dreamtigress

[dreamtigress]

✨Having someone who is invested in your story and discusses it with you is like a solid half of the fun of writing. I'm not even kidding.✨

[dreamtigress]

Lilo & Stitch is a great example of a story that has no villains. It has antagonists, sure, but most of them are well-meaning. The worst person in the film is that little shit Myrtle, but she’s not in the film that much anyway.

[dreamtigress]

Short Story Review: The Tailor by Leigh Bardugo

★★★☆☆

It hurts, but I can bear it. Because I am a doll, and a servant. Because I am a pretty thing and a soldier all the same.

While a very insightful look into Genya's actions in book one and some of her motivation for book two, it doesn't really add too much else to the Grishaverse canon. Still, it just makes me angrier at the Darkling; Genya deserved so much better than his manipulation.

[dreamtigress]

tracking my improvement by drawing kaz across the span of 3 years has been pretty fun and cool i would say

[dreamtigress]

[dreamtigress]

so last night i was thinking about that line where matthias (i think it was him? probably) tells kaz he has nothing holy in his life and kaz is just like "no you're wrong" and we all know he's thinking about inej.

and then there's that scene in the show right before they kidnap alina where kaz is in the church and that guard guy is trying to kill him and then inej matieralizes on the balcony above him so she can save his life and they're in a literal church and she's appearing above him to rescue him, basically just being the "something holy" in his life.

[dreamtigress]

MONKEY MAN (2024)

[dreamtigress]

Jesper: Now are you going to mind your own business or do I really need to give you a piece of my mind?

Kaz: Oh, I couldn’t take the last piece

Wylan: *approaches with spray bottle*

[dreamtigress]

Kaz: Today, I was accused of hating children.

Jesper: But you do hate children

Kaz: Well yes, but the statement implies that I like it when children have grown into adults, which I do not.

Jesper: So you hate everyone?

Kaz: Exactly, I hate everyone-

Nina: Except Inej

Kaz: Yes, except Ine- wait...

Nina: SAINTS HE ADMITTED IT

Jesper: ALERT THE NEWS, KAZ ADMITS HE LIKES INEJ

Kaz: Fuck.

[dreamtigress]

Tell me why Kaz' little head tilt after knocking David out with his cane was sexy as hell

[dreamtigress]

Jesper: Sorry I had feelings earlier, I’ll replace them with jokes right away

Wylan: No, don’t you dare, I always want to know how you’re feeling

[dreamtigress]

April 27th is International Crow and Raven Appreciation Day! My comic Crow time is pretty much stuffed to the brim with crows, so it's a good way to celebrate these goth little dudes.

READ CROW TIME!

OR GET PLUSH GOTH BOI?? WOW!

[dreamtigress]

The concept of not using your top sheet is totally foreign to me. I guess it’s because I grew up in a drafty old house sleeping under down comforters, antique quilts, wool blankets and other pieces of bedding that were a sensory nightmare/difficult to clean. I see people in my generation joke about the uselessness of the top sheet and I’m like. Idk, I think it has a pretty important job to do protecting you from touching the creepy haunted quilt your great grandma sewed.

[dreamtigress]

I know some fic writers get stressed about writing tropes they think are too popular or overdone, and I need you all to know that I just spent 4 hours reading every iteration of the same exact fic plot I could find, and they all brought me an indescribable amount of joy. Listen. Listen. Sometimes you want cakes of many flavours and sometimes you want Nine Carrot Cakes

[dreamtigress]

It’s gone midnight and I’m thinking about Six of Crows so y’all know what that means: it’s time for a long rambling thought process that will hopefully have some interesting insights into the books in it.

I want to talk about the animal, mostly bird, symbolism of these books because although it’s obviously something we’re very aware of I also think it’s something that runs a lot deeper than we necessarily always realise/talk about. Even when people aren’t being directly involved in bird metaphors (crows, pigeons, peacocks) they are often described as “squawking”, “flapping”, or with other phrases that further this semantic field.

Now the crows is obviously the main source of the symbolism, and it’s openly talked about in the book with the speech on how the recognise human faces and how they support each other. I’ve also seen a few people online talking about the Crows in conjunction with a poem/nursery rhyme about crows (it’s one of those that has many different versions spun of it, some know it was counting magpies rather than crows) wherein 6 crows symbolises gold, of course greatly linked to the plot of the novels as well as their anti-extreme capitalism message. It’s also key to mention that crows are massively underestimated birds in the general public view; they’re far ‘smarter’ animals than we would typically expect. Crows have a very high brain to body mass ratio, I believe the highest of any birds but don’t quote me on that, and although we understand very little about the brain the size ratio is currently considered a very good indicator for the general intelligence level of the animal. Crows can make tools, hide their food, mate for life, and - VERY interestingly for this book analysis - have even been suspected to hold funerals. Now I want to be clear I’m working on a mix of random knowledge and the first helpful looking website that came up when I googled ‘fun facts about crows’ so I am by no means an expert here, but to my understanding the practice that was initially considered to be a ‘crow funeral’ is actually a process wherein crows will gather around a dead crow to look for potential danger. So I feel like the links I’m establishing here are relatively obvious, the point is that, like the birds themselves, the Crows are undervalued, underestimated, and unexpectedly successful. But the symbol of the crow in these books arguably goes even further.

The crow-headed handle of Kaz’s cane represents everything about the crow I’ve already mentioned on top of his own symbolic layering to the cane as a sign that no part of him has not been broken, and no part him is not better for having been broken. So in Chapter 27 of Crooked Kingdom, when Kaz returns to the Slat and fights the Dregs before leading a coup against Per Haskell, the cane with the fake crow’s head that Haskell has contrived to mock him effectively represents the failing of everything the Dregs represent. They’re last, the remnants, the people with nowhere else to go: they are the people who have been broken and have made something new for themselves. Except Haskell. So the sheer ridiculousness of him mocking Kaz’s cane, something he clearly thought would win him favour and success, in the end becomes one of the biggest aspects of his downfall. Inej describes the moment when the Dregs begin to support Kaz, the way the look at Per Haskell with discomfort - “the feathers in his hat, the canes in his hands” (and then she goes on to highlight how they’ve seen Kaz use his cane in fights, “wielded with such precision”, whereas Haskell is washed-up, pathetic, never could have taken the fight Kaz did and walked out the other side). Of course they realise, then, how completely and utterly wrong all of this was. Because when they’re confronted with both of those canes they realise something. They know what Kaz’s cane represents; it’s power and strength in spite of a world that has that has scorned him, it’s taking something that was broken and not fixing it but emphasising it and making it into a threat, into a symbol, into a strength. They know that, even though they don’t know what happens in Kaz’s head, because they see themselves in that. The Dregs; the literal bottom of the Barrel, who have been broken and who have clawed their way to survival. They cannot see themselves in Haskell’s mockery cane. Haskell is not a man who reflects what the Dregs are at their core, but Kaz is. The emphasis on the feathers is also really interesting, because I think it’s implying a sort of gaudy, colourful feathering that (despite fitting in with the style of the Barrel) does not represent the symbol of the crow; it is not something shadowed, something half hidden that could have an unexpected bite. It’s almost more akin to Heleen’s gaudy peacock feathers than it is to anything the Dregs understand, or represent through being Crows.

The pigeons I don’t really see anyone talking about, but I think it’s pretty interesting. The idea of ‘the pigeon’ is the same as ‘the mark’; they’re the victim, the fool who’s easy to swindle. I think the imagery of the fools being pigeons, ie being everywhere and massively populating big cities, is really clever to show a divide between the few, the Crows, and the many, the pigeons. However, it’s not only the Crows who remark on others being ‘pigeons’, but other gangs as well. When Kaz confronts Pekka about the scam he ran on him and Jordie, he says “you were just two pigeons, and I happened to be the one who plucked you”. I’m not gonna lie to you guys I’m losing my point slightly, but I just googled ‘crows and pigeons’ and the first thing that came up was about how crows sometimes eat pigeons so I reckon that’s pretty relevant.

Ok I’m really tired and I feel like I’m clutching at straws here, so I dunno I guess if this does well then I’ll cover peacocks, lions, and the general semantic field of birds in another post. I hope at least some of this made sense, thanks for reading it if you bothered to get this far

[dreamtigress]

D'awww.

6 for the new writing prompt?

Hello friend! Thank you for playing :)

6. Listening to them rant

“I’m just saying, it’s absolutely ridiculous that they won’t listen to me on principle. Just because I’m the youngest person on the council doesn’t automatically mean that I’m wrong.” Wylan pauses his rant, breathing harshly. 

Jesper can’t help but smile to himself, endlessly fond. Wylan is always beautiful, but he’s especially beautiful when he’s passionate about something, even when that something is the fact that the merchant council are (largely) a bunch of old, white, arrogant men who think that they know best. There’s a flush on Wylan’s cheeks, two bright spots of pink that Jesper will forever find endearing, and he’s gesturing wildly with his fork instead of actually eating with it.

“If they’d just stop being so Ghezen-damned prejudiced and listened to people who might, in fact, know better than them…” he trails off again, noticing the expression on Jesper’s face. “Why are you looking at me like that?” 

“Like what?” Jesper asks around a mouthful of potato. 

“I don’t know, like you’re amused by me, or something.” 

Shrugging, Jesper says, “I just think you’re pretty when you get worked up about something.” 

“I’m sorry, I should stop talking. Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been up to today?” Wylan ducks his head and shovels some food into his mouth. 

“No, no.” Jesper shakes his head firmly. “I’ve told you, you don’t need to apologise for talking. I’m listening to you, love. I am. And you’re right, the council has been stuck in their ways for far too long, and it’s about time that they paid attention to someone else’s opinions.” 

If it’s even possible, Wylan’s cheeks pink even more. 

Jesper reaches across the table and takes his hand. “Tell me about your ideas, I’m sure you have some.” 

“Of course I do. Well, I spoke with Karl and Mikhail earlier and they said…” 

Sitting back, Jesper smiles as Wylan starts to talk again. His eyes are shining, alight with energy as he tells Jesper about his ideas for the council, sending him a withering look when Jesper suggests telling them all where to shove it. Jesper could listen to him talk all day and never tire of it, so he nods in agreement and interjects with his own thoughts, and encourages his brilliant boyfriend to keep talking well into the night.

[dreamtigress]

So soft.

Yay for new writing prompts! Can you do 8 and/or 18? Thanks!!

Hello there, thanks for playing! Here's a combo of both for you.

8. Letting them nap with their head in your lap + 18. Making sure they get sleep

“Do you want to go to sleep?”

“No,” Wylan says sleepily, lifting his head from where it’s resting in Jesper’s lap. He’s sprawled almost sideways across the bed, blanket draped over his body, listening to Jesper read their latest book. “Keep reading, please.”

Jesper bites back his argument that Wylan had been halfway to sleep just a moment ago. He’s been working hard lately, the merchant council keeping him plenty busy even without the hours spent tinkering in the lab creating Saints know what for Kaz. The dark shadows under his eyes have been a permanent feature of the last few weeks, and as much as Jesper is enjoying finally spending some time with him, he’d much rather Wylan actually got some sleep.

He rearranges the pillows propped up against the headboard behind him and encourages Wylan to lie back down, sinking a hand into his hair as he does so and smiling at the soft sigh of pleasure he makes. If there’s one thing that never fails to turn his boyfriend into a sleepy puddle, it’s having his hair stroked. 

Turning the page of their book, Jesper picks up reading where he left off, fingers idly playing with the curls at the nape of Wylan’s neck. He only manages a few more paragraphs before Wylan’s breathing evens out as he drifts into sleep. Quietly, Jesper marks their page with the bookmark and places the book to one side.