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ninja-muse · 2 months

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February was a pretty good month! I read some books I really loved (and a couple that were simply meh), I got in a father-daughter visit and had really good luck at Scrabble, the weather was mostly not awful, and even if inventory at work took longer than expected, I survived it without brain mush, which has happened before. I am still the fastest scanner! My title holds.

Regular readers will be unsurprised to learn that Eve by Cat Bohannon and Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse were my top reads of the month, or that What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher ranks third. My T. Kingfisher problem is at least a year old, after all. (Also I read a couple delightful picture books, so be sure to click through to find them!)

I'm personally more surprised by my lowest picks, because they both sounded so up my alley but fell flat for nearly completely different reasons. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store ended up feeling disjointed and like it was trying for a theme it couldn't quite grasp, and A Market of Dreams and Desires hit all kinds of tropes I love, right down to random Dickens references and weird steampunk machines, but tied everything together a little too neatly for me. Ah well.

And right in the middle of my list is my sole physical TBR read of the month: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. This managed to tick off "Canadian author" and "classic" at the same time, so I get triple points. (This might have had a hand in me picking it.) Duddy has aged surprisingly well, in that it's still pretty fast-paced and amusing and also in that Richler wrote it with the understanding that scam artistry, hypermaterialism, and misogyny were bad and y'know what? They still are. I would recommend if you're looking for a Canadian teen anti-hero, more than anything. Duddy is a trainwreck and you can't look away.

I managed to get through the month with only three books hauled. (We won't talk about ARCs but the book fairies were kind.) The Unfortunate Traveller and Under a Pendulum Sun were bought during the habitual father-daughter bookstore date, and both because I never thought I'd see them and figured I might never see them again. The Unfortunate Traveller is essays and travel writing by a guy who co-wrote with Shakespeare and I didn't know it even existed. Under the Pendulum Sun was recced to me somewhere (here? bookish website algorithms?) and since it's essentially a gothic novel with properly weird fairies, it's been on my list.

The third book was a total surprise. Apparently I helped crowdfund it in 2019 and they've only just managed to get it printed and also I said I wanted a physical copy? The things we learn. Anyway, it's essays on aromanticism, agender identity, and asexuality so that tracks.

And I know I said I wasn't going to talk about ARCs but I got some good ones this last month and also in January, and there's a lot of them that are out or soon to be out and I'm having that problem where I want to be reading all of them at once. March is going to be interesting and probably a little panic-inducing.

Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

Eve - Cat Bohannon

A history of human evolution, through the lens of the female body.

8.5/10

warning: touches on sexism, mental illness, suicide, miscarriage, and rape

reading copy

Mirrored Heavens - Rebecca Roanhorse

The fractures following the eclipse have deepened and no one can see a way back to peace that doesn’t involve bloodshed. Out in June

8/10

Indigenous cast, 🏳️‍🌈 POV characters (bisexual, third gender), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (third gender, sapphic), Black-Pueblo author

warning: war, torture, mentions of child abuse

reading copy

What Feasts At Night - T. Kingfisher

Alex Easton has returned to kar hunting lodge to relax. Unfortunately, the locals claim there's a monster on a property.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (third gender), protagonist with PTSD

Library ebook

The Twilight Queen - Jeri Westerson

Will Somers, jester to Henry VIII, is caught up in another mystery, this time of a corpse in Queen Anne’s bedchamber.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (bi), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (gay)

digital reading copy

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordechai Richler

A delinquent teen grows into a hustler, against the backdrop of mid-century Jewish Montreal.

7/10

largely Jewish cast, Jewish author, 🇨🇦

warning: racial slurs, misogyny

Off my TBR shelves

The Woman With No Name - Audrey Blake

Lonely and craving war work, Yvonne signs up to be the first female spy for the Allies in occupied France. Out in March

7/10

half a 🇨🇦 author

reading copy

The Frame-Up - Gwenda Bond

Ten years ago, Dani turned her art thief mom in to the Feds. Now her mom’s mentor has given Dani an offer she can’t refuse: use her magic to pull an impossible heist, get her life back.

6.5/10

Black secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic)

reading copy

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store - James McBride

The Black and Jewish residents of a Pennsylvania neighbourhood are (mostly) in it together, not least of when the government decides to take a local Deaf kid to an asylum.

7/10

Jewish and Black cast, major character with chronic illness and a limp, secondary Deaf character, Black author

warning: ableist characters and institutions, racist and anti-Semitic characters, sexual assault and molestation, (largely) reclaimed slurs

library book

The Market of Dreams and Destiny - Trip Galey

Deri may have a chance to buy out his indenture early when he meets a princess looking to sell her destiny. But in the goblin’s Untermarkt, nothing’s ever easy.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (mlm), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (mlm, genderfluid), British Indian secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: child abuse, enslavement

borrowed from work

Picture Books

No Cats in the Library - Lauren Emmons

Cats aren’t allowed in the library but that’s where all the books are!

🏳️‍🌈 author

Read at work

Family is Family - Melissa Marr

Chick gets a note before kindergarten, telling him to have his mom or dad walk him to school. Except that Chick has two moms.

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters and themes

Read at work

Currently reading

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin

Paul Delamare is filling in at a cooking school when the resident celebrity chef has a, erm, "accident."

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Black British secondary character

Reading copy

True North - Andrew J. Graff

The Brechts move to Wisconsin to restart a rafting business. They hope it’ll save their young family, but it might do the opposite.

library book

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character, occasional secondary Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 9 +2 Yearly total: 20 Queer books: 4 + 2 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1.5 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 6 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 0

January

#booklr #bookblr #book reviews #adult booklr #reading wrap-ups #read in 2024 #my photos #book stacks #stacks of books

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syn-odics · 2 years

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alex. can you. tell me about your dnd ocs. 5 paragraph minimum

WELL I SURE THINK I CAN HEEHEHEEEHE

ok so before i get into it, i do have a whole oc blog @glasyasbutch that i used to use a lot when we were all locked inside our houses and now i reblog like. one post a week. BUT it does have a page w all the characters so u can see like. art and stuff bc i wont be trying to add images to this post

OKAYOKAY OKAY . SO. I . okay. okay. I’m not gonna do all of them bc i have a lot of them but i’ll do . all the ones I’ve played recently + a few others I think are really fun.

1. Stitch: this is the PC from the game i was talking about in the server last night, its not actually d&d, it’s a noir detective-inspired super power system called City of Mist. Our campaign is set in a steampunk-ish tiered city with like 300 floors to it, the higher you go the richer it gets. Stitch is an early 20s girl who wears huge glasses and turtlenecks/scarves all the time. She’s a seamstress who makes dresses for the upper upper floors.

About four years ago one of her regular clients, Bela la Monte, was actually another rift (in universe name for people w powers) training Stitch in using her powers, which are. I guess easiest way to describe it is force powers?? She can like push/pull/crush/stretch things at a distance, with a lot of strength coming at the cost of no fine control (she can blow down a door, but couldn’t be delicate enough to just turn the handle).

She killed Bela’s husband in an accident with her powers, essentially crushing his throat and killing him, and she suffered a little bit of backlash which left her with marks on her own neck which she wears the high necks/scarves to hide. Bela took the heat of the criminal investigation, basically playing up the Black Widow trope and implying she was the one who killed him but would pay her way out of a conviction if she got one so it wouldn’t be worth it to charge her.

During the investigation, Bela and Stitch agreed to stop spending time around each other to try and keep them from prying too much into Stitch and potentially uncovering her guilt, and Stitch just hasn’t heard from Bela in 4 years. (Unbeknownst to her, Bela convinced herself that the accident was premeditated and Stitch had been planning to take them both out, and now has a huge vendetta she’s waiting for right moment to follow through on). Without Bela’s guidance, Stitch has been trying to find other Rifts who can help her learn about and control her powers, which means sticking her nose into all kinds of troublesome accidents and mysteries around the city but also having to stay unnoticed so her past doesn’t get dug up.

2. Craving: My one and only, I have genuinely written like 3000 word essays about Craving’s backstory and I will try to pare it down.

She’s a tiefling, wine red skin w very very very long very very very curly hair. One side of her head appears to have very close cropped hair but if you look closely, it’s actually very little barbs, which she actually has all over her body (she is a barbed tiefling). shes goth and wears exclusively like victorian style ballgowns that make her boobs look good. She started as a rogue and over the course of the campaign also started taking levels in warlock (i’ll talk more on that later).

she has like every tragic backstory you can think of all smashed into one. she grew up poor in a gentrified area, her parents dying while she was young due to poverty/medical malpractice (more there that i dont have space to get into or i’ll be here all day). she (named velis at the time), her brother sirris, and sirris’ boyfriend rolx ran their family’s antique store and were barely scraping by but it was a happy life, until one day the shop got ransacked and set on fire with them still inside in a deliberate hate crime. sirris died, and velis and rolx vowed revenge.

they took the names craving (because she would never be able to take back enough of what the world owed her) and manic (because he was only living to satisfy his rage) and basically went on a revenge quest, first killing the guys who set fire to their town and then just sticking with the outlaw “rich people don’t deserve shit, bleed em dry” mentality.

while doing that, she met a gnome named stella who had her own fire-based dead family trauma that caused her to turn to a life of crime and they got arrested and broke out of jail together. Over several months of meeting randomly, and then not-so-randomly, to spend the night and work jobs together they fell in love but craving refused to admit it bc she’d seen w her parents and then rolx and sirris that love only ends in tragedy.

and she was right - stella went missing without a trace one day (i have other backstory there again wont get into it or we’ll be here all day). alone again w just her and manic, they ended getting sucked into barovia aka inescapable vampire-infested hellscape. which is the actual campaign.

two other people in the party were a rogue/warlock named leoros and a cleric named judhas. craving was immediately very jealous of leoros bc, due to a combination of him having super crazy stat bonuses and me not being able to roll dice for shit, basically was just better at being a rogue than craving was. and she has a HUGE ego and a HUGE inferiority complex and would have done anything to not feel second best.

enter judhas, who as it turns out, was a cleric of asmodeus. the devil. and he was like uhhhhh you know. i can hook you up with someone. and he sent glasya, the demon in charge of manipulation and loopholes to offer craving a warlock pact to give her powers. in one of the coolest rp moments of all time, she showed up trying to strike a chord with the inferiority complex being like “oooh craving ... youre so weak and pathetic ... you have no morals and no skills ... its only a matter of time before they all realize it and leave you ... what a pity.” and then craving starts LAUGHING and she’s like “you almost had me, you really did, but the only thing I hate worse than being weak is being pitied.” and then GLASYA goes “well, before you leave, can i at least show you why I pity you?”

AND THEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHE PULLS UP A LOST SOUL FROM HELL AND IS LIKE “IF YOU TOOK MY DEAL, AND LET ME TEACH YOU, YOU MIGHT EVENTUALLY HAVE THE POWER TO SAVE HIM. BUT IF YOU DON’T, WELL ... AND TURNS TO LOOK AT THE SOUL AND SAYS ‘SAY GOODBYE TO CRAVING, SIRRIS. TELL ROLX HELLO FOR HIM’ AND VANISHES.

Now, that was not Actually craving’s brother sirris but just a random soul named sirris, but obviously craving doesn’t know that, and so while manic is being offered powers by this super duper good god who’s trying to give him (and craving by extension) a redemption arc, craving gets judhas to call glasya back up and signs a pact with glasya without even reading it because she’s just so desperate to be able to save her brother, even though this is definitely going to damn her to hell, she was probably going anyways so. what’s the loss.

and ughgghghgh it’s just SO much fun to rp as her and her story is so well crafted, much thanks to our DM and the player for manic, and its so tragic and so good and it makes me go crazy if i think about it too much and yeah.

Gent: Ok this one’s pure wish fulfillment, he’s a he/him lesbian named Gent as in Gentleman. He’s a blue tiefling, a pirate, a wizard with a sword, and the sexiest bitch alive.

He’s from a campaign set in the world of one of my fave ttrpg shows to watch (critical role) and basically he grew up in a port city and had some innate magical ability that got noticed by one of the captains of a ship that often docked in port there. She offered to train him and get him private tutelage from the big name wizard recluse who lived in a tower in the middle of the city IF he agreed to work as a deckhand on her crew, which he happily took up.

Her name was Captain Crystal and as it turned out, the trade ship was only a cover. She and her crew were all casters and they ran one of the most feared pirate ships, which physically transformed as they pulled out of sight of port. The sails would change color, the ship would become swathed in shadow, and the masthead of a dainty girl with a dagger held in folded hands against her sternum would lean forwards, bear its pointed teeth, and brandish the dagger as it grew into a cutlass.

Captain Crystal eventually has plans to use her caster crew to lead a coup and crown herself pirate queen, but as she’s been biding her time Gent’s been training up to a very high level abjuration wizard which without getting too much into d&d mechanics is basically like a defensive/protection wizard and trust me its very cool and sexy. He has a sword that he casts all of his spells out of which is also very cool and sexy.

Overall he’s very sociable, very friendly, but his biggest downfall is that he hates not knowing things. He will put himself in an unreasonable amount of danger just to figure things out because he hates not understanding how all the pieces are being put together. His character voice is me doing a bad russian accent.

Tov: Tov is my character from an abandoned campaign that I will never forgive the fact that it got abandoned because he’s literally my only guy ever and I love him so much.

He’s a silver dragonborn and his whole deal is like. Okay so in d&d lore gods are real and tangible and thousands of years ago they fought a bunch of wars against each other using the people on the material plane as their armies, and the dragon god bahamut created an entire race of dragonlings to fight in his name. Tov is from a clan of dragonborns that can actually trace their lineage all the way back to one of these armies created by a god and due to that, pretty much everyone in the clan has some innate magical ability.

keyword: pretty much. tov was one of the few people in recorded history born without any innate magic and he and his brother nagrax spent years and years trying to find ways to bring out the magic that was lying latent in him, or find him another way to gain powers so that he wouldn’t basically be the dud of the family. They ended up going to this site that had been mentioned as a place of great power and mystery, and it turned out to be a gate to the shadowfell (which is like. its overrun with shadow and decay and the plane itself feeds on your life force and corrupts your sense of humanity and turns you into a walking shell of yourself basically).

tov walked through the gate and got a little nugget of shadowfell implanted in him and it corrupted him and made him bent on nothing but destruction and he stepped back out of the gate and tried to kill his brother. rax eventually subdued him and was like “tov what the fuck” and tov was like “the ... the gate ... it showed me this horrible shadow version of you and i just felt the need to destroy it i didnt know it was really you at first” and rax was like. “at first? when did you realize it was me?” and tov just doesn’t answer because he realized pretty soon in that it was his real brother but he still couldn’t fight the urge to kill him

and rax was like, listen i dont know what walked back out of that gate but it’s not my brother anymore. my brother would never have tried to harm me once he realized. and as a testament to his memory, i am going to let you live. and i am going to back home. by myself. and tell everyone that tov died so at least his name isn’t tarnished by whatever the hell is wrong with you. and i never want to see you again. and leaves

and now tov is just alone, he gained magic but at the cost of his family and his humanity which is cosntantly fighting with this piece of the shadowfell inside him. he took up monsterhunting because he thought it might be a helpful way to channel his desire to destroy, and in the process met this woman savra who was basically brainwashed by a murder cult in her youth and now works this thing called the order of the gauntlet which is basically a protection guild that works to keep the city safe and the law just.

and she offers tov a job there and they’ve grown closer as friends and were just starting to date before the campaign cut off, but like they’re both people who are haunted by a past of horrid horrid destruction who are both learning how to be more than the blood on their hands, and that there are people in this world who can know the worst parts of them and love them anyways, and she was going to call him a good man and really mean it and he’d feel a weight fall off his shoulders and they were going to get married and tov was going to have a home and family for the first time in like 10 years but we never finished the campaign and it makes me scream and cry

ok those are like my top 3 + stitch and ive already written wayyyyy too much but i have. many many more and i could talk about them forever.

(ezra glimmer ebbie nissy are all ones ive actually played and have many many thoughts about; stella (from cravings backstory) hed’ja billie and unnamed klingon ripoff are ones i just have concepts for but havent had a chance to play in a campaign bc they’d require a Lot of homebrew worldbuilding to make their concepts work, but if you want to know more about any of THOSE guys feel free to ask but youve already had to read so much im not putting more on here)

#sorry for not answering earlier i was out running errands all day #but thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu for sending this in you indulge all my silly little ideas #<33333333 #asks

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thranduil-aran-edhil · 2 years

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For the writing meme: 6, 7, 8, 13, 17, 22, 24 :D

YAY!! LETS GOO

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

Never being satisfied with anything I write to the point of paralysis.

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

Making my own reality, with things I think are important, I think Matt Colville says it best when he says that creating a setting is about your opinion on the things you've consumed, things you think are missing from what you consume and your own idiosyncratic details.

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

I thiiiink I'd have to go with "without action", I think that's the screenplay training speaking louder sdkjghdkfjg How would it gooo, uhm well, there are many interesting ways to convey action with only dialogue so I think a fight scene without action could be very interesting. Something like a starship battle with only dialog.

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

Anything related to sexual abuse is extremely hard for me, I tend to just ignore it exists when I write or tone it way down. I'm not sure if I can say with certainty that something is easy though, think I have to write some more and reflect on it some more too.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

KJDFHGJK OH I KNEW YOU'D GIVE ME THAT QUESTION. ok so, I haven't yet thought out all of the details but the Arctic Monkeys have been together for a while, so much so they don't really know the moment they became a gang, one minute they're kids playing aliens around in the rubble, the other they are beating up the bullies around the neighbourhood, the other they are stealing bike parts, ya know? Alex and Jamie are very much Sci-Fi nerds and Alex made a special steampunk protection goggles for Jamie to use in the garage.

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

Uhmm well, not much. I kinda get the idea in my head, start writing on google docs, write till I'm stuck and then I go "huh maybe I should have prepped better". So I'm currently researching better methods to do the prep thing. I thought that I was the "flying by the seat of their pants" writer but I guess I'm not? Or maybe not all of the time.

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

I prep as much as I think I need. I write the general outline of the story, but in not much detail at all. I think I'm afraid my brain will go "OH SO WE FINISHED THIS RIGHT? I'm not interested in it anymore, let's do something else" if I plan too much. I do enjoy prepping though.

#thanks for the ask and the soul searching #trick out here going 'hello imma therapy you from your askbox'#sdjgjfgd #trickztr

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tarkovskyartisticstyletoday · 2 years

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Tarkovskys Inspiration: Director to Director

Andie Tarkovsky influence in Russian cinematography was most influential for Russian directors, and directors all around the world. When I was doing my research into who was inspired by the breathtaking cinematography of Tarkovsky a few directors kept popping up, we will be taking a deeper look into some of the directors that were inspired by Tarkovskys style through cinema. The two that stood out to me was Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, and Australian filmmaker Alex Proyas. Both directors have uses some of Tarkovskys lingering camera techniques, and use of symbols sum in their move to evoke the feeling. Through this blog post I will be discussing the similarities these three directors hold in their writing and how they are influenced by Tarkovskys work.

Theo Angelopoulos is a Greek film maker that just from watching his movies we can see the similarities between the two directors. For example, in Angelopoulos movie The Guardian, we see the similarities of lingering camera technique, a technique that both Tarkovsky and Angelopoulos use in their work in film. Tarkovsky film Ivan’s Childhood and Angelopoulos The Guardian, they have similar looks to both their war movies, and viewpoint on the wars, The more gruesome and darker look into childhood of war and how it can be a lasting effect to growing up from war. Both these directors have used the shots of burning houses in movies to capture the beauty in the end of the world, Tarkovsky uses this to show a more hopeful look into the end, while Angelous uses it for the travesty in the end of something.

The second director I found a similar style to Tarkovskys work was Australian director, Alez Proyas. He is a director that I had stumbled across when doing my research in comparison to Tarkovskys work, I came across Proyas film Dark City. This is a gangster film, which I know seems like a little bit of a stretch for the argument that it could be influenced by Tarkovskys work but let me explain. In an interview Proyas explains this film as “the film unfolds in a unique, eternally dark urban world, one that mixes Art Deco and steampunk trapping” (Bullard 3), while Tarkovsky as continually states how he uses dark twisted was in his film to bring a more visually pleasing cinematic experience. Proyas uses color as well to inflict emotion onto the audience in his movies. When talking about Dark City, he plays around with lighting in scenes to show mystery or to bring attention to smaller details throughout his movies; just as Tarkovsky does. Using these minute details and crucial factors into these directors' movies is what grabbed my attention to the similarities between them and Tarkovskys. The way all three of our directors use lighting and setting through cinema to shine the camera on the real message through their movies.

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everyshadeofwrong · 3 years

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#can we talk about steampunk alex #because jesus christ #🥵🥵#alex horne #little alex horne #taskmaster #my post

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fanciful-follies · 6 years

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So for this treasure planet au, may i ask if you have any outfit ideas in mind for the characters??? like...PIRATES IN SPACE...I gotta know what that looks like (although I guess for the most part they are secret pirates in space lmao but yeah)

SECRET PIRATES IN SPACE lol. Here are the outfit ideas I have for most of the characters so far

Aaron:

Alexander:

Eliza:

Theodosia:

Bellamy:

Maria:

John:

Hercules:

Angelica:

I know they’re kind of all over the place lol but that’s just how it turned out and tbh I like it and think it works

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duckiereads · 3 years

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10 Middle Grade Books by Asian Authors!

As always, the pictures and jacket copy are from publishers' sites! If they didn't have info available, I used info from author sites! :)

If any of these interest you and if you are able, please support your favorite independent bookstores when purchasing these and other books!

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh

We Need Diverse Books founder Ellen Oh returns with Spirit Hunters, a high-stakes middle grade mystery series about Harper Raine, the new seventh grader in town who must face down the dangerous ghosts haunting her younger brother. A riveting ghost story and captivating adventure, this tale will have you guessing at every turn! Harper doesn’t trust her new home from the moment she steps inside, and the rumors are that the Raine family’s new house is haunted. Harper isn’t sure she believes those rumors, until her younger brother, Michael, starts acting strangely. The whole atmosphere gives Harper a sense of déjà vu, but she can’t remember why. She knows that the memories she’s blocking will help make sense of her brother’s behavior and the strange and threatening sensations she feels in this house, but will she be able to put the pieces together in time?

The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi

A trio of friends from New York City find themselves trapped inside a mechanical board game that they must dismantle in order to save themselves and generations of other children in this action-packed debut that’s a steampunk Jumanji with a Middle Eastern flair. Nothing can prepare you for The Gauntlet… It didn’t look dangerous, exactly. When twelve-year-old Farah first laid eyes on the old-fashioned board game, she thought it looked…elegant. It is made of wood, etched with exquisite images—a palace with domes and turrets, lattice-work windows that cast eerie shadows, a large spider—and at the very center of its cover, in broad letters, is written: The Gauntlet of Blood and Sand. The Gauntlet is more than a game, though. It is the most ancient, the most dangerous kind of magic. It holds worlds inside worlds. And it takes players as prisoners.

The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao

As a member of the Jade Society, twelve-year-old Faryn Liu dreams of honoring her family and the gods by becoming a warrior. But the Society has shunned Faryn and her brother Alex ever since their father disappeared years ago, forcing them to train in secret. Then, during an errand into San Francisco, Faryn stumbles into a battle with a demon--and helps defeat it. She just might be the fabled Heaven Breaker, a powerful warrior meant to work for the all-mighty deity, the Jade Emperor, by commanding an army of dragons to defeat the demons. That is, if she can prove her worth and find the island of the immortals before the Lunar New Year. With Alex and other unlikely allies at her side, Faryn sets off on a daring quest across Chinatowns. But becoming the Heaven Breaker will require more sacrifices than she first realized . . . What will Faryn be willing to give up to claim her destiny? This richly woven contemporary middle-grade fantasy, full of humor, magic, and heart, will appeal to readers who love Roshani Chokshi and Sayantani DasGupta.

The Serpent's Secret by Sayantani DasGupta

MEET KIRANMALA: INTERDIMENSIONAL DEMON SLAYER (Only she doesn't know it yet.) On the morning of her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala is just a regular sixth grader living in Parsippany, New Jersey . . . until her parents mysteriously vanish and a drooling rakkhosh demon slams through her kitchen, determined to eat her alive. Turns out there might be some truth to her parents' fantastical stories-like how Kiranmala is a real Indian princess and how she comes from a secret place not of this world. To complicate matters, two crush-worthy princes ring her doorbell, insisting they've come to rescue her. Suddenly, Kiran is swept into another dimension full of magic, winged horses, moving maps, and annoying, talking birds. There she must solve riddles and battle demons all while avoiding the Serpent King of the underworld and the Rakkhoshi Queen in order to find her parents and basically save New Jersey, her entire world, and everything beyond it . . .

Much Ado about Baseball by Rajani LeRocca

In this companion novel to Midsummer's Mayhem, math and baseball combine with savory snacks to cause confusion and calamity in the town of Comity. Twelve-year-old Trish can solve tough math problems and throw a mean fastball. But because of her mom's new job, she's now facing a summer trying to make friends all over again in a new town. That isn't an easy thing to do, and her mom is too busy to notice how miserable she is. But at her first baseball practice, Trish realizes one of her teammates is Ben, the sixth-grade math prodigy she beat in the spring Math Puzzler Championships. Everyone around them seems to think that with their math talent and love of baseball, it's only logical that Trish and Ben become friends, but Ben makes it clear he still hasn't gotten over that loss and can't stand her. To make matters worse, their team can't win a single game. But then they meet Rob, an older kid who smacks home runs without breaking a sweat. Rob tells them about his family's store, which sells unusual snacks that will make them better ballplayers. Trish is dubious, but she's willing to try almost anything to help the team. When a mysterious booklet of math puzzles claiming to reveal the "ultimate answer" arrives in her mailbox, Trish and Ben start to get closer and solve the puzzles together. Ben starts getting hits, and their team becomes unstoppable. Trish is happy to keep riding the wave of good luck . . . until they get to a puzzle they can't solve, with tragic consequences. Can they find the answer to this ultimate puzzle, or will they strike out when it counts the most?

The Best at it by Maulik Pancholy

Rahul Kapoor is heading into seventh grade in a small town in Indiana. The start of middle school is making him feel increasingly anxious, so his favorite person in the whole world, his grandfather, Bhai, gives him some well-meaning advice: Find one thing you’re really good at and become the BEST at it. Those four little words sear themselves into Rahul’s brain. While he’s not quite sure what that special thing is, he is convinced that once he finds it, bullies like Brent Mason will stop torturing him at school. And he won’t be worried about staring too long at his classmate Justin Emery. With his best friend, Chelsea, by his side, Rahul is ready to crush this challenge.... But what if he discovers he isn’t the best at anything? Funny, charming, and incredibly touching, this is a story about friendship, family, and the courage it takes to live your truth.

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

A Malaysian folk tale comes to life in this emotionally layered, chilling middle grade debut, perfect for fans of The Book of Boy and The Jumbies. I am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command. Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable. But Suraya doesn’t know that pelesits have a dark side—and when Pink’s shadows threaten to consume them both, they must find enough light to survive . . . before they are both lost to the darkness. Fans of Holly Black’s Doll Bones and Tahereh Mafi’s Furthermore series will love this ghostly middle grade debut that explores jealousy, love, and the extraordinary power of friendship.

The Twelve by Cindy Lin

Usagi can hear a squirrel’s heartbeat from a mile away, and soar over treetops in one giant leap. She was born in the year of the wood rabbit, and it’s given her extraordinary zodiac gifts. But she can never use them, not while the mysterious, vicious Dragonlord hunts down all those in her land with zodiac powers. Instead, she must keep her abilities—and those of her rambunctious sister Uma—a secret. After Uma is captured by the Dragonguard, Usagi can no longer ignore her powers. She must journey to Mount Jade with the fabled Heirs of the Twelve, a mystical group of warriors who once protected the land. As new mysteries unfold, Usagi must decide who she stands with, and who she trusts, as she takes on deadly foes on her path to the elusive, dangerous Dragonlord himself.

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Inside Out and Back Again meets Millicent Min, Girl Genius in this timely, hopeful middle-grade novel with a contemporary Chinese twist. Mia Tang has a lot of secrets: Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed. Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language? It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?

Stand Up, Yumi Chung by Jessica Kim

One lie snowballs into a full-blown double life in this irresistible story about an aspiring stand-up comedian. On the outside, Yumi Chung suffers from #shygirlproblems, a perm-gone-wrong, and kids calling her “Yu-MEAT” because she smells like her family’s Korean barbecue restaurant. On the inside, Yumi is ready for her Netflix stand-up special. Her notebook is filled with mortifying memories that she’s reworked into comedy gold. All she needs is a stage and courage. Instead of spending the summer studying her favorite YouTube comedians, Yumi is enrolled in test-prep tutoring to qualify for a private school scholarship, which will help in a time of hardship at the restaurant. One day after class, Yumi stumbles on an opportunity that will change her life: a comedy camp for kids taught by one of her favorite YouTube stars. The only problem is that the instructor and all the students think she’s a girl named Kay Nakamura–and Yumi doesn’t correct them. As this case of mistaken identity unravels, Yumi must decide to stand up and reveal the truth or risk losing her dreams and disappointing everyone she cares about.

And that wraps up this list! What books are you excited to check out? Or if you don't read MG--which books are you excited to but for the tweens in your life?! ;)

#booklr #book recs #asian authors #asian #kidslit #diverse books #long post #books #apologies for the very simple image descriptions I don't know how much detail I have room for

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peachcitt · 3 years

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Hi! You've mentioned on Discord that you read a lot of books, and I was wondering if you could rec some? Either your favourites, or ones that had a big impact on you/your writing 🥺

yes!!! all my favorite books generally affect my writing style, and often after ive finished reading a really good book, i'll write something and end up emulating that book's style (either on accident or on purpose haha). sometimes on my ao3 you'll find in my author's notes me saying what book i just finished, and if you read or know those books, you'll probably see me mimicking certain aspects of style

for other reccommendations/more in depth descriptions of book plots, i also have a reading list that i posted this past winter on my writing blog that you can check out, and im planning on posting another one at the end of the summer!! (in fact ive already started the list lmao)

the list will be structured as follows: book or series name, author, and a couple reasons why i like it. in addition to this, i will put stars by author's names if i have read other books by them and greatly enjoyed them.

without further ado:

The Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo*

this has got to be my favorite series of all time. i love bardugo's capability to write complex characters and complicated plots, and i really like the way she structures her books. the series is just so artfully done and when i finished it i was so perfectly satisfied and so perfectly sad because i mourned the fact that it was over

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak*

literally my favorite book. this is the book i tell people is my favorite if anyone asks. i love zusak's casual humor alongside his ability to write such heartbreaking and heavy moments in just little scraps of images. it's a romantic book without being about romance - it's about love and kindness and how powerful those things can be be, and that shit gets me every time. i have reread this book so many times - yearly since i got it, i think, and i got in middle school, i think. im in college now. and every time i reread it, i get something different out of it

The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness*

i think about these books constantly. these were the first books i read by patrick ness, and, now that ive read some of his other books, i know in classic patrick ness fashion, these books haunt me. patrick ness has this uncanny ability to take genres you think you know and twist and warp them until you're on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what will happen next without the safety net of genre supporting the story. in addition to that, his characters are always wonderfully flawed - he puts real people into fantastical situations, and it's fascinating and always an emotional and satisfying read

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith*

dude i think about the alex crow so much. i said i normally call i am in the messenger my favorite book, but every so often i'll say this one is because i just love it so much. the alex crow is just so bafflingly weird but the teenage boy main characters are so real and gross and hilarious. andrew smith has the amazing knack for writing weird as hell plot lines and telling stories that are about everything, all at once, while still making it about one thing. that doesn't make sense, but if you read the alex crow (or his other book i've read called Grasshopper Jungle that is actually on my summer list) then you will know what i mean. the alex crow is so many things, and i love all of them

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson*

i used to read a lot of ya romance and, to be honest, the stuff i used to read was not all great, but this book absolutely changed the game and probably made me raise my standards exponentially. the timeline of this book is so creative, and it's done in such a way that it leaves you wondering how the timelines will reconcile. in addition to this, both romances in the book are so interesting and loveable, and the relationship between the two main characters (who are twins) is an amazing thing to see unfold. this is a peak ya romance book, and i can't recommend it enough

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven*

another ya romance, and i have to say the romance in this book is so beautifully done. generally, this is just a really sweet book that gave me butterflies, to be quite honest. i think niven has a really good knack for writing characters that are diverse and a little strange but all have their own distinct personalities that mingle really interestingly with each other.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe By Benjamin Alire Sáenz

this one is an obvious choice, and for good reason. aristotle and dante is just a classic queer novel, and it's earned its place as such. it's a poetic sort of book, and i love the voices of the characters, as well as the pictures of the world we get through ari's voice. this is a visual book written in text - i think a lot about the steady, careful romance of the book and the way sáenz makes ari an unreliable narrator by artfully excluding his feelings from scene descriptions and dialogue tags. it's such a creative and heartbreaking technique that i often find myself wanting to do

The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

oooohh this trilogy changed me. for starters its such a weird, creative concept - alternate history steampunk and biopunk world war I. like doesn't that sound so interesting?? and this trilogy's main characters are so easy to love - and watching their relationship unfold and develop is so endearing. also, my copies include these wonderful illustrations (which i think might be in all copies?) that really let you put images to the weird fantastical things westerfeld included into the world.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

this book was actually on my winter book list, and i read it so fast and so obsessively because i wanted so badly to know what was going to happen. the plot absolutely pulled me in, and the first line - "I forgot everything between footsteps" - stuck with me because just look at the way that's written!! it's so artful and intriguing, i was just dying to know what would happen next. the timeline is this amazing maze that as i read i couldn't help but admire how long or how much turton had to plan in order to make everything line up in just the right way. it was a fascinating book with so much to say - im really looking forward to reading it again

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

this book was also on my winter book list, and it just absolutely enraptured me. its witty, quiet sort of voice was amazing to read, and the imagery instilled into every scene made it seem like everything was so real, just right there for me to touch or smell or taste. the plot of a secret huge magic library really roped me in, and i think this is a love story for people who read, people who love stories, people who love the magic of a library.

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero*

cantero's works are just so creatively written - not just by plot or character standards, but by style standards, too. meddling kids is great not just for its complex, loveable characters or for its fantastical, dark, and mysterious plot, but also for the weird and intriguing liberties cantero makes with style. in his other books, too, is the switch between snarkily written prose to stage directions to video or audio transcripts, and it makes for such a visual sort of book - i mean, i could easily see any of cantero's books being made into a film or series because all the material is right there. cantero's creativity with style is so intriguing to me, and because of him, i've become more familiar with playing around in style in an attempt to create something as interesting as his novels

and that's all i'll put down here now!

i mentioned it a little, but probably my biggest style references are leigh bardugo, markus zusak, edgar cantero, and andrew smith for various reasons that i am more than willing to talk more in depth about if anyone is wondering<3

thank you for asking im always willing to talk books :')

#ask #miabrown007 #book rec list #book recs #long post #I ALWAYS TALK SO MUCH WHEN IT COMES TO BOOKS IM SO SORRY #someone: what are you favorite books? / me (vibrating at the speed of sound):#anyway if anyone is truly curious about my style references just send me an ask and i will answer!

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soyouareandrewdobson · 3 years

Text

Andy on Asian Animation or SYAC: The Master Review 2

Let’s talk a bit about anime and Dobson’s work relation with it.

I think we can all agree, that starting from the late 90s and early 2000s on, anime and manga became extremely popular in the western world. Sure, Japanese animation was nothing completely new to us (Speed Racer, Nadia-Secret of Blue Water, Samurai Pizza Cats, Sailor Moon, Kimba and Akira e.g. come to my mind as properties already known in the west before 1995) but it really was around this time that thanks to “mainstream” stuff like Dragon Ball and Pokemon people became aware of how different Japanese animation was from western. Eventually resulting in the really good shit (like Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, Kenshin and Heat Guy J) coming over and enriching nerd culture for more than just a few people who knew of it as an obscurity at that point. Now, if you know anything about Dobson, you likely know that his relationship with anime is rather… complicated to say the least. Or, to let him explain it with his own words…

Dobson essentially likes silly and wacky 90s anime. But later on he hated anime in general, because it got too popular and a bad experience with an anime club in college soured his enjoyment of it. Furthermore, he put the blame on his lackluster art style and storytelling capabilities as seen in the likes of Formera, Patty and Alex ze Pirate, on anime in general, while also claiming that Disney pulling the plug on 2D animation is the result of the “anime inspired” Treasure Planet, meaning anime in a sense deprived him of his chance at working at his dream job and “ruining” western animation.

Which to me has always been ignorant as fuck. For starters, I can understand not liking certain stories or genres, either for objective or subjective reasons. But to hate on an entire nation’s form of entertainment (not just individual shows or genres), depriving yourself of the chance of potentially watching a lot of good stuff while also being rather insulting to these other works and people enjoying them? Especially when the stuff you can supposedly “stomach” has been rather simplistic compared to other things?

Second, blaming Japan for “poisoning” your art style? What, did the ghost of Osamu Tezuka possess you and FORCE you to put sweatdrops on your characters forehead while also going for the rather simplistic character style of Rumiko Takahashi, as well as emulating the slapstick of the likes as Slayers and Ranma ½?

Next, if he had emulated them successfully, I say he would have actually managed to tell decent enough stories worth to read online. Not create Uncle Peggy aka “Discount Happosai” or the bland proto-Isekai known as Formera.

I mean, let’s give some context here: There have been people who successfully managed to emulate certain anime and manga aesthetics into western animation and make it work. Otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten the likes of Avatar-The last Airbender, Samurai Jack, the Animatrix, Thundercats 2011, Super Robot Monkey Hyperforce Go, Kim Possible, W.I.T.C.H, Megas XLR and Wakfu. You know, shows that are actually awesome as hell.

Heck, Dobson’s favorite animated show of the last decade, Steven Universe, is heavily inspired by anime aesthetics to the point of being embarrassing.

But Dobson… well, he emulated anime aesthetics in his work the same way as these crimes against animation did.

Combined with his general shortcomings as a storyteller it is no wonder his initial comics did not do well.

Lastly, and sorry for digressing here a bit, but if the Wikipedia entry on Treasure Planet is something to go by, there was no real inspiration by anime involved in making this movie.

Supposedly the idea of making an animated Treasure Planet in outer space movie was already pitched by Ron Clements WAY BACK in 1985 but only came to be after Michael Eisner greenlighted stuff in the late 90s. Design wise the movie was supposed to look 70% traditional and 30% sci-fi inspired and people took inspiration for the art style by illustrators associated with the Brandywine School of Illustration. A western style of illustration established in the 19th century, that had a big impact on the illustration styles for many 19th and early 20th century adventure novels and short stories.

What, is anime supposed to be the only form of animation allowed to have sci fi elements or steampunk in it? Fucks sake, The Lion King and Atlantis, which came out one year earlier to Treasure Planet, were likely more inspired by anime. Don’t believe me? Watch Atlantis and then a certain anime by Studio Gainax called “Nadia-Secret of Blue Water”. Or read up on the controversy surrounding the two.

The truth is, it is not entirely clear what caused Disney to shut down 2D feature film animation in the early 2000s. In fact, if anything, most people put the blame on Michael Eisner and a certain change in the publics taste in movies in general, combined with Disney trying to turn almost every movie they had into a franchise via cheap follow up movies on video and DVD.

And even if Disney did not shut down, are we really supposed to believe that a certain guy with fedora would have made it big at Disney to the point Alex ze Pirate would have been made into a feature film?

But Dobson could never quite understand this and instead of “reinventing” himself properly, he would rant about anime and its fans in one form or another…

And on the peak of his hissy fit create this little art piece he baptized Anime Sux. Alternatively “West vs East”. Or as I like to call it, slap a jap.

Now, the pic was done in 2008 and Dobson claimed sometimes in the last decade, that he no longer holds his old opinions. Unfortunately, by that point he would also more or less use the chance to vent in his webcomic about anime (or rather its fans), which brings us finally back to SYAC.

While Dobson never outright thematized in more detail WHY he hates anime and manga in SYAC (likely cause if his comic reasoning was even slightly like his reasoning in his blogs, people would have torn him apart like a bag of paper) he did use the format to punch down on anime fans and their preferences.

For example, for someone who has a 4chan story going around of having been rather arrogant towards others in college for not liking Ranma ½, Dobson has THIS little college related comic to show off, where he portrays an aspiring manga artist as a delusional jackass.

Then in this strip titled manga, his manga fan is essentially portrayed as a young woman dressing up like a very stereotypical high school anime girl, who is in the wrong for even just DARING to draw her comics in the direction manga are read.

On one hand, I get Dobson’s point. She could be at risk of alienating a market of readers as she is obviously drawing for a western audience. Then again, if she doesn’t draw a traditional western comic but a manga, why shouldn’t she? I mean, as long as she enjoys it, which I assume she does as she seems genuinely just happy when stating that she likes manga, why not let her? Plus, this comic was drawn in the late 2000s. I think by then most people kinda knew how to read from right to left, so Dobson’s claim she would alienate or confuse people is kinda redundant. If anything I find a) Dobson getting angry at her just very petty (just let her have fun) and b) portraying a western manga fan as someone who would be confused by the sheer idea of reading stuff from right to left is also in itself just really dumb and insulting. What is Dobson trying to imply? That anime fans are so stuck in the way they consume certain media, they can’t act according to “western standards” again?

Then there is this strip where yet another female anime fan is essentially portrayed as the embodiment of how “ignorant” manga fans are of the idea of different art styles...

Which becomes rather laughable once Dobson describes his style as a mixture of European, American and Japanese. Why? Because he is the one oversimplifying things, rather than the anime fan.

You see while anime and manga of all sorts do share certain aesthetics (like the black and white art style, emphasize on the eyes of characters, the way hair is drawn, recurring tropes within certain genres and so on) style wise (both in art and storytelling) there can be severe differences, depending on the artist alone. Akira Toriyama’s style differentiates significantly from the likes of Eichiro Oda, Rumiko Takahashi, Kentaro Miura, Tezuka, Kaori Yuki and so forth.

The same also goes for many western artists. Herge had a significantly different style from Uderzo and Goscinny. Don Rosa has a different style in which he drew Scrooge McDuck than Carl Barks did. Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee draw mainstream superheroes differently compared to how Jack Kirby, George Perez and others did. Heck, Ethan Van Sciver and Jim Lee were closely associated with Green Lantern in the 2000s and look how they differentiate.

Which btw is the kind of skill level Dobson would have needed to have, to make it in the mainstream industry

So when Dobson says “I draw in a combination of American, Western and Japanese” all I can think is the following: THAT DOESN’T NARROW IT DOWN! WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU LEARNT IN COLLEGE ABOUT COMICS? WHICH ARTISTS, WORKS AND STORYTELLERS DO YOU TRY TO EITHER EMULATE OR HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY?

Then there is this little thing…

Where do I even begin? How about the fact that Dobson’s hand in the last panel looks like he has lost a thumb? The fact that the little boy, anime fan or not, is aware of Sae Sawanoguchi, a character from a short lived OVA and anime series from the 90s, which considering his age, I kinda doubt he would be aware off. Unlike Dobson, who got into anime in the 90s and admits in fact within the posts I loaded up earlier, that he had watched the anime in particular, known in the west as Magic User Club.

Then there is the implication by Dobson, that anime is so “corruptive” as a medium, little kids don’t even know the most basic characters in western animation because of it. I expect in a next panel, that all of sudden some 50s PSA guy comes along and lectures me that if I want this kind of thing not to happen at MY convention, I need to teach little kids more about the GOOD western animation, instead of the BAD eastern one. Then there is this rather unflattering portrayal of a shonen ai/shojou ai fangirl…

Which makes me laugh cause honestly, even some of the worst shonen ai and shojou ai can do better in portraying a “realistic” gay relationship than Patty if you ask me.

Also, as much as I think fangirls can be extremely thirsty (I have read my fair share of extremely stupid yaoi and yuri fanfics) I think that in hindsight Dobson is really not anyone to complain about shipping obsession and sex when he himself has KorraSami, the Ladybug fandom and a certain rat pirate under his floppy belt.

As you can imagine, Dobson would get heat for those comics, considering how he himself has been greatly inspired by anime and manga for his major comics. And while I don’t have any explicit deviantart posts of him reacting to criticism in that regard, I do have this comic which addresses it directly.

And yeah, if I were schoolgirl number 4, I would just sigh and walk away after telling Dobson that his mistakes and shortcomings are not related to having consumed anime, but rather by what sort of anime (and other stories) he had consumed and the amount of effort he had put in creating his stories instead of emulating just something more popular. Plus, if you really want people to draw more from life, how about drawing more from life yourself down the line? And no, tracing Star Wars movie frames does not count.

Finally, Dobson, considering how very little most people think of your work, I say mission accomplished: People have learnt from your mistakes and know not to be a Dobson.

And at last, there is this comic, which kinda wraps up Dobson’s “vendetta” with anime and manga fans within the pages of SYAC.

By trying to mock anime fans and make them look just as shallow as he is. I at least suppose. Honestly, the message of this comic is rather muddled. On one hand, I would say the strawman accusing Dobson hates anime just because it is popular is very simplified. After all, Dobson has made his reasons for not liking anime clear in a few more details. It’s just that the details in and on themselves in real life are still rather shallow and boil down to a lot of personal bias rather than an objective criticism of actual flaws. Which I think is worth pointing out.

But frankly, what is Dobson trying to say or point out here? That the strawman is not so different or even dumber than him, because he hates Justin Bieber for “shallow” and superficial reasons too?

Okay, this doesn’t quite work as well as Dobson wants. First, the argument Dobson’s strawman makes is in huge parts based on some verified statements Dobson made for not liking anime. Second, he just says a name and that triggers the guy to express his hatred for Bieber. We don’t know why the guy hates Bieber and you could make in fact the case, that he hates him not because he is popular, but because he has a genuine issue with the artist, his work or his behavior as a human being. Third, if you want to make yourself look like the better person Dobson, try to argue with the guy and make solid arguments why you don’t like anime. Instead you just deflect the criticism by changing the subject and then try to make yourself look like the “smarter” person in the room by mocking your critic in the most condescending manner.

Which as I think about it, sounds like your modus operandi on twitter and tumblr.

Weirdly enough, that more or less marks the “end” of Dobson tackling anime fans and the beef he has with them within the pages of SYAC. Despite how much Dobson’s negative reputation especially in early years was build around him hating on anime and belittling its fans, he didn’t really do more afterwards in the Dobson focused pages of SYAC. And mind you, those strips were also separated by other strips in-between, focused on Dobson just being at conventions.

Unfortunately for him, the strips didn’t really help in any way to diminish that negative reputation and instead just confirmed for many, that Dobson can’t handle criticism about his flawed opinion on anime. If anything, it just made people think even less of Dobson, as the strips just painted him as someone who would rather portray his critics as strawman he can be “rightfully” annoyed at, instead of fellow humans with slightly different tastes in entertainment, who are still worth listening to.

So, now that we have the anime fan related “annoyances” out of the way, what other sort of silly problems in making webcomics would Dobson cover in his strips and are “relatable” to everyone?

Lets see some of these examples in the next part.

#anime / manga #manga #Andrew Dobson #fuck you Tom Preston #Tom Preston #syac #so...you are a cartoonist #so you are a cartoonist #review #webcomic #comic #adobsonsartwork #adobsoncomic #adobsonartworks

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xnchxntmxnt · 3 years

Note

This is my first time ever doing an event so if I put this in the wrong spot I am soooooooo sorry.

Alex

She/her/hers

Virgo

Male but if you really feel female that’s totally cool

I’d describe myself as shy until you know me then I’m weird, I tend to really worry about what people say so putting myself out their can be hard but I’m a super touchy person once I know you

I love photography, reading and cooking/baking

In a partner I want someone who understands that I have bad days/weeks, someone who is funny and honest A big deal breaker would be if they don’t have any respect for those around them and cheating

I switch from wearing all black or dark colors to pretty sundress with bright colors. I love steam punk style and totally wish I could pull it off

The colors that best describe me are probably yellows and blues. And my favorite color is purple

Top 3 songs right now are Just like fire, Vices, and Play with Fire. My music taste varies a lot but my favorite artists are Panic at the Disco, Black Veil Brides, and Pink

Thank you for your writing. Also CONGRATULATIONS!

@maleficents-minion

You did everything great! No worries, that’s exactly how you do this! Thank you for participating & thank you for the congrats! I’m glad you like my writing :)

After reading, I’m gonna put you with…

✧ 𝑌𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑢𝑐ℎ𝑖 𝑇𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖 ✧

God ur lucky I love this man anyways

✧ 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑀𝑒𝑡 ✧

Okay, consider,,, Yamaguchi + photography

I can so totally imagine this heads up like

It’s perfect if I do say so myself

He was thrilled because he got a camera he’d been saving for years

This dude was so smiley and couldn’t shut up about the camera

He and Tsukki went to a park to get pictures of the cherry blossoms while they were in bloom because he always thought they were beautiful

When he was there he saw you in his camera for a second, just walking by

He almost dropped the camera jfc

He was like ASDFGHJKL TSUKKI PRETTY GIRL

Tsukki laughed at him like

“Talk to her dummy I’ll hold your camera”

“I CAN’T TALK TO HER SHES TO PRETTY”

“I think she heard you”

He goes BRIGHT RED and just whips around

A couple of feet away you’re staring at the ground, also red, but smiling nevertheless

So he does

He goes over to talk to you and he’s awkward and blushy and smiley but the awkwardness is kinda charming

He tries apologizing and you’re like “no it was kinda cute”

Which makes him more embarrassed but still smiley

You two spend a while talking before Tsukki gets bored and walks over to him and is like “so did you get her number yet” and the process starts all over again

Safe to say, the two of you ended up seeing each other again

✧ 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠 ✧

Because of how you two met, he calls you his cherry blossom I don’t make the rules (i mean I do but--)

He’s your strawberry

He does the little nose rub thingy a lot

He’ll get excited and he’s lean his forehead against yours, then bump your nose with his, then kiss the end of your nose

Call you beautiful if he’s in a sappy mood

Okay okay consider

E y e l i d k i s s e s

He loves it when you count his freckles

Like he’ll just stare lovingly at you as you ghost your finger over his cheek

Making little constellations or doodles like connecting the dots

He just stares at you with the biggest heart eyes ever

He’s so in love

He’ll love to read with you

Read to him

He’ll read to you

You two can sit with music on and just read your own books and just vibe

Growing up with Tsukki he’s not used to quiet there’s always music on whenever you do anything

Including baking

He’ll steal you away while you’re covered in flour & other things and pull you in and dance with you

He’ll sneak up behind you and snitch food

Sometime’s he’ll help but he likes seeing you so passionate about baking

Honey if you’re having a bad day, he’s the best

You don’t want to talk to anyone? He’ll leave you to your space. Maybe send you a couple of paragraphs about how much he loves you a couple of hours later

You wanna cuddle up and watch tv? He’s there with your favorite snacks

He finds cherry blossom petals and dries them and givens them to you in a little jar for the ~aesthetic~ but also cause they remind him of you

Am I imagining him giving you a jar of petals with a ring at the bottom to propose to you? Not at all why do you ask

you r best bet is just

Love him

Love him a lot

Give him the validation and support he needs and he’ll give it back tenfold

He loves you so much, just love him in return and you’ll be happy forever

✧ 𝐴 𝐷𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑇𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖 ✧

P I C N I C S

He’s so sappy sometimes but it’s so endearing

For an anniversary or something, he’ll take you to the park where you met and you’ll have a little picnic

Especially during the evening so you can take pictures

He offers to give you a little photoshoot during the sunset

And you accept under the condition that you get to take pictures of him too

So you do and a picture of you becomes his home screen for a long time (it’s always different pictures of you though)

You watch the stars after the sun goes down, talking about anything and everything

It started with him with his head in your lap and you playing with his hair

Then eventually you laid down too and managed to wind up with your head against his chest and curled up against him all comfy

✧ 𝑍𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑐 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 ✧

Geminis are very good communicators, which sparks curiosity about Scorpio’s personality (who are not as much so). They’re very good at sparking new ideas and developing them further together. With good communication, they can be a very good fit for each other. Both signs’ egos and pride can become a problem, but if kept in check, it could be a good relationship.

I feel bad there wasn’t a lot of information I could find supporting gemini+scorpio relationships but I said I will go down with this ship so here we are

✧ 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝐴𝑒𝑠𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 ✧

You gave me a lot of different ideas and I totally love steampunk! You could totally pull it off. But I think this sums you two up well...

✧ 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 ✧

Tadashi gives me more chill, bedroom pop/acoustic music vibes, so I tried to find a combination you could both enjoy. Also, I listen to similar music, good choices :)

Cover Me In Sunshine - P!nk

Iris - Sleeping With Sirens

Nine In The Afternoon - Panic! At The Disco

Northern Downpour - Panic! At The Disco

If I’m Lucky - State Champs

Somewhere In Neverland (Acoustic) - All Time Low

Runners up - Azumane Asahi, Sawamura Daichi

#✔︎spencerwrites #✔︎ — matchups #yamaguchi tadashi #tadashi yamaguchi #haikyuu #haikyuu matchups

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feverinfeveroutfic · 3 years

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chapter nine: the second skeleton

(if watching alex on his friday night live streams has taught me anything, it's that people are most themselves under two circumstances: late at night or when they're full of alcohol)

“Sam? Joey?”

Sam opened her eyes, and Marla and Dan lingered right over her and Joey. Her head spun a bit, and she realized she had been laying on a flat bed next to Joey without a pillow. She rubbed her eyes, while Joey groaned in his throat.

“What time is it?” she asked them.

“It's almost two o'clock in the morning,” Marla replied. “We got lost on the way back here.” She flashed Dan a dirty look.

“I told you we should've turned at that stoplight—we were about to get on the turnpike and head up to the heart of Boston otherwise. You should've listened to me.”

“I was,” she sneered, “otherwise, yes, we would've wound up in Boston. You should be thanking me for turning the car around in time.” She then rolled her eyes and she returned to Sam and Joey on the foldout bed. “Anyways—we got you guys some water and something to eat. Danny insisted on getting Joey something dry and salty to help with his stomach, so—”

She reached down to Joey's shoulder, and she gently shook him awake.

“Joey—Joey—” she gently said. He rolled his head over so some of his black curls covered part of his face. “Hey, Joey—”

“Joe?” Dan called out next to her.

“Joey,” Sam joined in, a soft whisper right into his ear. “Joey—”

“Mother—huh?” He never opened his eyes but he did raise his eyebrows for them.

“We got you some potato chips, dude,” Dan told him and he held the little bag of potato chips in question up before his face. Sam noticed him opening his eyes by just a mere slit and then he reached up for it for himself.

“And then for Miss Shelley,” Marla started, and she gave Sam a bottle of water and a small bag of trail mix.

“Something to keep me going for the night, I presume,” she cracked as she sat upright next to Joey. Her head spun a bit more from the contrast of laying flat on her back. She shook her head about a bit.

“You alright?” Marla asked her.

“I sat up too fast,” she replied as she unscrewed the bottle cap and took a swig of water. She then lay back down flat on her back next to Joey: he opened the bag of chips with two fingers and lay it upon his stomach so he could easily reach in there. Sam rubbed her brow: her head spun and her stomach turned.

“Ooh, god, I don't feel good,” she confessed.

“Well, I gotta go back to the room,” Marla told her. “I'm beat and I smell like an ashtray that was loaded up with booze at one point. You guys just want to stay around here for a bit and then I'll come and get you guys when it's light out again?”

“Sure, why not?”

“We'll get breakfast, too,” Dan added from behind her.

“Yeah, we'll get you guys some breakfast,” Marla said. “But you guys just hang out here—maybe take a walk. You're in Providence so—” She turned to Joey. “—it's not like being in upstate New York where the sidewalks roll up early on.”

“We can do anything we damn well please,” Joey muttered.

“Exactly! Alright, we'll see you guys in a little while.” Marla patted Sam's hand as it rested upon her unsettled stomach. She lowered her other hand to her right side, and away from Joey. Once Marla and Dan were out of the room, they just lay there in silence for a moment. The only sound came from the rest of the audience members out in the theater and a bit of chatter around the corner. Sam closed her eyes and she pictured Alex posted there with his little guitar upon his lap. She could see it in his eyes. There was something more to that boy than she believed, and yet he was afraid to show it to her.

“I wanna take a walk,” Joey spoke out of the blue. Sam rolled her head over for a look at the side of his face. “But not right now, anyways.”

“Just—eventually,” she followed along.

“Yeah, but I really just wanna lay here for a moment,” he confessed. “Just wanna be still for a moment.”

He reached into the chip bag rested upon his slender stomach and took out a few stiff, perfect chips, and he stuck them into his mouth.

“Oh, yeah,” he said with that hand up to his mouth. “They had the right idea in mind there with those.”

“Already feeling better?” she asked him.

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” He swallowed, and then he picked up the bag and showed it to her. “Want some?”

“Nah, I'm good,” she assured him, and she felt the trail mix next to her. He picked out a couple more but that crunching wasn't loud enough for the guitar outside of their room. It sounded like someone was struggling to play a backwards riff. Sam lifted her head for a look outside the door: no one there.

“That's not Danny,” Joey remarked with his mouth full.

“Scott maybe?” she wondered as she lay her head back down. He shook his head and swallowed that bite.

“No idea.”

“Whoa, what was that riff, Alex?” Greg hollered from across the floor.

“There's your answer,” Joey said in a low voice and with a raise of his eyebrows and a slight little gyration of his head.

“Huh?” Alex called out as he put his fingers across the guitar's neck.

“Yeah, play that again,” Eric commanded him, and Alex played it again. He struggled with it at first, but then he kept on strumming and messing with the fingering, and eventually he got a handle on it. Downwards and yet it seemed to flow. Bit of a bounce to it, even a swirl. Heavy and strong, just like Testament themselves, but there was a weird, almost dreamlike feel to it.

“What was that?” Eric asked him.

“Dunno, I heard it in a music store earlier before the wedding,” he confessed. “The dude in there told me it was from some band out of Seattle called Soundgarden. It's been stuck in my head since then. Forget what it's called, though.”

“Kinda cool sounding, though,” Sam remarked in a low voice, but Joey rolled his eyes and shoveled in more chips.

She frowned at that. On one hand, she wanted to be a friend to Joey and she wanted Alex to eat his words about him. But then again, she thought back to what she and Joey had talked about after the scuffle outside of the cafe in Syracuse. The fact Joey had such a grudge against Alex all because he supposedly asked him an innocuous question made her squirm in her spot. She picked up the bag of trail mix next to her and she opened it up for herself.

“Here, you want help with that?” Joey offered her over the voices outside of the room there.

“Nah, I got it.” She poured out a small handful of peanuts, raisins, chocolate chips, and little pretzels, and given she lay on her back still, she had to be careful not to spill all over herself. It was two o'clock in the morning following a day trip from New York City, a big steampunk wedding, and then a big concert, and yet she was wide awake and sick to her stomach.

“Lemme ask you sump'n,” he started again, and that time he pushed the bag of chips down towards the waist of his jeans and he folded his hands over his stomach.

She swallowed. “Go ahead.”

“Do you ever dream of the future?” he asked her.

“Of course. I dream of a number of things actually.”

“Well, I often dream of like—starting a family. Getting married and being in a nice place in upstate New York somewhere. I'm getting kinda old, I'm still not steady yet with the whole career thing, and my pants are always too tight, though—I dunno if I'll ever have kids, to be perfectly honest. I don't want a kid when I know I'm royally fucked up in the head. I'll just be like one of those people who owns a bunch of dogs and horses and lives out in the country 'cause I'm bit of a country boy. But I do like the idea of—pleasing, though.”

She looked over at the dreamy expression on his face as he gazed up at the ceiling overhead.

“I dream of a woman who can take care of me and I return the favor of loving her 'til the day I die.”

“That's so sweet,” she breathed. “You know, I dream of a mysterious man who tells me where to go next.”

“Oh, yeah?” Joey rolled his head over and knitted his eyebrows together at that.

“Yeah. He's kinda funny looking, though. But yeah—sometimes I'll see him when I'm at a crossroads in life and then I'll ask him where to go next. Marla's seen him in her dreams, too.”

“Huh.” He raised his eyebrows at that. “Marla's seen him, too?”

“Yeah. She told me it's a metaphor for guidance or something—it was during the Stormtroopers of Death tour so I can't really recall the full details.” She paused for a second. “God, I can't believe it's been two years since the Stormtroopers of Death tour. It almost feels like a fever dream at this point.”

“Same with my coming into Anthrax,” he added.

She moved the trail mix to her side and, careful not to push herself into him, she rolled over onto her side to alleviate the feeling in her stomach. Joey rolled his head over for a better look at her.

“May I ask you,” she started, “why do you even drink if you have dreams like that? Why do you do this to yourself?”

“Because it's there,” he confessed. “Like I said, Sam—I'm the outsider in the band. The upstate boy and the bachelor. Danny and Frankie are kind of like the closest things I have to friends there, but that's about it. Scott and Charlie don't talk to me much.”

“Have you tried?”

“Definitely. Without a doubt. But Scott's got his own problems to deal with and now there's the whole fallout from Charlie and Marla's break up that he's havin' to deal with now.”

“And now Scott's getting married,” Sam recalled in a soft voice.

“And now Scott's getting married,” Joey echoed. “I really don't have much of anyone to talk to otherwise, 'cause Danny's got a girl, too. And Frankie lives in the Bronx, up by you—it's not like I can visit him much, though.”

“What about your hockey buddies?” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “That guy at the wedding?”

“They're all either like that or they've moved on to the professional world. I tried getting back together with him, but—” He shook his head. “—guess not.”

“So the result is to drink?”

He shrugged his shoulders again. Meanwhile, outside the room, Alex and Greg's voices lowered down to whispers. The sound of bass strings caught their ear. Sam had the urge to run out there and chat with Greg, but she needed to keep her word to Marla, and she needed to fess up with Joey.

“Pretty much.”

“You should turn to art,” she suggested. “Become an artist, and you don't have to do that all the time.”

“I ain't no artist,” he insisted with a chuckle and a shake of his head.

“Marla told me earlier that expanding your horizons is the whole point of being an artist,” she recalled, “you're obviously a singer, and you're obviously a good singer to boot. You should play on that craft and you should soak your feet in something new.”

“I dunno—what if no one likes it?” he said.

“So what if no one likes it? I can say, 'dude, Joey Belladonna made this!' in your defense. It won't be much, but it'll be a start. We all need to start from somewhere.”

“True.”

“How about your drumming?” she continued. “Have you thought of doing more with that?”

“Oh, yeah. I've thought about bringin' up to Charlie, but he just seems so elusive at this point. Another dream of mine is to start a band of my own and just play for hours on end. Play the drums and sing at the same time like Phil Collins. Just drum like Charlie or Bill Ward and sing like Steve Perry. But the possibility of doing that is a whole other question altogether.”

“I don't think I understand you just yet, Joseph Bellardini,” she admitted, to which he shook his head.

“I don't think anyone does. My parents don't even understand me. You know, they're of the type where they don't believe in sex until marriage.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, they tell me to find a girl and then settle down with her. But—” He shrugged his shoulders. “—I dunno, to be honest.”

“What do you mean, you don't know?” she asked him as she propped the side of her head up inside of her left hand. He eyed her figure, now filled out after two years of school. The voices outside of the room fell away and thus, they were left in silence.

“I don't know if I can handle myself before marriage,” he confessed in a low voice. “There's—a lot in there. And I don't really know how to put a handle on it.”

“Have you ever thought of—touching yourself?” she asked him.

“Touching myself?” He frowned at that.

“Yeah. Like—between the legs.”

And he smirked at that. “Well, yeah, I've touched myself there. I do have a digestive system after all.”

“No, I mean—” She wrinkled her nose at that. “I mean—for pleasure.”

He ran his tongue over his dark lips, and his deep brown eyes locked onto hers. As dark as night. As rich as venom. He then sighed through his nose.

“Hey, I've seen you naked,” she pointed out. “If I can see you naked, I can see you with your hand there.”

He then nibbled on his bottom lip again. Without another moment's hesitation, he took the bag of chips off of his stomach. Sam lay still as he unbuttoned his jeans. The flat wide silver bracelet on his right wrist glimmered under the ceiling lights.

“What's the story behind that bracelet?” she asked him. “Every time I see you, you're always wearing it.”

“I've worn this thing since I started playing in bands,” he told her. “It just feels right to me—bein' a lead singer and bein' the lead singer of a metal band no less.”

He then reached down the front of his jeans. She pursed her lips together as he raised his knees up closer to him.

“Are they out there?” he asked her in a near whisper.

“As far as I know, no.”

“Okay.”

His tight jeans relaxed around his hips and thighs. She watched his fingers caress over his own skin. She had only done it just herself not long ago, on both her own skin as well as his, and something in the back of her mind told her that that was where he liked it best. Indeed, he nibbled on his lip as he prodded himself with the pad of his thumb.

“Just like that,” she encouraged him in a low voice. “Just exactly like that.”

“I actually kinda like that,” he confessed as he stroked himself harder. He glanced over at her body. “You don't mind me lookin', do you?”

“Whatever works,” she said. “We're all about being comfortable with each other here.”

His brown eyes grazed over the slightly fuller hourglass shape of her body and he nibbled on his bottom lip again. Sam lay perfectly still as he touched himself right there next to her.

“I feel it coming,” he confessed.

“Would you like a napkin or something?”

“I think I saw some napkins over there by the door—” He nodded towards the doorway, and she rolled off of the bed with her head still spinning. But she persisted to the small stack of paper napkins on the table near the door, and she handed a few to him.

“Yeah—that's good—thank you.” He opened his legs a bit more so he could better clean up.

“You wanna take your pants off?” she asked him as she pressed her hands to her hips.

“Nah—I think I got it.”

She thought about what Marla had told her. She needed to come forth with him in her intentions with him, especially after what he had said to her. Once he had mopped up his mess, she moved the trail mix and the water bottle to the side and she lay back down on the bed next to him.

“I'm gonna keep you out of trouble, Joey,” she vowed as she put her arm around his chest. “You're a good boy. You don't need that shit in your life.”

He rolled his head over the edge of the bed for a better look over at her

“Well, I'm gonna tell you this right now, Sam I am—it's a long tour.”

She shook her head.

“It's alright,” she assured him. “I've got it covered. At least for the first month of it.”

“How so?”

“Emile promised me to cover the next month's rent. So I can come along with you guys on this tour.”

He showed her that notorious lopsided grin again. Sam gazed into his brown eyes, and she felt closer to him right then and there. She got to see him without clothes on more than one occasion, but now the second time was for a different reason. She thought about a touch on his chest, but she decided not to do that just yet.

“How your stomach feelin' by the way?” Joey asked her. “Maybe we can take a walk together. I feel I've released a little bit just now.”

“It's still a little queasy—we can lay here for the rest of the night if you'd like. A little cat nap and then we can walk around the place at sunrise.”

“Ooh, yeah! That sounds like a good idea.”

The voices outside of the room returned right then, and Joey reached down so as to refasten his jeans. Sam thought about their visit to her parents' house, and she realized that her mother never answered her question about how Joey resembled to that other man. Indeed, she started to wonder if that other man was someone she needed to know as she heard the guys from Testament searching for something important. Joey closed his eyes at the sounds of their voices, but Sam paid close attention to them.

“—hope we can hunt it down, though,” Chuck was saying.

“'Hunted Down'!” Alex declared. “'Hunted Down'! That's what it was called. The riff I was playing earlier.”

“God,” Joey muttered with a shake of his head.

“What?” Sam whispered to him.

He then opened his eyes. She could tell he was sleepy and the fact they were laying on a literal bed didn't help matters, either. “If I'm being perfectly honest, I really wanna leave that kid alone—but he's such a hot shot, though.”

“I don't think he is,” she confessed. “I think he's kinda like you, to be honest.”

“How so?” Joey looked disgusted at that.

“I dunno. But I just feel it, though. I feel like there's something there behind that cool demeanor...” She thought back to the encounter in Syracuse and the slight raise of those dark, deep set eyebrows at her. There was also that piece of rice paper in the bottom of her drawer back home. “Remember what I asked you that night in Syracuse? Why can't you be nice to him, especially after all you just told me?”

Joey didn't reply to that. Instead, he gazed up at the ceiling in silence. But Sam stayed there next to him to prove as a comfort to him. Within seconds, his eyelids drooped and he dozed off right there next to her, and complete with her arm around his chest. His slender little body was warm and delicate to the touch. She wanted him to stay that way forever.

She could feel her eyelids weighing down as well. It was late after all.

He never answered her, and he never did by the time they woke up from their little two hour nap.

#fanfic #fanfiction #anthrax fanfic #anthrax #joey belladonna #friendship #testament #testament band #chapter 9 #a skeleton in the closet #fever in fever out #fever in fever out fanfic #also on ao3 #also on wattpad #writing #text

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kimabutch · 4 years

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Rusty Quill Gaming FAQ

I get a lot of asks about Rusty Quill Gaming, and I thought I’d put all the answers in one spot!

What is Rusty Quill Gaming?

RQG is an actual-play Pathfinder podcast where comedians, improvisers, gamers, and writers play a long-running campaign in an original setting. The Dungeon Master is Alexander J Newall, and the players are Ben Meredith, Lydia Nicholas, Bryn Monroe, James Ross, and (a later addition) Helen Gould. As of April 2020, there are 150 episodes. Episodes drop at 4pm GMT every Wednesday.

The story follows a mercenary group in a steampunk-fantasy version of 19th century Europe ruled by dragons, which abounds with real-life historical figures such as Oscar Wilde, Amelia Earhart, and Albert Einstein. The eclectic mercenaries travel Europe and beyond to unravel the origins of the Simulacrum, a magical automaton that can replicate itself — and on their journey discover world-shattering conspiracies. The story touches on themes of scientific ethics, free will and difficult choices, coping with loss and failure, and the boundaries between life and death. The campaign is very roleplay-heavy, with an intricate plot and complex, interesting characters. It’s got hilarious comedic improv, but also doesn’t shy away from heavy, complicated topics.

Although there’s only one main campaign that has been ongoing since 2015, there are also a number of specials in which the cast (and other special guests) play one-shots using other game systems, which don’t relate to the main campaign in any way.

Where can I listen?

It’s available on all major podcatchers, or you can access episodes on rustyquill.com.

Where do I start?

I recommend starting with episode 1 (RQG 1 - Hello!), as it’s the beginning of the campaign. If you want to learn more about the mechanics of Pathfinder and the game setting, you could start with the first episode on the feed (RQG 0 - Metacast! Character Creation), but it’s not necessary to understand the story.

Be warned that the prologue (RQG 1-17), while good, spends a fair bit of time introducing the audience to Pathfinder and the concept of TTRPGs more generally. Battles, in particular, are a little more drawn out than you might be used to. I promise that over time, and particularly after the prologue, they stop explaining mechanics so much and get much more into roleplay. If you’re really struggling with the early episodes, you could try listening to the Season One Recap (found right before RQG 54 on the feed), listen to the recap of the prologue, and jump in at RQG 18.

What are all the different types of episodes on the feed? Which ones do I need to in order to follow the main campaign?

There are 200+ episodes on the feed that can be broken up into several different types:

Main campaign: Any episode that is titled “RQG # - Title” is an episode of the main story, and should be listened to in order, ideally from the beginning (RQG 1 - Hello!)

Sidequests: There are three sidequests, “Bertie’s Sidequest” (between RQG 39 & 40), the “Ancient Rome Sidequest” (between RQG 126 & 127), and “Roman Rogues” (between RQG 157 & 158.) Although set in the main campaign’s world and involving at least one character from the main campaign each, they’re called sidequests because they don’t actually move the main plot forward, and don’t have all the central player characters in them. However, they contain events or characters that are referenced or relevant to the main plot, and they’re all extremely good, so you’ll want to give them a listen!

Metacasts, Mailbag/Q&As, and Season Recaps: These involve the cast talking about the series out-of-character, answering questions, or giving advice to people seeking to get into TTRPGs, or who want to improve their games. Many of them are very good, funny, and interesting, but they’re not required listening by any means.

Specials: Besides the odd announcement on the feed, pretty much everything else is a special. These don’t relate to the main campaign at all, though they’re very good!

What’s the LGBTQ+ representation like?

Good! A number of the player characters are LGBTQ+, as is at least one member of the cast. I would say that sexuality, whether queer or otherwise, isn’t a big part of the story — there’s very little romance, or even established romantic couples — and there aren’t many discussions of gender, either. However, the representation is good, and the cast is very sensitive to matters concerning LGBTQ+ people.

When does it get sad? How much of it is sad?

If you’ve heard fans talking about RQG, you’ve probably heard that it can get very, very sad — it’s often-repeated, by the players and the fans alike, that the DM Alex is a monster “but we respect his craft.” The story does go to some extremely heavy places, particularly starting around (mild spoilers) episode 40.

The cast handles difficult themes with sensitivity and a lot of mutual trust. There are content warnings for many episodes, although there may be triggering things not covered by the content warnings — many fans, including me, will be happy to warn you about specific topics if you ask!

Additionally, while there are sections of the story that are particularly sad, rest assured that there’s always laughter and lighter moments, too! Every single episode has made me laugh out loud, and there’s a lot of love and many soft moments between the characters. You will run the full gamut of human emotions while listening.

Do I recognize [X voice] from The Magnus Archives?

Rusty Quill Gaming is from the same production company as The Magnus Archives, and every cast member of Rusty Quill Gaming has been on TMA in some capacity. Alex (the DM) is Martin, Ben (Zolf) is Elias, Lydia (Sasha) is Melanie, Bryn (Hamid) and James (Bertie) are statement-givers in MAG 100, and Helen appears briefly in MAG 136.

Where can I discuss RQG with people?

While there’s a fairly active community on tumblr right now, a lot of fans (and some of the cast and crew) hang out in the official Rusty Quill discord, which you can access via the website! You can join even if you’re not caught up — if you put your episode number in your nickname, people will avoid spoiling you! I also run a fairly small server where we theorize about the plot and discuss the worldbuilding; feel free to DM me for an invite if you’re caught up on the series.

Lastly, there’s an RQG wiki that you can find on fandom.com! While it’s very much a work in progress, it’s a great source for episode summaries, character info, setting descriptions, and much more. It’s got tons of spoilers on it, so I wouldn’t recommend visiting until you’re caught up. Please give it a look and, if you want, contribute to it!

#rqg #rusty quill gaming #my stuff #reblogging for reference

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thecockerelinn · 4 years

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Well, even though quarantine and lockdown may slowly open up for many of us, it’s not over yet, and besides one can never have enough means to escape reality, so here are a few book reccomendations.

All books on this list are LGBTQ or at least have (important) characters who are.

The “Classics”:

Wraeththu - Storm Constantine (how is it no-one’s talking about this anymore? Please do take into account that those books were written in the early 1990s, they were way ahead of their times, and yet there may be some offensive things - it’s been a while that I’ve read them so I can’t come up with any example, but should you find them somewhat un-feminist, wait until the end xD)

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin (a true classic)

The Last Herald Mage series - Mercedes Lackey (gee yes Vanyel can be a real brat - not quite without reason though, but you’ll come to love him xD And yes we all just pretend that scene in book 3 never happened -_-) (also: influenced the Nightrunner series)

The World of Riverside series - Ellen Kushner (another influence on the Nightrunner series)

The Doctrine of Labyrinths quartet - Sarah Monette (beware, those books are not for everyone, trigger warnings are in order: rape, violence, mental issues, abuse / none of this is ever glorified or belittled, but it’s there, and it is so much a part of the characters’ lifes that it might occasionally seem like it’s not appropriately treated. Speaking of characters: very complex, intriguing characters with very dark sides, but you gotta love ‘em; intricate, complex world building / Nowadays Sarah Monette writes under the pseudonym Katherine Addison) (as far as I know they are unfortunately out of print so you’d have to check second hand book stores)

Historical fiction (with or without the paranormal)

Whyborne and Griffin series - Jordan L. Hawk (lots of paranormal stuff, magic, Lovecraftian creatures, awesome ladies, and so much more - and you will love those boys so much xD)

Magic in Manhattan - Allie Therin (the Roaring 20s, magic, prohibition)

The Collin Pendragon Mysteries - Gregory Harris (imagine Sherlock Holmes and Watson were canon; whodunnit, Victorian England)

Restless Spirits - Jordan L. Hawk (let’s go ghost hunting: science vs. medium)

A Charm of Magpies - K.J. Charles (magpies - lots of them xP, magic, curses, intrigue, late Victorian England)

At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O’Neill (set in Dublin around the Easter Uprising 1916; coming-of-age, tragic love story - don’t forget the tissues)

Cambridge Fellows Mysteries - Charlie Cochrane (Edwardian England, mystery, romance; amateur sleuths, found family)

SFF

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon (epic fantasy, intricate world building, clash of religions, dragons, strong female leads)

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter - Alexis Hall (fantasy / mystery; Lovecraftian vibes, bizarre and witty retelling of Sherlock Holmes)

The Tarot Sequence - K.D. Edwards (alternative world, Atlantis, magic, god-like beings, found family; trigger warnings: mentions of rape, violence)

The Rifter series - Ginn Hale (fantasy, parallel world; god-like being, magic, religious strife, necromancy (in a way))

Iron Breakers trilogy - Zaya Feli (fantasy; intrigue, cultural differences, battles, fight for a kingdom, romance)

The Icefjord Saga - Zaya Feli (fantasy, Norse inspired world, magic, mythological creatures, battles, curses)

Tales from Verania - TJ Klune (fantasy, comedy, romance; hilariousness galore! - okay sometimes it’s a bit too much, but between all the jokes and sexual innuendoes, the story doesn’t suffer; basically everyone is gay, everyone tries to get into Sam’s trousers ^^;, did I mention the hornless gay unicorn that sweats glitter, and the sexually deviant dragon? xD)

Peter Darling - Austin Chant (fantasy, retelling; very interesting take on Peter Pan, takes place many years after the events in Peter Pan, focused on the relationship between Peter and Hook; the search for a place, for someone to accept you for who you really are)

YA and New Adult

Nevernight Chronicles - Jay Christoff (sometimes I’m amazed what’s YA nowadays; fantasy; anyway beware of all the blood)

Feverwake duology - Victoria Lee (see above; dystopia; Holy Baby Yoda but these two books are intense! triger warnings: abuse, drug use, violence, mentions of rape, deadly virus outbreak)

Only Mostly Devastated - Sophie Gonzales (contemporary; all the feels: it makes you laugh out loud, it makes you cry; Grease says hello, super sweet quick read)

Timekeeper trilogy - Tara Sim (steampunk - or should it be clockwork punk?; mythology, gods, concept of time, ghosts, cute boys, discourse on colonialism)

The Torch Keeper trilogy - Steven dos Santos (dystopia; betrayal, love between brothers, biological modifications, deadly deadly trials)

Proxy duology - Alex London (dystopia; the rift between rich and poor, unjust society, technology)

The Disasters - M.K. England (sci-fi; band of misfits to the rescue!; Breakfast Club in space - kind of xD)

Magnus Chase & the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan (fantasy, mythology; ahhh Uncle Rick - just got to love the man, seriously; Norse mythology, diverse cast, homelesness, found family, disablitiy) (I’m aware it’s officially labelled Middle Grade, but who cares. It is linked to the Percy Jackson series, but you don’t need to know it to read these books)

The TBR pile (meaning books I haven’t read myself yet, but they certainly are on my tbr list, so perhaps they will be on yours now, too):

The Locked Tomb series - Tamsyn Muir (fantasy)

The Bloodright trilogy - Emily Skrutskie (sci-fi, YA)

Wild Sky - Zaya Feli (fantasy)

The Extraordinaries - TJ Klune (romance, superpowers - or not..., YA)

Reverie - Ryan La Sala (fantasy)

Soulbound series - Hailey Turner (urban fantasy, romance)

Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas (fantasy, paranormal, romance, YA)

Micah Grey series - Laura Lam (fantasy)

Specials:

A Song for Ghosts - Manja Siber (historical, mid 19th century Dresden) - Don your fanciest dress and fetch the binocular, it’s opera time! Originally inspired by The Phantom of the Opera and Yuri on Ice - see if you can spot the hints xD (as a fellow Watcher, Manja kind of makes the list by default* xP Give it a try, you can find it via epubli or on amazon.de)

*No, this isn’t nepotism, I’m just trying to give the support I wish I had. So if you’re an author and a Watcher and you’re not on this list, it’s because I don’t know about it. Tell me, and I gladly put your book on this or any next rec list.

#Book Recommendations #book rec #that should be enough for now #I'm pretty sure if I spend more time on it I would come up with more but let's keep those for another time #I tried to stick to books that i have not seen a hundred times on other lists already #nightrunner series #Lynn Flewelling #Watchers Reading List

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luninosity · 4 years

Text

One more @whumptober2020 fic for today!

For theme 19 - Broken Hearts - specific prompts: grief & mourning loved one; and theme 29 - I Think I Need A Doctor - specific prompt: reluctant bed rest.

Back to Jason and Colby, for this one! And the anniversary of Jason having lost someone significant - and some more hurt!Colby. He’ll be fine, though! I promise!

“Resting,” Jason said, meaningfully. “You. Bed.” He had a hand on Colby’s shoulder, a reminder. The bed perked up under Colby: doing its job.

Colby sighed. “I’m really doing all right.”

“You are, but you’re also recovering.”

“It’s not as if it’s even terribly—”

“You were,” Jason said, as calmly as he could under the circumstances, “in a fucking explosion. And got knocked out.” The stunt had gone wrong. Explosives too early and too strong. Something not measured right on the part of the demolitions crew. Colby hadn’t been far enough away. He’d hit unforgiving ground hard.

Jason, not in that scene, had been watching from behind monitors. Had run, heart in his throat. Colby had been waking up already, but slowly, dazed and bewildered about how he’d landed on the ground, when Jason’d flung himself down beside blue eyes.

Concussion, the doctors’d said. Not too bad, but needing rest and care. No strenuous activity for at least a couple of days, assuming nothing got worse. Nothing seemed to be, though Jason’s heart wasn’t convinced of that.

“They didn’t say no working on the novel, specifically…” Colby tried, plaintive.

“No exerting yourself physically or mentally, and you know it.” He touched Colby’s temple. The lights were low; they’d been too bright, earlier. “No screens. So no laptop. Your next genius collaboration with George can wait. How’re you feeling?”

“Tired. Bored. I can’t even look up banana bread recipes?”

“Not yet.” He ran his hand over Colby’s head, gentle. “I can do some baking. If you want bread.”

“Maybe later.” Colby shut both eyes, leaning back into pillows and Jason’s touch. “I’m not very hungry, at the moment.”

Jason’s chest tightened. “Something not feeling right? Nausea, headaches, like that?”

“Just a bit…”

“Want me to call someone?”

“They said it was normal, and it should go away on its own, and—”

“And if it doesn’t,” Jason said levelly, “then I will. Okay?”

“If it gets worse, you can.” Colby opened his eyes again. “I wish I could remember more. It’s disconcerting. One minute I’m being Cam, running out of the warehouse, perfectly in character…and then I woke up lying on the ground with far too many faces hovering around me. I don’t even recall that very clearly; I know you were there, and Evan, but it’s all sort of foggy from there to a hospital room. It’s such an odd feeling, knowing there’s something missing.”

“That’s normal too,” Jason said, reminding them both, and reached over to get the cup of water. “Here. Stay hydrated, at least.” He hated the small quiver in Colby’s voice. He hated that Colby’d had to be hurt again, to face tests and strange-if-professional hands on him again, to have a gap in memory.

And today, today, of all days…

He couldn’t think of that. He’d been trying not to think of that for a while now. He’d known what anniversary it was. Evan did too, and they’d looked at each other that morning, running through stunt choreography one more time; Jason had guessed they’d probably want to talk, or drink, later. He hadn’t mentioned it to Colby then. He’d planned to.

And then the world had imploded, and now they were here. In a luxurious hotel suite in Vancouver, not in a hospital, but with Colby very much injured. Jason’s lungs didn’t feel like they’d taken a full breath ever since the explosion. Or earlier. This day, and now this…Colby, and—

An older body hovered, when he rubbed his spare hand over his face. A friend. A good friend, the best, really, because Charlie had been the sort of person who’d happily teach a younger colleague how to do a kick or a fall or a vault across rooftops, sharing knowledge without jealousy; Charlie had been the sort of person who’d come over, bringing food and cheerful competent company, when Jason’s father’d been so badly injured decades ago; and Charlie had been kind to both his own younger brother and to Jason and to everyone, and then—

He tried to breathe some more, through the hurt. Through the anniversary. He knew Evan was hurting too.

It’d been most of the day, now. Late afternoon. He wished he could do more about the edges of sun slanting in around curtains. Colby needed dimness. Quiet. Soothing.

They’d been filming at dawn, first light; he’d been able to bring Colby home after a few hours. Colby had slept, on and off; sleep was good for healing, though Jason’d been told to wake him every two hours to check on his awareness. Colby seemed fine so far, if mildly distressed by the amnesia surrounding the impact.

Colby shifted a fraction; Jason realized he’d been holding the water and its straw in place way too long, and hastily set it down. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Are you at least allowed to read to me?”

“Probably? Nothing that’s work, though.” He picked up Colby’s hand, played with slim calligrapher’s fingers, surreptitiously tested Colby’s pulse. Seemed fine. “New Alex Castle novel? Rival steampunk magicians falling in love?”

“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind. It’s in my bag, from yesterday—”

“I’ll get it. Don’t move.”

When he came back Colby was setting down a phone, looking suddenly guilty. Jason said, “Don’t tell me you were doing work,” but kept his tone very light: Colby even these days instinctively flinched from disapproval, a legacy of older emotional wounds. “I love you, babe, but no, okay?”

“I, ah. I wasn’t attempting to work. I promise.” Colby sounded nervous but not afraid; he met Jason’s eyes. “Just checking something. Entirely quick. Finished, I swear.”

“I already texted Jill and Andy, but if you want—”

“No, it’s fine, they know I’m fine.” That was an exaggeration. Colby’s two best friends had heard about the accident via industry connections and Andy’s husband’s fingers on the pulse of the internet. They’d been worried; they still were.

Colby added, “Very well, not entirely fine as such, you don’t have to say it. Come sit with me?”

“Of course.” He settled down next to his heart, in bed; the padded headboard took some weight and offered some reassurance. He waved the paperback, with its swirling blue magical cover. “Tell me where to start.”

“Oh, we can start from the beginning, I was only a chapter or so in. But, before that…” Colby bit a lip, watched Jason’s face. “Er…may I ask you about something?”

“You don’t need to ask me whether you can ask—” He took a breath, let it go. He knew about those “Please. Please ask. Anything you want, cream puff.”

The occasional nickname made Colby giggle, though his eyes remained anxious. “I only wanted to…if I can, ah…you see, I do know what day it is, what anniversary, and…and I know this likely isn’t how you wanted to spend it…”

Jason had opened his mouth. No words emerged. He set the book down without thinking. It landed safely next to Colby’s leg.

That anniversary. Today. Charlie’s body, sprawled at the side of a diving tank, lifeless and limp, because a stunt had gone wrong then too—because it’d gone wrong right before Jason’d arrived, coming to meet him and grab lunch and talk about respective movies—because Jason hadn’t been two minutes earlier, hadn’t known, maybe couldn’t’ve done anything that everyone else hadn’t done, but he’d never know, he couldn’t go back and make himself drive faster or walk faster or—

Because he’d been there, he’d known before Evan had. Before any of Charlie’s family had. He hadn’t been the one to call them—too blinded by shock—but he’d always thought he should have. As a friend.

Years ago—decades ago, really, now. Still vicious, that memory. Under the surface most of the time, a part of him, familiar and well-worn; but every once in a while it bit hard. On a certain day.

He knew Evan didn’t blame him. Evan never had. And they’d become closer friends, slowly, through the aftermath: stumbling among emotions, catching each other.

And Evan, who was working as the choreographer for this film’s fight scenes, had been at Jason’s side today, waiting for Colby in the hospital. Right there to lean on. Holding his hand.

Colby did know the story, of course—had known that story for a long time, almost since the beginning. But Jason hadn’t remembered the exact date ever coming up. He was pretty sure he hadn’t said, back when they’d talked about it, though he really had meant to say something to Colby that afternoon.

He looked at Colby. Colby, injured and tired but hopeful, looked back, eyes all big and sweet.

Jason swallowed. Found words, scraping them together out of love. “I don’t want to be anywhere else. Not right now.”

“I do know you wouldn’t leave me alone. Not even temporarily.” Colby reached over. Collected Jason’s limp hand. Jason’s hand was larger overall, though Colby’s grip was surprisingly strong. Protective. “I thought perhaps…you might want to talk. And I’m here, of course. I’m always here if you want me. But if—”

“I said I’m not going anywhere.”

“No. But—”

This time a text interrupted. Jason’s phone. He eyeballed it, annoyed. Colby said, “It’s Evan. He’s outside, and I’m guessing he didn’t want to knock? Making noise?”

Jason paused. Took this in.

“I thought, you see, if I’d never convince you to go anywhere…and if you wouldn’t mind me being here…if I asked him to come by…and he said yes, of course…” Colby nibbled his lip again. That spot was turning pink. “Er…was that all right?”

Jason reached over. Set a finger on Colby’s mouth. “That’s not exactly no stress.” His voice came out very soft, mostly from amazement. Colby, in pain and dizzy and unhappy about gaps in memory, was still trying to take care of him.

“I want you to be all right as well,” Colby said, when Jason lifted the finger. “I need that. Please let me be here. For both of you, really; Evan’s my friend too, now, I think? Not the way he’s been yours, but at least a bit?”

“He is. And you’re—Colby, you…” He gave up. Shook his head. Leaned in for a kiss: tender, cautious, shaky with love and aching emotions, stretched and knotted up and given a beating today. Colby kissed him back, not tentative at all; Jason murmured his name again, and couldn’t resist just a little more tasting of him, a swipe of tongue, a nuzzle after.

He said, “I love you so damn much. You know that, right? I just—I love you.”

“I know. And I love you just as much.” Colby waved a hand, adorably and grandly imperious but not seriously so. “You may want to go and let him in.”

“You don’t move,” Jason said, and got up, rediscovering some equilibrium in the process.

Evan was leaning against the wall, texting, when Jason opened the door. He looked up, all fluid Krav Maga instructor’s grace and the same brown eyes and straight nose he and Charlie had shared; they’d always looked alike, even moved alike, though Evan had always been younger and just shorter enough for jokes about it. He said, “Hey,” and lowered the phone.

“Hey,” Jason said. “So…you and Colby were planning things, huh? Also, say hi to James for me.”

“I will. He’ll call me later.” Evan’s boyfriend was busy filming an old-fashioned detective thriller in Norway, though they talked constantly and sent each other pictures of ice cream shops and historical monuments. Jason cautiously approved of James, who seemed to’ve handled the whole revelation of Evan’s asexuality with pure and reaffirmed adoration, and who also looked at Colby Kent with the awe of someone in the presence of an acting genius.

“He worries, too,” Evan said, “he knows what today is,” and Jason nodded, because that meant Evan had told James, which meant Evan trusted James that much, which was another point in favor. Evan also held up a bottle. “Sparkling water? Elderflower-blueberry flavored? I thought about actual alcohol, but it’s not like I drink much, and Colby can’t, right now, anyway. How’s he doing? He said he was fine when he texted, but, y’know.”

“Perfect.” It was. Jason held the door for him. “Colby’s…okay. We’re keeping an eye on him. But he’s recovering. Like they said.”

He heard the words as they hit the afternoon, in his own voice. They were, he realized with surprise, true.

Colby was hurt, but was recovering. Getting better. And that was okay.

They’d all be okay, he thought. Together.

Evan peeked into the bedroom. Waved at Colby. “So you found a way to get out of your next training session with me, then.”

Colby laughed. “As if I’d want to. Come in, please. Jason offered to bake us banana bread later.”

“Did I?” Jason said. “Fine, I did.” Their suite had a kitchen. They’d done some shopping. He was pretty sure they had all those ingredients. “Here, I’ll pour that.”

“Oh, that sounds delicious, thank you—”

“I know you like interesting flavors,” Evan said, grinning; and took the other chair. “Jason, my parents say thanks for the donation to that charity, by the way, and also they’d love to say hi to you sometime. Kittens, this year?”

“Good,” Jason said, “it got there, then.” He did try to, every year. In Charlie’s name. Different charities, but all things he’d liked. Kittens had been one of them; Charlie and Evan’s family had always had cats. “I’ll give them a call. Or we can, maybe.” He glanced at Colby. “Everyone.”

“Maybe, yeah.” Evan accepted a glass when Jason handed it over. “So. To family, then?”

“Yeah.” Jason sat back down on the bed, arm around Colby, who leaned against him, bright-eyed and alive and real. “To family.” They clinked glasses; Jason kissed the side of Colby’s head, after. Colby’s blood relatives were uniformly dreadful; Colby was part of his family, now. The family they’d found and chosen and built, together.

“So,” Evan said, to Colby, “did Jason ever tell you the story about the time he and my brother snuck a classic Chevy off the set of an astronaut movie, picked me up, and took us all to the beach for the day? It was awesome until we were about to leave, and the car got a flat tire, and of course they were these fancy historical replica tires, so there’s us frantically calling everyone we knew to find a replacement, and not calling anyone who knew Jason’s dad, so it was harder than you’d think, because Luca knows everyone who knows anything about classic cars and the movie industry…”

“I remember Charlie saying he was going to pretend he didn’t know us,” Jason said. “He wouldn’t’ve, and we knew it, so it was a joke…”

Evan pointed at him, and quoted, with full dramatic effect, “Neither of you is my brother! I am an only child!”

“Oh, no.” Colby was laughing. So was Jason, because it’d been spot on. “What’d you do?”

“Gave up and called Jason’s dad. Who’d known since the first phone call, because he’d been on a call with that garage owner at the exact same time.” Evan swung both shoeless feet up to rest on Colby’s bed. “It’s a good thing your dad’s very cool. I mean, he wasn’t thrilled, but he figured we’d suffered enough, with the panicking and all. He handled it.”

“For years,” Jason said, “for years, after that, any time the three of us were together, and one of us did something embarrassing…”

Colby’s eyebrows went up, amused. “ ‘I am an only child’?”

“Exactly.” Evan nudged Colby’s foot with his. “Exactly that. Did Jason tell you the Pumpkin Cat story? I wasn’t there when they found her, just when Charlie brought her home, so Jason should start it.”

“Pumpkin Cat?” Colby inquired.

“Yeah. It’s a cute story.” Jason cuddled Colby a little more, liking the warmth, loving the shape of him, the presence. The lights were low and tranquil, and the bedroom tucked its walls around them, and Colby was slowly sipping sparkling water, awake and alert. They’d be back at work in a few days, and Colby would be all right; tension unwound, eased by berry-flavored water and words.

He knew Colby’d be all right. They all would.

He said, “We were working on this terrible low-budget horror movie, about a haunted scarecrow with a pumpkin head that comes alive and murders people…”

“That sounds…improbable.”

“Don’t even ask about where the cursed cornstalk spear fits in. Anyway, we walk onto set one day, right past the prop head, this giant fake pumpkin, and the pumpkin squeaks at us in this tiny little kitten voice, and Charlie runs over to look, and there’s this tiny orange baby stuck in the light-up mechanism, and he just dives right in to get her out, right as the director walks in, so all the guy sees is Charlie halfway into a pumpkin head we’ve been told is a delicate piece of prop equipment, so he stops right there to yell at us…”

“At which point,” Evan said, “my brother, being my brother…”

“Jumped up, held out a kitten, and said, ‘look, I found your ghost!’” Jason finished. “And everyone cracked up, because nobody ever could stay mad at him.”

“And that’s how we got Pumpkin Cat,” Evan said. “Cat number three, when Charlie brought her home. Cat number four, by the way, was Jason’s fault.”

“He sounds so lovely,” Colby said. “Like someone I’d’ve liked to meet.”

“He’d’ve liked you,” Jason said, and Evan said it too, at the same time; they glanced at each other, and at Colby, who got a little more shyly happy and offered, “It’s an honor? And how was your family’s fourth cat Jason’s fault?”

“So motorcycles are nice and warm in the winter,” Jason said, “and cats like to be warm, and my mom’s allergic, so we couldn’t keep him…” and reached for more sparkling water for a refill for Colby’s glass.

#whumptober2020 #no.19 #no.25 #broken hearts #grief #mourning a loved one #i think i need a doctor #reluctant bed rest #fic #character bleed #k.l. noone #jason/colby #bonus scene #mention of previous character death #my fic #original fic #sort of?#fic for my own published fic!

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