#mostly bc i had to review the series

[le-92vi]

It's You and Me (Part 1)

Geto Suguru x Reader

Genres/Warnings: nothing really, reader is Suguru's junior. fem!reader, academic weapon!reader (bc i'm not^^) hs!geto. Mostly fluff and banter. Not proofread.

Word Count: 1.5k

Notes: hello again! I'm still unsure if i should make a whole series out of this or just drabbles, or maybe... nothing more, even though i kinda have a story line in mind. Please let me know if you liked this one and would like more parts to this fic. im also sorry for not making regular updates. (Reviews, critics anything<3) I hope you like and enjoy this one!!<33

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"Yeah, Mom, I'm getting off from school. Just text me whatever you need." You end the call with your mother.

Maki, who stood a couple of lockers away from you and happened to be listening to the conversation, cocked her eyebrow at you. "More housewarming parties?"

You chuckled at how well she knew your mom as you gathered your belongings from your locker and shoved them in your backpack. "I guess. She loves being a good host. Would you mind a little detour to the market?"

"Not at all." She closes your locker for you. "We can get the décor stuff for the presentation too."

"Nice!"

***

"Mom," you called out as you and Maki hauled all the groceries to the kitchen counters. 

"In here," she called out from the living room. 

"Maybe the guests are over already," Maki shrugged.

"But we just got here with the food? Aren't they supposed to be here for dinner?" You asked sheepishly. 

Maki gave you a sarcastic upturned smile. "How am I supposed to know that?"

"You're back! And Maki's here too!" Your mom appeared from the hallways, greeting Maki with a hug the first thing.

It didn't even faze you at this point just how smitten your mom had become with her. And it was endearing too, not that you'd ever admit it out loud. 

You clear your throat to get your mom's attention, "Excuse me, you two..." only to earn laughs from both of them. 

"You're such a silly girl." She took the other bag from your hand, plopping it on the counter. "Anyways, you should go greet our new neighbors. You too, Maki. They have a son around you guys' age. Take him upstairs with you. Poor kid's bored out of his mind sitting there." 

Immediately, Maki's eyes met with yours as you shrugged.

"Go on, now."  Your mom motioned towards the door as the two of you made a beeline outside. 

"New neighbor, huh? Finally, some action in your life, Miss Prude." Maki nudged you, fake-wiping a tear from her eye. "Guess you won't need me around anymore."

"God, Maki! You're so overdramatic," was all you could manage to say, as all your words died in your mouth.

THIS HAD TO BE SOME SICK JOKE.

Suguru Geto. The smartest and most popular guy in your senior school. The Suguru Geto was hunched over the love seat in your living room, visibly bored out of his mind.

You decided that it was for the best for you to ignore his presence in the room for the time being and greet his parents first. You bowed in greeting as you wished them, and so did Maki. That seemed to have grabbed Suguru's attention: "Hey, I've seen you guys in school. I think..." His voice trailed out as he tried to remember where he'd seen you from.

His eyes fixed on both you and Maki, hoping that your presence would gratify his curiosity.

Maki did, as you mentally facepalmed yourself for going blank. Briefly introducing the both of you, she elbowed you in the side to join in on the conversation. But you didn't know what to say, especially to him.

"I have a lot of books. Do you want to check them out?" you blurted. He liked to read, right? You've seen him practically living in the school library. You were supposed to hang out with him after all, right?

"Sure," he says, seeing it as his only chance to escape from the room of boring adult talks, as he follows you and Maki to your room. It was almost as if your body had gone into auto-pilot mode; you were moving without having to think—or rather, your brain was clouded with Suguru's presence, and you couldn't think.

All of it felt wrong. He wasn't supposed to be in your home, let alone your room. And, even though Maki was there too, it didn't help the blaring alarms going off in your brain.

"This is it," your hand gestured at the book shelf filled with books, top to bottom. 

Suguru let out a small chuckle. "I think we have very different ideas of 'a lot of books'." He plopped down on your study chair, while Maki snickered and made herself comfortable on your bed. 

"What do you mean?" You sat beside Maki, turning your head from her to Suguru, trying to find out the object of their amusement. "What is it?" You looked at her sheepishly. 

Maki turns your head towards her, squishing your face in her palms with a look of jest and something motherly. "He likes reading novels, not text books, honey."

"Oh!" you exclaimed, feeling very stupid. How were you supposed to know that he liked fiction? It's not like you ever crept up on him to get a peek at his paperback. "I'm sure I can find some novels for you too! You could've just said so." You sprung up from your place and walked towards your book shelf to find one. You were determined to find a book for him now.

"What genre do you like?" You said, knowing full well you might not even have something close to it.

"Nevermind. I don't feel like reading in the first place; I just wanted to get away from the parents. No  offense." He swung around in your chair. "What else have you got?" 

And something in your brain shifted. He looked so comfortable in your house. It was astonishing. Truly. While you racked your brain trying to adjust to his presence, he looked like he had always belonged there, swinging so freely in your chair. As if you had known each other for a very long time.

For a moment, you forgot about Maki's presence, drowning in his beauty. His eyes, lips. his hair, falling perfectly into place. His voice. It was like he was hand-sculpted with so much care. Until you were brought back to your reality by an elbow to your side. "You should give that a rest unless you want to puncture a hole in me," you pouted at her, rubbing your side to ease the pain.

She, in turn, snickered at you, "What are you so lost in thought about?"

Suguru Geto!

Wasn't it obvious? But, you were kinda thankful that neither of them noticed. "Dinner should be ready by now, right? I'm starving!" You exclaimed, trying to change the topic as fast as you could, dragging Maki by her hand and cocking your head at Suguru, "Let's go."

"You can't just ignore my question like that, you-" her words were cut short by your hand on her ringing phone, "Someone's calling," You swung it near her face in haste.

"Just you and your luck." She whispered to you and gave you her signature scowl before answering her phone.

"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" You tried making small talk while Maki was busy on the phone, trying your best to not have Suguru notice your tiny, little crush on him. That had to be why you had been acting so strange since you got home, completely zoned out and clueless.

"Bad news, I gotta go" She stuffed her phone back in her jeans.

"No! Why?" You frowned. "Dinner's just ready."

"I know, but I think it's urgent." She rushed back upstairs to grab her bag. "I'll have to call a rain check on the project today, sorry."

"Don't worry about the project. Is everything okay?" You call after her, but she'd already disappeared out of your sight, "I'll ask Mom to pack her some food."

You rush to your mom to explain everything to her, while she packs Maki's portion of the dinner for her. "It's going to get cold by the time she'll eat it" She sighed.

"Go safely!" You hand Maki her dinner, seeing her off like a military wife. "I wish you could stay longer."

"Who's being dramatic now, huh?" She shook her head with laughter at your antics.

You were just glad you could make her laugh. "I'll call you later!" You called after her as you watched her leave, to which she turned around to wave at you.

***

Soon enough dinner was over too and the guests were beginning to leave.

You were now much more comfortable in Suguru's presence. More than you'd like to admit. And, you didn't completely hate the thought of it. He could be a good guy, after all.

You wondered how the rest of your school year would be, now that you'd practically befriended the School's ace, the most sought after guy, as you and your family walked the Geto's to the driveway.

While the parents bid good nights to each other, Suguru quietly popped up beside you, "I'm looking forward to seeing you more often, neighbor." Before running ahead to catch up with his parents, turning back slightly to get a final glimpse of you.

It's going to be a long year.

Tags: @mandysfanfics

#suguru geto x reader #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jjk x you #jjk imagines #jjk x reader #getou suguru x reader #jujutsu geto #geto x reader #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk geto #geto suguru #jujutsu kaisen shoko

[malinaa]

2023 WRITING REVIEW

tagged: no one i just wanted to do this and i forgot about it soz </3 tagging : board of directors i'd tag u here but this is mostly fic-based so sorree... anyway if u have already done this my b.... i wld like to see ur post tho @evcndiaz | @brimay | @usignedupforthis | @seek--rest | @posallys | @dustorangeheartssnowman | @adhd-merlin | @queerofthedagger

number of stories posted to ao3: 34 ±1 bc i updated a fic from a while back <3

word counted posted for last year: 90k... a feat (i wrote more but it was ofic so add like maybe 10k to that)

fandoms i wrote for: alex stern series, merlin, house md, pjo, spidey, hunger games, doctor who, & the grisha trilogy

pairings: merthur / arwen / mergwenthur / mergana, darlingstern, hilson, percabeth, petermj, everlark, tenrose, malina

stories with the most KUDOS: jealousy, jealousy (house md) with 522 <3 BOOKMARKS: except my life (merlin) with 137 <3 COMMENT THREADS: rip current (pjo) with 38 <3 *technically the answer to all of these is tested with torment but that's a fic i updated so i don't reallyyyyyy count it

work i'm most proud of (and why): thread of gold (arwen, bbc merlin) because i don't exactly post 2nd person fic and tbh most people HATEEEEE 2nd person fic AND i got people to enjoy it. HA!

work i'm least proud of (and why): coffee drinker (gen fic, bbc merlin) because it was just a promptfic and i didn't even really feel like posting it but i wrote it so i might as well yk?

share or describe a favorite review you received: any review that quotes a line but this one from judas kiss (arwen, bbc merlin)...

THIS. IS. WONDERFUL ❤️❤️❤️ *creates bookmark with gusto* I LOVE that you dug into what it might have been like for Gwen while she was under that enchantment! It was so creative to have her past memories blurring with glimpses of the present during the enchantment. I *felt* her disorientation, and it *hurt*. I felt so bad for Gwen all over again! 😭😭😭 That aspect of this story could have been a fantastic standalone one-shot in its own right, but noooo, you raised the bar and KEPT GOING and made it even better!!! I love that you showed Gwen and Merlin staying friends after Gwen becomes queen, and I love how she confides in him and how he immediately drops everything to go look for the offending piece of jewelry. The bit about Arthur’s incredulity at Merlin’s method of testing the enchantment was a great dash of humor, and I love that you fleshed out the concept of the enchantment to be something the others could experience so that they could truly *know* that Gwen had been innocent. And don’t even get me started on how much I love Arthur’s “Forgive me.” I love how he doesn’t think twice about humbling himself in front of everyone because his focus is solely on Gwen, consumed by the urgency of doing the right, honorable, and loving thing in that moment. You write Arthur and Gwen’s relationship so beautifully. 💕 Well done; I hate you (/affectionate) for all these feels. 🥰🫂👏

a time when writing was really, really hard: august through october... idek why i was literally in agony not writing

a scene or character you wrote that surprised you: writing jj in spider-man: homewrecker because i've NEVER written him before (in my memory) and i was like. Hello .

a favorite excerpt of your writing: cannae lie i have a few favs so... killing is a love language (mergana, bbc merlin) Heartbreak snakes up his throat, constricting him at the sight of her. Morgana’s beauty is incontestable even like this, but her hatred wore her down to her bones. Gone were the full cheeks and rosy lips, the perfectly combed hair, the wardrobe that would put princesses to shame. Now, her face is sunken in, her hair a curled storm, her dress is merely black rags at this point. thread of gold (arwen, bbc merlin) Your father’s presence is larger than life. Larger than love. It looms. It casts shadows long enough to hide every hope and dream you’ve ever had for yourself. the boy and the girl (malina, the grisha trilogy) Memory fractures into shards. Real or not real? There’s Mal in the meadow. Mal buried beneath the hanging tree. Mal cold in her palms. There’s a sky darker than night. Her hands bloodied. A knife lodged in his heart. Her knife. His blood. Her fault. She killed him. She loves him. Her fault. Rest her head on his still chest. Her fault. No heartbeat. Her fault. No warmth. Cold light spilling from her palms. She killed him. The Saint’s only true worshipper martyred.

how did you grow as a writer last year: my hopes from last year was that i finally finish a multichap fic.... 😭 does a short 3-shot count. besides that i wrote more consistently and i'm finally Used to my writing style. i think.

how do you hope to grow this year: hell if i know if i could write something longer than 20k that'd be great 😭😭😭😭

who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer, beta, cheerleader, etc.): the board.... @rosesau / @bipercabeth / @stellwood fnh...... i'd tag katie but she absconded from tumblr smh. anyway hi freaks n geeks

anything from your real life show up in your writing last year: oh i don't even know. nothing ig

any new wisdom you can share with other writers: bro idek the more i write the more writing becomes fundamentally so hard to talk about ... sorreeee

any projects you're looking to starting (or finishing) this year: IF I DON'T FUCKING MAKE PROGRESS ON MY PLAY I WILL BASH MY HEAD INTO A WALL. THIS CAN'T KEEP HAPPENING. ATLAS AND VIVIAN YOU WILL BE WRITTEN ON THE PAGE INSHALLAH

#tag games #2023 #writing #text #tais toi lys #not the numbering getting fucked. whatever

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 12/19/2022

shambling along towards the new year

listening

cotton heads by caravan palace. i think this has been on every spotify wrapped playlist ive ever had. soft and comforting in a way that’s hard for me to describe. this has been part of the background music in some of the softest times of my life, winter-warm and safe and solitary noodling around on some project that involves a lot of fiddling with tiny pieces on a desk. spotify

-

reading

houston thrift stores are, predictably, awash with cowboy western novels. mostly it’s every louis l’amour or zane grey possible (no thanks)

jake logan’s SLOCUM AND THE YELLOWBACK TRAIL is number three hundred and seventy nine in the series, which is quite impressive. i am fascinated when a book attempts to transplant a cowboy into an urban environment so we’ll stick with it for a bit, despite a truly horrible sex scene describing a “rigid pole”. there were no onomatopoeia sex sounds which is both blessing and curse bc the intel SLOCUM gathered during this sex scene seemed like a completely different conversation totally unrelated to the sex he was having. she simply happened to come three times in three pages while telling him everything he needed for Next Location.

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watching

saw several very beautiful movies in the last two weeks, one of which i liked very much.

Experiment in Terror (1962, dir. Edwards) has one of my favorite Mancini-composed pieces of music but i had never seen the movie it was from. a neo-noir man with an asthmatic rasp puts pressure on a bank teller and her teen sister to rob the bank by terrorizing them through various means. however, despite successfully playing on a lot of Womanly Fears (unexpected phone calls, driving at night, being alone) the fbi. this is perhaps a bit snide since it is extremely good at keeping the tension up through most of the runtime, the leads all did a good job imo— a letterboxed reviewer pointed out the villain played by Ross Martin has a certain chameleon-like quality from scene to scene and it is really arresting, he pops up in some unexpected places to great effect. a well-shot movie, just a hair longer than i wanted it to be, i don’t think any movie could survive the hype i built up in my head after loving than mancini piece so much, and was not quite the vibe i was looking for on the afternoon i finished it.

in a different noir with an important scene during a baseball game, Stray Dog (1949, dir. Kurosawa). everything you could possibly say about this movie has already been said. mifune is such a fucking joy to watch as a somewhat hapless young cop with a bad case of the scruples. gets his fully loaded pistol pickpocketed on the tram, sending him hither and yon during a brutally hot summer tracking down every bullet. widely available for free. fucking beautiful work of art. deeply annoying when widely acclaimed movies are actually really good

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playing

nothing new to report, nothing i want to play has been a free epic game lately. very excited that a character ive been waiting for is dropping in genshin on…uhhhhh…tomorrow? she has sunglasses. she has a gunbrella. she can call in heavy cannon bombardment. she’s just so cute

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making

one of the purposes of the tuesdaypost is to remind myself to expand the selection of things i do and my brain partially feels like sludge bc of the time of year and partially bc i haven’t fucking done anything more complicated than scrambled eggs or cleaning things in like two weeks

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #Spotify

[luluwquidprocrow]

sometimes a family is three orphans, their adopted daughter, one not-so-sad writer, and two triplets

frank, beatrice the second, the baudelaires, lemony, ernest, implied ernest/lemony

gen

3,598 words

In the grand tradition of all parents, the extended baudelaire family find themselves trying to pull a fast one. 

for @asouefanworkevent's woevember day 4, the hotel denouement! some rambling headcanon nonsense half-fic about post-canon family that i had great fun doing. my favorite thing in the whole world is post-canon babybea interacting with her absurd enormous family. i love them all so much.

okay. so bear with me here 

so i think most parents/guardians are at one point or another faced with Pulling The Ultimate Fast One on their children. this is related to Your Beloved Pet Died But We’re Telling You We Sent Them To Live On The Farm, but this version, in particular, is infinitely easier and harder. this one is The Switch. The Replacement. The Double. when the intrepid parent or guardian, under the cover of night, goes to the pet store to purchase The Exact Same Animal because the first animal had an untimely death. i will admit, this is the easiest with like, a goldfish, or something else small where you can usually get one that looks very similar. 

now, for babybea, it’s a pumpkin. 

so babybea (who is twelve at the time this story takes place), at the very end of september, carves a pumpkin, and she goes in with a VISION. she spends a couple hours on this pumpkin, carving an owl. It’s not, yknow, a realistic owl, but she adds a lot of tiny details, lots of lines for the feathers, and she carves a little mouse on the side too, and even gets the side of a tree in there, and the pumpkin carving kit the baudelaires purchased that year came with these little stick lights, to put in the owl eyes after carving, so it has orange eyes!! this is!!!! The neatest thing babybea has ever seen, and she is so thrilled with the results and very proud of this pumpkin. (for the record – violet carves a few pumpkins into a starry night with a moon, klaus carves monstera leaves, and. let’s be real. sunny bites a series of turnips into jack-o-lanterns.) (and then she stabs a couple white pumpkins into bigger jack-o-lanterns, for variety. all of them get different expressions!

sunny, arranging her carved vegetation on the baudelaire porch in order of emotion: perfect.) (no, i don’t know what order of emotion means. But sunny does.)

Then they all pile into violet’s car – pumpkin included!! – and drive almost an hour out of the city to the bildungsroman bed and breakfast. (frank and ernest decided, at this point in their lives, if they were going to commit to anything, it may as well be The Bit.) (it has a local reputation as a place with solid wifi, stellar bread, and great mattresses. The owners are considered minorly eccentric, mostly for the portrait they have in the lobby, of, just one of them. 

some impassioned yelp review: okay so the stay was great big recommend PLEASE try the bread but i cannot figure out the story behind the portrait in the lobby????? it's just one one of the owners?????? but I don't understand why bc they're twins and it's just ONE of them?????? and he's wearing this frog-patterned tie in the painting and when you see them like in person. neither of them wear the tie. what's the deal here 

the locals are sure it's not an ego thing, bc the owners don't seem to be self-centered or anything like that. In fact, if asked about the painting, both of them will say, “oh, that's a painting of my brother.” 

an additional yelp comment: I think. there's THREE of them  a third yelp comment: don't be silly, they're definitely twins.) 

frank and ernest have a very elaborate series of outdoor autumn decorations, with lots of pumpkins and mini gourds and hay bales over the front steps and corn stalks on all the porch posts, and babybea wants to not only show her uncles her hard work, but also put the pumpkin on their steps where everyone can see it!! 

(her uncles also include lemony, of course – I think he did live with the baudelaires for some time after reuniting babybea with them, but has recently moved into ernest's side of the private apartment at the back of the hotel. this was mildly distressing to babybea, who likes everyone she loves under the same roof, but she can't deny that lemony is very happy. and so is ernest. and now she can see all her uncles in the same place whenever she wants!! so the baudelaires tend to spend weekends at the bed and breakfast, because they also miss lemony. and they get to know frank and ernest better, which is very important to them, as people who are important to babybea, and to lemony, and, to the baudelaire's past.) (not to like, detract from the sentiment here, but i do need everyone to know that i imagine ernest spends like, 80% of his working hours just making out with lemony.) (okay maybe not 80%. ernest does legitimately get work done, it’s his hotel too. ………but like, a lot of time.) 

AND SO. the baudelaires arrive at the bed and breakfast, and frank and ernest and lemony are very proud of their niece's pumpkin. they take a lot of pictures. (re: my previous post-canon thoughts, frank has actually acquired a phone now, and does text. it is a flip phone.) babybea places it, very gently, on the third front step, and is so pleased. sunny steals two mini gourds while looking ernest dead in the eye. ernest approves. 

But october turns out to be unseasonably warm, and babybea’s pumpkin, while lovingly carved but now lacking the support an uncarved pumpkin has to keep itself A Pumpkin, does not take kindly to the weather, and babybea actually becomes very distressed at the smallest signs of rot beginning to form in her pumpkin, when it is only the second week of october. She doesn’t TELL anybody, because there’s not really much you can do about a pumpkin doing what a pumpkin does in warm weather, but she’s very upset. (almost uncharacteristically so. usually she’d say, oh, well that’s how it happens, and rather pleasantly move on, but lately, she’s been kind of. quieter than usual.) And frank, who spends a great deal of time at the front desk, closest to the pumpkins, becomes Concerned. 

now, in general, babybea’s family is like, pretty good at being realistic with her. She is of course an optimist, but still Aware of a great deal of the ways of the world, given her family, her upbringing, lemony’s books, her own adventures, everything. You can’t really shield this twelve year old from the ways of the world, even if that way of the world is, a rotting vegetable. All things have their time, and it cannot be stopped. Including seasons, and in-season foods. 

However. She put SO MUCH WORK into that pumpkin, and as the week goes by and the pumpkin starts to shrink in on itself, turning all of babybea’s work black from the inside out, those charming little glowstick eyes CAVING IN, and the baudelaire’s weekly weekend visit grows closer and closer, frank has been imagining her devastated reaction when she sees the pumpkin, and decides, He Must Pull The Fast One. he will re-carve the pumpkin, exactly as babybea carved it, replace the pumpkin, and no one will be the wiser. They get a little more time with the pumpkin, presumably at least until halloween, and his niece gets to see her beautiful handiwork as much as she likes. Maybe, you know, there is a little magic in the world after all, to make a pumpkin look so nice. 

(also, i think frank has. A shaky relationship with babybea, from his end. She loves him, as much as she loves everyone else in her family, and babybea herself would NEVER rank her uncles in order of how well she knows or admires them, but i, lulu vandelay, putting this together, have no qualms in saying she knows lemony the best, bc she has spent the most time with him, between trying to find him and both of them trying to find the baudelaires and all of them having lived together, and she’s rather deeply attached to him – ernest is very personable, and funny, so he’s easy to get along with – and she and frank both like tiny detail work, so they have things in common, but frank always seems very awkward around her. And he is. It’s bc he’s very nervous around her. Frank doesn’t think he’s good with kids. And he is usually acutely aware that in an ideal world, he isn’t the one she’d be spending her time with, that dewey would be so much better at all of this than he is. A better parent, a better brother, a better everything. Because dewey always was, to frank. but, dewey would probably want frank to do as much as he could for her, and would believe him absolutely capable of doing it, without a doubt. So he wants to be a proper uncle to her and THIS is his opportunity, he thinks. He so desperately wants to do something kind and considerate and important for her, like family is supposed to do for each other.) 

the thing about pumpkins, though, is that, for some reason, mid-october, THEY ALL DISAPPEAR. I’m serious, you ever try and find a good pumpkin even like a little over halfway through october? It can be hard. 

frank: i need your assistance. ernest: i’ve killed my quota for the month. frank: i – ernest, please.  ernest: alright, my apologies. What do you need?  frank: a pumpkin. lemony, from the kitchen: jarrahdale or red warty?  frank: no, i mean a carving pumpkin. 

The three of them take a good, long look at babybea’s pumpkin. Uncle Instincts Have Activated. They, very solemnly, bury the pumpkin in the back garden (lemony is the one who takes one for the team and removes the glowstick eyes from the depths of sad, sad pumpkin). And then embark on a mission. Please imagine the three of them packed into a mint green 1960 chevy corvette. Sunglasses optional. Who’s driving? That is up to you, my friend. Oh, google informs me it is cascade green. Imagine accordingly. (yes, no corvette has ever been made with more than two seats, but isn’t that just funnier? They really are packed in there. Lemony sits in the middle.) 

The hunt for the right pumpkin is long. Grueling! Kinda chilly! This is october!! Much comparison is made between potential pumpkins and the pictures they took of babybea’s pumpkin. Snacks are purchased. (lemony, who has recently been introduced to instagram, posts a picture of his pretzel. [ernest is out of focus in the corner, eating a chocolate ice cream cone.] [#pretzel.] 

sunbad: what is that lemonysnicket: I have purchased a pretzel sunbad: without me sunbad: you’re dead to me.) 

(it was actually not sunny who introduced lemony to instagram, although she was his first follower. It was klaus.) (klaus uses instagram mainly to never post anything ever, just to follow his favorite authors, so he wanted lemony to have an instagram, especially since he just moved out.) (klaus……..my heart………..) (oh, frank bought chex mix. he likes those gross rye bread pieces.) 

(don’t get me started on lemony with an instagram……….I think this is a hilarious but also heartwarming thought – this man who has avoided being photographed for years and years and years and YEARS (yes that much repetition was in fact necessary) is at a point in his life here he is not only comfortable of taking pictures of his life, but he is capable of doing it, he’s allowed!! It’s still probably mostly food and it’s so good!!!!!!!! and think of the amount of pictures he keeps just in his phone gallery, too!!! violet’s inventions and klaus’ library displays and sunny’s baking and babybea’s school projects and ernest’s record collection and frank’s breakfast spreads, and nature shots with lemony’s thumb in the corner, AAAAAAAAAAAA) (uh, anyway, these men are on a mission. back to the mission.) 

Eventually, they do find a comparable replacement pumpkin! Does it fit in the car? Lemony, by virtue of sitting in the middle, holds the pumpkin. 

They return to the bed and breakfast. Between the three of them, many different knives, and all of their photos, frank and ernest and lemony painstakingly recreate babybea’s pumpkin, down to the last, smallest detail. Including the little mouse and the side of the tree and the feathers and everything. (frank does do most of the work, because ernest and lemony very much see that this is important to him, but he doesn’t mind them helping, because, yknow. This is about family, and babybea is their family too.) (frank feels like he owes lemony a lot. for trying to set the record straight about their past. or as straight as one could try and set it, with what all of them did. for their niece. for making ernest happy.) (ernest deserves to be happy, with everything they put each other through. ernest thinks the same for frank, too.) 

(ugggggg if you told the three of them when they were so much younger that one day they’d stay up late recreating their niece’s perfect pumpkin masterpiece so she’s not upset about the passage of time………..) 

(who’s in charge of the bed and breakfast while all of this is happening?? 

ernest: mallory, you’re in charge. mallory, a twenty-two year old with a major in hotel management who runs the front desk when ernest and frank can’t: sounds like a plan. 

mallory has a deep respect for the denouements. meanwhile – 

mallory: so you’re lemony snicket. lemony: i am, yes. mallory: you don’t look like your photo. lemony: that’s my legal representative. he has a stamp.) 

meanwhile meanwhile – it is not necessarily about the pumpkin. 

For babybea’s part, she already firmly believes that there is some sort of magic in the world. Even at twelve. Especially at twelve!! Look, she knows it wasn’t magic that reunited her with her family, that it was her and lemony’s hard work, but she wound up with SO much more family than she expected, when she first contacted lemony. And like, that is what there’s magic in. this whole group of people who care about her and love her and want to spend time with her. Babybea thinks she has the best family in the whole entire world. (AND SHE’S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

But that is also babybea’s problem right now. She loves her family so much, and she loves having them, and it’s been a couple months but she is still not entirely comfortable with people she loves being so far away from her. Not now! Not when they’re all supposed to be in the same space, like they’re supposed to be!! And some kids at school have teased her, not so much about her puzzle-piece family but that she talks about her uncles so much. She’s just proud of her family and she loves them!! But middle schoolers are like, rude as fuck sometimes, okay. And they don’t even think they’re saying anything wrong, just offhand comments about how much she talks about them. They don’t even know anything about her parents, not really, but babybea starts to feel like, it’s the unspoken throughline in what they’re saying, why doesn’t she ever talk about them? Why only her uncles, her guardians? They’re her family, but – 

she feels almost guilty, that she goes through periods where she doesn’t even think of her parents at all, and periods where she can’t stop thinking about what they would look like and what they would be like, and that makes her feel like she doesn’t value the family she DOES have. So it’s not necessarily about the pumpkin starting to rot, what’s making her upset. It’s that, the pumpkin is another thing in a line of things babybea is Thinking about, things that aren’t Going the way she thought they were supposed to go. Her uncle moving out, missing somebody who was supposed to be there, her pumpkin not staying like it’s supposed to, she’s SUPPOSED to love her family but is she loving them right? Is she loving the right people right? Can you miss people you didn’t even know? And babybea has it very set in her head, the things she knows and is supposed to do – this is something she hasn’t quite worked on, but she’ll get to it eventually, she is still twelve – and they keep not happening like that. And now. Something else she worked really, really, really hard on, that isn’t going right either. 

So she spends the week a little gloomy about her pumpkin, and worrying the whole ride friday afternoon after school to the bildungsroman bed and breakfast. Violet and klaus and sunny are very aware of babybea’s mood, and try to cheer her up by asking her about what she’ll be for halloween, but babybea’s heart is not super into this conversation. (she has ideas about a big group costume where they’re all different local birds, but now she’s not even sure about that.) 

And then! She sees her pumpkin!! Glowy eyes and all!!!!! And, mysteriously, those little spots of rot she’d noticed the week before are gone, and, in fact, it looks a little sharper than it had before? And she didn’t think she’d cut the lid quite like that, but! That’s her pumpkin, exactly where it’s supposed to be!!! And it makes her feel just a little better. That’s good. That’s right. But she still can’t, entirely shake off all her previous feelings, about family. But. right now. Her pumpkin still looks very special. 

Later, babybea can’t sleep. So she sneaks out of bed and goes down to the lobby, and sits down on the floor in front of the front desk, and looks at the big painting on the wall, that ernest did of her father. 

This, of course, is where frank finds her. (because frank has never been very good at sleeping consistently, even when there’s nothing to worry about now, and he likes to walk through the hotel to make sure it’s secure.) 

(ernest would say something very clever, like, aha, with a raised eyebrow, but all frank says is – )

frank: hello, beatrice.  beatrice: oh!  beatrice: hello, uncle frank.  frank: may i sit down?  beatrice: yes, please. 

They spend a little while looking at the portrait.

beatrice: um –  beatrice: does it – 

What she wants to ask is, does it look very much like my father, which she then realizes is such a STUPID question if her father was a TRIPLET and she has a mirror image of him right in front of her, who acts like she thinks a father is supposed to act, so, but, it’s not like that doesn’t mean dewey didn’t look like dewey. Just because dewey looked like frank doesn’t mean he only looked like frank. And beatrice forgets, sometimes, that he would’ve just looked just like her uncles. But still! 

beatrice: i mean – the painting, is it – 

But she thinks it’s such a terrible thing to ask!! But frank knows EXACTLY what she means. 

(some time ago, when the hotel had just opened and ernest had just painted the portrait of dewey – 

ernest: i wanted it to look like him. And, it’s not like i, don’t know what he looks like. Looked like. I mean – that could just be me or you up there, couldn’t it. It doesn’t look like it’s him.  frank: no, it does.  frank, knowing exactly what he means and feeling like, he needs to make ernest Not look so abjectly miserable: you don’t look nearly as happy.  ernest, in tears, very amused and touched and still terribly upset: wow! 

The point being, god of course it looks like dewey. It couldn’t be anybody but dewey, even if dewey looks like other people. Dewey looks like himself, he looks like his family, he looks like beatrice, around the eyes. And family means lots of things. It means your guardians raising you, and your uncles raising you, and your father’s portrait on the wall and never knowing him at all, and loving so many people and being loved back by them, whether or not it’s Supposed to be a specific way, and sometimes it means missing somebody, sometimes it means missing different people, sometimes it means being sad for something you’re not sure if you should or could miss, sometimes it means not missing anyone at all, sometimes it means your uncle going to live with his definitely boyfriend even if they won’t say the words out loud who’s also your uncle just on the other side of your family and that doesn’t mean anyone’s going anywhere. Sometimes it means your pumpkin rotting, because things change. uh, does this make sense.) (admittedly, i put a lot of things in this.)

frank: yes, it looks very much like him.  frank: i think about him a lot.  beatrice: ......would he like my pumpkin? frank, without hesitation: absolutely. beatrice: do you like it? frank: i do.

of course babybea already knew that, but it's nice to hear. it's just. nice. it's not, like, everything? just like before. but beatrice is loved by a lot of people, and she loves them, too, and. she feels loved, right here, like she's supposed to, and that's what's Supposed to happen.

beatrice hugs him, and it's not the first time she's hugged frank, but it means more? frank hugs her back.

beatrice: thanks for fixing my pumpkin.  frank: i’m sure i don’t know what you mean, beatrice. 

beatrice hugs him again, and then goes back upstairs. frank looks a little longer at the portrait, and then goes to bed himself, and doesn't get back up until his alarm goes off.

#asoue #a series of unfortunate events #woevember #tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa................... #you know what. for as much as i Did In Fact jam in here. bc my thoughts get away from me. i DO think i wrapped it up rather nicely. #the capitals are inconsistent bc i wrote this in googledocs and it just wants to capitalize EVERYTHING. AGAINST MY WILL #i am as stunned as you are that this is frank-centric. but sometimes the words happen. #if you were wondering. yes my parents did in fact Pull This Fast One on me. with. yes. fish.

[huntress87]

Do I have a problem? Maybe. 😆. Some are better than others but mostly I’ve enjoyed them all.

Not pictured was Hooked by Emily McEntire though I was a bit disappointed bc it was kinda weird and wasn’t a redemption really & just not as good as the others)

one (not pictured) of them I had to return without reading it after I found reviews and realized it was MM/HookxPan type. Just not my thing.

I’ve got a few more on my list, one of which is book 3 of a series and it’s not out yet.

I dunno if the person on Etsy is on here but thank you for the cool CS bookmark!

#once upon a time #captain swan #hook #killian jones #emma swan #captain hook

[sleepinglionhearts]

Hello, I recently started watching Claymore after seeing you reblog a few manga panels from it a while back. And holy moly its such a good show. I havent had this much fun while watching anime for a while. Just wanted to thank you for making me aware of it, never wouldve known about it otherwise since it seems to kind of have a small fanbase. Now if only all my faves stopped dying...

I will say, I haven't watched the anime yet (mostly bc I keep hearing very mixed reviews about it) but the manga has a very special place in my heart so I am absolutely thrilled to hear you watched it and love it!!!

It definitely deserves more appreciation as a series aaaaa

#doodles #reply #claymore #dude if the manga wasnt mostly on reprint wait rn i'd be recommending it more often to ppl when i get manga questions at work #love the artwork a lot #the character designs are fun #the art history nerd part of me thinks the place names and the organization member names are so fun #every other character arc gets me emotional etc etc #anyway glad i could get u into claymore!!

[mzannthropy]

dystopian series that you have an extremely difficult relationship with - and worse, his character doesn't even get a happy ending

haha me too. He has the best character. I remember watching Catching Fire for the first time without knowing much. I had seen the first film, which I thought was so-so. So I was already bored at the cinema when he appeared, he suddenly became the most interesting character (I didn't even know anything about Finnick, I thought he was going to turn out to be a villain who would kill Peeta, I was already rooting for him hahaha), he left me intrigued, who is this guy? Of course he turned out to be incredible, a true hero. I only went to see the other films because of him. After finding out that he had scenes that didn't even make it into the film, it left me disappointed. I can understand, he managed to have chemistry with Katiniss, which the other male characters didn't have. He was better than the actors who played Peeta and Gale. Finnick was better than everyone.

Jess once posted an article about Finnick being the best character, I have to dig it up and reblog it.

I read the books first and I remember exactly where I was when Finnick made an entrance, that is how impactful he was. My most favourite character is Johanna actually, bc it tends to be female characters that are my faves, mostly (and she didn't get a proper ending either, like I once looked her up on the wiki and it said "it is presumed she went back to her district", wow, what a wonderful trilogy!), but Finnick is right behind her. So bc Mockingjay made me want to throw my kindle against the wall (sometimes I go on Goodreads and read one and two star reviews for it, you know, for therapy), I never bothered with the films, so it wasn't until I became a the Sam Claflin fan that I am now in 2020 that I watched them--well, the ones he's in, and that was only for his scenes and I fast-forwarded the rest. I don't know anything about what went on behind the scenes, but I was surprised at how little he appears in the two Mockingjays, somehow I expected him to have more screentime. And I will keep saying it, the films should have fixed Suzanne's mistake and let him live, at least then they'd have something going for them, compared to the books. We know that is a change that the majority of the audience would have loved!

#answered #finnick odair #sam claflin #suzanne botched it #she was just too obsessed with her precious protagonist and her lame love interest #but honestly all the other characters are quite interesting #and the series is not without merit #it's just. katniss and fucking peeta #ugh

[dominomars]

Helluva Boss - Season 1 // Episode 8 (REVIEW)

(Warning//cussing, opinions 😟, critique, Helluva Boss, drinking topics, spoilers)

I cuss when I’m mad so….be prepared

This is more of a rant than an review lmao

K soooo episode 8 finally came out and oh boy do I have something to say..

So everyone knows that a year ago (I think?) Viv said on her twitter that episode 8 was delayed due to copyright issues. I was like okay, that’s fine, I understand that she might’ve had a song that was copyrighted or some shit. so they moved on with season 2.

2 days ago she made a post saying that episode 8 will finally be up on YouTube. Tbh I was excited bc we get to see what the fuck is going on with that trashy Ozzie’s episode. Oh did I mention that Viv said that this wasn’t a continuation of Ozzie’s but then she proceeded to say it was??? Like make up ur mind it’s not that hard woman 😭.

Let me start off with me saying that where is the warning intro? See you can definitely tell that this episode is rushed. Also the animation is very off, Loona and the rest of the characters looked very stiff like the animation was off putting??

Loona enters the party and we see Vortex again, alright that’s fine sure whatever Idc. And we see a bunch of hellhounds (which don’t even look like hellhounds they look like fucking piss stain red eyed furry hair that like partying) like, I’m sorry? Isn’t this supposed to be hell? Like why in the actual satans asshole are they having fun, they’re listening to techno/rave/pop DJ Gen z music (I don’t even know what this music is called so pls tell me what it’s called so I don’t have to embarrass myself) .

So then we get to the point of this episode, where we see Queen Bee (Aka Beelzebub), I’m sorry, who is this bitch? She doesn’t even look like Beelzebub??? It’s like I’m watching a furry dancing and head bobbing to animation meme music, while horrible furrybait hellhounds get high or some shit, how is this an adult series, how could you count this as something an ADULT lemme remind you again an ADULT a fucking 18+ individual that could drink, watch pron, do adult things could watch??? And I know, all adults are different, they like different comedy, and different plots. But you must be a man child to like this.

Anyways back to Bee, her design is not good, it’s not mature, it’s just an eye bleeding furry that could probably give someone epilepsy seeing this thing, and I mostly feel bad for the animators having to animate her, I can’t even animate my simple pink unicorn oc because of the design, and the design isn’t even that complex??.

Now let’s get on to her character, she’s actually not that bad, like she’s not horrible (that’s because she’s not an asshole like the other female characters, Loona, Stella, Verosika, to name a few) she’s sassy, fun, extroverted, loud, and I actually like how she’s not a bad character. Thank you Viv for making an actual enjoyable character.

I just realized she’s also voiced by Kesha, which I bad for Kesha for voicing a character from such a dogshit show, but Kesha is literally my childhood, she’s my idol, I love Kesha, I even said that I wanted to meet her one day. I love Kesha very much because I’m such a sucker for early 2000s scenecore, Kesha was my music taste and still IS my music taste. So props I guess for Viv for getting her to voice act an character that’s insane.

Ok so let’s talk about the song, I give it a solid 6/10, the song is good only because I kept singing it and it was stuck in my head, but the fucking. repeated. verses is getting me a overstimulation at this point.

So after the song, Bee introduction, Yada yada, we get Loona saying that this party is getting her anxious because of Bee prolly. She calls Blitzo up, Blitzo comes and get her, she gets in the car with him, until they see a hellhound that proceeds to call Loona “hot”, then she changes her mind like a fucking moron and say “yOu knO daddy, I thwnk we shOuld tay a Wittle longa, pweeassee owo” like she’s a 2 year old baby convincing her dad that she has to stay, she needs to stay. Oh can I also say that this furrybait is also a whore? Ok like hear me out, she said she had syphillis in the pilot, then she had a whole ass high school crush on Vortex with the most embarrassing conversation, then she proceeds to be tail wagging turned on because of this hellhound that called her hot. Seriously, how could you like this character? she’s not enjoyable.

Alright we’re now moving on with her and Blitzo, and Blitzo’s getting drunk because of his relationship issues, but then Loona is chilling yknow having a good time, then she gets confronted with Bee and Vortex saying that you need to go check on your dad. Hold on second lemme just stop right here partner, hold to flipping flop, isn’t Bee the queen of gluttony? Isn’t she like to embodiment of drinking and having fun, how nice are you? Why are you acting like this? You are a ruler of HELL, you’re supposed to be bad, you’re supposed to be supporting that big headed alien demon.

So now Imma get to the end, they enter their home, Blitzo goes to sleep, and here’s something so funny he says, “Fuck, Fizz was right. I’m gonna die alone” This is the worst sad thing Blitzo has ever said so far, I’m not sorry BlitzO but I don’t give a shit about your problems, till the very end of this day you’re still going to be the last person I’m going to feel bad for, Bojack Horseman is better than you for fucks sake. You’re NOTHING to me, and I hope you die alone pissstain you deserve it.

the last thing I have to say is some a couple points I missed.

•Why is Vortex, a hellhound that is lower than Imps. Dating a lord? Wtf is going on? Why is it not okay for Stolas to like Blitzo

•The whole thing with Bee should’ve been overweight is stupid and not necessary

•I love how everyone is defending Blitzo and I even saw a video on YT (Im not going to send the video to anyone because I don’t want that person to receive hate of course) putting a Bojack Horseman quote in the video like you’re NOTHING like Bojack, stop comparing Blitzo to Bojack, Blitzo is literally an uwu feel bad for character

I’m going to review this headache’s next episode this Saturday so stay tuned I’m honestly excited

Peace out

#helluva boss critical #rant #spoilers #animation #indie animation #beelzebub #helluva boss hater

[bluesey-182]

this review for the ballad of songbirds and snakes is going to be critical so if you loved this book and don't want to see that critique then you are welcome to skip this post. im willing to have civil conversation and im also very willing to hear other points of views bc i love discussing books (and who knows! maybe someone could change my mind) BUT if you're at all going to be nasty and/or take it personally, then you will likely be blocked.

im gonna be so honest... the ballad of songbirds and snakes was a decent book. but. i don't think it actually added anything to the overall story. it added some perspective, maybe, to how snow became snow but it also felt... pointless? i think if I'm going to get a villain origin story, i want it to make me feel conflicted, or at least somewhat understanding to how the villain turned out that way. i want it to show me the gray area. but this book just... didn't do it for me. none of it was surprising. and also, from the beginning, i didn't overall care that much to know what made him this way, because the end result was still the same, and nothing happened to change that feeling for me. bc the only way snow was interesting was how he was as the villain. there was nothing beyond that to interest me, and i think that's what this book was trying to use as the draw. and moreover, to expand on my opinion that it didn't add to the series: i think it relied solely on easter eggs from the original trilogy to make you think it was adding anything. like "see, look at this reference i made! doesn't it remind you of the original books?" idk. like i said, it's a DECENT book on it's own. the writing is good, the story itself isn't bad--it just also gives you no reason to invest in the main character, and i think to some degree that's something that's supposed to draw you into a book. and like i mentioned, nothing surprised me. i saw all of it coming. i predicted every twist before it happened. which isn't always a bad thing! but i was also mostly underwhelmed when the twists DID happen. i was hesitant to read this book in the first place, hence why im only reading it now after the movie release bc my partner wants to see it, and honestly? im not feeling like i gained anything from the experience. i had fun reading it bc, again, it's written fairly well, but at the end of it, im just feeling.... meh.

(spoilers ahead in this paragraph only) i at first thought the only thing it added was why snow dislikes the mockingjays but the more i consider it, it didn't really even add that much either. he was just creeped out by them??? hmm.... (unless, and this might be reaching, he hated the mockingjays bc they showed him his true feelings about lucy??? there's a line about how he was getting tired of her music and maybe the fact that the mockingjays repeated music instead of voice, like the jabberjays (which he had no problem with) was like... his true feelings coming through? I'll have to sit with that and see what i think)

i will say, the parallels between characters in this book and the original trilogy are interesting and i will enjoy seeing those analyses but, again, i don't really feel like it added anything. i still think snow would have done the exact same things without them. because he never ACTUALLY cared about anyone at all, except for how he could use them. how they made him look.

if anyone is interested in a star rating, i gave it 3/5 bc the reading experience was relatively enjoyable, and the writing itself was good imo, and as a stand alone story it was not bad but also not excellent. it was all "just okay". and im trying to rate this as it's own story, not as part of of the whole. however, it being part of that whole is what makes me feel so let down

#text post #the hunger games #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #also the way i rate things may be different than you so if you read my take and think i rated it too high just keep that in mind #if i had a good time reading it i usually end up giving it 3 stars even if i don't think it's perfect #< unless the book has actually glaring problems in how it presented or handled things #also before someone comes at me saying i set myself up for failure bc of my low expectations going in: #if im going into a book like this and im skeptical i still ALWAYS hope for best and give it every shot to prove me wrong #it just didn't this time

[blackorechan]

CHAPTER REVIEW: JULY 2023

i'm gonna try something new out: chapter reviews! mostly because oh my god i really wanna talk about this chapter. it's about poppy playtime legally distinct survival horror let's plays!

for your reading convenience, i have TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY edited in english dialogue and some misc text

let's fuckin GO.... !!!!!!! wait goddamnit this means i was too late to write that twitch streamer black au

so, before anything else, i really need to bring something up. like, it's not even relevant to the chapter i just kinda need to

black channel acknowledging and deliberately paying homage to garten of banban is going to fucking kill me. do you understand. this chapter's about poppy playtime but there are pages referencing banban too. the general theme for this issue BC-wise was "foreign horror games"

ok actual review time for this chapter

we start off seeing that satoshi is getting into horror game let's plays! he's too scared to play the games himself, so he just watches commentary channels play them.

now, why the fuck satoshi would still be scared of indie horror games right after he watched black grow twice the size of the earth and crush an alien military squadron with his bare hands and also get shot with a pistol, kinda like what happened literally the chapter before this, i don't know but, eh, hey, he's ten and i barely processed all that myself

black proposes they make a video so satoshi can learn to be just like the let's players he watches play those survival horror games! then he could be a famous youtuber, so he says

satoshi hesitates, but with some Encouragement from camera-chan, they set off

so, here we reach the part of the chapter where they are literally just playing poppy playtime basically.

this chapter's writing really shines through with a really fun detail though..

throughout this chapter, we can see the viewers on black's livestream send chat messages! they tend to be really rude about satoshi being scared shitless, making fun of him, generally behaving as a livestream chat does

i obviously am well versed in twitch, and though i think this is intended to be youtube livestreams for obvious reasons, it does feel a lot like watching an actual livestream to see the little comments heckling satoshi as he goes. it's just a fun detail!

it's pretty clear the complexity of the previous arc had an impact on the style kisaichi wants to pursue for this series. the shading especially stands out much more now, and there seems to be a better balance between comedic beats and the scary ones!

black's "asshole older brother and younger sibling he torments" dynamic with satoshi also has plenty of wiggle room this chapter! it's the reason they're doing it in the first place (and camera-chan's Encouragement), and black does not miss an opportunity to fuck with his stream co-host.

i'm having fun with the stream chat could you tell

but, we can only have so much for fun and games with our trio. there's something big, an elephant in the room...

or a cat, a cat works too.

this is "nyan-nyan", our not-huggy wuggy who is not so subtly also a nod towards banban. nyan-nyan does the exact same thing huggy wuggy and banban do in the game. it chases you!

it's at this point in the game, satoshi gets stuck. every time he tries to get past nyan-nyan, it kills him. but it's just a video game so he's fine, he respawns. it's fine. it's probably fine.

the story beats really resemble poppy playtime from this point forward, right down to "poor" huggy wuggy-sorry, nyan-nyan's fate, which by the way takes the cake for one of the most gruesome things i've seen in this series so far, but i'd rather just wrap up with this and give my final thoughts on this whole chapter!

VERDICT: REALLY GOOD!

"aren't you an indie horror nut, like, especially for the bad ones-" yes and that's why i reviewed this chapter! thank you for noticing how biased i am in this chapter's favor (especially after whatever the FUCK happened last month)

i'll be honest. this chapter is better than both the games it's paying homage to, because i actually did get startled when i swiped to the next page a couple times, which is not something i can say either poppy playtime or garten of banban themselves got out of me

the previous arc was dragging on so long i'd almost forgotten the horror aspects of the series. almost. not quite, not quite.

so, that's my two cents on the poppy playtime / garten of banban parody chapter! little early for halloween, but appreciated nonetheless.

besides, who wouldn't love that face? the answer is my boyfriend who got jumpscared multiple times in our dms when i showed him this panel

#txt #black channel #chapter review #manga

[polaroidcats]

I assume that you have emotional attachments to objects (because of the print you love) and so have a favourite book which you know you will never read again but can’t throw out (and what is it if I’m right?) ❤️❤️

Hi Rory!!! 💖

oh wow everyone is nailing it with these, you are so, so correct!!!!

My inability to get rid of things I have emotional attachments to definitely applies to books, here is an incomplete list of books I will likely never even read or reread but also will never be able to give away:

My Gregor the Overlander books!! I knew Suzanne Collins mostly from these books and when Hunger Games came out/became popular I tried to tell all my friends about this series because I loved it so much when I was 10-12 years old!! And my first internet name was "Boots" because of the younger sister in that book, I loved her so much. And I don't see myself rereading them anytime soon but I have so many fond memories of absolutely devouring and rererererereading them as a preteen so they will stay forever!

"Die Geschwister Apraksin" by Karla Schneider, this was also one of my fave books when I was around 12-13, I don't remember much, except that it was about 5 orphaned siblings during or after the Russian revolution, and it absolutely broke my heart and I cried more than I had ever cried before when reading a book. I don't even think it was a particularly sad book, I think it just made me very emotional for some reason, to imagine these kids' lives and their struggles. And I read it as part of my local bookstore's initiative where they let kids borrow and read the advanced reader copies of books, and then we wrote little reviews that would get posted on a pinboard at the store. So when I had to give the book back (in order to borrow a new book, it was like a little library system within the bookstore), I immediately asked the bookseller if they had the book in stock because I wanted to buy it with my pocket money, but they only had the paperback and (again) I had gotten so attached to the hardback one and the bookseller could tell how much the book meant to me so she just gifted me the copy I had just returned, the one I read, and that meant so much to me, to get to keep the physical copy that I actually read and not have to buy a new version.

Herzen, Hände und Stimmen by Ian McDonald - I have never read this book, idek what it's about but from the book cover I assume it's scifi. I did an exchange semester in France as a teenager, and my host family didn't speak any german but somehow they got this random (thrifted) german book and they gave it to me bc I speak german. And I've never been that much into scifi but the gesture was so sweet and I have so many nice memories of my time with them, so even though I will probably never read that book I will also never give it away.

A complete translation from Vergils Aeneid with the latin and german text side by side. I did Latin in school, and for our final exams we all had to pick one specialized subject we would have an oral exam on, and my specialized subject in Latin class was the 6th book of the Aeneid, so even though I barely remember any Latin and will definitely not reread that for fun, I enjoyed it back in the day and will never get rid of that book.

I have a book on erotic dream interpretation, idk if that fully counts into this category, but my friend and I saw it when my uni library (!!) had a thrift sale of their old books, and that book was so hilarious, I had to get it and then for a while whenever I had people come over to my flat to pregame I would ask them about their dreams and would then very professionally interpret them with my book. This one might not fully count bc I'm not ruling out that I will never do that again but I haven't looked at it in a long time but would never get rid of it because it's too iconic haha

Okay this got way too long so I'm stopping now, but yeah hahaha you were so correct with this one 😂

make an assumption about me!

#ask game #rory tag #thank you for for sending this haha sorry it got so long!!<3

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 10/24/2023

this post and this series not sponsored by hellofresh

listening

caravan palace's new single MAD. genuinely the song i've had on loop while working but i had a very strong "ugh can't use that one it's cringe" reaction while drafting this entry and am trying to sort of sit with myself for a bit and go okay WHY is it cringe? how can we talk about it being cringe other than the fact that steampunk and electroswing are no longer fashionable? some weeks the policy of No Such Thing As A Guilty Pleasure is easier than others

i would not classify this song as electro or swing, and it's considerably jazzier than their more recent dancey pop stuff. more of a languid stroll with enough brass to keep my brain interested while i peer at spreadsheets? spotify

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reading

Alexis Hall's A Lady for a Duke. i liked this quite a bit but i have some longer form thoughts percolating that require a reread. it was a tense but fun read, i do not know that mr hall achieved the goal he set forth below. in a broad initial stroke, there is certainly a great deal of internal conflict not helped by our trans lead’s difficulty seeing her trans self in a loving relationship.

how this conflict resolves did genuinely keep me on the edge of my seat bc i could not fucking figure out how she was going to do it

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watching

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951, dir Lewin). this is a movie where (in the immortal words of the switchblade sisters podcast) it’s not what happens, but how it happens. the movie opens with fishermen dredging up two star-crossed lovers. i will not be particularly concerned with spoilers here or in my letterboxd review.

age and a deft scorsese-backed restoration have been very kind to this sea-mist movie. cinnamon fucking topography, technicolor at some of its prettiest and best used. jack cardiff (also did Black Narcissius, The Red Shoes, The African Queen) you've fucking done it again. the restored version is on american tubi and it's so so lush and dreamy. the very first handful of scenes contains a church bell ringing wildly, giving you glimpses of commotion on the beach, and it just keeps getting better from there. the beach party, full of dutch angles and toppled statuary and debauchery and no one dancing the same, is exactly the same as every beach party i have ever been to.

james mason is at his hottest, wettest, and most brooding. not all of our main characters are as openly debauched as pandora, but all of them are just as selfish. i have a lot of fucking beef with some of the letterboxd reviewers, who are simply wrong. pandora is not supposed to be a likeable or redeemable character. i think one of the questions for YOU to answer is whether or not a flighty, homewrecking, irresponsible woman like pandora is redeemed through her willingness to die for true love-- this is generally an admirable quality in myths and fairy tales, but is it cancelled out as just another flight of her fancies that ultimately kills her?

also the people who don't "get" what the film's about and complain it's too slow. it's about insanity and the sea what's not to get!!!

thank u @dying-suffering-french-stalkers

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playing

so we are mostly through the genshin 4.1 part 2 events. i am so tired of the past few battle events cycling through the same arenas; however, this is the first event where i read the directions and was like "augh that's too complicated we'll do that later" and did all my weekly bounties instead. speaking of bounties, i finally did enough to unlock the treasure chest locator and confirmed my suspicions that i have in fact picked over the region pretty well in the last ~two months. the liffey and research institute were at 85% and 95% respectively before i unlocked this thing, but i did almost immediately find two remarkable chests in the far south by the port. augh. would have bit me if they had teeth etc. i would prefer if the regions showed 100% when i have actually 100%ed them instead of whatever margin they have going now, but i recognize that i have brain problems.

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making

im MAD bc i was given a singular hellofresh dinner by a friend going on vacation and it was fairly easy to make and tasted good and everything WORKED. and it was like a fun little after work project!!! and the directions said “here’s what to do to the peppers if you don’t want it super spicy” and it most importantly it all WORKED. this is a very expensive thing to have a sudden interest in. i feel like i fuck up most of the food i make and i know that's part of the learning curve but it's SO fucking expensive to fuck up food and i have such a limited amount of energy :<

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem

[babycatlix]

content creator year in review (tag game)

i was tagged by @petrichor-han​​​ i love your user btw ​and thank you for tagging me! i’m so honored that i was one of your fave gif makers 😭💖 i’m a little late doing this, but i worked both new years eve and new years day, but better late than never!

first creation & most recent creation:

so ethereal 🥰 – april, 2022: i thought this was just so pretty and this was when i started to have the mindset of “if i like this moment perhaps, someone else will also like this moment!” 

cutie in blue 💙 – january, 2023: this was the first thing i posted for the new year, but it’s not technically my most recent creation... but i love this set so much! he’s so cute and i love his mullet!

one of your favorite creations:

the duality 😳 – april, 2022 & lovely tingle interview boy 🐣  – may, 2022: i love both of these so much! i love the tingle interview one so much that i recently remade the gifs so that they look even better now. 

a creation you’re really proud of:

my sunshine mv series – may, 2022 – present: this was my way of catching up on stray kids content. i made a little series doing all of felix’s moments in their mvs.

a creation that took you forever:

count down to felix’s birthday: D-3: Favorite SKZ Player – Up All Night – september, 2022: this one took so long simply bc of the text that is overlaying across the whole set. someone did ask about it when i posted it, which i answered here and i explain how long it took.

the creation that received the most notes:

some soft hyunlix – july, 2022: as of posting this set has 1,513 notes. it was honestly a silly little set i made and posted for @jinniebit​ bc i thought it would make her feel a little better 🥺

a creation that you think deserves more notes:

not to sound like that person, but i honestly don’t think any of my creations “deserve” notes. sometimes things flop and that’s okay. are there creations i love? of course! that doesn’t mean i think they deserve more notes just bc i love them. i’m happy and grateful for the notes i do get!

a new fandom you joined & a creation you made for it:

so ethereal 🥰 – april, 2022: might be cheating to use my first creation again, but that’s literally what this one was lol

a creation you made that breaks your heart:

post concert high – crying version  😭 – august, 2022: i hate seeing felix cry, BUT he’s so cute here... so i couldn’t help but gif this moment.

a “simple” creation you really love:

fire bender felix – june, 2022: i was browsing the #lee felix tag and someone said that they would love to see “fire bender” felix using his moment from the end of thunderous and the new moment from the circus mv. this creation took me... maybe, 15 minutes? but i love it alot!

a creation that was inspired by another one:

count down to felix’s birthday: D-6: Favorite Lyrics/Verses – september, 2022: i can’t really place which cc it was that inspired me to do this prompt like this, but it was one of my mutuals... i wanna say it was @agibbangs​ but i can’t remember specifically which set of hers it was that inspired me.

a favorite creation created by someone else:

i don’t feel like this is a fair question lol, i have so many favorites from so many different cc’s! plus it’s been such an eventful year, i don’t think i could pick just one anyway.

favorite content creators from the year:

i’ll be tagging mostly artists, gfxs, and gif makers (just in alphabetical order): @agibbangs, @changbeens, @chanrizard, @chanstopher, @cheekyquokka, @geniaparadox, @ggthydrangea, @hanjesungs, @hyunchanz, @jerirose, @jinniebit, @jisungs, @juiceofmoons, @jisungsjaistandjeekies, @khairemisthios, @lee--felix, @leenow, @minzbins, @missyedits, @nevoono, @quokki, @seo-changbinnies, @skz-films, @snug-gyu, @sunnishine, @winterfloral and @yonglixx 

whew we made it! i won’t specifically tag anyone, i know we’re all probably tired, but if you wanted to do this you can! i love you all, i hope you had a good new year! stay safe out there and stay hydrated my friends! 💖

#tag game

[huachengeye]

I was looking at some reviews for girl from nowhere and i'm surprised that so many people don't get what the series is trying to say. so, i'm gonna give my opinions based on some of the bad reviews i saw, maybe giving another insight.

starting with this review I saw where the person calls the actor who plays nanno a bad actor, mostly because of her laugh — nanno's laugh sounds like that bc it's supposed to be inhuman and weird, it's supposed to piss others off, it's not supposed to be a villains laughter (nanno isn't even a villain). this person also goes on a rant about every episode, and in episode 2 they say that it was not realistic for nanno to be able to endure everything she did... don't they know that nanno is not human? ofc no human would be able to endure that, she isn't one and because of that she doesn't really feel pain, empathy, or remorse and they use this supernatural being to make social comments in a way they wouldn't be able to otherwise. then they go on about and just minimize every episode to a few words, clearly misunderstanding the themes. the only episode this person seemed to understand is the 10th, which is funny to me bc it was the one i had a hard time understanding (still don't), and it's actually my least favorite from season 1. then they end saying they hope they improve chicha's laugh, which makes it pretty clear where the real problem for OP was.

another thing i've seen some people have a difficulty to realize is that nanno is not a character made to feel sorry for other people, at least not in the first season (with one exception). she is not human, she doesn't have human-like emotions. and also, she is, supposedly, a representation of karma, but if you pay attention she isn't the one to make those people do that things, the consequences come naturally, she is never the one to hurt the other characters physically, because nanno is about karma, not revenge (that's yuri).

i've seen people talking about how she "leads" the characters to do things, and they normally use dino, from season 1, episode 4 as an example, so i'll use him too. in dino's case he is lying way before nanno got there, but lying isn't as bad as everything else in this show, so we move on. then, he goes to nanno to ask her to help him, which she does. he takes his friend to this big house, that he says it's his. the staff working there is his parents, but he does nothing to prevent his friends from insulting his parents, not even when they are physically abusive. people seem to pity him and taking in account the previous episodes, i can see why they would, but in the end, the message was clear: rich people do the worst shit and nothing happens to them. not only that, but nanno never made dino do anything, he was lying before she even got there, he accepted the mistreatment of his friends towards his parents, and I question myself: if they weren't his parents but just two random people, would he feel bad for them?

nanno never makes someone do something, what she does is give them another way to follow, and the consequences comes naturally from that. and one thing that i saw some people not paying attention to is that, sometimes, just nanno's presence is enough to start chaos. there were episodes where she didn't even interact with the characters all that much, but that still raised rage in them. she doesn't make people do bad things, they took this choice and if you see, they go even further than what nanno originally suggests.

but i did agree with some of these negative reviews. one of the reviews talked about this episode on season 2 where there is a beauty competition in this school, and people are rewarded for their beauty. this episode for me lost some of its message when the only way the fat girl was seen as beautiful was when she lost way. i know this is accurate to some place's beauty standard, but after seeing those girls beat each other to be the number one, having a fat girl be the number one would really drive the point home. also agree that some episodes aren't as good, but overall the show is great and it's themes are really good once you start to pay attention.

#nanno #girl from nowhere #series analysis #im just ranting #people need to pay more attention to things #also why are they analyzing this with things that are realistic when the protagonist is literally not human

[darklordazalin]

Azalin Reviews Darklord Gabrielle Aderre

Domain: Invidia Domain Formation: 603 BC Power Level: 💀💀⚫⚫⚫ (2/5 Skulls) Sources: Realms of Terror (2e), Domains of Dread (2e), Secrets of the Dread Realms (3e), Ravenloft 3.0, The Evil Eye (2e Adventure), Ravenloft Gazetteer (3e)

Invidia is a land of manipulation, distrust, and violence. Its people are passionate and I don’t mean that in a complementary way. If anyone should think more with their heads instead of their hearts, it’s the people of Invidia, who always let their passions get in the way of common sense. It is not a rarety to see fights break out between two or more opposing forces for the smallest of insults.

Gabrielle Aderre, the current Darklord of Invidia, was not the first. That title goes to the werewolf, Baron Bakholi. Bakholi was a tyrant who ruled with brutal force and the repression of his people. He never bothered to hide the fact that he was a werewolf from his people. He named his castle, Castle Loupet… Might as well have just named it “Castle Wolf”. To be fair, many of us like to be as obvious as possible in the Domains of Dread.

Baron Bakholi ruled Invidia until 729 BC when the Mists transported Gabrielle there. Bakholi’s people captured Gabrielle who, skilled in the unique magic of the Vistani, held him in her gaze, which paralyzed him as she slit his throat with a silver dagger. She then claimed rulership over Invidia. That’s one way to start down this road and seeing as the Dark Powers never made anyone else the Darklord of Invidia, Gabrielle’s own evil was unquestioned.

What led her down this path? Well, a series of bad choices, just like the rest of us. Gabrielle grew up roaming the lands of Mists with her half-Vistana mother, Isabella. Being shunned by her own people, Isabella kept her daughter away from society and they spent their lives barely surviving in the wilds through trade and theft. This led Gabrielle to hold a deep resentment for the Vistani. Still, her mother taught her the unique magic of her people and it is said that Gabrielle is a direct descendant of Madam Eva and carries Madam Eva’s first Tarokka deck with her. Isabella, through her own Divination, warned Gabrielle that she must never bear a child. The things she most desired, a family and a home to call her own, could never be hers, for if she had them, it would only result in tragedy.

Growing up without a father, Gabrielle was naturally curious about who he was. Her mother would only refer to him as an evil tyrant, yet still Gabrielle longed to learn more. For what child does not revere their father? Perhaps Isabella should have told her more, for her loneliness and thirst for acceptance and a place to call “home” led her to obtain the information about her father in a very brutal way. Her mother was attacked by a werewolf and Gabrielle refused to help her until she told all she knew of her father. Isabella relented, saying her father was a wealthy man from Falkovnia who had enslaved her and treated her cruelly for years. She had barely escaped with her life when she was pregnant with Gabrielle. Gabrielle, always one to think with her heart, reacted in the only way she could, by denying everything her mother had said and leaving her to die slowly in the jaws of the werewolf. That’s when the Mists transported her to Invidia.

There, after killing Bakholi, the people rose up and named Gabrielle their Queen and she quickly claimed the fiery remains of Castle Loupet as her own. Gabrielle was a lax and uncaring ruler. She ignored the people’s problems in favor of lavishing herself in luxury. Her rule was one of whispers, but unlike my own, her whispers and plotting were carried out on whims and fleeting fancies. She spent her time manipulating individuals against one another and spreading rumors of the Vistani “evil” throughout Invidia. Her realm was mostly in chaos, though she still managed to convince a fair amount of people to take over a portion of Gundarak as that Domain fell.

Now, Gabrielle should have listened to her mother, but she fell head over heels for the “Gentleman Caller”, an incubus who holds great interest to me as his schemes are all designed with the ultimate goal of allowing him to escape the Mists. Gabrielle only has a vague recollection of her brief love affair with the Incubus…and never knew him to be an Incubus in any way. Their ‘union’ resulted in Gabrielle giving birth to Malocchio, a son who has an extra finger on each hand. (Perhaps this is the 6-fingered man that Inigo Montoya has been searching for?)

The extra fingers led Gabrielle to perform a Tarokka reading and discovered that Malocchio was a Dukkar or an individual destined to bring out the destruction of the Vistani. Still holding a deep resentment for her people, Gabrielle was thrilled by this information and sought to groom her son to be just that. This did not work well for Gabrielle as her son had no desire to fall under his mother’s heel. He sought to destroy her completely, but Gabrielle was saved by her one-time lover, a wolfwere from Kartakass named Matton. With his assistance, Gabrielle recuperated and soon took over the leadership of the rebels from Gundarak and took up residence in Castle Hunadora. She began her whispered campaign against her son, but it did little from stopping him from having near complete control over Invidia.

Malocchio and Gabrielle play their little games to this day, painting the landscape with blood and whispers. Malocchio is a ruthless individual, devoting his time to eradicating the Vistani whereas his mother is now far more focused on seeking revenge against her son. Though her control over Invidia is a fraction of what it once was, she has rallied people behind her and even a fair number of wolfweres from Kartakass have come to her side. She’s a powerful enchanter and uses her skills at deception, manipulation, and charm as weapons against those that would oppose her.

Her curse, interestingly, is that she cannot directly harm a Vistana. This includes her own son, so she must rely on others to do this for her. As curses go, that seems a tame one given she prefers manipulation to direct confrontation to begin with, but the Dark Powers don’t always make the wisest of decisions. Let’s see, a rather lazy ruler with more care of her own luxury than actually ruling and lost most of her Domain to her own son…I’ll give his lady a 2 simply because she’s related to Madam Eva and is clearly unwilling to give up despite all odds laid out against her.

#darklordreviews #azalin rex #Gabrielle Aderre #Ravenloft #tumblrloft #Invidia #dnd

[thebeingofeverything]

11, 13, 16, and 20!

Only took me 4 days to get to this ask ;D

11. if you're a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

Definitely Briar Rose Syndrome. While Technically Long Night was my first completed long fic, brs was the one I fleshed out and worked on the longest. The outline alone is like 44+ pages bc of all the planning I put into it lol It had so much of what I love in a story put into it too, circular ending where the home the characters return to is the same but they've changed over the journey, whump/hurt/comfort, fun action, and battle couple amairin (+ meph) pining for 150k words lol

13. your favorite type of fandom event (gift exchange, ship week, secret santa, prompt meme, etc)

I've been enjoying DTIYS and challenge/prompt lists. It's nice bc it gives me more freedom to do what I want instead of being controlled like a Big Bang or Zine. I'm usually not able to do week/month events bc I cannot be consistent to save my life lmao

16. a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate.

How cool the demons in aoex are!!! Like all the characters in aoex are well done, but the demons and how inhuman/eldritch they are, along with the blue-orange mentality they view humans thru is the biggest thing that drew me to the series in the first place and has kept me coming back. For some reason tho, it seems like the aoex fandom mostly focuses on the human characters/exwires, and they're secondary to me lol I would kill for more ppl creating art/fic for the demons so it's not just me and 3 other ppl tossing stuff around like a hot potato lol

20. your very first fandom!

Yu Yu Hakusho was my first love and the one that got me reading fic in the first place, even tho I'd been watching DBZ, Inuyasha, and Sailor Moon already. I wasn't really active in fandom like I am for aoex tho. I wrote fic, responded and left reviews, and made the occasional comment on art, but I didn't make any friends or start conversations with ppl in fandom. It wasn't until ppl in the aoex fandom reached out to me thru tumblr and we started talking/joining the discord servers that I got more involved.

Thanks for the ask~ @quartzguts <3

#ask response #tboes asks