, yeah.

We also have the matter of Sam's hijab, I'd like to say that's not how being a hijabi works but I don't want to start a religious war here. Let's just say, you don't just wear your hijab when you want and not wear it when you don't want. What's the point then, if I can easily just go with my head uncovered? But we're not having this conversation, most of you won't be interested in this anyways.

And another thing! I've seen all these fanarts of Alex in the wedding dress (because I'm a sucker for Alex) and I wanted to point out, Alex was disguised as Samirah, Samirah is Muslima so her wedding dress would be, you know, Muslim friendly? Idk. But yeah, it should at least be ancle lengthed with high neck and long sleeves and the veil must be thick to cover her hair, like a hijab. Also it should be wide/big a little not clenching to her body. Just a little advice for artists there :).

Now that we spoke about Sam, can we talk about Alex? Tbh I like, knew nothing about genderfluidism(?) before this book (I read it on some blogs here on Tumblr and I imagined something totally different so I'll spear you my pathetic story) so it was nice learning new things with Rick. Like bro, in my head Alex is mostly a boy yet when I rant to my aunt I mostly use she/her. It confused the heck out of me during the first chapters actually. But I'm proud to say that I FIGURED OUT THAT LOKI WAS HER/HIS MOM LIKE BY MYSELF WAY BEFORE THE BIG REVEAL SO YEAH I'M HELLA PROUD.

I love Alex. Nothing else to say, I'm infatuated.

And yet if I'm infatuated with Alex then I'm fucking ready to die for Magnus at any given time! The boy is just so adorable!! He's so sweet even if he's being sarcastic like I just want to kidnap him and keep him in my pocket forever! I wanna hug him and pat his back, ruffle his hair and kiss his forehead because he deserves it! I just love him guys! Everything about him is just so endearing even if he was being a coward he's still lovely! I know I'm not making any sense here I just want you to know that I'm head over heels for him. Also I wanted to say that one of the things I really admired about his character is that he's never the fighter, I love how everyone else would be plunging into the battle and he'd just stand there waiting for either a chance to bargain with the enemy or an injury that he must heal. I love how Rick went out of the line this time and chose a god that, tbh, we'd never hear about him on regular basis. Like in pjo we had our protagonist Percy, son of Poseidon who's one of the big three, tkc we have Carter and Sadie channelling the power of Hores and Isis, major gods and Hores is the king or the gods, hoo's heroes are kids of the Olympians and Apollo is like, an Olympian god himself. So it was a nice turn to have Frey a neutral god who's concern is to live in peace, having our protagonist's main power to be healing or like disarming people, nothing big or fancy, yet it fits so much! Like my boy just wants to live a simple quite life (with a transgender genderfluid partner if possible and practically canon gay parents) even when there's an enemy he's like "can't I just go stand there and then a miracle happens and I don't need to fight them anymore?" Gosh I love him.

Magnus and Lester are just so relatable and so average-human-coded that you can't help but love them!

And I liked how most of the characters are also lovable, like the whole floor 19? They're just the best family and I'd be so delighted to spend eternity with them (till Ragnarok at least) I really love their dynamics. And then we have Blitz and Hearth and oh boy how much do I love hearth! I was like that's my soulmate out there pretty much since he was introduced. I'm not joking guys, these people out there have one of the best found families ever.

I also wanted to note that I'm kind of a sucker for villains like especially those who are antihero much. So, confession time, I kinda liked Luke back in pjo, I liked Set in tkc, and like Apollo himself I might simped once or twice for the emprors. The thing I wanted to say is! First book I like liked liked Loki, ngl till the end I found him fancy. Like if he wasn't so much interested in Ragnarok and world ending and whatever I might even put him with my favourite characters. Like, why do villains have to be hot?? If you don't want me to simp then don't make them hot! (What am I doing guys, I must seek help wtf)

Another topic, people would be oohhh percabeth omg omg and I'd be awww big sister Annabeth is the best! Like have you seen those Annabeth and Magnus scenes??? Bro let me tell you I'm fucking dead, like they're the best cousins out there, like that's so cuttee!!

This's a p.s actually but I wanted to say another thing, about the ending of the ship of the dead, yes it was emotional, yes I teared up. But don't you guys feel like there's much more to it? Like I'm sorry but how could we not return to the fact that Magnus can talk to birds now (Disney Princess™)? Or how in the first place can he talk to them, hearth himself doesn't know if his father had the ability. Speaking about fathers, the visions that Magnus saw about Alex's father, are we just going to pass them like they never happened? Guys idk I feel like there are some plot holes that might be left intentionally (hopefully for a next book sometime) and I also feel like there's something wrong with the gods, like the last scenes we had with them, I might be paranoid but I really feel like Frey was hiding something. Anyways yeah, that's what I wanted to add.

So this barely covers anything from the feelings I had reading this series (because I'm a sensitive bitch who visibly tremble and scream while reading fluff) but yeah, I must hurry up a little, so next thing we have is a couple of screenshots I took cuz why not? Some of them might even be out of context but I like it.

So I was going to post them in different posts and tag them here and Tumblr just said NO ") so yeah ig.

Hope you guys enjoyed this review (which is me basically simping as always) I'm like 100 pages into tsats now, hopefully I'll come back to talk about it soon.

Have a nice day/night♡!!

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

Mercs favourite books? Doesn't have to be written in the time the game is set ofc

The TF2 Mercs Favorite Books!

teehee and all that, I love this prompt. Thank you for sending it, Anon! We're also going to have to assume half of them can even read. I kinda stuck to the classics just for funsies. Also, I added their favorite quotes from the books!

But, anyway, here we go!

————————————————————

Spoilers, maybe? Probably not.

————————————————————

Demo- The Anarchist Cookbook (William Powell)

Now, let's be honest. This man went through the table of contents like a checklist. I personally think Demo and Soldier took a particular liking to the entry, "Converting a shotgun into a grenade launcher." They're just so silly like that. Anyways, once he started making mustard gas, the other mercs decided that it would be a good idea for the book to go missing. Little did they know he had eight separate copies of this book. He was very proud when he finished the book. Everyone was concerned at the new horde of weapons and drugs Demo had, until he offered to share, then they were thrilled.

“If a man is to be a man, a free spirit unto himself, he must arm himself not only with weapons but with ideals and concepts he is willing to die for.”

————————————————————

Engie- Charlotte's Web (E. B. White)

Hear me out! Even though this man has eleven PhDs, he doesn't like to read long drawn out novels. He doesn't like most of the "classics" or even most new books. Don't get me wrong, he loves to read. He just doesn't get why books can't be simple. He read Charlotte's Web when he was a kid, and it just kind of stuck with him. It was one of the only books he read that didn't really feel like a chore to read. He finds himself rereading it frequently. You'll catch him reading it to Pyro too, I personally think him and Pyro read books together a lot.

“I don’t understand it, and I don’t like what I don’t understand.”

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Heavy- The Odyssey (Homer)

Would you believe me if I told you this man is a huge fan of Greek mythology? He has no clue why, he was never interested in it when he was younger, or even up until he read the read The Odyssey. He picked it up from a library, it had a really pretty gold cover, so he read the description and figured why not? When I tell you this man was so obsessed with this book while he was reading it for the first time. He just like, wouldn't stop reading it? Like the other mercs were slightly worried that he was reading all the time. Because, sure, he probably reads more than the others, but this was excessive even for him. He loves the escape it provides, he likes the adventurer, he likes the fantasy. He just really loves this book.

“For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother”

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Medic-The Tell Tale Heart (Edgar Allan Poe)

Are we really super surprised that Medic is a fan of The Tell Tale Heart? He's also just a fan of Poe in general, but alas, I will put that away and focus on the book itself. Medic loves reading the main characters' descent into madness. He also loves the idea of someone who seemingly has a lack of guilt be riddled with it, though a different medium than actually feeling guilty. (i hope that made sense) He's just a huge fan of artists using their mediums to inflict psychological torture on their creations. Also lets be honest if Medic ever went fully insane he'd be like the main character from the book.

“Now this is the point. You fancy me a mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded...”

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Scout- Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)

HEAR ME OUT AGAIN! This man doesn't read, he has ADHD and dyslexia, how can you expect him to? But! When he was in high school it was required reading and this man struggled with like the first page, but it was really important for his grade so he tried literally everything to read it, and once he actually found out a way to be able to read the book, he was hooked, as weird as that seems. He thinks old English is hilarious, and actually liked the romance, he cried when Romeo and Juliet died. He can't tell you why he loves it so much though, it just stuck in his brain and never left. He even went out and bought his own copy of the book, it remains hidden as to not alert the other mercs to his love of it, reads it once a month.

"I defy you, stars."

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Sniper- The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)

So, I know this is Snipers headcanon, but..... I gotta talk about Scout really quick. So Scout has read The Outsiders, and he loved it! (Not as much as Romeo and Juliet, but enough to also have bought the book.) So one day, he's talking to Sniper about books, and is utterly shocked at the idea that not everyone has read The Outsiders, so he literally reads this book with such conviction to Sniper, (Sniper claimed he would read it on his own but Scout know he absolutely would not.) So Sniper begrudgingly listens to the book, and actually finds himself drawn into the story.

“He sure put things into words good.”

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Spy- Dracula (Bram Stoker)

Spy would be a vampire if he could be, wouldn't ever admit that though. Okay I'm half kidding. I think Spy really likes this book for the drama of it all, the fact that it never stays the same for long, the way it borders on actual horror, but is too dramatic to actually be scary, he just ugh, he loves it so much. I think he first found the book by it just being in his home when he was a kid. His mom just left it sitting somewhere and he just went and picked it up because he was bored and just started reading. I think he was originally scared by the book, probably cried the first time he read it. Then years later, he just remembered the book that traumatized him as a kid and he was like, it can't be that bad, I'll read it again to prove younger me was a coward. So he reads it and just falls in love with the book.

"I am longing to be with you and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air."

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Soldier- Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

Uh, so, do I need to put a hear me out for the third time? So I already headcanon that he likes Jane Austen, I'm so torn between him actually understanding and grasping hidden meanings and deep plot point and him just smiling and nodding along to the silly drama unfolding. Maybe both? His mom actually read it to him when he was younger, because it was her favorite book. The memories of his mom talking about and reading the book also contributes to the reason he likes the book so much. He has his mom's worn copy of the book and loves it. He'll reread it at least twice a month, always thinking about the first time he was introduced to it. Loves everything about the book.

"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."

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Pyro- Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)

Dont get them started with all the things they love about this book. If they could talk, they'd rant for hours. Who am I kidding they still rant for hours even though no one can understand them. They love the whimsy and insanity of Wonderland. They love the Cheshire cat and the Mad Hatter. They read this book every day. It's not even just their favorite anymore. It's the only book to ever exist 😭 On days when Pyro isn't able to read the book, they beg Engie to read it to them. Engie doesn't mind. He loves to see Pyro get all happy when he agrees.

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war with reality.”

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So that took forever to churn out for some reason, maybe because I had to actually remember reading some of these books and actually read others 😭 Sorry it's not super long or detailed! I tried not to spoil the contents of the books.

Regardless, it was fun to do, and I think I'm finally back in the swing of things! I feel more motivated, uh tons of asks came in after this sooooo expect lots of uploads after this, I think I have at least six asks right now?

[puddingvalkyrie]

Reading massively improved my mental health and I want to talk about it in case it can help others!

Y'all, I think we all need to read more books.

I know I'm an author so I WOULD say that and in fact, I DO say that to children at every opportunity (my dyslexia would be a LOT worse if I hadn't read so much as a kid) but hear me out.

So back in ...March/April I was pretty miserable and it was partly because Norwegian winter will do that to an unprepared foreigner but also because it was the anniversary of The Bad Thing so I felt miserable and alone.

I had no way to really remedy the situation.

But one thing I did do was... Finally crack. See, I'd been DYING to reread my Discworld books, but they are in a different country and I can't afford to go get them or have them sent to me. I have a few paper books here though - I mainly took my fairytale collections, because what did you expect? Actually I guess hardly anyone on Tumblr knows me - Alicia does two things. Vampires. And Fairytales. Didn't bring my vampire encyclopedia, too big and heavy. Anyway.

I have a part time job with an hour on the train each way. I started taking my paper books, my fairytale collections. They were full of short things I could finish easily in a train journey.

Some info. I had managed to sour reading for myself some years previously... I mainly read for research purposes, hardly picking up anything just for the fun of it. PSA: Don't do this. Do not do this. Don't. Do NOT.

And then I reread one of the few paper fiction books I had with me. I enjoy fairytales but they do still fall under 'sort of work' for me. This did not. This was a book I am eagerly awaiting the finale to.

Anyway, I finished it quickly, reading it both on and off the train. You know. For fun. Not just fill time I was stuck somewhere.

Finishing it annoyed me. I wanted more stories. I wanted more than fairytales. And so I cracked. I bought Equal Rites as an ebook. See, I'd previously decided I would not buy anything I already owned in paperback as an ebook because... Well, waste of money, something I don't have enough of. To buy my entire discworld collection in ebook format would cost as much as getting on a plane and bringing my paper ones back.

But just ONE book would be alright, wouldn't it?

So anyway I finished the book.

Of course I'm not going to read just ONE discworld book.

So I carefully ration myself ebooks, making a condition for myself that they are mainly for the train, but I am allowed to read them at home too.

And gradually... The fog lifted. Nothing much has changed besides that I'm reading books regularly again. I still have the same problems that were upsetting me in March. I was also HORRIBLY BURNED OUT until last week. But my mood is MASSIVELY improved. Like, hugely improved. And yeah, yeah, it's summer now, so the weather will have helped also. But I can pinpoint my recovery to when I started reading regularly again. And that is to say that while I was burned out, I wasn't ALSO sad.

So from now on I will be making an effort to keep reading books for fun.

It's kind of crazy that I had stopped for so long. I mean. I write books people are supposed to read for fun. Kinda hypocritical of me to like.. not do that.

I think maybe I have created this problem for myself with many of my hobbies. I tried to make drawing into a business, tried to do too much too fast, and since then I've barely drawn. I love cartoons so I watch them in Norwegian to help me learn - means I was never just relaxing while watching a cartoon for a few years. Recently started just watching cartoons in English/Japanese if I darn well feel like it.

...enough tangent, back to Why Reading Is Good.

Don't quote me on this, I am just scribbling down thoughts I've been meaning to write down for a month, therefore, am too lazy to track down any sources, but I'm pretty sure reading books is actually scientifically proven to help your brain?? I seem to remember reading your hippocampus shrinks if you don't exercise your brain enough and reading long stories does that. And a shrinking hippocampus causes depression?? I don't know anything much about brains and psychology so I must have read that somewhere.

I think a hippocampus is also like... A horse mermaid.

Again, no source, might be thinking of something from Mermaid Melody.

I'mma go read more of my current book now. It's a history book this time.

Yay books!