ultraturtleduck

[ultraturtleduck]

Just finished reading foundryside and its sequels, and yeah this is the main driver for approximately 90% of the plot.

big fan of when grief drives characters to do fucked up things that are ultimately pointless and do more harm than good rather than just like. going to therapy

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I'm mostly doing this just to bookmark it for later to see what your thoughts are when you finish the book. You're missing some pieces and I'm very curious how you'll feel once those all slot into place.

My first post. I am no great hand at literature, but this seems like a nice vent-y space. IM COMBUSTING I love this series so much and I never want it to end and I need to know what happens holy fuckkkkk

Spoilers for the Golden Enclaves

Im at the bit where Orions gone to new york. Is it just me or has El not figured out that she was the one who "hit" the enclaves and damaged them when she killed the mawmouths, the one in the library was Bangkok which was why it was relatively young, the one in the grad hall was () and ..this is still not super clear in my head but either Patience or Fortitude was London, but London also might not have only had one because they might have expanded several times and perhaps Fortitude was Londons mawmouth but also maybe London is still standing because Fortitude hasnt been digested yet

And also I think this because it keeps being mentioned that London and New York are very powerful so what if London=Fortitude and New York=Patience and New York hasnt gone down yet because Orion hasnt actually killed Patience, only absorbed it.

And the Mawmouth in London was Beijings one and Beijing kept standing precariously because it was attached to the sage's house and braced so perhaps London was also braced like that or attached to a non-malia-infused part but what worries me is that El felt it stabilising as she was leaving London and what if they were creating another mawmouth while she was there

Also it makes so much sense now that in A Deadly Education El said that enclaves' only defense tactic is to hide away and wait and of course that is partially because they are generally unkillable but also now we know that the council members have a vested interest in not letting the mawmouths be killed either

Im also just absolutely reeling at the fact that this is layered evil, not only are you crushing someone into an immortal ever-hunger doomed to endless pain and dooming whatever it mindlessly consumes to the same, it has the added "bonus" of going after the independent wizards whose continued existence would otherwise lower the odds of your childs chance of survival. This is masterfully awful

This post is here mostly so I can come back and see how right or wrong my theories were and to just add my thoughts

[ultraturtleduck]

[ultraturtleduck]

So I once again came across that tumblr post about foxes being dogs because foxes are fluffye, and I had the same reaction I had when I first saw it, which is that foxes are canines, therefore they are dogs.

And then I thought I might as well go on a bit of a Wikipedia dive to see the details.

And, uh...

I actually think that dogs and wolves are sort of a side branch on the fox genetic tree. Turns out there's way more species of fox than there are of dog, and lots of things that you would call a dog or actually foxes and vice versa.

Once again biology turns out to be both fascinating and completely obscure.

[ultraturtleduck]

This is my new excuse as to why I act so strange

You’re never gonna get an angel bound in human form that isn’t some sort of fucked up. You’re cutting it off from all sorts of metaphysical senses, extradimensional perceptions, and biologically impossible physiology all at once. That’s like if you pancaked a human down to 2D and took away all our senses besides touch and smell. You’d be pretty weird too.

[ultraturtleduck]

I really think Percy Jackson should have included some body horrorish consequences to using godlike powers, like the more Percy uses his powers the more his teeth become sharp and many layered, and he starts having scales and fins and claws, and over time Nico becomes even more pale to the point where his skin is translucent and his eyes are so black that it seems like they're holes cut in reality. Jason constantly having lightning crackling around him, Clarisse wearing bloodstains that won't come off, annabeth starting to grow owl feathers in with her hair.

I just really like the idea of power coming with consequences, because I feel like it makes sense for people who use power derived from immortal sources to slowly lose touch with their mortality.

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Hey when did Caitlyn Kirraman get on Tumblr?

Staring at your knuckles while we talk in the same way a straight guy stares at titties

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It always infuriates me that people look at Chernobyl and decide that nuclear energy is too dangerous, as opposed to the correct conclusion, which is that the USSR sucked at designing nuclear reactors. (And also everything else.)

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one part of worm i completely forgot about and am sort of increasingly losing my shit over after having seen it again via a liveblog is. in the chapter where taylor comes to give rachel an unstated goodbye before leaving to be a ward, there's an interaction where cassie is like "rachel what should i make for dinner tonight? ^-^" and rachel goes "hamburger" and cassie is like "ok anything else? ^-^" and rachel is like "no" and then taylor interrupts to go "Vegetables. Something Healthy." literally one of the Last interactions she has with rachel before not seeing her again for two years is telling cassie to feed rachel vegetables. that's so fucking funny. the entire thing sounds like it should be some kind of incorrect worm quote but no, it's real. taylor just straight up for real canonically goes "my last message to the world. feed rachel her vegetables. goodbye." she loves rachel so much and she's So taylor about it. Make sure my dog eats her vegetables while I'm gone. it's so good

[ultraturtleduck]

Once again, Naomi Novik does. Not. Miss

Funniest element of world building in the entire Temeraire saga : Longwings, or "the British Empire tried to obtain the perfect acid-spitter and accidentally bio-engineered a dragon breed powered by Respect Women Juice".

Longwings, or "yes thank to the improvement of our superior breeding techniques, we have figured out how to prevent our dragons from running away after hatching" and then you learn said improvement was just Queen Elizabeth the first throwing one of her handmaids at a newborn acid-spitting dragon and learning from the experience that they prefer ladies.

Longwings, or "there are Important and Dangerous Secrets one must learn to keep when joining the Corps, you are now Part of the Mysteries" and then you learn even British patriarchy has to fold against giant acid-spitting dragons and allow women in the army.

Longwings, or the most romantic bitches you will ever meet, longing and grieving tenderly for their marvelous and beautiful ladies long after they pass.

Longwings, or "the gene for feminism is apparently linked to the same chromosome as sick as fuck deadly acid-spitting in dragons"

[ultraturtleduck]

This is giving big Citizen Sleeper vibes.

Guild Engineer

[ultraturtleduck]

I will forever be thankful that I found her scholomance series after it had been finished, because I chewed through those books in 16 hours without taking a break to eat or sleep. I'm pretty sure that if I had needed to wait after that cliffhanger I would have gone crazy.

One thing I love about the Temeraire series is that by the time I found it, it was COMPLETED. Today in the year of our lord, 2025. Finished. ✅

There’s no baiting and social media frenzies to amp up or ‘find’ the ending. No side books before finishing the series. No profiteering, not really. It’s just a classic banger, done up in a bow, sitting on the shelf waiting to be read and reread.

No ambiguity, no waiting. There are nine perfectly complete books just sitting on the table. They are filled with love, companionship, friendship, and liberty. It is an abolitionist, anti-colonial alternative history of Dragons in the Gunpowder Wars.

*Chef’s kiss*

The Mobius Strip is complete. We are whole and we are content.

[ultraturtleduck]

One of the reasons I love uprooted is that every character is simultaneously awesome and lame.

I need this. I need this in an adaptation of Uprooted.

I need that in this scene the camera focuses on Solya and only Solya. He is so pathetic I love him.

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The only reason you didn't call me that is bc you were too busy barking

need to suck off a girl i call big sis while she tells me this is totally normal for sisters to do 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[ultraturtleduck]

People really love putting hbomberguy in situations huh

Alright so, Ward, except it's a Hbomberguy video about Gold Morning, and it balloons up into a 32 hour long video about Skitter, the path she took towards becoming Khepri, her time as Weaver and it spirals into a comprehensive treatise on trigger events/crisis points, Cauldron, cluster triggers/mosaic power expression, massive amounts of unknown parahuman science, the murder of Alexandria, Case 53s, etc. He does his usual thing of setting up a few short stories about similar parahuman cases before he gets to Taylor herself, setting up the main thematic points he wants to cover once he finally gets to Skitter, Weaver and Khepri. He ends up citing dozens of parahumans and their testimonies, including short comments from Victoria, a massive help from Tattletale who saw his genuine motive for clarity and understanding and basically wants to finally get the story out on Taylor so she isn't misunderstood, and comments from Weld and a few of the Irregulars concerning the secret Cauldron base assault and both sides that emerged because of it.

It ends with a plea for the world to be kinder to one another because of how parahumans are made and a strong message for unity in the wake of Gold Morning. It fundamentally changes how the public see parahumans since it blows trigger events wide open. It spreads like wildfire over the reconstructed internet, and he has to release it in two parts over six months because of the sheer effort of editing, and then has to release a third part that is another seventeen hours long because the events of Ward all happened and he needs to catch everyone up on Victoria Dallon and what she's doing.

I don't know if he lives in Britain but it would be funny if he never really explains how he survived Scion's initial attack, or he keeps interrupting himself when he tries to get to it.

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not “like other girls” its “LIKES other girls”

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ok Taylor there's about a billion other ways you could have disseminated that cure to her. you could have had a bug coat itself in your sweat and then fly into her mouth when she was talking or something and you wouldn't have had to risk getting close enough for her to seriously injure or murder you. you just wanted an excuse to kiss the hot feral doggirl you've been engaging in toxic yuri with for the last 20 chapters