#12 was the easiest number for me to work with i had to make some choices

[dyketennant]

as someone who has obviously done extensive research on the topic i would like to present to you all...dyketennant's "which david tennant character are you" uquiz

#it's almost 3am now and i started this at around 10-11pm i think so if this sucks. im sorry #also before you say 'what about x character' listen there's only so many i can add you guys #12 was the easiest number for me to work with i had to make some choices #yes i was influenced by my own bias that's inevitable #toyed with the idea of adding kilgrave but could not stomach the guilt of anyone actually getting him as their result #david tennant #good omens #doctor who #blackpool #takin over the asylum #bbc staged #around the world in 80 days #hamlet 2009 #fright night 2011 #broadchurch #la without a map #queues to watch out for

[ofliterarynature]

FEBRUARY 2024 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok nope dnf (reread) book club*]

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years • The Memory Librarian • Pixels of You* • Arch-Enemies • Moby Dyke • Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures • A Sinister Revenge • Lud in the Mist • Crying in H Mart • Something Close to Magic • Hula • (Renegades) • The Divorce Colony • Foundryside • Earthlings • A Far Wilder Magic

total: 13 books (12 audiobook, 1 print)

Not as many books this month! And not just because February has fewer days, I was really in a funk this month and struggling to pay attention to my audiobooks (and enjoy them). You wouldn't think there's such a thing as too many books, but I think the overtime hours at work are hitting their peak mental health destruction. Here's to hoping things improve in March!

The Divorce Colony (4.5 stars) - genuinely can't believe this was my 3rd nonfic of the year already! I picked a print copy of this up at a library sale in December after hearing about divorce colonies in the early 20th century on a recent episode of the 99% Invisible podcast. Turns out this book was actually about the beginning of the moment that took place in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the 1800's. Western states had shorter residency periods and less strict divorce laws, so women (and the occasional man) would travel west and live there for several months in order to obtain a divorce. This book tracks the movement through the stories of 4 of the more infamous cases to make the papers, and does an incredible job of weaving in the surrounding political and religious discussions. Would recommend, and has a great cover to boot!

Renegades (3 stars) - a reread, and for some reason it was torture. I originally read this back in 2018 and loved it, and wanted to tackle it again and actually finish the rest of the series. But I kept getting worked up and frustrated this time around! It kept trying to take itself seriously while also being very YA and kind of superhero-camp, and I was absolutely overthinking it lol. I found the strength to press on into book two, Archenemies (3.5 stars). I liked it a bit more! Something about it being new, the story being a bit more settled and maybe getting a better grasp on its message/politics, the characters growing more, me figuring out that I shouldn't listen to the audiobook for more than an hour or so at a time, lmao. Not great, but fun, and possibly worth reading? I'll keep y'all updated when I finish book 3.

Hula (5 stars) - incredible. Part generational family story, part history, part discussion of what it means to be Hawaiian, culturally and legally. Not always the easiest of reads, but it was so so worth it. It was also doing something very interesting with parts of the narration voiced by a collective "we" (culture/community?) that I would love to get a look at in print. Highly recommend, I'll definitely be getting myself a copy.

Something Close to Magic (4.5 stars) - an absolute delight! The Gail Carson Levine comp on this one is not entirely unearned, anyone who's a fan of fairy tale type fantasies will enjoy this, I had a great time! Very interestingly, it has characters who are in their mid to late teens, but is written in a way where they're still allowed to be young, to the point I'm surprised it didn't get shoehorned into MG instead of YA. If the author writes any more of these I'd be happy to read them.

Crying in H Mart (3.5 stars) - nonfic number 4! I'm sure everyone's heard of this one by now, which is why I finally picked it up. It's fine (which is why it got an extra .5 star), but on the scale of take it or leave it, I'd leave it. It just wasn't for me and I kind of wish I'd dnf'd it. A great cover though.

Lud-in-the-Mist (3.5 stars) - this one seems to be considered a sort of early precursor to fantasy and fairy tale type stories from the early 20th century, and I was eager to try it! While I definitely don't think it would feel out of place amongst it's more recent fellows (think the Last Unicorn, Robin McKinley, DWJ, etc), I absolutely could not get into it. Probably the chief recipient of "my brain doesn't want to cooperate, sorry," so maybe I'll give it another shot someday.

A Sinister Revenge (4 stars) - enjoyable as always! Not to hide this deep in my reviews or anything, but have the Emily Wilde people tried Veronica Speedwell yet?

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (3 stars) - This one's been sitting unread on my shelf for a while, and since I was on a bit of a Maggie Stiefvater run, I figured it was perfect! Well. Unless you are like 7, this was so bad. Not good. Having previously read and not liked a book by Maggie's co-author Jackson Pearce, I think it would not be unreasonable for me to assume she did most of the writing while Maggie did the illustrations - if the audiobook had been any longer than 4 hours I'd have absolutely DNF'd it, and I have no intention of continuing the series.

Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in the Country (4.5 stars) - part of me was wondering what I was doing trying this lol, not being someone who drinks or goes to bars, OR, as previously mentioned, is not the biggest fan of memoirs. It was not, as I hoped, also part research project, but it is a travelogue, and as a consequence has a strong narrative thread. It also has a lot of discussions about issues in the LGBTQ+ community, and overall I really liked it once I figured out what it was doing!

Pixels of You (3.5 stars) - a very short sapphic rivals-to friends-to lovers graphic novel about a human-form AI and a human with an android eye competing for a photography internship at an art gallery. The creators clearly put SO much thought into their characters and worldbuilding, but sadly there is nowhere near enough length here to do it all justice, and a number of elements felt very odd or under explored. The relationship parts are great! I just think this needed to be twice as long to really given everything its due, or maybe explored in prose instead.

The Memory Librarian (3.5 stars) - to start, I know nothing about the musical album this is related to, so I don't know how much that might have affected my reading. Overall I wasn't super impressed - when I discovered that the first story was cowritten by Alaya Dawn Johnson - no shade to her - I almost dropped it then, I just really didn't like her writing style in the one book I've read. But I stuck through it. Of the five stories, only one really stuck in my mind - Nevermind, cowritten by Danny Lore, which I could have read an entire novel about. I wish I could recommend it on its own, but overall I just don't quite understand the world Monae has created.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years (3.5 stars) - I probably should say more about the book, it was fine, I was surprised to find that it's set in relatively current day, I found myself a lot more interested in the second narrative about the house's history, which did make me cry a bit. Mostly though, I really just want to let you know how MUCH of a non-entity the djinn was in this story, I have no idea why it was there and why it was included in the title of the book. All the author had to do was make the house a little more sentient and haunted and it would be fine, idk. Read it if you want, but it's not one I would rec.

DNF'S

Foundryside - I was so ready. I had the first two audiobooks checked out, I had the third one on hold. I started this but oh, the writing. bleh. I was looking thought reviews and someone referred to it as something like "21st century internet speak." In a high fantasy novel. I noped out at just 10%.

Earthlings - I've considered the author's other book before but haven't read it, but thought maybe a sci-fic book would work better for me? The beginning was odd but not uninteresting, and I might have continued if it had stayed that way. But then the main character was in school(?) and her teacher started getting handsy after class and I wasn't invested enough to stick it out.

A Far Wilder Magic - the success of Something Close to Magic made me a little too hopeful I think, bc while I'm still a little leery around YA, I know people have liked this. And it sounded interesting, truly, and I love the cover. But first it was the religion stuff. And I didn't really like the characters. Then it's like, oh, this is the same plot as The Scorpio Races, but nowhere near it's quality in any shape or form. I decided to stop while I was ahead, before I started to actually dislike it. (anyway here's your PSA to go read The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, I recommend doing it in October if you can).

#bec posts #book log #wrap up 2024 #books #booklr #book review #the divorce colony #april white #renegades #marissa meyer #hula #jasmine iolani hakes #something close to magic #crying in h mart #lud in the mist #veronica speedwell #pip bartlett #maggie stiefvater #moby dyke #pixels of you #the memory librarian #the djin waits a hundred years

[ship-enthusiast]

hit me with your kill shot, baby || javier peña

Pairing || Javier Peña x Fem!OC/Fem! Reader (she/her)

Words || 5.4k

Summary || In order to lure out an informant of Escobar, Javier's partner has to seduce him far enough into an alleyway to knock him out.

Content || smut, p in v (protected - wrap it before you tap it), slightly rough sex, face sitting, fingering, swearing, brief mentions of violence, jealous!javi (my favorite), hickey, marking, praise kink, consensual, making out, light angst, brief unwanted physical contact

A/N || This is a work of fiction! This is in no way correlated to the real Javier Peña or anything with the DEA and Pablo Escobar

Juliette and Javier had never seen eye-to-eye since the two had met years ago and their animosity for each other, although mainly one-sided, had only grown. 

Their constant bickering had only peaked when they were assigned the same mission of tracking down an informant of Pablo Escobar. 

Javier had never detested Juliette, not even once during their long and arduous partnership as coworkers in the DEA. He just never understood why she had been so against him since, what it seemed like, she had laid eyes on him. 

Juliette was extremely dedicated to her work. She graduated at the top of her classes and excelled in everything she did which landed her a cushy DEA job in the first place. She could have slacked off then but she chose to continue giving her all that landed her a promotion and a transfer to the Colombian branch to help track down Escobar. 

The night before she had to hop on a plane to Latin America, her friends had taken her out to a bar to celebrate her promotion. Juliette didn’t like to drink a whole lot but she indulged her friends a bit more that night when she had locked eyes with a mysterious man. She was sober enough to realize that this man was absolutely breathtaking with doe brown eyes and short curls framing his tan skin.  

Of course, her friends had pressured her into flirting with him which ended up in a heated make-out session in the women’s bathroom before Juliette came to her senses to ask for the man’s number before they did anything further. Hell, she hadn’t even asked for his name yet. The stranger then faltered and tried to explain that he wasn’t looking for anything serious and had to leave for a trip the next day. Which, of course, was a crushing blow to Juliette’s ego as she immediately exited the bathroom and dragged her friends home to re-watch their favorite rom-coms and drown her sorrows in a tub of ice cream. 

This led her to almost be late to her flight and when she finally landed in Colombia, she had a nice introduction to Agent Murphy on the way to HQ only to come face-to-face with Javier Peña, the man she had left blue-balled in the stall of a bar bathroom. 

He had shaken her hand with a friendly smile as if his tongue hadn’t been shoved down her throat less than 12 hours before which fueled Juliette’s anger and embarrassment. 

Whilst in her time in Colombia, she had befriended some other female researchers who shed some light on Peña’s womanizing ways which would only further cement Juliette’s animosity for the man. 

This leads to the present day when Steve was hurt during a stakeout and since he was out of commission, Juliette was assigned to Peña to lure out an important informant of Escobar’s. 

Tiago Ramirez-Garcia is a sexist man with a love for women only second to Juliette’s current partner. The easiest plan to lure the man away from all his bodyguards and the attention of the large crowd he always surrounded himself with was, unsurprisingly, a woman.

Steve had told Juliette that she didn’t need to subject herself as the bait but she merely brushed it off, claiming that this was the easiest way with the least amount of casualties. 

She and a fellow coworker, Thea, decided to go shopping for something suitable for the next day. 

“I honestly don’t know why I’m even going through with this plan,” Juliette sighs heavily, dragging her hands across her face. “I thought these scenarios only happened in movies. Or romance books.”

“It’s kind of exciting, isn’t it?”Thea asks. “Seducing  a man into his demise.” 

“I mean, sure if you put it that way. I don’t know how well this is going to play out.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, yeah Tiago has a history of flirting with anyone with a vagina between their legs but all the past women he’s been with have been…gorgeous. I don’t know if I can pull this off.”

“Jules,” Thea stops the two in their tracks and grabs the woman’s shoulders. “Don’t say that. You’re breathtaking and of course, he’s going to take the bait. I mean, I know I would.”

Juliette laughs at her friend’s comment, tucking a strand of hair loose from her bun. 

“Besides, you’re going to feel so confident after you’re all dolled up, Peña won’t know what hit him.”

“What does Peña have to do with this?”Juliette raises an eyebrow as she’s ushered into a dress shop. 

“Mm, I don’t know,” Thea hums, pretending to shrug thoughtfully. “Just the way he looks at you. I don’t think you’ll be walking home with just one man trailing after.”

Juliette rolls her eyes and begins mindlessly scrolling through the dresses on a nearby rack. “I mean…” her hand stops at one outfit. “I could always test that theory.”

She picked off a wine-red dress, smoothing the satin fabric with her index finger. “This’ll do.”

Thea had come over to her apartment early to finish curling Juliette’s usually straight long hair, pinning it into a stylish updo, and finishing off her look with a smokey eye and deep red lipstick to match her dress. 

Thea went out of her room to give her privacy. Juliette took another deep breath and looked at the dress hanging on her bathroom door. Did she really want to do this? Yeah, yeah she did.

She slips on the dress, the soft fabric welcoming against her skin when she feels the harsh cold of the chains. The dress was cocktail style with a flowy front and an open back, adorned by several silver chains dipping just over her ass. Juliette gives herself a once over in the mirror and turns around, admiring the chains gliding across her smooth skin. 

She exits her bathroom to pull out a pair of black heels she hadn’t worn in ages before letting Thea back into her bedroom. 

“What were you saying earlier?”The other woman raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah, okay,” Juliette blushes slightly, scratching at her cheek. “I just wish now that I don’t have to only get dressed like this for a mission.”

“Of course not,” Thea smiles happily, looping her arms around the now taller Juliette. “After this, we can both get dolled up and go clubbing. How does that sound?”

“After this, I’ll probably take a long nap but…maybe next week I’ll be free.”

“You better be.”

There’s a light knock on Juliette’s apartment door that breaks the two’s conversation. Juliette smooths her already smooth dress and looks back to Thea who only gives her an overly enthusiastic thumbs up and a large grin. Juliette shakes her head in response before grabbing a black clutch purse hanging on her kitchen counter and opening the door for Peña.

“Agent Wei, are you…”

Javier stops mid-sentence, his arm leaning against the doorway as his eyes raked up and down Juliette’s body.

She shifted on her feet, suddenly feeling self-conscious underneath his intense gaze. “You ready to go?”

“Uh, yeah,” he nods slowly, moving his body so she could slip past him. He closes her door with a soft click and follows behind her, his hand occasionally brushing against her bare back. 

Juliette wills her body to go still, hoping she doesn’t trip on the flat ground when she feels his breath so close to her neck as he reaches across her to open the passenger door. She dips her head in thanks and carefully enters the car, buckling up as he walks to the other side. 

Juliette fidgets with her hands, twisting the ring on her middle finger while Javier turns on the vehicle. He leans up from his seat, placing a hand on the shoulder of the passenger back seat to pull out of the driveway. Her body stills once more, her fidgeting halting for a moment before he finally slumps back into his seat and shifts the gear into drive.

The rest of the car ride to the club is fairly uneventful between the two, besides the few glances he’d shoot her away when he thought she wasn’t looking. 

They finally reach their destination and Javier parks the car, unbuckling himself before finally looking at Juliette in the eyes. “And you’re 100% sure you want to do this?”

“Yes, Peña, I’m fine,” Juliette rolls her eyes, unbuckling her own seat belt. “I can take care of myself.”

Javier only clenches his jaw, his arm flexing as he grips the steering wheel tighter. The other hand fishes out a hearing device from a bag tucked in the dashboard. He motions her closer with a finger and she, embarrassingly quickly, obeys. He brushes a part of her hair aside, delicately placing the device into her ear. He swipes his thumb across her cheek and onto the device, effectively turning it on. 

“Be careful,” he says softly. 

Juliette merely leaned back and gives her partner a mock salute before exiting the car and pulling down her dress which had ridden up from the ride. 

She peers into the side mirror, tucking a few stray strands of hair back into bobby pins whilst feeling his gaze never leaving her face. Satisfied with her appearance, Juliette turns her attention to the loud club, practically able to feel the vibrations stemming from the loud building. 

Juliette saunters over to the front of a long line and flashes the bouncer a smile, pulling out a card from her clutch she had been given for VIP access.

The large man in black just grunted as he unhooked the velvet rope, letting her pass. She maneuvers her way through a sea of scantily clad sweaty people and into a dimly lit hallway. She begins ascending a pair of stairs, glow-in-the-dark arrows pointing her up to the VIP lounge. 

Juliette flashes her card to the next bouncer before finally being let into the room. It was darkly lit with velvet padded walls, lights setting the atmosphere with a purple glow, illuminating the bar in the back. Various couches were strewn about, facing in different directions. Some of them were placed in front of a stage where a pole resided, a beautiful dancer moving in tune with the high bass music. 

Juliette never felt more out of place. Sure she had been clubbing before but never in such an extravagant setting since she had been a broke college student. 

“You alright there, hermosa?”

Her earpiece cracked to life, Javier’s familiar voice infiltrating all her senses. She felt too relieved to hear something comforting to bite at his pet nickname. 

“Yeah,” she whispered under her breath. “I just got into the lounge.”

She probably didn’t need to tell him since he could hear everything on her side but she felt the need anyway. Her body froze for what felt like the millionth time that night at his breathy next words.

“Good girl.”

When there was no further response from the other side, Juliette made her way to the bar in the back for a better scope of the room. She asked for vodka and slightly rotated her seat, glimpsing at all the other patronages in the room. 

Some were mingling quietly, making idle chatter while others were fully on each other, hands all over their bodies before they finally stopped to drag the other into a private room.

Fuck. Private rooms. Tiago could be anywhere on this floor and it wouldn’t be guaranteed she’d even see a glimpse of them this whole night. How could she ever think she could do this?

Slumping her shoulders in defeat, Juliette downs her drink in one go. 

“Juliette, is everything okay?”

He’s never called her by her name before. Before she could register what he said or calm her rapid heartbeat at the sound of her name, she felt a foreboding presence at her back. 

“What’s a pretty little thing like you doing here?”

Juliette looks over her shoulder, her heartbeat continually increasing. Sitting before someone so powerful and so close to Escobar would usually be fine if she had a gun at her side but in this setting, in this outfit, she felt so…vulnerable. 

“I-I…uh.”Fuck she was nervous. 

“You got this, querida.”

Juliette’s body instantly warms at her partner’s words, forgetting the reason why she had hated him in the first place. He was everything she needed at this moment. 

“Am I that obvious?”

Tiago peers down at her, a smile quirking at the corner of his lips. His brown eyes bore into hers as he looked her up and down, an uncomfortable shiver covering her body. His eyes were too light, black hair too long, mustache too full for her liking. She preferred a deep brown that reminded her of her favorite chocolate ice cream, a scratchy half-beard she remembered feeling across her jaw. Soft medium-length curls she had grabbed onto that night to ground herself.

“I’ve never seen someone like you around these parts. Where are you from?” 

“Beijing,” she slips out. “I’m currently studying abroad.”

“College student, huh?”He leans closer and Juliette could almost feel the rancid smell of smoke and weed on his breath. He props an arm awkwardly on the bar to keep himself up to loom over her, his eyes dipping past the fabric covering her chest. 

Juliette pushes down the feeling of covering herself and lets him ogle while she continues playing the naïve newcomer. “This country is so fascinating. Tell me, what do you do for fun?”

She props an elbow on the counter, pretending to look interested. The man’s grin only widened as he finally took a seat next to her, snapping at the bartender for a tray of shots. 

“I can think of a few things.”

Juliette felt herself go on auto-pilot as the conversation continued, ignoring the numb feeling she had when Tiago began touching her thigh, inching higher as every second passed. 

“You know…” she tried to put on her best ‘interested’ voice she could on, trailing a nail down Tiago’s chest and onto his shoulder. “We could get out of here. Have more fun without an audience.”

“Oh, mi vida,” the man groans at her touch. “What if I like an audience?”

Juliette’s movement halters, her brain going into overdrive. God, she could not have sex with this repulsive man.

“But that is for another time,” the Cheshire grin returns to his face as he whispers into her other ear, stroking her hair just as Javier had done what felt like a lifetime ago. “Let’s go.”

Juliette barely managed to suppress her surprised gasp when he practically yanks her to her feet and ushered her quickly out of the lounge. 

His roaming hands never leave her body as they make their way through the crowded club on the first floor. The moment they exit the building, he’s dragging her toward the direction of what she assumes is his vehicle. It was too close to the lights. There were still countless people waiting to get into the club that had a clear view of them. 

Juliette feels herself tugging Tiago into a direction of a closed-off alleyway without thinking, praying that Javier knew where she was headed. God, she was never going to do this ever again. 

“Eager, are we, hermosa?”

The name leaves a bad taste in her mouth as Juliette fakes another smile, wrapping her arms around the man’s shoulders to whisper in his ear. “I need you now.”

With a final stumble, they were finally out of line from the public and hidden away in the shadows between two buildings.

His mouth immediately trails onto her neck, his hands frantic as they grabbed onto her hips. She involuntarily gasps when his hand reaches lower to grope her ass when the weight of his body is suddenly thrown off her body. 

Juliette regains her breath at the sight of an angered Javier, his eyes dark as he pulled Tiago back from his trance and punched him square in the jaw, knocking him out. His crumpled body fell in a heap at Javier’s feet while his chest heaved. Juliette’s eyes followed the movement, noting the flexing of her partner’s biceps when he strolled over to her in a quick few steps, grasping her chin roughly between his thumb and index finger. 

She didn’t dare breathe a word as he peered over her frame, feeling a different emotion from when Tiago had done the same thing. Heat coiled in her lower stomach his eyes narrowed, zeroing in on the dark spot that began appearing on her neck. 

“I could hear everything,” Javier says lowly, his face so close she only needed to lift her head to kiss him. “Did you like him flirting with you? Touching you? Touching what’s mine?”

“No,” Juliette tried her best to shake her head, whimpering as his hold on her chin only tightened.

“Good.”

With no warning, he immediately dived in, their lips colliding roughly. He bit at her lip, prodding her mouth open with his tongue as his other hand snaked up her waist and bare back before cradling her neck. He let go of her chin and threaded his calloused fingers through her curly hair, releasing some of the bobby pins. 

Her hair began falling past her shoulders as Javier began kissing down her mouth, her jaw, and onto her neck. He started sucking at the spot Tiago had earlier, his lips harsh against the already sore spot.

Juliette could only sigh as she held his body close, stroking the back of his neck until he licked her neck, easing some of the soreness before kissing up her jaw and claiming her lips again.

Unable to keep a moan from escaping her lips, Javier suddenly pulled away, taking a few steps back. Breathlessly, she watched him as he threw Tiago’s body over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. He harshly opened the trunk of the car and unceremoniously dumped the body, slamming it shut before he looked back at Juliette, his eyes still dark and breathing ragged.

She didn’t need to think twice before entering the car and buckled quickly while Javier started the car, the air between them suffocating. Just when she thought everything had been a mistake, Javier’s removed his right hand from the steering wheel and rested it on her bare thigh. 

“Where are we going?” She asked quietly.

“My place.”

Juliette doesn’t respond as his hand trailed higher and higher until his finger grasped onto the thin material of her dress. She grasped onto his hand with both hers when his thumb began rubbing slow circles against her skin.

“Peña, please.” She hated how helpless she sounded, how her small hands clasped around one of his, how his biceps were straining against his shirt, the way he gripped the wheel so tight his knuckles were turning white, the rhythm of his chest rising up and down. It was the hottest thing she’s ever seen.

But she couldn’t do this. Not with her partner.

Javier stopped moving his thumb but his hand stayed on her thigh, his trained eyes never once leaving the road.

Juliette sat in agony, the heat in her stomach never subsiding as long as the man she wanted was sitting less than two feet away. 

It felt like an eternity when Javier pulled into an unfamiliar driveway at an apartment complex. She didn’t say anything as she unbuckled and exited the car. She waited for Javier to take out a pair of keys and unlock his door before following him in. She barely registered the door locking when she was pinned against the wall again, this time a bit more comfortable than the sharp brick of the alleyway.

Juliette looked up at Javier, taking in his disheveled appearance. The top buttons of his shirt had been unbuttoned, his hair wild from when she had grabbed it, red lipstick smeared on his lips, and his deep brown eyes peering down at her soul.

His breathing finally evened out as his hands reached out to softly cup her face, leaning his forehead against hers and closing his eyes.

“I’m sorry, hermosa. I didn’t mean to be that rough.”

“Are you okay now, Peña?”

“Javi,” he says slowly, opening his eyes once more. “Call me Javi.”

“I can’t do that,” Juliette whispers back. “We…we can’t do this.”

“Why not?”His eyebrows furrow in confusion. “There’s no office policy about dating. Or sleeping around, for that matter.”

“I-I know.”

Juliette sighs and closes her eyes, taking a deep of a breath as she’s allowed with Javier caging her with his body and then opening them. “I don’t think you remember me. From when we first met.”

She took his silence as a confirmation to continue. Shakily, Juliette continued talking. “We met at a bar, actually. Three years ago. We…had a good time. And when you wanted to go further, I stopped you because I didn’t want to be some random fuck in a dingy bar bathroom. I wanted something more that you obviously weren’t ready to give me.”

“Cariño,” Javier whispers, his eyes softening. “I didn’t blow you off because I didn’t want you. I was scared. I was scared that if I was seen with an innocent civilian you would be in danger, and I never wanted that kind of experience for you.”

Juliette’s breath is stuck in her throat at his confession, placing her hands over his comfortingly.

“Of course, that was before I found out you were a fellow agent. A damn good one, at that. And then you were also assigned to the same case and I couldn’t face you given how our last meeting had ended. So I pretended I didn’t know you. For three whole fucking years like a douchebag.”

“So please,” he dips his head down, his nose brushing hers. “Let me make it up to you.”

Juliette nods mutely, never taking her eyes off his.

“I need you to use your words, querida. Can you do that for me?”

“Yes,” she replies. 

Javier smiles, his eyes crinkling in the corner before he lowers his mouth, capturing her lips into a gentler kiss. A hand smooths down her body to rest on her hip, bringing their bodies closer.

“If you’re going to make it up to me, you’re going to have to give me more than that,” Juliette says sheepishly.

“If I do that, I won’t be able to stop.”

“I don’t want you to stop.”

Javier digs his head into her shoulder, groaning. “Mierda, you can’t say those things to me.”

Juliette lightly chuckles, resting her head on top of his.

“Do you know the traffic light system?”Javier peers up at her from under his bangs.

“I do.”

“Good girl.”

Javier reconnects their lips into a searing kiss, his mouth frantic against hers. He lowers both his hands from her face down her waist and roughly grasps her ass. Juliette gasps from the contact as Javier smiled at the sensation, using this moment for his tongue to enter her mouth. His hands then lowered onto her upper thighs and pushed up so she almost straddled him mid-air, deepening their kiss. 

He pulled away for a moment and started tracing her jaw with his tongue as he began carrying her into the bedroom. Javier’s breathing became uneven as he looked up to stare into Juliette’s eyes.

“Color?”

“Green.”

He merely smiled before throwing her onto his head, using his foot to close the door as he pulled his shirt over his head. He tossed it carelessly on the floor and climbed onto the bed, hovering over Juliette’s body.

“Did I ever tell you how amazing you look tonight?” He began kissing her shoulder, the hair from his mustache tickling her sensitive skin.

“No, but I fully welcome it.”

“You look absolutely breathtaking, hermosa,” he rests his head on the juncture between her chin and shoulder for a second. “I just hated that fact that you looked so good for another man.”

“N-no,” Juliette shakes her head. “I bought this dress for you.”

“For me?” He looked up, Juliette brushing some hair out of his eyes, and nodded.

“Did you know that this is my favorite color?”

Juliette mutely nodded again.

“Fuck,” Javier felt weak, his heart beating erratically in his chest as he leaned down to kiss her again before mumbling against her lips. “Fingers or my tongue?”

“What?”

“Do you want my fingers or my tongue?”

Juliette stutters, her brain short-circuiting at his words. “I want whatever you’re willing to give me.”

“Everything,” he growls out. “I’ll give you my everything, cariño.”

He leans over her to set up some pillows for her to sit comfortably before his hands trail down her body. He kisses her slowly, biting at her lip while his hands slid the dress down her frame and throwing it next to his shirt.

“No bra?”

“C-can’t wear one with this d-dress,” Juliette manages to stutter out.

Javier sits on the back of his legs as he looks at her naked form, drinking in the sight of her dampening lace panties. He begins kissing down her body, taking in a nipple. Juliette arches her back, pushing her breast closer into his mouth as his other hand trails up her stomach to grab onto the other. 

He kisses further down her stomach, taking the end of her panty with his teeth and pulling the fabric down to her calves before yanking the panties off completely, his eyes transfixed on the heat pooling between her thighs. He begins kissing up her leg and inner thigh, completely ignoring her throbbing pussy and focusing his attention back on her breasts.

He rotates boobs, his hot tongue swirling across the other breast while Juliette’s pinned body writhes underneath. He roughly places his knee in between her legs and she cries out in frustration. 

“Just fuck me already, Peña!”

“Javi,” he says against her breast, entering his middle finger into her slit. “When I fuck you this good, you will be calling me Javi.”

Juliette moans loudly, her head thrown back against the pillow as Javier enters another finger. He begins sliding in and out with ease, his mouth never leaving its spot. 

Juliette’s body shudders as she grips onto Javier’s shoulders tightly, one hand yanking at his hair. Javier groans at the sensation, curling a finger within her walls.  

“Fuck, Javi–faster, please–”

“What color?”

“Green!”

Javier quickens his pace, his cock throbbing when she tightened. 

“Mierde, you’re so tight. How is my cock going to fit in such a tiny cunt?”

Juliette moans loudly, a familiar feeling bubbling in her chest when she releases.

“That’s…I’ve never come…from hands before,” she pants loudly, sweat sticking to her forehead. 

“I’m going to make you cum three times,” Javier replies, pulling his fingers out. “One for each year I pretended to not remember you.”

“Javi, please. I can’t–that’s too much.”

“It’s okay, you can. I got you.” He places his fingers slick with her arousal and cum into his mouth, moaning at the salty taste. “Fuck, you taste as amazing as you look. May I have more?”

Juliette nods, gasping for breath.

Javier uses the same hand to grasp her face. “Words, hermosa. I don’t like to repeat myself.”

“Y-yes, Javi. Whatever you want.”

Javier grins and flips their position so that she’s sitting on top of her chest, his neck supported by the pillows.

“Javi–”

“I want you to sit on my face, mi querida.”

“But Javi–”

“You said anything I want,” he grips her thigh tightly, pushing her forward. “Or were you lying?”

Juliette grabs the headboard tightly before her body could completely collapse on top of his. She shakily brings her body up, hovering over his mouth in uncertainty. She yelps when hands shove her thighs down, Javier lifting his face eagerly to capture her second lips.

His tongue laps feverishly at her folds, licking and sucking like a man starved. 

“You taste fucking delicious.”

The ridge of his nose bumped against her already sensitive clit, making Juliette squeeze her thighs together as she began grinding her hips, desperate for a release of friction.

Javier moves his hands to hold onto her lower back, his iron grip preventing her from rocking away from his mouth as he dug his face deeper into her pussy.

Juliette throws her head back, nearly screaming as she reaches her climax for the second time that night. Her legs felt like jelly and she could barely hold herself up as she looked at the man underneath her with lidded eyes. 

Javier had licked most of the excess cum off his face, his mustache stained as his hand reached up to swipe the remains off his cheek and into his mouth, his eyes never once leaving Juliette’s.

“That’s two.”

“Javi, please, I can’t,” tears began welling up in her eyes whilst she lay on her back. 

“Shh, yes you can,” Javier whispers against her chest, peppering small kisses as he reaches into his drawer to pull out a condom. “You want to be a good girl for me, don’t you? You’ve been doing so well.”

Juliette whimpers while Javi unbuckles his belt and shucks off his tight-ass jeans. Before he continues, he presses a kiss to Juliette’s cheek, wiping away a single tear. “Color?”

“G-green.”

“That’s my girl,” he places another kiss on her nose before sliding his boxers down his hips, releasing his hard cock. Pre-cum had already been dripping down as he ripped the condom packaging open and rolled it down his length.

“Fuck, Javi, how often have you done this in your apartment?” Juliette asks, suddenly aware of why she had ‘hated’ in the first place.

“Recently, not at all,” he grunts. “And never on my bed. Always on my couch.”

“I thought of you, you know. All these years,” she says tiredly.

“I know.”

Her arm reaches up and he lets her pull him down, his other arm bracing the side so wouldn’t completely crush her with his body weight. Juliette’s fingers thread through his soft hair as Javier lines her entrance with his cock.

“Are you ready, mi vida?”

Juliette nods against his neck. “Please, Javi.”

Javier grunts, tilting Juliette’s swollen lips into a kiss as he enters her, his thick length stretching her walls. She sighs into the kiss, grabbing ahold of his bicep as he bottoms out.

“Tell me when I can move.”

“You can move, Javi. Please.”

With a groan, his hips pull back before slowly re-entering. He repeats his ministrations slowly, brushing the sweat-slicked hair out of her face as Juliette regains her breath. 

“F-faster.”

Nodding against her hair, Javier begins to quicken his pace, his arms reaching to hold onto the headboard as the bed began rocking.

“I think you just ruined my hand for me.”

“Fuck, Javi.”Juliette’s small laugh turns into a loud whimper at the next thrust, her thigh muscles clenching as she comes for the third time that night.

Seemingly not satisfied, Javier pulls out and flips Juliette onto all fours, her body barely able to stand. He holds her up by her stomach and enters again at a deeper angle, his grunts stuttering as he began pounding at a harder pace.

Juliette’s arms fall, her upper body collapsing onto the bed as Javier continued for a few more thrusts before pulling her body up and bracing her against his chest, his hand gripping onto a breast harshly as his hips stuttered. He nudges her hair with his nose, inhaling her scent, relishing the intimacy of the position.

“Please, Javi, I’m going to cum again–”

“Cum for me, hermosa.”

With a final thrust, Juliette leans her head onto Javier’s chest, sleep slowly overcoming her vision.

“Not yet, mi vida. You have to go to the bathroom,” he mumbles into her hair.

Juliette groans tiredly as Javier scoops her underneath her neck and knees and places her on the toilet. He takes a rag to wipe himself off and puts on a pair of briefs before quickly changing the sheets when he hears the faucet turn on. 

He helps clean the between her legs before carrying her back into the freshly changed bed. She sighs contently into his back, her eyes finally closing.

“We’re never using you as bait ever again.”

#javier peña #javier pena one shot #javier pena narcos #smut #javier pena smut #oneshot #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal cinematic universe #jealousy

[nostalgia-tblr]

20 Questions For Writers

I got tagged by @thot-son-of-odin for this!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

412 (plus some Anonymous works that aren’t counted in that number)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

777,634

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Doctor Who (old and new), various Star Treks, the MCU, and a few others including Elementary and M*A*S*H.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Trust the Devil

2. Four Times the Doctor and Clara Shared a Bed and One Time They Didn't

3. Locks And Revelations

4. Responsibility

5. How To Walk On Eggshells

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

I didn’t used to but I try to now. It took me a while to get past “if I thank them for the kind words that means I agree and they can call me big-headed!” but now I think perhaps the commenter and I will become friends, as though this was still the LJ days or whatever.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

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

I am answering these together to say that with 412 works it’s rly hard to come up with an answer because I’m bound to forget something that’s either angstier or happier than the one I pick D:

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

No, despite writing occasionally Problematic stuff. Maybe I’m just lucky with that? I think on AO3 the worst I’ve ever got is a comment or two on Ten/Reinette fic about how it is a TERRIBLE pairing and how dare anyone write it. I think I deleted those, or if I haven’t then I meant to, because fuck it they’re properly tagged so the enraged anons must have deliberately chosen something that would offend them.

This sort of thing is why I still have an automatic flinch reaction when people tell me they like Rose Tyler.

9. Do you write smut?

Of course not! I write very thoughtful and insightful character studies in which the characters being studied fuck, that’s COMPLETELY different!

10. Do you write crossovers?

Not often, I’m more into the idea of crossovers than actually writing (or reading) them.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, a few times.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes but not for years.

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

I’m going to say Doctor/TARDIS because that’s a safe answer to such questions.

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

Never say never – I’ve had ideas that did finally get written a decade later.

16. What’s your writing strengths?

I think it’s dialogue, which is also usually the easiest part to write. (I am a bit of a Fic Snob about how characters should sound like themselves in fic, including in AU fics where is even more important and also if they go OOC in those then that should be the point that’s being made.)

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

The bits that aren’t dialogue. Urgh, why must things need to be described! Why must I tell the reader who is speaking!

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

Well I usually see it in the context of “a phrase or word in the language we assume the characters are actually speaking” (mostly pet-names, for some reason) and that just makes me go “So what language are they speaking in the rest of this story? In the rest of this sentence, even?” Not a fan of this, nah.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Star Wars! :O

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

I dunno, there’s too many of them (same problem as before).

I tag anyone what wants to do this meme!

#fic related #20 questions for fic writers

[operationslipperypuppet]

all prime numebrs for the fic writer ask! 💛😊

I will pretend you spelled numbers correctly lol. thanks for the ask!!

2. How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)

I want to say 12. I published 6, I’m currently working on 2 different ideas for the naddpod gift exchange so I’ve started both and will be making a full decision tonight or tomorrow (lmao), and then there are a couple I just decided to not publish and a couple I’m always working on but will never actually commit to finishing because I can’t come up with a satisfying ending.

3. What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer?

That I can allow myself to do the things I want to do and go back and fix the other stuff later. I had previously only done this with a fic that included a bunch of time skips and that was why I wormed around the document but I did this with one fic that I consider my magnum opus and it worked. (I like to write dialogue more than scene descriptors so I wrote all the dialogue back and forth and then went back and added names and descriptors and everything else and it was so much more fun)

5. What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

Naddpod. It was just naddpod. I’m thinking I might break into d20 next year but I make no promises, naddpod is so fun to write for.

7. What character(s) captured your heart?

Hardwon Surefoot. Moonshine Cybin. For some reason I find them easiest to write even though getting Moonshine’s voice right was incredibly daunting every time I wrote her. There’s just so much to play with and it was very fun. Plus the Hardwon being alive reveal rewired my brain.

11. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

how to think about you (without it ripping my heart out). God that was a doozy to write. It was my first foray into doing something multi-chaptered and I did have it finished before I even began publishing it but doing the daily updates and my every chapter mini edits took so much time that it was so much fun to finish. Plus I thought about the idea for truly so long before I started writing it that it was very relieving to finally finish.

13. What fic was the easiest to write?

Fools Rush In (Idiots, However, Take 200 Years). This is the fic I mentioned for number 3. I wrote all the dialogue in basically one pass because it’s a long, drawn out conversation that lasts an entire day. I immensely love writing dialogue and the back and forth, hitting what Hardwon and Moonshine would say and how they’d react was easy. And then, even though I was dreading the descriptors, they came so easily because I could picture them so perfectly. It does feel weird to say that my longest fic to date was the easiest to write but it was.

17. What are your go-to writing snacks?

Doing that classic ADHD thing where you hyperfocus and forget to eat all day and then start shaking and put fistfuls of m&ms in your mouth while waiting for chicken to heat up. But when I remember to snack, Smartfood popcorn.

19. Share your favorite opening line.

“You love me?” (Fools Rush In (Idiots, However, Take 200 Years).) I knew I’d open this with that before I finished the previous work in the series. I enjoy getting straight to the point.

23. Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out?

This was a hard goddamn choice but here goes:

“Look - “ She paused, took a deep breath, and started again. “Can I make a suggestion? You two know him better than I do, obviously, but this might be a time where you give him some space. I know that’s not really what you three do, but he’s going through one of the worst days of his life. And you are, too, but he’s incredibly in his head about it right now. I think maybe if you give him a moment to work out his own feelings, he’ll be able to articulate them to you. And you will then be able to assure him that you need him. Besides, your MeeMaw will take great care of him, Moonshine.” (The Void of an Absence)

Alanis is speaking here. And I wanted her to be pragmatic without seeming insensitive while also staying relatively true to the character she is in the show. I ended up with this slightly more emotionally aware Alanis than we’ve seen but she does switch straight to business afterwards, and that is kind of how Murph RP’d the scene with her and Hardwon. But I overthought it a lot. I’m pretty okay with its final version, but mostly because I got to sneak a “tell me your feelings and I’ll tell you that I need you” reference in there.

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

Obviously the two crew for creating characters that so thoroughly destroy and entertain me, and the people who got excited when I said shit like “I have a terrible idea that’s going to hurt” and responded with “do it.”

Fic writer asks list - ask

#please send more these were hella fun #asks #writing #jlinns #specifically shoutout to benny on the last one. thanks bestie #ask game

[kleenex-tissues]

Yours Truly (12)

AO3 here

Ch. 12: Everything’s Coming Up Marinette

When Marinette initially received the commission from Tim Drake, CEO extraordinaire, she expected they would call, have him take some measurements for her, send it in, and an on-site tailor would adjust any issues. That’s what she usually did for overseas clients, but most of her clients were not known for being as eccentric as Tim. She really shouldn’t have been surprised when she received a call from an American number.

Most of the time, she’d ignore unknown callers, but she was on a kick lately for doing things she wouldn’t normally expect and answered the call anyway. She swallowed nervously and drew the phone to her ear, letting out a quiet, “Hello?”

“Ah, yes. Is this Marinette Dupain-Cheng I am speaking to?” English, of course. It was garbled, presumably due to the long-distance, but it was recognizably not her native French. No time like the present to practice. After all, Alya said that real-world application was her best bet to improve her English.

“Yes, this is her. May I ask who’s calling?”

A pause. Then, the voice replied, “This is Tim Drake. I believe I commissioned you for my new suit. I was hoping to set up an in-person appointment for the measurements at your earliest convenience.”

Marinette sat up ram-rod straight. Tim Drake was calling her. THE Tim Drake. He has her number? No, that was definitely listed on her commission page, so this is normal. Wait, did he say in-person? Her back ran cold with sweat.

“In-person, you said?”

She heard a small chuckle on Tim’s end. “Yes, if that is possible. It just so happens that I am taking a few weeks vacation to Paris on holiday. I hoped this way we could do the adjustments in person, as well.”

There was absolutely no way that this was happening. Sure, she worked with celebrities like Jagged Stone and Adrien, but they just so happened to be in her sphere of influence. It wasn’t like they had randomly approached her because they really liked her designs and are traveling over 5,000 kilometers just so she would make them a suit that would be used once. Marinette knew she unconsciously drew celebrities to her, but this was a whole new level. She used to be able to attribute that to a little Ladybug luck, but this? She didn’t think Tikki could affect her luck to this extent.

Marinette hadn’t realized she forgot to answer Tim. She was so caught up in her own thoughts that it took some serious prodding from Tikki to bring her back to the present.

“Oui, oui! Um, yes. That would definitely work. When will you be arriving? We can try to plan your appointment at the beginning of your trip to make sure the adjustment day will fit in before you leave.” Totally nailed that.

Despite their medium of communication, Marinette swore she could see Tim tapping his finger against his chin before consulting his calendar. He was definitely the kind of guy to use a desk calendar.

“My plane lands Friday afternoon,” he said, taking a moment to think over his words. “How does Saturday morning sound?”

“That’s perfect,” she responded with a little too much excitement. After realizing her mistake, she corrected herself. “Sorry, I mean, that would work well.”

Tim laughed. Laughed.

Kwamis, Tim Drake was laughing at Marinette Dupain-Cheng. This day simply could not get any more insane. How did she find herself in these situations?

“Will 10 o’clock work,” Tim asked, a little breathless from his laugh.

Marinette nodded before remembering he couldn’t actually see her. “Yes,” she stumbled. “Can we meet at my home? All my materials are there, so it will probably be easiest. I live above Tom & Sabine’s Boulangerie Patisserie on 12 Rue Gotlib. I can send you the address through email if that’s alright.”

“Yes, I would appreciate that. I’ll meet you there at 10 o’clock sharp. Thank you, Miss Dupain-Cheng.”

“Thank you for commissioning me! I will send you that email and see you tomorrow morning.”

“Great. See you then.”

The call ended from Tim’s side with a simple click, and Marinette slid from her desk chair to the floor. Grabbing the nearest piece of fabric, she shoved her face into it and squealed. This was an opportunity that had been beyond her imagination. Not only would this boost her credibility as a designer if Tim liked it, but she would also get to say she knew a celebrity in a whole other country. It felt nowhere near as real as it was. It didn’t even matter if he was as awful as Damian said. She’d surely dress worse people when her company finally kicked off.

The only thing that could possibly make this day better would be for Agreste Designs to finally announce the finalists of the design competition. She had patiently waited the month that had been estimated on the application, but there was only radio silence. Not even Adrien knew what was taking so long, and he lived with the CEO.

She knew Gabriel had been shutting himself away much more often, thus allowing Adrien easier access for sneaking out and landing on her roof clothed in his Chat Noir attire for a late night snack. She found him up there a lot, lounging on her chairs and eating the sweets she often left out for him. The company was nice after a long day. She just wished the circumstances surrounding the visits were better.

There were rumors Gabriel was sick, but with no one ever able to see the hermit of a man, there was little basis for the piece of gossip. Whatever it was that was forcing the man to keep holed up in his office, she just hoped it did not interfere with the contest. She would just wait another week, and then the results would certainly be announced.

Tikki’s giggles brought Marinette back to the present. The kwami found much amusement when her chosen fell into the instances. Plus, this was going to be life changing for Marinette, and Tikki couldn’t be more pleased at her success as a designer. Not just anyone can catch the attention of so many famous clients.

Marinette quickly leaned up to press Tikki into a hug. “This is the best news I have heard all week, Tikki! Really, could this day get any better?”

“I have a feeling you should check your inbox,” Tikki suggested mischievously.

Marinette looked at her kwami with suspicion before standing and moving back into her previous place at her desk chair. She had been so distracted with the call with Tim that she hadn’t noticed the red dot on her mail icon indicating that she had a message waiting for her.

She opened it with the practiced ease of having spoken to Damian so often lately, but she couldn’t help the butterflies dancing in the pit of her stomach as she read the email.

To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Subject: Moving Forward on Communication

Hello Marinette,

It would seem that my efforts at keeping my brothers from seeing our conversations have become ineffectual. Moving forward, perhaps we could seek a new form of communication.

I have never lent my phone number to anyone outside of my immediate family prior to this, but I believe it will be our best chance at avoiding any further snooping on my brothers’ part.

Please let me know if this works for you. Here is my phone number if you would like to begin ‘texting.’

xxx-xxx-xxxx

With hope, Damian

Marinette fainted from the excitement.

–

Three days later, Marinette was waiting rather impatiently by the back door of the bakery. She had sent all the information on where and how to meet her in an email to Tim, and now she just needed him to arrive. It was 9:59 am. Their measurement appointment was at 10, and she was vibrating with nervousness.

She wiped her hands on the slacks she was wearing, hoping that the sweat would simply disappear. She wanted to look as professional as possible, so she dug out some of the best business attire she had sewn in hopes of impressing Tim. Black slacks, a lavender blouse with a fabric tie around her neck, and matching flats. Each piece was designed to look like it would be worn to a formal event, but they were designed for comfort and mobility. Being Ladybug, there was no telling when she would have to jump into action, formal event or not.

Just as the clock on her phone turned to read 10:00, a car pulled up beside the door she stood by. The driver door opened and out came Tim, wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts and smiling brighter than the morning sun.

“Good morning, Miss Dupain-Cheng,” he sung cheerfully, moving to greet her. “10 o’clock sharp, just like I said.”

‘Kwamis, what is he wearing? No wonder he needs a stylist,’ Marinette wanted to say. In actuality, she welcomed him with a kiss to both cheeks and responded, “Good morning to you, as well. I appreciate a client who values punctuality like you.”

Tim beamed at her, and she led him inside and up the stairs to her apartment. He had no shortage of small talk; telling her about his flight, his hotel room, and the gala he needed this suit for, all the while she brought him through the apartment door and the hatch leading to her room. In all his talkative excitement, he didn’t seem to notice that he was now standing in the middle of her bedroom as she rummaged through her sewing box. After retrieving her measuring tape, she prodded his arms up into the air.

Tim happily obliged, but continued his rambling. He started talking about Gotham, and how Marinette should visit over the Summer. He has a little brother that’s Marinette’s age, but his favorite is actually his older brother, Jason. They had a bit of a rough patch when Tim was first adopted, but they had grown pretty close in recent years. The best sibling, however, was his sister, Cass, he said. She communicated mostly in sign language, but her laugh lit up a room.

Marinette was entranced by the one-sided conversation, even having to re-measure Tim a few times because she forgot what she was supposed to be writing down. It wasn’t often she met somebody who could hold their own in a conversation like he did. She tried to bring her focus back to the reason Tim stood in her bedroom in the first place.

Shoulder width. Arm length. Hip and waist. In-seam. Every possible place she could measure was measured. She scratched down the results beside the mock design she had made. It was a simple but elegant design on paper, but there were many minute details she wanted to include in the final product. She had to make sure she got this right. The stitching alone would be a feat, so if she could get as close as possible to the proper fit without sacrificing any part of the pattern she envisioned, it would make the process slightly easier.

“Do you have any siblings, Miss Dupain-Cheng?”

She tuned back into what Tim was saying, and her pen tripped over the notes she was writing.

“Ah, no. Just me. I have lots of cousins, though, so I never had to worry about being lonely when they came to visit,” she spoke sincerely, but began stumbling a bit as she continued. “And you can just call me Mari. That’s what all my friends do.”

Tim couldn’t help but smile again. Did he do anything other than smile? That’s probably why he was so well-loved in America. Americans always swooned over a good smile.

“I would love that, Mari,” Tim cheered.

His kindness warmed her heart, and she couldn’t help but return the friendly gesture. She then turned back to her desk to pull out her test swatches. Both held similar embroidery patterns, but the colors varied. One was a silk navy fabric with a pale yellow stitching, and the other was red with black stitching.

It was an attempt at mimicking Gotham, Tim’s home and the location of the gala the suit was needed for. Gotham was known for the vigilantes that protected the city’s nightscape. Navy for the deep sky they flew through and pale yellow to match the dancing stars in their domain. The red and black was meant more to be an homage to the various Robins who had served their term.

Marinette held the swatches up to Tim, giving him the chance to view it but also to help her decide which combination would compliment him best. The red did wonders for his skin tone, but the navy brought out the color of his eyes. The decision would have to go to Tim, ultimately.

“What do you think,” she asked politely, moving to the side so he could view the swatches beside him in the mirror.

Tim took a few minutes to consider the decision, posing a few times for added effect. His thinking face brought her a little humor, and she held back her laugh. Finally, he grinned and turned to her, saying, “Definitely the navy. It’s the very essence of Gotham.”

They shared a smile once more before Marinette placed the swatches back on the table. Tim caught her off guard when he spoke again. His voice sounded like he had learned something great as he exclaimed, “I think this is about to be the start of a beautiful friendship.”

#Marinette Dupain-Cheng #batman #maribat #maridami #mlb x dcu #dcu x mlb #batfamily #BatFam #daminette #Damian Wayne #miraculous ladybug #wolfish-writes

[lightleckrereins]

do you prefer the appearance of the 7 clear panel Howard skirt or the 4 clear panel Howard skirt?

In theory four. In practice seven.

One of the things that annoys me the most with six costumes is when the seams on top and bottom are not aligned. It works differently on every costume but its easiest to see on Aragon and Seymour, where all seams on the top are a least visually continued on the skirt. Meaning the Aragon skirt has the gap in place of the front panel, and then black skirt panels for the black top ones and cutouts for the gold. The seymour skirt has more panels than the corset to account for the lacing gap, but with all stud lines aligned it looks like both have the same.

(@/kellydenicetaylor, @/mz_alshaqsyofficial)

On howard it works slightly different. The top has either 10 (without stretch panel) or 12 (with stretch panel) panels: center front with cutouts, pink side front, side with cutouts (if there is a stretch panel this one gets split into two), pink side back, center back with cutouts.

(@/jainabrockpatel, @/paigeleighphotography, @/cassiemsilva, @/didiromero_8)

Unlike aragon where the center front panel is not continued on the skirt to account for the gap, the first panels on the Howard skirt have cutouts which visually aligns them with the center front panel on the top. And here it becomes a matter of execution, since the skirt has a gap there is no way to make the seams on top and skirt align without making the skirt panels all different sizes. But it can look like there is continuation. It is just a matter of execution.

In the UK skirts have four clear panels that correspond to the non cutout ones on the top, and five that correspond to the cutout ones. The numbers match, but because of the width of the skirt panels the front of the skirt doesn't match the top at all. The pink panels being very narrow doesnt help either. The cruise skirts (before they switched costume studios and got the US style) did the same. Those skirts were huge and it looked like the clear panel overtook the cutouts, but since their tops had an even panel size the transition looked neater.

(@/ella_dancewearcollection, @/jainabrockpatel, @/elliesharpex, @/elliesharpex)

In the US they do 7 clear panels and 8 with cutouts. The first and third clear pairs correspond to the non cutout panels and the second to the streth panel. This extra pair makes all the panels narrower which helps give the visual illusion that all top panels have a continuation in the skirt. And then there is the seventh panel, it doesnt match any on the top and I suspect it is there to give some extra room so all seams match the top.

(@/theboycostumer, @/cassiemsilva, @/jarynnnn, ?)

If youcompare the two styles specially from the side, the US skirts with narrower panels look like a direct continuation from the top (maybe just a little off center). While the UK and cruise skirts look missaligned on the front despite having the same amount of cutout panels.

(@/jainabrockpatel, @/didiromero_8)

And then there is Australia. It has the extra clear panels on the side (although I am not sure there is a stretch panel on the top) creating the narrower, "aligned" look. But on the back instead of an extra clear panel there is a wider cutout panel. This is a personal favorite of mine because all panels look like they continue from top to skirt. Even if the back can look a little missaligned. I say I like four in theory because there is no extra panel, but it doesnt look that nice in my opinion.

(@/courtneymonsma, @/chels.eadawson)

#ask #six the musical #six costumes #six broadway #six west end #six us tour #six uk tour #six cruise #six australia

[defenestratin]

For the art meme!

8,12,17

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

God I have WAY too many, mostly things I thought would make good webcomics but on further thought/working on a number of pages it just wasn’t sustainable for me. Projects that were way too big in scope and frankly way too ambitious for me to follow through regardless of the quality it’ll end up.

I regret leaving Dredge in particular in the dust after having worked so much on it during college, but I lost steam on it fairly quickly after the webtoon contest I submitted it to.

Good learning experiences though! I learned that it’s better for me to do short one shots compared to one long thing that I know I’d get tired of over time.

12. Easiest part of body to draw

If I got art block I know drawing tits never fails

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

Just iced water! I wish I had a third arm to snack though, that’d be nice… the main reason I don’t snack while drawing is that for some reason just getting a chip out of a bag just ruins my flow???? For some reason??😭😭😭

#ask #sou talks things #i tried the chopstick method of eating chips out of a bag bc I thought my issue was having to wash hands between snacks #but even that!!!!!!!! sighs

[capybaraonabicycle]

1, 8 and 17 for the fic writer ask game?

Thank you so much for the ask! Those are not the easiest ones for me but I will try to do my best :)

Also I am putting this under a read more because it got long.

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

I don't know!! Something short since I tend to write oneshots? Something with River? Something with fluff?

Maybe actually A Bright Blue Box, which surprisingly does not even mention River (which doesn't happen very often. I am very good at making things that are not about her about her anyway.) But it has a family reunion, a lot of fluff, Sontarans, Jenny, the TARDIS and the fugitive Doctor and it is rather new. And it performs my favourite (and pretty regular) thing of throwing people I love together that have very little chance of ever meeting in canon. So, I think that would be a good place to start.

And then I would advise to read Fix you(r hair) afterwards because it has 12 and Missy and you will understand what I mean with including River where she has no reason to be. And it is fluffy, too and a little angsty, which seems to be my main mixture of emotions.

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

I think I have already said in some other ask game that I rarely use songs to inspire fics - mostly I am dreaming about making dw music videos when listening to songs, actually (not that I know how to video edit). Or I am using songtitles for fic titles because I can't come up with anything myself.

That said, there is one highly specific song that I have been considering using for a fic: Frau Zielinski und der Finsterling

Which does not exist on youtube so sorry, you have to make do with the spotify link. It's in German, anyway.

The song describes the reaction of a primary school student to her class teacher taking a leave due to clinical depression. The student continues to describe a being, called the 'Finsterling' (finster=dark/gloomy and '-ling' is added to make a creature out of it) that used to be near the teacher all the time but - contrary to her - hasn't left the school and is still around. There are some really nice vague verses about it like

Nur einer lacht sich immer eins: der Finsterling Stand gestern da und heute und ganz sicher während ich hier sing' Durch ihn hindurch gehen Blicke und auch Stimmen Er steht beim Rechnen da, beim Malen und beim Schwimmen

But someone is always laughing (up his sleeve): the Finsterling Was standing here yesterday and today and definitely while I am singing Gazes and voices pass through him He is standing there for calculation, for painting and for swimming (lesson)

and

Durch ihn hindurch schwingen Fenster, Tafeln, Türen Wer ihn nicht sieht, der kann ihn aber spüren

Windows, blackboards and doors travers him Those who can't see him, can still feel him

I think the Finsterling would make for a good alien and the setting of the song could be explored similarly to 'School Reunion' or 'The Caretaker'. One would have to be a little careful with the execution, to make it more 'Can you hear me?' and less 'Forest of the night' but I feel like it would make a good fic.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

So, we all know about the 'Mels was a Division agent, actually' AU by now and that will probably stay number one here for a while. But I have actually written a rather specific AU or started it that I am not planning on publishing, so let's talk about that:

It's a coffee shop AU, so far, so usual. Just that I was writing it during the beginning of covid so it's a covid coffee shop AU. And I wrote it a little for my sister who was obsessed with the 'Feel again/Live again/Breathe again/whatever again' ya novel series by Mona Kasten at that point.

So it follows Bill who is living together with Gian (from the book series) and works as a barista in the university coffeeshop TARDIS with her co-worker Nardole and her boss Peter (12), called 'The Doctor'. While simultaneously taking classes at uni because Peter's wife River is a professor who has become her mentor and smuggled her in.

Just that nothing of that is really happening right now because covid and there are only online classes. But at least the TARDIS (which btw has a telephone box in a corner and a terracotta Ood head for tips) is open again and Bill is crushing on a new regular (Jane - 13) who is sporting homemade rainbow and space related masks. And appears to have a gorgeous girlfriend called Yaz.

And then Bill is part of Gian's friend group consisting of Isaac (who is way too much like 11 in the books for that to be a coincidence, so I just wrote him as 11 basically) and Sawyer (and, you guessed it, she turned into Mels in my interpretation). And they keep teasing her about her crush and try to get them together - by suggesting Bill steal her phone number from the contact cards they use to trace covid outbreaks among other things.

And I think Martha and Missy were also professors at university and the Ponds provided pastries for the TARDIS. And Jane had a father named John (10) and a sister named Jenny and a dead mother named Rose, which we found out when someone made a joke whether everybody's name in the family started with 'J'.

So, yeah, it is ...interesting and unfinished and I doubt anyone would want to read it. Especially since Bill/13 is a rather weird pairing I would never get into in anything but an AU. I mean, that is practically her granddad in canon. But in a human AU, where 13 and 12 are very different people, I am okay with it and Moffat made that Bill/Nardole conversation during covid that implied something along those lines. And I wanted to write for Bill and I am not a big fan of Heather and the concept of the book series called for a love interest.

So there you go. I had a lot of fun with it but from the get-go decided it would only be for me and my sister.

#I feel like those might be very unexpected answers #at least 8 and 17 #weeell #I had fun answering at least :) #thank you so much for indulging me!

[nicecream]

Question about ur bookbinding: ive done blank journals before but i cannot figure out how to get printed stuff in the right order. Are you manually editing pdfs? is there an easier way? (please tell me theres an easier way than manually editing pdfs)

hi! yes i’m manually editing them. it’s not the easiest way but it gets the best results.

if you don’t want to do that you may find this video tutorial for printing pdfs helpful: https://youtu.be/EGuED0m51lc

if you decide to typeset it yourself here’s what i did, using libreoffice: start by copy/pasting the entire body of text, then style it, then format for print. i followed this doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Boa-vauo-Sig10zuqAVpA3fuOPPFsVNiV-gSkmcCE0s/edit i would say page numbers are absolutely necessary so be sure to add them, although you may want to exclude them from title pages, table of contents, etc. so set them to a different page style than your main one/s (you can either have just one for simplicity’s sake or left and right styles which can also help with assembly).

either way, printing and assembly goes like this (this is for at-home, have no idea how this would work if you used a copy shop):

-make sure you know what size paper you’ll be printing on. i used 8.5x11 because it’s simple. it’s important to know the difference between a sheet of paper and a page, because with this technique (which is the one i used and the one in that video) 1 sheet holds 4 pages, since they’ll half-sized (5.5x8.5) and double sided.

-you don’t print the entire book at once, you print one signature at a time. i did 24 pages per signature, which was printed on 6 sheets of paper (twice, since they’re double sided). to do this open the print menu (i’m talking specifically about libreoffice but most editing and reading software is similar), type in the “pages to print” as 1-24 (to start), set it to “booklet” or “brochure”, and “flip on long side”. (i’m not sure whether it’s libreoffice or my printer, but i had to rotate it in addition to flipping because the second side would print facing the other way). if you did it correctly, you should see that the page on the top of the stack has two very far apart page numbers (1 and 24), and the one on the bottom has page numbers that are right next to each other (12 and 13). and remember that title pages/table of contents/etc sometimes make the page number inaccurate/not literal so be sure to figure out if you need to adjust for that.

-the next signature is pages 25-48, then 49-72, 73-96, 97-120, and so on. be sure the keep them in order with paper clips or alternating the orientation you stack them in (like in the pic i posted). you might end up with a bunch of blank pages at the end of the very last signature because it has to be a multiple of 4 (if you’ve ever wondered why mass-produced books have that, that’s why). i think it will adjust for those blank pages automatically if your document doesn’t have the right number of pages, but if you’re editing it yourself i would add in the number of blank pages you need to be safe.

-now on to folding them. i start from the bottom of the stack (12 and 13) and work to the top (1 and 24), with each new sheet wrapping around the one before it (the second sheet should have both the previous page and next page from the pages on the other side of the first sheet, which i think would be 10 and 15?). when you’re done 12 and 13 should be facing each other in the middle and 1 and 24 should be on the outside. repeat for all the signatures, make sure their last page (24) goes to the next signature’s first page (25), and then you’re ready to sew them together

i think that’s pretty much it. it’s definitely confusing, i had some trial and error before i figured it out. once you crack it it’s a great skill to have so i’d suggest continuing to hunt for instructions until you find some that make sense to you (like i watched sooo many youtube tutorials but what finally made it click for me was 2 sentences on the adobe help forums)

#fanbinding #bookbinding #sorry if any numbers are wrong

[inventors-fair]

Question Compendium

These are all the questions that have been asked so far on Tumblr and Discord! Be sure to check this post every so often, since I’ll be updating it instead of making new posts!

Discord:

whats ur all time favorite creature type? (ghoulCaclulator) Hmm, it's a tough one, but I think the answer is (just barely) Fractal.

Favorite color pair that doesn't include your favorite color? (Curio) Oooh that's a very interesting question. Gonna go with Rakdos.

which is better, doubling something or copying something (Viser, 3 rats in a toad suit) I... Love them both? Honestly gonna say copying.

I think I have already figured out from your favourite cards but just to be sure: aggro, control or combo? (NicolBolas96) Depends on the format, honestly. I play EDH the most, and there i like a healthy mix of midrange/control.

Favourite faction that isnt a guild? (y12dk) Might be some recency bias here, but I do really like the vibe of the Maestros.

favorite non mtg franchise? (GlassBass) Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive! That being said, please keep submissions within Magic IP for this week.

Recent limited/constructed archetype you felt was done dirty? (bearscape appreciator) Hmm, gonna need more clarity on "done dirty". As in, I liked the archetype in theory but the cards themselves just didn't support it? In that case, Prismari Big Spell from Strixhaven.

 Favorite plane? (Pocket) That one's actually a three way tie, but I'm not gonna tell you all of them, so pick a number between 1 and 3 (Picked 3) Arcavios.

...of the cards you've submitted to the fair (or as an example, doesnt hafta be an entry), which is your favorite? (Florence) This might not be my absolute favorite cause I've done wayy too many submissions, but after a cursory search, I remember being very happy with this one:

10. Between 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck, what animal encounter do you feel you would have the easiest time surviving, and by what method? (Abelzumi) 100 duck sized horses, easy. As someone who worked with horses, they only things that are remotely scary about them all depend on their size. Their kicks and bites at normal size would turn me into paste, but at duck size? Barely even a bruise. Plus, ducks are MEAN and a horse-sized one wouldn't even fear god like normal ducks do. I would perish just from making eye contact with it. 11. Do you like proactive, reactive, or flexible effects more? (Allie) I was wondering if people would pick up on that throughline, haha. Flexible for sure. 12. Are there any examples of printed cards where you initially didn't like the design, but you eventually came around on it? (Teaxch) This is taking your question a bit to the left, but when it first came out, I really didn't like how Boast looked to me, but after playing with it I loved it. 13. what is your favourite interaction between two printed cards ? (could be a combo or a nonbo) (SimSim) Hmm, that's tough. Off the top of my head, I like [[Hinata]] and [[launch the fleet]]? Or any X card that Hinata basically makes free. 14. If you could make it so one commander-format-legal card had never been printed, what card would you unexist? (Reaperfromtheabyss) Honestly, I think I have to say [[sol ring]]. It's probably the cop out answer, but it just creates such a split early game between haves and have-nots, and usually ends up with one person getting ganged up on even well after they lost the advantage from the ring. 15. what's your favorite graveyard recycling mechanic? Stuff that only works once like flashback, embalm, scavenge, etc.  (demimonde-semigoddess) Hmm, if it has to be a one-time-only thing, then Encore. Otherwise, Retrace. 16. who is your favorite non-planeswalker character in the Magic universe? (excluding Un- sets and Planar Chaos Alternate Timelines) (Gollumni) It’s probably Yahenni. 17. Tonally, do you generally prefer cards/sets that are more lighthearted or serious? (HIYgamer) Honestly, gonna kinda cop out here and say... both? My favorite part about Magic is how wildly different the tone can be set-to-set. If it was all serious or all lighthearted, I think I would get bored. So, the answer is, I like a good balance between the two.

Tumblr

Question for Naban, in regards to this week's contest, which set is your favorite limited format, if any? (deg99) You might be seeing this answer for a few different questions, but Battlebond is by far my favorite Limited experience!

For Naban... LEAST favourite type of permanent? (dimestoretajic) Hmmm... I dont know if I can really say I dislike any permanent type. They all do different, neat things? I like them all, but if I absolutely have to pick one that I dont like quite as much as the others, it would be lands, since they're helpful in playing other cards but rarely stand on their own as cool cards.

For the Inventor's Fair contest.  What is your favorite color combination for Commander? (azathoth-the-bored) That's definitely a difficult one to answer. As someone who is going through the 32-deck challenge, I find that there's a lot of fun stuff to do with pretty much any color combination. That said, the only combos I have multiple decks of are Boros, Grixis, and 5-color, so make of that what you will!

For the inventors faire contest, do you enjoy cascade as a mechanic? (nemat0n) As a mechanic? Yeah, absolutely. In terms of "cards I've seen with cascade I actually want to play with", there aren't that many. Cascade is a mechanic I like the potential of, let's put it that way.

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom Magic card #Inventor's Fair #partial decree #special post

[caparrucia]

10, 12, 21 for the behind the scenes ask game?

10. Do you enjoy writing dialogue, exposition, or plot the most?

It depends on the story, for me, on what the original spark for that story was. If my original idea for the story revolves around dialogue, exposition or plot, that's what I'll have the easiest time writing, because that's the thing I keep wanting to write. I do tend to favor dialogue and plot more than exposition. I write dialogue focused stuff when I have a scene very clearly in my head, or when I focus on plot, I just want people to figure out how the pieces fit together.

12. Is there a trope you haven’t written yet but really want to?

I kinda wanna revisit "fake dating" with a ship I'm a lot more invested in. I don't have anything against PromNyx, but that entire series was written out of prompts because it's not a ship I personally ship super hard, so I needed prompts to write more for it. Plus there's some sad/unfortunate associations with how that series came out, so I'd like to give it a shot with a ship I have more positive associations with! Possibly mix in some enemies to lovers, I don't know. Fake dating is one of my favorite dynamics, I just want to do one that makes ME happy, y'know?

21. What is the one fic that got away?

I feel my most defining "oh, let's better not" moment was in 2006, when I was writing FMA fic, and one of my long, sprawling messes got tangled up in the movie verse and I had a moment of blinding clarity while doing research that maybe FMA fic that requires you to research political and military developments in Germany in the 1930s and the 1940's is fic that you... probably shouldn't write? It wasn't even a matter of skill - there's fic I've thought about and then realized I don't have the chops for it - it's just. Y'know. I found myself researching the rise of Nazis for fic and then I decided I was better off not writing fic about fucking Nazis.

I think about that fic a lot, specially every time there's massive wank around Issue fic.

I'm not one to disparage fic. I'm sure fic is important and transformative and worthy of a lot of pretentious adjectives. But at some point you gotta realize that if you're using real life tragedy as salad dressing for your fic, that comes with the decision, conscious or not, to reduce real, actual human suffering to the badly painted background for the stage where you make your dolls kiss. It was a very powerful realization, for me, that. There's themes and topics that when you put them in a story, they just. Dominate the story. You can't have slavery or rape or torture or any number of real world harrowing things in a story, and not have them dominate the story by immediately forcing the story to SAY something about them, one way or another. It's why you see the iddy omegaverse fic so very quickly spiral into grimdark melodrama the moment you expand it beyond the iddy smut one-shot. Because the setting carries consequences and most writers want to explore those. That curiosity and need to really think about and explore consequences is one of the defining things that makes a writer. And I think there's a point where you realize you have a lot of things to say about something or other, and shippy fic about shonen jump teenage protagonists isn't the best vehicle for it.

I feel that balance of how much srs bsns you put into your setting and worldbuilding, framing your story, and how to not fall face first into You've Made It Issue Fic Now, Thanks, is a very underappreciated skill that takes a lot of years to master. And I will always remember that one FMA fic for being the one that taught me that. Because it was clever and witty and to this day I think it made sense, building up on what canon had presented and the type of story I was overall trying to tell. Absolutely.

But it was also a fic that was definitely going to have Nazis in it for it to work, and life is too short to waste it characterizing Nazis with any depth or having to write characters who at any point have to entertain their ideology. Can it be done? Maybe! I don't know. I'm not the arbiter of all things Nazis or anything. But it can't be done BY ME. And teaching me that lesson is why that fic is the best fic I never wrote, and I will remember it fondly probably til the day I die.

#rie answers #garbria

[wadupkev]

Why I Am in a Book Club

…shhhh. If you would like to cheat and get all the wisdom of the books I have read without reading my blog, just scroll to the bottom of the page where the list starts. Buttttttt if you want to make me smile a little bigger, start right here!

December of 2019 was the first year I ever had a goal for the number of books I wanted to read in that time frame. Yes, I did indeed grow up doing summer reading at the local library. I probably lied then just like I lied in high school about actually doing the reading. What can I say, the free Wendy’s frosty prizes as an 8-year-old were too good to pass up, but too little to do the actual work for. I was probably spending my time training for the Guitar Hero competitions that that same local library put on. That’s where people thought you were cool. Not book club. 

The goal for 2019 was 12 books. One book a month. If I am being super honest, I think I had probably read, front to back, maybe, MAYBE 10 books total in my life up until this point. And I know… Mrs. Anthony (my favorite high school English teacher aka lil’ Trish) is not going to be happy about this but reading just was not my thing. It was way more fun to slam some Mountain Dew Voltage and play COD or take the bikes around the Briarhood than it was to sit and read. However, those ten books I did read? Loved them. Hunger Games? Come on. There was no way that Katniss Everdeen wasn’t a total babe. Jennifer Lawrence proved that. I will admit that it was pretty cool to be able to answer the questions in English class about the book having actually read them even if that was a rare occurrence. The dread that washes over you when you get called on to answer something and you only barely skimmed the sparknotes ten minutes before class. Those moments were no doubt, the most stressful part of my high school days. 

Fast forward to December 26th of 2019. That year I wanted to read one book per month. HA. I had read 8 books and it was the 26th of December. 4 books to go with 5 days left in the year. And if you are doing any sort of mental math here.. My stats for the year would have been completing one book every 45 days. So.. a little behind schedule and a little crunched for time. Odds of reading one book in 5 days are not good at all but odds of reading 4 books? Practically impossible. And I can hear it already. “I read 60 books last year, 4 books in 5 days on vacation should be easy” and to that I say kick rocks. Think this guy reads a million words per minute? No chance. I was however optimistic on the way to Mexico that I brought 5 books. Did I bring 5 of the shortest books in my arsenal? Yes, I did. Did I read 4 and hit my goal? I did not. I read 3. Yes. I was bummed. I really wanted to read 12 books, but did I really want it if I didn’t make it enough of a priority? Anyways. In between that fake surfing machine on the pier and drinking who knows what at Señor Frogs, I managed to sneak in more reading in those 5 days than I did in most of the year. 11 books, one year. I was fairly proud of that. 

But if you know me, you know when I set a goal that I do everything I can to accomplish it. And in that year, I did not accomplish it. I also did not do everything I could to accomplish it. So, the next year was easy to make the same idea of 12 books the goal again. Was that year 2020? Hahaha yes it was. Was that year arguably one of the easiest years to have time to dedicate to reading? Also, yes it was. Like a lot of people, the ‘rona pandie was a shock to my extrovert system. I found myself with a lot of time on my hands (and for those of you who have read my blogs in the past you know this was the time I was living at home after getting my master’s not really knowing what would happen). I will save you the expectation of thinking I read like 30 books that year and let you know I read 15. 3 more than the original goal! I was pumped up about it too. I had been invited to join a book club with a good chunk of guys. A lot of whom I knew from playing sports in high school against them and mutual friends. We read “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo together. It was my first experience as a part of a book club, and I loved it. Getting to chat with guys who had the mindset and desire to grow was so inspiring. Unfortunately, that club dissipated after the first book not because a lack of value, but logistics for getting 7+ people together for a weekly call was really difficult. 

That’s when one of my best friends from growing up, Kyle, reached out and asked if I wanted to read a book called “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman. I said absolutely and we were off on what was, and still to this day might be, the brainiest book I have read. It had a lot of great content, but for my amateur reader mind, I struggled through it. It was hard honestly. Some books are like that, just super up there in the sky for the brainiac people. Kyle is one of those guys. So fricken’ smart. But not just the book smarts. Heck, he’s reading a book on emotional intelligence as well! I think we would both agree it was not our favorite book, but it did start a bond that would develop big time in the coming months. After that book, we decided to keep going. To start another one. Coincidentally at this time I had been catching up with a good friend of mine from college. Honestly, I think Mike and mine’s relationship really started to grow after college. Mike had reached out asking if we could catch up on a call and we finally were able to make it happen. We FaceTimed and got to talking, and it may have been just really good timing because Kyle and I had just hung up the FT on our last meeting for the Emotional Intelligence book, so it was super fresh in my mind. After some really good conversation, it was really clear to me that Mike would one, be a great addition to our club, but two, was just as hungry to grow and learn as Kyle and I were at the time. And boy did this spark a fire that would last until the fat lady sings as they say. I invited Mike to the club, asked him to think about it and see if it could be a good fit. Boom. Club member number three was on board and arguable now we were actually a book club instead of just two dudes reading a book together. We were three. That’s a club if I ever knew one. I chose the next book or first book however you would like to look at it and we all agreed to the best gift exchange ever. The person picking the next book, which would rotate each time, would purchase that book for everyone. There is something about a package showing up at the door from someone else that makes you smile right? This allowed for a little mystery and joy each time we got a new book. And just as a sidenote * financially I am pretty sure we are all really close to, if not spot on even on what we have spent on books for the club. Books are pretty fricken’ cheap.

We decided to meet weekly, and that decision was one of the best choices we made early on. It meant that club had to be a priority. It also meant that we had other guys holding us accountable to both doing the reading AND showing up to the FaceTime. It likely would have been much easier to meet once a month and talk about the whole book, but easy isn’t the goal. Deep relationships with guys who want to grow as people was the goal. So, we met weekly, Sunday nights, from then on.

I will spare you the book-by-book analysis, but what I am continually blown away by is the commitment of Kyle and Mike to show up to club every week. And by every week, I mean all but one week since January 2021 we have met together either in person or via FT to talk about our weeks and the book. The sacrifice of time and willingness to be flexible around each other’s schedules is wild. If this was a love language it would be mine. Maybe it falls under Quality Time? In any case, I know that being a part of this club is a choice and when we get on a call every Sunday and sometimes Monday or Saturday night, I feel that love from these guys. No distractions, phones away, notifications turned off. I like to think I am a pretty reachable guy, but in book club, it wouldn’t matter if my own house was on fire, you would not be able to get me on a call. We start by sharing how the week has gone. And not like “Yeah, I had a good week, how about you?”, no no no, we get detailed about how the week has gone. Day by day analysis. Unhurried, unrushed. It takes the better half of our time, and I wouldn’t trade it. Doing life together (the name of a book we read on our first ever book club retreat) is often and should be about the people in which you life physically close to (yes I meant life. Could be live I guess but life sounds so peotic). There is an importance to knowing your neighbors, co-workers, and others that you see on the daily simply because they live close to you. That’s called community. Luckily with FaceTime and a weekly gathering for a couple hours, I really feel like these two are a part of my community from afar. I know that every week I am able to lay my burdens down in front of them without fear of judgement. I know that every week I can show up in a good mood or bad mood and be loved on either way. I know that every week I have people in my corner praying for me during that specific week. I know that every week there are other people hungry to grow in the lives through the power of reading. This is why I do book club. After weekly recaps we start chipping through the section of book we read that week and talk about the lines or sections that stuck out to us. The further into book club we got, the more we were able to connect one line from a book here to another line in a book there. Some ideas have been talked about at length over several books, some have come up once and not heard of again. All with the hope that they, if powerful enough, would shape into how we live.

I get to do life with these guys. That’s only half of the fricken’ equation too! We also READ! HAHAHA. Like Book Club, duh of course you read. Wow has my perspective on reading changed. I really do think for most people who hate reading, there is a ton of relief when school is finally over because reading was forced throughout all of school. And rarely did we decide what it was we were reading. But once that weight is lifted, and you get the choice to read what you want to read? Get outta town. The opportunities are endless. Quite literally. There are SO MANY BOOKS in the world, it’s absurd. Any topic you can think of. And guess what? Each book, in my eyes now, is someone’s best set of ideas and contributions to the world. Like someone sat down and put effort into getting their most important thoughts that they have about whatever it is they are passionate about out of their brain and onto paper just in hopes that it might help one other person. THAT IS INCREDIBLE. Do you not feel the weight in that? Someone’s best ideas and thoughts on paper. What an honor it is to read what they have to say.

This blog might be a little all over the place but the things I really want to say here is how cool it is to have people in your life that love and care for you so well. That looks like a lot of different things to me. The every once and a while catch up with old friends, the best. The FT in the middle of the workday from my parents, the best. The comment on an Instagram post engaging with the content instead of just scrolling past, the best. The getting together with old friends back at home or anywhere for that matter, the best. Getting to do life together with two dudes who are hungry for what the Lord has for them in life, who want to love other people well, who want to grow as men, quite literally the best. It’s. The. Best.

I could not recommend starting your own book club enough. If you want to read a book, do it. Ask someone if they want to join you. Unfortunately, if you ask me to read something with you the answer will most likely be no. Not because I don’t want to or think it wouldn’t be beneficial, but because I learned the importance of boundaries in a book we read on boundaries and I know saying yes to everything will take away from the things I have already said yes to. Schedule a time with your club to talk about what stood out to you. Have conversation about it! Do it together. Life is better together. The one riverbank I might put on this is to keep the group relatively small. Three people can already be hectic to try and find two hours every week to schedule together. That only increases in difficulty the more people you add to book club. This is not to say that I do not think all the time about how cool it would be to have more people in this thing. But I do think the value would start decreasing the more and more people are added. People’s voices become quieter, the loud ones lead every conversation, it just gets harder. To quote one of our most recent book club finishes, “Abundance destroys value. -Simon Sinek”. 

We have experienced a lot of life together now. Mike, Kyle and I. These dudes have seen me in really really high moments in life. They have also seen me deeeeeep in the valleys of struggle and despair of life. We have cried together, we have laughed together, we pray for each other together. We share this experience of life together and that might be the most beautiful part about it. My dad and I were having a conversation about book club one night and he said something along the lines of this thing (being book club) being one of those gems in life I will look back at in 50 years at as one of the most pivotal things I have committed to. And frick he is so right! This is a GEM! I hope in 50 years we are still doing this book club. I hope I have just a massive library of books in my home. And any of the books I have read? I want you to take! I am serious! Come to my place and pick one out. Seriously though if you want one of the books, it’s all yours. They say if you lend someone a book, don’t expect to get it back and boy is that true haha but I would love nothing more than for you to fall in love with reading like I have. It has literally changed and continues to shape how I live. And I am not saying that just so lil’ Trish loves me more than she already does. It truly has reworked the way I think about so many of life’s big questions.

Below, I have listed out every single book we have read in book club, and my at least one if not more favorite quote(s) from each book. We read 22 books together in 2021. This year we have read 18 books and it is only October. It really is not about the number of books, but the value we are digesting through them with each other. We have hard conversations with some of these books. We break down and cry with some of these books. We laugh hard with some of these books. We get challenged by some of these books. Experiencing these emotions allows us to experience life more fully! 

My advice? Start reading now. If you need some recommendations, I have put an * next to my all-time favorites that we have read on the list. Mark those books up too! Mike is going to hate that I say this, but I find I retain things best when I write them down. When a line sticks out to me, I underline it in the book with a pen, I dog ear the bottom corner of the page, and I put that quote in a note on my phone, so I have it forever. That also allows me to give that book to another person and keep my favorite parts of it without losing them forever.

Anyways, below are my favorite quotes from each book in order of how we read them. Thank you for reading this blog. As always, I am so grateful for you. I love you. I mean that. I hope this has made you think just a bit. Frick, if this is just a little note that just my mom reads, that would be enough. She is an absolute rock star. I love you, Mom! Be good.

1

Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman

“The best formula for a complaint is “XYZ”. When you did X, it made me feel Y, and I’d rather you do Z instead.”

2

Think Life a Monk – Jay Shetty

“The more your personal spaces are devoted to single, clear purposes, the better they will serve you...in your mood and productivity.”

3

Dare to Lead – Brené Brown

“Trust is choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions.”

4

*The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry – John Mark Comer

“Hurry kills joy, gratitude, appreciation; people in a rush don’t have time to enter the goodness of the moment. It kills wisdom; wisdom as born in the quiet, the slow. Wisdom has its own pace. It makes you wait for it-wait for the inner voice to come to the surface of your tempestuous mind, but not until the waters of thought settle and calm”

“Remember: the question we should be constantly asking as followers of Jesus isn’t actually, what would Jesus do? The more helpful question is, what would Jesus do if he were me? If he had my gender, my career, my income, my relationship status? If he was born the same year as me? Lived in the same city with me? To follow Jesus is to ask that question until our last breath.”

5

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man – Emmanuel Acho

“Everyone, and I mean everyone, has biases. It’s the job of empathetic and considerate people not to let them dictate actions that harm others.”

6

*Cry Like a Man – Jason Wilson

“As men, we must take care of ourselves by truthfully expressing ourselves with other men we can trust.”

7

*Boundaries – Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

“As iron sharpens iron, we need confrontation and truth from others to grow.”

“Don’t leave things to chance with people who matter to you.”

“Forgiveness is something that we do in our hearts; we release someone from a debt they owe us. Only one party is needed for forgiveness: me.”

8

single. dating. engaged. married. – Ben Stuart

“Dating is not a status to dwell in, but a process to move through.”

9

Love Does – Bob Goff

“When people realize there’s no agenda other than friendship and better understanding, it changes things.”

10

Disappearing Church – Mark Sayers

“Salvation does not come as a work of self-improvement, but as a divine shock, an undeserved gift given.”

11

Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom

“As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on - in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here.”

12

*Don’t Give The Enemy A Seat At Your Table – Louie Giglio

“Developing this kind of “even though / I will” faith changes the temperature and trajectory of your life. When the pressure mounts, this kind of faith doesn’t deflate. Instead, it actually inflates. It becomes bolder. More resolute and undaunted. More robust.”

“Sure, Jesus is holiness personified, but the Holy One invited you here. Booked the table. Prepared the meal. Sat down to join you. And this reservation cost Him everything.”

“Lingering with the Almighty is the best defense against the enemy who’s trying to get at your table.”

13

The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis

“…the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

14

Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets – Andy Stanley

“Everybody ends up somewhere in life, I recommend you end up somewhere on purpose.”

15

Make Your Bed - Admiral William H. McRaven

“Find someone to share your life with. Make as many friends as possible.”

16

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi

“I resolved to treat all my paperwork as patients, and not vice versa.”

17

*The Gospel Comes with a House Key - Rosaria Butterfield

“Love the sinner and hate your own sin.”

“It was important, though, to resist the idea that love and approval go hand in hand.”

“Hospitality is necessary whether you have cat hair on the couch or not. People will die of chronic loneliness sooner than they will cat hair in the soup.”

“This is not complex. Radically ordinary, daily Christianity is not PhD Christianity. The gospel coming with a house key is ABC Christianity.”

18

Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

“The self-respect and sense of self-worth, the innermost armament of the soul, lies at the heart of human; to be deprived of it is to be dehumanized, to be cleared from, and cast below, mankind.”

19

Jesus>Religion - Jefferson Bethke

“It puts a whole new perspective on life when you realize even the ability to get out of bed in the morning is a wonderful extension of grace by our creator.”

20

*Garden City - John Mark Comer

“We need to think of work as a good thing. When God was done working, he sat back and said, this is really good. That’s how we should view our work.”

“Nothing about creation says that God is a tight-fisted, utilitarian, bean-counting pragmatist; God is a lavish, opulent, extravagant artist, and creation is his beauty on display.”

“When we’re down, one of the best things we can do is serve somebody else. It’s the backdoor to joy. And it’s always unlocked.”

“If your dreams are all about you, then your dreams are way too small.”

21

outdated. - Jonathan “JP” Pokluda

“Feelings would sometimes fail, but since love is an action, you can always love someone regardless of how you might feel at the moment.”

22

*Searching for Enough - Tyler Staton

“And when Jesus prays, when he talks to God, a certain homesickness arises in me. I want what he has. And is it like someone who’s had it before, maybe only for a moment, and I forget what it feels like most of the time, but when I slow down long enough to actually consider Jesus, there is a vague familiarity that gives way to longing. He actually believed what God said.”

“What is God like? If you’ve never thought long and hard about that question, you should. Because whether you realize it or not, you will always live in response to your answer to that question.”

“To minor on sin is to minor on love because sin constricts the capacity for love. Sin is a big issue to God because love is a big issue to God. If I pretend sin is a minor issue for me, I am intentionally making love a minor issue for me too.”

“Because the God who Jesus revealed is big enough to paint the stars across the sky with a single word from his lips and personal enough for an unhurried conversation with a single individual.”

23

Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey

“The sooner we become less impressed with our life, our accomplishments, our career, our relationships, the prospects in front of us - the sooner we become less impressed and more involved with these things - the sooner we get better at them.”

24

Battle Cry - Jason Wilson

“A man can endure a slap in the face, but a wounded heart causes him to guard his love forever.”

25

Creativity Inc. - Ed Catmull

“Trust doesn’t mean that you trust that someone won’t screw up - it means you trust them even when they do screw up.”

26

*The Second Mountain - David Brooks

“Real listening, whether to others or yourself, involves that unexpected extra round of questions, stretching the asking beyond what feels natural.”

“The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference.”

“There’s a habit of mind that the masters have...they are scanning the social environment for things they can appreciate and say thank you for.” - John Gottman

“Gratitude is a soil in which egotism tends not to grow.”

27

*Gentle and Lowly - Dane Ortlund

““Christ is love covered over in flesh” Picture it. Pull back the flesh on the Stepford Wives or the Terminator and you find machine; pull back the flesh on Christ and you find love. If compassion clothed itself in a human body and went walking around this earth, what would it look like? We don’t have to wonder.”

“Every friend has a limit. If we offend enough, if a relationship gets damaged enough, if we betray enough times, we are cast out. The walls go up. With Christ, our sins and weaknesses are the very resumè items that qualify us to approach him. Nothing but coming to him is required - first at conversion and a thousand times thereafter until we are with him upon death.”

“Your gentlest treatment of yourself is less gentle than the way your heavenly Father handles you. His tenderness toward you outstrips what you were even capable of toward yourself.”

“It means on that day when we stand before him, quietly, unhurriedly, we will weep with relief, shocked at how impoverished a view of his mercy-rich heart we had.”

“Reject the devils whisper that God‘s tender heart for you has grown a little colder, a little stiffer. He is not flustered by your sinfulness. His deepest disappointment is with your tepid thoughts of his heart.”

28

The 5 Love Languages Singles Edition - Gary Chapman

“Love is not an island of emotion, but rather an attitude that corresponds with appropriate behaviors.”

29

Joyful - Ingrid Fetell Lee

“A party without cake is just a meeting.”

30

*The Stranger in the Lifeboat - Mitch Albom

“I never considered what I would do if I called for the Lord and He actually appeared before me.”

“It takes so much to make you feel big in this world. It only takes an ocean to make you feel tiny.”

““…when people leave this Earth, their loved ones always weep.” She smiled. “But I promise you, those who leave do not.””

31

Life Together - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with the setting concerns for the days work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word. All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him. Therefore at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him whom our whole life belongs. “Awake, you who sleeps, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14)”

32

The Relational Soul - Richard Plass and James Cofield

“Be an explorer of the hearts of those you love.”

33

Atlas of the Heart - Brené Brown

“We agreed that we’re very careful and don’t use sarcasm and irony to express emotions and thoughts that we’re afraid to talk about... sarcasm and irony are reserved for playfulness only.”

34

Love People Use Things - Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus

“Sincere people don’t care what kind of car you drive, where you live, or the brand of the clothes you wear.”

35

Glad You’re Here - Walker Hayes & Craig Allen Cooper

“Their hands were dirty. They didn’t watch from afar and just think about us or pray for us. They met us where we were.”

36

Scandalous Witness - Lee E. Camp

“Remember too the primary posture of the church in the world is constructive instead of critical. Our task is to be salt and light; these days, the world may not need more critics.”

37

*When Invisible Children Song - Dr. Chi Huang

“It changed me so much that it is my desire to live a godly life even if it is at midnight on a Friday night. That spirit lives inside me and continues to change me. Because of this, I am just trying to do what Jesus asks: to serve my neighbors. That's you.”

38

*The Ragamuffin Gospel - Brennan Manning

“A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God” - Thomas Merton

“Something is radically wrong when the local church rejects a person accepted by Jesus - when a harsh, judgmental, unforgiving sentence is passed on homosexuals; when a divorcée is denied communion; when the child of a prostitution is refused baptism; when an unlaicized priest is forbidden the sacraments. Jesus sat down at table with anyone who wanted to be present, including those who were banished from decent homes.”

“Human love will always be a faint shadow of God‘s love. Not because it is too sugary or sentimental, but simply because it can never compare from whence it comes.”

“Christianity happens when men and women accept with wavering trust that their sins have not only been forgiven but forgotten, washed away in the blood of the Lamb. Thus, my friend the archbishop Joe Reia says, “A sad Christian is a phony Christian, and a guilty Christian is no Christian at all.”

“All we have to do, the parable says, is appear on the scene, and before we get a chance to run away again the Father grabs us and pulls us into the banquet so we can’t get away.”

“We have to stop being afraid to make room for love.”

39

*Can’t Hurt Me - David Goggins

“Motivation changes exactly nobody.”

“Doing things - even small things - that make you uncomfortable will help make you strong. The more often you eat uncomfortable the stronger you’ll become, and soon you’ll develop a more productive, can-do dialogue with yourself in stressful situations.”

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”

“The sole reason I work out like I do isn’t to prepare me for and win ultra races. I don’t have an athletic motive at all. It’s to prepare my mind for life itself.

All of us can be the person who flies all day and night only to arrive home to a filthy house, and instead of blaming family or roommates, cleans it up right then because they refuse to ignore duties undone.”

40

Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek

“My favorite definition of love is giving someone the power to destroy us and trusting they won’t use it.”

“All the perks, all the benefits and advantages you may get for the rank or position you hold, they aren’t meant for you. They are meant for the role you fill. And when you leave your role, which eventually you will, they will give the ceramic cup to the person who replaced you. Because you only ever deserved a Styrofoam cup.”

“Trust is not formed through a screen, it is formed across a table.”

“Abundance destroys value.”

#reading #bookclub #simon sinek #david goggins #walker hayes #brene brown #disney pixar #matthew mcconaughey #laura hillenbrand #paul kalanithi #andy stanley #cs lewis #louie giglio #bob goff #jason wilson #jay shetty #daniel goleman

[divinemelpomene]

Podcast Hauntings Part II

Hey, [REDACTED],

Thanks for the call. I'm sorry I missed it, I was avoiding it dear God I am not ready to actually talk to you it's the whole "trouble sleeping," you know? I think I am going to call out Monday to just…try and sleep for 12 hours. But hey after emailing you I fell asleep nearly immediately and succeeded at getting more than a couple of hours of sleep uninterrupted?

It was so cool to see your name pop up on my missed call list! And to hear your voice it sounds exactly the same as it did the last time we spoke. How do you still sound like that college guy? I guess we are that generation that won't change out cell numbers, huh? I didn't realize you had moved out to Ireland! How amazing– for work or school? Or following a love? I can't look you up on social media I didn't think about you for fifteen years I always figured you'd be the one to get out of here first. Maybe with the time difference we will be able to chat on the phone some during those insomnia nights I’m having.

Really though, thanks for not just calling my sister to come commit me for 72 hours. I don't think I can take the silence. If… if I keep the background noise high, it keeps them from coming. That sounds like the new season of Stranger Things, have you seen it? It reminds me of all the movies we used to watch, curled up on the couch in your parents basement I swear I am not claiming to be haunted by Vecna or something.

Let me see if I can explain what’s happened. The first time I noticed it, I mean I have to admit it had been clearly going on for awhile it was just the sound of a voice in the back of my head. A quiet voice, saying something in …well, in the voice I imagined her to have. I remember being excited that I was starting to be able to get into her head, you know? Like the authors used to talk about.

I kept thinking how lovely her voice is. Hypnotic, really. To everyone else it’s so awkward to their ears they cannot hear her the real her the true

The dreams started a few weeks later. Again, they felt like inspiration — my brain finally getting into a world so completely that I could write pages without stop. The easiest audio drama project I’ve worked on. Well the easiest since that project. That project we swore would make us famous that project that I agreed to do despite my gut reaction

After a few heavy nights of dreams followed by mornings of copious note taking, the dreams…turned strange. I mean, I was still in the town, just…not a part of town I had ever written about. It looked like that town. That town that we wiped from our memories god damn it those memories The character wouldn’t let me stay in this new part of town. Why would my brain keep bring up this place, but not actually allow me to enter it?

The last dream I had before I truly stopped sleeping well, I had turned up on the corner of this side of town. Again. I looked up to see her, the bright emerald green clothing I had began to associate with her. She shook her head, her eyes deep with concern.

“Why do I keep coming back here,” I asked, frustrated. She didn’t respond, just squeezed my arm tighter. So tight so fucking tight I tried to pry her hand off my arm.

“You’re hurting me,” I cried, as she squeezed tighter. I woke up to a scream on my lips.

It was a few hours later when I saw the bruise mark on my elbow, after wondering why the hell it was so sore.

I know how this sounds. But you have to realize, it was the town. The town with all the details. Did…did we not succeed?

With love,

Sincerely,

Mel

#nosleep #no sleep #nosleep horror #horror story

[bloomerism]

How do you go about making your DND word boards? Do you have any resources that you recommend? I'd love to try and make them for my player characters and NPCS.

omg i'm so flattered you're asking, they're so much fun to make!

usually mine consist of 10-12 lines from songs/poetry/books in addition to 2 or 3 art pieces interspersed throughout (arranged like 4 texts - 1 image - 4 texts - 1 image - 4 texts)

the song lyrics are probably the easiest part because i make playlists for all my characters and all of the other players in my campaigns do as well. i just peruse the appropriate character playlist and pick a bunch of lyrics that i think are apt to the vibe of the character. a minor tip I've learned, when you take screenshots of the lyrics make sure they aren't all from the same lyric website, that way it won't look too uniform (usually i alternate between Genius and AZLyrics, and occasionally highlight the text with the mouse)

the poetry/book excerpts could potentially be a little bit harder if you aren't already into poetry; if you were to look closely at my wordboards you would notice that Mary Oliver and Richard Siken make frequent appearances because they are my favorite poets, so I'm already familiar with their work lol. it's usually harder to find lines from a novel or other book that work, but I've done it before (it's usually just luck, or I'm already reading a book for fun and then think 'oh this reminds me of xyz character' and make note of it for later). i've been using this website to download my text sources for a while (it's free). off the top of my head, i've had a lot of luck with Mary Oliver, Richard Siken, Louise Glück, Nikita Gill, and have drawn a surprising number of quotes from the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson. If you encounter a book that you suspect might have some good quotes, but you don't want to scour it yourself, you can look it up on Goodreads and they have a whole section in every book's little entry about popular quotes from the book.

the art is easier than the poetry. a lot of the time i literally just google it like 'sky painting' or 'sky art' and see what i find (that's exactly what i did for both of the paintings for this post and several others). some characters are harder to find an art theme for than others, so the difficulty of this part is heavily dependent on how strong or specific the aesthetic of the character is.

one of the most helpful things for me has been to have character tags on my tumblr for all of my characters. that way, every time i see something that reminds me of them, i can tag it and reference it later if I'm making a wordboard. some of the other people in my campaigns do the same thing, so i can reference theirs if i need to.

also, make note of fun quotes that the character says in-game in case you want to include them in the body text of the post! this part is optional to me, because sometimes i forget to be looking out for one, and then i have to post the wordboard and add the quote later when something interesting comes up lol.

i hope this was helpful, and good luck! sorry that was so long-winded, and feel free to dm me if you have any more specific questions :)

#ask

[svalbardcommproject]

Language Used on Svalbard

You may wonder what the official language is for the North-most country in the world. It is, in fact, Norwegian. Although this language acts as a lingua franca for Svalbard since some residents also speak Russian, Ukrainian, and Taiwanese. Within the 18th and 19th centuries Russenorsk was used as a lingua franca, but it is now extinct. This language combines elements of Russian and Norwegian and was formerly used throughout the arctic. It is said to have originated from Russian traders and Norwegian fishermen as a means to communicate through both of their native languages. Although once the Pomer trade ended with the Russian revolution of 1917, this dialect came to an end [2].

Common Norwegian Words and Phrases Although Norwegian is said to be one of the easiest languages to learn by native English speakers, many people have difficulty with the pronunciation of the “R” within this language. Native Norwegian speakers make extensive use of the rolling “R” sound. Other than that, there are an incredible number of words that are similar to the English words that we already know. This is because they had already entered the English language through Old Norse. Some of these words include: Anger, bag, band, cake, call, cast, egg, get, gift, hug, husband, loose, mistake, race, seat, sister, thrive, Thursday, ugly, wing, and many more [1]. Here are some examples of pronunciations of words and phrases within the Norwegian Language.

As you may notice, some sayings sound similar to the English language and some of them don’t. For example, the phrase “Can you help me?” sounds very similar to the language pronunciation whereas “thank you” doesn’t sound similar at all. “Please” and “I don’t understand” are also interesting because of the lettering barrier from English to Norwegian. This is because the Norwegian alphabet has 3 extra characters within it (Æ Ø Å) [3]. Here is an example of Norwegian text from a general store website on the island of Svalbard.

As you can see, some words are similar and can be compared to English words. The words that seem the most similar to me are Parfymeri (perfume), personlig (personal), makeup (make-up), klassiske (classic), and her (here). This likeness may show us that even though languages are different, there are a lot of similarities between them which may help influence our thoughts on specific unique aspects within that culture and how it can be like our own cultures. The phrase, “Language influences our view of reality,” is exactly that.

Work Cited

“Is Norwegian Hard to Learn? 12 Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them.” The Intrepid Guide, 22 Mar. 2022, www.theintrepidguide.com/is-norwegian-hard-to-learn/.

Kortlandt, Frederik. On Russenorsk - Kortlandt, 2000, www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art197e.pdf.

“Norwegian Language.” Norwegian Language : Common Words & Phrases : Norway Travel Guide, 2014, norway.nordicvisitor.com/travel-guide/information/norwegian-language/.