#so why did really unqualified writers TRY

[cerastes]

Whats wrong with Near Light?

It is completely clueless as to what its own point is.

"Maria Nearl" made an excellent job of portraying the capitalist bloodsport known as "the Kazimierz Major" as a soulless venture meant to sell dreams and deliver bloodshed, propaganda, and ad revenue instead. It is impeccable in its themes, to the point that Blemishine is in fact told that she is expecting far too much, by EVERYONE else, when she says she'll compete in the Major for the sake of House Nearl having a Knight Primus. Her closest associates end up supporting her not because they truly believe she's right, they support her because they literally don't want her to end up dead. Zofia, Vogelweide, Kowal and Marcin know there's no actual stopping Maria once she sets up her mind on something, so they choose to train her not so she can win, but so she can survive at all in something she's woefully unqualified for. There's absolutely no glory to be made. This is a vie for survival first and foremost.

Near Light then completely disregards all of this and makes Margaret Nearl, a character I really like, into a generic fantasy hero that Must Fight To Achieve Things. It takes the very grounded "meaningless fight for something" from the first event, which is completely in line with old knightly literature, and turns it into a shonen, which I found pretty, well, insulting. Victory equals successful ideals now, because she's Margaret "Kirito SAO" Nearl, so if she does it, it's Fine now. It spins everything into seemingly being honorable knightly duels (but we're the good ones), while giving a horribly passive centrist narrative to what was purely a criticism of late stage capitalism in the prior event. Margaret wants to change things systematically from within.. Which is just a load of hog-fucking-wash when we already established from moment one that the system is in itself flawed, corrupt, and a cesspit of maggots trying to eat each other. It makes you wonder if it was the same writer that wrote both events, because it sure as shit doesn't seem so, and if it was, did they get into NFTs in the meantime or subscribe to Infowars or Andrew Tate or whatever equivalent there is mainland China or something? It went from a clearly muddied look at a system that is inherently flawed into "Actually, if we win enough fights... We can begin the Change Everything castbar, it's pretty simple, actually".

And I bring up those particular shitstains because Margaret Nearl, VERY uncharacteristically, pulls off a "no handouts, let them pull themselves up by their bootstrings" in the event: She refuses to go rescue Pinus Sylvestris because "they can't be saved by those who already have true conviction, they must do it themselves"... Actually what the fuck? You see in Chapter 0, 1 and 7 of the main story that Nearl will go out of her way, risk her very own flesh, to rescue those who are hopeless because that's what she believes in, that's why she's admired, because she'll fucking pull through in these situations... And then she says this shit in Near Light? AND THEN, as if that wasn't enough, smashing a fucking broken thermometer over a salted wound, it is then stated in god damn Operators Files that she did rescue Pinus Sylvestris off-screen anyways, because whoever was responsible for "writing" this, and I'm being fucking magnanimously generous with that word, couldn't just have their cake, but also had to devour it wholesale in one single bite? Get the fuck out.

On screen: Yeah, they gotta earn their lives. [Some fakedeep shit about needing to be devoted enough to their own cause and beliefs] Off screen: Oh I saved them anyways lol, I need to Look Cool.

It's not good writing, g, I'll tell you that fucking much, and it makes me upset because it's a character I like in a setting I love.

Of course I'm not going to like if they Kiritofy a character they had consistently written real damn well prior to an event meant to star her.

It makes me mad because the ultimate resolution of it all is a very cowardly "I Will Now Improve Things From Within" yeah okay and Suzaku was right in Code Geass too, right? Jesus fucking christ, man.

Bottom line, it all feels like they set up something incredible in Maria Nearl, right up until the very end, when Fan Favorite comes out of fucking nowhere to save the day, and then her event contradicts the key tenets of her character thus far to boot.

So you'll have to forgive me but my opinion on Near Light is not particularly positive because it became a "Wow look at how COOL this character is!" kinda shonen shitshow when we had a very "The system is inherently wrong, the solution is not at all simple" sort of seinen narrative going on. It should be telling when Mlynar embodies a more scathingly apt take on the sides Maria herself did not cover in her event towards the narrative than whatever the hell they decided to tarnish Margaret with. It's like the Twilight of Wolumonde writer handled Maria Nearl until the end and then they put the Sword Art Online writer on for Near Light.

It's not because I dislike Margaret Nearl that I feel this way. It's because I like her and they did her dirty. But sure, wau cool horse dom wife mommy or whatever.

[palmviolet]

fic writer tag game

thanks for the tag @mirkwood-hr-department !

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

~900k (scary)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

stranger things, peaky blinders, tolkien, succession, among others...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

- sub-culture

- the lathe

- better by you, better than me

- disaster/lucky

- misgiven

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i do! i'm not so great at it with oneshots but with multichapters my practice is to reply to all the previous chapter's comments right before i post the next one. it keeps me disciplined about it, since i think it's important to engage with and thank my readers.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

probably the year of what now... i was going for hopeful melancholy but let's be honest. i cried writing it

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i mean i don't really do unqualified happy endings lmao there's always something bittersweet or complicated about it. maybe love is a battle i can win? since i finished writing it on christmas eve and something about the festive spirit must have suffused my attitude.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

thankfully not, or if i have it wasn't consequential enough to recall it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

not really, no. i'm more of a fade-to-black kind of gal. i have the utmost respect for those who do write it, since i find it difficult and ultimately would rather focus my energy on other parts of my writing.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

not really, no. they can be fun but it's difficult to find a scenario that feels plausible (as someone obsessed with that sort of thing lmao). i do have a hankering to somehow connect downton abbey and peaky blinders together, since they occur in exactly the same period from very different societal perspectives. i have no idea how, however. the casual viewer's choice would be putting mary and tommy together, but mary's far too much of a snob, and sybil too much of an idealist. thomas, maybe? hmm now i'm thinking about it maybe i'll do it and write something gen.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge. i have had edits stolen and put on tiktok, though, which was enraging.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have! no forest, no trees was translated into russian, and the first few chapters of the lathe have been translated into german.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

i have not. i don't think i'm a collaborative enough person for that lmao

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

i'm not sure i have one! definitely have some i prefer to write but i like them all for different reasons, and i also err on the side of character work rather than straightforward fandom-style shipping.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

there's a elrond & thranduil wip sitting in my google docs waiting for its final few sections. i keep going back to it and rereading it and then never adding anything else, though it really does need those extra sections to be fit for uploading. there's also private eyes, which i did enjoy writing, but i think my style and interests have evolved somewhat beyond it now. i'm also somewhat working on a thoroughbred racing tommyalfie au set in the 1970s, but i fear my own lack of knowledge about the industry will prevent me ever being quite happy enough with it to post.

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue. i love me some dialogue. i also love doing research and i think i'm good at utilising that research in a thematically effective way.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i make things way longer than they need to be lol. i'm also trying to get away from over-explaining in an internal monologue and instead trying to trust the reader and the writing to speak for itself.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i can't say i've ever really had an opinion on this. i probably wouldn't use another language for pivotal dialogue, even if it's footnoted, since it can take a non-speaking reader out of the flow of the scene, but overall i don't really mind and sometimes it can be effective.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

probably something like marvel or once upon a time back on ff.net. those were most certainly NOT the days.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

hmmm definite recency bias coming in here but it's got to be either the lathe or better by you, better than me. honourable mention (only because it's so much shorter) to vagues.

zero pressure tags to @beetlesandstarss @television-bodies @greatunironic @divinekangaroo

[dollhouseirl]

The Last World

My game jam VN is set in/led me to work out a setting I want to elaborate on called The Last World. As a writer, there is a big verse I have wanted to work on for about ten or so years based on forum RPs with my friends when I was a teenager. I've spent the entire time since elaborating on everything, thinking up characters, and trying to set everything into a kind of order. I was always on the cusp of succeeding but could never quite get there until this project. Purple Prose for Purple Hearts and the work I have done for it is a kind of screwdriver for my work. If you don't mind too much, I want to do a bit of free associative worldbuilding.

Lucia lives in the Last World. It is basically our world but stranger because it is set in a multiverse that extends far more broadly beyond our conceptions of space and the universe. There is a fourth dimension we are not privy to that is its own space where entities exist. Strangely, they are not beyond our comprehension; they are quite within it if we listen to them. They are just kind of off from our comprehension. Adjacent to it. They resemble what we comprehend but don't seem possible or realistic.

Why is it called the Last World? Well... You won't need any of this knowledge to enjoy my VN. This is a bonus post of sorts because I like the idea of talking about my work's broader purpose and having there be creator's thoughts for readers to engage with or ignore as they please. But: there are two universes in my setting - the old and the new and a single door between the two that will only allow one person to go through.

Very Homestuck, right? I swear, I hadn't even thought of it but I did read and enjoy it up to Act 6. Definitely owe it a creative debt but it isn't the same thing, I swear. Much anyway.

The Last World is existentially baffling: most worlds in the old universe have magic, superpowers, angels, elves, aliens, a patchwork of gods, devils, fantastical things taking place every day in front of people all the time. The Last World is desperately torn between being mundane and more deeply insane than any other world out there. It looks like there is nothing to it other than faith and insanity as everything heads towards a human extinction-level event that no humans are willing to stop.

But it is not normal.

It is receiving emanations from the new universe. Universes cast a type of light through the fourth dimension that holds these two universes together so it is actually deeply strange in a way that the people in it just do not see any more.

The Stanford Prison Experiment was the first step in a broad scale project to craft a sorcery intended by the powerful to label the powerless. It looked like a failure but was an unqualified success that plays out through all the mental hospitals in Last World America. Dr. Harlow captured the human soul in miniature with a clutch of infant monkeys and emotionally battered them by trapping them and us within the Pit of Despair before changing his mind and working to undo his work. Dwight David Eisenhower was lead to a sword in a stone, pulled it out, and told everyone assembled: my name is Ike; we all like Ike; I do not want anything to do with this, and then did just like Washington had done and left an America that would never come to terms with itself.

There are more things besides. I want to think and dream on an alternative magical America as I would write it. The Last World falls victim constantly to a fourth dimensional phenomenon called a Contrivance. I say phenomenon but it is really a sentient non-being. A sentient device for misery or for breaking reality. Something like that. In many worlds in the old universe, Contrivances can adopt human form; the Last World is not so lucky and they can be almost invisible. That is why they have been far more effective there and why the Last World will break for good if no one does something about it.

The Last World is under the watchful eye of a being known as the Harvester for now (he will have a proper name later). The Harvester believes the old universe is going to die and believes only the Last World has the keys necessary to save it. So he harvests and his harvests are senseless to those being harvested, brutal to those being harvested, but, in truth, clinical and highly sensible if you but understood the terms under which a being like the Harvester, a fourth-dimensional being, sees the world and operates and where he came from.

Purple Prose is the first story in the setting chronologically. It represents a woman who seems unremarkable and who isn't especially remarkable deciding that she is fed up with the Last World. She doesn't understand what the Harvester is, emanations, isn't privy to the truths I've set forth as examples about why the Last World's America isn't ours but has come to suspect a couple due to her manic episodes. The Last World is a world where magic and insanity are alternative forms of the same 'thing'; you can be magic and neurotypical and have mental illness without being magic. That said, however, the Last World has a kind of gravity where one and the other are like magnets. Lucia is a witch with bipolar I who has decided to take a course of action that will invite more of the fourth dimension into the Last World, for better or worse.

[dreams-shape-reality]

Why I chose to self-publish my novel in order to become an author

For about 15 years now my big dream was to become a published author, and of course I wanted to be traditionally published, why? Because my favorite author at the time had been traditionally published so I thought that was the only way, and my way to make things happen.

At that moment I used to look up to J.K. Rowling, not so much anymore but I won’t go into detail as is not important for this particular article. The thing is, I used to dream about getting a great publishing deal and get my book to be a bestseller and even be turned into a movie! It all sounded great, and I was in cloud 9 as I started writing my first novel.

By the time I finished I knew I had something good, after all it was the most important project I had finished until that point, and I was (and still am) incredibly proud of myself. I started researching all the things and steps that I needed to get the agent of my dreams, I even tried to be somewhat active on (then) Twitter even though I never liked that platform, and I still don’t.

The thing is, I sent over 100 queries, all after editing I don’t know how many times following the advice of my beta readers, and nothing. Only one agent was interested enough to ask for a partial, and that was it.

If I’m really honest, it broke my heart in a deeper way than I was expecting, in fact I couldn’t write again for almost two years because I thought I was a farce, and deeply unqualified. I mean, I had tried my best, and I was also writing on my second language, ripping my brains out to create something worth reading, and the agent world pretty much told me “no thanks.”

Now, I know that we as writers are supposed to have “thick skin” whatever that means, but at the moment I didn’t know I had ADHD, and we usually take things to heart, whether it be jokes, rejections and other forms of humor or lighthearted fun at our expense. So when it rained, it poured, and the storm didn’t seem to end.

Years later I decided to re-read my work, and I had to admit, it wasn’t up to part with other books I’ve read. The language was way too simple, and my structure was all over the place. This didn’t help my imposter syndrome, but I also knew that recognizing my past mistakes only made me a better writer today.  So after dwelling over things for a long time, I started my second novel, this time a YA Fantasy inspired in the city I live in and in some of my experiences (with magic of course).

Do I think it’s better than the last one? Absolutely. Did it still get rejected? Yes.  This time I sent query letters to close to 60 agents, and even when some of their rejections where really nice; better than the time before. I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to go through the same thing again. After all “the publishing industry is very subjective, and there are many agents out there with many different tastes.” That’s what almost all of them say anyway.

But often times it does feel like chasing butterflies. You’re hopeful you might get lucky, but in the end you never now, no matter how good your “net” is. And there’s a simple reason why. Let’s say you’re in a field, and there are one hundred amazing and beautiful butterflies. You’re ready, you got all you need, you even studied their preferences and everything else.

But the thing is, by the time you get to that field (the so called query trenches), you’ll see that there are other people there too… so many people. They can be 500 hundred, or one thousand, if not more. And all of them are as well prepared as you. And while you’re there trying your best, more and more people (querying writers) appear, and the butterflies (literary agents) start to diminish in numbers.

Some of them fly very close to you, only to, at the last moment, go away. Now image doing this for weeks or even months. It’s truly exhausting and soul draining. After all, you get to watch others catch their dream agents, or also get ignored over and over.

I never before considered self-publishing, because is just not “as-well seen” as trad-publishing. Many have the idea that self-pub books simply cannot be good, or as good as agented novels. I mean, they were rejects, right? Wrong.

Many self-published authors spend years bettering their craft and understanding their market. And we also have more control over our work. I’m not gonna lie, the advance (money) you get from getting an agent and a publisher was one of my biggest reasons to go traditional. But right now things are so different from what they were years ago. And (to my knowledge) that advance that used to be at times so good, it’s not so anymore. I really depends, I guess.

So, here I am, mind made up and going to self-publish, no more chasing butterflies. This time I’m making a boat and sailing on it. It’s all in my hands and on the booktook and author community. People like me that believe in their dreams, and fight to make them come true. Dreamers with an iron will.

I will be talking a bit more about my novel, and the whole process of self-publishing on later articles.

I hoped you enjoyed this one, or at least were entertained by it. If you’re also on your way to self-publish, I wish you nothing but luck and success.

....

Please help me sharing or commenting, everything is appreciated!!

You can also buy me a coffee 🎁

[desperatecheesecubes]

Anyway since June is done and we’re officially halfway through the year let’s do a mid year reading review. This won’t include the single issue comics or the TPBs I’ve read but it will include any graphic novels I’ve read just FYI. It also doesn’t have the manga I read on here because I’m lazy.

There’s supposed to be a readmore cut here but tumblr keeps deleting them from my posts

:(

Blink-Malcom Gladwell: 0.5 stars. What a load of shit. Love to read about someone completely unqualified make random connections between different studies he clearly does not understand. Do not waste your time reading this.

Wolf by Wolf-Ryan Graudin: *Reread* 5 stars. If you haven’t read this series yet and you love/can handle heavy topics in literature do yourself a favor and pick it up.

View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems- Wistawa Szymborska: 3 stars I don’t read poetry very often but a few in this collection were phenomenal. There was one about school girls becoming monsters, I believe, and I remember it really struck me.

The Only Woman in the Room-Marie Benedict: 2 stars I don’t know how to describe it really but if you look at the authors picture she writes EXACTLY the way you would think she would. Absolutely no nuance. It’s a compelling narrative but someone else would have written it better.

Untamed-Glennon Doyle: 3 stars I really liked the part where she said ‘I don’t remember things. I write them.’ Because there were multiple times reading this that I went ‘oh fuck off your child did NOT say that’

Blood for Blood-Ryan Graudin: *reread* 5 stars See review for Wolf by Wolf

Courage to soar: A body in motion, a life in balance-Simone Biles: 3 stars Simone should have hired a better ghost writer. Also, holy crap her family is rich. I struggle with Amy ‘underdog’ narrative where literally all troubles are completely resolved before the person is in double digits. Not to knock on Simone’s childhood by any means, but I simply would not call it an underdog story.

Hench-Natalie Zina Walschots: *reread* 5 stars Everything I want from a superhero novel and more. God it’s so good. We love to see a woman succeed. I am SO excited that a sequel was announced you have no idea. One of these days I want to take this, How to Date a Superhero and Not Die Trying and Dr Horrible and write an essay about superhero’s and what they do to people but I will probably never get around to it.

Lost in the Moment and Founs-Seanan McGuire: 5 stars The Wayward Children series is so good man, it’s so good. Grief and loss and moving on and acceptance and living with what has happened to you and surviving and all handled so so brilliantly.

The Nightingale-Kristin Hannah: 5 stars I took my time getting to this one but I’m glad I did. It is as heavy and sad as people say but it is very very good. Much like Wolf by Wolf (and for the same reasons) this book is not for everyone but if you can handle the material I do recommend it.

Crying in H Mart-Michelle Zauner: 4 stars A very honest narrative of grief and loss. If you’ve lost a loved one recently I recommend this for some good ole cathartic crying.

To Kill a Mockinbird-Harper Lee: *reread* 5 stars It’s a classic for a reason, what more can I say? When I read this in high school I hadn’t yet had to live in Missippi though so it was really interesting to revisit it with that knowledge. I also deeply enjoyed the book club Gi, Mike and I formed for this book haha.

The Woman at the Front-Lecia Cornwall: 2.5 stars This was the authors first non romance book and you could tell. Why was it necessary for all the men to fall into love with the protagonist???? On the war front????? Who has time for that!

Me Malcom’s List-Suzanne Allain: 3 stars This was a really funny read. If you want to just kick back and read a Regency romp this is a perfect book for it. Nothing deep, no smut, just a fun time.

Chivalry of a Failed Knight vol 4- Riku Misora: 3 stars Every day I wake up and wish Alice was in a better series. It’s not BAD it’s just very average.

Even Though I Knew the End- C.L. Polk: 4 stars I really would have enjoyed this as a novella series or a full length novel. Who doesn’t love crime solving historical lesbians??

Teen Titans: Robin-Kami Garcia & Gabriel Picolo- 3 stars The fact that they had Dick and Damian have an age gap of only like 3 years was so jarring to me haha. The pacing in this one wasn’t the best that the series has had either but I’m excited for the next installment, they’re pretty fun for what they are.

Mysteries of Thorn Manor-Margaret Rogerson: 3 stars This was so fun, I love these guys so much and I was DELIGHTED that we’d get more in their world. If it was a little longer I’m sure it would have wheedled 4 stars out of me. Elisabeth stomping around in the full body armor all day had me laughing out loud. I should reread Sorcery of Thorns.

Miss Latimore’s Letter-Suzanne Allain: 3.5 stars This one thought a little bit more about what it wanted to say which lead to a bit of a deeper story but also a slower pace. Still fun but less gut busting than Allain’s first novel.

The Rebel Mages-Laurie Forest: *reread* 5 stars Embarking upon my yearly reread of the Black Witch Chronicles. I need everyone to read these books I am OBSESSED with them. I’ll spare you a paragraph after each entry but just now I am, at all times, screaming about Lukas Gray. I love that boy beyond all reason.

The Black Witch-Laurie Forest: *reread* 5 stars

The Iron Flower-Laurie Forest: *reread* 5 stars

Castle in the Air-Diana Wynne Jones: 4 stars Solidly the second best entry in the Howls Moving Caslte trilogy, the audible narrator for this one was brilliant, I loved listening to it. Abdullah is so fucking funny, why is he like this all the time????

The Poet X-Elizabeth Acevedo: 4 stars The main characters struggle with her relationship with her mother was one I relate to very much. The struggle to exist in the body of a woman and to suddenly be responsible for other people’s reactions to it?? Yeah that hit close to home too.

The Shadow Wand-Laurie Forest: *reread* 4 stars Listen I am Lukas Grays biggest fan but I can also admit that this one struggled with pacing a little bit. Like it’s still phenomenal but I’m also HONEST.

An Enchantment of Ravens- Margaret Rogerson: 3 stars There were significantly less ravens than I expected. Sorcery of Thorns is undeniably the better book.

The Demon Tide-Laurie Forest: *reread* 4 stars It’s at this point in the series where you lament the fact that Forest wasn’t able to publish the side novellas she wanted to. This is somehow a 700 page Valentine’s Day novella and then about 100 pages of extreme action at the end. You might say to yourself, Cheese your not selling this very well. I do not need to. The first book will sell it all for me.

Raybearer-Jordan Ifueko: *reread* 4 stars The world building of this is so brilliant.

The Ones We Burn-Rebecca Mix: 3 stars First of all the fact that Mix managed to finish and publish this after a TBI deserves to be commended. HEAVILY inspired by ATLA haha. As for the accusations that this book is a reverse racism fantasy…. 1.) the ‘oppressors’ we’re children who were actively working to change the corrupt system they’d inherited 2.) it is stated multiple times that the ‘oppressed’ were very diverse. Yeah the main character was white but not all of the witches were. But everyone is allowed to come to their own conclusions. All in all I think it had some good things to say but suffered from repetition and first-publication sloppiness. I’d be interested to see what else Mix puts out.

Unbreakable-Mira Grant: 5 stars Seanan McGuire does magical girls? There was never a possibility this wouldn’t get 5 stars from me. Would love more entires in this world. A prequel???? Please???

Slaughter House Five-Kurt Vonnegut: 4 stars It’s a classic. So it goes.

Redemptor-Jordan Ifueko: 3 stars No one was more devastated that this book fell victim to second-published-Book-syndrome than me. I do hope Ifueko continues to write novels but this one was a let down.

& This is How to Stay Alive-Shingai Njeri Kagunda: 4 stars Magical surrealism doesn’t always work for me but I do love me some explorations of grief

House of Many Ways-Diana Wynne Jones: 3 stars Definitely the weakest in the trilogy. I loved seeing Howl and Sophie again and am forever grieved that this is all we’ll ever have of them.

Bitter Medicine-Mia Tsai: 4 stars All in all a brilliant debut. I really enjoyed how mature the characters were, misunderstandings were clarified as soon as they were discovered, they both let the other explain themselves even when they were emotional. This is how you write adult romance YALL. Can’t wait for Tsai’s next publication.

Blade of Secrets-Tricia Levenseller: 3 stars Levenseller books are so easy to read. Just quick and simple light reading. I’ll have to pick up the sequel at some point.

The Secret Service of Tea and Treason-India Holton: 4 stars I don’t remember if the characters are explicitly stated to be autistic or if they’re just canonically neurodivergent with a general hand wavy diagnoses but it was nice to see some representation in romance all the same. This trilogy is so funny, but I think this one is probably the weakest link.

To Have and to Hoax-Martha Waters: 2 stars Take a shot every time James says some variation of ‘he WAS a man after all’ and you’ll die of alcohol poisoning. Why did Violet get pardoned of all guilt while James was treated as having been completely in the wrong the entire time???? There’s one VERY shoehorned conversation amongst the supporting cast that was clearly included just to set up the next book in the series and it was very jarring. That being said the writing itself is good.

The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins: *reread* 5 stars: Yes haha we all know I reread this series and lost my mind

Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins: *reread* 5 stars

Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins: *reread* 5 stars

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes-Suzanne Collins: 5 stars I was hesitant to pick this up but it turns out that was foolish because whoops it’s a banger. Big hype for the movie. I don’t care if I’m falling for the capitalization of the anti capitalism series.

The Kiss of Deception- Mary E. Pearson: *reread* 4 stars I think this was the first time I’ve read this trilogy since high school and I wasn’t really expecting it to hold up, but it has aged very well. I love the concept of having a prince and an assassin after the main character with not even the reader knowing who’s who. After the halfway mark it really diverges from your typed YA affair into deeper territory and I appreciate that a lot.

The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins: *reread* 5 stars Yes yes I was crazy to reread this series twice in a month I KNOW

Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins: *reread* 5 stars

Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins: *reread* 5 stars

The heart of Betrayal-Mary E. Pearson: *reread* 4 stars high school me enjoyed this one the least but honestly it does so much heavy world building and fleshes out the different cultures so we’ll.

The Beauty of Darkness-Mary E. Pearson: *reread* 5 stars I love Rafe he’s such a good love interest. It would be easier to recommend these books if they didn’t have the most unfortunate YA titles ever.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess- Sue Lynn Tan: *reread* 4 stars The writing for this duology is so fascinating to me. It’s very similar to how many Japanese light novels read once translated. Anyway Liwei must be protected at all costs. A very comforting read.

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher- E.M. Anderson: 5 stars Holy shit was an awesome debut!!! I was really surprised by how quickly I fell in love with the found family in this. Just brilliant. Can’t wait for Andersons next work I will definitely be picking it up.

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese-Deya Muniz: 3 stars This was very cute. I enjoyed that the author didn’t care about historical accuracy with clothing and decided to really play around with it by including obviously out of place things like refrigerators and Switches. As anyone who knows me knows I am crazy about historical fashion but as long as the material knows it’s not being serious I won’t take it serious either.

Rosemary and Rue-Seanan McGuire: 3 stars At this point I should just admit that I will read pretty much whatever McGuire puts out. Her writing is extremely suited to my tastes.

Strangers In Court-Seanan McGuire: 3 stars Turns out I love Tybalt. Who would have guessed?

Legendborn-Tracy Deonn: *reread* 5 stars Yeah no this series in brilliant and if you haven’t read it you absolutely should. Love me some good Arthurian stories

Bloodmarked-Tracy Deonn: 5 stars Surprising no one I love Sel

[dollarstoreartsupplies]

hello i saw your tags on my deh post and i just wanted to say. you're so right, the musical is boring, the songs are fine, and the moms plotlines are the only interesting thing. i think it's just that the writers have no idea how to write teenagers but they can convincingly write adults

YES THANK YOU YOUR POST WAS SO RIGHT!! Like thats it Exactly!!

BUT YEAH they do not know how to write teenagers At All and while thats not awesome on stage you're farther away so it reads less obviously and they can get away with it, but with MOVIES it's so obvious and in your face!

And, okay, in fairness I think teenagers are a super hard balance to get right? Because teenagers are really complicated in a way adults never remember, and when you're not writing or playing a teenager authentically it comes across a lot worse than stereotyping kid characters (who are just cute and easy to write off) or adult characters (because they're written by adult writers who can actually understand them and relate to the nuances of their characters- which is why the mom plot lines are actually fleshed out and EVAN'S isn't).

Also think actors have a big part to play in it? Like I know everyone is talking about it being weird because Ben looks old or whatever but its not even that it's just performance wise the difference between Andrew Barth Feldman, an actual teenager, performing unconvincing teenager dialogue is WORLDS away from full adults who forget what it's like to be a teenager all up in your face on a movie screen like that one 'hey fellow kids' meme. (I have a whole Be More Chill theory about that where that's basically the reason the broadway run flopped but thats another conversation lmao.)

AND YEAH ITS JUST BORING! I'm still... violently bitter that it won like every Tony the same year that Anastasia, Bandstand, A Bronx Tale, Come From Away, and Great Comet were eligible. Like holy shit those are all such incredible shows and Cookie Cutter Bad Portrayal of Anxiety and High Schoolers The Musical won????

[wizkiddx]

work with me

this is for @worldoftom 'lolbrosgetsicktoo' challenge event thing - go check it out bcos lots of much better writers have got involved too✨! I'm v new to these things but I tried :) the prompt was: 'would you quit whining and just get in the bath' . (also look at me acc posting sort of regularly, who'd of thought?!?!)

warnings: sickness / fever (more dramatic than it needs to be) / LOTS of medical inaccuracies

summary: when tom doesn't take advice and ends up very ill, very far from home, there's one person whose stuck dealing with it

“Please Tom… I need you to work with me!”

It wasn’t his fault he was being a complete nightmare, though your patience was wearing off somewhat.

For context, you were in Morocco, where he had been filming part of his next film, which only made trying to take care of him that bit harder.

Everyone got ill sometimes. It wasn’t his fault.

That was the mantra ringing through your head, even if you had a more challenging time believing it. Tom wasn’t stupid, as much as he liked to joke about it. HOWEVER, what he was less good at was heeding warnings. He was a white boy in Morrocco; the health and safety briefing had literally been aimed at him. Had he taken the advice not to eat any dodgy looking meats at the market?

Of course not; that’d be boring.

Everyone else was fine. You’d all sampled Morroccos culture without giving yourselves the worst case of food poisoning you’d ever witnessed. But not Tom - possibly one of the only ‘indispensable’ people on the set. If you, or one of the minor characters, or even the director, had got ill - the show could continue.

When you’d been rudely awoken by your phone going off, you’d known instantly. It was as if you’d told him not to take a bite out of the weird burger once you were away from the eager view of the street vendor. Sure enough, with bleary eyes, you hissed at the brightness of the phone screen before seeing ‘Tom H’ on the screen.

“Y/n?” His voice was croaky, but just from the single call of your name, it was clear he was feeling sorry for himself.

“Are you okay? It’s late T.”

“Um I… can you come over? You…you might need the key I’m - um- in the bathroom.”

As his stylist, it technically wasn’t part of your job description to also be mother when he was sick, but (unfortunately for you) after the 3 years working side by side with him - you were also friends.

Which you were almost regretting by the second time rinsing the toilet bowl clean after he’d evacuated what seemed to be the majority of his vital organs into it. Honestly, it was impressive how he managed to keep going.

That had been at around 4 in the morning- the doctor had been called at 8, coinciding beautifully with his 5th toilet extravaganza. Once the doctor had confirmed your original, if completely unqualified, diagnosis of food poisoning - you hadn’t been able to bite your tongue. Perhaps an ‘i told you so’ might’ve slipped past your lips, but Tom was a bit too out of it to argue back.

You’d been given firm advice from the doctor - he said little sips of water, rest and control his temperature. It all had seen pretty simple - though the action? Not so much.

It wasn’t his fault, yet Tom was not super compliant. You and Harry had both been taking turns in practically forcing him to take sips of water, having to turn off ‘modern family’ till he did. The blackmail had put you both in his bad book.

Honestly, thank the lord Harry was here too. You’d woken him up at seven, begging for help and since then, you’d tagged teamed. While one was looking after Tom, the other was phoning the director, the doctor, and the crew to inform them of the current situation.

Again, of all people. Why’d it have to be Tom?

Mainly because you knew how mortifying he found this. He didn’t like people fussing over him, never had. He liked to work hard, liked to make people happy - definitely didn’t like to feel a burden. Perhaps what made him feel ten times worse was that he knew he was inconveniencing the whole production team massively.

And yes, as you’d unhelpfully reminded him, it was ‘his fault’.

The lavish hotel room, big bathroom and pretty efficient AC still didn’t manage to mask the pungent in-the-back-of-your-throat smell from the bathroom. At the doctor’s advice, who had been a little concerned at Toms fever, Harry had cranked the AC on high. It had forced you to steal one of Tom’s big hoodies and a pair of joggers- you hadn’t left his room since he first called you, still wearing your tiny pyjama shorts and an old tee.

“Please turn the air con off.” His little voice whined from where he was lying, huddled up under the covers. Perched on the other side of the double bed, but over the covers with your laptop on his lap, you could actually feel him shivering with the chills. It felt like you were torturing the poor boy.

“T you know I can’t. It’ll make your fever worse.” The way he looked up at you, like a little Labrador that you were refusing to pet, actually pained your heart.

Okay, so yes it was his fault, but you weren’t mad, you just felt so awful for him.

“Please I’ll- I’ll pay you more.” His voice was hoarse; though he denied a sore throat, it sounded like the constant sickness was burning his windpipe.

“Tommm” you pouted, sticking your bottom lip out “I don’t want your money, want you to get better.”

Apparently giving up, brown eyes shot you the filthiest look in disappointment, rolling to face away from you. You thought he was giving you the silent treatment in a huff, but instead, he was praying on the weaker one.

“Harry, I’ll buy you that set of golf clubs-“

“NO!” You had to interrupt before Harry would say yes - because from the way his younger brother shot up from the arm chair, he was about to. Scowling eyes slowly focused back on you in annoyance, making you huff - shutting the laptop and kneeling on the bed to face him. After pressing the back of your palm to his forehead, which was scorching hot, you sighed. “I know you feel shitty and I’m so so sorry but I’m trying to make you better. So shut up, drink this and go to sleep!”

Like a child scorned, you received another death glare however, then he complied, taking a sip of the water you offered before lying back - huddling even tighter.

And it had been relatively peaceful for a few hours; Tom seemed to be getting some sleep - even if he was tossing and turning. Eventually, a prescription that the doctor had requested worked its way through the system, Harry getting a text to say he could go pick it up. The nearest pharmacy was probably a 30 minute drive from the hotel, so he left as soon as.

This left you alone with Tom, where the situation only descended into more chaos.

Almost as soon as Harry had left, Tom had stirred with a grunt. All it took was one look at his face for you to know. Both of you leapt up and flew into the toilet, Tom once again getting very familiar with the Moroccan toilet bowl.

This time though, when he had leant backwards, he’d sort of lost control and flopped most the way - you catching him before he could hit his head on the tiled floor.

“Woah, easy there!” It wasn’t like he’d passed out, but the look in his eye as he slumped into your lap… he wasn’t all there either. “Hey Tom… you with me? Tom?”

Lazily he blinked up at you, not really replying except for groans of half-formed words.

Deciding this had all got a bit direr, you almost sprinted back into the room, grabbing your phone and returning. He was still on the floor, his thumb and first finger pressing into each eye - groaning again.

“Hey Tom? I’m gonna call the doctor you need anything?” He whined in response, stopping only when you stroked his sweaty hair back, most of your attention on dialling the correct number.

The solution he’d given wasn’t pretty: Tom’s fever was too high hence why he was all woozy and groany. Until the doctor could get over with the stronger medications, you needed to lower his temperature in other ways or take him to hospital. He’d absolutely hate hospital, but the other choice? Boy, was he not going to like it either.

Ignoring Tom’s croaked question of what you were doing, you busied yourself switching on the bath taps. You let the water run until it was the right (very mild) temperate, then turned back to Tom, who’d managed to work himself up to sit against the sink unit.

“The doctor says you need it.” His brain was foggy, his mind was slow but your tone told him enough to know something was wrong with the bath. “Just take your clothes off and then I’ll help you-“

“Absolutely fucking not.” Good. He was still with it enough to argue.

“I am just as uncomfortable as you are Tom, but we both know you can’t stand up without fainting, so you are going to need my help.”

“Y/n!”

“Keep your boxers on and it’s just like a fitting! I’ve seen you have those before!”

It was clear as day just how emasculated he felt, especially because he knew you were right. Sitting up at this current moment was a push; there was no way he was getting in the bath without some help. Defeatedly he nodded, but gave you a piercing look to turn around before he started wiggling himself out of the flannel pyjama trousers and light cotton t-shirt. Most confusingly, he still felt freezing cold, yet he had long since learned not to argue with you - especially when your justification came from the advice of a doctor.

Your cue to turn around came in the form of an extra angry-sounding grunt- the look you got when you did wasn’t much better either. It was a weird contrast, though, having someone who physically appeared so indestructible (a superhero for crying out loud); to have been absolutely beaten to a pulp by a few mouth fulls of weird meat. You had seen his bare torso before, although it still wasn’t something easy to get used to - making you clench your teeth together just slightly. A very welcome view.

Perhaps you looked just a little too long at the man who was technically your boss, hunched angrily on the floor in nothing but his calvins - another grunt shaking you out of it. By now, the bath was almost full and you hurried to shut off the water, feeling your cheeks heat up as you cursed silently to yourself.

“Okay come on, gimme your arm.” Begrudgingly Tom followed your request, slinging his arm heavily over your shoulder as you crouched beside him. As strong as he looked, you knew right now he felt powerlessly weak - all that muscle was just going to be almost dead weight.

Now it was your turn to grunt and groan as you pulled Tom up to stand, him focusing on blinking away the headrush he got.

“Come on T work with me here.” Getting him to the side of the bath wasn’t too difficult, the issue came when he stepped with one foot into the bath and yelped, instantly withdrawing as if it was a literal ice bath.

The sudden movement had you both losing balance, ending with Tom sitting on the edge of the bath and you leaning over him, in between his legs, and slapping your hand on the wall opposite purely so you both didn’t end up in the bath.

“Tom!”

“It’s like ice water!”

“Its lukewarm like the doctor said!”

“It is not its from the fucking arctic!”

“Oh for god sake!” Exasperated, you paced up and down the bathroom shaking your head at his ridiculousness. This was ALL. HIS. FAULT.

You came back to him with an ultimatum.

“It’s this or the doctor said I had to drag your ass to hospital.”

“Nooooooo.” The 25 year old seemed to convert into a whiny three year old again.

“Those are the two options. So will you PLEASE quit complaining and get in the bath.”

Keeping up the toddler persona, Tom huffed but reluctantly nodded in agreement - you had come up trumps. It didn’t stop him yelping when you helped to lower him in. His breath was shaky, as a response to the ‘cold’, but he was firming it. At least when you felt his forehead after a couple of minutes, it certainly seemed as though the fever was starting to ease off .

“You can go if you want.” His voice was murmured and as you looked up at him, he did his very best to avoid your gaze.

“Not a chance, if you drown on my watch, Nikki will never forgive me.” At the very least he seemed to appreciate your joke, scoffing a little with a small nod. “If you don’t want me here I get it. As soon as Harry’s back, I’ll swap with him.”

“No! It’s not that its… I’m just an ass when I’m ill.”

“A self aware ass, though.” Again he chuckled a little, as you folded your arms on the edge of the porcelain tub, resting your head lying to one side. “You had me pretty scared there for a moment, you know?”

He nodded a little, creating a wave of ripples in the water which you watched to avoid his gaze - which you knew was tracing all your features inquisitively.

“Hey it’s in the job description, always a bit dramatic... I’m sorry though I should never of called you- don’t know why I didn’t just get Harry.” In response you tutted, taking a moment to lean up and push his sweaty curls back a bit.

Just because you could, it was allowed in this moment.

“’m glad you did.”

“Yeh me too” He sighed, eyes fluttering shut in the easy silence of the bathroom. You kept a vigilant eye on him for the next 20 minutes, checking the temperature of his forehead using the back of your hand, whilst he seemed to finally get a bit of proper restbite, appearing like the worst had passed. You had no idea what was taking Harry so long; in fact it was the doctor that arrived first- who you ran to let in (not wanting to leave Tom asleep in the bath one bit).

Whilst the doctor did all his checks, taking his temperature properly this time, satisfied that it was much more manageable. He still wanted to set him up with some oral rehydration rescue packs to get his hydration status a bit better and give some anti-sickness tablets and antipyretics.

Having actually been getting some rest before all the prodding and poking, Tom was back to being a grumbling dick - now not wanting to leave the bath (the irony was real - making you roll your eyes). Once again, he appeared embarrassed to have you see him like this, so you left the doctor to help him get out and changed- instead going down to reception to get a fresh set of sheets, as he’d done a pretty impressive job of sweating through the old ones.

Even if tired and grumpy, when Tom exited the bathroom, he looked much better - he was walking himself without the doctor’s help. Which honestly was such a relief because when he had passed out on you, you genuinely were terrified. Thankfully the doctor stayed for the next 20 or so minutes, which was just when Harry returned with a bag of medications - which were now wholly redundant, given the doctor had already supplied everything.

“What happened?” Harry asked you in a hushed voice, whilst Tom was distracted with getting his medications. Recounting the story of Tom pretty much passing out, Harry grimaced for you, then launching over to give you a tight hug.

“Are you okay?” That was a novel idea, you hadn’t really thought about yourself at all - but honestly, you were a bit shaken, having been running on adrenalin for most of the night.

“I-uhm… yeh I think so… just-just was a bit scared, I guess? Felt bad too because he didn’t want me there but-“

“I can promise you Y/n, he did want you there. Just probably embarrassed he wasn’t all manly and that…” With a nod, you smiled softly at the frizzy-haired boy.

Whilst working with Tom, it also meant getting pretty close to his younger brother. The two Hollands were almost attached at the hip, which you were very much okay with.

It was weird though... your relationships were completely different. Harry was just your brother, through and through. He wound you up like a sibling but also knew you as if he had your whole life. With Tom… it wasn’t that. Arguably, you were closer to Tom, but on a different level. It was more exciting, more nerve-wracking and heartwarming all at the same time. Honestly, you couldn’t get your head around it properly.

“Hey, you’re probably shattered. Why don’t you go back to your room and get some sleep? I got it in here.” You knew Hary was trying to offer something nice, and now all the excitement had worn off, you were unbelievably shattered. But you didn’t like the idea of not being there, as a just in case.

“Uhm, I think I might just stay, you know?” And he did, with a deliberate, knowing smile, he nodded.

He knew you were worried. He knew Tom had really really scared you. He also knew how much you cared about his brother.

Just like how Harry knew Tom wanted you there, even if he felt embarrassed. Well, anyone would- when you are passing out half-naked in front of the one person that really matters.

It was just at this point that the doctor was done, giving Harry instructions about the rest of the day, when you made a beeline for the bed. Tom was propped up against the headboard, still with a pale sullen look and tired eyes, but a bit less clammy and more human. He cracked a smile as you crawled up onto the other side of the bed, kneeling next to him.

“How’re you doin’?”

“All drugged up, just feel fucking exhausted.” Instinctively you reached up to feel his forehead, really appreciating the fact it felt almost normal.

“Join the club mate, I had a 5am wake up call too.” You almost whispered, intending to make Tom laugh, but instead only getting a pout.

“I am sorry, a-are you going to go back to your room?”

“Nah” Tom’s eyes didn’t light up, except the fact that they very much did. “Can’t trust you not to get into trouble while I’m gone Holland.”

“Thanks.” He laughed weakly before shimmying down on the bed, so he was much more comfortable. “And thankyou, I-I’m sorry I’m a dickhead and made your life-“

“Shut up Tom!” Laughing, you lightly slapped his arm, also leaning down on the bed, so you were lying facing him. “You’re all feverish; go to sleep before you say something stupid.”

There was a long pause, Tom just gazing deep into your eyes, because he was pretty sure what he was thinking was nothing to do with the dodgy unidentified meat he’d had the evening before.

“What... like asking you out?”

…..

“Maybe that wouldn’t be so stupid.”

~~~~im really not sure how I feel about this one, let me know what you thought ;) ~~~~

tagging: @lovehollandy12 @hallecarey1 @crossyourpeter@hollandfanficlove

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x06 Review

Yes, And was a messy ep that brings us to the halfway point of the season. Let’s dig in!

Tonight took some big steps towards the Rini breakup. The conflict isn’t quite earned as they did too much too quickly in making Ricky overbearing; to go from Ricky supporting Nini going to YAC and them singing love songs to each other just 3 eps ago to Ricky now accusing Nini of changing because she didn’t get pineapple on her pizza just doesn’t work. Largely that’s because it’s clear that the writers are working backwards from an outline that requires Rini to be broken up before the finale.

The Rose song is great and Olivia’s vocals are wonderful as always but again it’s not quite earned. The lyrics make it seem like Nini thinks Ricky is holding her on a pedestal and holding her back when that’s not what we’ve seen on screen. Ricky and Nini went through a lot as they were finding their way back to each other and they learned not to see each other through rose coloured glasses and while Ricky was sad that Nini went to YAC he was supportive and respected her wishes, notably the only time he admitted how much he wanted Nini to come back to Salt Lake was after Nini had already made up her mind to return.

Rini was always going to break up both because writers struggle with writing happy or stable couples and because Tim became enamoured of Rina after writing 1x05 and will want to explore them at some point. Tim’s claimed that he has future seasons all planned out but I’m skeptical that he’s really thought out how to keep Ricky and Nini and Gina on goodish terms with each other for the remaining 2 seasons of the show while also not completely closing the door on the Rini endgame the show’s been aiming towards since the pilot.

It’s clear that Ricky has unresolved issues from his mom effectively abandoning him which are impairing all his relationships. And while it’s true he could try calling Lynne it’s the parents job to reach out and she is obviously fine living her life without Ricky. Not sure how much closure we can get with Lynne when she comes back in 2x09 but I hope we at least get an apology on her part.

Yet another ep of Gina going through it. That flashback to Gina tearfully telling Ricky that she wouldn’t have ‘’given up on us’’ if she hadn’t moved certainly paints Ricky’s behaviour this season in a worse light. I do hope the show doesn’t take the cowards way out and have Ricky being too stupid to realize that Gina had romantic feelings for him. Though again we run into the problem that these emotions aren’t fitting the story. There really wasn’t an ‘us’ for Gina to fight for, she and Ricky had only been hanging from 1x05-1x08 and never actually dated or went on dates. Also by this point Gina should be questioning her feelings for Ricky and whether he’s worth it; it’s not like he’s done anything nice for her this season like getting her chocolates for Valentine’s Day. 

Still Gina did make some strides tonight. She finally opened up to Ashlyn which seems to have lifted a weight off of her shoulders and makes the decision to stay in Salt Lake. She also brushes off Ricky wanting to be improv partners which leads to her accepting EJ’s offer which led to a sweet callback to them being wonderstudies. I’m glad she’s not going to Louisiana but it does mean we were robbed of a HSMTMTS/Secrets of Sulphur Springs crossover. 

Kourtney and Howie are finally together. I’m glad they didn’t waste time dragging this out. Kourtney’s confession was very in character and I liked the earlier hufflepuff dragging. As an aside I wonder if say 10 years in the future, shows will still be making light hearted unqualified references to Harry Potter or will J.K. Terfling have completely destroyed the goodwill the series has by then.

Lily continues to act as if she’s in Glee working for Sue Sylvester to take down the One Directions and honestly I’m here for it. I especially liked that she stole some of the condiments on her way out of Salt Lake Slices. Antoine seems alright, the espionage bit was funny. Seems like Salt Lake City would be a pretty shitty place for a French student to study.

EJ remains underused especially since this is his last semester as a student. His Gaston answer was surprisingly thoughtful and hinted at him getting over Nini with Gina as he sat down next to her. His may I have this exercise was just the right amount of smooth and goofy. 

Ashlyn had a good ep, she killed Home, Julia has a great voice. And she stood her ground with Gina but was also there for her and managed to help her decide to stay. Loved her line that she was still part Caswell.

Mike Bowen is sweet, thoughtful, and rocking that beard? Must have been hard for Miss. Jenn to let him go but ultimately she made the right decision as it would just be too messy to date the parent of one of your students.

Lots of funny little moments this ep; the camera panning to the exit sign during Gina’s confessional, the group chat with Miss. Jenn and the real group chat without her, Seb hula-hooping with wild abandon. 

Looking Ahead:

Well we’re now at the official halfway mark of the season. It’s been an uneven first half, lots of pacing issues, and clear signs of the covid pandemic impacting production. Disney + has announced that future seasons of Disney + originals will be released on Wednesdays from now on so we have that to look forward to for S3 and S4.

Carlos uploading the Rose song will inevitably lead to disaster. Nini is very right to tell Kourtney not to let Ricky know, the lyrics paint him in a very bad light. The song gives us more context for why Lily said to Ricky that his gf needed some space in the trailer. I suspect Lily will end up being the party crasher that Ricky re-evaluates in 2x12, I don’t think Tim is going to keep Lily as a one dimensional antagonist this entire season. 

Ricky said in 2x01 that he’s never breaking up with Nini again and I think that’s true because Nini will break up with him. I think it comes before 2x12, maybe them exploring an old haunt in 2x08 is where it happens though the description for 2x11 also sounds like it could be hinting at a Rini breakup.

Well we now know what one of the secrets rising between Gina and Nini will be in 2x10, Nini was already jealous of Gina and Ricky in S1 and I doubt she’ll enjoy hearing that Gina confessed to Ricky in 1x10. Since Gina has already confessed to Ricky it makes it less likely that her speaking her truth in 2x12 is related to her and Ricky. 

EJ and Gina doing the morning announcements starts next ep, that should be fun. Especially since Mazzara is aware of EJ’s feelings for Gina. There’s a pretty clear path to end the season with Portwell or at least set it up for S3. EJ already likes Gina, the announcements help bring them closer, Gina starts getting over Ricky and realizes that EJ puts her first,  maybe Mazzara helps one or both of them at the cast party, and Gina shares her truth and confesses to EJ. So far the show hasn’t done anything it can’t pull back from but sooner or later the writing will have to commit one way or the other. One thing I’ll say is that it’s already clear that making EJ a senior was a big mistake and I expect it to cause a lot more problems for the show in the remaining two seasons.

There’s also a path for Ricky and Gina to get together but that seems less likely given the clear mess Ricky is right now. Seeing his mom in 2x09 probably helps a bit but it’s hard to see how any relationship Ricky gets into won’t swiftly crash and burn. There’s also the matter of when exactly Rini break up, if it’s too late in the season then there wouldn’t be time to jump right into Rina. There’s also the matter of the unexpected facetime call he gets in 2x10 and the party crasher he re-evaluates in 2x12. Even if they’re not linked it does suggest there will be some curveballs in Ricky’s story and at least the party crasher info suggests there’s some non Rini or Rina related twist being planned for Ricky in 2x12. 

Until next week Wildcats

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

I really don't get the complaint about Ironwood. His descent into a villain honestly made perfect sense.

Okay, look. Before I begin, let’s just get one thing straight. The way I view Ironwood is mainly my opinion, and it is not an objective fact. Love or hate him, I hope we can all have an intelligent and rational discussion on the way General Ironwood was portrayed, okay? Okay.

My problem isn’t necessarily how Ironwood became a villain in Volume 7, but rather, how he acted as villain in Volume 8, and what the story was trying to say about him and his actions. Buckle up first, there’s some infodumping to be done before we get there.

Now, for those who haven’t seen RWBY (and be warned, spoilers are obviously ahead), General James Ironwood was a supporting character introduced during the show’s second “Volume”. He was in charge of all the military forces of Atlas, the most militaristic of the four main kingdoms in the world of the show.

He had a bit of a bad reputation in universe for bringing a lot of his troops to Beacon Academy (where the first three Volumes took place) for a fighting torunament to serve as security. Long story short, thanks to an act of sabotage from the villains, an army of monsters called Grimm and a faction of former equal rights movement turned terrorist organization known as the White Fang attacked Beacon, killing a lot of people and forcing the survivors to retreat.

Ironwood had a handful of scenes in the next Volume, showing his support for one of the main characters, Weiss, and donating a robotic arm to another main character who had lost hers in the Fall of Beacon, Yang. After, that, he was mostly silent until Volume 7, where our heroes made their way to Atlas to deliver one of the four MacGuffins the main villain Salem needs to Ironwood.

We see that since the Fall of Beacon, Ironwood has been stretched thin in protecting Atlas over the run down town directly below it, Mantle. It’s clear that Ironwood can’t really keep up with handling both towns, to the point where not only is Mantle protected by a single robotic supersoldier named Penny, but Ironwood is also diverting supplies meant to fix a wall to keep Grimm out of Mantle in favor of working on converting the same stadium used for the tournament in Volume 3 into a satellite to restore global communication, which had been down since the Fall of Beacon.

The heroes are naturally conflicted about their loyalties to Ironwood, as while he has given them his trust, they don’t really trust him to tell him some of the secrets they learned. Blake and Yang, two of the heroes who have always been more opposed to authority, leak classified information regarding the satellite to the leader of a group of freedom fighters, Robyn Hill (who is actually voiced by Christina Vee), who at this point, was someone Ironwood viewed as a threat. 

Now you could make the argument that these college drop-outs are severely unqualified to handle a tense situation that even a seasoned veteran like Ironwood is struggling with, but the point is when Ironwood finds out, he’s pissed. It’s really not hard to agree with him when you consider everything he’s done for Team RWBY and their friends only to be betrayed like this. So Ironwood declares all of the heroes fugitives and place a warrant for their arrest

At this point in the story, you can understand both sides of the argument regarding how to handle the situation. Ironwood’s anger is very understandable, and while he acts as an antagonist to out heroes, he’s not really a villain.

And that’s when he shoots a fourteen year old child. Granted, he currently had the soul of an old friend of Ironwood in him, but Ironwood literally just tried to murder someone, and almost succeeded.

Volume 7 was very polarizing among RWBY fans for the portrayal of Ironwood. It doesn’t help that when Salem, the main villain of the series, launched an invasion of Atlas, Ironwood’s plan was to launch Atlas and keep Salem from getting the MacGuffin, essentially distancing it from the rest of the world... when Volume 7′s final episode aired in February 2020.

Now, you would think, after being forced to stay in their homes to minimize Covid deaths, the writers would understand what they were antagonizing Ironwood for was basically what every government in the world did a month after they finished work for the Volume, and maybe realize that maybe they shouldn’t portray someone like Ironwood as a complete monster.

Volume 8 opens with him killing a councilman who disagrees with him. And it all goes downhill from there.

This Volume goes out of its way to portray Ironwood as a genuine psychopath, mainly to stop the people who agreed with him over Team RWBY from supporting him. He does things like working with one of the villains to achieve his goal, gives his soldiers permission to torture people for information, and after Salem is neutralized temporarily, rather than continue to evacuate Mantle like he had originally planned before the villains and Team RWBY screwed up his plans, he decides threatening to bomb Mantle to use as leverage is a better idea.

And then there’s the whole idea the the writers want to treat Ironwood losing his arm in a fight and replacing it with a robotic one like Yang as a symbol of him “losing his humanity”. It’s... kind of insulting when you realize that Ironwood is a man suffering from PTSD, and the show is basically demonizing anyone who uses prosthetics in their daily lives, or is traumatized from war.

I’m not saying Ironwood is just like Chloe, but the way both narratives choose to demonize both characters to spite their fans is why I draw the similarities in the first place.

There’s also the fact that the writers claim Ironwood is acting this way because of his Semblance (they’re basically Quirks from My Hero Academia) giving him an iron will that won’t make him change his mind on his decisions... when it’s never addressed in the show, is only mentioned at a fan panel, and not even Ironwood’s voice actor knew about this until a fan told him. It’s a stupid way to handwave away the criticisms that Ironwood is acting out of character, and is universally considered by fans to be the dumbest Semblance in the show.

But overall, the point I am trying to make is that instead of portraying him as this morally grey villain who merely opposes the heroes because he has a different way of solving problems, the writers decide that isn’t a good thing, so they demonize him just to make Team RWBY and the heroes (who many have claimed do a lot of bad things this Volume) look better by comparison.

I’m sorry if you disagree with me, but I just want to understand that I am not trying to attack anyone who hates Ironwood. Like Adrien, I don’t hate the character entirely, I just don’t like the way he is handled, and simply prefer his fanon self over what we got in canon.

[elementalist-kdj]

Theory Master Post:

We already know that Eda disdains the idea of Covens and being forced to join one from episode 5. While she was explaining her feeling about magic in episode 3 she believes that magic should be wild and unpredictable; definitely something that should not be controlled. But I would like to dive deeper into the potential lore and significance Eda may actually have in the Boiling Isles/Demon Realm.

Emperor Belos ordered the Blight Family (one of his most trusted Coven Members) to place the ‘CURSE’ on Eda all those years ago. The Night Star/Diamond Shape is in their Family Crest as seen at the Blight Manor. I am associating the BLIGHT Family with what seems to be their specialty; applying what their name means: AFFLICTION - CURSE, Infect, Disease, Misfortune, Woe, Scourge, Plague, Bane, Menace, Calamity, Evil, Trouble, Ordeal, Trial, Tribulation.

Just like the BLIGHT Family, the CLAWTHORNE Family probably fulfills a great role within the Emperor’s Coven as well. CLAWTHORNE sounds like a family name that enforces and upholds the Emperor’s will through FORCE.

Emperor Belos is named strategically as such because in latin: the word BELLO means WAR.

A clue to the CLAWTHORNE Family crest is the Giant Owl Deity on Eda’s Ceiling with the massive talons, the thorns on its horns and the Crown over it’s head. It is safe to say that the crown would symbolize the Emperor and the Clawthorne Family’s servitude to him. Expanding on that, can we expect that the triangle shapes and diamond shape on the Giant Owl’s body represents LILITH and the ranks of the Coven Guards? If so, that makes a lot of sense; LILITH has the Diamond Shaped Teal Stone over her chest and since she is the LEADER of the Coven Guards, it would symbolize the body of Emperor Belos force. Lastly, the shape of the Giant Owl Deity itself and its horns; does that symbolize Eda? ( @sepublic this might be a clue to a secondary form that Eda’s Owl Beast Form may have to take up after all, minus just having one eye. What if Eda’s Owl Beast form progresses further and becomes more feral/grows even larger?). @fermented-writers-block I can see your theory where Eda may have been destined to inherit the power of this Giant Owl Deity since she litteraly transforms into one. Is this Giant Owl Deity some sort of power the Clawthorne Family controls? Did Eda invoke its power too early? Did her mischevious/rebellious personality and chaotic nature have her prematurely inherit the power of the Owl Deity in their family or something else? If she inherited the power correctly, would she have control over the Owl Beast Form? Did she inherit this power outside of the Clawthorne Family? Maybe the curse that the Blight family and Emperor placed on her is affecting her control over this power and turns her into a feral, wild and dangerous beast. There must be another connection between the design of the Owl Deity on Eda’s living room ceiling and Owlbert’s crowning features on the wanted poster. Both Owlbert and the Mural of the Giant Owl Beast share details. Owlbert has outlined wings and in addition a FLAME OVER HIS HEAD? Judging by its placement, it is almost like a place holder for a certain crown.

On to the symbol of the Emperor’s Coven and the Crown over the Giant Owl’s head; it really feels like Eda would have represented the big set of wings with the sword as the Emperor’s enforcer/hunter. Lilith would be the defender/leader, symbolized by the smaller set of wings with the shield. Also because Lilith is consistantly reminding Eda about how they were going to join the Coven together ‘defending the dreams they had since they were younger’. Eda always ‘cut’ that mindset when she scoffs or laughs about it.

Since one of the two sisters (Eda) may have already been predetermined to join the Emperor’s Coven because of their family’s position/legacy, it would make sense that Eda would have been cursed right before she could graduate from Hexside when she rebelled (explains why Eda said she didn’t finish school. Besides, that’s why she crafted her own staff and made Owlbert 🦉). Take it like a family of knights that have been serving the King and Queen’s court for generations with family members joining straight out of squire training, knight training, ect. But in this case the Emperor’s Coven really wanted Eda for her natural talent and power despite Lilith’s hard work and dedication.

There are probably some communities of Giants, Demons, dezidens that oppose the Emperor. Because of how powerful Demons can seem to be on the Boiling Isles according to King’s Demons 101 class; Emperor Belos needs the Clawthorne Family to keep the demons and dezidens that violate/threaten his will/rule in line. Does Emperor Belos need the Clawthorne Family to be the Sword and Sheild in his court to fight them? What if Eda found out that she was going to be heading down this path to continue doing what her family has been for generations? What if this path took away what she thought was what she wanted for herself?

What she thought the Emperor’s Coven was like:

• Keep access to all types of magic

• Be part of the Elite force in society

• Have the freedom to perform any magic because she proved that she is privileged enough based on school performance.

What Eda really found out:

• The Emperor lets you have all access to magic, but you have restrictions and limiters because your magic will be used under his terms.

• You have to fight through the ranks to earn certain privileges and follow the rules like you would in law enforcement or a military like structure.

• You are not privileged to express your identity unless you are the Emperor’s Ideal model among your peers.

• You have to bring in dezidens that do not fit in society. For example: any bizarre or off-standish behavior or habits deemed offensive to the Emperor must be conformed. Anyone who resists will be punished.

Maybe Eda didn’t like the idea of becoming an obedient monster to enforce Emperor Belos authority. If anything she could probably relate to the Demons and other dezidens because she is just as mischievous and wild like they are. In addition, Eda cannot conform to their social system: being forced to learn magic the “proper” way. Eda is a naturally powerful, talented prodigy; she just is so in tune with it. According to Eda: “Magic isn’t proper, it’s wild and unpredictable. And that’s why it’s so beautiful.” Another potential fact is that, Eda herself knew that she is considered to be a primary candidate to the Empoeror’s Coven over Lilith. How was that fair to her younger sister? To be predetermined to join as if it was her right and responsibility? Lilith who wanted this responsibility so much more than Eda made it even worse. So how does the Older sister place the needs and desires of her younger sister first? Rebel, reject the responsibility and make herself as unqualified to join the Emperor’s Coven. Eda finally understood what it means to be part of the Emperor’s Coven, she defiantly went against what society (her family, the school, the community and the Emperor’s Coven) expected from her as she understood how rigged and autocratic/totalitarian the Coven system truely was. Eda concluded her decision about joining the Emperor’s Coven; if only one of them can join, it would be Lilith that really deserved it and Eda can live her life as she wants; covenless. Because of that decision, Eda was punished, Emperor Belos gave the order; the Blight Family opened a portal with that specific door and cast the CURSE on her with a specialized set of runes, a sigil or an artifact provided by Emperor Belos himself. So that means; if they cursed Eda with unique magic Emperor Belos provided, then that means that the Blight Family can’t break or undo it themselves in the future even if they wanted to. Say that they want to help Eda later down the road; even though they may have cast it, Emperor Belos may be the only one that could break it.

Irony of fate: Either way, Eda is fated for DOOM, it will only be a matter of time before LILITH will have to also take the role EDA was initially going to inherit. EDA was going to become the HUNTER as LILITH, the LEADER, pointed the way. Because If Eda’s CURSE took COMPLETE hold, she would become a DEMON just like in King’s lesson and be HUNTED by the Emperor’s Coven, on the receiving end of what her role was to be.

Now when Eda started to show signs of changing (hair starting to grey, the golden fang prominently sticking out of her right side of her mouth), she tried to hide it. But it was only a matter of time before her parents found out (Lily probably found out first but kept it a secret in respect for Eda). But when the rest of the Clawthorne Famliy realized that they couldn’t do anything to lift Eda’s curse; especially if it involved Emperor Belos, they placed Eda in the tower to contain it.

They did this to try and convince Eda to reconsider her choice. They wanted Eda to reflect her decision and give in to joining the Emperor’s Coven so that she may be pardoned and have her curse lifted by Emperor Belos. They justified that they did all of this to ensure that she wouldn’t be a danger to those around her if and when she fully transformed into the Owl Beast. What was worse was that they probably used an enchantment to hide this tower from plain sight (can you imagine how embarrassed they must have felt and how angry Eda must have been?). However, her rage, her determination to stay by her resolve was what destroyed the tower and she experienced her first full transformation into the Owl Beast. When she came to, she probably built the Owl House with pieces of the Tower she was imprisoned in, transported it somewhere else on the Boiling Isles and began her lonely life there; fortefying the enchantment afterwards so that no one (especially her own family) could find her again... Well maybe except King.

To support that the tower had significant value to Eda, the stained glass window of the eye that was part of the tower is now part of Eda’s bedroom. So at the end, Eda may be a person as what Luz said has: “A predetermined path of greatness”. When Eda was telling Luz about how how if everyone waited for prophecy to make them special, they would die waiting. Eda’s voice and body language gave off a sense that she is a chosen one that never wanted to be, as it was a life that was chosen for her but not for herself. Something tells me that Eda, no matter how much mischief and chaos she causes to retain her freedom, is a lonely witch that is avoiding her responsibility of being the next head of the family and her destiny as a chosen one.

[bellmel]

Writer 20 questions

Thanks to @secretkeeper13 and @justfinishthis for the tags. I feel wholly unqualified to answer these (see questions one and two), but I always find these types of things interesting, so... eh, why not. 

How many works do you have on AO3? Eight

What’s your total AO3 word count? A ‘whopping’ 15,581 words (I swear I’ve seen two-shots with more words than that).

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Just HP :)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? - Guessing games (although it’s my first story, so it kind of seems like cheating as it’s had the benefit of more time) - When old acquaintance are best forgot - Telling Molly - Claiming today - These winds of war

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? Absolutely (at least on AO3, ff.net reviews is such a shitty system). I may have missed some in the past, but I do try. I adore reviews (who doesn’t), and I love the interaction of responding as well. 

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Probably a tie between Reading you, before the fall and These winds of war.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? Claiming today (if ‘happiest’ also means ‘cheesiest’).

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written? Nope. I like my fics ‘pure’, and really, I don’t care enough about any other fandom to write about it. 

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Nope, I’m very lucky. But I think that’s down to the fact that I only have a handful of stories, and they’re just little one-shots, no big plots at play that people are likely to disagree with. 

Do you write smut? If so what kind? No. For two reasons - up until a couple of weeks ago, I was doing all my writing on my work laptop. And while I doubt my work is looking at the content of my Word documents, I have no interest in having that conversation with them… Also, I have no idea how to write it, so it would just sound so awkward. And no-one needs to read awkward smut. I’m sure I’ll give it a go some day though, when I write myself into a corner and have no choice. 

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Nope (although I doubt I would know if it ever did happen). 

Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. 

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Another no - I’m a slow writer (curse of the over-thinker), so I would just drive my co-writer nuts. 

What’s your all time favourite ship? Hinny

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? I started writing a drunk Weasleys (plus Harry, Hermione, Lee, etc) fic a while back that I’d love to finish, but it is lacking a few things (like a plot) that means it’s probably not going to see the light of day. I also have a very angsty George and Harry fic that will probably eternally live on as a WIP. 

What are your writing strengths? Ugh, this question feels like being in a job interview. Pass. Next question…

What are your writing weaknesses? Descriptions, developing plot and non-cheesy dialogue. Also, my love for adverbs, commas and starting sentences with a conjunction knows no limits.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? For the people who are able to, all the power to them! I would have to rely on Google Translate if I were to do it though, and we all know that never ends well. 

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Harry Potter - my one and only.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written? My favourite is usually whichever is my most recent one, so These winds of war. I did really enjoy writing that one, and I was happy with it for the most part. 

I’ve lost track, but it seems like almost everyone has already done this now, or at least been tagged :)

[cerastes]

So like, I don't really get the game "journo" hate. Should people just not write about video games ever, because I guess anybody who does is evil?

Yeah, it’s pretty clear you don’t get it. Blind reductionism is exactly what someone that doesn’t get it relies on. Come on, anon, you don’t really believe this is just about “people shouldn’t write about video games”.

No one cares less for video games than game journos, that’s the problem with them. If you’re sending this to me, it’s no doubt because you saw the post I reblogged some minutes ago. Presumably, at least, because if you actually read it, you probably could’ve gathered that the point of the post is “game journos ONCE AGAIN twist something into a clickbaity article in order to bash someone for no reason other than they need the clicks”. You did see that, right? You didn’t just see the words “I don’t like game journos” and assumed I was unleashing the plagues of Egypt on some poor innocent lambs who simply wanted to write about games because they wrote about games, right? I’m running off the assumption we are all mature adults here, and you’ll have to forgive me if that was too brash an assumption from my part.

I’ll level with you and link you this pretty good short article. The problem with game journalism is that it’s very hard to find someone qualified to talk about games in a context that lets them talk about games. This is not even getting into the sincerely appalling cults of personality that form around game journalist personages. The majority of game journos get around 20 mins/2 hours with a game they have to review, and most of the time, they are just washed up journalists that didn’t make the cut in their actual areas of interest (sports, cinema, you name it, whoop de doop, not good enough, relegated to the clown tent that is game journalism where the uninspired and bad writers are sent to rot), so then, you have someone who doesn’t care about video games failing to learn a game in 20 mins/2 hours and then getting frustrated that they couldn’t hack away at it, immediately followed by having to write an article recommending or condemning the game. Is someone who is not good at games and who gets a paltry 20 mins/2 hours of gameplay to try and get acquainted with the game, and who HAS to pump out an article by a deadline, really qualified to actually give you a game review? I think the answer is evident.

It’s also why the other half of game “journalism” is clickbaity crap, like the one in the post that prompted you to send this ask that you decided not to read: Since there’s the implicit acknowledgement that most game journos can’t actually write about games worth a damn, they have to look for Alternative Sources Of Clicks, such as “bashing indie devs” or “making up outright lies”. 

“Should people just not write about video games ever, because I guess anybody who does is evil?” -> Basically, with this, you failed to ask yourself the right question: “Do game journalists garner all of this dislike and hatred, perhaps, because they are not good journalists, and because the journalism they present is lacking in quality?” Because that’s what it is, bottom line: It’s Bad Journalism, Done Wrong, By Unqualified Individuals.

[cromulentbookreview]

I See What You Did There

What’s two plus two?

Huh? What? What’s happening?

What’s two plus two?

Oh, shit, right, I have a book review blog, don’t I? I mean, things have been a bit hectic these past few months and I’m also trying to be a real writer...

What’s two plus two?

Yeah, you’re right, I shouldn’t neglect my tumblr, even if nobody reads it. And come on, computer, it’s not like I’ve been in a coma for four years, two plus two is clearly five and we all love Big Brother, OK? Gah.

Uhhh...And by that, I mean: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir!

Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up in a spaceship with no memory of how or why he’s there. He’s a junior high school science teacher, what the hell is he doing on a spaceship? Also, the other two astronauts are dead. Like, really dead. So far as how things are going for Dr. Grace right now, I’ll let Pete Campbell give you a hint:

Slowly, veeeery slowly, Grace’s memory starts to come back to him: he’s on a mission to save the Earth. There’s this nasty space bacteria-thingy called Astrophage that’s dimming the light of Mr. Burns’s archnemesis: the Sun.

There’s a lot of science involved, but Weir explains, in great detail, just how Astrophage dims the Sun and why that’s really, really, really, really bad for the Earth. Like, apocalyptic-bad. Billions will die bad. Famine, disease, war, rocks fall, everyone dies and freezes to death bad. Only not right away. Over the course of several years. So everyone will die, but they’ll get to do it real slowly. 

Yay?

Like so, but it ends with everybody dead and the Earth being rendered uninhabitable. All of Grace’s wee little students will grow up watching their Earth slowly die. Unless Project Hail Mary finds a solution. And there seems to be a solution out there - Tau Ceti seems to be the only star not infected with Astrophage. Why? How? What? So this all powerful woman called Stratt, who has been given authority by just about everyone (how? Reasons. Don’t ask questions) yanks Grace out of his classroom - first to study Astrophage, and then, somehow, he can’t remember exactly, roped him into going on a dozen-light-year journey to Tau Ceti with the crew of the Hail Mary.

Only the rest of the crew is dead. Something went wrong while they were in a coma during their four-year space voyage. Grace is alone.

Inside the Hail Mary.

Full of a dude called Grace.

I see what you did there, Weir. Don’t think I didn’t see what you did there. I mean, you don’t even have to be Catholic to see what you did there.

Anyway, long-winded flashbacks and lots of science ensues. I struggled with the first quarter of the book - not for any particular reason other than I started reading this book in the latter half of 2020 and I was having a hell of a time concentrating on...well, everything. Remember 2020? Yeah, it wasn’t great. I mean, I’d need a lot of “not great, Bob!” gifs to describe just how bad those last few months of 2020 were.

And then I thought 2021 would be better. Ahahaha we barely made it six days. Seriously, everything is terrible and how do I even concentrate on a dumb book blog let alone a book all about science and the Earth slowly dying because the sun is dimming and -

Soon enough, however, Grace spots something on the Hail Mary’s radar. It’s...another spaceship? All the way out by Tau Ceti? At first, Grace thinks maybe its another ship from Earth, like a backup plan, that’d make sense, right? Only it’s not.

Who could it be?

Aliens?

Yeah, it’s aliens.

Our friend Grace gets to be the dude to make first contact with the sentient, spider-like creatures of the first planet in the system 40 Eridani. Turns out 40 Eridani is also infected with Astrophage, which is causing all sorts of problems for the Eridians, and their ship just happened to be around Tau Ceti at the exact same time as the Hail Mary. Crazy, right? Anyway, after the initial first contact and the long, drawn-out process of learning to communicate with one another (with no help from Amy Adams or Jeremy Renner), Grace and the lone Eridian, whom Grace christens Rocky, team up to save their respective worlds.

Science and plenty of flashbacks ensue.

I’m not a scientist - well, I have a master’s degree in library and information science, which, I guess, is a science? I mean, uh...I could tell you where all the sciency books are in the library. 500s if you’re using Dewey, and if you’re using Library of Congress, it will depend on what you’re looking for - you’ll want to start with Q for general sciences, QA for math books, QB and QC for astronomy and physics, QE, GC, GB, QC, TN for earth sciences, QD, TN, TP, and TR for chemical sciences, GE and bits of GF, QE, QH, QC, and TD for environmental sciences, QH, QK, QL, QM, QP, and QR for life sciences, QA75-76.9, TK5101-TK6720, TK7800-TK7895, and Q334-Q390 for computer sciences, telecommunication and artificial intelligence, Q, R, S, and T for the history of sciences and if you’re looking for bibliographies and finding aids for topics in the sciences, look under Z.

You know. Science.

OK, so I may not be a scientist. I may be bad at math because numbers somehow magically switch themselves around on paper whenever I look at them. Why? Because my brain sucks, that’s why. I may have spent most of my chemistry classes reading YA books under my desk (worth it!). I may have only passed high school physics by cheating off a girl younger than I was, but hey, the joke was on me: my high school physics teacher wasn’t even qualified to teach physics.

Gotta love rural public schools.

My point is, while the science may be lost on me and my brain which is full mostly of Simpsons quotes rather than actual knowledge, I do loves me a fun story where Science (with a capital S) saves the day. And, make no mistake, this book is fun. You might get a bit bogged down by the science, but once you get past it, this is a highly enjoyable story of one dangerously unqualified guy desperately trying to save the world with his new BFF, alien spider guy who speaks in musical notes. It’s up to them and them alone. Good luck, guys! Don’t forget that billions upon billions of lives depend on you. No pressure.

Seriously, if you loved The Martian, you’ll love Project Hail Mary. They’re similar, but Hail Mary is on a much larger scale than The Martian - there’s a lot more at stake in the hands of one guy. Plus: aliens!

Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say I would have loved more from the ending. I would’ve loved an epilogue from some of the other character’s perspectives or something. I mean, I could even go with a sequel! Maybe something where Erid and Earth are finally able to communicate? There’s a lot of potential for short stories or novellas set in the same world as Project Hail Mary - there’s got to be bonus material there and I want it. More, please? That’d be nice. I’d definitely read it. So... Hop to it, Weir!

One last complaint: Grace doesn’t swear. Like, at all. Meanwhile, Mark Watney is over here like

Come on, Grace, would it kill you to say “fuck” or “shit” every now and again? I mean, I sipped coffee that was too hot and let out a bunch of words that’d make a 19th century whaler blush. Geez.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of The Martian, science-y people, people who enjoy a heavy dose of science in their sci-fi, people who just want a fun story

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: People with no mind for science, people who are against fun, anyone who doesn’t like sci-fi, aliens, fun, etc.

RATING: 4/5

ALIEN RATING:

RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021 (HEY! Don’t think I didn’t see what you did there, too, Ballantine Books!)

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SPINOFFS / SEQUELS / BONUS MATERIAL OF ANY KIND: Olympus Mons.

DID I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE?

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY TWITTER IS A BAD ECONOMY

On the average trip I bring four books and only read one of them, because I find new books to read en route. That was exactly what the world needed in 1975, but if this label didn't already exist, it would seem the noise is whitish. It implies the result won't be pretty, because it meant that to write as he wanted to seem aristocratic; she was afraid she wasn't smart enough. Just have a gentlemen's agreement. Which is exciting because among other things it means third parties can use this technique whenever a you have at least a random sample of the applicants that were selected, b their subsequent performance is measured, you'll know if they do. So there's another difference between essays and the things one has to write in high school. When I was in college I imitated the pompous diction of famous professors.

Do one thing and do it yourself. Mihalko seemed like he actually wanted to be our friend. The worst thing is that it was a little alarming to have users who got lots of traffic. Better stick to the standard cartoon version that the Civil War was about slavery; people would be confused otherwise; plus you can show a lot of bandwidth. You'd think it would be: just try to sell one. However, even that is an interesting prospect. That's probably the number one question people ask me. Since they're writing for a popular magazine, they start with the most radioactively controversial questions, from which because they're writing for a popular magazine, they start with the most radioactively controversial questions, from which because they're writing for a popular magazine they then proceed to recoil from in terror.

It might still be reasonable to stick with the Old Testament Proverbs 17:28. The economy of medieval Europe was divided up into little cells is terribly inefficient. But Apple created wealth, in the sense of what people will pay for their skills, the answer is yes, apparently. Next year you'll have to explain how your startup was viral. The most obvious difference between real essays and the things one has to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively about English literature—to write, without even realizing it, imitations of whatever English professors had been publishing in their journals a few decades before. They overvalue ideas. Eventually by trial and error I found that what the teacher wanted us to do was pretend that the story had really taken place, and to have the junior people do the work for him. And then there was the difference in the way of having the next.

It seems that, for the average engineer, more options just means more rope to hang yourself. The idea is basically that you sort search results not in order of how much advertisers bid as Overture did but in order of textual relevance as search engines did then nor in order of textual relevance as search engines did then nor in order of textual relevance as search engines did then nor in order of textual relevance as search engines did then nor in order of the bid times the number of startups are created to do product development on spec for some big company, they should apply for patents because patents are part of the mating dance with acquirers. Calder's work is his own happiness showing through. A free market interprets monopoly as damage and routes around it. The immediate cause of death in a startup is that I happen to have it. The big media companies shouldn't worry that people will post their copyrighted material on YouTube. People are finally starting to admit that Wodehouse was a great writer, but to serve a ruler powerful enough to enforce order, rich people had private armies. Another classic way to make something people want is not the thing itself, but it was wonderful for us, his students. And two things, especially, is where the USPTO has been dropping the ball. Basically, I had to add a new application to my list of known time sinks: Firefox.

Particularly the sort written by the staff writers of newsmagazines. So I don't really blame Amazon for applying for the one-click patent would turn up in the company and went to work for you without giving them options likely to be worth suing for money. To be patentable, an invention has to be more true in software than other businesses. You can see wealth—in buildings and streets, in the narrow sense of the word unjust here is the unmistakable spectral signature of the Daddy Model. For example, a city could attract angels from outside. I ignored it the way you let yourself ignore a bug that only appears intermittently. To do really great things, you have to do is remove the marble that isn't part of it. That's the paradox I want to explore: great new things often come from the margins.

He has since relaxed a bit on that point. If 98% of the time I thought, they did call them essays, didn't they? At first I tried rules. With a tractor an energetic farmer could plow six times as much land in a day as he could with a team of horses. You're short of money, for example have been granted large numbers of preposterously over-broad patents, but not random: I found my doodles changed after I started studying painting. It may work, but it didn't last long. Unfortunately, patent law is inconsistent on this point. That's the good part. If 98% of the time we could find at least one good name in a 20 minute office hour slot. I've seen the lever of technology grow visibly in my own time. Where the method of selecting the elite is thoroughly corrupt, most of the world's history the main route to wealth was to steal it: in pastoral societies by cattle raiding; in agricultural societies by appropriating others' estates in times of peace. Indeed, the same principle: the way to ensure that would be too much of a political liability just to give the other side of the story: what an essay really is, and how you write one.

It's an old idea that new things come from the margins. What really makes him stand out, though, it became the basis of education than wealth. What people know of him now is his paintings and his more flamboyant inventions, like flying machines. This was Henry Ford's plan. A couple years ago my friend Trevor and I went to look at the list of movies playing, they want that extra oomph that the big stars have. Scholars had to figure out what he meant. This leads to my final suggestion: a technique for determining when you're on the right track when people complain that you're unqualified, or that you've done something inappropriate. That's the whole point of technology. If new ideas arise like doodles, this would explain why you have to fund startups that won't leave. And they're full of exactly the right kind of friends. After the lecture the most common form of discussion was the disputation.

9% of the people. Well, founders aren't much better. To attack a rival they could have ignored, Amazon put a lasting black mark on their own reputation. The patents aren't mine, of course, it's called school, which makes that clear to everyone, though in fact all jobs are some percentage school. Thump music. Startup School. And yet they work horribly. The only point of buying one now is to advertise that you can get away with working as if the goal were to discover good ideas, but for good new ideas, and you always get more attention for that. The Age of the Essay probably the second or third day, with text that ultimately survived in red and text that later got deleted in gray. Which is precisely why we hear ever more about it. A company that sues competitors for patent infringement before they'd even released a product. When you're old and eminent, what will you miss about being young and obscure?

[iwhumpyou]

@whumps-the-word

K first all things street interesting, second hmmm I’d love to see how you develop your universes? And if you have ongoing reactions to your characters behavior? (Like for example, I know I have an ongoing monologue about Clarissa and Nerahlis actions in wergild and I imagine you’d probably have thoughts/writers reactions to them too?)

Thank you for the question!

So my universes usually grow out of my whumpy daydreams (and sometimes my actual dreams).  These whumpy daydreams, in turn, were usually inspired by a trope or a whump scenario I saw in a book, TV show, fanfiction, etc.  I’ll give you two examples!

The first is one of my new ones (not posted yet) where I had this particular daydream about someone who is unqualified (has no wilderness training or medical training or anything) who is stranded in the middle of a snowy forest with someone who’s definitely more qualified but is really badly hurt/unconscious.  

No, wait, that’s a lie.  This daydream started with two of her co-workers/teammates making snide comments on how she needed hand-holding for everything and she could never make decisions on her own.  This lead to ‘stranding in woods with no one to ask for help’, where she had to make decisions on her own.

The second example is Wergild!  So it started with this fanfiction with some similar plot points - a warrior from one clan goes to another clan in the hopes that their death can atone for the life they took, so that their elder sibling’s dream of peace is preserved.  The person they thought they murdered turned out to still be alive, so they healed them, and this enemy clan quickly realized that elder sibling is a bastard, and decides to pretend like they actually killed the younger sibling.

But it was not whumpy enough for my tastes, and the ‘pretending they’re dead’ lasting for all of five seconds, so I decided to reimagine it in my head.  With a character with much lower self-esteem, and who’s faced with far more horrific injuries.  An earlier version of it had Mirai still dying and Jace locking her up, the curse not being voluntary, and an internal struggle in the clan that led to Nerali trying to fight with severely injured arms.

I wanted Nerali to have not thought through her actions, so I wanted her to have had grown up away from the constant warfare in the forest.  I wanted Clarissa to be trying to be a good sister, but being a bit dismissive of people’s feelings and, well, optimistic isn’t quite the right word, but more like she judges a situation once and doesn’t change her mind even when it’s apparent that she should.

I had a vivid image of Nerali stuck to that boulder as stone crept over her arms and shattered them, and of fire burning her skin.  I decided to add water and air and topped the whole thing off as an elemental curse, which could only be broken by an elementalist, and I added the caveat ‘willing’ because I wanted to add emotional whump and show how dedicated Nerali was to her sister’s dream.

As far as reactions to character’s behavior....hmm, sometimes I have the internal screaming ‘why won’t you just let this be easy’ or ‘no you idiot they’re your friends they’re not going to hurt you’ or ‘what did you expect you idiot’ or ‘that is exactly what you deserve and I hope you choke on it’, and sometimes I try to write resolutions earlier or later, but the characters stonewall me because they’re not broken yet, or because they would’ve run away a long time ago.  I guess my main frustrations lie with figuring out the line between too little and too much when it comes to whump and making characters believable.

[loverunderwater]

Falling Inn Love (2019) dir. Roger Kumble

summary:

When city girl Gabriela spontaneously enters a contest and wins a rustic New Zealand inn, she teams up with bighearted contractor Jake Taylor to fix and flip it.

1.5 stars

Spoilers, duh, but you can enjoy this movie even if you know exactly what’s going to happen next, just like how everyone who watched it for the first time did. In fact, you don’t even have to read this review to guess what happens in this film. Without reading spoilers beforehand, you could probably guess 90% of the unremarkable plot points in this predictable and bland rom-com.

My biggest general problem with Falling Inn Love is that every single character has absolutely no personality. On top of that, each aspect of their personality (or lack thereof) is pretty much only included for the sake of furthering the plot. I’m pretty sure if you took away the characters’ main defining features, you would have the amount of fucks the writers put into developing their characters. They’re just not appealing, relatable, or interesting.

For example, the main character herself. Gabriela’s entire backstory is that she broke up with her boyfriend Dean. That’s literally all we get. You could not ask me to describe what I think Gabriela’s views on orgies, communism, or vegans look like. I should be familiar enough with the character to answer at least one of those. If I had to, I’d say she appreciates vegans, but that’s only because her entire personality is green housing and renovations and clean solar power and energy efficiency. You could not tell me if she planned to secretly run away from home as a child, but at least I know she brings her iPad to dinner with her boyfriend to show him her closet renovation ideas. This is a biiiig example of characters only being the way they are in order to further the plot, but also an example of the writers’ irregularity of bringing backstory into the story. Gabriela’s save-the-planet can-do attitude is only ever applied to the inn, when she decides to stay and renovate it into a clean energy facility. Not when she’s driving her clunky, CO2-emitting van all around town to places to which she could easily walk, which I’m sure is like the top biggest tip to saving the planet—to walk, bike, or take public transportation. Minus ½ star for hypocrisy.

The one thing I could tell you about Gabriela, besides that she sure does love her solar panels, is that she has an awful amount of Main Character syndrome, where she believes everything is about her and the entire world rotates around her. I’m fairly sure that wasn’t the writers’ intention, but they sure projected a ton of pride and self-esteem onto a pretty lackluster character, making her seem conceited. When Jake bumps into Gabriela at the hardware store, she says, “Why are you everywhere that I am?” Seems like she’s got a lot of confidence in her importance and relevance to Jake for someone who has no personality!!!!! It could just be a small town and Jake’s just minding his own business and knowing more about home renovation than Gabriela, which she finds annoying because she’s a strong, independent woman who takes no shit from men.

Charlotte is probably the world’s most pathetic villain. Her hobby is owning a hotel filled with porcelain dolls that belonged to her mother and the stink of old people breath. That’s all we know about her. Oh, and she really, really, really wants to buy the Bluebird from Gabriela because she’s an inn supremacist and believes only she can host an inn that restores the value of tradition and honesty to society. It’s so sad.

Jake has no personality. His backstory is that his girlfriend died 3 years ago and so he’s reluctant to love. That’s a new one. I wonder where the writers came up with that. He likes possum taxidermy because it reminds him of his grandmother. He likes to help out literally everywhere, for free, because he’s just such a nice guy. That’s all there is to him.

Even in Harry Potter, where you could clearly sort each member of the Golden Trio into a very obvious stereotype, you could still find more in-depth characterization beneath. Remove Hermione’s book-nerd, know-it-all personality. Underneath, she’s still a sassy, exasperated girl who cares for her friends and would choose them over anything. She’s flawed, and will act on her annoyance in rash, but calculated ways. Remove Ron’s comedic best friend, runt of the pack personality. Underneath, he’s loving and loyal, and is tired of simply being seen as the nobody. Finally, Harry himself, who beneath the Chosen One archetype, is snarky and witty and driven. Though fairly common and typical, there are multiple layers to these characters, which you just don’t get in Falling Inn Love. But Han, you say, that’s the appeal of a rom-com. You get to see how characters react to specific tropes. Fine, but I raise you this: pacing errors and plot convenience (woo alliteration!).

Similarly to the previous point, not only do the characters’ personalities seem to serve no purpose but to create a coherent plot, but in fact, almost everything that occurs in this movie seems to just happen out of thin air. There is literally no reason or motive behind any of the plot points, which is an indicator of a very weak story. It’s as if the writers had two plot points laid out— “Jake and Gabriela kiss” and “Gabriela decides to stay in New Zealand because she discovers she loves the Bluebird inn”— and halfassedly crammed in as many of the most contrasting tropes as they could find underneath a Wattpad novel from 2013 titled Falling for the Jock. Minus 1 star for plot convenience.

Gabriela’s boyfriend Dean is a douchebag. He is always on his phone during dates, cannot shut up about his job (Man, that sure does sound like someone else we know) and is always having his manager make decisions for the both of them. But Gabriela doesn’t break up with him beacuase he’s inattentive and ignorant. She breaks up with him because he doesn’t want to move in with her. Not wanting to move in with someone is a perfectly valid opinion to have, and Dean even gives a good reason: he’s happy with the things are now. And sure, you could break up with a partner if you felt strongly enough about things, but it would have to be a mutual understanding, an agreement that your lives were being hindered by this decision, or a realization that you both want different things. When Gabriela dumps Dean, it is entirely her end of the rope that is left hanging. It doesn’t feel like a satisfying ending to the first chapter. It feels forced, and that’s because they need Gabriela to apply for the Win an Inn scam. If Gabriela had dumped Dean because he didn’t put enough effort into the relationship, at least we would have felt happy for her, knowing that she deserved better. But because she dumped him because he didn’t want to move in with her and her eco-friendly dishwashers, we’re left thinking, Wow, that was pathetic.

There’s also a scene where Gabriela’s close (and only?? we’re not led to see any of her other friends, but then again, maybe she has none) friend tells her to give Dean an ultimatum—that’s what she did to get her boyfriend to propose to her. This is supposed to look like bad advice from an unqualified friend, since later the same friend tells Gabriela that she’s attending couple’s therapy with her fiancée, because apparently forcing your partner to either marry you or break up with you could lead to trouble in paradise. Who knew? Even though the movie makes it appear that ultimatums are not what to do in a strained relationship, that’s essentially what Gabriela does internally to Dean. Move in with me or we’re done. Minus ½ star for hypocrisy.

Falling Inn Love is supposed to be an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story. But the pacing of Gabriela and Jake’s relationship is so out of control that it doesn’t seem realistic at all whatsoever. They go from being at each others’ necks constantly, always exchanging cliche retorts, to smiling lovingly at the other in the span of two minutes. Once again, nothing happens to spur on this change. All of the sudden, they’re acting completely civil to on another and now there’s a romance out of nowhere. It’s not realistic or believable.

The climax of Falling Inn Love was probably my least favorite part about it. After Charlotte’s creepy doll hotel is burned down, she, Jake, Gabriela, and the contractor meet to discuss the selling of the Bluebird. And oh boy. After 90 whole-ass minutes of Gabriela claiming she wants to sell the inn, she suddenly gives a Dramatic and Raw speech about keeping ahold of what’s precious to you. Actually, I’m not completely sure if that was she was talking about because it wasn’t worth listening to the entire thing. It was only like 20 seconds, but it was just like every other speech where the main character drastically changes their mind for the better. It was just sad. And after her motivational speech? Charlotte, after 90 whole-ass minutes of trying to buy the Bluebird and get Gabriela to forfeit her inn through most likely illegal manners, nods admirationally and tells Gabriela, “You’re one of us now.” Like, what even happened there? What exactly happened to make Charlotte change her mind? Wouldn’t she want to buy the inn even more now that she doesn’t have one of her own? I know no one with such high demands who would back down that easily, at such a lame speech. For that, Charlotte is a weak antagonist, and lowers the rating by ½ a star, because shouldn’t you despise the antagonist? Shouldn’t you have a little crawling feeling in your stomach whenever they appear onscreen. For me, that was true, but only because she looks like Hannah Meloche and her sickly, whiny voice made me want to throw myself off a cliff.

About halfway through the movie, Charlotte texts Dean from Gabriela’s phone, telling him to bring her back to America if he really loves her. Firstly, why doesn’t Miss Badass have a passcode on her phone?? But when Dean finally arrives to New Zealand to take Gabriela back, there’s no mention of the text. There’s not even a simple “How did you know when the opening launch party was?” “Why are you here? I did not invite you,” on Gabriela’s end, and a “You asked me to take you back, that’s what I’m here to do,” on Dean’s end. It feels like we didn’t get closure on something that was really hyped up to create suspense.

Again, nothing happens to make Gabriela change her mind about keeping the inn. even when Jake is whining to her about being authentic and real and keeeping the Bluebird for the first 7/8ths of the movie, she is adamant in telling him off. And… then nothing happens. Nothing remarkable shifts in their relationship. Nothing remarkable shifts in Gabriela’s daily life. The only thing we can assume is that Jake’s whining has started to borderline on manipulation, and Gabriela feels pressured to keep the inn if she wants to keep Jake. This would be supported by the fact that Gabriela and Jake began to ignore each other when their initial discussion about selling the Bluebird came to blows. Minus 1 star for unsatisfying conclusion.

This movie apparently really wants its happy ending, since almost everything in it is forced to get there. But I don’t know if there’s really much that’s that great.

Overall, I don’t hate Falling Inn Love because I watched it with my best friend over a FaceTime call and we were having fun. But I’m pretty sure if I had watched it on my own I would have clicked out of the tab about thirty minutes in.