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rebelliouswhirlpool · 5 months

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Aziraphale, Crowley, Herschel of Ostropol, Chanukah, and a story...

Sooo there's no way I can think of (and I have been thinking on this a lot) that this post isn't going to be a little bit awkward, but it's going to exist anyway.

A year ago, in 2022, I saw this post from 2021 by @anonymousdandelion on Aziraphale and Crowley meeting Herschel of Ostropol (protagonist of Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins, a Jewish children's book, as well as a Jewish folkloric figure).

Then, a) being Jewish and Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins being a fondly remembered book from my childhood, b) someone who enjoys Good Omens, c) also a fic writer and, d) the idea being adoptable, I started to write a story.

(and okay, it's taken me roughly a year to give it a solid shape (long story short that's less to do with the story itself and more to do with me figuring some things out about what and who I want to write for, but I digress), but the fic itself very much exists now.)

I planned to have the full Chapter 1 done in time for Chanukah this year. Due to life in general being pretty chaotic, that hasn't happened. Instead, under the read more is a preview (the first scene of chapter 1), because I still wanted to post some part of it for the holiday.

Some Fic Notes:

-This story is, arguably, two stories intertwined. One that takes place in the 'present day' (though before the Apocalypse, etc.), and one that takes place during the Herschel story.

-It will largely follow the perspective of and by driven by OCs. Though, Aziraphale and Crowley will have a strong presence and influence, it didn't feel like it was their story to tell.

-It is written with two base structural rules in mind;

Aziraphale and Crowley had a hand in the stories of Herschel of Ostropol being remembered. The original kernel this fic was built around and expanded from was answering the question of how that happens.

There can be absolutely no interference in Herschel's story happening in the synagogue (i.e. the narrative of the children's book cannot be altered). Though, that doesn't necessarily mean Herschel is prevented from appearing in the story ;)

Story Preview Beneath The Cut

Generally speaking, the old bookshop is almost always closed.

If one, however, is in ownership of a decent set of lock picks, they may find it otherwise.

For what it’s worth, Tziporah (Tzi to her close friends, Nora to most everyone else at school, and young lady to almost all adults—including her parents, Bubbie, aunties and uncles, and the odd, inconvenient passerby—all who’ve caught her getting into trouble), most of the time, does her best to not use her lock picks. It’s just…it’s…

It’s like this, alright?

Tzi was born into a family with a long, long, long tradition of bookbinding. The kind that historians sometimes visit to ask stuffy questions about. The kind that causes librarians to visit requesting restorations of aging tomes. The kind that means their home has a dedicated workshop full of fairly ancient machinery that no one outside of the family knows how to use. Of course, there are other bookbinders in the world who would certainly recognize and understand the functionality of the more modern pieces of equipment Tzi’s family has. They just won’t recognize all of what they use. Not the Family bits.

The point being, when you grow up in such a setting, you tend to learn certain things. The store names and locations of almost every bookshop dealing in antique or rare books fairly close by, for instance. Also, a lot of the owners become familiar faces (or have been since before Tzi could remember). As the future of the Family Tradition, it’s only natural that she should accompany whomever is doing the deliveries or house calls regularly.

Thus, when you have this knowledge and you can be an Extremely Trustworthy Child (sure, Tzi may cause trouble regularly, but some things (like books, it’s books) are far too precious not to be Extremely Careful about), you’re, more often than naught, allowed to explore such bookshops, and read to your heart’s content.

And if you’re Tzi and you’re allowed to come along on a visit to The Bookshop That You’re Family Rarely Does Business With Because Their Books Are Almost Always In Unexplainable, Impeccable Condition, you’re going to want to read something (and you inevitably will).

The problem of course becomes, if you happen to be Tzi, and your mother, or father or whomever finishes up the Official Business rather quickly, you don’t have enough time to finish whatever it is you’re reading. And it being The Bookshop That You’re Family Rarely Does Business With Because Their Books Are Almost Always In Unexplainable, Impeccable Condition, you know you probably won’t have the opportunity to come back. At least not on an official bookbinding-related visit. Not for a Long While.

First, you’ll try coming back during regular business hours, as you have for many a bookshop previously.

Except, this bookshop doesn’t seem to have regular business hours.

So, given the story you were reading has been buzzing around your head for days, you come up with an alternate method.

Tzi isn’t going to take anything of course! She’s going to be extremely careful. She just wants to finish the story.

No one will ever know she was even there!

Except the giant snake waiting for her on the other side of the door.

If Tzi didn’t regularly inhabit spaces full of delicate books in need of repair or the equally delicate tools used to repair them, she would have jumped. As it stands, she finagles the lock open, slips in through the door quietly, turns around to the face the bookshop proper, and and a yelp almost escapes her lips. The snake, black as ink and with scales bigger than Tzi’s thumb, regards her coolly with brilliant golden eyes. She stares back, hyperventilating at first, but as the seconds pass and nothing happens, her breathing evens out.

“You aren’t going to eat me, are you?” Tzi asks the snake.

The snake’s tongue flicks out and back. It doesn’t say anything, or stop gazing at her for that matter.

Tzi studies the snake with more scrutiny. “I don’t suppose you could. I mean, of course I know snakes can unhinge their jaws and all, but even if you did, you look like you aren’t big enough to fit more than my arm in your mouth, and then what would you do? You’d be stuck hanging off my shoulder.”

There’s a long beat where it seems they’re both considering this possibility (in truth, only Tzi is, in a ‘walking into school with a giant snake hanging off my arm would be really cool’ kind of way. The giant snake, for what it’s worth, is feeling mildly insulted by the implication that he’d try to eat her).

“Well,” Tzi finally says. “I did plan for this.”

Technically speaking, she only sort of planned for this. Tzi had been skeptical of the rumored sightings of a (pet?) snake in this particular bookshop when she first heard them. More so after she visited for the first time and no such snake could be located. Regardless, when One Is Determined To Finish The Book She Was Reading, One Has To Prepare For As Many Possibilities As Possible. So, Tzi had hardboiled a few eggs (because an article she read once said snakes like to eat eggs) and put them in a tupperware and put that tupperware in her bag before she left home an hour ago.

Tzi takes the egg tupperware out of her bag now and shows it to the snake. “Would you like one? They’re tastier than me, I promise.”

The snake turns its head slightly down to look at the eggs in their unassuming plastic container, and then turns back to gaze at Tzi again.

It’s at this moment that Tzi remembers the article she’d read had been about foxes, not snakes, and that she may have just insulted this particular snake (since snakes lay eggs, right? Tzi is fairly certain of that fact, but all snake facts she knows seem to have taken her seeking them as an impromptu game of Hide and Seek in her mind and they are hiding Very Well).

Tzi gulps (and briefly considers pretending one of the eggs is a stone and crushing it as a show of strength to intimidate the snake, but he can clearly see they’re eggs so that probably won’t work).

In the end, Tzi’s desire to just find the book she wants to read already, reinforced by the snake not doing much beyond staring at the eggs, wins out.

(For what it’s worth, when the snake in question has confronted intruders into the bookstore in the past, the intruders have usually taken more aggressive approaches to him. Eggs in a plastic container gifted by a girl who clearly isn’t going to run screaming at the sight of him is certainly New, and he’s not going to be given enough time to fully figure out how to respond).

Tzi places the egg tupperware down on the floor in front of the snake and snaps off the lid. “Sooo…” She draws the word out. “I’m going to go read.” She tentatively sidesteps away from the snake. When he doesn’t react, she goes to hurry off, stops herself, turns back, takes a deep breath, and “You’rewelcometojoinmeifyoulike!” tumbles from her mouth.

Without waiting for a response, Tzi darts through the chaotically organized bookshelves of the shop until she finds the one holding the book she’s after. Gingerly she plucks it off its shelf and, after memorizing its place so she can return it to exactly there, sets off for a comfortable place to sit and read.

All the while, the snake slithers after her.

After a couple minutes of fruitlessly trying to find a seat, the snake bumps its snout into Tzi’s shoulder and, when she looks at it, points her in the direction of a comfy-looking armchair that, hidden in the shadows as it is, previously escaped her notice.

Once settled, Tzi gently opens the book, finds the place she left off, and begins to read.

It’s well into the evening, after the traveler who called himself Herschel had gone up to the old synagogue, that two more visitors arrived in our small town…

#good omens #good omens fanfiction #herschel and the hanukkah goblins #hanukkah #eddy writes

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sunnyrosewritesstuff · 7 months

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Bagginshield Drabbles and Collections

FOLLOWER EVENTS

Bagginshield Trope Bingo

Blacksmith Thorin- Thorin is happy to finally return to the Shire, but finds that tragedy struck his favorite hobbit in his absence.

Reshirement- Bilbo gets increasingly irritated with his relatives as he prepares for his 111th birthday, and Thorin is convinced they are ready for one more adventure.

Second Chances- Thorin awakens in Afghanistan suddenly remembering his past life and how much Bilbo meant to him only to learn Bilbo is a prisoner of war.

30+3

Paranoid, book, uncle- Frodo reads Bilbo's book and becomes paranoid that Uncle Thorin won't return.

Winter, letter, revealing- Worried about the fact that Bilbo still hasn't awoke after the battle, Thorin writes to Gandalf for answers. (Incomplete)

All About Bilbo from the POV of...

Balin- Bilbo is described by a friend on how he makes an ideal consort for Thorin.

Bofur- Bilbo is described by someone who loves him, but Bilbo is in love with someone else. (Unrequited Boffins)

Thorin- Bilbo is described by his first date as Thorin and Bilbo become frustrated with each other until it finally is released.

99 Problems But Our Love Ain't One

A Family Dinner Gone Awry- Prompt #11: Bilbo and Thorin discover the nature of some of the Company's bets

Do You Play Golf, King of the Goblins?- Prompt #17: The Goblins recognize Bilbo as a Took.

The Promise of After- Prompt #24: Bilbo's cold flares up in Laketown.

An Ill-Timed Giggle- Prompt #26: Bilbo laughed during sex once and now Thorin is paranoid. (NSFW)

Living the Hobbit Way- Prompt #29: Bilbo and Thorin have a fight over tea, and Prompt #82: Thorin finds some questionable objects in Bag End and needs to ask Bilbo what they are for. (NSFW)

Every Wedding Has a Few Disasters- Prompt #34: Every wedding has something that goes wrong. Bilbo and Thorin's was no exception as one of the grooms goes missing.

A Lesson Carved in Stone- Prompt #44: Fili and Kili have gotten in trouble by finding Mahal's Anvil.

No Small Amount of Courage- Prompt #53: The goldsickness (has believe to have) made an appearance in other dwarves in the mountain.

Nori Needs a Burglar- Prompt #64: Being a sneaky, former burglar, Nori needs Bilbo to pull some spy work for him.

The Love of Mahal's Children- Prompt #73: A previous admirer of Bilbo's returns.

A Golden Nightmare- Prompt 99: Bofur leaves for a few weeks/months and when they come back they act...possessed.

SOS

Behind the Money- Tea Shop AU; Bilbo is left a surprisingly large tip by his customer crush.

And Watch Them Grow- Post-BOTFA AU; Thorin leaves Bilbo unconscious on the mountain to get help, but doesn't get far before passing out himself.

Dwalin Guards Thorin's Heart- Bodyguard Dwalin; Thorin asks Dwalin to guard Bilbo; he didn't realize how much trouble that was going to be

Learning What It Means to Be You- Bodyswap AU; Bilbo and Thorin have somehow switched bodies, and discover some things about each other in the process

My Love is a Language for You to Interpret- Interpreter AU; Bilbo has been Thorin's interpreter for years and gets jealous when he goes on a "date".

FELLOWSHIP OF THE FICS EVENTS/PROMPTS

Wednesday/Weekend Word Plays

Alphabet Game- Child Bilbo meets child Thorin, Frerin, and Dis as they decide to explore the Shire together.

Inspired By- Fanfic of @lordoftherazzles fic Bookbinder//Songwriter. (NSFW)

Switch It Up- The emotional scene of A Future Bright as Snow changed to an ice skating AU.

Switch POV- Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Guardian of Kings from Thorin's POV.

They were roommates...- Thorin gets jealous of 'friends-with-benefits' Bilbo/Bofur.

What If?- What if Bilbo had been transformed into an old hobbit instead of a baby hobbit in Rivendell?

Sweet & Spicy Bingo

Soulmates- Being born mute, Bilbo has trouble letting his soulmate know that it's his voice he hears.

Toys- Bilbo has a dream where Thorin is taking him down to a dungeon below Erebor to have some fun. (NSFW)

Webcam- Bilbo is in the middle of filming for his cooking show when Thorin surprises him for 'other' activities, neither realizing he's live...(NSFW)

March Madness

Bonding in the Forge- For the prompt "are you aware that it's actually ON FIRE?", Dis takes Bilbo into the forge to teach him to smith per dwarven courting traditions.

A Form of Flattery- For the prompt "I left you alone for two minutes", Fili, Kili, and Bilbo are in charge of hunting for the evening...so they make a rabbit trap.

Modern May Mash-Ups

Road Trip + Professor/Teacher + “Don’t you remember? We used to do that in school all the time.”

Fake Date + Chef + “Are you in trouble?”

Drunk/Night Out + Driving Instructor + "Maybe you need to focus more on your life and less on mine!"

Raising a Child + Pickpocket + “Am I under arrest, or not?”

Band + Carpenter + “Well? What happened? I want all the details!”

Summer Stories

Take Me Out to the Ball Park- Bilbo and Thorin are harassed by a group of trolls at the game, but they get what they deserve.

Fictober

Blood Moon- Bilbo's transformation seems to be effecting him differently during the blood moon (A Mother's Curse ficlet)

Superstitions- Madoc and Durin have made some major superstitious faux pas' in each other's cultures. (Soul Traitor ficlet)

OTHER GAMES/CHALLENGES

Hugs & Kisses

Sickly Cuddles- Thorin hugs Bilbo close while he suffers from a cold.

Sleepy Words- Bilbo wakes Thorin up to an onslaught of sweet words.

Holding Hands at Beorn's- Dwalin gives Thorin the nudge needed to talk to Bilbo and hold his hand.

Worried Kisses- Thorin comes home thinking his hobbit would be angry and instead gets kissed.

Touch Asks

Feeling for Each Other in the Dark- After being trapped in a cave-in, Bilbo learns that Thorin's vision might not be as good as it used to be.

Piggy Back Hugs- Bilbo is having the worst hangover of his life, but that might change when he sees Thorin's text that morning.

Trick or Treat

Sword Fight (Treat)- After Azog and the Carrock, Thorin feels he needs to teach Bilbo to fight.

Cavern Oasis (Treat)- Thorin leads Bilbo down below Erebor where he has a surprise for him.

Thorin's First Flight (Treat)- Inspired by How to Train Your Dragon, Bilbo and Smaug take Thorin for a flight.

Flower Crowns (Treat)- Bilbo decides to go for it and gift Thorin his flower crown.

Picnics and Laughter (Treat)- Bilbo and Thorin enjoy a nice picnic together on the mountainside.

Try It? (Treat)- Bilbo makes some tasty treats with the freshly picked blueberries, but Thorin may be hesitant to try it.

Bed Play Too Far (Trick)- Bilbo and Thorin are playing bedroom games and Bilbo pushes just a little too far. (NSFW)

It Was Only a Dream (Trick)- Bilbo thinks Thorin is forcing him to leave Erebor, only to wake up and discover the reality is worse.

Driving Me Crazy (Treat)- Thorin casually picks Bilbo up around the forge and it starts to stir something inside him. (NSFW)

No Escape from the Dragon (Trick)- Bilbo is running for his life as he is chased by the dragon with the face of a loved one.

Tropetember

I Didn't Know I Loved You- Bilbo and Thorin have secret alter egos- they’re both in love with the wrong identity.

Thoughts of You- Bilbo hits his head and can suddenly hear the thoughts of people around them - but only when those people are thinking about him. That’s unfortunately bad news for Thorin.

Year of Bagginshield

Admist the Snowfall- First Kiss/Fake Dating

Temporarily in Different Worlds- Long Distance/Mermaid

Acceptance Before Forgiveness- Road Trip/Getting Back Together

Peace Talks- University/Pranks

From the Seed of a Sunflower- Fantasy (Thumbelina AU)/Flower Language

Through the Pouring Rain, I'll Find You- Soulmate/Accidental Confession

Seeing Stars- Enemies to Lovers/Power Swap

A Storm is Coming- Time Travel/Blind Date

RANDOM DRABBLES

The Hobbit from the Mountains- (Part 1) Bilbo distracts Azog from killing Thorin by reminding him that he is the 'one who took away his victory'; (Part 2) Now that the battle is over, Bilbo has a choice to make: return home or stay forever with his dwarves? (Mulan AU)

The Dragon's Dentist- Bilbo walks into his next appointment to find the patient is a 14 foot tall, clinically depressed dragon with a gambling addiction. Only problem is he's a dentist.

One More Escape- Prison AU + Time Loop: Bilbo has been stuck in Mirkwood for a long time, and no matter what he does, he just recycles back before the spiders. He thinks he might just give up, but Thorin isn't going to let him.

The Yellow Socks- aka the day Thorin decided to be super dramatic

Bilbo and Thorin Feel a Kick- Fanfic of @ragsweas fic When the Sun Rises (mpreg)

#sunny's drabbles #my masterlist #the hobbit #bagginshield

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beasty-fort · 6 months

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So during my session last night, a number of things happened. One of which was our first Giantess!

She happened to pop up during a slow point between sieges. Ever since I caught about half of an invading force, the goblins have been very agitated apparently.

Anyway I let her run in through the front door so she could get snagged in the cage traps. I'm not sure whether to keep her around or feed her to Zaboomafoo. Speaking of our forgotten beast, I had fed them their first POW, and it had broken one of the safety gates in the process.

The way this is set up goes as such, there is a gate to take in caged prisoners into the holding area, that gate closes after I get the cage rigged to open with a lever. There usually is another gate separating the prisoner holding area from the forgotten beast. Zaboomafoo destroyed this gate the minute it opened, presumably by smashing both of its feet open from stomping the troll to death and the gate in the process.

Now I could not get any prisoners into that pen while the prisoner holding area was compromised. So! I made another gate that separates the pens from the rest of the tunnel, closed it off, and then put a wolverine on a rope out into the beast pens hallway to lure out the forgotten beast. I closed the pen door behind it when the forgotten beast rushed out to pulverize the wolverine into a fine paste, and my dwarves had the opportunity to make repairs in relative safety. Once that was done, I tied a naked mole dog up in the pen to lure Zaboomafoo back in. Worked wonderfully.

Later on, we had another siege, I caught some more goblins and trolls.

I also should bring up how I'm preparing the prisoners to be fed to the forgotten beast. How it goes is that I had learned I can mass designate items for dumping sort of like how I usually go about mining. I do this to the caged prisoners, then go back in and deselected the cages so they do not get dumped. The result is that all the belongings in the cage get marked for dumping, without dumping the prisoner or the cage.

In execution, a swarm of dwarves swoops down upon the prisoners like locusts and strips them of everything. It's amazing.

Then, after that there was a fist fight in the main hall.

It turned out that one of the miners had tantrumed, started a fight with an engraver, and then the engraver started punching anyone they could get their hands on, which spiraled into a brawl.

Pictured, the instigator.

I found some fun highlights from the reports:

A woodburner gets punched in the arm so hard they start vomiting, and then started collapsing from exhaustion in between throwing hands.

An animal dissector puts an unbreakable hold on the woodcutter and the bookbinder by grabbing the woodcutter's toe with their upper arm, and the bookbinder's pointer finger with their hand.

Even when the animal dissector falls over, their finger-toe hold does not break. A dwarf-fu master if I have ever seen one.

And of course, here is the aftermath. I'll need to put more beds in the hospital soon.

#beakfort #dwarf fortress #scratchmountains #we got our first giantess!#and the POW sacrifice program is going great

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nordictwin · 5 months

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10 Characters | 10 Fandoms | Some Tags

Thank you for the tag, @starlight-and-thunder!

Molly aka. Eva Wei (Oban Star Racers) - this precious girl has been one of my favorites since discovering this underrated show. She's got such a great personality, and I love how a show in 2006 really said "we are going to allow this 15 year old girl to be angry, bitter and sad and have the ones responsible for it actually acknowledge their wrongdoings". Absolute gem of a character and story.

Flulu (I Was a Teenage Exocolonist) - as a lot of my newer followers probably know, I absolutely adore Flulu. She works so hard for the colony, all while also trying to take care of Sol to the best of her abilities. I love how, even if you make choices where their relationship isn't the best, you can still tell that she loves them and that everything comes from a place of genuine care.

Arthur Pendragon (Seven Deadly Sins) - my boooooyyyy!!!! Arthur is my absolute SON, and what the author has turned him into is criminal! SDS in general is a big ol' tire fire, but Arthur was the one precious, shining light in the darkness, and I hate what he's become in the sequel. Still love what he used to be, though, and that's the character I cling to.

Su Lüxia (Cheating Men Must Die) - want to see justice done for the characters who suffered, just so the so-called protagonists could have their happy ending? Well, Su Lüxia is here to do just that! She is a Queen and not at all a good person in the traditional sense, but she doesn't need to be. I like Lüxia for the catharsis she brings, whenever the bad people finally get what's coming to them, and for the hints of her true self shining through in those brief moments.

Naven Nuknuk (Epithet Erased) - a mild-mannered little man with a lot of power, who cares for a group of children and probably has a secret agenda? Yes please. I adore characters who are morally grey, but hide their intentions so well, you don't know where you've got them. Add in a soft spot for kids, and I am guaranteed to love them.

Qifrey (Witch Hat Atelier) - a mild-mannered man with a lot of power, who cares for a group of children and definitely has a secret agenda? (Wait... this sounds familiar.) I love Qifrey for all the same reasons, I love Naven, and I'm not afraid to say it. He's also just precious, and I would die for him.

Sidon (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom/Age of Calamity) - I love Sidon so much, I actually squealed at his re-appearing in TOTK. Anytime I see this man, I smile. He deserves good things, end of story.

Orie Harada (Oli Oli Soup) - Orie is a comfort character to me, living the life I dream of. Working as a bookbinder, and spending her days eating good food and being enthusiastic about it. She's funny, creative, and realistic in all the best ways.

Alpha (Yokohama Shopping Log) - Alpha and her story falls into a similar box as Orie and Oli Oli Soup: a character and story that brings me peace and comfort, even in the quiet melancholy. On every re-read I smile, laugh, and cry with Alpha during her time in a world that's slowly falling apart, but even so life still goes on.

Marak Sixfinger (The Hollow Kingdom) - the ones who know me for my Elsewhere University fanfics are aware, that Foxglove is Jareth's (Jim Henson's Labyrinth) son... but Foxglove himself is actually more inspired by Marak of Clare B. Dunkle's Hollow Kingdom books. He's cunning, he's a smartass, he's every bit the tricky goblin king I adore, with a soft spot for his not-fully-human wife. This guy is 100% why I love Foxglove and writing him so much.

100% no pressure tags: @clearwillow @stars-for-thought @lovelesskiaa

#nordictwin speaks #tag game

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spockandawe · 1 year

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Okay, you know what, I think I'm going to do an impassioned rant on behalf of romance. This isn't a super fresh idea, I've seen much more knowledgeable people than me advocate hard on romance's behalf for years and years, I know people are still actively fighting to get this megagenre the recognition it deserves instead of being brushed off as Literature Lite. But I do want to come at this from the perspective of someone who just doesn't... super jive with the genre. I respect it a lot, romance writers intimidate the hell out of me, and now I have found some books and subgenres that I do enjoy, but that's only been the last year or so.

(I gravitate to sf/f and like a good romantic element, but I'm most happy when it's in support of a bigger plot. The gay lovecraftian historical has background stakes of horrors beyond mortal comprehension, the a/b/o shifter polycule has stakes of slow species extinction, I have more intriguing books marked to read as well. And of course, there's more monsterfucking than I used to imagine, and I am ALWAYS down for imaginative anatomy in my smut)

With a readmore, in case tumblr doesn't auto-shorten right

And what got me thinking about this was the goodreads awards, and the deeply unsurprising win by SJM. I don't like her writing, just 'females' alone is close to a hard no for me, and while I understand the broad appeal of her books, I'm confused and frustrated by the... intensity of their popularity, and I was talking with someone in my book club about it, who feels similarly. My very, very uncharitable knee-jerk take was that there's a lot of young adults who want to read about sex, and don't realize that the romance and fanfic communities have already done it better.

That's not fair of me, to be clear! I am also a person who chooses sf/f-with-romance-subplot over a sf/f romance book. I might find her worldbuilding choices trite, but I'll still mumble at length over how the belgariad and mallorean are actually a lot of fun if you give them a chance. 'Alphahole' might make me emit pterodactyl shrieks of irritation, but so do most of the names in goblin emperor, and I have lots of friends who very much enjoy that book. I stand by my opinions, but my personal tastes are not an objective measure of quality or enjoyability.

And, because I think it has to be said, I think there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with people wanting to read about sex. Nothing. The growing puritanism of the wider internet is extremely alarming to me, and I have no patience with it. I think my archives make it plenty clear that I'm down with smut, I only started writing period because I wanted more atla:lok kink than I was finding, and my archives used to make it very clear that I was equally down for sexy art. I'm terminally online, immersed in fandom, one of the fics I've worked with most for bookbinding (and have plans for in the future) is a space clown bdsm xeno epic. Plenty of sex to be found on ao3 and I just said I don't read much romance. So what gives?

Smash cut to podcasts. I listen to podcasts. And I've tried many times over to find a fandom podcast I jive with. I haven't yet, and I don't think that's the fault of the podcasters. I've got high hopes for the hs reading podcast, for example. But I also remember the first time I realized transformers podcasts were a thing (circa mtmte 47), and opened up an older episode to find the hosts (circa mtmte 13) having an earnest discussion about how rewind might have been attached to dominus ambus, but it seems like maybe dominus ambus owned him, and rewind cared for him as a good master. When the episode was recorded, the comics weren't overtly gay yet, there was no reason to believe they'd be given the thumbs up to GET gay, but it still made my skin crawl to hear about this couple that I knew were husbands, and the podcasters chatting about how one probably owned the other, and I noped out and never went back.

That was a running theme, to my frustration! When podcasts talk about characterization for stories I know, I've got strong opinions. I either have conversations about those with a carefully curated group of friends, or i place opinions forth into the void on here without expecting or particularly wanting conversation about it. And the written word moves faster than spoken, I can read a 15 hour audiobook in less than a day, the time sink of bad tumblr takes versus bad podcast takes is very different. And. Even worse. Sometimes fandom podcasts wade into DISCOURSE. I don't want this. I have a nicely pruned dash, I scroll quickly, and still I could use less discourse. I still get flashbacks to the transformers barbarian au debacle. I really don't want this.

I did realize, eventually, that fandom podcasts were just not working for me. I was tense waiting for discourse and ready to fight the empty air about bad characterization or analysis. But even worse than that, a lot of the time I was bored, I didn't want to hear a detailed critical breakdown of hp when my ancient interest has faded to dying embers. I've never cared about spn or dr who. I want to get into the podcast about shipping dynamics, but it's hard to get excited when I know that I'm just not INTO a lot of the big megaliths that people will rave about. Or, I'm interested in something and haven't consumed yet (ofmd) and I'm staring down the barrel of spoilers for a story I want to experience. But I want to HEAR people discuss what makes the farmers look at the story fields and say 'yep, should be a good crop of praise kink this year'

Frustrating!!! Anyways, back to romance. Romance podcasts.

Because you know what? I can get a LOT of that same content, about character dynamics and interactions and smoking hot sex scenes, and I can get it all delivered with the same fannish delight and enthusiasm it just comes with slightly different packaging than I experience myself online. I forget what pointed me at fated mates (and many of their trailblazer episodes are eye-opening, especially when they interview some gay and lesbian romance pioneers), which was nice, but I started subscribing to podcasts they recommended, and found a HOME with bonkers romance.

I'd been kind of feeling this in the back of my head, that the way these people scream over stories together was very identifiable, but something didn't quite CLICK until bonkers romance that this is really parallel (or divergent?) evolution. Just on behalf of sexism, I was already outraged over the broad dismissal of romance. But then I hear the hosts losing their minds over an absolute batshit story, like, idk, the spidertaur alien and the human who crash-landed on his planst, and how he's trying take care of her and she's not quite REALIZING that yet-- These are, very much, my people! There's a historical romance where a widow is trying to get Ruined to avoid a new marriage and shyly confesses to her new sex-club-owning beau that she's always wanted to kiss a woman, and he arranges a scene where she does that! The hosts go nuts as much as I do! This novel is a bdsm awakening sans impact play but with HEAVY praise kink tied into low self-worth! This one is about a nice young man and his boyfriend, the terrifying smoke monster!

I did decide to wander over and rant about this at length when they were discussing one of the 365 days movies (glorious? sexy? delightful? yes, apparently. good? ehhhhhh) and had a side tangent about how romance novels were so formative and how Stories With Sex were important to them as they grew up, and trying to GET them in a pre-internet age. They're at least 10ish years older than me, I think, I was split between internet awakening and novels (mccaffrey, auel). And the discussion was so familiar, about how fiction is a space for young folks to be introduced to some of these ideas and work through them on their own terms, I won't rehash it, we've all seen it before. And THEN there was further discussion about how the 365 days story has set things up so that a happy, satisfying ending would have to be a triad, right? They doubt it's going there, m/m/f is a long shot for Manly Mafia Men, but the conversational beats are exactly what I live for.

And, looping back in the fandom podcast thing again, I'm getting all this without character analysis I disagree with, I'm getting it without the fandom disk horse beats that I dread, and I'm getting it without spoilers for stories I want to consume. On the occasions a story intro has intrigued me enough to read ('as if', 'unhallowed', 'manix'), I've jumped to the next episode until I can consume it, and that has gotten me reading romance for the first time ever, and shocker, I enjoyed it! I don't think it'll ever be my primary genre, but my tastes are pretty established, and it hit those notes. I am having a FANTASTIC TIME, and I can relate to these people going nuts over X romance book perhaps better than I can relate to people going nuts over, idk, supernatural

This is too long but I'm too deep to stop now! If anyone reads this far, I'm sure to some of you, I'm preaching to the choir. I know there are fandom people who read romance already. But I want to wave this vaguely at people who are uninterested in romance, or who think there's a hard and fast line between fanfic romance and ofic romance. I've already read queer ofic a/b/o and monsterfucking and polycules, and I've barely scratched the surface. I think it is good for people to read both fanfic and ofic, but it's not my job to be the reading police (my solution: be too distracted to read either one), but even without reading, I think it's a worthwhile community to absorb, and to observe. I'll listen to a youtuber dissect a video game I'll never play for hours, and bask in new knowledge acquired. This is very similar, but even more aligned with my own creative/consumptive preferences, and I think more people should try it. I would come up with a strong concluding sentence but my awareness that this is too long has tripped over into profound self-consciousness so okay we're done, bye now, hahaha

#long post/#romance #?#i guess #not a very taggable post op!

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complicitsacrilege · 7 months

Text

Leaf journal?

Leaf journal.

Going to be making some this weekend, so check my Etsy this Sunday at 7pm CST for the leaf journals!!

Also check my tumblr for more info! @13thmooncraft

#my art #faeriecore #fairycore #goblincore #goblin bookbinding #journal #handmade journals #handmade #faerie #fairy #fairy aesthetic #goblin aesthetic #13thmooncraft

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13thmooncraft · 7 months

Text

Leaf journal!

#happy fall y’all #goblin bookbinding #fairy cosplay #fairy aesthetic #fairycore #goblin aesthetic #goblincore #renaissance faire #faeriecore #faerie #holly black #<- the entire inspiration for these tbh #leaf journal #handmade journals #journal #elf aesthetic #dnd cosplay

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duckbunny · 2 years

Note

essek is freaked out caleb will reject him due to his weird dong but surprise! he's a monsterfucker (duck edition)

With the Mighty Nein dispersed, Essek finds the Rexxentrum gatherings more suited to his taste. Not that he dislikes the others - he is peculiarly fond of them all - but the rambunctious tumble of their meals together were difficult to navigate. Fellow wizards, a field investigator, her quiet and earnest partner, sometimes other historians, or barristers, or the bookbinder Beau met under questionable circumstances and befriended immediately, for the decades of gossip he has collected; these are parties of a more comfortable kind. They meet, whoever is inclined, every full moon at Caleb’s residence. Essek fleshes out the persona of a temple archivist from Tal’Dorei, and lets the implication that he serves a proscribed god account for his secrecies.

The weather has been warm this week, and they carry the kitchen table out and eat in the garden, arguing the philosophy of closed teaching amid the honeysuckle and sweet-pea. Essek contributes little, tired from teleporting around the continent to make it here today, and unfamiliar with Empire guilds. He watches Caleb in the golden sunset instead, and the way Astrid watches them both.

It is no surprise when she joins him for cleanup, letting the senior barrister take custody of the brandy. The kitchen is too hot, without the breeze of the garden to lighten it. By unspoken agreement they use real water to wash the plates, and save the magic for the roasting pan, the congealed fat disappearing instantly under Astrid’s rag.

“You know we used to sleep together,” she says abruptly.

Essek wipes sauce from a plate and says, in the cultured tones he affects for this disguise, “So I had heard.”

“He had unusual tastes.”

The plate clatters as he puts it down a little harder than he meant. “It is not like you to spread rumours, Archmage.”

“Not without a purpose, no.” She finishes the pan and dries it with a flick of her wrist, reaching up to fit it into the back of a cupboard, for the next time Caleb feeds a crowd. “In this case it is entirely true.”

His silence provokes a quiet sigh. They finish the dessert bowls and Astrid flicks him on the back of his head, just gently, before she goes back outside. “Your weird dick will be right up his alley. Get your act together already.”

Essek does not ask how she knows about his dick.

It was a shock, the first time he saw the Mighty Nein bathe together. Not just their informality. He had seen enough of them to expect that, to know they had no sense of propriety. What shocked him were their bodies.

He had seen many drow naked. Bathing was more formal than these strangers made it, but nonetheless public; certain kinds of party, which he had little interest in but could not always avoid, were openly sexual. He had seen goblins, with their differing arrangements. Nonetheless it was a shock, to see Caleb and Fjord and Caduceus, each of a different blood, with their genitals all so similar, and unlike his.

(The ladies were less startling, with their bodies more similar to goblins, and one goblin there to compare to. He knew their genital slits were lower down, under all the hair, and that was why their bellies were smooth closed skin from navel to crotch. It was still uncomfortable, to see even the tiefling was the same.)

He kept his clothes on after that, and was grateful even as he showed them his skin, to check for eyes, that they did not insist he strip down completely.

Even without that, breaching the barrier of touch with Caleb - asking for more than the brush of his fingers over a scroll, the grasp of his hands to keep balance in the ruins - even without that, he felt he might have been a coward.

His ears are burning hot when he returns to the garden, and not with lust. To think they had been so obvious that Astrid had intervened. That she knew, not only that he wanted, but that they hadn’t. It is appalling.

He doesn’t bring it up that night. He sends a brandy-sleepy Caleb up to his room and stands brooding over his cup of jasmine tea, watching the stars from the kitchen door.

It is not only for such reasons that he borrows Caleb the next weekend, to teleport out to the wastes with him and help him search for an entrance to a ruin he has found there. Essek would not dare to bring him out without a real purpose. What if his courage fails him, as it always has before? But it is not far from his thoughts, as he finds excuses for himself, why it is a good use of Caleb’s time.

Caleb comes the moment he is asked, pale fingers closing around a shard of petrified tree as he casts the teleport for them both. They quarter the ground as giant eagles, scanning for breaks in the scrubby grass, and find the concealed doorway just as the sun is setting, tipped off by the deeper shade of green above the tunnel.

“It looks very trapped,” Essek observes. “I do not like the runes on that arch.”

“I do not like the door either, and we have burned through a lot in finding it.” Caleb looks at him sidelong, his eyes very blue through the loose hair that has escaped his ponytail. “If we rest now we can begin at dawn, before it gets bright.”

Essek is happy to agree.

Caleb’s tower by now is so familiar that it soothes the sting of missing home. His tower there, and his orrery, and the things he could not go back for. He smuggled the important books out before he left for Eiselcross, but there was nothing to be done about the rest of it. He owned many lovely things, once.

(When he has learned to cast this spell for himself, he will put many lovely things in his demiplane, and they will be just as ephemeral as the real ones were.)

He loves this tower anyway, for all it is not his. He loves his room, with its slate-floored workspace and its fluffy bed and deep armchairs; he loves the stars at the top and the thousand glimpses into Caleb’s mind, into the prodigious memory that can reproduce a library. He is amused by the cats.

They make plans over dinner, agreeing on which spells they will each prepare, and where they will teleport to in a emergency. This is a lesser ruin, unlikely to be as dangerous as Aeor considered as a whole, but they know from experience that a single trapped chamber can be enough to destroy two incautious wizards. They have a great deal of practice in being cautious.

Caleb rolls his shoulders when the cats have cleared away the cheese, and then laces his fingers and stretches them over his head. “If we want to start early, I will go and rest.”

He’s so polite. Essek aches for how polite he is, how he never asks Essek to come to bed with him, never asks for more than brushing fingers and chaste lips to his cheek. It is too hard to apologise for that, so he doesn’t. “I believe I will visit the hot tub first,” he says, and glances up through his eyelashes. “Will you join me?”

Caleb’s hands drop to the table with a thump. “Astrid said something to you. She told me she - You do not have to-”

“I do not have to. I do not feel any obligation to Astrid.” Essek sits up straighter, looks at Caleb, does not look away. “Will you join me?”

This was easier in imagination. Perhaps he should have asked Caleb to bed. Perhaps it would have been better in the dark, under the covers. Perhaps he would have felt Caleb’s strong fingers brush down his stomach and find something unexpected and recoil as from a snake.

Essek folds his clothes very neatly, to avoid knowing whether Caleb is watching him undress. He thinks longingly of cowardice, of changing his mind. He breathes deeply of steam-warm air.

He steps down into the hot water, his gaze fixed on the far wall, how the candlelight gleams across the tiles. The tips of his ears are burning with embarrassment.

“I am not quite - shaped the same,” he says, and sits down before he can do anything so humiliating as gesture at himself.

Caleb’s gaze settles first on his face, and lingers there. “I do not care.” He looks slowly downwards, and back up, with no hint of distress. “However it works, we can work with it.”

It works more-or-less as all drow work. Essek’s claspers rise just above his pubic bone, a pair of flattened, cartilaginous spines. At rest, they sit flat against his belly, ending shy of his navel; when roused, they will twist away from his skin and towards each other. With suitable pressure - such as that provided by a female drow’s genital slit, which is similarly placed - the inner surfaces form a narrow channel, along which his semen can travel.

Essek has looked up human anatomy. He knows that Caleb’s penis, different as it looks, can engorge and stiffen to similar effect. It is still hard to imagine.

“Just like that,” he says, baffled by Caleb’s jump to certainty, when they have been so chaste until now.

“Just like that.” Caleb watches him carefully, picking his words. “I understand, if this is what has made you hesitant. It is true that there are many people who would find this difference significant. I am not troubled by it.”

“And just like that, you forgive me.”

Caleb smiles. “Will you be offended, if I say I am relieved? I thought all this time the problem was with me.”

He has learned, or guessed, much of what goes on in Caleb’s head. Hatred of himself is a familiar aspect, but this hasn’t got quite the same tone to it. Essek dares to stretch out his feet - those are exactly like the human kind, only a little narrower, in keeping with the rest of his frame - and rubs his ankles against Caleb’s, in wordless confirmation of what this is. The touch of skin under the water would be a gift, if he were not so nervous. “What reason would I have not to want you?”

“Well. There could be many reasons. I am human. I am male. I am from the Empire, which is your people’s enemy. I am the shape I am, with the scars I have, and the accent I have. Any of those could be enough to make you uninterested. And I was disappointed, but I thought, well, perhaps he does not want me in his bed, but I know he enjoys my company, and he wishes to be my, my companion, and my colleague, and that is a great joy to me, and so, I will be content.”

“Your patience is admirable.”

“Is it?”

Essek sinks further into the water. Caleb is flushed in the heat, perhaps not just from the heat, an exotic pink rising under pale skin. A scattering of hairs on his chest, more on his belly, pointing down - Not that looking at his face brings any respite from such thoughts. He has not drawn his legs away from Essek’s feet.

Caleb tips his head back, exposing his throat for a moment. “You know, when we first met, I was trying to seduce you.”

“I know,” Essek says, because he does. “So was I. I was not successful.”

“Until you were.”

“I’m trying again now, but it’s difficult. Back then I had more to offer.”

“You have much to offer.” Caleb is looking at him again, those eyes. The force of personality hidden behind them. “But I think I see the problem. We are both still wearing our masks.”

“Masks?”

“Yes. The ones where we pretend we do not want each other.” He moves, in the water, and Essek has not time to mourn the brush of their feet before Caleb is gliding across to him, half over him, one hand on the side of the pool. “I want you. Very much. And Astrid is a nosy, interfering know-it-all, but she was not wrong. I would like very much to learn your body.”

He is very close. Their legs brush together, their sides. Essek could touch any part of him. “I have been your teacher before,” he says instead, “but I have never done this with anyone not built to take me. It will have to be a research project.”

“I will memorise you,” Caleb murmurs, in a tone Essek didn’t know he could produce, “I will worship you, if you permit me,” and so it’s Essek who kisses first, and Essek’s hand that tangles in wet hair, and the noise Caleb makes distracts them from Essek’s claspers for quite a number of minutes.

#shadowgast #critical role #drow have shark dicks idk

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