#the quotes &stuff i see in english from that book hit so much harder i am so sorry Mister Wilde i wish i had seen it in your words first.... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

twixitativi · 2 months

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do you have any tips on writing an au? normal fics i can usually handle but i’m working on a kunichuu grease au and i’m finding it quite difficult.

hiya! thanks for asking :3 also good luck with that, that seems like so much fun omg; feel free to send when you start releasing, i'd love to check it out!

ill be using splinters as my example here purely because thats closer to what you're trying to do (movie/musical as reference)

this is going to be long as fuck because i tend to ramble and go into detail, so im adding a read-more. i sincerely hope this helps because i know its a LOT (potential spoilers for splinters included)

1. The Foundation

when i first started working on splinters, it started with a lot of idea bouncing. who would suit what role? why would that role work for them? originally, i had looked at dazai as jd and chuuya as veronica, or dazai as veronica with fyodor as his jd.

then, i also started thinking about story 'beats'. to be clear about what that means, i like to think of different parts/scenes that i need/want to hit, and kind of the order if possible. this usually intertwines with the original story-- in your case, grease.

all this starts falling into the next step:

2. Research

it may not be entirely apparent, but i did (and still do) a FUCK TON of research for splinters. by choosing to have multiple source materials to base your work off (both bsd AND grease), depending on how close/accurate you want to be, you're going to want to get in touch with the material.

you've mentioned grease-- i'm assuming you're doing this based off the movie (love the movie. need to rewatch). what i personally do with heathers the movie is that i watched it the entire way through first to refresh myself with the material. it might help you to take notes about different characters, ideas, plot lines. i found a copy of both scripts online in case i wanted to see about throwing an iconic line in during an important scene without diving through the whole movie to find it.

i dont know HOW historically accurate you want to go with your fic--you may be choosing to explore the concept of grease rather than the actual setting itself-- but grease takes place in the late 50s, TECHNICALLY early 60s (movie itself came out in the late 70s) (my mom LOVED it when it came out). so, you may want to do some basic research: fashions/trends of the time (this has gotten harder to search online, you may want to even run to the library and find some books if possible)? societal norms? what did normal teens do during that time? did they have arcades, did they go to restaurants, what was the average place they hung out at?

a lot of times, i have to double-check if some of the stuff in splinters is period accurate. each decade has different lingo, slang, and general information that was normal during it. hell, looking back at the 2010s versus 2020s, if you were to write a story during, saying, 2011, and have your characters saying "slay" and "yas queen" and "road work ahead, uh yeah i sure hope it does", i regret to inform you that that will NOT be accurate, as those phrases are more late 2010s + that vine came out in 2016. now, could you quote/potentially reference these things? absolutely! but you have to be more strategic about it.

ALSO. look up fun trivia about your source material! you know where i got my title from? its the english translation of the italian name for heathers. im not even kidding. also, mix and match material! hell, even throw references in to other material! i had my mean girls reference in there! because its bsd, i like to throw in authors i like from time to time where they fit!

another silly one: what music came out around that time, playing on the radio? HOW did they listen to music? i specifically listen to a 1989 top hits playlist when im trying to figure out what songs might be playing on the radio while my characters are driving-- and even THEN i still will look up specifically when that song came out, because i made the choice to be horribly specific with my timeline.

on that note:

3. If you can, DON'T SET A SPECIFIC MONTH/DAY/ETC.

i made my choices. do i regret them? YES. is it still fun to work with? absolutely, but also the heathers timeline is lowkey a mess and you could simultaneously claim it takes place in 2 months or several.

honestly, avoid specifics. having to keep track of a timeline is an absolute bitch, and it's going to make your life a lot harder, because then, you HAVE to make sure it all matches up. if i say that kunikida went and got his glasses in march, i cant say that his glasses are brand new in may (this is a hypothetical example).

timelines suck. unless you think you can dedicate the time and energy to keeping with one, don't do it.

4. OUTLINES.

i've been writing fanfics for years, which is wild to me. i was writing fanfics in single digits (didn't even know what fanfics were). one thing that i have especially found useful with splinters is to make outlines for where you want the story to go.

let me break it down for you:

you're gonna have MULTIPLE outlines, and they are NOT set in stone. they are guidelines for you to use so that you're not sitting there going "shit i don't know what to do next". they may be scenes you want to have in the fic. they may be important plot points. they may be absolutely stupid shit that youre like "if i dont get this in here i will cry" (diarrheazai is a threat that i intend to keep)

FIRSTLY. try making a general outline for your whole fic. you don't need super specifics, but think of what events occur during grease. in it, danny and sandy meet in the summer before their senior year. sandy meets and joins the pink ladies. there's a dance competition. danny and sandy fly off in a car into the sunset. etc. TO BE CLEAR, you don't have to keep all the details! it is your story, and what you want to do with it! having that structure can be helpful when you start though.

THEN. once you have that general outline? start trying to plan out chapters. you dont have to make outlines for them all at once. more often than not, i'll sit there before i start a new chapter just trying to outline what'll happen in it. this helps a LOT on multiple levels. i'll provide an example of what that can look like below (SPOILERS IF YOU'RE NOT UP-TO-DATE WITH SPLINTERS):

(the blacked out bit is spoilers, everything else should be clear to see)

a quick explanation: i dedicate a small document to outlines for each chapter. as you can see, with chapter beats, i have diff things i want to try to hit. the stuff highlighted in green is stuff that i come back post-chapter to confirm i hit. sometimes, if it's not EXACTLY in there, i'll leave a note in bold (ex: WAS MENTIONED).

but you can kind of see what im talking about here. i have some things that im trying to knock out per chapter.

other things in my doc to outline:

yes i talk to myself in my notes.

i highlight different scenes according to their relevance to certain characters sometimes; i add scenes in where i need to, and then ofc as you see ill go into detail about specific scenes. and AGAIN these are not set in stone. for example:

as you can see, shit changes over time. that boiler room make-out scene during the homecoming pep rally appeared in ch 11. i did not make this sequence fyodor's pov.

sometimes? i just dont have the time or energy to write shit/dont think its relevant to the plot. good bye, corn maze. you'll be remembered in my thoughts and my outline

also try to have fun while outlining. it doesnt need to be something serious. literally my outlines are a mix of dialogue, scenes, my own thoughts, etc. get silly with it. this is supposed to be fun and enjoyable!

ANOTHER THING:

5. LOOP SOMEONE INTO OBSESSING OVER THIS WITH YOU.

i was inspired by ardeidae to write splinters, and i have successfully trapped them in splinters world for almost an entire year now. by both of us loving it, we can keep ourselves focused on it.

what also helps is bouncing ideas off other people. me and lu have had conversation after conversation after conversation about different plot lines, scenes, etc. sometimes, i don't know what to do and i will ask lu (or other people) for advice about the progression.

you may have also heard of the engineering rubber duck method. if you're unfamiliar, engineers will sit there with a rubber ducky by them and talk to it about what they're working on until they figure out what they need to do. sometimes, just ranting about the fic is enough to help you spawn ideas about what to do next.

OH also

6. If you do end up making a timeline? Have a calendar on hand.

this is no longer 100% accurate to the progression of splinters and the chapters, but it helped a LOT. laying it out like this can make one hell of a difference. im a visual person, so doing this helped. also, can help you keep track of holidays and shit. if you want to give your characters a day off from classes, check a school calendar for holidays. be like "uhhhherrrr yeah they're taking, uhhhh veteran's day off" yk

7. Write, but don't force it.

splinters doesn't have an actual updating schedule because i work on it at my own pace, and update once i finish a chapter. now, i usually finish chapters after a month, but i don't say it updates on x day. don't box yourself in unless you truly think you can handle it. some people are very good about schedules. i am horrible at them, bc ykw? LIFE HAPPENS.

when im in the mood, i write. i will sit for HOURS and just write. grab some snacks, maybe pop on some music, get a buddy to sit with you, but just go for it. sometimes, i'll pull a 25-10 method-- 25 minutes of writing with ten minutes of relaxing and bullshitting--and that helps me not burn out as quickly. but honestly, you cant always brute force it.

have i had to brute force it sometimes? yes. you will get stuck. it naturally happens. sometimes, a scene fucking sucks and you're like "i hate this scene but it HAS to be in there" (if it doesnt fuck that shit. throw it out. blegh) sometimes, you need to mix things up to make it more appealing to you, because i am of the belief that the readers can tell when you're not invested in a scene. if im writing a scene and its going slowly and i just want to get it done? the quality's going to go down, and i KNOW it. so, i evaluate. what do i need to do for this scene to work? can i add something to help? do i need to just rewrite the bastard and call it a day?

and sometimes? you can just go ahead and put a little "<'scene'>" in and move on. depending on how much your fic relies on that scene, that won't always work, but sometimes, you just gotta leave it and come back to it. you can also do that with certain dialogue/details. if you're trying to get your characters from point A to point B, don't shove them there if they run out of gas. make a detour, and see what happens.

eerrrrrrr yeah, i THINK that's the majority of the advice i can give? sorry that that's a lot, but uhhh hope it helps! :')

#wild that people would want advice from me but hopefully itll help #good luck with your fic anon! it seems like fun!

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hsmtmts-justsomewriting · 3 years

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Not to be your stereotypical second semester senior but EJ Caswell is a bit too busy to be thinking about sports metaphors...

(Alternative title- overcommitted..sounds like a Caswell)

Senior year was insanely busy. Being so overwhelmed EJ had been slowing down over the last couple weeks, but he was brushing it off just fine.

EJ has arrived late that day, which was unusual in itself, as he prides himself on being on time. Holding a half eaten packet of Oreos he shuffled into the rehearsal room slumping on the bleachers away from his chattering cast mates.

“EJ honey great you could join us, you’d think a senior couldn’t get lost in the halls!” Miss Jenn giggled at her own joke as the cast were suddenly alerted to the older boys presence. EJ absentmindedly nodded and grabbed out his script.

“Yeah...sorry..um...where are we at?”

“Page 63” “Cool... thanks”

Flipping to that part in the script, he looks up to take in the scene. Kourtney, Gina, Seb and Carlos are clearly half way through blocking a castle scene- Carlos complaining his arms are tired from ‘staying in character’, Kourtney and Seb working out where they are going to come in from and how to negotiate Sebs big box costume (although it’s proving very difficult considering the rehearsal room is about a quarter of the size of the stage) and Gina is animatedly discussing the scene choices with Miss Jenn.

Within an instant, EJ is startled from the scene as Natalie is beside him rambling something about ‘needing a fill in for cogworth’ ‘went home sick’. Sauntering up with his script, EJ’s vision goes spotted as he gets up from the bleachers. But as soon as it comes it’s gone.

He just needs to get through this rehearsal, then he can; go home, finish his debate speech, go over the plays for Friday’s waterpolo match, study for tomorrow’s maths assessment, start his exam notes, memorise his lines, work on his college applications, and maybe even get some sleep.

Joining the cast he tries to hide in the back corner. Following the basic blocking directions seemed harder than usual, his head had began to pound and fatigue hit him like a wave.

However he continued on, sluggish but present helping them to finish blocking the scene.

Walking back to his place on the bleachers EJ trips over his own feet. Catching himself before a big splat on the floor he is able to avoid the attention of his cast mates. Well mostly.

“EJ are you ok?”

EJ didn’t need to look up to know that his cousin had definitely seen his little trip.

“Yep fine”

“Ok try again but this time make it the truth”

Ashlyn was caring but firm, she definitely wasn’t going to brush it off. EJ could feel his facade fading under her concerned gaze. His voice drops low.

“I-i just don’t know... Ash, I’m trying-“

“ON TO THE NEXT SCENE Gaston and Le Fou, I need you boys to start down stage right”

EJ got up slowly, subtly steadying himself against a chair not to lose balance.

“Nevermind it’ll be fine”

EJ walks off, with that any vulnerablity on face vanishing, leaving Ashlyn’s stomach to churn in a pool of worry.

Being an after school rehearsal, most of the cast heads off after they start rehearsing the next scene as it only has Gaston and Le Fou. Leaving the rehearsal room with just Miss Jenn, Big Red, EJ, Ashlyn and Gina (the latter two who were waiting on the senior for a ride home).

EJ and Big Red slowly work through the dialogue, the scene is about as smooth as a clunky old railway track. After running it twice EJ feels like his words are melding into one. But pushing through, based off his poor entrenched habits, EJ made it through another run through of the scene.

“Um can we take a five?”

Miss Jenn looks at the senior perplexed, he’s never asked for a five. Ever.

“EJ honey is everything ok?”

“Hm, yeah just need a sec”

EJ’s exhausation catches up with him, the light seems to highlight the bags under his eyes. He drops onto the bleachers, resting his head in his hands he closes his eyes for a second.

“Miss Jenn, EJ doesn’t look so good maybe you guys should wrap this up for today-”

“Ash I’m-“

“No. You look exhausted! You barely have the energy to stand up for 10 minutes”

Ashlyn moves to grab him his drink bottle but runs into his iced coffee and Oreo packet first. She flinches. Her cousin never drinks coffee unless he purely needs the caffeine.

EJ freezes she moment he realises she’s seen it.

“When was the last time you slept?!”

All eyes are on him.

“James” His head snapped up. But he couldn’t look his cousin in the eye. Because then she’d see his eyes are glassy with unshed tears. His overwhelmed thoughts race through his mind.

“Ok I think we’ll pick this up next rehearsal, please be safe getting home and get some rest”

The four students start to pack up their bags, Ashlyn asking her boyfriend to give them all a lift. Turning to her cousin, helps him finish packing his stuff.

“You can stay in the guest room, we’re having lasagna tonight”

EJ too tired to protest, walks past his Jeep in the parking lot to get in a smaller orange bug car. He’ll have to come back for it tomorrow because there’s no way he could drive safely in his tired state.

The car ride home was eerily quiet, Ashlyn day in the passenger seat next to Big Red. He drove to Ashlyn’s house like a routine he knew by heart. Gina keep flicking worried glances at EJ but the senior didn’t even notice, having closed his eyes and resting against the window the moment he entered the car.

“Thanks for the ride Biggie”

Gina gentley nudged EJ and his eyes were open in an instant.

“Thanks Red” He mumbled as he got out of the car.

“No worries, take care guys”

As the orange car was disappearing into the distance, Ashlyn unlocked the front door. Gina and EJ follow her into the house.

“James lets go the living room”

EJ follows Ashlyn to the couch, and Gina continues past to grab a drink of water from the kitchen.

“What’s going on?”

Ashlyn puts a hand on his shoulder and gently squeezes it, grounding him and reminding him that she’s here to listen. He looks at the faded colourful rug and his words begin to vomit out softly.

“I’m just trying to get it all done ...and um.. for weeks I just never seem to have enough time, and I still have to do my study notes and finish my assessment and college apps tonight... but I’m just so tired...”

His voice cracks and the wall behind his eyes begin to break.

“I have to stay up so late, to get everything I have to all done...and then polo practice at the crack of dawn... i don’t know.. I just can’t... let anyone down..”

Ashlyn pulls EJ in tightly. His body wracked with sobs, her heart breaks as she hasn’t seen him like this in a long time. Gina initially freezes entering the room just as the senior had begun to cry but soon shifts over beside them engulfing them both in a hug.

Grabbing some tissues and a sip of water he’s able to stop his crying but his tense shoulders give away his overwhelmed mind.

“it will be ok, we’ll work this out. Everyone else will understand if everything is not done right now. You’ve got to take better care of yourself, what matters is if you are ok”

Gina nods in agreeance with Ashlyn as she comforts EJ.

“But for now you need to take a break, just have a quick nap before dinner in the guest room-“

“But I have to-“

“No James you need a rest, all this stuff can come later”

He sluggishly gets up heading for the guest room mumbling a “thanks Ash” as he retreats to his long awaited rest.

After he closes the door, Ashlyn lets out the breath she had been holding. She was convinced they would have to put up more of a fight to get him to go to sleep, but the fact that they didn’t was almost more concerning.

“He did seem a little bit off earlier in the week but yeah I had no idea that this was under the surface”

Gina says to break the silence created by her and Ashlyn’s shocked worry.

“Yeah he’s always been pretty good at bottling this stuff up, definitely a Caswell skill”

Ashlyn starts to pick up the tissues heading to the bin in the kitchen. Both the girls enter the kitchen to finish heating up the leftover lasagna they made yesterday.

While cooking the veggies the girls trade stories of earlier in the day and discuss the spotting of Miss Jenn and Mr Mazzarra at Sliced on Valentine’s. Just as they’re plating up, EJ reappears. He looks somewhat disheveled, wearing sweats and his usually spiked hair is messy like a 2012 Bieber hairstyle. His contacts are long gone being traded for his wide framed glasses.

“Feeling any better?”

Bringing the plates to the table they all sit in their usual seats.

“Yeah a little...thanks guys this looks amazing”

As if on cue his stomach grumbles with excitement and they dig into the food. The three teens continue to tell stories of their day. Although exhausted, a goofy smile makes its way onto EJ’s face while telling the girls about his classmate in English that tried justify his argument quoting spark notes, instead of the actual book.

Once they’re finished, EJ stacks and clears away the plates. Grabbing her laptop, Ashlyn creates a new copy of one of her old timetables modified with all EJ’s stuff. After cleaning the dishes, EJ plops down beside her and together they start to work out.

Half an hour and a warm hot chocolate later, they manage to finish a schedule that looks like it fit a bit of time for everything while keeping a heathy amount of rest time.

“Thank you so much Ash... I really appreciate it”

Ashlyn smiles back at her cousin.

“Just promise me you’ll take care of yourself, or at least you’ll let me know if you need help”

EJ engulfs her in a hug.

“Yeah I will, thanks”

As they both move to join Gina in the lounge room, EJ grabs his laptop to start completing his speech. Flopping down onto the couch, the tv is turned onto a Brooklyn Nine Nine halloween heist episode.

Taking EJs laptop at 9:30, the older boy fell asleep within an instant. Keeping to his promise, he followed the schedule he made with Ashlyn (most of the time at least) and finally learnt how to ask for help when he realised he couldn’t do it alone. And when he asked for help, Ashlyn and Gina were always there with an extra mug of hot chocolate.

Thanks for reading! I’m open to write prompts or suggestions

(...Also if anyone can think of any better names for this please comment because all my thoughts were low key trash😂)

#high school musical the musical the series #hsmtmts #hsmtmts season 2 #hsm the series #ej caswell #ashlyn caswell #gina porter

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wandasleftshoe · 3 years

Text

Too Young Too Burn

Mobius x Female Reader

A/N: so my account was deleted lmao and this is a re-upload. this post was originally getting some likes so I decided to repost it, and hopefully this time my stuff doesn’t wack out. But for first time readers, this is my first ever fic lol! I was cracked out on nicotine and red bull when I wrote it, so it might be all over the place. alsooooo if any of u like this, I turned on my asks so feel free to request something! I’ll do any Marvel character, male/female/gender neutral, so feel free to ask lol turns out I enjoy writing

Word Count: 2.5k

Triggers: bad language, kinda sort angst, a tragedy ending in suicide, death

It started off as a simple school boy crush.

She was a new member to the office, a new analyst that would train alongside Mobius, nothing was supposed to come of it but a friendly coworker relationship. (The only kind of relationship allowed in the office, the Time Lizards have sticks up their asses.) The first day he met her, she was in a standard TVA uniform, beige slacks and a button up shirt of another drab color. Though when she entered the room, an air of confidence came with her, sweeping him off his feet like something out of a Midgard fairytale. She was introduced to him as [y/n] [y/l], newest to the TVA’s section of analysts, preferring to study dangerous variants, much like himself. He was immediately taken by her attention to detail, he felt her eyes studying him the entire time his bosses boss introduced them to each other.

Her attention to detail, as mentioned before, was brought to his attention when she mentioned his hands fiddling with the hem of his blazer. She noted that he didn’t give off a nervous energy, but with the way his hands were going you would have thought that the boss had caught him doing something he wasn’t supposed to. As they continued their conversation, more and more was pointed out that he didn’t even notice himself; she seemed to be a perfect fit for his team.

Their first day consisted of standard paperwork and the general office tour, Mobius introduced her to his boss, Ravonna Renslayer, as well as a strew of other office members they pasted in the hall that Mobius could remember a name for. Let’s be real, he just rambled on so that he could try to forget how kindly she smiled at him and how her eyes twinkled when talking about the job at hand. He thought if he could get past the first day and the excitement of gaining a new coworker, the odd feeling creeping into his heart would go away.

As the day went on and he got to know his new coworker better, he believed the relationship would grow into an unstoppable workforce bond. As the nice coworker he is and to start this unstoppable force off right, he offered to buy her dinner at a restaurant not far from the office (totally not to hang out with her for a little while longer). The time they spent both at the office and eating dinner, Mobius couldn’t quite help but find this new girl fascinating and for lack of a better term, lovely.

But it was just a school boy crush, right?

Time went on, sooner rather than later, Mobius and [y/n] found themselves working together quite often on cases. New cases left and right, most of them being Loki variants, surprise surprise. The more difficult they grew, the more time Mobius spent with the (not so) new girl. Between late nights in the office and many almost death situations, the two found themselves becoming close friends amongst the sea of the neverending bureaucracy. Though still as before, he felt that odd feeling in his heart growing stronger each time she brought him his coffee just the way he liked it or added fuel to his jetski fantasies.

What solidified that feeling in his chest was the night he and [y/n] went on a smaller mission by themselves, July 29th, 1890.

It was a clear night, though somber, both knowing what was supposed to happen. The air was warm and the moon was shining bright over the quiet fields of Auvers-sur-Oise. No, they weren’t looking for a variant of Vincent, he did indeed die tragically in this nexus event. No, no, they were looking for the person who burned all of his paintings in a rage, hence throwing off the timeline. Without the paintings, no memory of Van Gogh would be left for the future, and that’s not how the Time Lizards wanted it to be. So they were there, under the melancholy skies of France.

It was taking longer than planned, they ended up having to spend the night in an old cabin near the edge of the old town. A slow fire burned in the den of the cabin where [y/n] was reading, while Mobius was trying to find some sort of food to keep the two of them from going to bed with their stomachs rumbling. To no avail, there was nothing in the abandoned cabin so he gave in and entered the den of the cabin. There, he was met with the serene and abnormally domestic [y/n] in front of him. Usually the new girl was like a chicken with it’s head cut off; running around the office to put her wild theories to the test or just the general hectic vibe that went along with their job that made her hair stick out on all sides of her head from her running her hands through it in frustration. But this scene sitting quietly in front of him was something he didn’t know he wanted in his life. She was sitting on the ancient furniture with a book in her hands, hair down and surrounding her face in a way that made his heart palpitate. She was relaxed for once, not an ounce of stress weighing on her shoulders as she immersed herself in the world of whatever book she found on the old shelves. He could even see that her work shirt was untucked and her shoes were off, showing off her mix matched socks. He didn’t even know mix matched socks were a thing, but she pulled them off perfectly.

She looked up when he hadn’t said anything for a solid 4 and a half minutes, he was too busy taking in the scene in front of him to notice he was just open mouth staring at her. It didn’t bother her really, though silence with Mobius around was quite unheard of, so she filled it.

“Suis-je trop vieux pour alimenter cette passion et la laisser me consumer - ou suis-je encore trop jeune pour savoir quels dommages cela fera?”

“I’m sorry, w-what?”

“Am I too old to throw fuel onto this passion and let it consume me — or am I still too young to know what damage that will do?” She said again, in english this time. She knew he could understand her, everyone in the TVA could speak and understand a multitude of languages. She just wanted to see what his reaction would be when she said it to him. “It’s a quote from this diary. The person who wrote it was in their mid 20s when they did this entry, they’re writing of their partner. They were in love, but poor and couldn’t afford to be married. The writer got an offer to marry into a wealthy family, but they turned it down, hoping for everything to work out in the end.”

The explanation of the words she spoke before hit Mobius a little harder than they should have, the author of the diary was caught between a rock and hard place. Much like he found himself in right now, even if he refused to believe it before tonight. Seeing the domestic life he could have right in front of him made his head spin, his heart hurt, and his love for his job lessen a bit. He was grateful to the Time Lizards for creating him, for giving him the life he has in the TVA, but seeing what life could be like on Earth startled him. He didn’t know he wanted it until it was right in front of him, taunting him like a cat chasing a laser light. A life on Earth, with the girl sitting right in front of him; that was all he wanted. Jetski be damned (not really, he would love to have a jetski alongside this lifestyle). Even if he couldn’t live a normal life on the Sacred Timeline, he wanted to be with her. After all this time getting to know her and the little details of her soul between official meetings and paperwork piles, he finally realized what that feeling was in this moment.

But he knew it could never happen. Not here, not in the TVA. It simply wasn’t allowed. So he swallowed his feelings, but he never forgot that sweet, peaceful night. They talked, laughed, and even cried together that night, both of them tucking that memory in their hearts and reliving it in times when they most missed the feeling they didn’t know they could miss.

Again, time passed from that night in France, they did eventually catch the variant and reset the timeline. After, they only grew closer as the late nighter grew later and newer, tougher missions appeared on their radar. Their biggest being the Loki variant killing more and more Minute Men, and the case was beginning to take a turn. They brought in a new Loki variant, one front 2012 just after the attack on New York. He was cunning and a very good liar, but he grew on both Mobius and [y/n]. It wasn’t long before they actually found the dangerous Loki variant with 2012 Loki on their side, but he betrayed them and followed the other Loki into the portal, losing both a friend and a lead.

This devastated Mobius, it was his last chance to prove to the Time Lizards that their Loki could be trusted, that he was changing and doing good for the TVA. But he’s a Loki, and they all should have guessed something was going to happen. But they guessed what would happen next.

They found the two variants, out of sheer luck in the Lamentis apocalypse. When both were brought in, it wasn't long before all hell let loose. Mobius found out the TVA was actually just made up of variants, they were all variants, and none of this was what it had been told to them. It was all lies. At first it gutted him, he didn’t believe Loki, but after some snooping, he found out they weren’t lying. Then, hope sparked in his chest. Life without the TVA meant, eventually, he could live out his domestic dream. With the girl of his dreams, [y/n].

With the (fragile) trust in Loki and hope in his heart for a new life with [y/n], he flew into action. He busted Loki out of the loop he had originally put him in, and swapping his Tempad with Renslayer, he now had the proof that Loki was telling the truth. With this renewed faith in his friend, he was going to expose the truth to everyone. They had a right to know, they had a right to their former memories. They had a right to free will.

Only, he didn’t get that far. Suddenly, he and Loki were being escorted to Renslayers office. If there’s one thing about Mobius, he had good intuition, and the feeling he had in his gut was telling him something was very wrong. Of course Renslayer knew he switched their Tempads, he knew he wouldn’t have much time, but it felt like only a matter of minutes before he was caught. He didn’t even have time to go find [y/n] and explain to her what was going on, he didn’t have time to tell her his feelings, and he knew he was going to get pruned if Renslayer found out before he could spread the truth.

But once he stepped into Renslayer’s office, the feeling in his gut froze, sending goosebumps all over his body.

Not only were he and Loki standing in the middle of her office, but so was [y/n]. She was thrashing against G-17, who had her in a chokehold. The scene made his blood boil, [y/n] had no idea what was going on, she was innocent. The thought of anything happening to her gutted him, he wasn’t going to let that happen.

“I uh, I think I grabbed yours by mistake,” he starts out, trying to get out of this smoothly, but he knew Renslayer was going to take that obvious lie, he was no god of mischief. She gave him a cold look that only the devil himself could forge, and ordered D-90 to take the Tempad from him, shaking her head at Mobius in disappointment.

“Mobius, what’s going on?” [y/n] asked, her voice wasn’t faltering, but her usually confident demeanor was gone. She was worried, she knew something bad was going to happen, she knew something was going on with the two variants, it just hadn’t been disclosed how fucked the situation was. All Mobius wanted to do was take her away from this place and tell her what she meant to him. Before anything could happen to him.

“Tell her, Mobius. Tell her how you’ve betrayed the TVA and joined forces with the two Loki Variants. Tell her how you betrayed her trust,” Renslayer says with a silver tongue, looking coldly at not only Loki (the usual) but also Mobius, a look he’s never received from her before on any other occasion than a joke. He could feel his time ticking away, he could only stall so much and there was nothing left to stall. All he had was the truth.

“Look, [y/n], they’re all lying to us. We’re all variants, all of us, they took us from the Timeline. This place- this place isn’t what we think it is.” He says, begging her with his voice to believe him. In all the time they’ve known each other, this is the first time he’s begged her. Though he didn’t need to, [y/n] trusted Mobius with her whole being. Time and time again, she’s saved his ass and he hers. They were bonded in a way she didn’t know was humanly possible, she knew he wouldn’t lie to her. She felt it in her soul he was telling the truth.

“I believe you.” Her voice was soft, even in this terrifying moment, she still found a way to calm him with a gentle smile even as she was being held by the throat.

But that was all taken away when he saw the pointed end of the pruning stick going through her. A guttural roar that escaped him was animalistic, loud enough that surely the entirety of the TVA heard it. Her body was thrown to the ground by D-90, and it took every Minute Men in the room to hold Mobius back from Renslayer. That was it, his whole future ripped away from him right before his eyes, and he didn’t even get to tell her every secret feeling he held for her. No promises of the future they could have together without the TVA. There was nothing left.

He didn’t even hear Renslayer telling one of the Minute Men to prune him through his weeping, and before he knew it, a searing pain took over him.

#mobius #mobius x reader #loki #loki Ła #mobius marvel #mobius m mobius #marvel #mcu fanfiction #mcu x reader

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shinylitwick94 · 3 years

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Shinylitwick's summer (SF/)Fantasy reads - Part I

As it turns out trying to complete the r/fantasy book bingo and not wanting to get into heavy reads this year meant that I spent most of my summer reading almost exclusively SFF, and I read a lot of it. I'm sharing my thoughts on these with anyone who might be interested in them. This covers books I read between july and the first week of september 2021. I'll be doing this in two parts because it would be too long otherwise.

As a reminder, these are personal thoughts, not professional reviews, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Without further ado:

Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay

By this point I think I can say pretty firmly I’m a fan of GGK. I just really enjoy his “alternate history with a dash of fantasy” stuff, and I like his writing and the fact that he’s so good at capturing that sort of bittersweet melancholy I’m a huge junkie for.

That being said, Under Heaven started off amazing, spent a lot of time in eh, and finished solid. I like it, but it’s my least favorite of his books so far. I think it essentially suffers from making promises it doesn’t deliver on. There’s a lot of stories which go nowhere, which I’m sometimes fine with, but I don’t think it worked here. Especially with the sister. I have very little familiarity with Chinese history, but from what I’ve read in other reviews, he stuck rather more closely to the history here than he usually does, which maybe limited his ability to maneuver his characters. Still, I would recommend it, if this is your style.

The Last Wish, by Andrzej Sapkowski

I’ve tried reading this before…in Russian. Don’t know why I thought that was a good idea (something about maybe a better translation?). Anyway, my Russian obviously wasn’t up to scratch and the books are polish anyway.

So, English translation it was. As many of you will know this is actually a short story collection, which is the first part of the Witcher book series. I’d already watched the tv show, and played a bit of the game, so some of the stories were new to me, and others weren’t.

I liked how the book highlighted the “twisted fairytale” aspect of some of these (e.g Snow White, Rumplestiltskin) – that didn’t really come across so well in the adaptations. I think altogether it was a fun and enjoyable read.

The Farthest Shore, by Ursula Le Guin (Book 3 in the Earthsea Cycle)

Ursula Le Guin made me cry again. I’ve been talking about Le Guin a lot recently, with a friend who’s read a lot of her nonfiction, but none of her fiction, while I’ve for the most part just read the fiction. She’s one of those authors who just seems to get it, and who knows how to use the genre to its full extent. Magic and dragons aren’t just a toy, but a tool to actually say something.

She does that across the board, of course, but Farthest Shore hit me harder than the other Earthsea books have, maybe because imho it’s the saddest so far. There’s a lot about death, acceptance, and time passing, and responsibility in this which I really liked. I feel like it manages to get its themes across in a way that is crystal clear, but not ham-fisted. I loved this book, I really did, but I feel like I will need to read it again in a few years, and I’m sure it will be a different read then.

One of many nice quotes:

“When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are.”

The Black Company, by Glen Cook (Book 1 in the Chronicles of the Black Company)

This was sold to me as the granddaddy of grimdark fantasy, and I can certainly see it. It’s clearly influenced a lot of later fantasy authors (Erikson, Abercrombie, to some extent Martin). Yet somehow it manages to be less explicit, or graphic, than some modern grimdark. It can be pretty gross too, but it knows how to cut away when necessary and is usually smart about implying things. I also really liked the basic concept of following characters who work for the Dark Lord (or Dark Lady in this case). The characters themselves are interesting enough – in this first book we don’t go super in depth on a lot of them, but the ones we’re stuck with are decent, and the story holds. Still, I felt like this was more a worldbuilding book than a character book, if that makes sense. And I did like the world. It’s appropriately dark and petty and sucks, but hey that’s what we’re here for.

So overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend to anyone who is interested into the more grimdark side of fantasy. Stay away from it if that’s not your thing or you’re super squeamish.

(most of Tumblr dni I guess)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune, by Nghi Vo

This was a fun little read. I had no idea what to expect going in and I ended up enjoying it. The story follows a nonbinary monk as they go through the affairs of a deceased empress and in discussion with Rabbit, the said empress’s servant, learn her story. The story is mostly told by Rabbit and each section follows a particular object. I liked how that was set up and the way in which the whole picture was slowly revealed to the reader. It’s apparently been read as a feminist story and I can see where that reading comes from, and it was likely intentionally so. It wasn’t the most important part of this to me, but up to you to judge.

I will say though, and this is not the book’s fault, but mine, that reading a story where the POV character uses they/them pronouns was more confusing than I anticipated. I kept expecting there to be more of them at random points in the narrative, and having to backtrack to understand.

It’s a short nice read, but definitely something I feel more comfortable recommending to people here than irl.

Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)

Not much to say here. Discworld is Discworld and can do no wrong, apparently. This might be one of my favorites so far. Loved Granny to pieces, it was fun, it was funny, it was thoughtful without being heavy. It’s the Discworld, what can you do.

The House in the Cerulean Sea, by T.J. Klune

This was pure tooth-rotting fluff, which I think I kind of needed to balance out my reading. It’s cute, it’s cheesy, it’s wholesome it owns it and is proud of it. It’s very LGBT friendly. It’s a good guys win, bad guys lose, discrimination dies today kind of thing.

I’m surprised it’s not bigger on Tumblr tbh (it’s not non-existent either, I checked, just smaller than expected; maybe it’s too nice?).

Anyway, I did like it, and I’m exaggerating just a little bit on the cheesiness. It’s a sweet little story about a character who would normally be played by Martin Freeman (if a bit chubbier) learning that there is more to life than Rules and Regulations and finding love and a family.

If that’s your sort of thing, give it a shot.

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queerchoicesblog · 4 years

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A Few Words On Pride Month 2020

youtube

So, pride month has come at last. No matter how crazy it sounds right now as we're experiencing first-hand one of those events that will end up in history handbooks one day.

I'll be honest, it's quite difficult for me to talk about it now when everything that is not Mrs Rhona releted seems so well less relevant than it was before. But I want to share a few words that most likely nobody will read but I'll let them flow anyway.

I watch that video every single year during pride month. It's from a series I liked quite a lot back then, it's called Sense8. The character speaking is a trans woman, an lgbtq+ hacktivist, reminiscing her disastrous relationship with her transphobic mother yet finding strength in her own sorrow. There is a passage I love:

Today I'm marching to remember that I'm not just a me

But I'm also a we

And we march with pride

These words resonate with me: they summarise perfectly the deep empathy and acceptance that I feel should make us stick together. Both inside the lgbtqa+ community and as human beings: "I am a human being, and thus nothing human is alien to me". I'm quoting by heart a Latin playwright named Terentius (Terence in English, I guess?) so forgive me if I got something wrong but what I mean is...we should all care about each other because no matter our differences, our sexuality or color of skin or class, we are human. We are brothers and sisters: I'm an only child but I believe that the definition of a healthy family is one where people overcome differences that don't truly matter in the end, they don't define us as worthy or unworthy of love and respect which should always be given to another human being.

Unless there are valid reasons not to.

As the latest happenings in the world have shown, a hard truth we all know has been reinforced: we live in a cruel, unfair world where, as Nomi said, "hating isn't a sin on that list and neither is shame". A world where people get hurt or killed for reasons which can be hardly called a motive for violence: not being white, not being rich enough, being different, holding a hand or kissing a person of the same sex in the street.

We may comfort ourselves saying these fears were past fears, last century or even Victorian age fears but no, they're still out there. And we can't turn a blind eye.

The current pandemic added new ones, making our lives even more miserable. Speaking of the lgbtqa+ community, I think I can say the social distancing is hitting even harder. Does anybody feel lonelier now? I rise my hand, I do. I'm not referring to the fact that pride parades are cancelled (because we all know there is a freaking valid reason atm), but getting in touch with other people is way harder now. In my personal experience, getting in touch with fellow lgbtqa+ folks was rare even before the pandemic, now it's hella tough. In the street we hide our faces behind masks and don't have the same careless attitude we used to display. Shaking hands and even the lightest touch or proximity are not allowed under the new restrictions: a few weeks ago, over here a couple was charged for hugging each other in the street. How sad and dystopic are these times we live in...

Virtual meetings can help but they're not like in person meetings: the warmth of personal interaction is simply not there. We try but it's not there. Couples are separeted by lockdown rules and so are some families. Lgbtqa+ hotlines are a saving grace and I cannot stress enough how important they are and how anyone struggling with their mental health or literally anything concerning themselves, their gender and sexuality should feel free to contact those volunteers who are a blessing restoring a little faith in humanity.

My thoughts are for those of us who got stuck quarantining with homophobic/biphobic/transphobic etc parents or roommates, and those stuck in abusive contexts. Yes, even relationships because - I know I'll be super unpopular saying this but we can't lie especially to the minor or vulnerable ones- lgbtqa+ relationships can be abusive and toxic too. As I said, we're human and I am sick and tired of the honeyed sunshine rhetoric of lgbtqa+ people and love as an ever right and righteous safe haven. It is a safe haven for us to some extent but we must acknowledge there are problematic issues in our community. We have to be honest with each other especially for the sake not only of each other but for the vulnerable ones and the young. Like criticising or reporting abusers, predators, rapists and so on don't make us all filthy creatures who will burn on a stake for our abominable sins. It just makes us responsible and looking out for each other.

We spend so long dreaming of finding someone of the same sex to be with that when someone shows us any sign of affection our feelings for them grow fast, even when red flags or abuse enter our lives. We stay because we're hungry for love and crave what straighties seem to get so easily: love, acceptance, reciprocity. To the young and everyone who needs to hear this I wanna say: it doesn't have to be like that. Don't ever settle for cheap love only because you feel you will lose your only chance to be loved. There are good people out there too and you deserve one of them at your side. You will find them, your paths will cross: just be patient and never ever forget the importance of respect and consent.

To all those experiencing anything like the relationships or toxicity I mentioned, who feel silenced by the sunshine rhetoric, I say: you are not alone, stay strong and you did nothing wrong, others did and I'm sorry you're going through this cause you don't deserve it.

I share a similar shutout to those struggling with mental and/or physical disorders. If you ever felt pretty much invisible, you're not. I see you, many others see you and we're all rooting for you. You're stronger than you think and you're beautiful.

The not-as-unfortunate-as-the abovementioned but still quite forlorn are the star crossed lovers meeting that special someone in a bad time. Quarantine will see the blossoming of some romances but also takes no prisoners, blowing off others. They don't vanish though, in most cases they turn into those impossible loves and what if we love so much in the movies and hate in real life. I wish I could lay a blanket or pull into a tight hug all those going through this. Your pain is not irrelevant even if there are worst things in the world right now, our souls hurt for things like that. I hold your shaking hand wherever you are as you stare blankly at your phone, waiting for a message or a call that will never come, or you reminisce, listening to a romantic playlist you still have saved on your device. Your suffering is my suffering.

On a brighter side, cause I don't wanna be a complete downer, the luckiest ones among us are blessed with love and I can't be any happier for you, whoever you are. I can picture the one day a few years from now when I will be talking to someone and they will share their story saying how they met the love of their life during the pandemic. How it wasn't easy at first because of all the uncertainty and fears but they kept trying and it all started with a social distancing date at a park or via Zoom. You lucky ones, cherish that and never take what you have for granted: the love you feel and that special someone is showing you is a balsam in hard times. Please cherish it dearly and never stop loving: one day you'll warm these old bones and lonely heart if we ever get the chance to cross path.

Actually I don't have any more wisdom to share, granted what I wrote can be called wisdom, nor giveaway. I considered doing a lgbtqa+ one in honor of the pride month but I feel nobody would be interested. Or at least not by me and I fully agree: writing is getting hard and I feel like I risk of ruining everything I dedicate myself to, as I usually do in my life. I'll follow the tips of a few anons (I think?) and devote this month to educate myself over aspects, nuances or realities I am not fully familiar with: so I'll watch Pose and Sex Education. Hopefully I'll learn something new that might make me a better human being.

Feel free to share further advice: books, articles, movies, series, documentaries...you name it! Drop a message or an ask and I'll make what I'm starting now a lasting project!

That is my advice: if you're stuck inside with nothing much to do this month, find something that might enrich you, even a little thing, and go for it.

As well as reminding yourself the usual stuff: you are not wrong nor unlovable, you're not offensive or dirty for being attracted to your same sex or both or none. Not to quote Lady Gaga, but it's truly is that simple: you are born and beautiful this way.

Stay safe and stay strong, my darlings 🏳️‍🌈

Love,

#pride month #pride month 2020 #random thoughts

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the-light-followed · 4 years

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WYRD SISTERS (1988) [DISC. #6; WITCHES #2]

“‘No one would come up here this time of night.’ Magrat peered around timidly. Here and there on the moor were huge standing stones, their origins lost in time, which were said to lead mobile and private lives of their own. She shivered. ‘What’s to be afraid of?’ she managed. ‘Us,’ said Granny Weatherwax, smugly.”

Rating: 6/10

Standalone Okay: Yes

Read First: Yeah!

Discworld Books Masterpost: [x]

* * * * * * * * * *

I’m just going to jump right in with this one: the best part about the Witches sub-series of the Discworld is that they are all, in their own way, stories about stories. They’re stories that follow other stories, the tropes and archetypes and established narrative structure, but they’re also stories that subvert that structure at just the right moment to make something that feels much more truthful, and often, much more real.

Stories about stories.

This is sometimes very literal: Wyrd Sisters, for example, has very obvious Shakespearean roots, notably from Hamlet and Macbeth, and seems to gleefully delight in throwing around references—three witches meeting to cast spells, blood on the murderer’s hands that won’t wash away, the ghost of a murdered father begging his son to seek revenge, a theater called The Dysk that mimics Shakespeare’s Globe, etc., etc., etc.—that then get turned over on their heads. We’ll see it done again with the fairy tale elements of Witches Abroad, and the Phantom of the Opera parody that is Maskerade. These books are, in a very real sense, skipping the setup and instead using cultural touchstones as framework. The books starring the witches are literally new stories being told about stories we, the audience, already know and recognize.

But sometimes it isn’t literal at all: witches, after all, work magic most often through psychology and metaphor. “Headology,” as the witches call it, is the basis of witchcraft, and it’s all about the stories being told. It’s in the things the witches do for respect, like their hats and black outfits and their out-of-the-way cottages they pass down from one witch to the next, or the way they bow instead of curtsey. It’s in the things they call magic even when it isn’t, like using real herbs and medicines to cure illnesses, or waving their hands over a pot of tea and chanting nonsense before ‘reading the future’ in the leaves, all of it only for the look of the thing from the outside.

And it’s also in the things they tell themselves. For example, when Magrat’s broomstick stops working in Wyrd Sisters, she does what she calls a Change spell—which simply means that the rest of the world remains the same, but she changes the way she sees herself. Before, she was a young woman on a broom rapidly falling out of the sky, and now she’s a confident young witch who can deal with any disaster that comes her way, so she’s therefore a lot less worried about it.

And it works. That’s the thing: Magrat is just fine. Witches do magic in and on themselves, it’s all nothing more than a thought, and yet it works.

None of the Witches books are particularly subtle about the point they’re trying to make with the whole deal, either. In Wyrd Sisters, it seems like everyone is talking about the power of words and stories, the way that the things we tell ourselves and each other can shape the reality of the world we inhabit. There are some negatives you can pull out of that message—history is malleable and written by the victors, propaganda triumphs over the truth, etc., etc. But there are a lot of more interesting, thought-provoking ideas to consider, instead. For example: just because narrative structure has already delivered us the broad strokes of the plot (anyone who’s studied any Shakespeare, which can reasonably be assumed to be any native English speaker older than about sixteen, can probably guess the general course of Wyrd Sisters by about page twenty), it doesn’t mean there can’t be originality and meaning in the specifics.

And that originality and meaning is what makes all the Discworld books work so well. Pratchett is parodying, sure, but he’s also creating something very new and earnest and sincere, and that just doesn’t work if the story is an exact beat-for-beat retelling of an already-told tale.

Wyrd Sisters agrees with that idea. Destiny is all well and good—it’s nice to think that what’s to come is pre-planned, easy to predict, and impossible to subvert—but the world just doesn’t work like that. The story isn’t plotted out in advance.

As Pratchett says later in the book: “Destiny was funny stuff…You couldn’t trust it. Often you couldn’t even see it. Just when you knew you had it cornered, it turned out to be something else—coincidence, maybe, or providence. You barred the door against it, and it was standing behind you. Then just when you thought you had it nailed down it walked away with the hammer.”

The witches certainly don’t truck with destiny. Or, well, it may be a tool in their storytelling arsenal, but they don’t see it as a concrete thing. Destiny is what you make of it, and Granny and Nanny are movers and shakers. That makes it especially ironic that the book is called Wyrd Sisters—the word “wyrd” is an old Anglo-Saxon concept referring to fate or personal destiny, so the “wyrd sisters” themselves typically would be the three Fates, a la Greek mythology, rather than three women who tend to grab Fate and Destiny by the ears and twist until they decide to agree that the witches have the right of it.

Honestly, though, if Granny Weatherwax looked at me like that, I’d do whatever she wanted, too.

I just want to bring up something I really like about Pratchett’s writing style: despite the fantastical setting, despite how far from reality he can get, he’s not afraid to switch to Roundworld concepts or just flat-out break the fourth wall in exchange for better, more impactful descriptions. I like to call this cinematic writing, and sometimes that’s actually very literal. There are quite a few passages in various Discworld books where he starts to write in an almost movie-script style. After Moving Pictures, which is still a good four books away at this point, I think that becomes less notable. Here, and in the previous few Discworld books (Mort, Sourcery, Equal Rites), when Discworld does not have any parallel equivalent to Roundworld’s Hollywood, it’s pretty damn unusual for an author to just outright throw aside their own fantasy setting to make a description in real-world terms.

My favorite example of this from Wyrd Sisters:

“It is almost impossible to convey the sudden passage of fifteen years and two months in words. It’s a lot easier in pictures, when you just use a calendar with lots of pages blowing off, or a clock with hands moving faster and faster until they blur, or trees bursting into blossom and fruiting in a matter of seconds… Well, you know. Or the sun becomes a fiery streak across the sky, and days and nights flicker past jerkily like a bad zoetrope, and the fashions visible in the clothes shop across the road whip on and off faster than a lunchtime stripper with five pubs to do. There are any amount of ways, but they won’t be required because, in fact, none of this happened.”

You can practically imagine the way that scene would look in a blockbuster movie, and it’s wonderful that Pratchett describes it crystal clear just to let us know that it is not, in fact, how it looked at all.

There’s a lot more to like about Wyrd Sisters, too, for all that it isn’t one of my favorite Discworld books. It’s a far better introduction to the witches—specifically Granny Weatherwax—than Equal Rites is, even though Equal Rites is technically the first book in the Witches sub-series. It introduces some characters we’ll see a lot more of later, like King Verence and the greater Ogg family, but also characters that will go on to become staples of the Discworld, like Nanny Ogg and Magrat. We also have some lovely cameos from already established characters: notably Death and his interactions during the play at the castle, but there are some good Ankh-Morpork moments, like the Librarian’s appearance at a barfight.

And we get to see the good old Discworld humor really click—it’s all about that balance between absurdism and realism, or between established tropes and self-awareness. One of my favorite examples of this comes right at the beginning of the book:

“As the cauldron bubbled an eldritch voice shrieked: ‘When shall we three meet again?’ There was a pause. Finally another voice said, in far more ordinary tones: ‘Well, I can do next Tuesday.’”

Pratchett’s really got a sense for it by this point, and he can deliver zinger after unexpectedly delightful zinger. Discworld books are always beautifully funny, of course, even though after a while you really get a feel for when a good joke is coming. Some people might think that knowing the punchline is coming might make it less funny: it absolutely does not. All it does is make the unexpected, sneaky moments—when the humor Pratchett has been secretly setting up for ages finally creeps up to smack you in the face—hit harder. Maybe others disagree, but I can read Discworld novels again and again, and they always get me just as much as they did the first time through. In my opinion, that’s real comedic talent.

Up next in the series we have Pyramids, our first unconnected one-off story, which is wonderfully weird even for a Discworld book! Stay tuned!

* * * * * * * * * *

Side Notes:

Every time that oh-so popular Ankh-Morporkian dive bar, the Drum, pops up, it’s fun to note where it’s at these days: Mended Drum, Broken Drum, etc. In Wyrd Sisters, Tomjon and Hwel go drinking in the Mended Drum.

There are several adaptations of Wyrd Sisters, including a 4-part BBC radio show, an animated film, and a stageplay.

As I go over my highlighted quotes and annotations from each book, putting these posts together, I learn more and more about myself. What I like, what I find funny, what I care to notice. For example, Vetinari shows up exactly ONCE in this book, and just in a footnote, and yet I still highlighted it and wrote a note next to it that contained mostly exclamation points. There’s no real point to this; I just want everyone to know how much I love Vetinari.

Favorite Quotes:

“Witches are not by nature gregarious, at least with other witches, and they certainly don’t have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn’t have.”

“Now, just when a body would have been useful, it had let him down. Or out.”

“‘How many times have you thrown a magic ring into the deepest depths of the ocean and then, when you get home and have a nice bit of turbot for your tea, there it is?’ They considered this in silence. ‘Never,’ said Granny irritably. ‘And nor have you.’”

“His body was standing to attention. Despite all his efforts his stomach stood at ease.”

“Back down on the plains, when you kicked people they kicked back. Up here, when you kicked people they moved away and just waited patiently for your leg to fall off.”

“The Ogg grandchildren were encouraged to believe that monsters from the dawn of time dwelt in its depths, since Nanny believed that a bit of thrilling and pointless terror was an essential ingredient of the magic of childhood.”

“She gave the guards a nod as she went through. It didn’t occur to either of them to stop her because witches, like beekeepers and big gorillas, went where they liked. In any case, an elderly lady banging a bowl with a spoon was probably not the spearhead of an invasion force.”

“‘You’re wondering whether I really would cut your throat,’ panted Magrat. ‘I don’t know either. Think of the fun we could have together, finding out.’”

“Wizards assassinated each other in drafty corridors, witches just cut one another dead in the street. And they were all as self-centered as a spinning top. Even when they help other people, she thought, they’re secretly doing it for themselves. Honestly, they’re just like big children. Except for me, she thought smugly.”

“‘Man just went past with a cat on his head,’ one of them remarked, after a minute or two’s reflection. ‘See who it was?’ ‘The Fool, I think.’ There was a thoughtful pause. The second guard shifted his grip on his halberd. ‘It’s a rotten job,’ he said. ‘But I suppose someone’s got to do it.’”

“Granny’s implicit belief that everything should get out of her way extended to other witches, very tall trees and, on occasion, mountains.”

“Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.”

“Words were indeed insubstantial. They were as soft as water, but they were also as powerful as water and now they were rushing over the audience, eroding the levees of veracity, and carrying away the past.”

“‘Witches just aren’t like that,’ said Magrat. ‘We live in harmony with the great cycles of Nature, and do no harm to anyone, and it’s wicked of them to say we don’t. We ought to fill their bones with hot lead.’”

“‘I shall haunt their corridors,’ he said, ‘and whisper under the doors on still nights.’ His voice grew fainter, almost lost in the ceaseless roar of the river. ‘I shall make basket chairs creak most alarmingly, just you wait and see.’ Death grinned at him. NOW YOU’RE TALKING.”

#discworld #wyrd sisters

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iwritethingstoo · 4 years

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Love Bites

A/N: This is for @deanwanddamons #deanwanddamons500followerchallenge. Hope you enjoy it!

Characters: Sam, Dean, Crowley, OMC Kern and Reader

Word Count: 2233

Warnings: Language, mentions of torture, vampires, blood, a bit of fluff

Prompt: You don’t know how long I have wanted to touch your lips and hold you tight (in bold)

Tags: @deanwanddamons @official-and-unstable-satan @sweater-daddiesdumbdork

Rain poured down over you as you walked up to the entrance of Harvelle’s Roadhouse. You slammed the door open and stood in the entryway dripping water onto the floor.

“Hey, you look like shit.” You recognized the voice as Dean Winchester.

“You’d look like shit too if you went through everything I just did.” You shot back as you walked over to the table where he and his brother, Sam, were sitting. “It started off as a simple salt and burn.”

“Sounds easy enough.” Sam chimed in. “What happened?”

“If you would shut up and listen for more than two seconds, I was about to tell you. Now, then, where was I?” You paused for a moment.

“A ‘simple’ salt and burn.” Dean used finger quotes when he said the word ‘simple’.

“Is it a family trait?” When the boys looked confused, you continued. “Your inability to listen.” You sighed and regained enough composure to return to your story. “So I dig up the guy’s grave only to find out, he’s not actually in there. He’s in his wife’s grave….. one plot over….. exactly where I piled the dirt from his grave. So I have to refill the hole I just dug and do it all over again.” You stopped and downed the drink sitting in front of Dean.

“Hey.” He started to interject, but you held up your hand to silence him which, surprisingly enough, worked.

“So I get to the damn coffin. Just my luck, it’s chained shut. I get my crowbar from my car and break the stupid lock; finally get it open. Then, the salt container won’t open. I end up ripping the thing open; salt goes everywhere. One bit of good news, I still had enough to pour over the bones. I douse everything in gas and go to strike the matches, but of course they’re wet so they won’t light.”

“Why were they wet?” Dean looked completely engrossed in your story.

“Because they came out of my boobs.” Dean nodded knowingly. Sam, however, looked dumbfounded; opening and closing his mouth several times. You crossed your arms and waited for him to figure out how words work again. ‘This is gonna be good.’ When he finally spoke, he didn’t disappoint.

“What do your boobs have to do with the matches being wet?” He looked uncomfortable at his own question.

“Because swamp boob is a thing.” You paused, giving him a chance to rearrange his face, but he still needed more explanation. “All the extra digging made me sweaty.”

“I see. That makes sense now.” He quickly shifted the conversation away from your chest. “So what did you do without the matches?”

“I remembered that there was a mausoleum on the other side of the graveyard with lanterns, so I ran to get one. By this time, the ghost shows up to stop me. I manage to slip past him, grab the lantern and get back to the grave. I throw it into the hole and it crashes igniting the gas.”

“At least you got it done and you’re safe now.” Sam tried to encourage you.

“Oh yeah. I’m so glad to be alive right now.” You rolled your eyes at him and took his drink. He started to protest, but his cell phone ringing interrupted him. After several minutes of talking, he turned to you.

“You up for some vampire hunting?”

“Always.”

You pulled up to an abandoned-looking barn and hopped out of the boys’ Impala. You barged into the building, combat knife in hand, but the vamps were ready for you. Before you knew what was happening, you had three of them on you. Sam and Dean weren’t fairing much better, fighting two vamps each. You started kicking and slashing your knife almost wildly, managing to carve into one of your opponents and behead another. It became harder to breathe and you found your mouth open trying to suck in more oxygen as you continued fighting. The vamp you sliced open, slapped your mouth with a wet hand before calling for the others to retreat. They were gone in the blink of an eye.

You swallowed hard, the taste of metal in your mouth. You wiped your face clean, feeling for a wound and not finding one.The world started to spin around you and the rhythmic sound of heartbeats thumped loudly in your ears.

“Are you ok?” Sam put his hand on your shoulder and you quickly shrugged it off regretting the sudden movement as it made you feel nauseous.

“Son of a bitch got his blood in my mouth. You have to kill me before I turn into one of them.” You refused to look at either of the men now both standing within feet of you. How could you let this happen? You got sloppy and now you had to pay for it.

“There’s still a way to save you.” Dean’s voice pulled you back to the moment and you looked up at him, confused. “There’s a cure; a potion. We’ll have to work quickly though. We need the blood of your sire and it won’t work if you drink any blood.”

“I’ve never heard of a cure for vampirism. How do you know this will work?”

“We’ve done it before,” Sam looked to his brother. “for Dean.”

The three of you worked out a plan. You would find the vamps and retrieve the blood while the boys gathered the remaining ingredients. They argued with you about going alone, but you convinced them that you had a reason to go there and if things did go south, you were stronger now. You grabbed a syringe from the impala and took off after the vamps. It was easier to track them in your current state and it wasn’t long before you stood at the door to a mansion which opened revealing a woman standing in the entryway.

“We’ve been expecting you. Kern told us you would be coming.” She stepped to the side and made an inviting motion. You entered the building and waited as the woman closed the door. She walked past you and into a large entertaining room. As you followed her, you thought about the name she mentioned. Kern must be the vampire who sired you. You would have to repay him for the slap in the face back at the barn. You looked around the room. There had to be thirty or more vampires in this room, but none of them were Kern. It looked like you had walked into a party with the lights dimmed and rave music playing. The thump of the bass was quickly giving you a headache. When you looked back, the woman you had been following had been replaced with a greasy-haired man.

“Thirsty?” He asked as he offered you a glass of what you were sure was blood. “Not as good as the fresh stuff, but it’ll do in a pinch.”

You struggled to think of a believable reason to decline the drink. The smell of it had your newly acquired fangs poking out from your gums. Your logical brain screamed at you as your right hand reached out and took the glass from him. Swirling the liquid like a fine wine flooded your senses with the rich smell. You had smelled blood before; hot and metallic, but this time was different. It was like dark chocolate and honey. Your body craved this liquefied life and you found your hand bringing the glass to your mouth.

Before it could touch your lips, a loud crash and bang brought you back to your senses. The room filled with a thick smoke that rendered your sight useless. You dropped the glass with a pang in your chest, but it didn’t last long. You focused on what you could hear. Did the Winchesters come after you? There was panic all around you; shouts of people trying to find each other and thuds as, presumably, bodies hit the floor. You coughed as you breathed in the smoke and stumbled with a sudden dizziness. The last thing you remembered before you blacked out, was your hands being tied together.

You opened your eyes and tried to blink away the blurriness. You could just make out a voice. It sounded oddly familiar, but you couldn’t place it; gruff and……. English? Then it clicked. You knew who that voice belonged to. You blinked again and shook your head. Finally your vision returned and you saw him. The man you didn’t think you would ever see again. Crowley; newly crowned King of Hell.

As if on cue, he turned and looked at you. Seeing you awake, he walked over and stood in front of you. It was at this point, you realized you had been chained up with your wrists bound together above your head. You struggled against your bindings to no avail.

“Love, it’s so good to see you.” He smiled. “It’s been a while, but I didn’t expect this kind of change. Fangs don’t really suit you.”

“You’ve changed too. Last time I saw you, you were still King of the Crossroads.” You looked at the room around you. “Where am I? Why am I chained up? Is this a kinky thing?” You blushed at the last question. You had always had a crush on Crowley even though you knew you couldn’t act on it. He was a demon for crying out loud. As a hunter, it was your job to eliminate his kind.

“My dear, I have work to do and I’m afraid you won’t like it. I need answers and you’ve become someone who can give them to me.” He held up a knife and examined it.

“What do you mean?” It took you a moment to realize that he meant torturing vampires for information. “Wait. Please, don’t. I can’t be of any help. I haven’t been a vamp long enough to know anything.” He gave you a quizzical look. “I was just turned today; I haven’t even drunk blood. You know I can’t lie to you.”

It was true. You could lie your way out of almost any situation, but for some reason, you had never been able to make yourself lie to Crowley and he knew it. He had taken advantage of this very fact once before to find out what the Winchesters were up to.

“I believe you, Love, but what can I do?” He lowered his knife and turned away from you.

“There’s a cure. Sam and Dean; they told me. I need the blood of Kern, the vamp who sired me, but I didn’t see him at the mansion. I don’t know how to find him.”

“I have heard of rumors of a cure, but……” He walked out of the room and returned several minutes later with a book in hand. “Yes, I found it.” He scanned the page. “This is actually quite easy. The hard part will be getting the sire’s blood.” He closed the book and dropped it onto the table next to you. With a wave of his hand, your arms were free and they fell to your sides.

You took an unsteady step forward and tripped. You didn’t hit the floor, however, because Crowley caught you. You looked up into his eyes and down to his lips. You found yourself wanting to fulfill an impossible fantasy; to kiss him. An involuntary smile crept across your face as his arms wrapped around you.

“You don’t know how long I have wanted to touch your lips and hold you tight,” He said after a moment. “But that will have to wait.” He helped you back to your feet and took your hand.

After an hour of searching the imprisoned vampires and not finding Kern, you and Crowley headed back to the torture room. You slumped to the floor and held your head in your hands.

“I’ll be stuck like this forever. I’m so thirsty; I won’t last much longer. You might as well kill me.”

“You think after I’ve told you how I feel that I would give up on you?” You looked up at him; determination on his face. Just then, you noticed the body on the table behind him.

“That’s him. That’s Kern.” You stood up and all but lept to the table. “No, he’s already dead.” With this realization, you let your head drop.

“That doesn’t matter.” Crowley lifted your face to look at him again. “He doesn’t have to be alive. We just need the blood.” He kissed you quickly on the lips before running around and gathering ingredients.

You barely noticed what he was doing. You touched the tip of your fingers to your mouth. He had kissed you. Your heart fluttered in your chest. Time seemed to stop as you had another fantasy of you and him together. It no longer mattered to you that he was a demon; that he was the King of Hell. You just wanted him to be yours.

Crowley broke your daydream when he handed you a glass jar. “Drink up. It won’t be pleasant, but you’ll feel better soon.”

“Just in case you're wrong, I want to tell you something. I love you.” You tipped the jar to your mouth and drank.

“I’m not wrong, but I’ll tell you something as well. I love you too”

#deanwanddamons500followerchallenge #supernatural #sam #dean #crowley #kern #omc #original male character #vampire #salt and burn #salt #and #burn #demon #torture

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andromedako · 4 years

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tl;dr “english class is stupid, i just wanna listen to my boyfriend explain it to me bc he’s cute.” - medako (actual canon quote i promise)

Laying on her floor, Medako pulled out her homework from her bag, and immediately got to work on it. She managed to complete science and math, but began to struggle when it came to English. She had never been *really* good at that class, but she at least scraped by. For the past week, the lessons seemed to be a bit harder, and she was often left confused by what they were trying to teach.

That week, they were supposed to keep a log of things they had done all day, but in English, instead of Japanese. She had two big issues here. First, she didn't do much, so she often found herself making up random stuff when her mind blanked. Secondly, her English isn't the best. She managed to get through the first two entries, though.

She looked at the entries and sighed, wondering if she'd be able to complete Tuesday's. She crept up from the floor to her bed, already exhausted. She was about to go to sleep, but her mind brought up the greatest idea she may have thought since she could think.

"What if I just ask Hoshi to help?" Surely, he wouldn't mind. If anything, he seemed more than happy to help someone out... Medako grabbed her phone and opened LINE, before wondering if he'd even be awake. It was about 10 pm, and she didn't know when he slept. She shrugged, and messaged him anyways.

"Hey! I'm having a bit of trouble with today's English homework, do you think you could help?"

She hit send, and went back to just staring at the piece of paper, because that usually helps when you're trying to figure things out. She wasn't expecting to get a reply this late, but alas, she got one pretty quickly.

"I can try! If you need help with what we're doing, we could meet up tomorrow after school!"

She stared at the message, the thought exciting her mind. She thought less about getting help, and more of the fact that she'd be able to spend more time with him! She replied back, agreeing to the idea. This was gonna be good. After an hour, she managed to finish the entry, giving up and just not doing her best on it. She put her work back in her bag, and laid down for another 30 minutes before she finally went to bed.

The day passed by, and instead of walking home with her brother, Medako stayed behind in the classroom with Hoshi. The two sat there for a bit, before pulling out what they needed to study.

"So, you're having issues with the journal entries? What about them?" She hesitated. It was a lot of things, but she went with the one that would probably warrant a longer session. "I, uh, I'm having trouble with... how to word them. Tenses confuse me."

Hoshi nodded, and looked at his own journal. He looked at hers, then back to his. Medako assumed he was comparing his to hers, but she was fairly unsure. "They look fine to me! Tenses are kind of difficult, especially when it comes to irregular verbs... do you have those down yet?"

She stared at her workbook for a bit, then to the notes she had taken. Right next to today's lessons, in the margins, was just "????" next to an explanation of something related to that. "Uh, yeah! Have those down!" She tried to hide the fact that she probably did struggle with those with a smile. Hoshi was a dense idiot, but not dense enough to see through that.

"Hm... you sure? I can try and help you practice if you want! Doesn't hurt to!" He seemed really enthusiastic, and Medako practically caved in at the request.

He opened his book, and began explaining the week's lessons thus far to her. She got lost a few times in the conversation, focusing on him rather than what he was explaining. To her, at least, it was cute seeing him talking about this, since he seemed so passionate about it. A few times, he caught onto her zoning out, and she managed to get back into the conversation. She didn't really understand most of what he was saying, but she liked the fact he was saying it.

A while had passed before either of them noticed what time it was. Hoshi looked up at the clock, and started packing up. Medako didn't realize, until she looked up and saw the time. "Huh? You're packing up already?" She was confused, since they started studying around 3:00.

"Oh, uh, my mom wants me home by 4, and it's 3:50... so I better get started walking!" He walked into the hall, before being interrupted by Medako. "Wait for me!! I can walk with you!" In truth, she just didn't want to walk home by herself.

The two walked home together, passing by the places they usually did. Their conversations ranged from random talks from around the school to whether watermelon belongs on pizza (spoiler, it doesn't). Hoshi's house always ended up being before Medako's, which bothered her, knowing she'd have to make it the rest of the walk on her own. They chatted a bit before Hoshi went inside.

"Today was kinda fun! Uh, if you need any help again, don't afraid to ask! I can also help over LINE if you want, if I'm not able to help you physically." "Oh! Uh, thanks! I'll be sure to ask when I need it again!"

They both waved, and Medako went on her way home, which wasn't that far. When she got home, she put her bag in her room, and went to go talk about her day to Medao, who had been home the entire time.

#emil.rtf #ok to rb #my writing #i... don't have a title for this oops #anyways u can rb if u wanna i will not stop u #but i feel slightly Embarassed posting this

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chelsierra-remly · 5 years

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Diana Gabaldon on Weaving in Backstory

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDianaGabaldon/photos/a.287216804654496/2627255683983918/

---- This is a comment I want to save and be able to find later:

Posted from Diana on the thread linked above:

[Quote]

Diana Gabaldon: With no references whatever to other series, I have seen a number of comments from readers who felt that one or another long series was harder and harder to get through, owing (they thought) to too much lengthy recapping of what had happened in preceding volumes.

You, my perceptive readers, are Quite Right. Nothing drags a book down faster than hitting a synopsized chunk of an earlier book (let alone one that the author didn't bother to shorten or adapt). What you probably don't know, though, is that this particular phenomenon has quite a bit to do with why it takes me a long time to write one of the Big Books.

To wit, I have a reasonable expectation that a new book of mine will show up in airport bookshops when it's released--if only for a few days. So--if the book-customer thinks, "Oh, I've heard of this author, let's try it"--they'd Better Be Able to find out as much as they need to know in order to enjoy this particular book without ever having read the earlier ones in the series--because airport bookshops seldom stock other series books; they don't have the option of buying OUTLANDER instead.

Meanwhile, you want to avoid the phenomenon youse guys are talking about: forcing the long-time punters to wade through the debris of earlier books repeatedly before getting to the good stuff (assuming you _have_ Good Stuff, but we assume you do...).

So I do it with what I call a Jacquard technique (for those of you not into weaving or fashion, Jacquard refers to a pattern that's woven into the cloth so that the pattern element is slightly raised. The pattern is part of the cloth, though, so is exactly the same color and--depending on the angle--reflectivity as the background. You only see the pattern if you move the fabric (or your eyes, I suppose) so that you view it from an angle--then the slightly raised woven pattern will be clearly visible.

As a brief example, two lines in the excerpt I posted are acting as Jacquard-type threads (though they're also serving one or more _other_ functions):

“Your husband…knows…his trade,” she said hoarsely, handing the bottle back to Fanny.

Even if you'd never read a word about Jamie Fraser before, you'd now be aware that he makes whisky--and that he turns his hand to a number of different ploughshares.

And then,

“No. I drowned it before I left, with a pitcher of cold tea. Quite a waste, but I couldn’t tell how soon I should be back.”

Even if you didn't already know who Mrs. Cunningham was, you would at this point think she's an English Loyalist, because who else could make a pitcher of tea in the middle of the American Revolution (let alone propose to drink it all themselves)?

" “And where, might I ask, did you hear language like that?”Fanny glanced at me, but I nodded and she said simply, “I lived in a brothel for some time, ma’am.”

And just like that, you know the Likely Most Interesting Thing _about_ Fanny and are automatically engaged with and interested in her.

But none of these bits are _pure_ backstory; they're just parts of the mostly-invisible Jacquard pattern, and someone familiar with the story would never notice them. But now everybody can go on with these characters in just the same way that readers who were with us Before do.

So it can be done. I tell you what, though, that kind of close, finely detailed (but not putting the details all in the same place, for heaven's sake) engineering takes a whole lot of time. So does a lot else about the way I write <g>, of course, but this is one important element that even very observant readers might not have consciously noticed, so I thought I'd mention it. <g>

[/Quote]

#DianaGabaldon #Writing #WeavingInBackStory

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dailyaudiobible · 3 years

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09/13/2021 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 12:1-14:32, 2 Corinthians 13:1-14, Psalms 57:1-11, Proverbs 23:9-11

Today is the 13th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today as we approach the middle…well…I mean we’ll get to the middle of the week, and we’ll be in the middle of the month. We’re working our way through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. We’re working our way through the second letter to the Corinthians in the New Testament and we will conclude that letter with today's reading. So, let's dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Isaiah chapters 12, 13, and 14 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we concluded the second letter to the Corinthians today. And as letters go, it's…it's a good-sized letter, but we probably noticed that a bunch of this letter is Paul defending himself in part, and we've already gone over this. Other people were coming and visiting these churches and nuancing what Paul was teaching. He did not like that a bit. And they were associated with, you know, like some kind of pedigree, some kind of association to the actual disciples of Jesus in some form or another. And, so, they’re super apostles. And, so, he has to defend himself and spends a bunch of the letter doing that. Let's just pause though and remember that Jesus Christ, the Savior, dealt with the same kinds of scenarios where he's constantly being asked, “by what authority are you doing these things?” And all kinds of assumptions about Jesus were flying around. And we've explored that we went to the Gospels. So, let's just notice here in this letter that these kinds of things were going on in the early church. They continue to go on until this day where we pick our favorites and then we defend our favorites and we’re always looking for a certain kind of pedigree or a certain kind of proof. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's in some ways called discernment. Paul essentially was saying, can't you just…like…do I have to brag? Do I have to boast? Do I have to show how I have done more for God than these other people? Can't you just look at what my life is? Can’t you look at the consistency of the message of the gospel? Can't you see what we've been through to bring it to you? Can’t that matter? Do we have to actually get into a bragging contest? Is this what we’re doing here? And that's fair. Jesus had the same kind of thing going on. Remember Jesus being accused of getting His…the source of His power to heal from the devil? And Jesus is like, what are we…what are we doing here? What are we talking about here? How can that even be? A house divided against itself can't stand. So, we’ve had the opportunity to explore the ways in which we judge and what we’re looking for. But Paul ends this letter actually in a really pointed but very helpful way. And, so, if we think about the way that we discern or we judge, if we look at the way that Jesus was judged, if we look at the way that Paul was judged then we see how we do the things that we do and we might begin to realize that it's mostly outward. Like, we are mostly outwardly judging without looking in the mirror and including ourselves in the equation. And that is how Paul rounds things out. And I quote. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test.” So, we can watch the super apostle’s brag. We can watch Paul brag back and defend himself. And we can sit there and go okay well here's my choice, I judge for Paul, or I judge for Apollos, or I judge for Cephas, right? Because we've seen all this going on in the early church. Paul is just suggesting as he closes this letter that maybe we just look at ourselves for a while, maybe we examine ourselves realizing that Christ Jesus is within us, and we don't have to be the judge. We have the Spirit of truth. We should keep our eyes on our own lives and what God is doing in our beautiful wild life that we've been given, and then live that out into the world not worrying about the rest.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come into that. We…we walk into so much distraction. We walk into so much stuff that just entangles us in one way or another, big or small. When we are given permission to become aware of Your presence in our very lives and to examine ourselves. So, come Holy Spirit with the light of truth and help us do that, examine ourselves. And lead us into all truth, we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home…home base, it’s where you find out what's going on around here. It’s how to get connected around here. It’s how to find resources that are available for this journey around here.

So, like, check out the Community section. That's where you will find links to the different social networks that we participate in. The Prayer Wall actually also lives in the Community section and that is a gift and a beautiful thing unto itself. It is always on, always active, always happening any time of day or night. No matter what you might be going through you can always go there and reach out to brothers and sisters, ask for prayer. But maybe even more importantly sometimes it's a…it's a place to go and pray, it's a place that we have as a community here around the Global Campfire. These are the things that are going on in our lives and…and there's a myriad of things going on. I mean, any given day in any one of our lives brings usually some sort of drama of some sort. It doesn't have to be life altering drama. It's just life. Life among other human beings. Life in all of the different cultures and all of our attempts to make it work, and to make it make sense. Every day that's challenged and every day we…we need prayer, but maybe even more importantly, maybe we need to reach out in prayer and reach toward one another through prayer, as we reach to God for His intervention or His direction and clarity in the thoughts, words, and deeds of our lives. And, so, the Prayer Wall is a wonderful resource for that. And that can be found in the Community section whether you’re on the website or whether using…using the Daily Audio Bible app. So, be sure to check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission…if the mission of the Daily Audio Bible, which is to bring the spoken scriptures read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm so that we know that we are not alone on this journey through the Bible or in life, if that is life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s the little red button up at the top, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB I'm going to go by His Farmer. This is the first time I've called in. I've been listening to DAB for a couple years now. I was inspired by Marked as His and I want you to know that we're praying for you. I'm a farmer also and it is a struggle right now trying to find help to…to get all the work that we need to be done. I just want to encourage you that…keep praying, keep listening to the DAB. I've been listening to the DAB for about two years now since I was being treated for cancer about two years ago and I've never stopped listening since I…since I was in the bed listening…being treated for cancer and here we are today in remission, and I praise God give him all the glory and really love listening to the prayer requests and…and God’s scripture. It's 6:00 o'clock in the morning here and I'm feeding my cows too. I understand the struggle. It's tough. It is not easy this year. It's never been harder I don't think to be a dairy farmer that I can remember in my 40 years of working on our family farm. So, I just wanted to let you know that we’re…we’re definitely praying for you here and understand the struggle. It is tough.

Heidi Abby this is Amy and I just have a praise report and testimony, and everything wrapped up in one. Tonight, I was just about to have my shower tonight and I stepped out of the bathroom for less than a minute. And as I stepped out and was about to go back in the entire ceiling caved in. And, you know, I’m still kind of in shock right now because it just happened a few hours ago. But I'm just so thankful to God for my life because if I had stayed there a minute longer or had gotten into the shower already, I don't know where I would be right now. So, I just want everybody to, you know, really praise God with me and for me because I'm just, you know, my life was just…I’ve just been thinking about this since it happened, that I am so thankful to God for my life but it's just, you know, it's just given me a new way of looking at God and that He actually is with me is with me because I stepped out into the hall in the middle of brushing my teeth. That never happens because I know needed me to get out of that bathroom before the ceiling caved in. I just want everyone to please thank God for me and just, you know, be encouraged. Keep praying even when it doesn't look like anything is happening because God is truly working for you, and He will protect you. Thank you very much everybody and have a good day. Bye.

This is Jamie in New Jersey standing on the word of God. Dear Father in heaven we come to You in humility and prayer. We want to recognize our shortcomings to You and ask that You would help us. Your word tells us that we should take heed lest we fall. We confess that so many times we have given our promise to You Lord that we would do something only to regret it later when we lack the strength or courage to carry it out. When we think about our Christian life and how many things that we have pledged to do but have failed to do we realize that without Your Holy Spirit we have no strength to sustain any of it. Some of us have pledged to be bolder in our evangelism but when the moment came to be bold, we have lacked the courage we needed to speak out boldly. We have preached many things that we ourselves have failed to do. Our prayer lives are not what we have pledged to You that they would be. Prayer has easily been squeezed out of our schedules and the busyness of the day. Lord for these and so many more failings we confess. Create in us a new heart. Write Your commandments on the tablets of our hearts. We surrender our wills to You again and again. Lord write Your word on the palms of our hands. Remind us that You will do…that it will do us good to diligently devour and pay attention to it daily. It will bring light into the darkest places of our hearts like the dawning of the day and the rising of the morning star. Help us seek and wait on You every day. Father You know each and every one of us and You know our desire to walk in Your ways and bring glory to You and draw others out of darkness into Your loving Kingdom. Please take our frailties and turn them into power for Your purposes. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank You, my brothers, and sisters. I love You all dearly. God bless the…

Hi DAB family I'm a long-time listener, been seven years now and I wanted to thank Brian for all that he's done for me and my family. My wife has also been listening for a couple years now. Listening to the Bible every day has truly been a life changing experience and it's gotten me through some of the most difficult times of my life. But I'm not calling for myself today I'm calling for a close family friend. I've known him since he was a young boy and now, he's grown up to be a very devoted and committed man. He's traveled to India civil times to share the gospel and his family is committed to planting churches all across that country. He's going to undergoing heart valve replacement surgery on the 21st and I'm just asking anyone who feels compelled to just pray for a smooth recovery and a smooth operation. His name is Prasanth. He lives in New York and I just hope that you would all keep him in your prayers. I'm also listening to your prayers and my wife, and I pray for all of you guys regularly. God bless.

Good morning DAB family this is Terry in Prattbull I just heard Lisa on September 9th. Lisa’s ill. She's been ill since January and she's struggling. She's struggling with feelings of being a burden and…and fear. And I just want to lift her up to God in prayer. Heavenly Father I lift Lisa up to You and…and Father let her know how love she is by her family by her DAB family, by everyone around her. And Lord God help her to know that the brokenness of this world, through disease and all of the bad things in life, that’s Your will for our lives. Your will for our lives is how we respond to that. And heavenly Father I give You all the glory in the world for the help she's receiving, the care and the love that she’s getting, the skill from the doctors. And Lord I…I just lift her up and I ask her Holy Spirit to fill her heart with joy and help her to realize Your love for her. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Good morning this is Tina from Texas coming on here to pray for miss Lisa who called in on September 9th…well I heard her on September 9th. And she says she's been feeling sick from kind of like a chronic viral inflammation. And hearing her voice and hearing her say that she feels like a burden to her family because of her sickness, I just wanna say first and foremost you're not a burden, you're never a burden. With Christ on your side, you're never a burden. I just want to pray that father God that you just heal her and keep her and let her know that you're…you're never alone. Lisa…miss Lisa is never alone with in her sickness, within her burdens, that she casts all her burdens and her worries and her sorrows onto you and that you comfort her and take them over for her and that you surround her with people that you know love her and truly care for her, to banish those thoughts those negative thoughts out of her mind, to keep up the fight for her health and for the faith and for the Kingdom. I thank you for bringing her to Daily Audio Bible to ask for prayer and I just ask that we all continue to pray for her in the name of Jesus and bring a miraculous healing to her, so she feels no pain and only joy and peace and comfort. Lisa, we love you. God loves you more than ever and Christ and Jesus loves you just as much. Thank you for calling. Will be praying for you. These blessings I ask in your son's holy name Jesus. Amen. Thank you. By miss Lisa.

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fyideanisbi · 7 years

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Unraveled secrets

This fic is a destiel high school AU. It has bullying and angst just by the way.

Being gay was his secret. Everyone had one and that was his. Where he lived didn't help his situation, homosexuality wasn't exactly accepted to put it lightly. While he had never participated in the bullying of a few of his classmates, he did witness it. Castiel knew he was gay, he had known since he was thirteen. A girl had shown him her breasts and he had just stared, feeling nothing. His first jack off session had ended with a boys name on his lips. So he kept that part of him buried deep deep down. Castiel lived in a small town, where religion and god played a huge role in the lives of everyone. It'd been in the newspaper before: local gay boy beaten to death. Up until now he had been able to ignore it then Dean Winchester moved to town.

The guy was beautiful with emerald green eyes, many freckles, and sandy blonde hair. When he had walked into his junior English class and saw Dean Winchester seated directly across from his, he knew he was screwed and that brings him to where he was now. Dean was wearing a short sleeved shirt and Castiel could see freckles spreading across his arms, disappearing under the material of his shirt. It got him wondering if he had freckles in other places like his-

"Castiel" He was ripped from his thoughts of Dean's ass to the current lesson.

"Um sorry what?"

The class snickered and the whispers started like they do every year. "Can you name a famous Shakespeare quote?"

"Um uh what is a name uh that could smell as sweet as um the rose"

"Correct"

Castiel lowered his eyes, staring at his paper, not bothering to listen to the lesson. Picking up his pencil to look like he was taking notes, he started drawing bees on the edge of the paper. A hand tapping his shoulder made him look up to see Dean staring at him.

"You don't know what we're doing do you?" Dean asked him.

"No"

"We’re supposed to be doing the assignment on the board together as partners."Castiel nodded and pulled out his book.

"I haven't gotten your name what is it?"

"Castiel"

"Castiel, huh kinda a mouthful can I call you Cass?"

"Uh Yeah Cass is fine."

They didn't talk again for the rest of the period. The bell rang and Castiel couldn't wait to leave and get to his next class before Alastair caught him. He was lucky and got to math. It was weird Alastair hadn't been bothering him at all that day and it worried Castiel.

Alastair had started bullying him a little at the beginning of the year but nothing too bad. Castiel really wished he knew why so he could fix it or say sorry at least but he had been unsuccessful. Lunch was his worst time of the day, everyone roamed the halls. He didn't like feeling the constant anxiety about where his bullies were during lunch and the library was one place he knew they'd never go. Castiel tuned out as he made his way to the library to read. This lunch seemed to stretch on and on and he couldn't seem to focus on the words, anxiety flowing through his veins. The bell rang and he nearly sprinted out of the library to his government class.

History was his best subject and he thoroughly enjoyed the class, until he noticed Dean was in the class too. ‘Great now I'll never concentrate’, he thought as Dean sat in his seat looking nervous. As usual Mrs. older than the textbook, started the class and it became hard not to daydream of freckles, green eyes, and sandy blonde hair. He wished he could style his hair that way if it would cooperate but his curly raven locks wouldn't have it. The bell rang, startling him out of his thoughts. What had happened? Did they have homework? Who knew, not him. Castiel gathered up his stuff and began his trek to his car parked on the opposite side of the school. His thoughts wandered as he walked, what was for dinner?; did he have homework?; could he do his homework?. Hands grabbed him from behind and Castiel yelped loud in surprise. Hands went over his mouth to hide his struggle as he was dragged behind the school to the place called "smokers pot." An arm pushed him backward into the brick wall and he was faced with Alastair.

"Evening Castiel" Alastair said to him with a smile.

"Let go of me" Castiel said as he struggled to wiggle free from Alastair’s cold grasp on him only making the fingers grip him tighter.

"Oh no no talking Castiel" Alastair said before stepping back and another boy he didn't know stepped forward, throwing the first punch across his jaw and another to his nose. Castiel cried out as pain rang through his body, which earned him a punch to the mouth so hard he fell to the ground. Feet kicked themselves into his gut and he gagged and the feet got harder. Another set of hands grabbed his, yanking his arms painfully behind his back forcing his head backward. Punches rained down on his face for god knows how long.

Something hard and painful that felt like a baseball bat was hitting his stomach, getting harder as the hits continued. Distant voices rang in his ears and the bat hit him hard in the head. A similar object was skillfully whacked into his neck. The punches and kicks continued and Castiel had stopped fighting, hardly breathing. Something hard, cold, and sharp was digging in his shoulder and Castiel couldn't help but whimper as it carved into his skin. The kicks had stopped on his stomach but were starting on his back. He distantly heard a new but familiar voice yelling and that was all he heard before he drifted off.

Dean

Dean had thought someone was messing with sports equipment and went to see what it was but what he found was far worse. He saw bats, ski sticks, knives, and six familiar faces. One of those six was on the ground and the other five were brutally beating him. Dean had never seen so much blood in his life and his dad was a hunter.

"Hey" he found himself yelling.

Surprised shouts of fuck, get out, move, and stop rang out as the guys rushed to run away. Dean didn't even care, he was running to the one on the ground. He looked like he was attacked by an animal, blood flowed from various spots on his head, there was deep red line on his neck that was bleeding lightly and seemed to be getting worse, there were cuts on his shoulder which was what was causing so much blood to flow, and so many red marks. He walked gently but fast over to him, ripping his flannel and then his tee off to press to the shoulder wound. His face was familiar but he couldn't place him until he saw the familiar necklace he saw on him earlier.

"Cass? Castiel?"

Nothing. Dean bent down and as gently as he could press the tee to the cut and picked him up and ran to his car parked a few rows down. Placing Cass in the back seat, Dean jumped in the front and booked it to the first hospital his phone brought up. He'd never felt this anxious about anything before. The drive to the hospital was really only about seven minutes but felt like hours until he finally arrived. He didn't spend time finding a parking spot and stopped the car under the big ER sign. His ears were ringing as he lifted Castiel out of the back seat and raced inside the ER.

"Help! Help he's hurt real bad" Dean yelled as he got into the entrance.

A nurse came out and gasped, wide eyed as she called for a gurney and a doctor. His shirt was soaked entirely with blood from the cut on Castiel's shoulder. Doctors raced out faster than he'd seen since his mother's accident. They gently pried Dean’s arms off of Castiel placing him on the gurney and speeding off. He watched as the gurney was rolled into a surgical room, his head spinning. Air blasted through the vent above him and Dean became painfully aware of his absence of a shirt, shivering. A nurse led him gently to the bathroom, where he realized his hands and chest were covered with blood, which the nurse took samples off. Dean stared at himself in the mirror, very aware of what he had just done. His hands shook as he turned the water on and cleaned his hands until the water ran clear, doing the same with paper towels on his chest. Unwrapping his flannel from his waist, he slipped it on ignoring the red splatters of blood on the soft material. Walking out of the bathroom he was greeted with three nurses and two police officers.

"Son will you come with us" one of the officers asked him.

Dean absently nodded his head. They led him to a private waiting room.

"Name?"

"Dean Winchester"

"Huh haven't heard that before, you new in town?"

"Yeah I moved here a little over a week ago"

"Alright do you know the name of the boy you carried in?"

"Castiel I don't know his last name"

"Castiel-

The officer paused.

"Castiel Novak yeah Novak, how did you find him?"

"I heard some noises coming from behind our high school and wanted to see what it was, I thought it was someone messing with some sports equipment and found 5 guys beating on Cass"

"How do we know you didn't participate?"

"I don't have any blood on me that's mine, my knuckles aren't bruising, I didn't do it"

The officer squinted at him as if he was trying to decided to believe him.

"Chuck come on it"

A man came into the room looking very worried, he had Castiels same eye color, if he was guessing he'd say this was Castiel's father.

"Yes hi"

And the awkwardness.

"Sir this is the young man that found and brought in your son"

Dean looked up at the man.

"Thank you uh-

"Dean"

"Dean thank you"

The officer looked over at him.

"Son you're free to go if you'd like-

"Hell no I'm staying here until he wakes up"

Both men other than Dean were silent.

"Alright" Chuck responded, smiling at Dean. A nurse chose the time to come in.

"Chuck Novak?"

Chuck was instantly up out of his chair.

"Yes that's me"

"Alright is everyone in the room family?"

"No but they're all welcome to stay"

"Okay so Castiel has a concussion, five cuts that need stitches on his head possibly caused by a blunt object, light burning and mildly severe cutting on his neck, the most serious was the letters carved on his shoulder which start close to the hyoid bone and travels back to his shoulder bone, severe deep bruising, and many minor cuts and scrapes. The surgeon is working on his neck and shoulder right now. Your son was very lucky if the laceration had been more than 3 inches to the right and he would have been paralyzed. We'll let you know when you can see him"

The room was left in silence. Dean hadn't realized until that moment the weight of what he'd done, he'd saved Castiel's life. He wanted to know more about him.

"Dean?"

Dean looked up somewhat warily at chuck.

"Yeah"

"You don't have to stay I can call you when he's stable but I would like to know how do you know my son?"

"He's in my English, government, math, and biology classes"

Chuck nodded and seemed relieved.

"Do you have any idea who did this?"

"I recognized the faces but the only name I know is Alastair"

"Thank you for saving him"

Dean smiled a little and got up to leave the hospital, giving his phone number to Chuck in the process. He walked out of the hospital and to his car parked in the front, trying not to notice the smears of blood in the back seat. He can't go home now, he can't force himself to go face John after what he just saw. Dean knows of harsh lives but he never thought another person could cause such damage to another. Now he's scared, he's scared to see his dad after what he just saw, he's to vulnerable. Sammy can't see him this way. So he drives, he drives until the sun starts to go down. Dean doesn't want to go home but he knows he can't escape the inevitable. He takes a huge breath before driving his baby up the driveway, getting out and walking through the door. Dean turns to go down the hallway and is met with a fist to the face.

“Where th’ hellve you ben’ boy”

Dean squeezes his eyes shut as pain radiates from his jaw. Another punch lands on his cheek, seconds later another lands in the exact same spot, and he crumbles to the floor.

“Answer me boy”

“I was with a friend”

Dean only receives three kicks to the stomach before John mumbles something and stumbles to his room.

“Dean” he hears a quiet whisper from somewhere to the left.

“Are you okay?” Sammy asks as he came out of his room.

“Yeah yeah I think so” Dean grunts out as he tries to stand helped by Sam. The kid was only 14 and had already passed Dean in height.

“You don't have to keep doing this, I can take dad”

“Sure you could but you're only 14”

“De-”

“No Sammy”

Sam rolled his eyes.

“Jerk”

“Bitch”

Castiel

He doesn't know what happened, where he is, or how he got here. He remembers being in the back of the school. And pain, so much pain. Castiel doesn't understand why he can't move or why his eyes aren't opening. His throat hurts, it's so dry. He can hear sounds echoing throughout his head varying in volume. It's as painful as it is bittersweet because he's alive but being alive means he has to go back to the hell that is his life.

Castiel cracked his eyes open just a smudge, seeing nothing but blurred shapes. He tries to focus his hearing to at least understand what’s going on. Castiel’s heartbeat speeds up when he hears his father's voice. Oh god, he knows about the bullying now. His thoughts started to grow out of control and an annoying but insistent beeping got faster. Black spots appeared in his vision as everything faded out and went black

#destiel #destiel fanfiction #deancas #destiel high school AU #bullied!castiel #hospitals

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 7 years

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Nanbaka 17 | ACCA 3 | ReLIFE 7 - 13 (FINAL) | D Gray Man Hallow 2 - 6

(Nanbaka 17)

I bet the fandom makes, “Something is breaking. It’s my heart,” jokes from now on. Or something similar to that. Fandom is corny like that.

I only just realised, but the green numbers that appear at the start of the OP are cell 13’s prisoner numbers. D’oh.

Couldn’t you just grab the shackles, Rock?

Chibi Hajime? Never seen that one before.

It just occurred to me that Qi may have done this.

There seems to be a patch of purple on Jyugo’s torso…for some reason.

Upa did it…?

Hey, that Bruce Lee quote came back…! There also seems to be a Bungou Stray Dogs vibe going on, not really being helped by the fact Yuto Uemura is Atsushi and Jyugo. Tsukumo is Yuri from Yuri on Ice, which is kinda funny.

I…accept your man candy! LOL.

Kiji and Uno are crazily on the same wavelength…

Oh wow, Uno just pulled out the Dazai stops.

“10 minutes later…”

CGI doors…what a pain in the butt.

The eye style on Uno makes me LOL too hard.

(ACCA 3)

Oh, so the OP’s red bird is an acca. Okay.

Potato gratin on toast. Never tried it, but I like potato gratin on cheese and cheese on potato gratin.

Bar Tattler. Perfect name for a place to spill secrets.

Wow. Formal dress isn’t that different to ACCA wear but it makes people look completely different.

There were huggggggggggggggge strawberries last time, remember?

Ooh. Things are getting interesting thanks to Mauve and the 5 General guys.

(ReLIFE ep 7)

Isn’t that Windows 7 Yoake has?

I never asked this, but what happens to failed subjects?

Hmph. They say in Japan that a guy and a girl sharing an umbrella is romantic.

ReLIFE really addresses the difference between personal involvement and work involvement.

Yoake really does remind me of Dazai sometimes.

LOL, Onoya, Yoake. Meanwhile, is that a pink computer? Don’t think I’ve ever seen a monitor that’s pink, although I have seen a pink brick phone and a pink laptop.

Arata’s senpai’s tale matches Yoake’s relationship with subject 001, now that I think of it.

I wanna know more about Amagase-san.

Love bubbles and sparkles, LOL. You are one strange character, Yoake.

You can easily tell Arata’s saying sumimasen , even if there are no subs.

Why did “I don’t have a car!” make me laugh so much?

I think there was an excess “and” in the subs somewhere when Yoake was reporting near the end of the ep.

(ep 8)

The animation on Oga’s hand was unnatural (as in, his second and third fingers were too far apart) when he waved.

“In the pink of health”? Never heard that one before.

“Appetite” is probably the wrong word for it, Amatsu-sensei.

He didn’t react by laughing at Tamarai’s, but I guess that would’ve been misinterpreted and/or impolite.

The final year of high school is all about going all out…

Is the pill in the eyecatch always blue? I saw it was orange last ep.

There appear to be English dictionaries on Inukai’s shelf.

You can see the bags under Tamarai’s eyes.

Revenge of the CGI balls, LOL.

You can see how much Asaji wants to help when he reaches out but then he takes it back. Huh.

Update: I was familiar up to about this part in the manga.

(ep 9)

Omurice. I like that word. Omurice. Omurice. Probably because “omelet rice” sounds weird…Omurice.

Do you think ReLIFE would benefit if its fandom had more memes? Because bees. The Bee Movie seems to be pretty popular as a meme subject these days.

Is this why people always want younger people to enjoy their youth? So they don’t have their dreams crushed later?

The three line eyebrows are distinctive, but they look a bit weird.

Oga, you innocent butt. Blinking ever so innocently at Kariu.

How ironic of you to say, “The last thing you need is a fall”, Oga.

Hishiron can’t be a soccer nerd. “Gooooal” doesn’t suit her.

Doesn’t Kaizaki have any better clothes than black and grey shirts?

Hishiron has her school bag.

Bullying is a Big Deal in Japan, where you’re not meant to pick on people at all. Western cultures wish for outgoing people, so for someone like me who sits more on the introvert side, life kinda sucks.

Seriously, An and Yoake, get together.

*facepalms* What a dork, Kaizaki. Hitting your head in you panic like that won’t get you anywhere.

That’s a weird way of putting that, Hishiron. “[G]et revenge with someone,” that is.

About the entire plotline: It’s easier to “regress” when it comes to writing stories but harder to “regress” when it comes to real life. It must be because of how used to living and growing up people feel.

(ep 10)

At the top of the staircase, Hishiron looked so confused (after she said that she’d watch the tournament).

“Of course I know.” – (Chorus: Of course Yoake knows.)

You’re too darned strong (regarding the door), Kaizaki.

I heard there was an English dub of ReLIFE. Hopefully they can sell the Hishiron voice well enough.

The first time, I was wondering what came after this.

(ep 11)

Why do people say stuff like “I’ll come with”? I’ve said it before, but never questioned it until now.

I actually think Onoya’ll be really grumpy when she wakes up.

I guess it’s the hairstyle, but I look at Yoake and I’m seeing Dazai…again.

I bet Arata will be sad once it ends, LOL.

Black companies – corrupt businesses filled with salesmen and women who can’t escape. That’s basically what I’ve picked up from Osomatsu-san, anyway.

Notice the pill is normally white/blue. This time it was black/blue.

There’s a very Western feeling to this. No wonder the West likes this more than Japan itself. It’s also quite the sociological study. It helps that this was one of the only two shows I watched in summer 2016 the first time around (the other being Boueibu s2) – I can see “One Wish They Never Wanted” reflected in this, and knowing me and the hard times I went through at the end of the year, it was most likely deliberate. After all, they do carry similar themes.

(ep 12)

I think there was a central institution uni applications go through in Japan. In my country, they have something similar.

I shipped Kariu and Oga so hard during these last two eps. It helps that I almost never take the shows with the ships.

Ow. That burnt so much, Arata.

Such a convenient hole in the wall.

Kamioka’s hair looks a little puffy.

You jerk, Arata. You didn’t think “the same thing”. You thought nothing of the sort!

Why is Arata a fish? Probably because Kaizaki means “ocean peak” (or something like it).

What’s up with that statue?

August 10th, 6:30 pm onwards.That’s when the fireworks festival is.

Arata’s got his own harem~! (Neener neener…and so on.)

(ep 13)

Why are only the girls in kimono?! (Update: Or is that yukata?)

You suave, suave player, Yoake.

The white figures really aren’t helping their case…

The blue and yellow sign tells you there’s a traffic obstruction due to the fireworks.

They’ve got some heavy focus on the earrings in a certain shot. It’s such good news for the ship.

Holding hands is a much bigger deal in Japan than it is in the West.

Of course Tama is such a target for mozzies. She’s so big in that region.

The fireworks look so lifelike in this anime!!! I said that for Showa Genroku too, though.

Like an ephermeal flower, a fireworks exists…or some other weird Yoda stuff like that.

Arata’s seems to be blue, while Chizuru’s seems to be green for the sake of colour coding.

Onoya’s fan says “festival” on it.

The pill background looks kinda like footsteps. It must’ve been deliberate they used such a pattern.

Off model at its worst (when the duo sat on the bench).

Dangitfalsekissscene!

LOL, lookit Hishiron’s creepy face.

Nothing is better than a properly-pulled-off bookend.

Welp, that’s the end of that. Hopefully we can meet again sometime, for some other show.

(D Gray Man Hallow ep 2)

Every time I see this ep, I think of a song. It’s this one, to be precise about it. Never mind about the music video, the lyrics and title suit it too well.

Poor Tim.

Ooh, macaron cake!

I forgot who Phantom Thief G was the first time. Then I checked him up and I remembered.

Wrong “throw”, subbers.

This scene where Link is crying is…very odd. There’s a lot of logic that really should be obvious that gets bandied about here.

Really? Fanservice?

If he has Innocence, Timothy’s guilty (in a sense). How ironic.

How do people even evaluate the Akuma’s level on sight?

(ep 3)

“Soul mate” is probably overreacting a little too much.

What a weird butt Galmar is. I can understand his reasoning for what he thinks though.

(ep 4)

People can never seem to agree on how to spell Tyki’s name.

Renny? Seriously, I laugh too much. “Lenny” would’ve been a proper name, but that’s a guy’s name. Then again, this is anime we’re talking about...

Tim’s so cute with the ZZZs.

That burn, Allen. So deep.

“This is the order of the Pope.”

“Hunting Exorcists, huh?”

(ep 5)

Everyone spells Alma’s name as Alma Karma, but the book cover says Alma Carma (sic). Huh.

Sometimes I question the need for a science section in the middle of an Akuma vs Exorcist war.

What the freak, Earl? Don’t scare me like that!

Improper poses? That’s so threatening. (sarcastic)

Unnecessary fanservice, number 2…? (Specifically the “you perv” bit.)

(ep 6)

A-hey. Young!Kanda animated in such a way that it invokes humour…it looks like Yurio. Lots of things remind me of Yurio these days.

How do they know exactly how many seconds it’ll take until the Seconds regenerate?

It’s bunny!Hoshino!

Such gallows humour. That’s why the novelty wore off on this show.

I think the word they mean is youkai instead of sprite.

The jackets come off…kinda sorta.

Is it “dreamed” or “dreamt”?

Can people even hear using stethescopes? I’ve never tried it myself, but I want to know.

Sometimes you forget Allen’s there.

How’d blonde guy (Edgar) get that blood around him?

#simulcast commentary #ACCA #relife #nanbaka #d gray man hallow #acca 13-ku kansatsu-ka #nanbaka - the numbers #nanbaka the numbers #d gray man #Chesarka watches Nanbaka #Chesarka watches ACCA #Chesarka watches ReLIFE #Chesarka watches D Gray Man Hallow

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tripstations · 5 years

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Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains in Madrid

If you are a fan of Pink Floyd and happen to be in Madrid before mid-September, I’d highly recommend taking a trip out of the city centre to visit the Pink Floyd Their Mortal Remains Exhibition located in Feria de Madrid.

I first heard about the exhibition during a visit from my parents to Madrid. My dad has always been a fan of theirs. When I was younger, I generally reacted to their music as most children do to their father’s beats, with general disgust.

But as I have aged, my musical taste has expanded (my waistline is in a similar situation) and now I love a lot of their music. Some of it is still a little too weird, but on the whole, I would happily say I enjoy Pink Floyd.

On the other hand, my dad has been an avid fan of the band for over 50 years! So how would we both react to The Pink Floyd Exhibition? Is it just for the fans or can the casual observer also get a kick out of the experience?

What is the Pink Floyd Exhibition?

The exhibition is a musical journey in the form of documentary footage and personal effects from the band’s history including many rare and previously unseen items. It tells a story from the formation of the group and their weird stuff to the more melodic era and their madcap musical theatre concerts of the ’80s, right up to their reformation for the Live 8 concert in 2005.

Having seen success and received great feedback while in residence in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, it was decided to take the Pink Floyd Exhibition on tour. After leaving London, it has been to Dortmund and Rome and has now landed in Madrid. Where it heads to next is currently unknown, so you only have until 15th September 2019 to give it a visit.

The official website describes it as “an audio-visual journey through 50 years of one of the world’s most iconic rock groups, and a rare and exclusive glimpse into the world of Pink Floyd. It features many previously-unseen objects collected over the band’s eclectic history.”

It even goes a step further to include a quote from a British newspaper “almost as good as seeing the band live”.

Now, that’s some pretty lofty expectations being set right there, so how did it go?

Buying Pink Floyd Exhibition Tickets

It was a spur of the moment decision to pay a visit as my dad had seen it advertised while wandering along Gran Via the previous day. He suggested we checked it out, so I hopped online to check out the tickets.

The tickets were listed on their website at €19.90, but after the usual additional fees they throw in, the total cost ended up at €42.20.

When buying the tickets, I had to specify our arrival time that is broken down into half-hour slots. A nice touch is that the times are colour coded based on popularity, so you can try to aim for a quiet time. If you miss your slot, the website does say they will let you into the next available time, which based on how busy our visit was, shouldn’t be an issue.

Getting to the Feria de Madrid

The Feria de Madrid is a huuuuge exhibition centre, and The Pink Floyd Exhibition takes up just a tiny corner of it. While we drove there, it is also easy to reach by Metro on the pink line, number 8.

I have found this handy map that points out exactly where the exhibition is in the Feria. It would have been pretty helpful for me had noticed it before we visited, I wasted 10 minutes driving around looking for Pink Floyd Exhibition signs that didn’t exist.

If you are driving to the Feria de Madrid, there is plenty of parking (€2.25 per hour) close to the exhibition. I was able to find street side parking quite easily for free. But, it is worth noting I was visiting on a Sunday, if you are visiting mid-week, then these free spaces will probably be a lot harder to come by due to the number of offices in the area.

The Pink Floyd Exhibition

As mentioned, I am certainly not an avid fan of the band. I have a passing interest, the kind of guy that may listen to a best of album now and again. My dad, however, he has been a long time fan of the Pink Floyd, owning pretty much all of their records and also getting to see them live at their peak.

A shipping crate archway painted yellow and black like an oversized lego wasp marked the entrance. With the Madrid sun blinding us outside, we could bearly see what we were walking into.

As my eyes adjusted from the sun to the darkness of the exhibition room, I could see three staff waiting, staring at us. My eyes took just long enough to adjust to make it feel somewhat awkward.

Once my vision was restored, we handed over our tickets and the lady explained to us (in English) that we need to turn the WiFi off on our phones, which was strange, but we did as requested.

As we worked our way around the optimistically set up queue ropes, many surrealistic giant inflatables loomed over us. I later found out they were part of Pink Floyd’s The Wall tour.

As we passed into the next section, there was a small desk to pick the audio gizmo, and a different staff member to explain to us that there were no numbers, wander freely and the gizmo will connect to the correct audio as you look at a screen. Suddenly it made sense why I wasn’t allowed my WiFi on.

The exhibition began with some classic posters and press clipping before introducing us to the Pink Floyd Family tree. This graphic showed the band through their various lineups and other bands or projects that spun from group members. As my dad pointed out, it was interesting how few of them we had ever heard of.

Once we turned the corner, we were into the central part of the exhibition, which was broken down into various time frames. It has a window displays containing lots of paraphernalia relating to the band at that period.

Close to each exhibit were TV screens running various documentaries with band members and associates talking about what they were doing at the time and other stories. While I found it interesting, I did find it difficult to digest as I jumped from one screen to the other. I also found the audio sometimes struggled to connect or tuned into the wrong thing, which led to confusion, but on the whole, they were well-presented displays.

As we slowly made our way through the ’60s and ’70s, we entered a room where there was a floor to ceiling display of the band equipment with a documentary talking about how the ideas and experiments they were performing with music. Also, to the side of the room and my one of my favourite things, a mixer set to the band’s song Money where you can play around with the different instrument levels, fading and get a little experimental myself.

When I finally dragged myself away from destroying one of the band’s iconic hits, I turned the corner to see a replica of the giant wall used on one of their tours and more of the stunning inflatables. This section talks about the bands desire to do more than just concerts and how they came up with the concept of musical theatre. The Wall was the concert my dad attended, so for him; it was a trip down memory lane. For me, it was interesting to learn about how the band nearly brought Heathrow to a standstill with a giant inflatable pig! A little different to these days where it is drones you have to worry about.

Finally, there are a few more displays from their more modern work before building up to the highlight of the exhibition, the immersive experience which is “almost as good as seeing the band live”.

So was it? No, I mean I haven’t seen them live so I cannot compare, but having been introduced to the concept of musical theatre about 15 minutes earlier, this was a massive let down.

My expectation was some clips from the iconic The Wall concert, maybe a medley of there tops songs, but all it is is Comfortably Numb from Live 8 and a video of one of their early hits, Arnold Layne, about a man who pinches underwear off clotheslines.

While the volume was nice and rib vibratingly loud, and the guitar solo is pretty epic, I was expecting better for the grand finale.

Finally, as always at these kinds of things, we had to exit through the gift shop. Both my dad and I were feeling good and felt like we would buy something. He wanted a t-shirt for sure while I can always spend money. However, the prices were something else. While I understand, there is always a premium when buying souvenirs at an event, charging €30-40 for a t-shirt and €40 for the event souvenir book, needless to say, we both left empty-handed.

So did it live up to the expectations?

Well, I’m writing this one week after going, and I’m still unsure. The exhibits and information there are fantastic and look stunning, and any Pink Floyd fan or even those with a passing interest in the band will enjoy the exhibition. However, in my opinion, the way it was presented with the auto-connecting audio didn’t work as well as I think they hoped. While it is old technology now, I still feel that the old audio guide style of tapping in a number would have been a better way.

The audio presentation also means that you end up with your headphones on all the way around, taking away the feeling that it is a group activity. Again, numbered audio guides negate this as rather than a continual stream of information, you can do it in your own time.

The videos just felt like a chopped up documentary, and by the time we were halfway through, I’d given up on them thinking if I care enough, I’ll watch a full documentary about the group on another day.

However, that said, the displays were fantastic, I loved seeing all the concert inflatables, and I learnt a lot about the band. The whole of the past week I have found myself listening to Pink Floyd, the stuff I know I like and trying some of their other stuff too.

I came away with a new appreciation of the group that defied definitions while my dad certainly enjoyed his trip down memory lane. But would I say it was value for money? Not really, I think for what it is, €10 – €15 would have been a fair price, but if you have a love for the band or a dad that loves them, then you will undoubtedly enjoy it, but don’t think about the price.

Final Words

As he features quite strongly in this post, I thought I’d leave the final thoughts to the old man I call dad:

When sitting in a mates house after school in 1967 listening to Pink Floyd’s debut album Piper at the Gates of Dawn, you wouldn’t have thought that 52 years later these masters of psychedelic music would still feature in my life. But Floyd like many other bands from the period are still played regularly in my household. So when visiting my son in Madrid recently and seeing the “Experience “ advertised I had to drag my little boy along!

It’s a fascinating insight into the band covering each of the band’s albums chronologically from Piper at the Gates of Dawn to the final tribute to Richard Wight, The Endless River. You get the story of the album told by the band, producers even the album cover artists.

There’s plenty of guitars, drums, keyboards and amps to drool over as well as the larger than life recreation of LP covers. I also found the story behind the staging of The Wall fascinating as I saw the show at London’s Earls Court.

There probably isn’t anything new to learn for a Floyd devotee but having it all under one roof does mean you can indulge yourself and I hadn’t heard the story of the flying pig. The one that crash-landed in Kent after breaking away from its tether over Battersea Power Station during the photo shoot for the Animals cover.

However, one question still remains unanswered, and we’ll never know, would albums like Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall have been made if Dave Gilmour hadn’t replaced Syd Barrett?

I also feel I must throw in that I was also disappointed with the finale if you are going to create a large screen experience let’s have more than two tracks!

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To Kill a TBR… What’s On Your List?

If you are a book-lover like me, then you can relate – there are so many books and so little time. Listening to audiobooks on 1.5x speed can only help so much. Any faster and I literally start to panic. When I see a book that I want to read, I know it will be a while before I can get to it, so I like to pop the book on my TBR list. You should already know that means “To Be Read.” And you should already have a method for tracking it. If you don’t do this yet, just trust me when I tell you that it will give you peace of mind. See a book, log it, go back to reading your current selection. It’s the bibliophile’s equivalent of writing down whatever is running through your head keeping you awake at night so that you can sleep. Personally, I use Goodreads for tracking my books. (Go follow me there!)

There are other methods for tracking books that you want to read. Some people keep a database, while others make a physical stack of books. Since I like to use the library or their app, my “currently reading” selections are often dictated by availability. When I search for something on the app, it is often something new and popular, which leads to putting the book on hold. When it comes available, I only have two weeks to read it. Recently I had four of my hold books come available within a few days. One of them was this audiobook, which I have already listened to twice, so I immediately returned it and put myself back at the end of the line to get it again later. That was painful.

Read Harder

I love a Reading Challenge. I especially love ways to motivate myself to read outside of my comfort zone. Sometimes this means picking something that would not have made it onto my TBR otherwise and bumping things further down the list that I have wanted to read for years. Sometimes I get lucky and a task comes up like the one for my book club suggesting that we read a book that has been on our TBR list for at least a year. This prompted me to get curious about my Goodreads list and see what book had been on the list the longest.

According to my sources, I started using Goodreads in July of 2009. I have used it for nearly 10 years. I went back to college in the summer of 2008 and finished my B.A. in English. I will not pretend that I was always consistent in logging books, but I have racked up 401 books read and only have 346 on my TBR list. When I sorted by date, the oldest book still on my list ever since July 2009 was To Kill a Mockingbird. Somehow, I was never assigned this book in high school or college and neither of my kids were either. Honestly, I only watched the movie in the summer of 2017. I love Gregory Peck, but I think I always felt like the subject matter was too heavy and was not prepared to have my heart broken.

Challenge Accepted

The book has been read (#402!) and the heart has been broken. TKAM officially moves from my longest held TBR to my newest all-time favorite. Beautifully written. I could listen to Sissy Spacek read that audiobook forever. For this book to have been written when it was and to have never been out of print since, that speaks to the beauty of this book. I am immensely grateful to this challenge for lighting the fire under my backside that moved me to finally read this one. Sometimes classics are classics for very good reasons. If you have not read this book, go do it now. If you have read it, do it again!

Is there anything I can say about To Kill a Mockingbird that has not already been said? No. The internet is full of wonderful commentary, such as this close reading of the first line which blew my mind. #Protip: When you get to the end, ALWAYS immediately go back to the beginning. I will say that I am grateful that my first encounter with this book was not in school. Thank goodness that I was able to immerse myself in the story instead of looking for themes and such. They are aplenty, but the story and the characters let me forget about them. The best “capital L literature” is the stuff that lets you forget that you are reading one of the best books ever and just be absorbed in one of the best books ever.

Quote This Book

There are so many quotable quotes in To Kill a Mockingbird. The only thing I don’t like about audiobooks or library books is that I can’t underline and highlight them. English majors are used to highlighting our books. Even if I was planning to sell my books back to the book store, (just kidding, I never did this!) making notes in a text for Lit class is going to help the next person who reads the book. On the other hand, not being able to mark up the text helps me get out of analysis mode and allows me to “just read” the book. There was one point in TKAM when I hit rewind and wanted to hear that juicy quote again. Let’s be real – I hit reverse several times until I was sure I had the quote firmly in my brain – or firm enough that I could google it later. It was when Miss Maudie said, “People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.”

This book is designed to make us think about a lot of stuff, but I did not expect to be challenged with this. We have recently done Strengthsfinder at work. I am a proponent of people leaning into the things they are good at and delegating or steering clear of the things for which they just don’t have a knack. So when Miss Maudie says, “People in their right minds never take pride in their talents,” I am thrown for a loop. She doesn’t just say people shouldn’t do it, but that those who do it are downright certifiable. What’s so crazy about being proud of your talents? Does she mean “pride” in the Biblical sense? As in Seven Deadly Sins? Sin is a theme, right? It is a SIN to kill a mockingbird. The talent that sparks the conversation is Atticus’s sharp-shooting. I think we can understand why he hasn’t told his children about this particular talent, but why does Miss Maudie extend her statement to everyone in their right mind? In my experience, Southerners do like to generalize. We also lean into words like “always” and “never.” When I heard this statement, I instantly began asking myself if I do take pride in my talents. Do I even know what they are? Then again, am I in my right mind? Do I know anyone who is?

Of all the lines to quote in this book, this one stayed with me until the end and remained my favorite. I love Miss Maudie. She is wonderful and insightful. Every kid should have a Miss Maudie in their life during their formative years.

Do you have a favorite quote from this book? Or maybe from another book?

Is there a classic on your TBR that has been getting bumped down that you need to read?