#mila reads

[tamlinfairchild]

Oh my god I know this is a small thing but literally wat the flying fuck. Did she forget hanging out in tunics in ACOTAR? The erasure of everything from book one is infuriating. Why even make it a series ugh. Fuck SJM honestly.

#anti sjm #pro tamlin #anti acomaf #mila reads

[alonetimelover]

for the past few months I've been reading 'a little life' and I just got to the 'x=x' part...

I can't remember if there ever was a book that made me cry this much. not even a book but a few pages within it. the pictures that Hanya Yanagihara paints with her words are those painfully vivid images playing right in front of your eyes, making you feel like the observer of those pains and troubles that she put her characters (mostly Jude) through.

and if you are wondering, why did it take me months to read just half of this book - it's because after any situation where parts of Jude's past were unveiled, i needed to take a break...

i don't know if I'll be able to finish this book. I don't know if I'm ready to know exactly what happened to Jude during his early life. i don't know if i am ready to learn what may happened to him after Caleb. i feel myself getting more and more adamant to put the book down and simultaneously not let it close for a minute.

but even reading the trigger warnings before diving into this book couldn't prepare me for the pain and heartbreak it holds.

has any of you read it and had similar or very different thoughts about 'a little life'?

***this post is not in any way to be encouraging to read 'a little life'. it is heartbreaking, as stated before, and definitely not for everybody. if you, though, want to read it, check the trigger warnings (you can do it here) and maybe read those few articles/reviews about the content within the book***

'why you probably shouldn't read 'a little life by Hanya Yanagihara' written by Stephan Joppich

'the subversive brilliance of 'a little life'' written by Jon Michaud for The New Yorker (contains spoilers)

‘Torture porn or serious literature?’: the love-hate phenomenon of cult novel 'A Little Life' written by Alex Needham for The Guardian (contains spoilers)

#a little life #mila reads #mila reads a little life

[vaguely-concerned]

So much of Garak as a person starts to make sense once you know his childhood was a fucking gothic novel. His main playground was a graveyard and he'd play pretend by perfoming improv eulogies to an imagined audience. For a long time his main touchstone for most important figures from recent history is 'oh yeah I know about that guy my dad buried him. great flower arrangements for that one'. He finds out later his 'parents' are actually a brother and sister who had to get married to avoid the utter shame and social devastation of having a child born out of wedlock, and they live in the basement of his biological father's house. (the madwoman in the attic vs. the tiny elim in the basement.) His biological father calls himself his uncle and locks him in a closet whenever he fails to live up to his insane and unpredictable expectations and everyone just has to act like that's normal and expected, and his will hangs over everything at all times, unseen but always felt keener than anything else. The father who actually raised him grows the world's most beautiful (and as it turns out, most poisonous) orchids and keeps the mask of a god hidden in a box in his work shed. Everyone in the house is choking down secrets like it's the only air they know how to breathe anymore.

What I'm saying is that right from the get-go this guy never had the faintest shot at turning out normal, so I'm glad that by middle age he's found a way to get a bit silly with it as he continues to be deeply deeply not normal about anything ever <3

#guess who's reading a stitch in time! #star trek ds9 #elim garak #a stitch in time #star trek #ds9 #I will make a monster post of asit thoughts eventually but just. jesus christ!!! what a start in life lmao #tolan and tain seem to have been... well not exactly friends probably but to have had some connection beforehand #did tain know him or mila first??? how was mila and tolan's sibling status presumably not known publicly? #at what point during all of that did tain start to have sex with tolan's sister. the more you think about it the more fucked it gets lol #under the circumstances... shoutout to tolan and mila for not leaving him somehow even more fucked up interpersonally than he is #and no thanks to tain for anything ever I hate him so much

[gunthermunch]

[Transcript under the cut]

Dominic: heyy! long time no see Mila: we live next to each other Dom Morgan: hi! Mila: hii! say hi to Morgan, baby WG: nnhgnh Dominic: chuckles so, how's everything in the Munch house Mila: sigh Dominic: sigh? Mila: it's nothing, just some… things involving Ernest Dominic: why am i not surprised? Mila: don't say that… you know he's always had this- thing. Mila: i saw him on his worst before like when his mom died and he's been doing better, i swear. but now… something isn't quite right. Dominic: Moira told me she sees him going out quite frequently at weird times Mila: yes, and i have no idea where he goes. Dominic: …Mila. Mila: he's not cheating on me Dominic oh my god. Morgan waves Dominic: you want me to put you down baby? fine, but no biting! Mila: look, he's doing extra jobs for Mortimer… in hopes of not getting fired, i suppose. Mila: i don't know- I don't know! i'm trying to give him space. Mila: i'm just… praying there's nothing major going on inside of him im failing to see. Dominic: hm… why don't you come inside and hang out? have some tea? chill out? Mila: …alright fine, sure. WG and Morgan freaking out Dominic: and give me a hand with these beasts

#hi...dom....hi #ts4 #munch #you probably are diagnosing ernest as youre reading this and youre probably right #mila munch #wolfgang munch #dominic fyres #morgan fyres #morgan used to bite wolfgang in the head #prologue

[struniolos]

god i know this is going to sound so pretentious but pls for my sake use the correct grammar & paragraph structures. there is nothing worse than reading a fic with no paragraphs or gaps between when characters are speaking, it makes it extremely hard to follow. especially for someone dyslexic like myself lol

#sorry it just irks me #reading big paragraphs with like 3 characters talking #all clumped into one #anyways #mila talks

[mickeycookies]

Page close ups with some colors

#my art #mila miele #bruno bucciarati #bruno bucellati #pesci jojo #prosciutto jjba #pesci jjba #jjba part 5 #jojo part 5 #jjba oc #golden wind #vento aureo #prosciutto jojo #I forgot I also had a color version of the cover #the comic pages read easier this way anyway

[cerubean]

meet the mancusos (in order from left to right)

Silvia Mancuso (socially awkward, loyal, peaceful) --- grew up in tartosa as an only child with her mother (vita) and father. mysteriously disappeared 15 years ago.

Dom Mancuso (loner, cat lover, slob) --- born and raised in tartosa, but lives in san myshuno working as a salaryperson; loves his two children (nico and priscilla), but does not visit tartosa often after losing his wife.

Vita Azzarà (gloomy, cat lover, creative) ---

Priscilla Mancuso (creative, foodie, generous) --- joy of life challenge founder; dreams of owning her own bakery in tartosa

Nicolaò "Nico" Mancuso (music lover, freegan, goofball) --- engaged to mila and they have a daughter named after his mother, silvie. he's often found around tartosa busking for tips with his guitar

Mila Banuelos (book lover, adventerous, family-oriented): in university studying history and archaeology

#not pictured is tato the gato and nico and mila's daugter #it is literally impossible for me to make generic sims w/o backstories i cant help it!! #ts4 cas #the sims 4 #s4mm #simblr #s #jofl #ok now that the tgs are out the way i can ramble! ok so originally i was going to have priscilla's mom be ava hauser from my adult sim dump- #BUT not an alien like my idea was that in order for aliens to get their sim disguises they hv to kill the person they want to disguise as- #so og ava hauser got abducted by alien ava and thats how she disappeared BUT i didnt feel like going into live mode and removing the occult- #and didnt know how to copy her human disguise onto another sim using mccc so i said fk it and made a whole new sim but kept the disappearnce #love how the genetics came out priscilla is a good mixture of her mom and dad i think #thanks for reading all that i had to let it out somehow i dont have any friends if that wasnt obvious lmao #gif warning

[varyagated]

queer comic creators 🤝 putting Yuri and Viktor into their creations

#bloom comic #yuri!!! on ice #yuri on ice #yoi #kevin panetta #savanna ganucheau #bloom #bloom graphic novel #T H E M #the boys #i s2g i looked at them like 3 mins like why does that man have such a heart shaped smile yuuris glasses etc #rebecca sugar #is it mila far left? what do u think? #varya summer reading club!!!

[eye-of-the-purricane]

Jason Segel - Dracula's Lament

From the table read for Forgetting Sarah Marshall

#jason segel #dracula's lament #forgetting sarah marshall #kristen bell #mila kunis #table read #bts #music #video #live performance #live recording #Youtube

[mstepenwolf]

september 2023 jams 🌂

"How To Get an Idea For an Animated Short Project" by Toniko Pantoja (starting point for small animations)

"The National: 'At peace with the darkness'" by The Talks (interview on writing lyrics and sad music)

"In Her Poetic Animations, Sakshi Jain Welcomes Mistakes Rather Than Rubbing Them Out" by Olivia Hingley (style inspiration)

"CHRYSALIS" by rita chen (beautiful and touching short animation)

"Background Art 101" by Devin Elle Kurtz (comprehensive look into the craft)

"Re-Animation: Regarding Animated Horror" by Rich Johnson (history of horror in animation)

"If You're An Artist Who's Overwhelmed With Worry - Watch This" by Adam Duff LUCIDPIXUL (art & chronic illness talk)

"Scottie" by David Romero (perfectly creepy and cozy short animation)

#september 2023 recs #mila's jams #reading recommendations

[tamlinfairchild]

Xaden is morally whitest of white, he’s the greenest of green flags but apparently the booktok definition of morally grey is kills and fucks. So by that logic, everyone in fourth wing is morally grey.

#iron flame #mila reads #xaden riorson #fourth wing

[randomnameless]

I appreciate that at least they stayed consistent with the Sword of the Creator being Crest of Flames-exclusive and, as such, Byleth can no longer use it post-CF and is shown using a normal sword instead in their solo and S-Supported Jeritza ending pictures; makes it all the more baffling that they're still alive despite their heart being destroyed and that the Sothis S-Support exists in that route, but i'll give them credit where it's due for keeping the SOTC's lore consistent.

Post Tru Piss, there's no Crest Stone left for the SoC!

So I'd say it's not that it's CoF exclusice, but rather something like without a crest stone, a relic, even the SoC, doesn't "work" anymore.

Adding insult to the injury though, Post!Tru Piss Billy uses Rhea's sword, aka, a Holy Weapon that could be used by everyone (human and nabatean!) and even heal non-crested people : Billy uses at the end of the "we will make a world for humans!" route a sword that conveyed coexistence between humans and nabateans...

Sothis' S-support in this route really felt odd, because she acknowledges Rhea at least, but has no words for her passing when Rhea died crying for her.

Some people tried to theorise that this Sothis isn't the one Rhea remembers so she wouldn't have feelings about her... but idk, it still feels dead wrong, especially since Sothis remembered feelings of joy and sadness in Zanado, and ultimately remembers how Rhea is a her kid thanks to the lullaby (and in SS when she "talks" to her).

If Sothis was a better written character and not accidently written to be the most toxic parent in the FE series, I'd maybe write something about her feeling so bad that, again, she was used to slaughter one of her own children (Nemesis first in Zanado, and now Billy in Tailtean) but as canon!Sothis is, I'm not really motivated to do something like this.

#anon #replies #Fodlan's worst mom #Tru Piss is a gut punch through and through lol #maybe on par with FE15 Alm 'we don't need gods humanity fuck yeah but plz mila can you heal the land before leaving?' #as for the billy still being alive even if the crest stone was destroyed #idk mate #maybe it's Sothis's final gift to make Billy's natural and defective heart function? #I've read some piece where Sothis made them live so they can despair and realise what they did #that was a nice fic #I'd have loved Tru Piss if at the end instead of the crest stone shattering it's Supreme Leader who axes Billy #or Billy asks for help because crest stone shattered and Supreme Leader tearfully says this is the last sacrifice she has to make #for her ideal world to come to fruition Billy is also a non human so they have to disappear but she will never forget them #or something in the lines of Katanagatari #expect that it's Togame who survives after killing Shichika like she planned #FE16

[mermaidsirennikita]

One reason why I think Mila Finelli's mafia books do work for me better than most other (Italian--I did really love Kresley's series) mafia romance novels I've read is that the characters do feel DISTINCT and so do the relationship dynamics.

In a lot of these somewhat darker, more erotic reads, you do get the sense that any of the characters could be switched out for one another. The heroes are always the same types of alphas, the heroines are always the same types of a) virgins or b) defiant rebels who may also still be virgins, and what really sets the books apart are a few bananas scenes here and there, and some distinct sex scenes.

And while I definitely think there are distinct sexual dynamics and kinks at play with each couple (Fausto/Frankie are obviously daddy kink-central, Enzo and Gia are.... generalized freaks with some heavier BDSM by way of CNC vibes, Giulio and Alessio also have some D/s vibes but with a more competitive edge and are very into each other's violence, and Giacomo/Emma are obviously a breeding kink/softer touch vibe) they're also just super different people.

I guess the closest couples would be Fausto and Frankie and Enzo and Gia, but even then... Fausto is a dick, but he's more rational, more doting (see: daddy), and though Frankie is absolutely defiant and strong, I actually think that though she and Fausto have more of a traditional partnership in terms of gender than Enzo and Gia (which also could be because Frankie wants a billion kids and yes she has her MBA but she's very much a wife and mom first, whereas Gia is more about her career, which keeps them from being too similar). Enzo and Gia are more into the defined D/s shit sexually, but you get the sense that she has more control in the relationship and that, at the end of the day, he is very much... her bitch. Enzo and Gia have a very similar age gap to Fausto and Frankie, but Fausto and Frankie have more of a care-focused DD/lg relationship, whereas Enzo and Gia thrive on the friction of her giving as good as she gets.

And Alessio and Giulio, aside from the obvious of being the only queer relationship in the series, are very much coded as D/s as well... But not as inflexibly as the previous two couples. Aside from them switching it up in the bedroom a little, there's also a lot of space for Alessio to take care of Giulio. Like, Giulio kinda doesn't know shit about what he's doing lol, whereas Alessio is hypercompetent (which also makes sense, as Fausto for sure spoiled Giulio and Alessio has been in essentially a different class his entire life). So while Giulio is more sexually dominant, Alessio is really the stronger, steadier, and more threatening partner otherwise. And again, they both really get off on watching each other do what they do best, which is: crime.

I do think Giacomo and Emma have the softest relationship in the series--but it's not so much because she's this kind of babe in the woods virgin (and I will say, I did love that Frankie and Gia were NOT lol) but because Giacomo is just a much more tender guy. Like, yes, Fausto and Enzo both also had loved ones, but I think that because they'd both been running their shit longer than Giacomo had before he met Emma, they had these very set roles. Fausto and Enzo come off as more brutal, and honestly more crazy (like, Enzo is THE CRAZIEST for sure, but Fausto is a fucking nutball). Giacomo seems like a dude who's good at killing people and doing mafia stuff, but it's really like? His day job. It's not his life and it doesn't feel like his culture, even, which makes sense because he was on the fringes of the types of levels Fausto and Enzo have always been in, because his father and brother kept him separate from it. Even Giulio is more connected to that space than Giacomo, because he was groomed to take over for years.

I think it would be very easy to rely on these great sex scenes and wacky plots she writes, but the thing that does make it clear that Mila has the chops (.... and it also makes it clear that she's very experienced, lol, and someone who has had to write series with very individualized characters for professional editors in the past........) is that the characters are very DIFFERENT. Like, Frankie and Gia may both have their partners' balls in their pockets, but you see Frankie do a wheedling kind of little girl pouting thing to get her way with Fausto because she knows he looooves it, whereas Gia is like LISTEN UP ASSHOLE with Enzo (and it makes the relationship the best because nobody else can do that with him, Enzo and Gia are the greatest, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk). Giacomo is willing to let Emma go in a way that Fausto, Enzo, and honestly I would say Giulio too after working out some things, really aren't okay with. He's probably the best guy out of the series, on a moral level, while also being a scary murder man.

(Except for maybe Alessio? Because Alessio is also a scary murder man, but he literally just does it for the cash or to protect Giulio. It's PURE BUSINESS.)

I find the distinctiveness of the characters really cool, especially when I reread the books, and that is probably why I've had a hard time finding a series that really clicks for me in the same way within the sort of Italian mafia genre.

(That, and: so much of the other books center on Italian-American mafia stuff and that shit DOES NOT HAVE THE SAUCE the way Mila's Italy-set books do. Like, be real here, the Italian-American mafia has not been raking in this kind of cash for DECADES.)

#romance novel blogging #anyway my musings on the mafia fuckbooks continue #i really do need to read annika martin's books #bc she's another author i have been pleased by with other books #and similarly to mila did a hard left into mafia novels #but yes #i do think that giacomo being sort of fringe-level with the mobster CEO shenanigans did deprive us of some of the funniest shit in the book #which would be like #enzo and fausto sending each other severed heads and getting on the phone like #'is that-' 'the severed head of your employee? yeah. :)' #or giulio bopping over to be like 'LISTEN UP THE ONLY COKE DEALER IN SPAIN IS ME NOW!!!!' #like i do remember her saying she hadn't originally been planning to write a book for emma #which seemed wild to me at the time #but you can tell this story was conceived of separately from the others #bc there's a pretty clear pipeline from fausto and frankie -> the villain enzo getting a book w gia -> #tying up the arc with fausto's son falling for the guy enzo paid to kill fausto lmao #(the comedy of this series will never top enzo fully forgetting he put a hit on giulio bc of all the bomb sex he was having on his yacht) #anyway that doesn't make mafia virgin a lesser book in any way it just reads as the most oN ITS OWN

[gunthermunch]

[Transcript under the cut]

Ernest, on sticky note:

dear, i'm out for a walk! ate some of Gunthy's cereal before leaving. tell him i'm sorry love, Ernest.

#ok so i chopped these last posts up for reading convenience. i'll post through the weekend tho so dw. #here's what wg and ernest have in common: meaningful sticky notes. and other stuff but mainly sticky notes #ts4 #munch #ernest munch #mila munch #i beg you to listen to starman. if you already did listen to it again #prologue

[carewyncromwell]

"No more, the crap rolls out your mouth again! Haven't changed -- your brain is still gelatin! Little whispers circle around your head... Why don't you worry about yourself instead!?"

~"Holier Than Thou" by Metallica

x~x~x~x

[transcribed from art, for easier translation]

Olivia: Cool your jets, Jacob, that prat isn't worth it. Duncan: Better to get back at Lockhart when there isn't a Hall full of witnesses around. Olivia: Not helping, Duncan.

x~x~x~x

Happy belated birthday, Jacob Cromwell!

In celebration (?), I thought I'd salute one of my personal favorite headcanons about Jacob that I haven't had much of a chance to explore...namely, that Jacob shared a dormroom with the one, the only Gilderoy Lockhart!

Yes, as you can imagine, Jacob hated Lockhart's bloody guts. 😂

Really, though, it wasn't hard for Jacob to hate Lockhart when that "toothy prat" would act like the smartest guy in the room and yet cowardly avoid any challenges or duels that could contradict that overly shiny self-image Lockhart had of himself. Old Gilderoy was also prone to grab more attention from female students than Jacob did, even with his ridiculously puffed-up ego, for his good looks and (marginally) better people skills. Oh yeah -- and then there was Lockhart's attempt to marginalize Jacob, Duncan, and Olivia's hard work dealing with the Cursed Vaults terrorizing Hogwarts by acting like he'd suspected how to break each curse all along and (even more insultingly) insinuating that it was really him who'd instructed the three Cursebreakers in the methods they'd used to break them. Lockhart even brashly reiterated this one infamous Valentine's Day in his and the Trio's fifth year when he received 800 Valentine's cards and presents (which, as it turned out, were all from Lockhart to himself) --

" -- such beautiful gifts and cards! No doubt from fans both across and outside Hogwarts itself! They must've heard of my heroic efforts toward helping break the curses on the Cursed Vaults! Taught Duncan Ashe everything he knows about puzzle solving...and poor Miss Green was clueless in dealing with those boggarts until I showed her the proper method! And those Acromantula, ho ho...I daresay our favorite Cursebreakers would've been helpless in communicating with those beasts, if it weren't for me teaching Jacob some basic phrases..."

Even if his friends successfully held Jacob back physically, they didn't stop him from verbally tearing into Lockhart.

"'TAUGHT ME SOME PHRASES?!' Acromantula are capable of HUMAN SPEECH, you brain-dead numpty!"

Ultimately Lockhart's little stunt came to an end when the Great Hall had to be cleared of students so the teachers could properly deal with the 800 owls and their 800 packages and letters cluttering up the room. Lockhart's interest in stealing credit for dealing with the Cursed Vaults waned for a short time after Olivia's disappearance, Duncan's death, and Jacob's expulsion, but came back in full when Jacob's sister Carewyn likewise had to deal with them. Fortunately Lockhart failed to collect enough information about Carewyn's adventures to take credit for them and was forced to retreat with a very basic Memory Charm as his goodbye before she or her date Andre Egwu could put together his true intentions. And more fortunately still, about six years later, Lockhart got his just desserts when all of the lies he told to score cheap fame and success came to light.

No one was more pleased when the world finally conjured up enough brain cells to see Lockhart for the idiot and fraud he was than Jacob Cromwell. And ironically enough, the world had also finally conjured up enough brain cells to see for who Jacob really was by then -- not a delinquent as so many had presumed for so long, but an eccentric, brilliant wizard with iron-clad loyalty, incredible magical talent, and a heart as brave as Lockhart's is cowardly.

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #my art #jacob cromwell #gilderoy lockhart #duncan ashe #olivia green #it was so fun to draw olivia again!! #my face claim for my version of olivia is mila kunis #she's not much like the game's version -- she's actually more based on my deceased maternal aunt #just like how jacob was based off my mum's brother! #olivia often played the mediator of the trio since she's an older sister at home #but she also was the 'heart' of the trio since like harry she loved hogwarts more than anything #but hey she's muggle-born! hogwarts *would* be the place where she could've most been herself #truthfully though olivia wasn't a rulekeeper she's just the -non-violent hippie' type #olivia wears a fringe vest over her uniform bc she's an artistic type a la luna XD #LOL my olivia would so gel with my girl carewyn's other half orion #and that would piss jacob off to no end LMAO #OH YEAH duncan's reading 'saucy tricks for tricky sorts' #silently plotting some proper revenge prank on lockhart bc excuse me you don't get to put down my puzzle solving skills or insult my friend

[troius]

#Bleach #Troius reads Bleach #emilou apache #cyan sun-sun #francesca mila rose #they are also very cool for showing up and beating up the Wandenreich #that said I am quite confused as to how Mila Rose's outfit is supposed to work