#this specific line from the raven cycle

[plasterhound]

Should've realized something was up when my favorite character was albedo frkm genshin impact

[contentloadingandstuff]

Rip And Tear - Xilonen & Chasca x Male!Doom!Reader

A/N: Alright, here's something inspired by Doom. It doesn't include specific references, and is based on the human version of Doomguy (pre DOOM 2016). If you like it and want to see more of this idea, the asks are open. Enjoy! CW: Violence, established relationship, some made up lore to flesh out the Reader. I'm honestly not sure what genre this is.

“They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you… You will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done.” - Xbalanque, The First Pyro Archon

“In the first age, in the first battle, when the shadows first lengthened, one stood. Burned by the embers of war, his soul blistered by the fires of Abyss and tainted beyond ascension, he chose the path of perpetual torment. In his ravenous hatred he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the Abyssal Void seeking vengeance against the dark lords who had wronged him. He bore the ancient name of Natlan, and those that tasted the bite of his sword named him Askari. Though his body fell, consumed by the eternal fires of conflict, he rages on through each that bears his name.” - Tablet of Tona, Third Cycle, Passage CLXXIV

Xilonen

Every time the nation of Pyro goes to war, a new Askari is selected from the tribes by the unified will of all six Wayob. The legends say that this man, worthy of carrying the name, will not seek it or desire it, but will bear it until his role is done. He shall never grow old, they say, as he will meet a glorious death. Then, his successor will be selected should the need arise. 

As for Xilonen? She is not happy with it, by any meaning of the word. Of course it is her husband that happens to be the tormented, death-destined slayer. That’s just how life is going to treat her, huh?

First it was the massive abyssal invasion, one unlike any other in the previous century. She was one of the first to be evacuated from the Children of the Echoes, as her skills - no matter her combat prowess - were too valuable to put on the line. As such, she spent most of the conflict in the Stadium’s forge, crafting weapons at inhuman speeds for the ever dwindling defenders. The moments when she was allowed to leave its safety were anything but a break, as were her nights. She tossed and turned restlessly in the empty bed, worrying about you. Her family was safe, but you were not. There was no news of your fate. But Xilonen never assumed you were dead - you were strong, yes, you couldn’t have died so easily. If she only wasn’t so crucial to everything! She swore, looking out the window towards her overran home, that she would turn the world upside down to find you when it was all over. But fate had other plans. 

The war wasn’t over yet when she was taking a breather near the entrance, subconsciously scanning for any familiar faces amongst the constant inwards flow of ragged, scared refugees. At some point, the crowd started parting to make way for someone. Curious, Xilonen peeked out - only to see you. You, her beloved, her second half, covered in black blood and corrupted goo. Head to toe in armor unfamiliar to her, in one hand you carried your helmet and in the other, much to her horror… the obsidian shard with ASKR inscribed in runes. 

She froze. This was not happening. It took an entire day and a terrible hangover afterwards to come to terms with what just occurred. In one moment, you were fine. You were back. In the very next second, you were dead. Your fate was sealed by the name you were given. No matter how hard she would try, you wouldn’t be able to grow old with her. Before a single hair grayed on your head, you would scamper off to some dank hole and throw yourself at some gross monster just to die and leave her a broken-hearted widow, and your children fatherless orphans. For the first time in a long while, Xilonen was at a loss for words. The only things she could do, after countless rounds and hours of anger at the gods, she could only curl up and cry. 

Once the emotions passed, and alongside with them the war, the mood was bittersweet when she embraced you. You were alright. You wouldn’t die just yet. Then, she promised that no matter what the world was to throw at you, you wouldn’t shed a drop of blood until the prophecy demanded it of you. And she intends to hold that word to this very day. 

Now that the war is over, Xilonen is your primary arms dealer. No matter how tired she is, she puts even a little work into a new weapon or a new equipment piece for you every day. She has the freedom to do so, as Mauvika is obliged to foot the bill for the Warrior’s needs. Xilonen made sure to analyse your armor, finding that it was the same exact set worn by one of the ancient Askari - his spirit led you to it, no doubt about that. Though it’s mostly alien to her, a remnant of draconic technology of old, she does try to not only fix it, but improve it as well. So far, she is quite successful. Whenever you go out, expect to have your equipment fixed up, cleaned, sharpened and polished to perfection. 

Even if you find that too much, Xilonen will turn your refusal down. It’s not only her job as the Name Forger to care for the Askari’s gear, but she is also obliged to look out for you as your wife. It’s the least she can do for you. 

She can’t help you on your quest, as most of it is secretly planned by Mauvika so the information remains clandestine, and she absolutely cannot match you in combat. Xilonen is a good fighter, as every name bearer in Natlan, but you are several grades above her. Hell, you could even go head to head with Mauvika should the need arise - after all, one of the Askaris is famous for killing a Pyro Archon when he turned malevolent and embarked on a path of oppression. She saw you wield both blade and gun with repulsive efficiency…

Repulsive, as Xilonen dislikes gore. Yes, she is aware that it lies amongst the methods of Askari, and yes, she knows that it is very efficient at routing monsters, but it’s so spine chilling to watch you rip your enemies apart. She read about the terrible strength of your predecessors, she saw the murals, but nothing could compare to the sight and the sheer brutal efficiency of your massacres. Because that is the only word to describe most of your encounters with both monsters and humans. After a few brief moments, all that is left of them is a pile of mangled bodies and the sickening stench of iron in the air. 

Luckily, she sees it quite rarely. Nobody sane in Natlan dares to stand in your way - after all, no man or woman would like to have their head skewered with their broken radius, so it's clueless and arrogant Fatui that end up on the wrong end of your weapon. Hilichurls, especially stronger ones, are often too limited in their minds to appreciate just what will happen to them if they come too close to you.

Xilonen thanks Xbalanque each day that your Ancient Name does not corrupt your mind. With just how coldly ruthless you are in combat, you would think an Askari unable to feel or love. But you are still the same man she fell for - just with a tougher look and more blood on his hands. 

Your wife feels incredibly safe in your arms. She knows that you would never raise a hand on somebody undeserving of retribution. Your divine muscles, gained thanks to the supernatural power of the Name, makes you a perfect pillow. Be ready to be her headrest - Xilonen has limited time with you, and she aims to make the most of it. She already started preparing a children’s room for your heirs. It’s best to start as soon as possible so they get many fond memories with their father before he inevitably gives his life for her, them and all of Natlan. 

Chasca

Her role as a peacekeeper didn’t really exist as a separate profession in the ancient times. Most of it was done by the chiefs and their loyal entourage of warriors, but when the population grew and the tribes expanded into more complex structures, that wasn’t sufficient. In recent years, it has been even harder to maintain order as a long period of peace, and the absence of an Askari to be wary of, brough the people of Natlan further apart from each other. But not anymore.

It happened in the middle of the invasion. Buildings of the Flower Feather Clan were burning with unnatural, purple flames. Dark ooze was leaking from several Abyss portals, constantly spewing new monsters. Her fellow defenders were fighting bravely, but at that point corrosion and simple, human exhaustion started to set it. She watched as they dwindled in number, falling to blows of clubs and axes, others being torn to pieces by jagged, corrupted fangs of Rifthounds. You have long vanished from her sight, and in the midst of combat, she assumed you died as well, and realized that she was soon to follow. In her mind, it was the end. The end of her tribe, her family and herself. Her human parents, Chuychu, you, maybe even Chimpu and Coya.

Her ammunition ran out, and it was down to just her Vision. Exhaustion was slowly robbing her of strength to fight on. A lapse in concentration and she found herself knocked to the ground by a corroded Mitachurl. It raised its axe, ready to kill her. But then, a roar - no, a battle cry, coming from the skies. Both she and the monster looked up, its last sight being the underside of your boot. Chasca watched as it came crashing down, its head splattering against the wooden platform under the force of your attack. You were bleeding, wounded, wielding the remnants of your weapon like a short knife. But on your face was an expression of hate. Rage. Combat fury that she hasn’t seen either in a human or a saurian. Hilichurls approached you, only to be met with a barrage of cuts, fists and knees. You broke one’s arm like it was a twig, breaking its face alongside its mask on your fist. Another was cut open, the broken blade passing through muscle and bone as if it was butter. One was unfortunate to stumble after a kick; you stomped on its leg and, holding onto the monster’s shoulder, pulled the head alongside the spine out of its body like it was a weed. Chasca could only watch as the foes were killed, one by one in a torrent of blood and guts. Eventually, they just… broke. They fled, leaving you standing alone amidst the bodies of your comrades and whatever was left of theirs.

Before she could even speak a word, you hoisted her by her collar and, without a word, carried her to the chief’s hut where survivors were gathered. When she came to her senses, she didn’t ask any questions - it wasn’t the time for that. Both of you led whatever was left of the tribe to the Stadium. Only on the way back did Chasca notice that it wasn’t a broken sword you were wielding. It was an obsidian sigil mounted on a handle. A sigil with nothing else but the letters ASKR carved into the obsidian. Once you got to your destination, you wandered off and she saw you again only after the invasion

You weren’t there to comfort her when Chuychu succumbed to corrosion. She knew, however, that you couldn’t. Your new name, just like hers, came with duties that had to be attended to.   

Who would have thought that Chasca would be the one to witness the cursed name, the mark of the beast, be granted to a chosen Warrior? And her husband no less? That was one of the only two good things to come out of the invasion. The latter being that, even if it’s a bit cynical to admit, only one of her loved ones died. There were many among the tribe who lost everyone they held dear. But you were still here, stronger and… cooler than ever. 

Every Askari has similar traits of character, you being no exception. Calm, laconic in speech and dutiful… How could she have not expected you to be this generation’s Warrior? Perhaps it was the part of her that hoped you wouldn’t be marked for death. But alas, the will of the Wayob comes from their wisdom and strives for the good of all Natlan - it would be selfish to try and resist it. 

On top of that, you didn’t seem opposed to your new destiny. You wore the armor and wielded the weapons with a grim determination and hatred boiling in your veins as you tore your enemies into pieces. While you weren’t eager to voluntarily put yourself in danger before, now you were the first to go in, and soon your given name became a synonym for victory. The remaining nests of the Abyss and the monsters lurking around dark corners were stomped into the mud, the survivors too scared of you to come out and threaten the people ever again. Then, riding on your Qucusaurus, you took to the ruins of Ochkanatlan to clean the corrosion. Although the Traveler got to the dragon first, you still had lots of things to kill. 

And when all was said and done, you looked around at all the bodies and scoffed, for there were no more monster necks to snap, no more skulls to pulverise under your boots. So you returned home. 

Chasca was with you all the way. Temporarily, there was a smaller need to keep the peace since everybody was still united and wary of a possible counterattack. She observed as you purged the monsters, and couldn’t tear her eyes away from you. The way an Askari fought was described in legends, but the retellings were nothing when compared to seeing you in the flesh. You were fearless. You brushed off any injury they could inflict on you, your body quickly regenerating as soon as you wet your blade with another monster’s blood. Your newly enhanced size and musculature let you snap necks and crush heads with spine-chilling ease. She is more than perfectly aware of why you fight this way - fear is the only way to get through to the primal minds of the monstrosities you fight. And it is effective, for they fear only one thing - you. 

While she was very intimidating before, it’s an entirely different matter now. Just a mention of her getting involved creates an instant link to you in the minds of the troublemakers. If they pull her into this, she could definitely ask you for a hand and render them into nothing but ground meat. And although you don’t usually fight humans, she saw you drive back Fatui and similar criminals before. And the rest of Natlan has heard about it too. Now very few dare to rob caravans or poach saurians, fearing that they might land in the center of your attention. And nobody wants that. 

Even if you made her role a bit less necessary, you do make up for it by being an absolute piece of cinema. Chasca could watch you train and fight for hours on end, seeing every muscle flex as you deliver well-earned retribution.

And when there are no monsters in urgent need of a proper beatdown, she can… enjoy your strength in greater detail, so to speak. But you don’t mind that, do you?

Thanks for reading!

[chaoticladyfire]

A List of Things that are my 'Roman Empire'

Emily Gilmore (they can never make me hate you)

The letter Alex Turner wrote to Alexa Chung, you know which one

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

The Eagles' 'Hotel California' guitar solo

What did Henry tell Camilla at the end of The Secret History?

That one article about Bennington University in the 1980s

Lana Del Rey’s unreleased songs. Specifically ‘Boarding School’ ‘Smarty’ and ‘Children of the Bad Revolution’

Fleabag and Claire from Fleabag

The Holdovers

Annabeth intuitively knowing to protect Percy in The Last Olympian

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche

That scene in Lady Bird where Lady Bird jumps out of a car because of her mother's ramblings

House M.D.

Simon from Lord of the Flies

Anne Boleyn

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh

Remus Lupin

The Roy sibling’s childhood in Succession

George Harrison's pictures in India

Stop All the Clocks by W.H Auden

Paris Geller not getting into Harvard

Fleetwood Mac's album Rumour

Macbeth, the character

Inigo Montoya

Emma, 2020

The most important women in Don Draper's life dying of different kinds of cancer

Ash Lynch from Banana Fish

Nicky Hemmick from All For the Games

Meredith Grey and Cristina Yang from Grey's Anatomy

Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs from The Infernal Devices

That one Thanksgiving episode in Gossip Girl

Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls

Challengers, 2024

Baby Fever

Little Miss Sunshine

Robert Spearing from Industry

My Lady Jane being cancelled

Creme Brulee

Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games

The violet field scene from E.M. Forsters' A Room With A View

The fountain scene in Atonement

Skyfall, 2012

'But did you die' line from The Hangover Part II

That scene in Good Will Hunting where Robin William tells Matt Damon how he met his wife.

Sansa Stark

The Twinyards

The fact that men can strike a conversation with waiters, cab drivers, etc without fear of repercussions

The Persuasion letter

Caravaggio vs Artemisia’s art

Declan Lynch from The Raven Cycle. Pretty much the entire TRC series

[strixcattus]

I mentioned wanting to post about my other STP AUs and then never actually followed up with that beyond some general notes on my D&D-esque AU, so here's a more specific rundown of the Voices:

Hero: A run-of-the-mill fighter from a small farming village on the west coast of the continent. Allegedly he was prophesied to do... something (still unclear on what, but the word "slay" was definitely involved), but he's not sure if he believes in that sort of thing. Somehow he ends up taking on quests with Cold and Stubborn far too often for comfort. Increasingly convinced he's the only normal person here.

Cold: A cold-blooded assassin and general blade-for-hire who only takes on jobs he finds interesting. In another time, he was less picky about whom he was assigned to kill, but he's grown discerning with time. He's only killed one noble in recent years before deciding to focus on more difficult targets... but she doesn't seem keen on leaving him alone. Most of his past is a mystery to everyone but Hero, though most people don't exactly feel like asking about it.

Stubborn: A textbook barbarian who decided never to die one day and hasn't changed his mind since. Tends to take on quests alongside Cold since their desires for an interesting fight line up... though Cold may or may not always appreciate the help. He met some sort of half-demon a few years back who had the same kind of loose relationship with death, and ever since they meet up every few months to kill each other. For some reason, most people think this is weird.

Contrarian: One of three recent bard-college graduates in the party. His specialty is theater and improvisation, particularly of a satirical sort. It hasn't even been a year since graduation and he's already banned from one of the northern kingdoms due to The Play. He's also banned from explaining what exactly was so offensive about The Play, and this one might be magically enforced, so best not to risk it. Of the bards, he's the most magically talented, though he mainly uses his talents for pranks.

Smitten: The second of three recent graduates. His specialties are the lute (which he's actually quite good at), romantic poetry (eh...), and singing/songwriting (no.). The most anyone can really get him to open up about his past is that he's from an island kingdom to the east and didn't grow up with any other beastfolk. "Smitten" isn't actually his real name, but not even Contrarian and Opportunist know what it really is.

Opportunist: The third of the recent graduates. He's a bit of a jack-of-all trades and fairly average at magic. It's mostly his fault that the three of them didn't manage to meet up again until they'd been tasked with killing a bunch of Princesses, because less than a month after graduation he got on the wrong side of a witch, was cursed into the form of a frog, and, being too proud to seek help, had to figure out how to either break the curse or turn back to his normal form on his own.

Hunted: I haven't fully figured out what's going on with him. He's a ranger who's been tracking a mysterious beast throughout the western forest—he's pretty sure there's some bounty put forth by one of the kingdoms within the forest, but his quest is mostly personal. He recently acquired an animal companion (a raven) to help him hunt down the beast, but only learned after the fact that the "animal companion" was A: sapient, and B: unable to fly.

Broken: He's been flightless since before he showed up at the first familiar-shop, and the constant cycle of being adopted by some aspiring wizard or ranger, then being cast out once they realized they'd been misled didn't do him any favors. It doesn't seem to be the result of an injury, though—he seems to know the real cause, but he isn't talking. At least the ranger who adopted him this time seems to be more understanding than the others.

Cheated: A solo adventurer who tends not to stick with a single party for very long. He's a warlock, allegedly, and he'll tell the story to anyone to asks of why you should stay far, far away from suspicious-sounding maidens in the woods, but no one has actually seen him use any spells. He frequents the tavern where Skeptic works—it's a more permanent fixture in his life than any party he's worked with.

Skeptic: He's not an adventurer himself—he runs an adventurers' tavern in the western woods, and has become acquainted with most of the others through his business. It's an underappreciated job, and it's a lot of work to ensure shady characters can't mess up the system, but adventurers tip pretty well. You just have to make sure the "No change" sign is visible, so they can't demand that you find some way to split the gold pieces that are the only currency they carry. Skeptic tends to stay distant from customers, though, with his only close confidant being the wizard outside town.

Paranoid: He had a reputation as a shut-in even before he started refusing to set foot outside his tower a few weeks back. But even more so, he has a reputation as being the best healing wizard in his part of the western woods—mainly by virtue of being the only healing wizard in his part of the woods, but he is very skilled. And driven. He was the first Voice to properly slay a Princess, even before the others formed their party.

The only problem is, whatever he killed in his tower basement doesn't seem to have been content to stay dead.

[lirapheus]

On Yellowjackets and metaphorical time paradoxes

There's this quote in The Raven Cycle that is like "Time's not a line. It's a circle or a figure eight or a goddamn Slinky." And it's got me thinking about time in Yellowjackets and about the juxtaposition of the two timelines and those two realities Mari talked about, so here are some thoughts on it.

We all know the chant by now, "we hear the wilderness and it hears us." One of the ways to interpret it is that whatever the wilderness says to them is a figurative echo of their very own voices. Of their needs and anger. They hear the wilderness and the wilderness hears them because the wilderness is them and they are the wilderness, two sides of the same coin, two planes of reality, one could say, referring to what Mari said to Ben in the cave. And so the wilderness is hungry because they're hungry – and the trees are weeping and screaming because the girls have all that pain inside of them, too. And here's the time paradox: they're still hearing the wilderness in the present, even after all this time, because time and trauma really are a circle, and we carry with us all the versions of ourselves we've been throughout our lives. The good ones. The bad ones. The ones with wounds that have yet to heal. All of them. The past and the present coexist within ourselves, making humans so very circular. The past and the present wrap around us just like Jackie's slap bracelet, and it can be suffocating when the past is this terrible open wound, this cut that keeps bleeding and bleeding.

There's something in psychoterapy called the Internal Family Systems Model (IFS), according to which the mind is made up of subpersonalities, each with its own qualities. Well, some of those personalities are called exiles. "Exiles represent psychological trauma, often from childhood, and they carry the pain and fear. Exiles may become isolated from the other parts and polarize the system. Managers and Firefighters try to protect a person's consciousness by preventing the Exiles' pain from coming to awareness." It's easier to believe that there's a malevolent, separate entity named the wilderness making them do all those gruesome things than accept they came up with all of that themselves, isn't it? Even if it was just out of necessity. But the truth at the end of the day is that they are the wilderness, and of course they brought it back with them, because it's always been within them. It's a part of them. "It was just us" / "Is there a difference?"

And since they can't let go of the wilderness, they are cursed to be stuck in time. There's another quote in The Raven Cycle that says "It had been a long time ago, but also, it was no time at all." It has been no time at all for them because, emotionally, they're still trapped in their teenage years, falling again and again into all their bad habits and seeing teenage versions of themselves, as if the years hadn't passed at all. And that's why teenage and adult timelines overlap and there're no title cards calling them past or present. Their time in the wilderness is some kind of eternal present, and they'll always be lost in it somehow. Of all the ways to lose a person death really is the kindest, because what could be worse than being alive but getting lost in a specific moment in time? They may have survived, but are they really living?

Then there's the literal time paradox. Let me preface this by saying I really, really doubt they're going the supernatural route to explain the screams and whatever sounds they have been hearing in the wilderness. I guess the theories about the fracking sounds are the closest to what's actually going on, seeing as the gas leak was the reason behind the collective dream/hallucination. So this is just me talking about something that I would enjoy because I love stories that play with the nature of time.

That being said, I love the idea of the chant "we hear the wilderness and it hears us" meaning that what they hear is a literal echo of their sorrow, of their very own voices, but from another point in time in which they may have screamed or cried among the trees. The sounds of the wilderness would be the sounds of their collective suffering then – not only theirs but of everyone who has wandered through those woods. When Lottie talks about those who have left them at the beginning of this season, she says "they are still here with us. We know that they are because we can still hear them." And again, you can of course take that in a symbolic way, but oh, how I would love for it to mean that time really is circular and everything is happening at the same time – every death, past and present. The adult timeline and the teenage timeline. Absolutely everything.

[suga-kookiemonster]

It's interesting you talk about Magneto, etc, because we had a large (far right) part of geek channels going absolutely insane because the main character in The Boys (captain something that is the personification of white supremacy) was being "controlled" by a black woman now?!? And started going with the good old "the woke culture is ruining things for us". god forbid a black woman is one of the main characters😒 there was more to it, but mainly this and how sometimes we don't see things from different perspectives until a second time viewing

I think the older I get the more I see things differently. Magneto was portrayed as a traitor who lost himself in the sauce but everything he always did was show everyone that hiding and conforming doesn't work at all. Charles subsided his expectations and got to the point of making a private oasis for his students whilst thousands of other mutants kept going out there on their own either because they couldn't find him or because their powers weren't "pretty" enough

What Charles did with Jean was also very fucked up, he entrapped and brainwashed her to the point she wasn't exerting her full powers because it wasn't beneficial for his idea of "subsided civilized" people just to be betrayed and be treated as monsters that needed a cure

I think he's aware of it though, because throughout everything he still calls Magneto his friend and vice versa, he might know he's wrong, but still kept going, even fighting against his own people to appease the good human kind that have never been kind to them

It's pretty simple, complying only works until one of your own dies/get's hurt/get's neglected, we got here where we are through violence much like in X-Men, it wasn't easy, it wasn't without a fuss and it wasn't without resistance. So everything we do to break this cycle and create our own will be nothing short of violent because we're changing something, it's simple as that

But people still blame him because we're taught that complying works, they just forget to tell us for who this complying works for

phewwww, truly a word this good monday morning! 👏🏾👏🏾 your last paragraph sums it allll the way up. charles is part of the problem, and so are people who say they support a cause until that fight starts to affect them specifically. if you wanna think about the bigger picture, then THINK about the bigger picture and understand that if you benefit in any way from injustice against a people, then fixing that injustice is going to therefore make you uncomfortable.

charles is a mutant, but the way his mutation presents is not visible, so he can easily pass as human. he also is a wealthy man, so that should tell you exactly what kind of worldview and privilege he has. he and raven are NOT the same. the world doesn’t allow her the same grave it allows him by default. so 1000% agree with you on your point of him making a fantasy safe haven while all other mutants are stuck being discriminated against he never was and never will be. just willfully blind to keep himself and his warped sense of what’s “right” comfortable smh. just ignoring the fact deferring to the forces trying to keep you in line will NOT make things better for you if it doesn’t benefit them to do so, because without force, things typically don’t move.

with everything going on in the world today, i guess it’s no wonder that charles ass triggered me lol. life lesson for everybody today: don’t be a white feminist. don’t be a white savior. don’t be an uncle tom. don’t be a charles. gone and kumbaya somewhere else unless you have actual plans on how to really help the people who deserve justice! until then, revolutionaries will always fight for their right to survive, and you can’t dictate how they choose to do that!

also, i really need to watch the boys! i think i’ve seen three episodes or so—I started watching it because I watched all of gen v and was intrigued by that world, but i got distracted by life. you just convinced me to pick it back up!

[polichinelle]

the raven cycle timeline

"trc takes place in the mid-2010s" "trc takes place in 2012" no it doesn't! it's pretty common knowledge that mstief isn't the most specific when it comes to timelines (an example is that she had to change ronan's birth date after readers pointed out that it didn't line up with the events of the book; another example is the pre-canon gansey & adam & ronan friendship timeline, which doesn't make sense at all if you think about it longer than a second), and she has said before that her editors are more or less the same.

what that means is that the raven cycle and the dreamer trilogy are kind of nebulously "present-time," and no matter what year you think it takes place in, some details are going to be inaccurate. but since i am a chronic nit-picker and i get very fussy about timelines, that didn't sit right with me! i needed to know the exact year. so on my last reread, i kept a look out for any mention of dates so that i might be able to pinpoint exactly when the raven cycle takes place.

and i think i might have the answer :)

all of my arguments come from the dream thieves.

firstly, adam's birthday. we know that his birthday is july 3rd:

we also know that he was missing for most of the previous day:

what happens then is that he falls asleep for an indeterminate amount of time ("Later he fell asleep sitting up on the end of that same sofa."), he and gansey drive back to henrietta, adam visits blue at fox way, and after scrying with persephone he falls asleep again for twenty-one hours, and during that twenty-one hours is when his birthday takes place.

for a while i assumed the "quietly turned eighteen" referred to midnight, but that actually doesn't make a lot of sense given the context of the previous day being saturday. both of our options (gansey and adam drive back the same evening they found adam; gansey and adam drive back the next morning, on sunday) leaves us with adam falling asleep on sunday. at some point during the next twenty-one hours he "turns eighteen."

the thing is, there is no convenient year where july 3rd falls on a monday (in the scenario where we assume that "quietly turned eighteen" refers to midnight on the day of his birthday). however, if we go with the idea that it is still sunday and it refers simply to his actual time of birth, we're left with a pretty good answer:

adam turns 18 on sunday, july 3rd, 2011.

i have another thing to kind of back this up.

if we assume niall wasn't lying about that, we have two (well... kind of) options:

i searched for earthquakes in northern england since niall was born in cumbria. however, in my opinion, the second one, on december 26th, can't really be counted, since it would mean niall was... 32 in 2011. a little young lol. but if he was born in 1970, he would be 40/41 at his time of death, which makes a lot of sense (it also makes sense he would be a leo). neither earthquakes are a 4.1, but whatever, maybe he just forgot the exact number. maybe he was being humble.

so... all of this to say that the events of the raven cycle probably happen during 2011, and thus the dreamer trilogy would take place in 2013. considering the references to fortnite and all, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but at least i can rest easy knowing that that's just because mstief didn't think about this stuff at all while writing it (hence nebulous "present-day" being the actual correct answer as to when the books are set).

for a while i actually thought trc took place in 2010 since the lynches go to church before kavinsky's party, which i assumed meant july fourth was on a sunday, but it's mentioned that they go for a "special" "holiday mass" and not regular mass. either way, 2011 works better with adam being missing on saturday.

anyway, all this to say that i think about timelines too much. thank you for reading if you've made it this far lol

[guardian-angle22]

a lil ask for you heather 💜 if you had to get a new tattoo or piercing, what would you get?

omg lskdn;slnd;slk I have SO MANY tattoos I wanna get. I would absolutely get another tattoo... you don't even know the can of worms you have just opened 🤣 because I am going to tell you alllll about the tattoos I wanna get now!!

First and most sentimental/meaningful: If anyone doesn't know the ace ~lore~ so to speak, a lot of asexuals will wear a black ring on the middle finger of their right hand and aromantics will sometimes wear a white ring on the middle finger of their left hand... and then the Ace of various suits in a deck are sometimes used for different identities on the spectrum. I want to take all of the above and merge them into finger tattoos and get the Ace of Spades symbol on both of my middle fingers.

I'm also a nerd and want to get some star wars droid tattoos... my beloved R2D2 but also a gonk droid. lovingly referred to by me as the Trash Can droid. because I love trash and I need people to know apparently.

I also really love lighthouses and would like a tattoo of a lighthouse but specifically I want one in done in this kind of style where the tattoo is within a geometric diamond or triangle shape but there's not actual edges to the design (am I describing this right? idk this is why I'm including pictures LOL):

I need a book tattoo. a stack of books, a book open with stuff coming out of it. I don't even know what kind yet - I just know that so much of my life revolves around books and so I want a tattoo of it.

There's another one that I really wanna get that combines some of my favorite symbols/motifs from a few of my favorite books into one tattoo (a bee, some flowers from a specific book cover, the ley line symbol from the raven cycle, etc...). But this is one I've been work-shopping how to put together and I just don't have it fully formed yet (because... I'm not an artist. go figure).

... I could go ON!! but I'll cut myself off here!

(The worst part is I probably should already have a few of these done... because the only thing that is holding me back from getting them is the social anxiety I have over contacting a tattoo artist and trying to explain to them what I want and then having to go and interact with said tattoo artist for multiple hours. If someone could cure me of my anxiety, I'd probably have tattoo SLEEVES by next month.)

[penna-nomen]

Fic writer asks: 3, 4, 13, & 20!

Thanks for the intriguing questions @silverinsanity!

3) My favorite kind of fic to write: stories that focus on the characters, that have a mix of humor and angst, and that have a happy ending

4) Other fic writers I admire: so many! Definitely @silbrith - our writing partnership will turn 10 years old next month, and I very much admire her work. Also @toast-the-unknowing whose Raven Cycle fics were so compelling that I devoured them before reading the source material; eventually those fics convinced me that I needed to read the books and then I enjoyed the fics on a whole new level.

13) Favorite fics written by others: This sent me on a delightful journey through my bookmarks. When I first started reading fanfic in the autumn of 2012, I decided to explore one specific fandom: White Collar. There are several works I came across in the following months that I enjoyed and that also strongly influenced my thoughts about what I wanted to write. A few highlights:

The Weather Outside is Frightful - this was one of my favorite examples of sick!fic and hurt/comfort, with an emphasis on sick, loopy Neal.

Off the Leash - it shows Peter and Neal stuck in a hotel room together and grumpy about it, and it inspired several of the ideas I explored in the first Caffrey Conversation story.

Jeffrey Nullier's "Man with a Fedora" by @copperbadge - the emphasis on Neal's skills as an artist + con artist and the humor stayed with me as elements I enjoyed both as a reader and a writer.

Now the question is: back when I first read these, did I have the courage to leave comments? if not, I need to go back and gush over them

20) 4 sentences from my work I'm proud of. Wow, that's the toughest ask. I went with the opening lines from my first fic, because I'm so proud of the fact that I actually had the courage to post it.

"James Bonds?" Elizabeth read the words over her husband's shoulder as she handed him a beer and sat beside him on their living room sofa. "That's quite a name. Does he live up to it?"

[maxlarens]

hehe can you recommend your favorite books and poetry💜

YES I CAN! giving people book/movie/music recommendations scratches a very specific itch in my brain. i love when people think i have good taste😭 love u forever for this anon!!!!! under the cut because i go ON AND ONNNN AND ON.

anyway. PREFACE. i love poetry, but i tend to collect it through pinterest instead of reading poetry collections. which i feel like is probably the better way of reading poetry. that being said i do have a few fave poems:

a poetry collection i have read is crush by richard siken! it's fairly easy to digest if you're new to poetry. but it's very evocative and deeply emotional for me. i love the poems snow and dirty rain, dirty valentine and litany in which certain things are crossed out.

jessica gives me a chill pill by angie sijun lou is one of my favourite poems ever. my favourite quote comes from it, 'I ask Jessica what drowning feels like and she says not everything feels like something else'.

this is a book? this a translation? this is kind of a play? i think it's fair to also call it poetry. antigonick by anne carson. it's a little difficult to parse but it's so worth it. my favourite line is 'a husband or a child can be replaced but who can grow me a new brother'.

this last one is not technically a poem. it's a game transcript which u should play. but it reads very much as a long poem/short story. it counts to me. anatomy by kitty horrorshow. if you're into haunted houses/body horror you'll like this. i love it very much, i think about it all the time. this is one of my many favorite lines from it: 'When a house is both hungry and awake, every room becomes a mouth.'

okay so that's poetry done. here are my favourite books:

annihilation by jeff vandermeer. if you've seen the movie (with natalie portman) and have no idea about the book i urge u to ignore the movie and read the book. it's science fiction/horror adjacent. i find the main character incredibly compelling and i love the writing style and the way vandermeer talks about nature. it's just a stunning book and has def influenced my writing even if it's not terribly obvious.

you feel it just below the ribs by jeffery cranor and janina matthewson. this is also science fiction. it's written in the world of a podcast i listen to, within the wires. i approached it with context on the world so i'm not sure how it would come across to someone with less context. regardless i think it's fantastically written. i'm not sure how to describe it other than to say i really connected with it emotionally.

the raven cycle series by maggie stiefvater. this is a young adult paranormal fantasy series. in my opinion it's not a typical YA series. rather than focusing overly on romance or love triangles it instead focuses deeply on incredibly well-rounded and multi-faceted characters, the power of friendship😭 and coming of age. romance is there but it's treated with such reverence. it's such a special series and stiefvater is a wonderful writer.

our wives under the sea by julia armfield is an exploration of grief and loss wrapped up in an abstract horror book. i can't describe how it made me feel but i think everyone should read it.

i wont get into these but also: my year of rest and relaxation by ottessa moshfegh, the hunger games series, the girls by emma cline and the grace year by kim liggett (<-i love the first 3/4s of this book. i hate the last 1/4. its worth it for the 3/4s imo).

[magpiesbones]

I love making playlists and was wondering if you have any songs that you associate with Witch Hat Atelier, The Raven Cycle or Howl's Moving Castle/House of Many Ways/Castle in the Air specifically?

Ooh or Hands if the Emperor?

oh this is a Really fun ask bc I found this really good trc playlist (unlinkable unfortunately) and it’s forever The trc playlist to me.

for witch hat I like a lot of Florence and the machine, but Forgiveness (許) by 4s4ki and silent legacy by Melissa etheridge also go very hard but I don’t really make playlists so. Most of my witch hat songs are ‘listen to while writing German college’ songs.

under the cut is the full TRC playlist written out.

like real people do- hosier

ghosts- the head and the heart

sea of love- cat power

dreams- Fleetwood Mac (or insert favorite cover)

Diplomats son- vampire weekend

arsonists lullaby- hosier

the mortal boy king— the paper kites

rivers and roads— the head and the heart

past lives— børns

I follow rivers— Marika hackman

the anchor- bastille

Bloom- the paper kites

Crooked teeth— death cab for cutie

see you- lady lamb

blame- bastille

5am- amber run

mystery of love- sufjan stevens

spirits- the strumbellas

From Eden- hozier

church- fall out boy

nobody dies- thao & the get down stay down

moving mountains- anima!

the twist- metric

pigeon- cavetown

sick of losing soulmates- dodie

A pound of flesh- radical face

dreaming- small pools

the predatory wasp of the palisades- sufjan stevens

November- sleeping with sirens

October- broken bells

devil in me- halsey

nineteen- tegan and Sara

rewrite the stars- original broadway recording of greatest showman

reflections after Jane- the clientele

The night we met- lord huron

rollercoaster- bleachers

come along (edit)- cosmo sheldrake

Ride- Lana de rey

so much- cavetown

Neptune- sleeping at last

heavens gate- fall out boy

the end of all things- panic at the disco

Willow tree March- the paper kites

Everything is temporary- cavetown

paint- the paper kites

Talk me down- troye sivan

Good times- all time low

Americas sweetheart- Elle king

family- mother mother

ribs- lorde

Call me out- sea girls

Trees- twenty one pilots

scene three: stomach tied in knots- sleeping with sirens

ten feet tall- cavetown

impossible year- panic at the disco

this is gospel- panic at the disco

the yawning grave- lord huron

always gold- radical face

Blue girl- the chromatics

waltz- the naked and famous

midnight city- m83

dream team- Aidan knight

devils playground- the rigs

you should see me in a crown- Billie eilish

teenage mind- Tate mcrae

silver lining- hurts

The wisp sings- winter aid

full circle- half moon run (this one REALLY has the vibe)

maybe we’re home- Lewis watson

wait- m83

July bones- Richard walters

lost it to trying- son lux

heirloom- sleeping at last

meet me in the woods- lord huron

Into the unknown- postcards from mars

welcome home son- radical face

young god- halsey

monsters calling home- run River north (also THE vibe)

let’s kill tonight- panic at the disco

No light no light- florence and the machine

these days are numbered- the head and the heart

hold on- Lewis watson

house of memories- panic at the disco

home- hollow coves

loneliness- SIAM

the funeral- band of horses

drive- halsey

gold- sir sly

another night on mars- the maine

we can try- between the trees

we’ll be the stars- Sabrina carpenter

why- Sabrina carpenter

slow dancing in the dark- joji

talk- coldplay

graveyard- halsey

the other side- Conan grey

Daughter- sleeping at last

if I get high- nothing but thieves

graveyard whistling- nothing but thieves

in this shirt- the irrepressibles

two men in love- the irrepressibles

[wander-wren]

*holds up shield* don’t throw things at me but i have actually developed nuanced opinions on AI over the past couple of months. imagine that. but this isn’t a post about those nuanced opinions! i can get into them later

this is a post where i reluctantly went to chatgpt to perform An Experiment, because if there’s one thing i love it’s writing-related data and making fun of bad writing guilt-free. and now that i’m not ideologically opposed with every atom of my body to AI i can do that!

i chose to give ai one of my older fics (from 2022), both because it was short enough for the text box and because, given all the scraping drama, ai probably already has it anyway. i was very tempted to put in something original, but i haven’t yet.

then i asked it, first, to write something mimicking that style, to….horrible results. i also asked it to write a sequel to the fic, because i had written a sequel myself. i got….interesting results from that. i have some thoughts on how ai writes, what it could be used for, and what it should almost definitely not be used for.

let’s get into it!

so, to start off, i used my raven cycle fic hostage situation. it’s not my best, being both old and written in like an hour for whumptober, but it’s not the worst.

when i asked chatgpt to mimic the style, i expected it to create something similar (this was a kidnapping with torture h/c fic, so something like that) and to do its very best to write something that sounded like a thing i would write. you know, like the ai art that puts in specific artists’ names to get something like their style.

i did not get that. maybe i would have if i had given it a more specific prompt, like, write a story about X in the style of this story, but i didn’t and i don’t really want to go back to chatgpt again, so just…shh. this was still a useful exercise, i promise!

let’s start by looking at the openings of each piece.

first of all, it chose to change the names and some more specific details, but literally nothing else. also love how it switches from ronnie (ronan?) to theo (gansey) almost immediately and there is cassie (noah) and cassie (adam).

also they made my gay fic hetero. alright.

also, this introduces a theme that we see throughout this endeavor. the ai has little to no idea what trc is or who the characters are (actually it has no idea what anything is, i shouldn’t anthropomorphize, but it doesnt have enough data to pick up on patterns like it might with, say, MCU fic). therefore, it ruins one of my favorite things about writing fic, especially for trc, and that is making dozens of subtle references that probably most other fans would even miss.

for example, right here we have references to ronan’s never-ending battle with his phone, his father’s death, and, if you squint, that One Line that goes “jesus,” gansey said, “christ.” which i have heard talked about a few times and lives in my head rent free. i’m sure no one else thinks about it that much, but it’s a very specific inflection and i love it.

the one (1) thing i will say is that “theo’s breath catches” is totally something i would write, and the ai didn’t copy it from this fic. i mean, it’s still pretty generic, but it kinda feels house style-y to me. hm.

continuing on! let’s see what the video is

so basically it stripped out all the fun description. incredibly rude, this was my favorite part to write. again, i’m wondering if there’s something significant about changing “guy who had to be rescued” to a girl.

there’s also a lot of confusion on like, what’s happening and why on the ai’s side. it’s copying my words, but cutting a lot, so there’s no reason for, say, the villain commenting in her mental faculties—she didn’t seem disoriented before, and she hasn’t done anything now to prompt the remark. also, we “see” cassie and then the newspaper gets pulled away to “reveal” her. it’s very messy. we also don’t get cassie telling theo not to come for her, something that is pretty important in adam’s case, mr. self-sacrifice, lover of ronan.

what happens when boyfriend comes to the rescue?

sorry i’m laughing because theo is still gansey in my head and him having like, full tattoo sleeves is Sending Me.

once again, cutting out the good description and making it all generic. this part makes sense, at least, but it’s less interesting. the best parts are the dialogue and THE DIALOGUE IS MINE. verbatim.

the line “time blurs since the video, her only link to theo gone” is grammatically incorrect or at the very least clunky. idk why that got changed.

changed the lastname-firstname switch that is so very important to pynch. kay.

obviously theo isnt ronan and this technically isnt fanfic so we lose the kavinsky/matthew reference, even though that adds depth to the scene when you remember that almost exactly this thing has happened to ronan with someone he loves before, so this has to be very fraught for him.

let’s finish up with the ending!

so this part doesn’t make any sense in the EXTREMELY limited context of the ai’s story. at the very beginning, it said that one of the three has the ability to manipulate illusions (which in itself is a bit odd—shouldn’t it be create illusions? or can you only manipulate illusions that are already there? that’s not very useful), but that doesn’t have anything to do with violence. is the implication that our dear friends [checks notes] ronnie and cassie2 did this??

the implication in the original fic is that ronan used dream creatures or something similar; it’s his subconscious, not technically his own work depending on how you look at it. i don’t believe ronan would commit violence like this where adam could see (hence why he wanted adam not to look) because of adam’s history of abuse, but ronan also has a lot of anger and a lot of monsters in his head and a lot of love for adam. so.

because this is fanfic, i don’t have to spell any of that out. it just is. but in the ai’s story it doesn’t know why or how that part exists, it just copies it.

and then basic ending where the ai says the quiet/implied part out loud. boring.

it should also be noted that chatgpt generated stories only clock in at around 600 words. the three screenshots here are almost all of that generation, while my fic is almost twice as long.

so my main takeaway here, aside from “chatgpt is bad at my favorite part of fanfic” as i said, is that chatgpt can’t really effectively mimic a writing style that isn’t generic or very close to it, because of the whole “most likely word” thing. and if your style is very generic than other human people already write a lot like you and/or could mimic you very easily.

i don’t have an outside perspective on what makes my fics recognizably mine (tell me?), but i’ve had a lot of people comment on the way i describe emotions. which is cool, because i love doing that. i like implying things with body language (especially focusing on where someone is/isn’t looking) even more than directly describing what people are feeling. the ai’s style is very much about stating directly what characters feel, often to the point of redundancy, a huge pet peeve of mine.

so yeah, not uber useful for fanfic writing. tumblr photo limits prevent me from continuing with the second experiment (writing a sequel to this fic), but i’ll be back in a hot second to write that one.

[sleepymarmot]

Ravenous (1999)

Liveblog

“George, people don’t still do that, do they?” “White man eats the body of Jesus Christ every Sunday.” First of all, laughed out loud. Second, oh so this is why the newcomer looks so Christlike :D

Did he really need to call it “virility” lmao

Was disappointed when Carlyle’s character suddenly became very animalistic

How long did Boyd lie in that forest with a broken bone without food and water? With the blood from the wounds fresh on his face as if no time has passed? And then ate the other guy which implies the meat was fresh? Based on the moon, at first I thought it was almost a month, then realized it should be less because it was close to half a cycle instead of a full cycle, then realized the moon phases were shown backwards anyway. But even if we count backwards it should be about two weeks.

“Perhaps later, you might… contribute [to the stew]” this guy was Hannibal before Hannibal

Thoughts

*checks another Gay Subtext classic off my list*

Surprised to see multiple reviews describe the film’s subject matter as unusual or unmarketable; I guess I’m lucky to live in the same general area of the internet as a bunch of fans of various intersections between “angsty men in a period piece”, “repressed homoeroticism”, and “eating people”.

Full disclosure: I’d been meaning to watch this for years, but the real motivation to pick this specific film out of my watchlist and press play was that I’d decided to watch at least one movie per month, and then missed the entirety of March and was left on the evening of March 31st trying to pick something not too long or too heavy. 

Luckily, the vibe turned out to be exactly what I expected. Though I didn’t anticipate how much this film is at once! It’s a comedy, it’s a tragedy, it’s western, it’s horror, it’s romance. There’s a precarious balance between naturalism and camp that I’m not sure I was satisfied with, but the unevenness adds to the unpolished, uncommercialized arthouse aesthetic of the film (fitting for a work about raw meat to feel raw itself!), and the resulting stew is tasty enough that in the end I don’t really care. The ending is so neat that the tragedy feels satisfying rather than heartbreaking (I rewatched it months later while finishing this review, and was grinning from ear to ear), and the overall story manages to be simultaneously refreshingly straightforward and thematically rich (lots to chew on! ba dum tsh). 

Other people are better equipped to write about the political themes of the film (or its treatment of Native American characters and folklore) than I am, but I was surprised and impressed by the scene near the end that textually compares cannibalism to colonialist expansion, and then, without a pause, makes cannibalism stand for homosexuality in subtext so strong that it’s almost text, that I have to forcibly remind myself that these lines could possibly be about anything other than the protagonist’s repressed attraction to men in general and the antagonist specifically. 

Special shout outs to the Christian imagery and how well it works with the themes, and to Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn’s work on the soundtrack (I remember how months or years ago I first learned who wrote music for the niche gay cannibal movie I’d seen mentioned from time to time, and did a double take). And the final shout out — to the Native American final girl.

[grossdyke]

5-6-14 i'm especially curious about which one is being made into a film .

5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write?

ahshdj i had the idea today that i wanted to write crabbe and goyles relationship althroughout hogwarts and i got so fucking excited. im literally never going to do that tho bc im not really a writer and muli-chapter fics are HARD. i would also love to write a dorcas fic where she’s discovering her butch lesbian identity but i dont think i ever will… i also have a million raven cycle ideas that i’ll never write probably because im too invested in my marauder rare pairs <//3

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

yes!!!!

1. text talk by merlywhirls

2. the shoebox project by jaida

3. time is a fine invention by bluepeony

4. long live living (if living can be this) by excaliburned

5. coast to coast by lumosinlove

6. a brief history of dragons by eyra

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

oh…….. listen. as some of u may know by now… im a film major (no i will never stop bragging that i got my bachelor’s degree a few weeks ago) and i have some experience with directing short films..

i’m not really obsessed with my writing in ’doesn’t the night go slow?’ but i think the story is so good….. i would LOVE to see it as film. what inspired me to write it was the film adaption of fried green tomatoes and specifically the line ”i’m as settled as i ever hoped to be” :)))) the story is vastly different lmao its just. that specific line that sparked the fic to life<3

[wereallbooked]

About Us!

M 💫

hii! m here! started reading again in 2023/2024 with lotssss of romance, and trying to branch out into fantasy and lit fit more now. some of my favorite books include happy place by emhen, love hypothesis by ali hazelwood, the book thief, a little princess, love & gelato, and tom lake. excited to share our two person bookclub with everyone!

H ✨

hiiii i’m h!! two of my favorite books of all time are happy place by emily henry and iron flame by rebecca yarros. one of my favorite series is maggie stiefvater’s the raven cycle. a big influence on my reading vibes is my formative marauders fanfic obsession. my auto-buy authors are emhen, rebecca yarros, and sally rooney. i get a lot of my books from book of the month, and i need to buy stock in my local barnes and noble. one of my favorite ways to elevate my reading hobby is to journal about each book after im done! those reviews are private because they’re extra honest; but i have other fun things in my journal, like a genre tracker, book tracker, physical tbr library, a tracker for donations, and a chart to track my BOTMs specifically. i’m so excited to share my reads here and hopefully help people have better book club discussions!

M's rating system 🥀

⭐️: i highly disliked this book. it made me feel unwell. i will never read this again. immediately donating it to a little free library if i own it

⭐️⭐️: not written well. when i look back on it i wonder why i bothered to read it entirely in the first place. there are some merits to it though which is why it has two stars. maybe the plot was fun or i could somewhat understand the vibe that was attempting to come across.

⭐️⭐️⭐️: not bad! would i reread it? probably not.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: good! could even be great! would possibly pick up again and reread. it probably made me feel something inside (even if it was negative). writing was good. maybe i just didn't vibe with certain plot points.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: amazing. my life has been forever changed. definitely would reread. and tell other people to read.

H's rating system 🌷

⭐️: i was locked in a boxing ring with this book and lost. i should have dnfed. the reasons why i didn’t dnf are unclear even to myself. usually, had a bone to pick with the prose, the characterization, and the dialogue. my most recent example is rebecca robinson’s the serpent and the wolf.

⭐️⭐️: i had active beef with this book. my reader friends all know i hated it because i wouldn’t shut up about it. again, probably should have dnfed but SOMETHING got me to keep going. sometimes books in this category aren’t explicitly BAD, just not for me. also, sometimes im a victim of their marketing and going in with mismatched expectations. a recent example of this is emma gray’s pictures of you.

⭐️⭐️⭐️: generally a pretty solid read! usually an issue with prose, dialogue, OR character construction (but only one, not all). does not inspire me to pick it up during bits of free time throughout the day, and usually doesn’t have any lines i feel inspired to pull for my journal. my most recent example is ava robinson’s definitely better now.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: a read on the upside of good, leaning towards great. sometimes a resembles a five star read, but lacks what i call that five star feeling—the elusive joy of a true five star read. still, a well constructed book that scratched every itch, but perhaps could have done something better. my most recent example is emma knight’s the life cycle of the common octopus

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: generally evoked a strong reaction (made me cry and/or laugh out loud and/or attempt to cause my book physical harm). has quotes within it that i went out of my way to record in my journal, and characters that i think about after finishing. my most recent example is ali hazelwood’s love theoretically.

[the-mspfa-200-favourites-project]

FEARNOT

Nostalgia cycles—that is, the timespan that it takes for something to become “nostalgic” for a group of people—seem to be getting less and less with every year that passes by, and 2019 was no exception to this. By 2019, it had turned to the early internet, or rather, the early internet fandom days of 2009-2012. FEARNOT was born out of this desire for the early internet, and it is quite possibly one of the most interesting things on MSPFA, for a variety of reasons.

First, each of the main characters in it take after internet archetypes, but they specifically take after the archetypes of that early internet; specifically, the kinds of drawings you might see in the early internet. The main protagonist has literally every disease, and this manifests in him crying blood all the time, much like old Edgy OCs from that time period. His best friend is based more off of the troll comics (you know, those old exploitable memes that used to be posted?) of that period, and the third of our trio is a dashing young woman who is based off of scene kids and the “Random RAWR XD Lol” humor that was seen at that time. So, it’s not really types of *people* you might find on the internet that they are based off of, but rather the remnants those people might have left behind.

Already that might be fascinating to look at in terms of how it expresses nostalgia for that time period, but there is more interesting things than just character construction. For one, its main art style sees a kind of…harkening back to DeviantArt comics of the time, you know, obviously sketched in Microsoft Paint, and with—gasp, can it really be true—TRADITIONAL COMIC BOOK PANELING.

YES! The typical singular unit for MSPFA, the PANEL, has become it’s more traditionalist format of several panels arranged deliberately juxtaposed in sequence, complete with comic book’s typical “Desperation Devices,” the speech bubble. It is an effect that is very rare (up to this point in my journey that I can remember, anyways, besides that one time somebody made a Problem Sleuth Newspaper Comic) on MSPFA, and honestly makes the story flow in a surprisingly satisfying way. Actually, do you know Sparkle on Raven? It reminds me of that, which makes sense since both are taking their influences from amateur creations at that time period.

There are other art styles to the comic, however, and the way it starts is absolutely INSANE in terms of art stylization. Okay, so the two characters in the opening scene are sketched out with the MSPFA line weight ratio that everybody knows and loves, but on top of what looks to be a low-poly 3d model of a mattress, on top of a zoomed-in texture of some carpet, with text floating above in the sketchiest font I’ve ever seen, all topped off with it being flooded in this sort of pinkish-purpleish lighting. It is certainly a mood and panel that gets one’s attention.

The story itself is very good and funny as well, and I would highly recommend anybody who has NOT read FEARNOT to go check it out and the many twists and turns it has to its story. AND, Fun Fact, it’s still upd8ing to this very day! So, there is really no reason not to check it out.