#the book of fiends

[keawi]

The train fiend herself

[oldschoolfrp]

Many of the library's books have abishai bound to them as protectors and prisoners -- draconic scaled devils from Tiamat's upper realm in the Nine Hells (Tom Baxa, Dungeon 29 featuring Randy Maxwell's AD&D 2e adventure "Ex Libris," TSR, May/June 1991)

[beaft]

why is the world so hostile to my attempts to read the goblin emperor. it's like the book version of that one post by that one person who kept getting foiled in increasingly strange ways every time they tried to acquire a terry's chocolate orange

[gontroublevt]

So everyone knows luigi's mansion. How you need to save poor brother Mario. Every time you come across him he just looks so not okay. But this, this beautiful image from the booklet just shows him SO perplexed. Like he's contemplating so hard, guess this is how it feels on the other side. Dudes not freaked or nothin just mildly disappointed and confused. Guy deals with evil mansions full of bad guys all the time and he just doesn't question the glowing green mansion that growls at passersby. He literally walked right into it. Lugi is never gonna let him live it down.

[classified-animations]

Here's a wip art for the ptRiF au

It's really incomplete

[drconstellation]

Portable People

Muriel: "Can I...Can I take a book with me? I was looking at one earlier. They're like people, only portable." S2E6

Crowley's yeeting them around while stress-cleaning the bookshop, Jimbriel is trying to sell them to the investigating archangels, and Muriel just wants to read them all. Should we give a second thought to any of these books?

Er, yes. Yes, we should, I say.

In Crowley's case, both times he tosses the books aside (both in S2E3) it is adjacent to a conversation about memory.

In the first one he remarks to Jim that he doesn't remember why "they" invented gravity. He tosses the books - records of the past, records of (human) knowledge - then moves right back into the present, observing Rodney the Stunt Fly with Jim and then describing his Operation Lovebirds plan to him.

The same with the second GIF - Crowley has to make a decision between answering the phone (which is Aziraphale calling from Edinburgh) or the books. The present wins again, and he has the phone conversation with Aziraphale.

Crowley: Pffft. Humans. You don't let yourself get too attached. Aziraphale: No. No, I suppose not. Um… You haven't actually been selling any of the books, have you?

While we get the impression of Crowley not wanting to hang on to the past, as if its something that's hurt him before and he doesn't want to repeat that, on the other hand Aziraphale was having a lovely time remembering Mr Dalrymple the Scottish surgeon from 1826. This from an angel who hates getting rid of memories books, and we learn keeps a diary! Hmm.

I suppose the question is, is it a real memory problem on Crowley's side or an affected one to get around certain...awkwardness to do with his history? Such as not remembering working with Saraqael or fighting next to Furfur before the Fall?

Jimbriel, on the other hand, is more like Muriel. He is having a wonderful time discovering the delights of Humanity in the bookshop for the first time and is sooo excited to show it to the archangels when they arrive on Aziraphale's doorstep!

[btw, do you notice which side Jimbriel is standing on here? Its actually interesting to pay attention to which shoulder-side he is on in S2, because he is rarely on the left - even in S1, as well]

So while Aziraphale tries to, um, explain what humans do, Jimbriel "fans" one in Saraqael's face and then tries to (horror!) kill Rodney the Stunt fly with the Wicked Bible - the one with the printing error that says "You Shall Commit Adultery." *ahem* (not looking at you Jimbriel, oh no, not all...) Good thing it never works, Jimbriel declares, as the dust flies dramatically.

Edit: This book-banging episode is also a Monty Python reference! I found out over in my Assistant Bookseller meta that Jim's Fair Isle's style vest is a nod the Gumby characters, who all wear that style of vest and have the catchphrase "My brain hurts!" They also bang bricks together occasionally. *sigh* The things you didn't expect to find...Gabriel the Gumby...

The angels take no notice of Jim's antics. Since when do they take any notice of what goes on with humans, anyway? Oh, yes, they are going to keep a close eye on Aziraphale, but some idiotic human - nah! Don't care!

Then there's this travesty:

Aaah! The horror! Aziraphale reluctantly lets Maggie and Nina throw the books of human knowledge at the demons. But that doesn't work in the long run. Only the angel himself can solve this crisis.

[anakin-mrforce-skywalker]

Don’t question his love for his Padawan he doesn’t take kindly to it.

[monstersdownthepath]

One thing I truly appreciate about Pathfinder's take on Jubilex is just how much they've apparently buffed him from his time in 3.5 as Juiblex. He was among the weakest of the Demon Princes, if not the weakest, but if his lore block in the Complete Book of the Damned is anything to go by, this is very much no longer the case.

Poisons which bypass poison immunity, acid which bypasses acid immunity, the ability to congeal air and turn it into difficult terrain, an acidic aura that blights the surrounding land and damages nearby enemies... and, most horribly, the ability to animate the bodily fluids of other creatures and turn them into voracious ooze monsters, even while they're still inside a victim's body!

It's certainly a loaded kit, a far cry from the simplicity of Juiblex's original stat block. My pipe dream is to one day see it in its full glory.

[weirdlookindog]

Charles D. Gardette and Edgar Allan Poe - The Fire-Fiend and The Raven: The Story Behind a Literary Hoax. (Gerry De La Ree, Saddle River, New Jersey, 1973). Cover art by Stephen Fabian.

[dylanwritesgood]

How To Save Your Old Shit After Floods

Hi, Tumblr. My reach is small and I am but a poor archivist who can't afford Blaze, so please boost this.

Author's note: I hate to have to add this, but cultural heritage is inherently political and this made it to TERFblr somehow so... The author is nonbinary. Go get your own archivist to teach you if you're gonna be like that.

The west coast of the US is flooding, and while it might seem unimportant in the face of people dying, getting stranded, and being without power, a lot of people are also going to lose personal history to flooding. This gets talked about a lot in the context of hurricanes, but we should all know what to do to save our pictures and documents, too.

FEMA has a good cultural heritage rescue guide here: https://www.fema.gov/disaster/recover/save-family-treasures

You can contact emergency conservators for advice here: NHRpublichelpline@culturalheritage.org

The Northeast Document Conservation Center is also invaluable: https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/overview (check out the Emergency Management section)

Knowing what to do before it happens is crucial to actually saving things. Read this stuff now! Like to save! Bookmark it! Screen cap it! Idc but keep it handy (and remember you might not have online access when you need it)!

The FEMA guide does a really good job at explaining how to dry things, but the basics are:

Separate, separate, separate. While it's still wet if you can do so without causing further damage. Salvage color photos before black and white, paper backing before plastic film. Pre-gelatin silver (black and white on paper) photographs (collodion, ambrotype, cyanotype, etc.) get priority, but most people don't have those. Remove items from frames of they show signs of water damage. Take off dust jackets, unfolder documents, etc.

Rinse with clean, bottled water if there is mud or other debris. Use a dish pan, fill it with a little water, and slip photos in carefully for a short little bath. Dip, dip, dip if you need a little agitation to remove mud, but don't wipe or swish (unless it's REALLY stuck and you're okay with the possibility of damage). Change your water often, and try to avoid agitating things or touching the image side. It is recommended to hold books closed to protect the textblock from more water when you rinse. Obviously, don't soak things. Photos are probably your most fragile material and can be submerged for up to 48 hours before it gets really hard to save them, so you don't want to add to that time.

Spread it all out. Get creative with how you keep things apart. Hang things if they can take the strain, but remember that the corners are the weakest points of paper and photos. Books can be tented on clotheslines if the binding is still sturdy (pages aren't coming loose. If they are, see the next point)

Interleave books with paper towels every 1/4 inch of pages or so. If you can, fan them out and stand them upright. Change the paper towels as they get damp (and idk, use them for cleaning tasks. Shit's expensive)

Get air moving. Indirect airflow from a fan is best. Avoid fluttering. I face my fan into a wall or upwards to diffuse the air flow.

Some staining is likely. Dried mud can be brushed from paper like book textblocks but shouldn't be brushed from photographs, so rinse photos first.

Photograph materials while they're wet and still intact. If you should lose something while salvaging, at least you have a photograph of it so it's not lost forever.

If you cannot dry things immediately, wrap individual items or small clumps that are stuck together in wax paper (ideally. Parchment can work, plastic wrap or ziplocs if you have to) and PUT IT IN A FREEZER. Not an ice chest. The goal is to freeze the water, and ice chests will soak it. Freezing buys you time. It halts water damage until you can deal with things. When it's time to dry, unwrap your items and allow them to fully thaw before even thinking about separating them.

If you find mold, quarantine those materials in sealed plastic bags and freeze. You need professional help. It is not worth getting sick because you tried to clean mold without appropriate protection!

ETA: These techniques also work on that book you dropped in the bathtub or spilled a soda on, just sayin'.

Again please feel free to share this! Fellow conservators, GLAM professionals, or those who have been there, done that, feel free to add to this! Thank you!

Edits:

This was hiding in the tags and is also a good practice! Preparation is key to reducing damage. Which reminds me--store the good stuff on your highest shelves. It won't help in cases like Hurricane Katrina, but a minor-to-medium flood probably won't reach!

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Richard Matheson - Hell House - Bantam - 1973

[emprcaesar]

favorite scene in the show but not in the book is season 1 episode 2 “the kingsroad” when jon is getting needle from the blacksmiths and you see jaime turn his head and look at him and walk towards him only to make fun of jon.

that shit was unprovoked but so funny. jaime genuinely had no business talking to this kid but he saw him and was like “time to ruin this guys day”.

book jaime would never in a million years do that he could careless about jon i bet you jaime didn’t even know who jon was and was like “OH SHIT THAT DUDE LOOKS A LOT LIKE NED WONDER IF THEY REALIZE THAT.”

[fr-familiar-bracket]

[heich0e]

if kakashi and i lived together there would be so many fucking books in that house and his would be the romance novels and mine would be the boring books and that’s modern feminism

[g0r3-girlie]

[imnotgreen-art]

as previously mentioned, i have been working on a warm hands of ghosts fanart-comic type thing because i love drawing little comics, and this felt like an excellent excuse if im honest

we are on page 3 out of potentially 5 or 6 (maybe 8 if i get carried away) and i have been putting my whole soul into it, so we will seeee when i can get that up and posted bearing in mind i am not well at the moment

little sneak peek + more rambles down here :

it is heavily based on the last few pages of the book, so pretty intense spoilers obviously but its MASSIVELY self indulgent, features my own daft designs for Freddie, Winter, Laura, plus small cameos from Faland and Pim, which probably arent the most lore accurate ever but are still very fun to draw and :) we will see how it turns out. it was completely inspired by my dear friend @kkatz0 who came up with the idea for a sketch and i just took it WAY too far and now im about 12 hours in no joke

i want to post it all at once, because ive designed it to scroll quite nicely and its not really alllll that long, but i love making fanart surrounding the book so we will see what comes in the future

ANYWAY sorry this has become a massive long thing and I am ngl i am so tired and sore so i am going to go to bed, and ill try and post again soon

also sorry to the warrior cats fans who have been taken along for an absolute RIDE with the warm hands of ghosts content. guys im sorry but the book is absolutely excellent. my vocabulary is not enough to express how deeply it touched my soul

thank you for reading this far if you have :]