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terramythos · 1 year

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A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reading Notes

Full Review Here!

-while I am going into these mostly blind (literally my max exposure to Sherlock Holmes is some of the show Elementary and the Guy Ritchie films) this specific story is a little spoiled for me. Oh well -there is licherally no publication year on my copy lmao What (1887, thanks Google) Part 1 (ooo a two parter- scandalous) Chapter 1 - Mr. Sherlock Holmes -ill be real I have like no context for the afghan war except Classic British Colonialism part six billion or whatever -"the great wilderness of London" lmfao -I feel like I vaguely knew Watson was an honest to God doctor but its still surprising considering what I know of other adaptations -shout out to Holmes inventing a fictional(?) version of luminol? Which apparently was discovered early 20th century, lol. -too bad forensic evidence is still so sketchy a century and a half later, Holmes -BOY I WISH THE POLICE WERE A THING OF THE PAST, BRO. -Holmes meets Watson for the first time and almost immediately stabs himself in the finger to prove a point. The serve Chapter 2 - The Science of Deduction -"haha no way is he addicted to narcotics" oh my sweet summer child -watson: I swear I'm only super fascinated by Mr Holmes because my health sucks and I'd be bored otherwise that's it I swear. -ooh I like the observation that Holmes is basically self taught and ignorant of a lot of things people take for granted. I don't think I've gotten that impression about the character before -i mean it's impossible now not to know Holmes is a detective, but since this was the first story, I have to wonder if some original readers really didn't know going in. If so this bit would be fun because based on the character study and Watson's list of Holmes' knowledge you can figure it out yourself. -watson: man this writer is full of shit, what a moron Holmes: me? :) God that's funny -the unintentional prophecy of Holmes wanting to "make my name famous". God lmfao Chapter 3 - The Lauriston Gardens Mystery -oh hey the actual crime mystery is here -rip random American dude I guess? -goddamn that setting description really digs into a bleak tone, huh -my main observation is the apartment was seemingly abandoned if the dust is any indication, so he was not a resident but brought there. Poisoned makes sense if he was not injured -ok, lol, the Rache thing NOT being Rachel is the thing I had spoiled, and they've already dropped that in the intro chapter to the crime. So I guess I don't know where this is going. Fun! Chapter 4 - What John Rance Had To Tell -watson is smart actually -though I think RACHE being a red herring as Holmes suggests is way too easy -tho Holmes guessing the murderers appearance leads me to believe it's someone he knows. (Also weird that Rance is also a five letter R-E word). -could even make the argument that it could be a fucked up version where the C and H are switched and mutilated, but I have no clue why if the murderer supposedly did it -then again I also don't know why the murderer was the injured one with no sign of a struggle. Maybe a third person? Or something unrelated/accidental? OR the dead dude wasn't actually poisoned, we only have the police's word on that -OH HE SAID THE TITLE OOOOOHHHH -also Holmes seems more invested in the fun of the mystery than the fact some dude was fucking murdered, presumably by a friend based on what he said earlier Chapter 5 - Our Advertisement Brings A Visitor -watson be like "well the guy was fuck ugly so it's probably good he got murdered" like bro??? -yeah no way is this the culprit. Like we're maybe a quarter into the book. If it IS him then there's way more to it -Some Rando In Disguise It Seems -tho I have to say putting an ad out for a (potentially?) valuable piece of lost jewelry like a wedding ring would attract grifters whether they had any relation to the murder or not. Seems like a weird oversight to the plan. Chapter 6 - Tobias Gregson Shows What He Can Do -seeing how 3 different papers frame the murder, specifically political motivations, is a little funny even if I'm missing some of the context of the time. -interesting frame for the chapter, someone else telling a story to the leads. I guess it adds some variety to the presentation (and lets us see red herrings that wouldn't trip up Holmes) -some of the terminology didn't age well, which is unsurprising -- "street Arab" rather than "street urchin". -HOW THE TURNTABLES. THE PLOT THICKENS. ETC Chapter 7 - Light in the Darkness -RACHE again. Hmmmmm. Only this time it WOULD be the victim's blood, not the murderer's. Is the handwriting the same? Plus the original height observation? And the first RACHE was almost hidden, but this one seems more in the open based on what Lestrade said. -again the use of framing where one of the less capable detectives talks about what they've done and discovered to add some variety -ok so this guy was murdered in a much different way than the other, which seems odd, unless someone else did this one. -and the pills point to Stangerson killing Drebber, but then who killed Stangerson? If he was poisoned he would have been stabbed independently of that. -and why two different kinds of pills. Is one an antidote to the other, maybe? It's possible the murderer planted it in Stangerson's room, but why, if the goal was to implicate him? So it probably is actually his. -holmes just knowing and there being some plot contrivance why he can't say does kinda fizzle the stakes a little (never mind this gets resolved in like 2 pages) -but assuming he IS right, I was correct about there being 2 people... which might explain the differences in the 2 murders? -the cab driver! He was mentioned early then everyone seemingly forgot he was present around the time Drebber died. -"it's the end of the mystery!" Uh yeah except the second person is almost certainly at large and there's an entire second part to the story, Holmes. Lol. Lmao Part 2 - The Country of the Saints Chapter 1-- On The Great Alkali Plain -colonialist worldview ahoy -doyle my guy you know quite literally nothing about ecology here like it's ok to admit it -*lists 3 predators* "these are the only guys that live here, in the great miserable American plains," that's not how any food chain works. Also you live in fucking London -I'll stop roasting him lmao -i guess it's like the Nevada salt flats or something?? A little more valid I guess -... huh. -this is quite the framing for part 2 of a murder mystery I'll be real. -the idea of this huge mass of white people traveling through the western desert and biblical references in the like makes me think of Mormons more than anything... -and Stangerson makes his appearance here which sure is fascinating if the dude fucking died (unless the whole antidote and fake death thing is the real shit). Or he has a twin or something. Or this is the past. -oh my god they are Mormons -why are there Mormons making pilgrimage in the salt flats in the first Sherlock Holmes murder mystery??? This shit is wild -"my kid now" ok, word, Ferrier -bringham young is in this SHERLOCK HOLMES story and is also a fucking dick. I'm going insane Chapter 2 - The Flower of Utah -ferrier gay as fuck let's just be real here -so is this like where the backstory for the wedding ring comes from? If so this is pretty extensive. I do wonder how it all ties into the first story. Like we went full cowboy western here -twu wuv exposition etc Chapter 3 - John Ferrier Talks With The Prophet -"the Mormons suck by the way" ok Doyle go off? -i have to emphasize again that Brigham Young is a character in this fucking Sherlock Holmes story. Like. A villain. This is just crazy to me lmao -The Danites were a real thing apparently? Man. -my guy put in a FOOTNOTE and CITATION about Mormons being misogynistic. There are no footnotes anywhere in the story except to be like "no really they called women heifers here's the guy who said it" I am literally not making this shit up. Doyle based actually??? Chapter 4 - A Flight For Life -we are like half through the second part and I have to fucking state again this is a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery thats just straight up a western now with Brigham Young as the antagonist with the title character nowhere in sight -it hasnt been like outright stated and he could just be tan but theres so many references to Ferrier having brown skin it does make me wonder if he isn't white. The only thing that would be odd with that is he isn't racially discriminated against in a Mormon compound. Especially since his adopted daughter is deffo white & he is discriminated against for NOT taking wives. I can't see that really happening if he isn't white -"there are two ways out of the room... there is the door, and there is the window. Which do you care to use?" DAMN dude -Stangerson & Drebber really do be 2 complete cunts huh. Fuck those guys -doyle: I need to name the guy who rescues Ferrier and Lucy from the Mormons. In America. I got it! "Jefferson Hope" Chapter 5 - The Avenging Angels -we got 3 chapters left??? -"once safe in Carson we may rest for the remainder of our lives" is that on the nose foreshadowing -at least now the wilderness is being described in beautiful terms -Oh RIP Ferrier I guess. They bothered to dig a grave, lol? -honestly I'm a little surprised they didn't try to hunt Jefferson Hope down for good measure since they're supposed to be ultra vindictive. Unless they didn't know he was with them? I guess maybe they didn't? -... nope, they knew and put out a warrant. Again why not try to track him? Too hard? -and convenient random guy Hope happens to know who doesn't hate him who we havent ever seen before -lmao he just leaves her to die I guess? "Oh well some rando married her so it's all over"?? Surely true love would, I dunno, trump social conventions? I guess not LMAO -i guess that's one way to circle around to the first half of the story Chapter 6 - A Continuation of the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D. -I'll be honest, it could be because this is the first story written about Holmes, but I'm pretty confident this WASNT a mystery one could figure out based on the evidence presented, which is something I was led to believe was a staple of these stories. But I guess it's possible the style just wasn't nailed down yet -maybe you could figure out how the crime was committed but not the motive -that line about vengeance might be the quote to use -I like this part of the narrative where we really see into Hope's actions. I think so much of the story in America was unnecessary; I just didn't feel strongly about the characters like I do actually seeing his perspective here. Why bother with the whole stranded in the desert thing and going into so much detail about how Lucy and Ferrier came to live in Salt Lake City? I dunno, I think it might have been better to be shorter and from Hope's perspective if you must include that section of the story at all - and again, it's not like you could have figured out all that shit based on the first half of the story. I appreciate the kinda experimental time jump but I don't think it worked great -ok the Russian roulette pill thing is a bit weird but sure king, go for it -i know it's metaphorical probably but I like the kinda Gothic touch of Lucy and Ferrier following him to the murder -"let us see if there is justice upon the earth, or if we are ruled by chance" ok that's pretty raw, go off king -i mean if I have to choose a revenge story from around this period I'd definitely go for Monte Cristo but this is fun too -why try to cover up the crime with the whole Rache thing if you know you're gonna die tho lol -i guess to buy time to kill Stangerson too? Chapter 7 - The Conclusion -I do like the detail that the murderer's blood was on the scene but not the victim. That WAS revealed early but I never suspected a bloody nose to be the source. If it had been a wound there probably would have been evidence of it; a limp or something. That is pretty clever. -but on the other hand, Holmes WAS privy to information we never get (Hope's name and connection to Drebber), so I wouldn't call this a fair mystery. -lestrade and Gregson getting all the credit as predicted lmao -my man closes with Latin? I gotta look it up -"The public hiss at me, but I cheer myself when in my own house I contemplate the coins in my strong-box." -basically, I'm awesome even if no one knows it Well! That was interesting. I liked the mystery itself, and the revenge narrative portion of the conclusion. It's a strong start to a famous character. I think we get a little lost in the weeds with the time jump in the second half of the story, way too much detail and I don't think it focused on the right characters for most of it. Also I have to be a stickler on the fair mystery thing; there are some things you can deduce, but Holmes literally had info we never receive so it's ultimately not fair. I hope this does genuinely change in future stories. I certainly didn't mean to start with the first one, that was an honest accident lmao

#taylor reads #reading notes

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littledead-ridinghood · 2 years

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@thefoghaslifted tagged me!!! So here I am

Comfort show and movie: I don’t like tv and I don’t have the attention span for movies, so I don’t watch a lot. I like documentaries (mainly about history) and like video essays(mainly about media literacy (ESPECIALLY for media I have never first-handedly consumed and probably never will(I have watched Game Theory’s entire FNAF series waaaaayyyyy too many times)). Anything dispelling propaganda will probably be rewatched a thousand times by me. I love analyzing the shit out of propaganda. A. Because it’s fascinating but also B. Media literacy is super important and it means a lot to me. Hell! Look at my blog. All I do is analyze. Writing essays is a fav past time of mine

Comfort book: I don’t….read nice things. I never have. I like sad/angst/dark ig? Content. In third grade, I read this book called The Underneath (which I was only allowed to check out at the school library(there were certain sections of books only the fourth and/or fifth graders could check out) because the librarian loved me, knew I was a super avid/advanced reader, and thought I was super insightful for my age and thought I could handle it yada yada yada) and it starts with a pregnant cat being abandoned in the middle of the woods, at night, in the rain. The book made me So Sad and therefore it was my favorite for years. So, no, I don’t really have a comfort story. I never really got into book series like most kids. I never read “kid classics” like Percy Jackson, and while I read Harry Potter in like 2nd and 3rd grade, I didn’t like it. To the point of, I didn’t finish it in second grade because it just didn’t vibe with me (7 year old me knew what was up about JKR, what can I say?)

Comfort clothing: I love short sleeve shirts where the sleeves stop about half way down your bicep. I just really like how they look and feel. So many shirts just stop like a quarter down and I constantly feel like I’m pulling them out of my pits

Comfort song: these are some I listen to on repeat…to name a few

-“Agnes” by Glass Animals

-“Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant

-“All the Things I’ve Done” by The Killers

-“The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac

-“Let Me Down Easy” by Gang of Youth

-The entirety of Folie à Deux by Fall Out Boy

-“Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears

-“Feed the Machine” by Poor Mans Poison

I could go on and on and one about my favorite songs like….I have So Many

Comfort game: I love card games. I never remember how to play any of them (except, for like, BS) so I constantly need to be retaught, but cards are so transportable. Also, it’s a pretty good way to bond with strangers when passing the time as well as super fun when people can teach you a new game you’ve never heard of

Comfort food: trident pineapple gum!!! I fuckin’ love pineapple and gum, so putting that together is literal heaven. I have an actual subscription because I chew so much. It’s a *minor* problem

If you or anyone else wants to join, feel free <3

@overheard-over-chili @aalghul @autisticredhood

#tags!

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oneweekoneband · 3 years

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In the first cold hours of a new December morning, Taylor Swift once again revealed herself to be the primary antagonist in my hero’s journey. Weary and woebegone as I am, I will not waste strength on any attempt to deny that this latest attack has knocked me off balance, but I believe it is important that I—we, really, the lot of us who have been bloodied pitiably beneath this most brutal show of force—rebound immediately into a defensive posture so that there might be any hope at all for survival. Taylor’s second pandemic album will be released at midnight tonight, so I guess Shakespeare and his little “play” about elder abuse can get fucked after all. The album is called evermore. It was hubris, I can see in retrospect, which led me to tempt my enemy by writing all these words about her on this, the week of her birthday, knowing as I do that Taylor is one of those especially dangerous adults who make a big deal about both birthdays and lucky numbers. Icarus is my name now, covered in melted wax and tumbling to the sea. So as to steel ourselves for these horrors yet to come, I offer now, with not arrogance but the faith of the foolhardy, my best conjecture as to the content of each detestable track.

willow - Could be about a tree. Could be about a girl. More likely it is both somehow, which is extremely pervy, and not just because that’s part of the plot of the unspeakably cursed The Raven Cycle novels, which I, a full blown adult with, generally speaking, normal brain function, voluntarily read for the first time this summer because some of us, ma’am, used the pandemic for activities that hurt only ourselves, not others. Well, happy holidays, tree fuckers.

champagne problems - Whatever this is, know that I will be considering it a work after Fall Out Boy’s “Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends” and I’ll be right to do so and many people will say as much admiringly and they’ll smile at me with pride and doff their caps as I go.

gold rush - If this song is anything but a loving, comprehensive summation of the children’s novel DEAR AMERICA Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild then I’m going to walk directly out of my home and, deadly virus be damned, keep walking until I’ve entered Taylor Swift’s instead, at which point I will begin to scream out a litany of complaints at the very top of my voice, ceasing only when her security team kills me or we fall in love.

tis the damn season - Worst case scenario this is a sad Christmas song (the best kind of Christmas song) and it devastates me in the most degrading way possible. Best case scenario it’s really bad and dumb and I can live without pain.

tolerate it - Many possibilities here. Could be about white-knuckling it through a period of depression, or a breakup. Most obviously, it could be about COVID-19 lockdowns keeping us trapped in our homes, disconnected from loved ones, going slow-brained and strange, bowls piling up, and suddenly so desperate for human interaction that even memories of having drinks with somebody from Hinge who quoted Friends twice in an hour are tantalizing in comparison to the touch-starved dreamstate of staying indoors... But I kinda feel like this is Taylor replying “COPE” from on high to my tweets about how I would rather be boiled alive than have to face the existence of this record.

no body, no crime (feat. Haim) - What would be very good is if this is a homosexual romp about Taylor Swift and the one hot Haim guitar girl with the really gay energy doing a murder together a la “Somethin’ Bad” by Miranda Lambert with Carrie Underwood, but honestly, it is probably another song about Gone Girl.

happiness - Impossible to speak on this since, thanks to Taylor Swift, happiness is something with which I have no familiarity.

dorothea - Have seen chirping on the odious bird application about how perhaps this song title suggests that Taylor has written a song about Middlemarch, titling it for Dorothea Brooke, but I reject this because it implies that Taylor has read Middlemarch, which is a premise I cannot accept. Whether this refusal is out of self-preservation, being unwilling and in fact unable to face a world where Taylor Swift read and was moved to creation by the novel which was my most essential friend the summer I got dumped by a guy who I still had to work feet away from in a candle factory for another month, and about which Emily Dickinson (Emily Dickinson whose birthday it happens to be today, which isn’t to say that this means anything about anything. I am simply trying to batten down all hatches literally and spiritually in light of having been had once again by this numerology obsessed demon) once wrote "What do I think of Middlemarch? What do I think of glory.” or because I just at my core do not believe that Taylor has read a single book since Gone Girl I couldn’t possibly say.

coney island (feat. The National) : Some ungodly americana ass bullshit that is going to ruin my life. The thought of holy terror shaped like a horse girl Taylor Swift and trickster nymph in the body of a tax accountant Matt Berninger, two individuals I have allowed, separately, to cause me grievous psychic harm, having even the barest amount of one to one contact, even digitally, has made me want to peel all my skin off and put it back on flipped inside out so that I might, when I look in the mirror, see a version of myself which approximates how I feel.

ivy - Another song for the plant lesbians. That’s fine, and I’m happy for that community, but what I want to know, looking at this growing pile of songs named after women, is where, Taylor, is the song about loudmouth queen Inez, legendary gossip and, for my money, the star of folklore?

cowboy like me - Putting it as mildly as humanly possible, to slit my throat would be less cruel. I am drawing a straight line from me writing illegible sequels to perfect film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (itself a sequel) in crayon as a toddler, to Paula Cole’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” on the radio in my mom’s two door Honda, to me everyday after school in third grade changing into the cowboy costume my godmother bought, to me at fourteen internalizing a sense of righteous indignation that would take years to even begin to outgrow when Crash beat Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture, to the winter I dropped half my classes out of fear and sickness and read paperback westerns on the twenty third floor of the college library for tens of hours at a go, to the profoundly gay episode of Supernatural called “Tombstone” which is, yes, named for the profoundly gay cowboy film Tombstone, to the inspired and revitalizing pause in “Space Cowboy” by Kacey Musgraves where she’s like, “You can have your space........ cowboy”, to Mitski’s Be the Cowboy, to the perfect boygenius cover of certified classic “Cowboy Take Me Away”, to whatever the hell this is going to be.That line is not to make a point at all. It’s just that there is a line and beside it there is me, incapacitated.

long story short - Just like all the other times anyone has ever invoked this phrase in the entire history of human beings expressing themselves with language, it is going to be a huge lie, because this woman never shuts up.

marjorie - After all that Taylor has put me through over the years, she should have at least named one of these wretched things “ellen” after my dead Sagittarian grandmother, whose birthday is tomorrow, December 11th, which is again, the release date of Taylor Swift’s second album in sixth months, but it’s probably for the best that she didn’t because you simpletons would immediately think it was an homage to George Bush’s friend Dory the fish, and therefore gay, regardless of the actual text of the song, and it’d be the “betty” massacre all over again. That being said, this is almost assuredly another horny song about some mid-century white lady. Only days ago Taylor was telling Entertainment Weekly that she’s been watching a lot of movies in quarantine, and while she didn’t name 1958’s Marjorie Morningstar starring Natalie Wood, I wouldn’t put it past her.

closure - God, I hope this one is another Kaylor classic so we can all act like complete raving lunatics online from the confines of our own plague quarters for a few days. It’s been a hard year.

evermore (feat. Bon Iver) - I’ll be catatonic by this point. Who cares?

right where you left me - Yes, in hell.

it’s time to go - Yes, TO HELL.

#taylor swift #folklore

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sing-selah · 3 years

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Selah.

If you read through the Psalms of the Bible, you’ll find this word regularly.

History has lost the true definition of the word, but it’s thought to express the sentiment of “forever”, or perhaps it means “to take a break.” One online dictionary indicates that it may indicate a pause for contemplation.

2020 was a year for Selah.

Everyone took a break, and it felt like it was going to last forever.

The whole world was forced to take a step back and evaluate operations, contemplate the nature of how we live. For many, the chaos and stress were too much to process. Mental health assistance was hot in demand, and so were yoga mats. I, myself, also attended therapy and bought a hot pink foam mat. We were all looking for comfort and means to cope in the chaos.

I lost 20 pounds and gained 80 with the new addition of my dog-son Samson. (He’s a Great Pyrenees, a massive fluff.) I know I’m quite blessed to be able to say I gained good things during the pandemic, when so many suffered unimaginable loss.

When the New Year approached, we all awaited with bated breath.

Would 2021 be a better year for us?

This year was the first New Year’s Eve I have ever spent alone. I thought this would sadden me, but as I sat on my bed sipping wine and watching Samson gobble down his celebratory ice cream, I was surprised at the peace I felt.

I had achieved more than I thought myself capable with losing that 20 pounds; making small but consistent changes in my daily diet and habits. As I reflected on this, I decided to make 2021 a year for even more growth!

I took to Amazon, searching for a goal-oriented planner. I knew I needed something more than years past, where I would make a list of what I wanted and promptly forget where it was placed (also forgetting the declarations therein).

I decided on a sunshine-yellow beauty by BoxcleverPress that broke the year into quarters and had sufficient room to document my goals and plan for success. This lovely agenda contained pages for 8 goals, with space to document what the goal would mean for me and keep track via quarterly check-ins. The blank pages in the back were perfect for brainstorming, and I made good use of it. I also asked friends on social media what their most rewarding resolutions had been and used that as fuel for thought.

Of the MANY ideas I had, I settled on the following:

1. Lose 60 pounds

· Being the shortie that I am, charts for my height indicates a “healthy” weight for me is 140 pounds. I haven’t been 140 lbs since I was 16 years old, and honestly I was probably being optimistic on my driver’s license even then…

· For those that hate the maths, this is only 5 pounds a month. This felt semi-do-able for me. I figured if I missed it, better to aim high (or low, as it were).

2. Create more, enjoying hobbies

· 1 piece of art

· 1 poem or song

· 1 playlist (I planned to make playlists for those I love, so this also seemed like a good relationship builder.)

· 1 journal entry per month

3. Read 1 book per month

· In my ambition, I thought it would be beneficial to pick a different category every month. I chose English lit, health/wellness, non-fiction, poetry, fiction, historical, International classic, self-help, biography, science focused, math focused, spiritual/faith. These distinctions were quickly thrown out of the window, as I already own a lot of books that needed to be read. And as all lit nerds know… I continue to acquire more! I’ve just been selecting the one I was most excited to read every month.

4. Better manage my finances.

· Save $1000 by the end of the year

· Eliminate my credit card debt

· Spend $120 on groceries per month

· Cut unnecessary spending (Read: regular online shopping for undies and makeup. I also found it helpful to take a break from social media, as this is where I was constantly being advertised to by my favorite brands.)

5. Explore areas of curiosity

· 1 focus per quarter

· I wasn’t sure what this would look like, I just wanted to focus on learning more about areas of interest, like fashion and nutrition.

6. Complete 1 home improvement project per quarter

· I had plenty to work with here. Fixing the kitchen light, garage door, garage light, painting front porch, painting back porch, painting the exterior, painting my bathroom, cleaning out the overgrown backyard…

7. Grow my abilities in the kitchen!

· 1 new savory (preferably International) dish per month

· 1 new baked good per month

· Note: Originally, I said 1 new recipe a week. This did not happen. I adjusted.

8. Be more intentional in my spirituality

· Keep the Sabbath regularly

· Fast once a quarter

Phew.

That was a lot to outline! It seemed a little (a lot) ambitious, but I felt it would be better to set the bar high for myself. I wasn’t sure if I could manage all of that, but monthly self-check-ins were a helpful tool in seeing growth. Perfect, I am not. I’ve yet to meet all of those goals; but seeing even some achievement is a constant encouragement.

As the adage proclaims, change doesn’t happen overnight!

So why share now?

First, journaling once a month is part of the goals!

Secondly, I’m hoping a shared blog will hold me more accountable, and maybe I’ll even get some helpful tips from others as I work towards my goals.

Third, I believe any achievement is a result of hard work and blessings from God. I think it’s only right to share that light with others. I hope my journey can be encouraging, or at least entertaining, for my friends and family.

I’ll be sharing a blog post at least once a month, maybe more if I’m feeling feisty. I’ll be posting to tumblr under the username sing-selah and sharing on my social media.

I'll end my post by asking you to implement a little Selah (pause to contemplate) in your life.

#goalsetting #life goals #goals #goaldigger #2021 goals #motivation #resolution #selah #blessed

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titusmoody · 3 years

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It’s the end of the first quarter of 2021. Here’s a brief review of the things I watched/played/read.

Games

Donut County- pretty charming, very easy, fairly satisfying to play. I’d recommend Untitled Goose Game over this, though.

Heaven’s Vault- If you only have room in your life for one space archaeology game, play Outer Wilds instead. However, you get to translate alien writings yourself (in a simplified game way) in this one, so I’d recommend both.

Donkey Kong Country 3 103%- so many fun level mechanics in this one. The difficulty of finding and completing everything in the game was spot-on for me.

Donkey Kong Country 2 102%- Each level mechanic in this one is explored and used in far more interesting ways than DKC3, though I honestly had more fun with 3 this time around. This one is the “dark, edgy” one aesthetically which is extremely dumb. Also, there was a lot of guesswork involved in finding some of the hidden stuff, which I didn’t enjoy.

The Room 4- I like escape room games. This one was good. It continued 3′s trend of trying to shake up the format a little, which is fine (better here than in 3, I think) but I wouldn’t have minded if all 4 stayed exactly the same, just with new puzzles.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales- Everything about it was competent. Not only was each gameplay activity fine-tuned to feel good, but the structure of the game also kept kept you experiencing a good variety of each activity. PS5 graphics are good, too. Nothing about it really got me excited to play it, it was just a good after work unwinding thing.

Cyberpunk 2077- Exactly the opposite of Spider-Man in terms of quality consistency. There are aspects of this game that are amazing, horrible, and every step in between. However, I’ve thought about it quite a bit and will probably continue to think about it for both good and bad reasons.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair- Donkey Kong Country has better level design and controls. Well, the best levels of this were every bit as good as the best DKC levels, and maybe I’m just so familiar with DKC levels that I zone out a little during the boring bits, but had to pay attention to every moment of this game. Still, I didn’t have as much of an overall good time as the DKC games I played earlier.

Hue- Good 2D puzzle-platformer. I’m no longer surprised by these, but I still appreciate them, much in the same way as I like playing escape room games. I was under the impression for a few years that because I understood the potential of puzzle platformers, it meant I wouldn’t want to play any more of them, but that’s simply not true. I had a good time with Hue.

Shows

Gravity Falls- It’s fine. Pretty entertaining. I wish there were more low-stakes kinds of episodes, just to get more familiar with different sides of the characters. It would have made the characters and setting feel more rounded.

Cowboy Bepop- I didn’t get the hype for this show when I first watched it at 21, and now I can say that it’s simply not my kind of show. I have much more appreciation for it now than I did the first time, but it doesn’t hit me emotionally the same way that it seems to hit so many people.

Seinfeld- It’s Seinfeld. There was precisely one episode that I had never seen before, plus confirmation that I didn’t dream the episode that’s told in backwards chunks like Memento and is set in India.

Paranoia Agent- While it was disappointing that this ended up being a more simple morality tale than every Satoshi Kon movie I’ve seen, I still enjoyed watching this a lot.

Aggretsuko- I liked the mundane, every-day storylines like a modern, more empathetic Seinfeld. Unfortunately as the show went on, there were more and more wacky situations that no one actually gets into. I might watch the upcoming season if I hear that it’s less ridiculous.

Over the Garden Wall- This was really cool and I’m glad it exists. It’s ten episodes long, which is perfect for it. I thought it was at its weakest during the more lighthearted or humorous moments--precisely the opposite of Gravity Falls. The word “classy” comes to mind to describe this show.

Beastars- Really good when it isn’t falling into anime plot and dialog cliches. A lot of this first season is dedicated to introducing characters and the setting, which I thought was very well done. I’m curious to see what Season 2 is like.

Movies

Scott Pilgrim vs the World- It’s a fun movie to watch. It definitely makes many of the characters’ flaws seem like more fun than it probably should, but I’m more bothered by the criticism I hear that boils down to “it’s a bad movie because the characters are bad people” which I suspect is an impression you only get if you lack both empathy and media comprehension.

Big- Kinda bad. It has iconic moments that are only possible with its weird premise, but it’s just not a premise that supports an entire good movie.

Phantom of the Opera- Way better and way worse than I remember. Has the precise right amount of horses.

Knives Out- Not really a movie I needed to watch a second time, but it sure is good.

District 9- I didn’t remember most of this movie and unfortunately I zoned out for most of this rewatch, so I still feel like I don’t know what it’s about.

From up on Poppy Hill- Not one of the top tier Ghibli movies, but still really good in a down-to-earth way that I like from Ghibli.

Enter the Dragon- I knew to expect everything to be turned up to 11, which is good because it really is a lot. I liked it, though.

Shutter Island- I have never actually liked this kind of twist-reliant movie. I thought I would for many years, but I was always disappointed. At least now I am aware that it’s not what I’m into.

Soul- The premise is much too convoluted, but it does have an excellent moment near the end.

Onward- I liked this one a lot. Why don’t more people talk about this one? It’s definitely better than Coco, which itself was really good.

A Silent Voice- The kind of movie that reminds me that sometimes Japanese storytelling is more to my taste than Hollywood style, in that scenes can be more emotionally ambiguous.

Tangled- Good in exactly the same way as Frozen and Moana. I can’t really complain, but this isn’t the same situation as puzzle platformers or escape rooms. In this case, I do get a little sick of being completely unsurprised. This movie was made first, so it’s only by chance that this is the one that I saw last.

Monsters University- A good movie, but it really doesn’t have to be about the same characters as Monsters Inc.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail- Still funny

The Departed- Good if you want an enjoyable crime thriller to watch, bad if you want a Scorcese movie.

Titanic- Getting very drunk and watching this with Brittany might be the best time I had in the past three months. Maybe I won’t think too hard about why a movie about the overdue, violent death of a social order resonates with me right now.

Prince of Egypt- Impressive and grand, but I didn’t really care about the characters or story.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan- A good but not great (by TNG standards) concept for an episode that was made extremely enjoyable by the added budget and longer runtime of a movie.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock- Not as good, but still watchable.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home- The kind of ridiculous concept you’d only make when you’ve already had three successful movies and are confident that you’ll be able to make at least another couple. The gang go back to the 1980s (present day to the original audience) and save the whales. It’s apparently exactly the right movie to watch if this is the third consecutive Star Trek movie you’re watching.

Mamma Mia- A lot of fun, but has weird problems that seem like they would’ve been easy to solve at the script level. Maybe if the conflicts had been introduced early on instead of dragging the whole pace of the movie down for much of the last 20 minutes, I would’ve enjoyed the whole thing.

Books

The Well of Ascension- The second book of a trilogy. Very competent. Introduces a whole lot of minor conflicts that really keep the momentum going and give the characters short-term goals that contribute to the overall plot and their arcs.

The Hero of Ages- The final book in the same trilogy. Equally competent. I wish there had been more long-term payoffs, which is the trade-off you make by stuffing the books full of those short-term conflicts. Spoilers ahead, but not ones that I think ruin the experience of reading. It’s very odd that of three of the central characters, one dies, one becomes a god and then dies, and one becomes God.

Check Please- About as pleasant as it gets. Full of the type of minor character that sitcoms end up running into the ground because they’re too one-note (Creed from The Office, for instance) but in a series with a pre-planned length, there’s no chance for it to get stale. Plus, I really liked both of the lead characters.

Milkman- Good book about “The Troubles” in Ireland. Very odd collection of characters, but the narrator had an extremely enjoyable voice to read.

And Then There Were None- Classic mystery story for a reason. Feels more like a Hitchcock movie than Sherlock Holmes. I read it in one day both because the prose was easy and I wanted to know what happened next. Not much substance to it, unfortunately.

Homegoing- Extremely ambitous book where each chapter is narrated by the descendant of a previous chapter, alternating between two branches of the same family. I liked it quite a bit, though because I only finished it yesterday I don’t have much reflection done yet so my opinion has yet to solidify.

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kbrown78 · 5 years

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Top 5 Wednesday

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

Topic: Books at the Top of Your TBR

I'm not someone who has a clear cut TBR list that I stick to, but I'm also not a mood reader. I would say I'm kind of a mix of both. Last autumn I did this thing where I picked books that were new and rereads that I wanted to get to first and stacked them all on an empty section of my bookshelf. This really helped me tackle my TBR pile over the next couple of months and I plan on continuing using that method because it gives me a smaller section of books I can randomly choose from and makes prioritizing less stressful. This list is combinations of books I've been meaning to read for awhile but haven't gotten around to, rereads that I want to get to soon, and books that will help me tackle reading challenges. I would like to say a few things about this list before I begin. First, this list doesn't consist of anything from my “Want to Read” shelf on Goodreads because that shelf is just for books that I don't currently own. When I have a physical copy of a book, I prioritize reading that before getting a new book, or at least I'm trying to. Second I'm not considering books that I'm currently reading, since I'm in the middle of taking them off my TBR pile. Third, I've already read a few books that I wanted to read and because of that I won't be putting them on this list.

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins: Since all the hype of the movies and YA dystopian phase has died down, I think now would be a great time to go back and reread this series. I definitely enjoyed reading them when I first did, shortly before the movies started coming out, but that was mostly due to have action driven the books were. When I think back to the books there's actually of insight within the books, and they take a critical look at our current society. While it was trend starter, I think it's more than that. It was appeal for adults as well as younger readers and I want to see what I take away from this series as an adult.

2. Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan: This was one that had been on my “Want to Read” shelf for awhile and I recently purchased it. It seems like a really good classic fantasy series, with the death of god kick starting things and looming apocalypse on the way. I have heard that there are familiar tropes and cliques used in this series, but I've also great things about the story and the characters. I like that there are multiple POV that are all struggling with separate issues that are supposed to become intertwined. I like that there are male and female POV's, especially since one of them is Persephone, and I'm really curious to see how her character is portrayed. It's also supposed to be a 6 book series, which is great because I've been looking for longer fantasy series. The only thing I'm worried about is that I'll become less interested in the series as time passes, which is why I want to get it started as soon as possible.

3. Starless by Jacqueline Carey: I meant to get to this last year because there was a book signing within driving distance, and I really liked Kushiel's Dart. So I planned on having this book at least started before I went, but I was unable to go and never got around to reading it. As time has passed my excitement for it has dwindled. I can barely remember what this book is about but I think it's supposed to be a fantasy romance revolving around a guard and princess with fallen gods. I'm not super intrigued by what I do remember of the synopsis, but I have hopes that it will turn out well because it was written by Jacqueline Carey. It's also one of two fantasy standalones that I own but haven't read yet, and this year I want to read more fantasy standalones.

4. Dune by Frank Herbert: One of the genre's I want to read more of this year is adult science fiction. There are quite a few books that I'm interested in, like Space Opera, Children of Time, and anything by Neal Stephenson, but I don't own many. One that I do own, or rather have my Dad's copy of, is Dune. I don't know much about it but I do know it's a classic science fiction story and my Dad has been wanting me to read it for years and I finally plan on getting around to it.

5. Love Letter to the Dead by Ava Dellaira: This is a reread that I want to get to soon, in fact I plan on picking it up after I finish Within the Sanctuary of Wings. It will help me tackle the 2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge and I'm trying to get through it as fast as possible since I didn't complete last years. The other reason I want to read this soon is because I'm on the fence about whether or not I should keep it. It's similar to The Perks of Being A Wallflower, dealing with trauma and being told in the format of letters to dead celebrities. My biggest worry is that story and how things are handled is going to make me uncomfortable. I remember liking it and while reading tastes change, I still want to give this book an honest try before unhauling it. Plus the cover is pretty, with sunset background.

Honorable Mention: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. What's different about this one is that I've already started reading, last year. I got about a quarter of the way into the book before I came across something that I really hate seeing in fantasy, then I put the book down for months. I'll probably try and push on because it's Brandon Sanderson, but I'm never motivated to pick it up and read it, which isn't a good thing.

#t5w #tbr #books #the hunger games #suzanne collins #dune #frank herbert #age of myth #legends of the first empire #michael j. sullivan #starless #jacqueline carey #love letters to the dead #ava dellaira

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our-elven-lady-of-chaos · 6 years

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You Are My Home Ch 3

I apologize for the delay guys. Infinity War did a number on me, as I’m sure you all have experienced, but here’s an extra long chapter to make up for it! Mostly domestic fluff at this point.

Need to catch up?

Ch 1: https://our-elven-lady-of-chaos.tumblr.com/post/170647725968/you-are-my-home

Ch 2: https://our-elven-lady-of-chaos.tumblr.com/post/171125860283/you-are-my-home-ch-2

A Fresh Start

Shortly after, the group says their goodbyes and return to the tower, only after Frigga admonishes both her boys to be good and look after their lady friend. Thor blushes while Loki mumbles something unintelligible under his breath, which, judging by her laughter Lysandra probably picked up with her fey hearing.

Lys leads Loki to a room he is informed is his, and is to receive a more complete tour of the amenities the tower has to offer after dinner. The room is sparsely decorated with black furniture with gold accents, the bedclothes a deep emerald hue.

“I did what I could here, with what Thor told me about you, but we can work on it a little more later,” Lysandra told him nervously. She had managed alright when Thor was with them, but now that she was alone in his bedroom with him...that was another story completely. Loki studied his new surroundings without saying much other than the occasional ‘okay’ or ‘good’, but his eyes seemed to light up when she pointed out the small bookshelf near the bed. He immediately wrapped her in a tight hug, which was strong, but not nearly as bone crushing as those of his brother. This was something she could get used to, or even come to enjoy.

“Thank...thank you,” Loki responded somewhat nervously, casually leaning back on his heels. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to be so considerate when I was brought here.”

She nodded understandingly. “I’ll show you the library later, but for now I figured I’d put a few of my favorites in here for you.” She stood there watching him thumb through the titles on the shelf, a small smile lighting up her face at the joy she’d given him. Pure, unbridled, child-like joy. The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings. Heart of Darkness. Flowers for Algernon. Till We Have Faces. Frankenstein. Crime and Punishment. A handful of books of poetry from the likes of Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Emily Dickinson. Mostly classics, but a handful of modern authors such as Neil Gaiman and Matt Haig as well. She had carefully hand-crafted her selection based on what was the most interesting and what would convey the most humanity to the god as well. She almost couldn’t believe it, that this man who was supposed to be the “monster” that terrorized New York had such a weakness for a good book. It was sickeningly cute.

She got up to leave for a shower and allow Loki to become more acclimated to his new abode. “If you need anything, I’m right next door, and Thor is just across from us. It’s just the three of us on this floor, and there’s a small kitchen that I’ll show you later.” Loki almost looked pained to see her leaving so soon, though his pride would never allow him to admit it. It was rare that he made friends with anyone, and one that actually got along well with his brother even more scarce. “I’ll be back later, I promise,” she assured him, reading his emotions perfectly. Loki merely nodded. “Rest well,” he bade her, wanting to say more but uncharacteristically unable to find his words.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Thor waved her over from the lounge area across the hall. She quickly made her way over to plop herself down on the plush orange couch across from him, casually resting her feet on the coffee table. The God of Thunder smiled over at her as she let out a contented sigh.

“Thorrr,” she whined. “What did you need me for? I’m all sweaty and gross still.” She sat up slightly to address him a little more properly. He offered her the bag of corn chips he was currently munching on, which she politely declined. Seeing the crumbs and bits of guacamole stuck in his beard was enough to keep her from getting mad at him for finishing nearly half of the large bowl she had made already.

“I just wanted to make sure that my little brother was adjusting properly,” He replied between a mouthful of chips. “And that he wasn’t upsetting you. I know he can be…” he scratched his beard in thought as he searched for the appropriate Midgardian term. “A bit of an ass, as Tony would say, but once you’ve earned his respect he’s a lot more likable. Fun, even.”

Lys nodded in understanding. “He was fine. A little withdrawn, but I was too when Tony first brought me on the team as something more than just his own personal healer.”

Thor smiled gently at the memory. “Ah, yes, I remember. I was rather shocked to see you again after all this time, but pleased. And yet, I feel we’ve still got a lot of catching up to do. Just the three of us.”

Lysandra let out a heavy sigh at the idea. Digging up the past was emotionally exhausting, especially when it meant either coming to terms with her fey heritage, or the memory of all the mortal lives that had gone by while she remained yet unchanged. She reluctantly pulled herself up off of the overstuffed sofa, but paused on her way out to pose one more question.

“I’ve been given an awful lot of warnings about your brother’s behavior, but he’s been on nothing but his best behavior ever since I’ve met him. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to believe about him. Is this normal, or…?”

Thor chuckled. “Ah, yes, my brother can be quite the mystery, especially with the women he fancies. He is renown for his mischievous ways, but the vast majority of the time it is all in the name of a good joke. He is not an inherently cruel person, unless he is pushed to be so.” He strokes his beard wistfully, lost in the memories for a moment. “As he once told me, ‘He will treat you as a gentleman ought to, until you ask him not to.”

Lysandra snorted. “Sounds like quite the character. I bet once they get over sniping over each other like children, him and Tony will be great friends.” Thor lets out a great boom of laughter in agreement. “Indeed. Go on, shower up, though I can assure you that you smell perfectly fine,” he chides her. He was so the overly protective but goofy older brother she never knew she wanted.

“Stinky Asgardian warrior.” She sticks out her tongue at him.

“Prissy fae princess.” Thor laughs.

Dinner was to be just a quiet affair between Lysandra and the two Asgardians. After finishing with her shower, Lysandra took control of the kitchen and began cooking up a storm. She wanted to ensure that Loki’s first real taste of Midgardian cuisine was at least decent, and not whatever takeout Tony usually settled on. It had to be a good old fashioned home cooked meal, so she settled for a basic pasta dish with both a red and pesto sauce, sausage and meatballs, and salad and bread on the side. As usual, Thor made a pest of himself, wanting to sample everything while she was still preparing things rather than helping.

“Come on Lysandra!” Thor begged. “Can’t I have just a little taste?”

She swatted his hand away with the spoon she was currently using to stir the sauce. “You’ve done more than that already, your chin has parmesan and tomato sauce on it.” Thor gave her his best puppy dog look. “Don’t give me that look. Now go fetch your brother for dinner while I get this stuff on the table.”

Thor grumbled about it but did as he was told, returning relatively quickly with a Loki who was having some difficulty trying to walk and read at the same time. You would think that after a thousand years he would have either gotten better at it or learned not to do so in unfamiliar places, but no. At least he was virtually indestructible, the walls and countertops he had bumped into doing little to phase him from the pursuit of good reading material. Lysandra busied herself pouring everyone a bit of elven wine as she waited for the two semi-grumpy gods to sit. Thankfully she didn’t have to tell Loki to separate himself from his book, as he perked up a bit at the familiar scent and decided she was worth keeping an eye on.

Lys gave Thor a nod to tell him that he could finally dig in to the food. Loki rolled his eyes at his brother’s all too familiar antics as he helped himself to some bread and salad. “Thor you oaf, there’s a thing here called salad that you’re supposed to eat first. Or at least I imagine the order of the courses has not changed just because we’re on Midgard.” Thor immediately muttered something about salad being more for prissy elves under his breath, but accepted the bowl Loki prepared for him. Lysandra merely glared at him for the comment.

“So, what do you think?” Lysandra asked Loki as he reached for his third serving of spaghetti and proceeded to drown it in the meaty red sauce. She couldn’t help the blush that crept onto her face as she watched him lick a spot rather languidly from his thumb. Loki grinned. “Surprisingly good, for midgardian fare. Although I’m sure your not being mortal has something to do with it. How do you even manage to acquire elven wine in a place like this?”

She gave him an even cheekier grin in response. “I have my sources.”

Loki raised an eyebrow in question, silently begging her to go on.

Lysandra blushes. “New York has a thriving magical community, if you know where to look. There’s a lot of half-breeds and a good quarter of the population is probably more mortal than not, but I know a few people who can get me what I need.”

Loki perks up with interest.

“I’d love to show you around sometime, since your brother isn’t nearly as interested in old tomes and rare herbs with magical properties as I am…”

“Hey!” Thor sputters indignantly before taking a moment to mull around what was actually said.

“It’s true, brother,” Loki reminds him. Thor shrugs nonchalantly in response.

...”But you have to prove to Tony that you can be let out of the tower with a chaperone and expected to behave first. Sound fair?”

Loki hums in thought for a moment, then nods in approval. “So it’s a date then?” he asks with a cheeky grin.

“What? No, of course not!” Lysandra sputters in surprise.

“Still sounds like a date to me,” Thor points out, awkwardly attempting to show Loki how to do a fistbump. “No, brother, like this. It’s not meant to inflict pain, like a high five.”

“You’re not helping, Thor!”

Loki laughs at the absurdness of it all.

Afterwards, the pair resumed their tour. First they went to the training room, where Lysandra explained what their typical schedule would look like while she was working with him. Loki was pleased to find that Lysandra was well versed enough in magic to understand his capabilities and limits, just as Frigga had reassured him. But what intrigued him most was the special locked room just for magic training.

“Once I get a feel for your style, we’re going to do most of our drills in here,” Lysandra informed him upon unlocking the door. The room gave off a weird vibe as he stepped into it. It wasn’t negative, though he could tell that everything in the room was heavily warded, including the training robots.

“What’s with all the protection?” Loki asked her curiously.

“The wards protect everything in here from being destroyed by magic, otherwise Tony would kill me for the amount of paint alone that would have to be replaced,” she responded with a chuckle. “The robots have sensors on them that indicate the amount of damage they’ve taken, and keeps track of the number of lethal hits.” Loki regarded the large metal men with an air of curiosity. Out of all the Avengers, Tony was the one he was the most impressive, well, for a mortal at least.

“This room has also been warded against teleportation, and the door won’t open for you until I’ve put your magic limiting cuffs back on,” she explained with a grin. “Ah, so that’s how it works,” Loki replied, turning one of the thin gold bands that now surrounded his wrists. “Well, I suppose it could be worse. At least I’m not stuck with a complete imbecile for an instructor whose lack of magical knowledge will land me in the medical ward, and these are at least somewhat...fashionable? I suppose I have you to thank for that as well?”

She nodded, her grin widening in response. “I figured you’d be less...hostile about your captivity if we tailored things more to your liking.” He smiled back at her, a relatively easy thing for him to do, as she was surprisingly pleasant company for a friend of his brother.

He nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a gilded cage, but still a cage, nonetheless. Still, I’m grateful that at least someone is looking out for me, aside from my oaf of a brother.” He gave her a quick affectionate peck on the cheek. Lys blushes profusely, completely unused to that sort of contact. Loki grinned even wider at her reaction. Her innocence was absolutely endearing to him.

After seeing the rest of the training rooms, the two of them somehow found themselves in Lysandra’s chambers. They had agreed that Loki had more than enough reading material at the moment (although somehow the god had already gotten through The Hobbit), not to mention the fact that Lysandra’s private collection of magical texts was a lot more intriguing. Plus she had promised him dessert and tea. “A woman after my own heart” Loki mused.

The god busied himself sifting through her older tomes as Lysandra was off procuring said sweets from the kitchen. She popped back in with a tray of tiramisu, chocolate covered madeleines, and two steaming mugs of English breakfast tea, prepared with just the right amount of cream and sugar. Loki carefully removed a handful of older, fragile looking magical texts and went to join her on the couch.

“Set those down on the table for now,” Lysandra instructed him. “They’re probably older than the both of us put together AND Thor.”

He let out a good natured laugh. “I can assure you that your books are in good hands. My brother, on the other hand...”

“Just shut up and taste this already,” she says, thrusting him a plate of cake and a fork.

Loki studied the spongey layered cake for a moment and took a dainty bite, then quickly demolished it.

“That good, eh?”

Loki nodded, setting his plate down to pick up his tea. “We have all manners of cakes and pastries and whatnot back home, but nothing like this,” he said indicating a few stray flakes of chocolate.

“Ah, chocolate. I see you’re a fan,” she replied with a devilish grin. Her plan of buttering Loki up by plying him with sweets and books was going splendidly.

Loki nods, too busy eating for a proper response. They fall into a comfortable silence for a bit, until he remembers the dusty tomes that had been calling to him like a siren’s song. He wipes his fingers clean and magiks the plates clean and away before gingerly picking up the one at the top of the stack and cracked it open. He skimmed through it for a few minutes before reaching for the next, where halfway through he made a startling discovery. After finding something to save his place, he goes through the rest of the stack with mostly the same result.

“These...these books are all in various forms of elvish,” Loki said in awestruck wonder. “Most of them, at least. And this one…” he waved around an ancient looking green text with silver leaf pages before cracking it open for a closer look. “...This one is in some old fae tongue even I cannot decipher. Yet.”

“That one is supposed to be locked away with the rest - crap!” Lysandra mutters, reaching for that last one.

Loki quirks an eyebrow, smirking at her. “I take it you can read it then?”

She huffs in frustration at being caught. “It’s in my library, isn’t it?”

Loki’s grin widens. She waves her hand again, and he gives in and returns the mysterious book to her. “Well?”

She rolls her eyes at him. “This one’s more of a collection of poetry and epics, which is why I had it out.”

“But you can read it, as well as the ones in elvish?”

“Yes? Should I be concerned that you can apparently read them as well?”

Loki laughs at this. “You’re quite interesting, for one of my brother’s friends. I like that!”

She shot him a look of exasperation.

“I am a prince, I learned from the best,” he says with a shrug, as a means of explanation. “Plus Allspeak can generally fill in most of the gaps, aside from some of the most ancient languages.” He leans back, stretching out to his full height while mentally taking note to take full advantage of the sort of magical sanctuary he had found her sitting room to be. Much more welcoming than any other place in the tower he’d found, so far. Much more like home, and the company wasn’t half bad either.

I do hope this was worth the wait. I’d love to hear from you all, even if you just want to talk about the latest ACOTAR book or bitch about how hot it is right now (living in SoCal is seriously not fun right now guys). But really, it does help keep me going.

Also, I’m (attempting to) starting on some sort of Soulmate AU, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

XOXO Yoshi

#loki x oc #loki x reader #loki fanfic #loki (marvel)#marvel fanfiction #you are my home #loki x you #faeries #reader is a faerie #fae #Loki Laufeyson

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zachsgamejournal · 3 years

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PLAYING: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

I’m having a blast(er)! So glad I decided to take a swing (of the lightsaber) at this game.

Why Now?

I grew up with Star Wars, but I’ve never been a super fan. I loved the movies, but I’ve not read all the books or even played most of the games. But as Disney has worked to build up the presence of Star Wars within world culture, I’ve decided to make up for lost time and play more classic Star Wars games. Partially cause of my love for late-90s games and partially cause I’m inspired by the creativity of Star Wars. But then I burned myself out on Star Wars earlier this year. Strangely, it’s been hate-playing Jedi: Fallen Order that’s made me want to jump back in. For all it’s faults and failures, Fallen Order captures the Star Wars vibe quite well, and is gorgeous.

Getting Started

Well...Dark Forces II is an old game: 1997. It does not play well on Windows 10 computers. This I discovered after booting my GOG copy and finding the play window to be a small square in the middle of my screen. When I adjusted the settings for 3D acceleration, I just got a black screen. i could play, but not see.

After much digging, I found many possible solutions. i started with the simplest first, hopeful that an acceptable level playability would suffice. Unfortunately, they did not work. So I went for the big mod install. But to install the mod, I needed the original .exe file. That was a whole other can of worms. File found, mod unpacked: I followed the instructions and renamed everything: failure.

Disheartened, I goofed around with the View Size, or something like that, and my tiny square grew to fill most the screen.

Good, fucking, enough!

It’s Ugly, but FUN!

As soon as I started playing the game, it just felt good. There’s something about these older games; I felt it while playing Thief Gold. There’s no real attempt to force the player to follow a specific path, there’s no artificial obstruction, just a level for the player to explore. While linear and design with certain surprises, I just felt free.

I’m thankful for the low-HP enemies. In the films, most folks are killed from a single laser blast. It’s generally considered fatal. So while Fallen Order stupidly had stormtroopers surviving multiple hits from a lightsaber, this game had a more reasonable 2-3 hit requirement for most enemies. There’s some tougher guys, but they’re also axe-wielders, so there’s a balance I get to shoot them from a 100 yards a way as they try to rush me.

Also, later I got a lightsaber and it’s been insta kill so far. Suck on that Fallen Order!

Level Design is interesting. The game is from ‘97, so designing 3D spaces was still an evolving craft. Every professionally-made, million-dollar-making AAA game of the mid-to-late 90s looked like a student project, for a failing student. So any game that pulled it off to some level competency was well respected.

The levels so far have been interesting, and very late 90s. They are a bit linear, with a path the designer expected the player to follow, but the spaces can be fairly large, giving the sense of a bigger world. Also, the levels tend to wrap around on themselves, like a rollercoaster. I think this is a great way to design linear levels as it brings familiarity to newly accessible parts: “Oh, this is from where that green-jerk was shooting me!”

I was a bit worried about the puzzles and key finding, but it’s not been so bad. Actually fairly clever. In level 2, there’s an elevator that will only rise if storage boxes are on it. so you have to activate the conveyor belt to bring in the boxes. But they’re too large to jump on, so you have to find the overhead platform to drop down on the boxes.

Also, there’s large crates being lowered down a shaft you need to travel up. So you have stand to the side on these slanted struts, and then run across the lowering crate to the other side before it’s too late. It’s such a simple challenge, but enjoyable and feels like it fits the level’s theme.

The third level was interesting, as my character is exploring his father’s home (mansion). Like the other levels, the designer(s) built a winding path through the large house that eventually leads to all doors being unlocked and opened. it was a very close-quarters combat situation, but interesting how it all tied together.

For a 1997 game it’s a ton of fun with interesting level design, which don’t get ass confusing as Thief’s exploration levels (thankfully!!!).

But...it’s ugly. Dark Forces 1 looked like a low-rez Star Wars texture pack for Doom. I only played it a little, but the levels felt...nonsensical. Still, while DF2 feels like a better design, the graphics can be quite horrid. They’re already low-res up close, but at a distance, Level of Detail takes effect and they get more pixelated. The characters and levels are ridiculously blocky, though clearly built with more polygons than the PS1 could muster, but the artistry behind the textures is a bit embarrassing. They capture the vibe of Star Wars, but at no point does anything feel natural.

I ended up looking up some older games to make sure all games of this era looked this bad. For the most part they did. But I know starting around 1998, a lot of Japanese companies became amazing at modeling and texturing low-poly objects for the PS1. And Naughty Dog nailed good art on PS1 out-the-gate. While I get that most developers had to learn how to make good graphics with limited technology, it’s hard to be too forgiving when so many great games seemed to effortless make such beautiful games in the late 90s.

Story

So this is where I may look like a hypocrite (probably). From a production competency standpoint, Fallen Order was great. From a storytelling standpoint, it had some good ideas marred mostly by pacing and video-gameyness. Because Uncharted overcame these things to have an engaging story that was well-paced with an action game. So I know Fallen Order had a good example to work from.

By 1997, no games had truly delivered mastered game storytelling (that I know of), so any game to try with some level of competency was pretty impressive!

And I find Dark Forces 2 impressive.

As with most games of the time, levels are bookended with story-bits. Usually it's a couple paragraphs to give context, but DF2 has live action cutscenes!! I love em. They're pretty cheesy with weak acting (or directing), but everyone is clearly trying and I love them all for it.

So far, the plot is pretty interesting. Some Dark Jedi want to find Jedi Valley to steal it's power and do bad stuff. They captured a Jedi and extracted a clue from his mind. That clue is your characters dead father. So now your character is having to relive some painful memories while learning secrets about his father and own destiny. It's both personal and epic, something I think Fallen Order struggled with.

There's also an Japanese woman playing a pilot/mechanic that's not being presented as eye-candy--so respect.

It's cheese, but the story is pretty sound so far.

#Zach's Game Journal #Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 #PC #GOG #Good Old Games #Antimicro #I've got a great feeling about this!#video games

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closetofanxiety · 6 years

Text

Show Review: Ring of Honor/NJPW “War of the Worlds” Night One

Lowell, Massachusetts: The Flowering City! Kerouac Town! Home to the second-largest population of Cambodians in the United States, and more abandoned textile mills than you can shake a stick at!

Let’s see how this momentous clash of companies shook out:

What: Ring of Honor/NJPW “War of the Worlds” Tour, Night One

Where: Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, Massachusetts

When: Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Who: I’ve seen crowd counts that put attendance between 1,200 and 1,500, and that sounds right to me. If it wasn’t a sellout, it was close. The place was packed to the rafters, and fully two-thirds of the people in attendance were wearing Bullet Club t-shirts. I went there after visiting multiple notable graves (one haunted), an abandoned mill turned into a kind of weirdo shopping mall, an abandoned mill turned into a national historic site, and a park named after Jack Kerouac where drunks were sleeping on the ground at 4 p.m., which is pretty appropriate when you consider that Kerouac drank himself to death.

Dark Match: Brad Hollister and Justin “Hammer” Tunis vs. The Dawgs

Hollister and Tunis are locals; I have seen them many times. Nice to see them getting a dark match. The Dawgs are new to me. I guess it’s Rhett Titus and Will Ferrara. Did you ever collect baseball cards? You know how the cards for all the bench players were grouped under the pejorative rubric “commons,” as in, “That pack of cards I bought was a bust, nothing but commons”? I kind of thing of Rhett Titus as a good example of that in wrestling. Not bad, not sensational, does the job he needs to do, but doesn’t really linger in the memory. This was a totally conventional tag team wrestling match. The crowd stirred briefly, after Hollister delivered a picture-perfect suplex. The Dawgs won. The cosmic wheel turns on.

Rating: Two Kerouacs.

The Briscoe Brothers vs. Jushin Thunder Liger and Flip Gordon

I haven’t been following ROH, but I guess the Briscoes are heels right now? They were lustily booed. Jay looked fantastic with his hair all matted and long and some kind of necklace of primitive fetishes around his neck. He looked like a chiseled, angry Dr. John who instead of learning to play the piano started a voodoo-based crime syndicate. I forget how much I like the Briscoes, but they are among my favorites. Holy cow, Flip Gordon is over with this crowd. Huge pop and “Flip! Flip! Flip!” chants. Liger, obviously, also gets a huge ovation. This match is entirely about Flip befuddling the enraged Briscoe cavemen with his arsenal of acrobatic dodges and counters. Liger comes in as a hot tag, but doesn’t really do anything spectacular. He doesn’t have to, my God, he’s Jushin Liger. He’s earned his elder statesman tag team apron-dweller spot. This match was a lot of fun. Not a sprint, but a condensed version of classic tag team wrestling, with some distinctive flourishes. The Briscoes wrestled like heels, denying the crowd anything spectacular (their post-tag tandem offense basically consisted of Mark holding Flip while Jay kicked him repeatedly) until the finish. I don’t know how to describe it, but it looked to be like a Razor’s Edge off the top into a cutter. It was nuts. Flip took the pin. I should note here that I had a terrible seat and couldn’t see three quarters of the ring, so I stood up against the back wall for most of the night.

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs.

Deonna Purrazzo and Skylar vs Tennille Dashwood and Sumie Sakai

I want you to notice something here, something that would prove to be the theme of the evening: tag team wrestling. Our third match, and third tag team match, was a Women of Honor showcase for four babyfaces, which is always something of a heat vacuum. The crowd likes all these women. It was Skylar’s ROH debut; about two years ago, I was there when she had her first-ever wrestling match. It’s crazy to think how much progress she’s made. She’s still a little green, though, and the other three are obviously a category above her at the moment. Not much of a story here beyond Deonna occasionally walking up to the brink of being a heel, although I don’t know if that’s deliberate or if that’s just part of our bleak, nihilistic world now. The jury’s still out on whether Tennille is another example of WWE totally missing the boat on someone; she’s good in the ring, she has undeniable charisma, but she hasn’t developed a character beyond Person Who Wrestles And Occasionally Shouts “It’s All About Me.” When you think about it, this was kind of her problem in the WWE. She pins Skylar. After the match, Kelly Klein runs out to beat on Purrazzo and the two of them have a pull-apart. I noticed that Northeast Wrestling tag team stalwarts Adrenaline Rush were among the black-shirted security guards. Lots of familiar faces tonight!

Rating: Two and a half Kerouacs.

At this point, Dalton Castle comes out. He’s billed for a title defense against Matt Taven. There’s a brief “Rusev Day” chant for some reason, which, smdh. A segment of this crowd also chanted “You can’t wrestle” at Brandi Rhodes when she walked out before the show. I’m not sure how to characterize the ROH audience. There are too many of them to just be the indie wrestling diehards, but there are no casual fans among them either. It’s a weird group.

Anyway, Castle cuts a meandering promo saying that he’s injured and can’t wrestle, although he’s not vacating the title. Matt Taven’s mom stands up and boos the shit out of him at this point, and good for her. Castle says he’s going to treat us to brunch instead. It’s past 8 p.m., but that’s probably still brunchtime in parts of Brooklyn. The Boys come out and throw croissants to the crowd. You call this brunch? Not even a damn mimosa?

The Kingdom vs. Coast to Coast

Matt Taven comes out with fellow Kingdomites TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia and cuts a promo calling Dalton Castle “a babyback bitch.” Taven’s grandfather, a dignified elder gentleman with a walker and an oxygen tank, is at ringside. I wonder what he thinks of hearing his grandson use that language. Maybe he taught it to Taven. Maybe he thought, “I’ve never been more proud. Especially because Dalton Castle is truly a babyback bitch.”

Has any wrestling faction had a stranger evolution than The Kingdom? Remember when it was Matt Hardy, Adam Cole, Michael Bennett, and Maria Kanellis? And then Hardy left, and Taven joined, and they would do the Four Horsemen hand gesture? And now it’s Taven and Taven’s Friends? Don’t get me wrong, I like TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia fine, it’s just they’re not exactly Matt Hardy and Adam Cole.

But they are here tonight, and they are wrestling, and so far we are 4 for 4 on tag team matches. I don’t know who Coast to Coast are. They are, like Rhett Titus, the wrestling equivalent of commons, at least to me. This match is fine. There are some shenanigans when Horror Man Marseglia pulls Coast to Coast and the referee under the ring and some red balloons come out, a la “It.” But then the guys just get out and run back into the ring. Commit to this gimmick, ROH: have them be bloody, mangled corpses (I mean, kayfabe-wise).

The Kingdom lose this match due to interference from SoCal Uncensored, and so we have a six-man tag match later tonight, because of course we do.

Rating: Two Kerouacs.

Bully Ray vs. Cheeseburger

BULLY RAY IS BACK IN ACTION IN LOWELL! That’s WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray to you, pal. His entrance video keeps flashing the words “Hell’s Kitchen,” but he grew up in Queens. Why not claim Queens, Bully Ray? Hell’s Kitchen these days is not exactly a terrifying place; it’s full of Wall Street finance industry dickheads. It’s not even Hell’s Kitchen anymore, they call it “Clinton” now. O for the days when the Irish mob would shoot out your kneecaps on West 44th Street!

This is a squash, with Bully Ray delivering an uncontested succession of power bombs to Cheeseburger, much to the displeasure of the crowd. Bully Ray leaves the ring to glare menacingly at some fans - THAT’S HOW THEY DO IT IN HELL’S KITCHEN, ER, CLINTON - and is counted out. Cheeseburger wins! Unfortunately, this means more power bombs.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, this would be the only singles match of the night.

Rating: N/A

Roppongi 3K vs. Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, and Cody Rhodes

Ring of Honor is really hot right now, maybe the hottest it’s ever been. They just had their largest show ever in New Orleans, and they’re comfortably drawing 1,000+ houses every night. It feels weird, though, like it’s borrowed glamour. It’s all from the Bullet Club/New Japan stuff, and although I realize there’s overlap, it doesn’t feel like a lot of the excitement is Ring of Honor excitement. The ROH stalwarts, guys like the Briscoes and Jay Lethal, feel like afterthoughts right now, as angles are booked around plot twists in “Being the Elite” and buildings are full of fans in New Japan shirts.

Still, the fervor is undeniable, and the roof practically lifts off the place for the Bullet Club Threesome, although there is definitely a smattering of “You suck!” judgments hurled at Cody.

This is basically like an NBA All-Star Game; no one is playing defense, no one is really taking it seriously, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. It doesn’t mean anything and no one is going to be talking about this match in 10 years or 5 years or even two weeks, but at the moment, for the day that’s in it, it’s fine. Everyone does his thing, Roppongi 3K get a lot of offense in, “Being the Elite” plotlines are advanced when Marty accidentally kicks that guy in the bear costume and gets berated by Cody.

Bullet Club win, because that’s what the crowd came to see. Too sweet! Woop woop! Too sweet! Woop woop!

Incidentally, I’m reading the book “The People Who Eat Darkness,” which centers on the disappearance of a woman who was a nightclub host in Roppongi, so suddenly Rocky Romero’s team name seems sinister to me.

Rating: Three Kerouacs.

INTERMISSION

Before the show, there was a meet and greet session. We waited in a big long line inside the venue and people got really excited when first Naito, and then the Bullet Club, walked by to get to their tables. Lots of too-sweeting. Less excitement for Daniels and Kazarian, who weren’t part of the official meet and greet but who brought their own table to sell things. That’s how you do business, folks. Always bring your own table to shows, so you don’t have to put up with ROH’s red tape.

In order to get your picture taken, you had to buy a ticket, like when you go to a carnival or fair or something, and then present that ticket to the wrestler, who I guess would hand them all in at the end of the night in exchange for money. I was near the front of the line, so I bought a ticket for Naito. It worked out really well. I assumed the line for his table would be way too long, but because of Sinclair Broadcasting’s ruthless bureaucratic efficiency, I got to meet Mr. Tranquilo.

Also, I want to doff my cap to whoever programs the music to play at ROH events. Cock Sparrer’s “Because You’re Young” sounds phenomenal over a real PA system, and how often do you hear Cock Sparrer songs in public?

EVIL, SANADA, and Naito vs. Silas Young, the Beer City Bruiser, and Brian Milonas

Crowd goes nuts for Los Ingobernables de Japon, of course. Naito gets a crazy ovation and sustained chant of “NAITO! NAITO! NAITO!” That’s how you can tell an ROH crowd isn’t just indie diehards; unlike indie crowds, ROH crowds can keep a chant going. I always want to call Silas Young either Paul Silas or Silas Marner. The Beer City Bruiser is like a real-life version of parody Wrestling Twitter account Jumpin Jim Grabowski, and Milonas is a New England guy. Lots of heat on Milonas, both from people who have seen him at shows before (the indie diehards) and people who scream at him for being fat (the ROH fans proper).

This has the same NBA All Star vibe as the previous match, except Silas, Bruiser, and Milonas are not exactly all stars. Perfectly fine, perfectly good mid carders, but there’s a lot of star power on the other side of the ring. Milonas stops Naito from doing the Tranquilo pose and gets maybe the loudest heel reaction of the night. This match is what it is. It’s fun to see the NJPW guys, even doing like 20 percent of their normal repertoire. LIJ win, naturally.

Rating: Two and a half Kerouacs.

Jay Lethal vs. Jay White vs. Chuck Taylor

Taylor was a last-minute addition to the card and gets a crazily enthusiastic welcome. They avoid the usual trap of triple threat matches - one guy takes a powder outside the ring while a standard one-on-one happens - by essentially making this a handicap match, with Taylor and Knife Pervert Jay White teaming up against Lethal. This was my favorite match of the night. It told a reasonable story, the wrestlers are all compelling and played to their strengths (Lethal as heroic babyface, Taylor as chaotic neutral comedian, White as creepy weirdo), and there was decent action all around. Instead of kicking out of each other’s finishers, they would simply tease the finish, have the crowd react, and then have the intended victim escape at the last second. Very effective. Jay Lethal hits Lethal Injection on Knife Pervert and is about to win when Taylor swoops in with an inside cradle to pick up the win. Genuine surprise and a huge pop from the crowd.

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs.

ROH Six Man Tag Team Championship Match: SoCal Uncensored (c) vs. The Kingdom

Having already seen TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia wrestle a full match, I was not jazzed for this bout. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian are freaks of nature, though, and always find a way to deliver. Daniels in particular still manages to wrestle the way he did 10 or even 15 years ago, which is absolutely insane when you think about it. A lot of decent stuff here, although I admit I was not in the right mood for it. The Kingdom win in a mild upset and we have new six-man tag team champions. Taven celebrates at ringside with his grandfather, with nary a babyback bitch in sight.

Rating: Three Kerouacs

The Young Bucks vs. Hiromu Takahashi and BUSHI

The first time I saw the Young Bucks in person was a little over three years ago. They seemed absurdly popular then, and it’s amazing to think how much bigger they’ve gotten since. At this point, it sort of doesn’t matter what they do, the spectacle is the whole point of the event, so credit to them for still working hard to put together a wrestling match. This is very much NBA All Star territory, but more like one of those games where one absurdly competitive weirdo like Kobe Bryant decides he’s going to play really hard, and is countered by a similarly competitive weirdo on the opposite. This seesawed between “hey we’re havin’ a blast here” and “can you top this, you babyback bitch.” Lots of crazy stuff happening here, some near falls that actually felt like near falls, and the Bucks winning with the Meltzer Driver, sending the Bullet Club shirted masses home happy.

Rating: Three and a half Kerouacs

#show reviews #Ring of Honor #ROH #makin' towns #NJPW

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omg-imagine · 7 years

Text

⊱Only Love Can Hurt Like This ⊰

Prompt: “You know why? It’s because I’m fucking in love with you.”

Fandom: Star Trek (AOS)

Pairing: Jim Kirk x Reader

Warnings: Language

Words: 2,611

A/N: This is my first fic on Tumblr and I hope you guys enjoy it! I haven’t written for a long time and I’m trying to get back into it. Requests are also open! I’ve posted a list of characters I write about in my blog.

Also, I’ve only watch the three newest Star Trek movies so all my fics about the franchise are based on them. Sorry in advance for any mistakes and let me know what you think!

(Title is from a song by Paloma Faith)

This was the final straw.

You angrily paced around the transporter room, muttering a long string of curses beneath your breath. The away-team led by Jim would be beamed back aboard the ship very soon and you had a bone to pick with the captain himself.

“Darling, relax,” Scotty’s voice sounded and you stopped your pacing. “Your boyfriend is going to be fine, him and the others.”

You snorted and shook your head. “I'm not worried about him and he is not my boyfriend. I don't even think I could call him a friend anymore. Have you realized that he hasn’t let me off this ship for a while now?”

“Sure,” Scotty simply replied. “You know he does it because he cares.”

Rolling your eyes, you responded, “That's far from the truth but thank you for your insight.”

For the third time since the accident a few weeks back, Jim ordered you to remain on the ship even though part of your job was to protect the crew when they’re out on missions.

It all started when you accompanied a couple of scientists down an unknown and seemingly uninhabited planet to collect samples on its surface. While you wandered not too far from the crew, you noticed the dark figures with glowing and menacing eyes hiding within the thick foliage.

You swiftly turned around and pulled out your comm, the sounds of heavy footsteps and low growls following your every move. You alerted one of the security officers about the situation and told him to have everyone beamed off the planet at once.

Picking up the pace, you had your phaser ready and once you heard the loud screech from behind, you ran as fast as you could, trying to make the creatures chase you to buy the others more time. The yellow lights surrounded you moments later but you felt a sharp shooting pain in your leg.

Once you were finally back on the ship, you felt extremely light-headed and could barely keep your balance. You then heard Bones yelling something about getting you to the medbay immediately just before you fell unconscious.

When you awakened, you found yourself in a biobed and Bones by your side checking your vitals. You eventually recalled your encounter with the unwelcoming natives who were able to hide from the ship’s initial scans of the planet. One of them shot a dart laced with poison on your leg but fortunately, the CMO was able to subdue the toxin before it could cause real damage to your body.

What it did, however, was leave your right leg incredibly weak and Bones told you to stay off your feet until you were all healed up.

Your best friend Jim helped you during the first several days of recovery. You’ve been close with the man since your academy years but there was nothing more than friendship between the two of you. He offered to look after you since he thought it was his fault for sending you out there in the first place. You reassured him that it was not, your job did come with risks after all.

Jim would bring you your favorite food made by his own replicator, which worked a whole lot better than the one you had in your room. During his breaks, he’d swing by your quarters with one of those classic board games you grew up playing and you refused to go easy on him. At night, he’d help you settle into bed and read your favorite book out loud, the sound of his soothing voice lulling you to sleep.

It was sweet having Jim around while you were confined in your quarters. He was good company to have especially since you had nothing much to do.

When you finally regained control over your leg, you told Jim that you were ready to report back to duty. His response was a stern no, reasoning that you needed more time to heal even though Bones had already cleared you. He was saying as a concerned friend to sit out on the next mission and after much arguing, you reluctantly agreed.

Another week passed by and a new mission came up. You asked Jim but he turned you down again. He said that he was bringing another security officer along with him and didn’t need you to come. You tried to change his mind and that’s when he pulled his captain card and stated that it was an order for you to stay on the ship where he believed you were more useful.

This time, he didn’t even bother telling you about the mission. You had heard about it from Scotty when you were searching around the ship for Jim.

The man had successfully ignored you for the past week and you were getting annoyed. Every time you showed up on the Bridge, he would excuse himself, saying that he was needed some place else. He also didn’t have lunch with you and the others anymore, opting to eat alone in his ready room. He had even stopped visiting your quarters right after his shift just to catch up with you.

You wondered what went wrong between you and Jim. You missed the sound of his voice, the way he made you laugh, the long conversations at night, the warm hugs he gave you, the smile that always seemed to make the day better, and the bright blue eyes that you get lost into more often than you care to admit.

Jim was the first person in your life that believed in you when you joined Starfleet. Now, everything you loved about him was slowly slipping away.

The anger in you from earlier dissipated and all you wanted to do now was ask Jim why he’s being so distant.

“Beam us back up, Scotty,” the sound of Jim’s order brought you back from your musing and you waited a minute after Scotty did what he was asked.

You took one deep breath in and out as you watched the crew appear on the platform of the transporter room. One by one they stepped off and then your eyes locked with Jim’s. It took him a second to realize that it was you before dropping his gaze to the floor and quickly shuffling out of the room.

You barely got his name out of your lips when he walked past you and you were left hurt once he disappeared. You stared down the hallway outside of the room when you felt a hand come down your shoulder.

“Hey, you didn't miss much,” Uhura spoke in a light-hearted tone. “I mean Jim was in a pissy mood as usual. He almost got us kicked off the planet. Do you know what’s up with him?”

“Of course not. It’s not like he’s been talking to any one of us lately,” you replied with a shrug before walking away. “Mission looks like it was a success though. His stupid shirt isn't ripped into pieces.”

“Are you okay?” Her question caught you off guard and you glanced back. “I ask this because you and Jim seem off recently.”

You gave Uhura a tight-lipped smile but it wasn’t enough to convince her. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

That night, you were lying down on your bed and staring at the white ceiling of your room. You were losing your best friend and you didn’t know why.

Jim’s been there for you since the start and you trusted him with everything. You had even thought about wanting something more with him but he never seemed interested in that way. You buried those feelings years ago and settled with what you had just to keep him in your life.

Yet, when he was taking care of you, those feelings managed to resurface and you tried your best to hide them. You were afraid that he probably knew and so he pushed you away.

This was now also affecting your professional relationship with him. It would only be a matter of time until the entire crew sees the tension between the two of you. You loved your job and if Jim was going to prevent you from doing what you were trained to do, you’re better off leaving the Enterprise.

You closed your eyes for a moment before getting out of bed and heading to Jim’s quarters. Half of you wanted to turn back around and wait for him to come to his senses but the other half, your heart, made you keep going.

You needed to talk to him.

Knocking on the door, you waited several seconds before the doors slid open and you were greeted by a disheveled and worn-out Jim. “(Y/N)?”

“I’m sorry if I woke you up,” you began. “Can I come in?”

Jim gave you a small nod and stepped to the side to let you in. The door closed and you found yourself unable to find the right words.

“What’s the matter?” Jim’s asked as you sat down on the couch while he seated himself on the opposite side.

“What happened?”

You bit your lip as you waited for an answer. “What do you mean what happened?”

“What happened between us?” You clarified with a shaky breath. “ You’ve been giving me the cold shoulder for weeks.”

“It’s nothing,” his response was short and you watched him shake his head.

“Nothing?” You raised an eyebrow at his answer. “It can’t be nothing.”

A brief period of silence washed over before Jim let out a sigh. “It’s just I don’t appreciate the way you question my orders, (Y/N). Look, I’m exhausted and this can certainly wait-”

“Bullshit,” you interrupted, crossing your arms against your chest. “There’s got to be more than that.”

“That's all there is,” he reassured but you knew by the way he was avoiding eye contact that he was lying.

“Okay, but I wouldn’t be questioning your orders if they made sense.”

“How do they not make sense?”

“Well, I am a security officer on this ship. You ordering me to not go on missions is like telling Bones to stop treating the crew’s injuries.”

“I ordered you to stay on this ship just in case there’s an emergency here while I’m gone. We have other security officers and I can’t always ask you to come down with us.”

“That’s the thing, Jim. You don’t have to ask me because you know damn well that I’m up for it,” you stood up and began pacing back and forth. “I know I’m not the only security officer here but since the accident, it’s like you don’t trust me anymore.”

“What do you want me to do? Keep sending you down only for you to hurt yourself?”

You froze and looked down on the man staring up at you from the couch. “Jim, that was one time! No one knew about those things on that planet. Not even you! If I hadn’t snooped around, the crew wouldn’t have known about them. I was able to save them before there were any casualties.”

“You could have done a better job,” he mumbled to himself but your ears clearly picked up his words.

“Done a better job? Jim, what’s done is done. Sure, I put myself in danger but no one died.”

Gritting your teeth, you wanted to stop fighting with Jim yet you couldn’t help it. “Do you think I’m bad at my job now? Is that why you’re telling me to stay on this goddamn ship because you think I’m gonna end up dead one day? Do I seem that careless to you? If anyone’s careless, it’s you Jim.”

“Enough,” Jim finally stood up and backed you up against the door. “Go back to your quarters, Lieutenant. I do not want to hear anything more regarding this matter.”

“Oh, now we’re using ranks, huh? Well then, Captain,” you faced the door and pressed a finger on the control panel to exit. “Expect my transfer papers tomorrow morning. I’ll be off this ship since my services are no longer needed.”

A tear escapes and rolls down your cheek as the door opens. Before you could step out into the hallway, Jim grasps your wrist and pulls you back inside. The door shuts in front of you and you kept your back towards Jim.

“You know why?” he said as he slowly moves you to face him. His eyes searched yours and you knew he was hurting as much as you were. “It’s because I’m fucking in love with you.”

Your mouth opens but no words would come out. You watched as Jim cradles your face with his hands, his lips dangerously close to yours. “If anything happens to you, I don’t know what I would do.”

“Jim,” you breathed out, “you believed in me all those years ago. Why did you stop?”

“I never stopped believing,” he answered, almost as a whisper. “When I found out you got hurt trying to save everyone, I panicked. You were shot in the leg but that poison knocked you out for a couple of days. Bones said that it could have been worse. ”

He traced the edges of your lip with his thumb and you could not tear yourself away from him. His voice was softer now and it calmed you down as he spoke again. “And those days when I took care of you, I told myself that I never want any of it to end. I realized that I love you and I didn't want to scare you away, so I backed off.”

Brushing a loose strand of hair away from your face, he placed his other hand under your chin and gently lifts it up to meet your gaze. “I have to keep you safe. You’re too much like me and I know that means you’ll do anything to keep us safe. This job is dangerous and that accident made me realize that you could be easily taken away.”

“I’ll always be here, Jim. I can survive a couple of cuts and bruises, but I don’t think I can ever live with the thought of you pushing me away.”

You stared into his blue eyes that were brimmed with tears. Giving him a sad smile, you stood as he slowly pressed his lips to yours. You easily melted under his touch and he pulled you even closer while you ran your fingers through his hair.

By the end of the kiss, both of you were breathless and you wiped away his tears as well as yours.

“Will you let me do my job now?” You asked, wrapping your arms around Jim and resting your head against his chest. “I’ll try my best to be safe.”

Jim leaned down and kissed the top of your head before moving to plant one on your lips. “I know you will. You always do.”

You chuckled softly to yourself and Jim pulled back. “What's so funny?”

“I don't know,” you shrugged your shoulders and let out a giggle as he tried to figure you out. “I was just thinking how all of this hurt more than getting shot in the leg with a poison dart. You know there are better ways to say ‘I love you’ than making me think that you hate me.”

“I guess so and sorry about that. I could never hate you. I'll make it up to you starting with dinner tomorrow night.”

“That sounds great.” You circled your arms around his neck and pulled him down to your face. Just as your lips were about connect with his, you smiled. “Oh, and I love you, too.”

#jim kirk x reader #jim kirk imagine #jim kirk #star trek aos #reader insert #fiction #my fics

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mrsprobie · 7 years

Text

JILY CHALLENGE July 2017

@mrsprobie (that’s me!) here with (the super neat-o) @childoftimeandmagic

Theme: Summer Tropes

Prompt: my mother hired you to mow the lawn but can you put your shirt back on its distracting me, and omg stOP grinning at me like that I'm swooning

As usual for a summer morning, the Evans’ kitchen was bustling. During the academic year, Lily’s classes (at a public school for gifted children, in the neighboring town) started at a quarter to eight, while Petunia’s (at a private school only several blocks away) started at half past eight, and both girls liked to take their time getting ready each morning. They rarely saw their parents before school, and they took great pains (although they pretended it was coincidence) not to run into each other in the mornings either. During the summer, Mr. and Mrs. Evans made a point of waking both girls and having breakfast together, even if it was cold cereal instead of a classic spread.

On this particular summer morning, near the end of July, it had been cold cereal. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were blustering back and forth between the living room and the kitchen, Mr. Evans looking for his wallet and Mrs. Evans for her purse. Lily and Petunia watched as though it was a tennis match. Lily’s head bounced back and forth, and Petunia’s eyes followed while she sipped her coffee (“just black and with no sugar, Lily, just give me the cup”).

With a gasp, Mrs. Evans stopped at the kitchen table between the girls (Mr. Evans swerved neatly around her, muttering something daft about leaving his keys in the fridge). “Lily, sweetheart, I almost forgot to tell you - one of your school friends will by this afternoon to mow the lawn.” Lily wondered vaguely which of her friends it was - Alice was out of town, and Marly had probably never broken a sweat in her life. Of course, their old standby was no longer an option… “Would you be a dear and give him the ten I left on the counter?” Mrs. Evans continued, glancing around as though she hadn’t already searched the kitchen for her purse. “And maybe a glass of water, it’s supposed to be over eighty-five today!”

When she wandered away, Lily called after her across the room: “Of course, Mum, just - who is it?”

Petunia rolled her eyes, then jumped as Mrs. Evans gave a gasp of excitement, having lifted a handknit afghan off the couch and found her purse wedged between two cushions, hidden under it. Lily snickered, drawing her mother’s attention back to the two of them. “Oh, it’s that James boy, you know the one -”

“Couldn’t I just let him melt?” Lily asked snidely. “Then you wouldn’t have to pay him.”

“Lily, be nice,” her mother admonished. “He’s doing it for a tenner, and that’s the cheapest offer I’ve gotten since you and Severus stopped -”

“All right, fine, yes, I’ll give him the money,” Lily said, blushing deeply. This time, it was Petunia’s turn to snicker.

Her mother looked up from searching her purse to fix Lily with a stern gaze. “And you’ll give him water.”

Lily heaved a sigh. “And water.”

With a triumphant aha!, Mrs. Evans pulled her husband’s keys from the depths of her purse. “Now, I warned him to watch out for the roses, but if you could just remind him to be extra careful -”

“I’ll work on getting it through his thick skull, don’t worry.”

Mrs. Evans frowned, but leaned in and kissed her on the forehead before doing the same for Petunia. Then, like a whirlwind, she and her husband were off to the car for work.

“Thank god for that,” Petunia muttered, standing to leave - and then leaving her cereal bowl for Lily to take care of.

“Sure, Tunie,” Lily called after her, but she was already upstairs judging by the thump, thump of her steps. “I’ll just clean this up, no problem.”

An hour and a half later found Lily Evans curled up on the bench seat under her window, reading and rereading the chapter of her maths text on how to take a derivative. She was still considering what she thought might be the definition of a limit - she couldn’t be sure - when she saw James Bloody Potter pushing a small lawnmower into her front yard. And didn’t that sight just push every thought she was having of x and y right out of her head?

He didn’t appear to have cut his hair since the end of term, and it was curling a little over his dark brows. He was wearing some band’s black t-shirt that seemed maybe a size too small and a pair of what could only be described as ass-hugging stone-washed jeans. To top it off, he had a cigarette hanging from between his lips, and she watched him lift the lighter and close his eyes to take the first draw. Sirius must have been an extra bad influence lately, and she found herself appreciating it.

Suddenly, he looked up and into her window, smirking when he caught her looking. She felt her face heat, but she powered through it, sliding the window open and calling out, “Mum says to watch out for the roses!”

“I’d rather watch out for my Lily!” he called back. She got a certain satisfaction from slamming the window shut.

She tried to get back to studying, but there was only so much interest she could force herself to have in the change in x approaching zero. The third time she noticed her attention wandering back to the boy in her lawn, she snapped the book shut and took a deep breath. She’d have a snack and take Potter some water, yes, that’s what she would do.

Of course, Petunia had found her way back to the kitchen as well. She sneered at Lily over a teacup as the younger girl pulled a cookie from the ceramic jar on the counter. “How’s your boyfriend?” She tossed her hair in the general direction of the front of the house. “Funny how quickly you got another one after Snape kicked you to the curb.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Lily said dully, fighting the urge to crush her cookie into Petunia’s hair. “Snape wasn’t, either.”

Petunia sniffed. “Right. So why do you think Mum always likes your boyfriends, when they’re all so bloody strange? Maybe she can tell they’re never going to try to lay a hand on you, they’d all be too afraid to know what to do with a woman.” She shrugged. “You’d think a bunch of swots could study people enough to learn to be normal. Vernon doesn’t even have to try,” she added with a disgusting little sigh. (Vernon was her latest boyfriend, a man she’d met in her typing class, and he was the worst.)

“Again,” Lily said, this time more matter-of-factly, “he’s not my boyfriend. And I don’t even know how he got into my school,” she added with frustration. “One of these days McGonagall is going to petition to have him thrown out, I know it.”

“You say that like I have any idea - or care - who this McGoyle is,” Petunia said stiffly. She put her nose in the air and marched away, the scent of Earl Grey trailing behind her.

Lily scarfed down the cookie, then made a point of steeling herself as she poured a glass of water. She crept into the living room and then slowly cracked open the front door. James didn’t seem to notice her yet. She stood there with the glass for a moment, just watching him work. He had a light dusting of cut grass on his shirt, and some has gotten in his hair. He looked… good, really good. Not to mention, he was cutting her mother a pretty great deal on the lawn-mowing, she knew that. She used to pay Severus fifteen, and here James was doing it for ten.

Of course, then he caught her looking, and he smirked and ruined all the positive things she was thinking about him. She approached him anyways, holding the glass carefully so as not to spill it, but before she could hand it off, he looked down at himself and gasped dramatically.

“Oh no,” he said, the utter ham, “my shirt’s all dirty! Better get rid of it.” His tone was almost syrupy, and suddenly he was stripping off his shirt - Blondie, she noted - in her front yard. He tossed it over his shoulder and stretched a hand out, ripping her gaze from his chest. She blushed a deep and furious red. “That for me?” He didn’t try to hide any double meaning.

She shoved the glass into his hand, spilling some water on him. He brought that hand to his mouth, and she realized he was going to lick the water off. What is he doing - oh my fucking god - what is he - “I didn’t mean to get distract - to distract you. From mowing,” she added pointlessly. She was floundering, and his hand was an inch from his mouth, and then - “I’m trying to do the calculus summer work!”

Mercifully, the hand stopped. “I finished that last week,” James said. “I could help you with it after this.”

She couldn’t even choke out a proper response because she was trying so hard not to look at his chest. Rugby had clearly treated him well. She nodded tersely and practically sprinted back into the house.

Petunia was waiting by the front door, not even hiding that she had been watching from a window. “Was he planning on shagging you right there in the lawn?”

Lily couldn’t wait to hear what she had to say after James came inside and helped her with her homework.

A/N: The summer of 1976 was a record-setting hot summer in England.

#jilychallenge #childoftimeandmagic #jily #jily fanfiction #muggle au #au #with a side of petunia being a BITCH #my writing

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bakechochin · 5 years

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The Book Ramblings of June and July 2019

In place of book reviews, I will be writing these ‘book ramblings’. A lot of the texts I’ve been reading (or plan to read) in recent times are well-known classics, meaning I can’t really write book reviews as I’m used to. I’m reading books that either have already been read by everyone else (and so any attempt to give novel or insightful criticisms would be a tad pointless), or are so convoluted and odd that they defy being analysed as I would do a simpler text. These ramblings are pretty unorganised and hardly anything revolutionary, but I felt the need to write something review-related. I’ll upload a rambling compiling all my read books on a monthly basis. Well, not really monthly, but you know what I mean.

The Late Mr Shakespeare - Robert Nye I felt a further hankering for this sort of content after finishing Falstaff, and I had relative faith that this book would deliver. My feelings, however, were slightly mixed when considering what was different than Nye’s first book. Unlike Falstaff, this text isn’t written from the perspective of the text’s focus; we instead get a mediator in the form of Pickleherring, who gives us a retrospective and mythologised account of Shakespeare as told through anecdotes and spurious half-remembered tales. Without wanting to just quote huge chunks of the text’s postulating on the subject of men being shaped by the stories that are told about them, I’ll simply say that it’s all fucking great stuff, for while the book does come across as something of a cock-and-bull story with the amount of backtracking and reiterating and rewording of the same points, all of the reiterating and rewording is fantastically eloquent. What I enjoyed about Falstaff is still here, in that a fun larger-than-life world is evoked through a multitude of story snippets and accounts of events that border on folk tales, all, within the context of this book, meticulously stored away in a hundred black boxes over the years, and now shared with us as a testament to the multitude of stories told (in the context of the story) about the famous playwright, and as a big satisfied middle finger towards historical accuracy and the accounts of fuddy-duddies. This is in many ways a book for Shakespeare scholars; there’s a lot of the sort of shit in here that you’d learn as a Shakespeare academic, from attribution studies to dogmatic arguments about Shakespeare’s life and play participation (given undeserved credence here by the authoritative voice of one who knew him personally), and I’m not sure if this at all contributes to making the book good, given both my preexisting dislike for such nonsense (compared to the actual content of Shakespeare’s work) and the fact that not much is done with the information within this book. Nye seems to be reciting facts, slotting them in wherever he can, just to prove that he knows them, and in many cases his statements about Shakespeare’s life seem to all be along the lines of ’this thing was fleetingly referenced in one of his plays, and thereby it must have been contributory to one of his formative experiences'. (Plus, Shakespeare studies is, surprisingly, still a burgeoning field and a victim to changing times, and thus some of the assertions about Shakespeare and his works in this book are undermined by more recent contradictory research). No, this book’s compelling content lies elsewhere. When I first started reading I was concerned as to how compelling our narrator Pickleherring would be; he’s not so old as to be a doddering fool (which would have least given his narration some spice), and not so interesting a character archetype to be able to stand alongside Shakespeare and friends, and despite his assertions that he is a merry prankster full of mirth, this tends to only surface in the occasional moments of weird, sometimes crass erotica. This shit came up in Falstaff as well, again missing the point of sex within the context of farce or country peasant comedy by playing it entirely straight, and thus I am left with no choice but to assume that Nye has got a thing for such shite. Like Falstaff, this book’s blurb purports to answer a number of as-yet-unanswered questions about its titular character, and just fucking like Falstaff, what is revealed is not even that interesting. WOULD I RECOMMEND?: PROBABLY, YEAH, BUT ONLY IF YOU’RE LIKE, REALLY INTO SHAKESPEARE

My Papa and the Maid of Orleans and The Unruly Bridal Bed and Other Grotesques - Mynona I was fully geared up to return to the topic of over-intellectualising, a topic I haven’t touched since Kharms, when I caught a glimpse at the introduction to the first of these books that I read. My introduction to Mynona was the two of his stories featured in Tales of the German Imagination, little snippets of madness that seemed right up my alley, and yet, like Kharms, I’d be hard-pressed to state in scholarly terms exactly what it is that makes these stories work, or indeed if their success even has a scholarly explanation. I skimmed over the introductions in each of my tiny (and stupidly overpriced) books, and concluded that I would probably be alright for the most part. The tentative swipes that the introductory passages make in the direction of academia seem to just be quantifying what a grotesque is in terms of Mynona’s writings, which is all interesting shit. At its worst, the nonsense that the introductions spout about the inherent messages of Mynona’s own ‘creative indifference’ philosophies can be happily ignored in favour of simply enjoying the stories as odd and occasionally morbid little tales. Truthfully there really isn’t too much to say about these stories; the two collections that I have are the third and fourth of such that Mynona produced, meaning they’re not exactly his collected best works and the stories can be a tad hit or miss, but overall they’re very enjoyable quick reads. Both the blurb(s) and the attempts made to describe the events of the stories make them seem a lot darker than they actually are, for they often deal with bizarre or taboo themes, but this seems to me like false advertising, for when you’re reading said stories you don’t stop for a second to consider the fucked-up nature of some of the stories’ content. The tone carries it in such a way as to negate critical study, and thus I beseech anyone who tries. WOULD I RECOMMEND?: YES, IF YOU’VE GOT A DAY TO KILL AND CAN FIND THE STORIES FOR CHEAPER THAN THE NINE FUCKING QUID I PAID FOR EACH OF THEM

The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin Many a time have I walked into Waterstone’s and spared a fleeting glance at the frankly ridiculous quantity of crime books there, stopping only to briefly laugh at some of the more on-the-nose titles (my favourite of which will always be Fielden’s A Quarter Past Dead). Golden Age crime fiction has always been a possibility of a genre I might want to delve into, but never an especially pressing one. My purchase of this book was something of an impulse buy in the Folio Society summer sale, and indeed my decision to purchase this book was dependant mostly on the assertions that the book was unlike other crime fiction texts. To elaborate, this is a very funny book, and I’ve been led to believe that it’s rather difficult to slot humour into a serious crime novel about murder and whatnot. It does so with a cast of eccentric and incredibly memorable characters, a plot driven mostly by chance and farce, and a fantastic aversion to seriousness, with characters often getting drunk and passing the time with such games as ‘naming unreadable books’ before venturing forth to the next slapstick shenanigans. Without wanting to, yet again, go off on a tangent about how I always seem to read ‘book B inspired by book A’ before I’ve read ‘book A’, this book is very much in the vein of Adams' Dirk Gently (with the eccentric intellectual types pursuing investigations way out of their jurisdiction) and Fforde's Thursday Next series (with rapidly escalating storylines and fourth wall breaks and hilarious set pieces, right down to the protagonist’s needlessly flamboyant car). Everything seems to be very much entwined with the humour, be it the characters or the plot, and it has proven difficult for me to say exactly what else it is about this book that made it so enjoyable to read. I blazed through it so quickly that I didn’t think about it too strongly; ultimately, a lot of the books I’ve been reading lately are like this, which makes it increasingly difficult to write rambles about them, considering that these rambles were originally intended to allow for a bit of extra academic flexing. I’m not here to break down the components of farce or slapstick or the effectiveness of literary references when constructing a story or comedy. All I can really talk about is, how does this book compare to other crime fiction? We uncover the story’s mystery slowly throughout the course of the book, with new characters coming into the fray and bringing new light to the situation, but the book’s mystery is eventually revealed to be a tad too small and too restrictive to allow for any grand revelations as to who indeed dunnit. Every now and then the book displays some fun meta-knowledge of the genre when the characters are deciding what move they are going to make next, though this does lead to a rather anticlimactic twist at the end when a promising lead is revealed to be a red herring seemingly just because the genre demands one, and the characters shrugging their shoulders to say ‘well, that’s how these sort of things go’ wasn’t quite enough to offset the feeling that things didn’t really lead to anything. The final roundup of events, and eventual reveal of the one tiny detail that answers all other questions of the mystery, is of course not really dependent on anything exciting (as I’d probably expect from the genre), but I reckon that when it comes to revealing the small but significant detail that is the crux of everything, a lot of books have a more interesting crux than this book does. But perhaps I am merely nitpicking. In any case, my feelings towards the book upon completion were overwhelmingly positive, if not because of a wholly satisfying ending than certainly because I know I’ve got a shit load more of these books to be getting on with. Therefore, it seems unlikely that my attempts to breach this new genre will lead to any further exploration for a while yet; I’ve got to read all of Crispin’s stories first. WOULD I RECOMMEND?: HELL FUCKING YES

Nightmare Abbey and Crotchet Castle - Thomas Love Peacock I heard of Peacock some time ago in a romanticism lecture as a great and criminally underrated author, I picked up this book after skimming the blurb and introduction and learning that Peacock’s writing took inspiration from a superstar lineup of my sort of authors (Aristophanes, Rabelais and Voltaire to name a few), and started reading it recently because I was craving a Gormenghast fix but had sworn not to start any more giant fucking novels until I’d finished Barchester Towers. It makes sense that this book would be recommended to me by an old academic chap, because this seems to be a book mainly for old academic chaps; a Peacockian staple, as the introduction so refers to it as (I suspect as a means of justifying it), is that the narrative often stops dead to allocate large chunks of the story to men of various fields of academia discussing various smart affairs (in the words of Peacock himself, ‘discussing everything and settling nothing'), written in a form more resembling a drama text than prose. It’s fast and easy reading, and it’s fun to revel in the general vibe of Regency era learned men lounging in a club speaking listlessly on trifling matters over their booze. While there is humour to be found (both explicitly and quietly in Peacock’s writing style), and while I am not entirely ignorant on the era and characters within that this book is good-naturedly satirising, this book requires some background knowledge to get the most out of it. Nightmare Abbey parodies the ‘mordancy of contemporary literature’, with characters reflecting the romantic poets (all with absolutely fantastic Gormenghast-tier names) lolling around and bemoaning the times and customs and pontificating incomprehensibly on transcendental subjects and generally revelling in operating on various tiers of melodramatic morose being. The conversations that they have are often rather dense, and thus the humour tends to come from the ridiculous characters’ voices and attitudes (or occasionally the farcical antics that they get up to). Crotchet Castle is significantly more all over the shop, being a general clusterfuck of ideals and philosophies (the primary conflict being between common sense and rationality, with all the supernumerary other characters slotting in to lend their voices in pummelling the rationalist into the fucking dirt) pitted against each other; it is on occasion rather accessible, given the simplicity of the characters and their chosen philosophies to spout, but I’m really coming in on the bottom floor when it comes to rationality and political economy, so a lot of the nuance, while often enjoyable enough considering its delivery of light-hearted sarcasm, was totally fucking lost on me. Most of the characters are just mouthpieces for philosophies, some of the characters are parodies of pre-existing personages who I didn’t fucking know and didn’t care to learn about, and some of the characters are enjoyable enough because they slot into the story in other ways (such as in the trite but necessary romance subplots, forgotten about and reinstated as soon as a hackneyed conclusion is needed) or otherwise stand out on their own (such as Peacock’s stand-in, the Reverend Dr Folliott, who couldn’t give a blot about anything save his own dinner and booze, or indeed my aligned character, the deteriorationist and medieval buff Mr Chainmail, who remains ‘out of reach of [everyone’s] arguments’ from his own fortress of beef and ale (as the introduction describes), which I can fully relate to). The aforementioned romance subplots might give the reader of this ramble the impression that these stories are rather confused as to what they want to be, but the confusion (if confusion it be, and not just a juggling of ideas (hardly skilful juggling, but roll with it)) really only extends as far as the eclectic array of things within the novels. The overall intention of these pieces is to be escapism, or a conversation piece (given that much of the text is dominated by conversations), and in that regard it does its job well enough. I will say, however, that the aforementioned ‘inspiration’ that these texts take from such authors as Aristophanes and Rabelais is really just limited to occasionally quoting them, and considering that I don’t speak Greek or French, this became more of a pain in the arse than a pleasure, having to keep looking at the back for the necessary translations. WOULD I RECOMMEND?: YES TO NIGHTMARE, POSSIBLY TO CASTLE

Seven Men - Max Beerbohm I’m afraid that you’ll have to excuse the fact that I was only able to read about the titular seven men in this book, and not the promised ‘Two Others’ in the book’s re-release; I read this online on Gutenberg, dissatisfied with the prices and conditions of the physical copies of this book (as well as the fact that I couldn’t really be putting too many eggs in this basket, since I started this book on a whim after it was fleetingly mentioned in Crispin’s The Moving Toyshop), and subsequently my reading experience was a rather fragmented one, scrounging all of the individual stories in this publication together and reading them as one overall book. Let this book stand as another title in my guilty list of attempts to dip my toe into the pool of postmodernism, for the stories within it are less about seven men (well, technically six, since Beerbohm himself is the seventh) and more about stories told about them or stories that shape them. Men tell stories about themselves, find themselves shaped by their works or the rules of their works, are forgotten as soon as their works fade from public interest, etc., from everything to formally written pieces of dubious quality to spun yarns over dinner. Supernatural influences are occasionally added to facilitate some of the dafter ideas, but everything is played entirely straight, with our focal point Beerbohm, having interpolated himself into the stories, providing everything with a sense of… if not verisimilitude, than certainly seriousness. Characters find themselves entwined within their stories, sad that their works of writing will be all that remains of them (or deluded into thinking that such a legacy would be a thing to be proud of), ‘ghosts caught in a fiction solemnly protesting their reality’ to paraphrase a quote from Lawrence Danson’s 1982 piece. It all makes for a very fun read, with each story providing a different reading experience that keeps you guessing as to what to expect. Finding myself with not much else to say, permit me to give a special mention to my favourite story in the collection, ‘Savonarola Brown’. The word ‘story’ is a tad misleading, but just as I find myself calling this text a short story collection or novel for lack of a better term, a story ‘Savonarola Brown’ must be, when in reality it is mostly comprised of a deliberately atrocious farcical tragicomedy script, written, in the context of the story, by the titular Brown, who did so over the course of eight years by throwing himself into the character of his beloved Savonarola and writing the story as the characters within it determined it to be written, leading to a rambling and capriciously-changing text that never failed to make me (if only as a great fan of early modern theatre, however trite or shoddy) laugh my arse off. WOULD I RECOMMEND?: HELL YEAH

Other shit I read that I couldn’t be arsed to ramble about: The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh (an absolutely amazing and very McDonagh play that I bloody wish I could have seen and would recommend to everyone (especially if they like fucked-up shit), The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth (a very entertaining and informative book (as to be expected from my favourite etymologist) that I resisted reading for a while because I figured that Forsyth was at his best when retelling historical events, and was pleasantly surprised to see that he manages to squeeze in a shit load of interesting history shit in here as well (my favourite example of which being the story of the two main faces behind the OED)), Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (a fucking incredible book that I resisted writing a review on because a) it’s a rather serious book with some hard-hitting stuff that’s difficult to make funny and b) there are only so many ways that I can say ‘it’s good’), The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher (a bloody amazing essay with some incredible content in it, made me very envious of Fisher for being able to contrive a means of writing about exactly what he wants to write about even when it is of passing or no relevance to the essay as a whole), and Swan Song by Edmund Crispin (another Crispin novel, so I didn’t bother rambling about it when it would just be the same points as my Moving Toyshop ramble, not as funny as Toyshop for the most part and focusing on a field of study that I know very little about but a very easy and enjoyable read nonetheless).

#book reviews #book rambles #the late mr shakespeare #robert nye #mynona #seven men #max beerbohm #the moving toyshop #edmund crispin #nightmare abbey #crotchet castle #thomas peacock #i'm uploaded this a tad earlier than the end of the month because i was impatient #and figured that i wouldn't be able to finish any more books before the month was up #in the end i fucking gave in and started on gormenghast even though i'm only like halfway through barchester #i was going to leiden and needed new reads to revitalise my interest #the eurostar to amsterdam is a fucking long train journey #book ramblings

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theseventhhex · 7 years

Text

Cradle of Filth Interview

Cradle of Filth

Unquestionably one of the greatest and most influential British metal bands of all time, Cradle of Filth have cast a commanding and macabre shadow across the metal scene for nearly a quarter of a century. Armed with their trademark, cross-pollinated assault that taps into myriad strands of sonic extremity and morbid opulence, they have steadily conquered the entire world, unleashing a malevolent slew of classic albums along the way. Currently enjoying a collective creative renaissance that is driving them to new heights of elegant fury, the band are more potent and devastating than ever as they release their latest studio effort, ‘Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness Of Decay’… The Seventh Hex talks to Dani Filth about Victorian England, QPR and the quest for a third yacht…

TSH: How would you say 'Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness of Decay' ties in with the evolution of the band?

Dani: This record was certainly not an easy album to write and we mainly had a strong intention to please ourselves as musicians. I guess we always evolve with a fresh new set of arrangements, whilst staying true to our core beliefs. Members from this band are from Scotland, England and Czech Republic, but regardless of the distance we still managed to have a renewed level of confidence for the record. We managed to form a lot of work beforehand and remained prolific with our songwriting.

TSH: What drew you to writing about Victorian gothic horror and Victorian England?

Dani: Well, it was mainly because I live in a Victorian house. I was panicking about what to write about for the new album and my wife basically told me to delve into this direction. After all, I was reading books by Ed Benson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson, so my wife helped me by giving me direction. Sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees. I'm a massive horror movie buff, so I found it quite easy to talk about this kind of stuff.

TSH: Does your infatuation with the supernatural, the grave and the ghoulish still intrigue you?

Dani: Yeah, even when I read about this stuff now, I just get so into it, even though I've known about these types of topics my whole life having grown up with it. For the record's content, I didn't need to dig too deep; I had enough material to lead me into penning many songs. It's funny because the non-believers that don't learn or know about Victorian gothic horror don't know that the Victorians were very much into the supernatural, palmistry, table turning and séances. These factors were things that were part of science for them; they believed it was a scientific phenomena to communicate with the dead. All in all, I just really like this kind of stuff. I like the ideology and imagery that comes with it. I'm proud to live in a Victorian house - it's like a British museum, ha!

TSH: Was there a particular shift in instrumentation this time around?

Dani: We wanted to be a lot more fluid and colourful. This album certainly has more emphasis on the guitar work. Other than that, I think we didn't really plan to do anything too new. The record is an amalgam of everybody in the band being really big fans of heavy metal.

TSH: What was the dynamic like whilst forming 'Vengeful Spirit'?

Dani: It was quite organic. The main decisions for this song were very much a last minute thing. In the studio this song was not working and we didn't really feel good about it. Our producer suggested towards the end that we include Liv Kristine to give the song a particular vibe. This decision was totally brilliant, as she was the right person to make the song feel complete.

TSH: What resonates with you most about ‘Death and the Maiden'?

Dani: Like all the other songs, this one was written prior to having any lyrics. I don't want to be selfish in predicting what everyone else should be doing by constantly painting songs beforehand. I like getting a feel and an idea for a song with my band. I have to give Martin a lot credence for this song, he also wrote a lot of the keyboards for the album and is a very talented individual. But yeah, the sole premise behind this song was to do something heavy and it grew over time, it sounded so different from what it initially was. The lyrics actually came from an unreleased track from my other band Temple of the Black Moon, a song called Persephone. I took most of the lyrics and reformed them for this song. It's basically about Hades and Persephone's dark underworld adventures.

TSH: Do you still keep a stack of songwriting ideas via constantly jotting down notes?

Dani: Yup, I still do. I have a couple of books that I carry around with me in which I write a load of stuff in. I've got notes relating to all kinds of gibberish and quirky ideas.

TSH: For the band's live shows, is it imperative to create a space of immersion for the crowd?

Dani: That's of absolute of paramount importance. Whenever I've seen other bands I admire, they transport me to another place, and I've been wanting to do that for other people my whole life. Also, I don't think the connection with the fans should end with just the love of the music, I feel it should be inherent in the lyricism, the live shows and the ideology of the artwork used.

TSH: Do you prefer the way the industry is now, given all the changes and advancements?

Dani: It's definitely a double edged sword. I prefer the way things were before because I can't afford my third yacht yet, ha! With music you can make money by touring I guess. You know, I just find it annoying having to sit on a record for so long. I mean we completed this current album a while ago, but we've had to wait a long time for it to be released, which makes me furious. Why go to all these lengths and do so much work, only to have other hands tell you what to do. It does get quite ridiculous, you know? The old days were way more simpler. After all, you wouldn't walk into a grocery store, pick up an apple and not pay for it, right? However, this is what people are like with music.

TSH: Have you mastered how to obtain a positive frame of mind throughout extensive touring?

Dani: It does become intense. I just think that being good friends with one another is so crucial. I've learnt over the years to mutate and survive. Sometimes you get onto a tour bus thinking how you're going to last for weeks. Two days later, everyone that's on board are your best mates and things just pan out accordingly.

TSH: Can Ian Holloway help get QPR back to the Premier League?

Dani: I love him. Ian Holloway is a nutcase. My daughter took me to see QPR for my birthday and my sister flew back from Singapore to be here too, which was nice. I reckon we can have a good season this year and probably push for a playoff spot.

TSH: Do you tend to simply unplug when you're in the Suffolk countryside?

Dani: Absolutely. I love being away from all the stupidity and bullshit. If I had more money, I'd buy an even bigger house out in the countryside.

TSH: What's your verdict on Dunkirk?

Dani: Well, I was really looking forward to it given all the great reviews and five stars that the movie got. Having watched it, I thought it was quite shit. It did nothing for me. I tell you what was amazing though, the new Planet of the Apes film.

TSH: Is music the perfect form of escapism for you?

Dani: It's either music, sex or Netflix, haha!

TSH: Do you have much perspective with how you want Cradle of Filth to progress from here on in?

Dani: I think I need to secure that third yacht! I don't mean to be selfish, I'm just not happy with two yachts; I need that third one, ha! Nah, but in all honesty, I just want Cradle of Filth to carry on with what we're doing. We reached a zenith in the fact that we've achieved so much. I don't think we'll ever be as big as we were, simply because it was just a different time period back then. However, I think we will definitely write better albums. I mean I don't mean to boast because I hate doing so, but if you take Slipknot out of the equation, we are the biggest extreme metal band in the world, and I'm happy with that. I'm 44 and we're still going strong. We have a lot more to offer in the coming years.

Cradle of Filth - “Heartbreak And Seance ”

Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness of Decay

#Interview #Cradle of Filth #Dani Filth

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proxylynn · 7 years

Text

Dreemurr Academy #2 (UnderFell Sans)

Dreemurr Academy, a prestigious closed-off college for monsters and humans alike of all ages and worlds.

This includes myself, though I'm sort of a in-between.

I'm Lynsie, the human anomaly. I'm a human, but I can do magic like monsters. I'm an oddball.

That's the thing about making a school that is open to multiple alternate dimensions. Weird things are bound to show up. Even a bunch of the same person. From what I saw on orientation day, the same faces are scattered around all around.

To fix these type of issues, everyone that has a multiple or doppelganger is given a school name so there's no confusion.

Other than that, it's fairly normal. The hierarchy is the simple.

The Deans are made up of the same people, skeleton monsters that go by the name of Gaster. One is a teacher of the Sciences, goes by Wingding. He's a kind and understanding man, but is known to pull a prank or two. They all speak in a typeface sign language but use telepathy magic so others understand. It's been said no one has ever heard their real voices and those that have are no longer at the academy.

Another Gaster dean teaches Home Economics, he goes by Wingy. He's a bubbly sweet guy that loves his work. Nothing makes him smile more than seeing the joy on a student's face when they take pride in being able to do something they first thought they couldn't.

Another Gaster dean teaches the studies of Magic, he is called Fall. At times, he can be cynical, malicious, and sarcastic. He has a commanding presence that exuded gravitas, authority and control, able to keep a class quiet without effort. Yet there is a kindness to him, it's rarely seen, but not unheard of.

Another Gaster dean teaches History, his nickname is Dings. A cold, bitter, and sometimes childish man. He tends to hold grudges against troublesome students and is extremely spiteful toward those whom he dislikes. Yet those that can take his punishments are rewarded with his respect. He is a teacher that commands respect and who's grades are earned with doom hanging over your head.

The Professors are also skeleton monsters, but not all are the same person. The Psychology professor is a guy named Papyrus but goes by Stretch. He's the favorite among students because he's so laid back. He chews a tooth pick in class to suppress his urge to smoke, but we all know he does so when on break. He's really good at reading students and helps out when able. All in all, he's the cool teacher.

The Literature professor is a Papyrus that is called Fell. He is the one teacher everyone dreads. Very strict and old fashioned. He does not tolerate interruptions and will humiliate those he feel need to be taken down a notch. Such things take there toll on him and often squeezes a stress ball that he keeps in his desk. But he is a very passionate man when it comes to his work and takes his subject seriously, even though this makes him into a bit of a grammar nazi which is why many students get low grades.

The Biology professor is a skeleton called Sans that sometimes goes by Classic, whatever that means. He is very cheesy and comes off as lazy, making puns that have people cringe yet secretly love them. He is very protective of his students and will go out of his way to help them. He does not tolerate bulling of any kind and can be quite scary. He's the second favorite among the students.

The Physical Education professor is also a Sans that goes by Pain. He is also a stern and old school type of teacher, only he tends to be more cruel in humiliation of students that are unprepared. While his scope is all around, he prefers the darker side of the study. Using borderline violence to weed out the weak that think taking his class is a easy A. There is mercy in his dojo, but it must be earned with blood, sweat, and tears.

The Students are broken into four groups based on which part of the four years they are currently in. The first years are called freshmen. Second years are sophomores. Third years are juniors. And fourth years are seniors. There are some variations on this topic, but this hierarchy of college students is still readily recognizable by everyone.

Me? This isn't my first rodeo but not my last. I'm a sophomore and have gotten the gist of who's who and what's what. I get along with students and teachers. I've always been a middle ground type of girl.

I didn't come looking for friends, but they just seemed to find me. Funny enough, my buddies are the brothers of the professors. Stretch's brother is a freshman, his name is Sans but goes by Rascal. Fell's brother, also a Sans, is a sophomore like me and goes by Edgy. Classic's brother is a Papyrus, a freshman that goes by Papy. And Pain's brother is a sophomore Papyrus by the name of Slim.

I've always been a tomboy. I prefer the guys company. They're different and fun, even if they can be a bit odd sometimes.

Rascal, as the nickname implies, is the school clown/prankster. He likes to test his limits and challenge authority, even dishevels his uniform to assert his individuality. He comes off as a slacker, but secretly very deep, clever, and loyal to a fault. He likes taking his brother's class so he can improve his skills with messing with people, mostly his brother as he disrupts his teachings when he sees a chance.

Edgy is shy around new people and slow to open up, enjoying a laugh with friends when able. Though he appears weak or even nerdy because of his glasses, he is far more tougher than he leads on. He doesn't take crap from anyone. When alone, he's angsty and borders on straight up angry. Getting a pissy attitude when annoyed. Like his brother, he is very passionate about literature and does his best to impress his brother, going so far as to become the teacher's pet.

Papy is easily the most loveable guy in the whole school. Very cheerful and optimistic, he tries his best no matter what. He doesn't like conflict and tries to keep his brother out of trouble when the teacher pulls a prank. I find it sweet of him to take his brother's class even though he doesn't particularly enjoy it, just so he can stay close to him. Like I said, this guy is a loveable soul.

Slim is easy going. He doesn't take things too seriously and never breaks a sweat over hard exams. The only thing that breaks his cool is his smoking, he really gets tense if he goes too long without his fix. He's incredibly smart and instinctual, good traits to have when dealing with his brother. While he does attend his brother's class, he merely does so as a request of his brother who likes to make sure he doesn't slack off due to not being challenged enough.

All of them are oddly related to each other in some form. Gaster's, Papyrus's, and Sans's are brothers. Yet I see them all as different people. I value them. They're helping me even if they don't know it. I am not so confident in myself. I tend to isolate myself, go at things lone wolf style. It's how I've always been. Then I met them and slowly my world began to expand bit by bit. I'm still not comfortable with others. But with them, I can step out from behind my mask for a bit, and really be myself around them.

Today is a typical weekend. I hang over at Edgy's house and we study for hours. It's a little weird at times, what with a dean and a teacher under the same roof. At least we don't have to be in the school uniform. I don't really care for the uniforms. Girls have to wear skirts, I hate it because of perverts taking up-skirt pics.

I never have to worry about that kind of thing with Edgy. He's more focused on his studies than anything of the romantic nature. Though few girls have tried to sway him with letters, gifts, and even the rare few that straight up tell him they want to 'bone' him. All fail. Not like it bothers him much.

But right now, I lay on Edgy's bedroom floor with my nose in a book as he does the same across from me. His brother Fell has assigned the works of Edgar Allan Poe for our second quarter exams, which also consists of the always fun extra credit of explaining what your favorite piece is and why...Yay!

"did you pick your piece yet?"

"Yep. Had it ready before even needing to pick one."

"really? which one?"

"The Masque of the Red Death. I've always loved that story. I find the story of Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey a rather interesting take on classes of society. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, hosts a masquerade ball within seven rooms of the abbey, each decorated with a different color while the poor outside die as their cries for help fall on deaf ears. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose 'costume' proves to contain nothing tangible inside it; the guests also die in turn."

He looks at me in shock.

"you really do like that one."

"Is it so odd?"

"i didn't think you were into such dark stuff."

"What is dark but one's own view on that which we find unnerving. But to be honest, I do love me some horror stories. The detail really hooks me in."

"then you'll probably think it cliché of me, but i picked the tell-tale heart."

"I've heard of it, but never really read it. Mind giving me a sample?"

"gladly. it is told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed. the victim was an old man with a filmy 'vulture-eye', as the narrator calls it. the murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards. ultimately, the narrator's feelings of guilt, or a mental disturbance, result in him hearing the dead man's beating heart."

"Now that sounds interesting."

"i can read it to you. i-if you want that is?"

"You don't have to..."

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU!?!"

Fell kicks in the door and scares the fuck out of me but Edgy doesn't flinch, he's too used to this.

"I SAID TO LEAVE THIS DOOR OPEN!"

"it's my room. i can do what i want. and why do you care?"

"YOU KNOW THE RULES. BESIDES..."

Fell stares at me and Edgy blushes with a glare.

"p-piss off. nothing like that is gonna happen."

"I DON'T CARE! THIS DOOR STAYS OPEN."

"What are you talking about? Are you both implying something?"

"YOU MEAN, YOU DON'T KNOW?"

Edgy's face falls in horror as Fell smirks darkly.

"Know what?"

"bro...don't you dare..."

"SANS HERE HAS A..."

"get out! get out!"

Edgy bolts pass me and tries to slam the door shut, but Fell is stronger.

"AWWW...WHAT'S WRONG SANS? AFRAID SHE'LL FIND OUT ABOUT YOUR LITTLE CRUSH~?"

"papyrus!"

"OOPS. SILLY ME."

"you jackass! you promised not to say anything!"

Fell just laughs and Edgy is finally able to shut the door. Only once then sound of Fell's laughter fades does Edgy register what just happened and that I'm staring at him in confusion. He starts to sweat as he slowly turns his head to look at me.

"uh...about that..."

"So who's the lucky one?"

He looks at me funny.

"w-what?"

"Who is your crush? I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I just want to support you."

He just stares at me before breathing a sigh of relief and turning around.

"i...it's..."

He looks down and rubs his left arm, he's nervous. I change the subject.

"Don't you think it's a little odd?"

"w-what is?"

"Well...You're the middle sibling. Yet, your older and younger brother have positions of power at the school while you're a student."

He pauses for a moment.

"i...i never thought about it before."

"You know what else? Another good Poe story is The Raven. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness."

This seems to get to him.

"r-really?"

"The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word 'Nevermore'. The poem makes use of a number of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references as Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically, intending to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes."

He smiles and returns to sit with me as I sit up.

"do you know the story as well as you do the red death?"

"Do you?"

"care to recite with me?"

He smirks and I move the books away with a grin.

"Who starts?"

"ladies first."

"Okay. *clears throat* Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore...While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door...Only this and nothing more.”."

He smiles in content.

"ah, distinctly i remember it was in the bleak december; and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. eagerly i wished the morrow;...vainly i had sought to borrow from my books surcease of sorrow...sorrow for the lost lenore...for the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name lenore...nameless here for evermore."

I feel the spark light as we speak. Edgy is very passionate about literature and he always reads with fire in his soul. It's actually what challenges me to do better in class. To dance in the same fire he breathes that makes stories become real. And here this is no different...I accept this challenge and aim to win.

"And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me...filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door...Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;...This it is and nothing more.”."

His eyes light up with vigor. We never get a chance to do battle at school when I try to match him. Of course he sees those moments as me trying to out do him for his brother's favor, but here, now he sees I do it all for him. He brings out my best...and it thrills him.

"presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, “sir,” said i, “or madam, truly your forgiveness i implore; but the fact is i was napping, and so gently you came rapping, and so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, that i scarce was sure i heard you”...here i opened wide the door;...darkness there and nothing more."

He scoots closer to me and I smirk.

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?” This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”...Merely this and nothing more."

I scoot closer to him and he blushes faintly but holds strong.

"back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, soon again i heard a tapping somewhat louder than before. “surely,” said i, “surely that is something at my window lattice; let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore...let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;...’tis the wind and nothing more!”."

He slowly puts his hand over mine and I blush big time. Now I understand what Fell meant...I'm Edgy's crush! But I won't speak of it. It's not my place. I want him to say it. To confess with this same passion.

"Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore; Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door...Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door...Perched, and sat, and nothing more."

With that I state my actions. I will remain still where I sit and it is up to him on what happens next.

"then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, by the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, “though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” i said, “art sure no craven, ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore...tell me what thy lordly name is on the night’s plutonian shore!” quoth the raven “nevermore.”."

He softly moves some hair from my face and I smile warmly.

"Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning...little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door...Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as “Nevermore.”."

I nuzzle into his hand and his blush increases. He almost withdraws his hand, but one look into my eyes has him locked.

"but the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only that one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. nothing farther then he uttered...not a feather then he fluttered...till i scarcely more than muttered “other friends have flown before...on the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.” then the bird said “nevermore.”."

Carefully I reach up and touch his cheek, caressing the bone softly much to his shock.

"Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, “Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore...Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore Of ‘Never...nevermore’.” ."

I slide my fingers along his jaw and let them flee under his chin, making him whimper faintly at the loss of my touch.

"but the raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling, straight i wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door; then, upon the velvet sinking, i betook myself to linking fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore...what this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore meant in croaking “nevermore.”."

I smirk in pride, thinking I have gotten one over on him. But then he remembers the hand he left on me that had since drooped to my shoulder. He traces his phalanges along the curve of my neck and I purr.

"This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er, But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er, She shall press, ah, nevermore!"

My voice hitches under his care and he grins with new confidence.

"then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. “wretch,” i cried, “thy god hath lent thee...by these angels he hath sent thee respite...respite and nepenthe from thy memories of lenore; quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost lenore!” quoth the raven “nevermore.”."

Removing his hands from me, he takes off his glasses and I see the fire in his red eyes burn brightly. I can't avert my gaze from his. I watch as he moves up to me, pulling me into a warm embrace and nuzzles into my neck.

"“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!...prophet still, if bird or devil!...Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted...On this home by Horror haunted...tell me truly, I implore...Is there...is there balm in Gilead?...tell me...tell me, I implore!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”."

I lull in content. He's so gentle and kind. Being bold, he licks my neck and I shiver with a sighing shudder much to his interest.

"“prophet!” said i, “thing of evil!...prophet still, if bird or devil! by that heaven that bends above us...by that god we both adore...tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant aidenn, it shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name lenore...clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name lenore.” quoth the raven “nevermore.”."

I bite my lip as he starts kiss around my collarbone, his one long gold tooth skims my flesh in a ticklish way. One of his hands snakes around my side and traces the line of my ribs with feather like softness. It makes me squirm and hard to not make the sounds he enjoys pulling from me.

"“Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting...“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken!...quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”."

That was the end of my lines. He only has one left and the story ends. But he himself is far from done.

"and the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of pallas just above my chamber door; and his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming, and the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; and my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted...nevermore!"

He finishes the poem with a nip to my neck and I mewl much to his ever growing delight.

"i take it you know who my crush is now."

I nod.

"is...is that okay?"

"I...I didn't think you were into anything more than grades. I mean, you turned down all those girls."

"i'm not into those other girls. they just wanted me for their own needs. like grades or some other bull. but you...you give me something they can't."

I might regret asking this, but it comes out anyway.

"And what's that?"

He nuzzles my cheek.

"you challenge me. you push me to be better. and i know you do it on purpose. i've seen it in your eyes."

I blush and look off a little.

"I do it because you challenge me. When you read there's just so much feeling. It's like your soul is on fire and it makes every word that flies from your mouth like embers aloft in the wind, ready to ignite the ears of all that can truly hear them. God man, you are so hot when you recite!"

My face is so red I might pass out from all the blood that's flooding my head. He's stunned as his skull is sweating while his cheekbones match his eyes in the shade of red that comes to them.

"y-y-you think i'm...hot?"

This is easily in my top 10 embarrassing moments in life.

"I...I'll admit I might have had some thoughts about...us."

I toy with my fingers nervously.

"you have?"

All I can do is nod.

"well then...um...if it's okay with you. uh..."

He leans in to my ear.

"can we...uh...k-keep going?"

I can't help the involuntary shudder that escapes me.

"S-sure."

He holds my hand reassuringly.

"we don't have to do anything if you don't want to. i don't want it to seem like i'm forcing you."

"N-no. It's fine. I'm just...*sigh* I'm nervous. This kind of stuff is new to me."

"same here. i've just been feeling things out this whole time."

"Really? Because it felt like you knew what you were doing."

He rubs the back of his head with a nervous chuckle.

"i, um, might have picked up a few things from reading."

"Like what?"

His eyes widen and he swallows hesitantly.

"uh...i can't really explain it. but...could you, um, close your eyes?"

"O-okay."

I shut my eyes as requested. I hear him move before guiding me to stand with him and leads me to his bed where we sit down. He takes a few deep breaths, trying to steady his nerves, then cups my face in his hands and kisses me yearningly. My eyes flutter open before closing again. A warm relaxing feeling comes to me and I start to kiss him back much to his relieved surprise.

"mmmm...i...i was thinking about doing this for a while now. *smooch* it was...i wasn't sure what would be the best way to initiate things. *laughs nervously then continues to smooch*"

"I understand. *smooch* It's not easy to...*smooch* To start things like this. *smooch* Especially with a close friend. *purrs*"

"it's thanks to you for being so sweet today."

"How so?"

"you were so cool when pap was being a dick. and then you were even cooler when we were reciting."

"I try."

We continue to smooch at a respectfully tame pace. Slowly he moves his way down to my neck and then back up again moaning softly all the while. This slow build up of affection has my head swimming in no time. I hardly notice when he gets bold by licking into my mouth or when he moves close enough to start rubbing himself against me...But I do, eventually.

"Mmmm...Getting a bit heated don't you think?"

"nhnahh...i-i can't help it...y-you know i'm a sucker for sweet things...and you're by far the sweetest thing i've ever tasted."

"Awww...Edgy."

"i-i want...i wanna indulge myself in you, taste every inch of your smooth skin...i-i...*stops himself*"

"You, what? Is something wrong?"

"oh...no no all is good."

"Is it me? Did I do something bad?"

"n-not, not bad. you are great. um...it's just...before you say or do anything else, i need you to be honest with me here."

His tone is serious and I gulp in worry.

"are you absolutely, positively, 100% sure...you want me to uh...give you a 'rough' time?"

My face is flushed but I can't help but snicker.

"Oh my god Edgy...*giggles* That was fucking adorable!"

"...*sighs heavily* i'm serious lynsie. this won't go any further till you give me a proper answer."

"Very well. *ahem* I am absolutely sure I want this to happen...Sans."

His eyes glow bright red as a hard shudder rattles his bones.

"thank you...i won't restrain myself then. *gives a low chuckle* that goes for you too now. don't repress anything you're feeling...i-i wanna...see exactly how much you want me...r-right now."

"...You know you don't have to try that hard."

"oh, but i do have something hard for you to try."

I try not to laugh, though he helps to render me silent with a rough kiss. Feeling a challenge in his dominance, I kiss back heatedly and he growls lowly. Trying to maintain control, he pushes me onto my back and shifts to have himself on top of me before groaning softly as he presses hard against me.

"o-ohh...hhnn...hhh...*smooch smooch* ahhn...hhhn...oohh...*shudders while starting to lick my neck* nhhahn...ahhhn...ah...? *stares down and chuckles warmly* what are you doing sugar?"

I blush, my hands had come around behind him and had tried to cop a feel of his ass, completely forgetting that as a skeleton he has no ass.

"*embarrassed* Heh...Just trying to keep up with you. I'm just not really sure what to do on my end."

"okay...how about we start with your...shirt...*smooches downward as he lifts it up and off me* then...hhnmm. then i'll trace my finger along your panty line...*snaps it gently and laughs a bit*"

"*yelp* Hey!"

"sorry. oh! this comes off next...*whispers this while then removing my pants* mmmm...oohh lynsie.. fuck...such a lewd expression."

"*chuckles* You try keeping a straight face when this exposed to someone as fine as you."

He blushes with a cute smirk.

"oh, you're just saying that."

"No, I mean it. You are a good looking guy Edgy. You're smart, passionate, loyal, and you don't take crap from anyone. I respect you to no end."

"hhmm...such loving flattery. oooh you must want it inside ya bad, don't ya? hhmnn you want me throbbing against those tight walls...*smooch smooches* hnmmnn...*groans under his breath and grips me tight*"

This bolder assertive side to him is new and exciting. It makes me want to toy with him. I reach under his shirt and tease along his spine, making him moan.

"Yeah...You like that, don't you? You like it when I play with your bones~."

My actions mixed with flirtatious voice send him over the edge. He shifts to get off the bed and gets undressed. His glowing red magic member intimidates me before he even returns to me.

"you won't be needing these, sweetheart."

Using my stunned state to his advantage, he rids me of my undergarments and then uses magic to move me farther on the bed. Once my mind reboots to what is going on, he's crawling back on top of me and licking his teeth in a lustfully hungry way.

"Uh...Edgy...?"

"hhnnm...i'm all prepped up for ya, so you don't have to worry about a single thing...i'm gonna 'bone' you so hard you won't be able to think straight."

We both end up snickering and he leans down against me.

"Wow Edgy...Way to set the mood."

"s-sorry...except, i'm actually not too sorry. i'll be the only thing that's crossing your mind...*sighs heavily rubbing his length against me* o-ooh...ooohhhh ffu...you're already so wet."

"*nervous keening groan* Is that a good thing?"

"oh yeah."

His voice has dropped to a deep dark yet seductive level.

"hhhnm...let me rub that clit of yours...haahhn."

"Wait, rub my wha-aaaahhh! *gasps*"

"*laughs softly* oooh when i play with that, it really gets you vocal...*continues to chuckle and kisses my neck* rubbing small circles over your cute love button...hhnnmm...i bet this is driving you crazy~."

"*moans* What book did you read to do all this?"

"heh...and give away my secrets? no deal. now then...do you want me?"

"Yes..."

"do you need me?"

"Yes..."

"no more teasing huh, you want me inside?"

"Yes!"

"tell me how much you wanna feel me fill you...to be so full that you feel it in your very soul...hhnmmn?"

"Damn it Sans, shut up and fuck me!"

That has us both surprised, but he recovers first with great excitement.

"uahh...*groans and shudders* haha well, aren't you eager. you naughty girl, trying to rattle me up. only way i can combat that is by giving you a taste of your own medicine...and it seems as though dirty talk is just what you need."

"Don't tease."

"but seeing you all flustered is such a turn on~."

"Okay, you asked for it. Payback is a bitch."

"ooh--! oohh s-sh...shiitt...uauhhh...ooohh rubbing back against me...hoooo...uuahnn...hhhnah...o-oh."

"Think I'd let you get away with being so cheeky, naughty bones~?"

"mmmm...just...i'm just gonna let you do this for a bit more sugar...ooh...t-tell me...tell me you want me...t-then i-i'll...uahn...uuhan so fucking hot...okay okay...you win."

"Good boy. It's rude to keep a lady in waiting."

"oh you are so gonna get it now. *lines himself up with my entrance and begins insertion* uhhnnn ah...aahhhh...oohhh god...hhooo hahnn there we go...ooohh my...ghhnn too long...hoo too long...should've done this sooner..."

"*wincing* Geez...I heard this would hurt, but I didn't think it'd be this much."

"you okay? do ya wanna stop?"

"*groans* N-no...just...Let me get used to it. Please."

He nods and doesn't move a nonexistent muscle, not till I give the okay.

"you alright now?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"so i can move?"

I nod and he nuzzles into my cheek before kissing me deeply as his hips begin motion. The pace is slow at first, the gentle rocking numbing the pain out and replacing it with new pleasure. It isn't long before these feelings have us writhing in heat like beasts for each other.

"Oooh...Edgy..."

"no...say my name..."

"Sans~."

"yeah...there ya go, there’s my sugar. just like that~."

"*moans* Sans...More...Deeper..."

"uahhn...d-deeper? ahhn...let me...roll my hips, against ya...hhhnh...get as deep...a-as i can...g-go...*gasps softly* ...n-no...h-holding back...remember...y-you promised...hhn."

He whispers that to himself while kissing certain areas on my body. Suddenly I see stars and I cling to him in a loud moan.

"oohh there...there we are...hhnmm better? *grins*"

"Yes! Oh god, yes!"

"i-i...hope you're ready sweetheart...this might...feel pretty intense. hhmn...*starts thrusting deeper inside* oohh...oooh yeah...ooh that's it...ahhnn take it...take all of it lynsie...hooo...*thrusts rougher*"

"S-sans! Ooooh fuck...Sans don't stop...You feel soooooo goooood~!"

"oh...oohh...f-fuck...oh god...ooohh the way you sound hhnn...hhnn ahhhhn a-ahh...oohh baby...hhhooo...hhhnn...*he becomes slightly louder as he thrusts even rougher* o-ooh...oohh...! *slows a couple thrusts down, only to speed himself up again* oooh h-hell...ahhhn sooooo...*grunts and clings to me, his fingers digging into my skin harshly, leaving bruises* hhahh o-ooh...hhnahnn...so amazing...i-inside...hhhhaahhnn...ahhh mnnff...fuck...the way your body's trembling...aching for more...hhnnn your voice...hitching at my every thrust..."

He bites at my neck during a particularly hard thrust and I scream his name much to our surprise.

"o-oh? was that the spot? yeah?"

"S-shit Sans...Right there...Don't you ever stop!"

"you want m-me to slam into ya right there? hhhnm? maybe...h-hahhn...if i hit that spot just right...i could get ya to cum for me...*chuckles deviously and kisses me multiple times*"

"Sans I...I've never...*nervous* I've never done that."

"y-you've...never done it before? ahhhn...hhnmmn well, that's okay, i like a challenge, haha. *rams that spot continuously*"

"Oh sweet fuck yes! Yes! Sans! Yes!"

"ahhn y-yeah, hhhnn...ahhhn...ahhnn...e-even har-harder sugar?"

"Yes!"

"oooh...hhnn...*he continues to moan, his own voice beginning to hitch* ah--!...w-...oohhh....w-what...w-was that sweetheart?"

"I...I think I'm getting close..."

"close...you're cumming? cumming? yeah? *grunts and thrusts against me as rough as he can* hhng gonna rub your clit even f-faster...hhn...oohh cum for me...ahhh let it all out, d-don't hold back...don't h-hold yourself back...!"

He pounds into me almost painfully and I feel my insides tighten hard before releasing intensely.

"Aaaaah...S-sans...Hmmm...Ooohw..."

"a-ah...almost...a-almost there...thheeree...hhnngn...a-auh ah sweetheart! t-there...there it is...a-ahhn c-cuumming...cummminngg...hhnnn...uahhh...ahhh...hnmmm...mmmmmm..."

"Ooooh...fffffuck...*groans* Ssssansss...mmmmmm..."

"ohhn...ooh i got you sweetie. *holds on* hhahnn...ooohh wow...w-wwooow...*shudders tilting his gaze downward* hoo...damn...oooh that's...o-ooh that's sooo much...*laughs happily* d-did i make you cum? *panting heavily a huge grin forming on his bony face*"

"*panting* I...I can't...feel my...legs..."

"ooohh...mmmm okay, here we go...*groans slipping out of me and rubs my legs a bit* how's that?"

"*purrs* That's nice. Thank you."

"good...now i can make you feel that way again and really enjoy the faces you make while i fuck you."

I'm stunned.

"W-what?"

"hehehe...you thought we were done?"

"Well...Yeah."

"nahhh, i'm pretty sure i've got another round left in me...besides, i don't want this to be over yet...*small kiss* not yet...i wanna send you so far over the edge...until you've reached the point of losing control...begging me to fuck you senseless...hhnmmm...*sighs under his breath* g-god i'm so r-ready for that...so ready to have your w-warmth again. to send you into sheer bliss...hmn...*hungrily kisses me while positioning himself once more*"

"Sans...?"

"oooo...hhnmm...*hesitates for a moment* ...lynsie? ...a-are you okay? oh god i-i didn't hurt you did i?"

"N-no. I think I'm fine. I just...I want to tell you something."

"what is it sugar?"

"*gulp* I...I love you."

"..."

"Sans?"

"*whimpers and grunts holding me tight* hhhhhhhhhh y-you're killin' me here...y-you ask me to put my 'play rough face on', and then you go and say something like that...huahhnnn...*laughs at himself*"

I pout, feeling stupid.

"ahhhh no no, don't take it like that...hearing you say that, i-i couldn't be happier, haha. hhnmm...i got this...hoooo i got this. see? right now i’m silly sans, but look what happens when i cover my face;...*covers face, then uncovers face* sexy sans. silly sans...*covers face, then uncovers face* sexy sans...silly sans...sexy sans...sil...pfft *laughs genuinely*"

"*giggles* Stop it Sans, or I'll die from how cute you are."

"*chuckles* alright alright! okay, eh heh. okay...hhmn okay. you ready?"

"Bring it on bone boy~."

"*shudders* get ready to purr for me kitten...*positions himself once more and enters me* hhnm...mmnhn...hhhnn slid right in. hhnmm i must be a perfect fit, what do you think? *chuckles* ... y-you don't have to answer that, i'm just teasin' you."

"Oh come on Sans."

"*kisses softly* you get flustered sooo easily...ooh...i love it, i love...so many things about you. *smooch* from your hair, to your eyes, to your skin, to your...luscious...breasts...hhhn. *leans down licking them eagerly* mnhn...hhnnnmm...*slowly starts moving his hips* to y-your...voice...ahhnn...ahhhnnn god y-your voice...*he shudders and grips me tight* a-aahhnn...ooh f-fuck yes...yeah...ohnn...mnhnn...ahhhn...let me hear you...hhnmm let me hear that s-sexy voice...hhhahhhn..."

"Ooooh...Sans...Sans...My Sans..."

"aah...ahhn...oh...spread a l-little wider for me sugar..."

"Like this~?"

"mmmm...y-yeah...just like that...oohhh....ohh i'm gonna shove it in there...ahhnnh...shove m-myself s-sooo far into you...ghnn...ooohh lynsie...*gasps softly a sudden surge of heat rising within him* o-oh...oh god...m-my name...uuhnn m-moan my name a-again...m-moan...m-my...ahhnn....ah!"

"Sans~! Edgy~! Bone lord~!"

"o-oohh y-yeahh...oohh y-yyeahh f-fuck do-don't stop s-sa...aah...! o-oohh l-lynsie...fuck...*he leans into me and holds me painfully tight* uuuahnn...sugar i-i'm...hooo...hooooo i'm gettin' clo...close...i'm close...you go-gonna...you gonna cum for me a-again? hm? think y-you can do that?"

"For you sexy...Oooooh...I can try~."

"*chuckles staggeringly* ahhhh...ooh cum with me baby...ooh...be good for me and c-cum w-when i do...oohh...*winces while thrusting as roughly as he can into me, panting heavily while his tongue hangs out* oohh...o-oh ahh...hahnnhhnann...cumminggg...cumminnng...uuhhnnahh...lynsie...ahhhh...*completely out of breath, turning his head to stare at my face*"

"*screams* I love you Sans!"

Our bodies explode in pleasuring release together and we're left a tired mess.

"*he smiles and nudges against me* hnmn...that was...hhnahn...you were, spectacular. hmn, c’mere. *smiles overjoyed kissing my face affectionately and grinning like an idiot* i love you too lynsie, you breath-taking beauty. *giggles all giddy* i know this wasn't really why you came over but, i got to experience something, much, much sweeter and satisfying than anything else in this world. i'd see that as a big ol' win in my book. *smooches* wouldn't you?"

"*smooch* You know it sweetness. *cuddles him*"

"*nuzzles* and my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted..."

"*purrs* Nevermore~."

[Meanwhile: the living room]

Fell and Fall sit around a tamed fire to warm up in the encroaching evening. Both siblings are reading and gradually sipping on a beverage of choice. For the longest time they had been trying to ignore the ever growing sounds coming from their brother's room. Only when silence returned to the home did they look up from their books.

"��☜☜�� ✡⚐��☼☜ ☹✋❄❄☹☜ ��❄��☠❄ ��✌✋�� ⚐☞☞��" (SEEMS YOU'RE LITTLE STUNT PAID OFF.)

"IT'S ABOUT TIME HE CAME CLEAN WITH HER. HONESTLY, HIS CONSTANT PINING WAS ANNOYING."

"✡⚐�� ⚐ ☼☜✌☹✋☪☜ ��☟✌❄ ❄☟✋�� ☜✌☠�� ☠⚐�� ⚐☼☼☜��❄✍" (YOU DO REALIZE WHAT THIS MEANS NOW, CORRECT?)

"OF COURSE. NOW THAT HE'S GOTTEN THIS SILLY CRUSH OUT OF HIS SYSTEM, HE CAN ONCE MORE PULL HIS FULL FOCUS TO HIS STUDIES."

Fall palms his face.

"❄☟✋☠�� ✌��⚐��❄ ✋❄ ��✌��✡☼�� ✡⚐�� ☺��❄ ☟☜☹��☜�� ❄��⚐ ��☜⚐��☹☜ ☞⚐☼�� ☼⚐��✌☠❄✋�� ✌✋☼ ��⚐☠�� ❄☟✌❄ ☜✞☜☠ ☜☠☝✌☝☜�� ✋☠ ��⚐❄✋��☜�� ☟⚐�� ☹✋��☜☹✡ ��⚐ ✡⚐�� ☜☹✋☜✞☜ ❄☟✋�� ✋�� ❄⚐ ��☜ ✌ ��⚐☠☜ ✌☠�� ⚐☠☜�� ❄✡��☜ ��✋❄��✌❄✋⚐☠✍" (THINK ABOUT IT PAPYRUS. YOU JUST HELPED TWO PEOPLE FORM ROMANTIC PAIR BONDS THAT EVEN ENGAGED IN COTISE. HOW LIKELY DO YOU BELIEVE THIS IS TO BE A 'ONE AND DONE' TYPE SITUATION?)

Fell opens his mouth with a retort at the ready, but once his elder brother's words sink in, his voice goes silent.

"✡☜✌☟�� ⚐☠☝☼✌❄��☹��❄✋⚐☠�� ⚐☠ ✌ ��☹✌☠ ��☜☹☹ ✋��☹☜��☜☠❄☜�� ☼⚐❄☟☜☼��" (YEAH. CONGRATULATIONS ON A PLAN WELL IMPLEMENTED, BROTHER.)

Fell glares with a blush, it's mostly aimed at himself and he hides back behind his book as Fall smirks.

"...SHUT UP."

#undertale #underfell #underswap #fellswap #dreemurr academy #underversity #sans #papyrus #gaster #buttercupsticksnlicks

1 note · View note

jimothyla · 7 years

Note

Spirk prompt + really fed up Bones and entire bridge crew: Bones especially is really tired of all the pining between his two best friends and teams up with the rest of the bridge crew to set them up in """"""accidentally romantic"""""" situations until finally they just beam them down on a deserted but lovely planet and won't let them back up until they've enjoyed their date

there isn’t that much bones in this but here u go! hope u enjoy (under a read more)

ADoctor [15:27]: Hey, you wanna go out tonight? Dinner with Spock & Sulu

jamest[15:30]: ya sure

jamest[15:30]: where @

jamest[15:31]: did spock say yes alr?

jamest[15:31]: askign 4 a friend

jamest[15:33]: that was weird wasnt it

ADoctor [15:35]: Christ, Jim.

ADoctor [15:36]: Yes, your boyfriend agreed. We’re going to that godforsakenhipster place Hikaru keeps talking about

jamest[15:37]: kk

jamest[15:43]: HES NOT MY BOYFRIEND BONES

ADoctor [15:45]: That took you five minutes to type?

Hikaruis standing behind Leonard, staring at his laptop. They’re in his apartmentplanning a date for Jim and Spock, which happens when you’re a) nosy; or b)tired of your friends dancing around each other for what seems like ninehundred years. “This is the lamest, most basic trick in the book, Len.”

“Listen,I’m willing to try anything that’ll make those two stop making me have to look at their pining.” Leonard turns inhis seat to look at Hikaru, his typical scowl on his face. “I can take sap orwhatever the fuck, but Jim’s sad whining is torture and Spock makes thatconstipated-lookin’ face every time Jim flirts with someone— and God knows heonly does that ‘cause he thinks he can’t get with Spock! Why can’t they justfucking—”

“O-kay, man, I get it. Let’s get us somebeer and put on a vid, then we can bail on these two and have fun.”

jamest[18:26]: bones are u on ur way

jamest[18:29]: spock is asking where u & hiki are

jamest[18:30]: My Dude™

jamest[18:31]: r u with bones???

plantdadsuluh[18:36]: no… i can’t go :( sorry!!! it’s an emergency with ben

jamest[18:38]: oh my god is he ok?

plantdadsuluh[18:40]: yeah he’s fine now! but i have to take care of him just in case

plantdadsuluh[18:41]: next time man!

jamest[18:45]: it’s ok!! i understand send him my love

“Areyou sure they are all right, Jim?” Spock asks. They’re sitting at a smallcasual dining restaurant whose theme is the early 2010’s. It’s very cozy andsomewhat rustic; Jim has always had an appreciation for the classics, so thisplace fascinates him.

“Yeah.I mean, I don’t know about Bones. He’s not replying to me.” It isn’t at allunusual for Bones to not reply, since he’s not one of those people who live ontheir phones. Though Jim has no idea what else Bones would even be doing in Yorktown.He probably just passed out and forgot about dinner.

“Perhapswe should call him,” Spock says, a hint of hesitation in his voice.

Jimsmiles, shaking his head. He places down his phone on the table, hand still onit as he replies, “It’s fine. We’ll be all right.”

ADoctor [06:22]: I fell asleep, sorry

jamest[07:33]: i figured

ADoctor [07:50]: How was your date?

jamest[07:52]: oh my goD IS THAT WHY

ADoctor [07:59]: At least say thanks, Tiberius

jamest[08:01]: it was nice hes so cute nothing happened NOTHIGSN GONNA HAPPEN i hateyou & thanks

jamest[08:05]: fucker

plantdadsuluh[08:11]: :^]

Eversince they got back on the Enterprise for their mission, Nyota has noticed thatHikaru spends a lot of time in Leonard’s quarters. She knows that Leonard spenta lot of time with the Sulus when they were on Yorktown, but the frequency oftheir meetings now is odd. She sends them questioning looks sometimes, when thetwo are eating separately from the rest of the group, but they always justsmile suspiciously and get back to whispering among each other. She decides tocorner them one day.

Theirshifts have just ended and Hikaru is the first one to leave the bridge. Heheads straight to the medbay and Nyota follows him there. When she comesinside, Leonard stares at her.

“Whatcan I do for you, Uhura?” Leonard is sitting by his desk. Hikaru turns towardsNyota.

“Spill.”She folds her arms in front of her chest. “What’s going on with you two?”

Immediately,Hikaru is affronted. “If you’re trying to insinuatethat I would cheat on Ben, Nyota—”

“No!”Nyota is suddenly embarrassed, wishing she’d phrased that less vaguely. “No,no, of course not, Hiki. You guys are just… are you plotting something?”

Thelook on Hikaru’s face turns very quickly from anger into panic. “It’s, uh… it’snothing! We’re planning a… party. We’re not plotting! It’s not like that.” Heshoots a look at Leonard. “Len?”

Leonard’sface is as no-bullshit as ever. “We’re trying to get your ex-boyfriend and Jimtogether.” He stands up. Hikaru’s face is pinched and awkward. “If you wannahelp, come join us. If you don’t, then don’t.”

Nyota,of course, follows. “How long have you guys been trying to do this for? Whydidn’t you tell me! I’m, like, the best resource.”

“He’syour ex, Ny,” Hikaru explains.

“I’vebeen trying to get him to say something to Jim since the start! It’s not likewe were exclusive.” Hikaru makes a face of consideration for a moment, whileLeonard isn’t fazed— she was dating Chapel then, too, after all, he definitelywould have known. “I had to stop thoughbecause he got annoyed. So what’s the plan?”

Theplan turns out like this: they hold a formal party on the ship. No uniformsallowed; everyone’s in their own formal clothing, and surprisingly that translatesto Jim in a royal blue suit that’s almost too tight on his body. Spock is in ablack suit with a light lavender shirt underneath, and is nursing a drinkScotty made for him after Spock had agreed that getting “tipsy, as you call it”was favourable for the night. Nyotaactually thinks this plan, as vague as it is, might work.

“So,Spock,” Jim says by way of greeting as he takes a seat beside Spock, “you goreal green when you’re drunk.”

Jimmakes a contorted face as if that wasn’t what he’d meant to say, and a glint offascination appears in Spock’s eyes. “Yes, just as humans go pink when theyconsume alcohol. I am not drunk yet, though.”

“Hm.S’cute. And I am, sorta.” Jim beams at him, but then he pauses, his eyes slowlysquinting at Spock. “Yet. You said ‘yet’.”

“Idid,” Spock confirms. He knows where Jim is heading the conversation to, and isamused by it.

“Soyou’re tryin’ to get drunk. What’s that like? I mean you— what’re you like.When you’re drunk.”

Spocktakes a sip of his drink. “I am not sure, as I have not been drunk for quitesome time.”

“Damn,Spock,” is all Jim says before he puts his arm around Spock’s shoulder andorders another round for them both.

Thenight ends with them on top of each other, on the floor of the recreation roomthe party was held in, passed out drunk with their hands touching.

“Sothe party didn’t work,” Nyota starts, standing in the middle of Leonard’s quarterswith him, Hikaru and Scotty on the floor, “that doesn’t mean we have to giveup!”

“Imean….” Hikaru scratches the back of his head, blinking. “We don’t have to, butwe probably should. I’ll be the first one to admit I’m way too nosy for my own good,but we’ve got no business interfering with their relationship.”

“Asnon-existent as it may be,” Scotty adds.

Nyotaagrees, of course, but… well, she was having fun and they really didn’t haveanything better to do.

Leonardsighs. He stands up and rubs his face. “Let’s settle on this then: third time’sthe charm. If it ain’t, then we’re quitting, and that’s that. All right?” Therest of them nod in agreement. “Okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do….”

“Whatdo you mean mandatory shore leave?!”Jim exclaims at Bones as he’s getting pulled out of his quarters. Bones isdragging him to the transporter room, where he sees Spock equally (but moresubdued in appearance) confused as he is. “How is this not against regulations?”

Spockblinks. “Nyota has informed me that they have followed protocol and filed theproper documents necessary for our leave.”

Jimgroans, flailing to get away from Bones’ grasp. “Fine, you monsters!” He stepsonto the transporter pad with determination and glares at Bones. “Spock, we’regonna enjoy this shore leave, and then we’re going to kill the people involvedin this coup. Understood?”

Spocktilts his head. “I will not be involved in anything against regulations, but ifyou wish for my support as you do so, I will give it.”

Jimgrins, and then they’re beamed down.

Theplace they go down to is a beach. It’s a little warm with their uniform, so Jimtakes his shirt off, leaving his undershirt on. Spock is staring off into theocean, a warmth in his expression that makes Jim smile.

“Hey,”Jim greets him, bumping his shoulder into Spock’s. Spock regards him for amoment, but looks back at the scenery before them. “You’re not… stupid,” Jimcontinues. He looks down at his feet and clenches and unclenches his hand athis side. “I mean, you obviously know.”

Spocknods. “I do.” Spock faces Jim, then. “Would you rather that I didn’t?”

Stilllooking down at the sand and fiddling with his hand, Jim replies, “No. I’vebeen… wishing that you’d just find out without me having to tell you.”

“Thatis illogical—” Jim laughs, bitter, “—but understandable.” Jim looks up, butstill not directly at Spock’s eyes. Spock wraps his hand around Jim’s wrist,extending his fingers down to stop Jim from fidgeting. “I have… longed for you,for a while. I could not find it in me to tell you. I, too, wished that yousimply just knew.”

Jimis too flustered to smile properly without hiding his face, and he still can’tlook right at Spock, but he intertwines his fingers with Spock’s. “I knowVulcans have a whole thing with hands that no-one understands, but this isokay, right?”

“Yes.”Spock rubs his fingers on the back of Jim’s hand. “This is… it is not quite akiss as humans define it, but it is close.”

Jimmakes an embarrassed noise at the back of his throat, burying his face in Spock’schest. They remain that way for a while before Jim clutches Spock by the clothat his waist with his other hand. He lifts his head and looks at Spock, blueeyes tender in their gaze. I have longedfor you, Spock had told him.

Spockcontinues to brush the pads of his fingers on Jim’s hand, soft and gentle andslow. He looks at Jim with a smile on his face.

“Ihave longed for you,” Jim repeats out loud. “God, Spock, that’s so sappy.” Jimgrins, his hand at Spock’s side grasping harder at the cloth there, almost pullingSpock closer.

Spockhuffs a breath of amusement and leans into Jim, first brushing their nosestogether, and then tilting his head to press his lips onto Jim’s. Jim lets goof their hands to wrap both his arms around Spock’s waist, opening his mouth todeepen their kiss.

Whentheir lips part, Jim remains holding Spock in his arms, resting his head oncemore on Spock’s chest. Spock hugs him back, one hand on Jim’s head and theother on his back. I have longed for you,he thinks again, I will long for you,still, for quite a while.

Group:Traitors

jamest[14:03]: planned murder aborted physically but y’all have to listen to me talkabout spock all the time now 💖💖💖

#writing #my writing #star trek #spirk #inbox #child-of-wilderness #this is so painfully mediocre #fanfiction #spirk fanfic

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