#we weren't looking to be found

[richincolor]

We have four books on our radar this week. Which of them are on your TBR list?

Echoes of Grace by Guadalupe Garcia McCall Tu Books

A tragic accident in the young lives of sisters, Graciela (Grace) and Mercedes (Mercy) Torres, sets off a chain of events in which Grace flounders to restore her relationship with her sister while swimming against a current of strange, bewildering echoes.

Flashbacks, premonitions, and visitations from the other side all weave a mysterious tapestry that weighs heavily on Grace’s shoulders as she tries to navigate memories of a time three years earlier when she ran away from home and lost a week of her life.

In the present—amidst the mundanities of college homework and dating—Grace tries to figure out if the things happening in her world are memories or premonitions, warnings of things yet to unfold. As she recovers time lost, Grace comes closer to reconciling with Mercy, even as she remembers, bit by bit, the horrible thing that happened to her when she spent a week with her maternal grandmother in Mexico—a grandmother she had been told was long gone.

The things her regained memory reveals shed light on old family secrets. -- Cover image and summary via Goodreads

We Weren't Looking to Be Found by Stephanie Kuehn Disney-Hyperion

Dani comes from the richest, most famous Black family in Texas and seems to have everything a girl could want. So why does she keep using and engaging in other self-destructive behavior?

Camila’s Colombian-American family doesn’t have much, but she knows exactly what she wants out of life and works her ass off to get it. So why does she keep failing, and why does she self-harm every time she does?

When Dani and Camila find themselves rooming together at Peach Tree Hills, a treatment facility in beautiful rural Georgia, they initially think they’ll never get along―and they’ll never get better. But then they find a mysterious music box filled with letters from a former resident of PTH, and together they set out to solve the mystery of who this girl was . . . and who she’s become. The investigation will bring them together, and what they find at the end might just bring them hope.

From award-winning author Stephanie Kuehn comes a breathtaking tale of friendship and healing. Both poignant and timely, We Weren’t Looking to Be Found is complex, hopeful, and heartbreaking all at once.

This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2) by Kalynn BayRon Bloomsbury

Briseis has one chance to save her mother, but she'll need to do the impossible: find the last fragment of the deadly Absyrtus Heart. If she is to locate the missing piece, she must turn to the blood relatives she's never known, learn about their secret powers, and take her place in their ancient lineage. Briseis is not the only one who wants the Heart, and her enemies will stop at nothing to fulfill their own ruthless plans. The fates tell of a truly dangerous journey, one that could end in more heartache, more death. Bolstered by the sisterhood of ancient magic, can Briseis harness her power to save the people she loves most?

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi Del Rey Books

Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control. Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance. Clear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.

Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.

Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts.

Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm.

As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.

#echoes of grace #we weren't looking to be found #this wicked fate #the final strife #weneeddiversebooks

[illustration-alcove]

Allegra Norris’s illustrated book cover for Stephanie Kuehn’s We Weren’t Looking to be Found.

#allegra norris #stephanie kuehn #we weren't looking to be found #book covers #american literature

[noirandchocolate]

Ya-ha-ha! You found us!!

I kept forgetting to post these so now I will do so while I'm thinking of it. Here's Bast's (@purpledemoncat) and my Korok Girl outfits from Renaissance Faire last month!

I knit the ponchos, she made the masks (BAST post a picture of your mask I just realized you cannot really see it in these photos!), and we had a good time! I even got a little hip purse shaped like leaves, lol. It rained on us and we had to ditch our berries but it was still very fun.

My poncho is Tricandia by Beyenbergerin Design and Bast's is Spindleshanks by MMario, both on Ravelry and both very fun to make!

#crafts #knit #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #tears of the kingdom #korok #k photos #((this was the only point of the even when we weren't wearing face masks. i even found us ones in matching colors!!)) #if you look close you can see my korok earrings too hehe

[bisamrottan]

our long lost family

tile, stoneware, painted with slip and oxide, 2023

#ceramic art #ceramics #stoneware #original art #bisamart #artists on tumblr #art #LISTEN LISTEN I READ SAPIENS A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND BY #YUVAL HARARI AND THERES this part #where the author basically writes something like #Homo sapiens long liked to think that we were orphans and thats just not the case #and just the thought that at some point we weren't the only “humans” on the planet messed me up so much #like we interacted with these people!!!!! #one of the few Denisovan fossils we've found was the child of a neanderthal and a denisovan!!!! #we carry parts of they're genes and dna with us today!!!! #they're gone but parts of them remain #and it makes me so sad and happy #also every single psb eons episode on youtube about early humans #I love our extinct relatives #all the faces were based on reconstructions of what ancient humans could have looked like #homo erectus #homo sapiens #neanderthal #denisovans #paleolithic #also this is like a collage of six different images because I couldn't fit all of the tiles into the photo box

[kyouka-supremacy]

Today was a good day :)

#Today three strangers were kind to me in three different occasions. It was such a nice coincidence :) #I've been working on Akutagawa's birthday the entire week and today Akutagawa posts were all over my dash. I'm so happy! #I managed to do all the edits I had set up to and I'm glad :) #I dressed rigorously black and white and wore the black striped pants I bought because they reminded me of Beast Akutagawa's outfit #I did my nails black and red!! #My mother called me to congratulate on Akutagawa's birthday #I even baked a cake with a friend and they were so sweet ///// #I'm so grateful they managed to make time for it even though they've been so busy and tired because of their job #More than everything I'm grateful they weren't weird about it #They found it a little silly but they never made fun of me. They helped me pick the cake. #And today they even told me that they looked up a video of the character to understand me better #Which TERRIFIES me because no way anyone could get a good impression of Akutagawa from a single video #But if we ignore that it was an unbelievably nice gesture :') #It's just such a foreign feeling because outside of my blog I NEVER talk about my hyperfixations irl. #Because when I used to when I was younger I was only met with scorn or mockery so ever since I started university I simply learnt not to? #And it's just so genuinely weird to talk with someone irl who wouldn't judge me for it– #and not really in the good way because part of me is still convinced that they *are* judging me for it. #Doesn't matter everything suggests the contrary. And I keep overthinking if I overshared about Akutagawa or if I said something dumb #But I'm trying it not to get to me. Today they've been nothing but nice through and through #Whatnot. The last months were very tough for some reason I'm just happy good things can still happen :) #I want to start the queue again now that I'm generally more free and done with Aktgw's birthday and everything. #I also have new exams the first days of April and the program is pretty heavy and wide. On top of following courses. I'll see what I can d #I'd like to start regularly posting again because I'm afraid if I don't I'll just sulk further in misery. We'll see. #Ah I need to catch up with the dash since I've basically not been on Tumblr for three days... #That's it just rambling. I hope everyone's days are nice too!!! #random rambles

[ladyalicentshightower]

Criston Cole isn't really been afforded a lot of nuance by the fandom and it's starting to annoy me.

I think a few more small scenes would've done so much, say hearing the ladies of the court gossiping over an illegitimate child or even he himself discussing his background with either Alicent or Rhaenyra, which would've added to his development and his eventual crisis of faith, his Catholic guilt. I think people forget Criston is one of the few main characters who isn't a noble or a direct part of the family. As an illegitimate child in Westeros, all his life he's been told that he is the sinful thing, that he was born of sin and therefore unclean as result. By taking the white cloak and becoming a King's guard, he was able to put that "sin" behind him and become "clean". By sleeping with Rhaenyra he's stained and tainted that, something he can't handle or stand at all. He committed the ultimate sin, he's broken his oath, stained his honor and may have created a child doomed to be unclean too (obviously no such child was conceived or born but there was always the chance one could've been and I think that ate Criston alive inside and will probably be a factor of why he behaves the way he does towards Rhaenyra's sons). It's why he's so eager to run off and marry Rhaenyra so he can (in his mind) set it right. He wants to see himself as clean again. It's why he confesses so quickly to Alicent (also did some of you not watch the episode? Criston knew Rhaenyra snuck out, he had no way of knowing Rhaenyra was even with Daemon, he wasn't in King's landing to hear the gossip regarding Daemon & Rhaenyra that Larys spoke of and he was summoned immediately by Alicent so of course he assumed the rumours Alicent spoke of was referring to him), to seek forgiveness and regain some of that "cleanliness" before dying. Alicent offers him salvation, sanctuary, forgiveness while Rhaenyra shattered the version of herself he had built up in his mind. She betrayed that ideal he had of her and cannot understand why the "sin" they committed haunts him so greatly. For her it was a pleasurable night they spent together, to him it is his damnation, his ultimate sin. It's why he follows Alicent, in his eyes she offers him salvation while Rhaenyra can only offer him ruination.

I could ramble so much more about this, I don't know what it is but Alicent and Criston and the religious themes surrounding them both is absolutely fascinating.

#hotd #hotd spoilers #house of the dragon spoilers #house of the dragon #ser criston cole #ser criston #criston cole #alicent x criston #queen alicent #alicent hightower #alicent targaryen #like not going to say criston did nothing wrong but his actions and way he reacted is understandable if you look at what we know about him #joffery made a dumbass move and essentially fucked around and found out #like I'm pissed we got a queer relationship & one half got buried literally in the exact same episode #but like joff it was a robb stark marrying jeyne westerling / talisa move while betrothed to the roslin frey dumbass move #robb i love you always but that was such a dumbass move #joff you weren't even in kings landing a full day maybe wait til you had the lay of the land before approaching people #not justifying what Criston did to him because I was sat there like jesus christ what the actual fuck #but you got to be a little politically smart to survive in this world #joff u did a ned he assumed everyone was as honourable as he was and you assumed criston was as open as you and it bit you both in the ass #like I can't and won't defend what Criston did but I saw something coming the minute you walked over to him

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: February 23

“Inkpot Gods” by The Amazing Devil

#song of the day #'if I don't make it back from where I've gone / just know I loved you all along' #I'm setting up my queue for a more proper recommendation tomorrow but I've been rereading 'shoulder the sky' by Night_Fury #the whole series draws from various Amazing Devil lines for titles and such #'back then I was dauntless' is my favorite reworking of the Melidaan arc I've ever seen absolutely anywhere #and the title is a line from my favorite Amazing Devil song 'The Calling' but 'Inkpot Gods' is used to stunning effect in-story #and the beautiful refrain from the end of the song is playing in my head now as I keep going into the series #today was a deeply unpleasant day: the inevitable finally happened and Duncan cut himself doing his mudlarking #we'd been trying to schedule a preventative tetanus shot but several times we've gone in for the properly scheduled shot #and found out that they didn't actually have one in stock. unspeakably frustrating #and today we ran out of time for a preventative one. I woke up #(actually I woke up for work as he was going out for his walk but I got a migraine halfway through my morning meeting--no good-- #and took the rest of the day off--turns out to have been a very good thing--and went back to sleep. so I woke up the second time) #to Duncan coming back from his walk with a sliced finger and the grody plastic-and-tin swan that had done the slicing #(picture of said swan under the cut because why not. it does look neat. can't see the sharp edge in the pic though it's underneath) #and so then we called the pharmacy and got the same automated 'of course you can have a tetanus shot' as ever so we made an appointment #and we got there and they did actually have a shot in stock this time! except that they weren't able to administer it #because now he's post-exposure that's a different shot and they aren't allowed. so we had to go to the urgent care instead #all told we spent about four hours out of the house on this mission but Duncan did get his shot and some bonus antibiotic goo for the cut #and it was worth it but also bleeeeeeegh it was miserable. which is where my recommendations do come in #when I tell y'all that I spent today reading Night_Fury's fics and also looking at valiants' CoD art and it saved me #whooo I mean it. being simultaneously stressed + bored is the nightmare state for me and instead I had wonderful things in my phone

[denydefeat]

Sundays are for promoting people who you think are rad and these are mine.

#promo / let me show you power #[ can we talk about how i actually looked at the last post and made sure i didn't have any repeats for once? ] #[ i got accused of always putting the same people on this list so ] #[ i'm gonna try and do better ] #[ i mean they weren't wrong i did almost always have 2-3 repeats but like it was never intentional ] #[ i just think of people i interact with ooc or ic or both ] #[ or people i've plotted with recently ] #[ or followed recently and found to be a good time ] #[ my memory sucks so i never remember who i've promoted in the past lol ]

[jheselbraum]

Nintendo is stupid here's my new better timeline:

Skyward Sword

Legend of Zelda

Adventure of Link

Minish Cap

Four Sourds

and it's sequel Four Swords Adventures

A Link to the Past

Link's Awakening (edited, whoops)

A Link Between Worlds

Ocarina of Time

The Hero is Defeated Timeline: Oracle games and Triforce Heroes that's it.

Child Timeline: Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess, as usual, easy peasy, for once no notes Nintendo

Adult Timeline: Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks once again pretty easy, no notes

11. Breath of the Wild 12. Tears of the Kingdom

#bluh bluh ''the imprisoning war in alttp was oot'' no it wasn't #''only minish cap and skyward sword happened before oot'' incorrect by #grouping all the games without a master sword in it #at the beginning of the timeline #then you set up why the hylians think a GROUP of people called THE HYLIA created the master sword #instead of a goddess CALLED Hylia #it also ties forgetting the master sword is a thing to the overall decline in worshiping hylia directly #and then by having alttp in the history of ALL the remaining zelda games #you pretty firmly establish that they didn't forget it existed again and #then that makes the whole ''hey we've got this down pat we know to look out for two blonde children who like puzzles'' thing in botw #a lot smarter writing #instead of just nintendo ignoring the hero is defeated timeline and using it as their dump game timeline #''but there's no master sword in triforce heroes'' triforce heroes doesn't take place in hyrule it gets a pass #we can also use the zonai as a convenient excuse to re-merge the timeline if you really want to get creative with it #since they're kind of demigods and have their own temple of time that is drastically different from any of the hylian ones we've seen #and the hylians zora gerudo and gorons and presumablly the sheikah were all running around before rauru ''founded'' hyrule #wouldn't have to do that if you weren't trying to join together like three different timelines two of which have a dubious relationship #with hyrule as a concept existing

[yudidoodles]

We are now at some of the most recent stuff I've drawn and you can really see the improvements I've made in art since the first ones in the queue ALSO HOT DAMN

So backstory- this gal didn't really have a role, just a vague performer at Muffets, UNTIL I remembered burlesque is a thing- so now she is a burlesque dancer, distracting the crowd so everyone else can do whatever illegal shit they want. She's taken the place of Flowey, so her soul situation is,, questionable at best, so she also uses her womanly wiles/ability to change body type to kill off people when needed by the higher ups (she tends to go for a more masculine form when killing cause its less complicated to get away as a guy)

This ref set required 2 hours of research on burlesque (including watching several tutorials and trying to find ANY footage of some from close to the 40s as I could) and an hour research on knives for what she's holding in her masc hitman form- a butterfly knife- because no one would tell me if the mafia used them and I decided fuck it its worth it for the pun and they existed at least

#my art #believe it or not I literally cut like two paragraphs of her lore #these were drawn during my 6 hour mafia documentary binge so I wasn't focused on it then I looked back and like got flustered #its actually crazy how much progress I've made apparently? Like I've reached the point where I don't recognize the final product almost #if it weren't for the fanfic binging taking over my life you would've gotten twenty more drawings of her because holy shit LOOK AT HER #mafiaswapfell #side note mafiaswapfell is a criminally underrated AU I have found barely anything I know its suuuuuper niche but like #we are almost at the end of inital queue hell but I will prolly be throwing the fanfic stuff on the end so it'll just last the whole month

[tardiswithadrivethrough]

i keep seeing screenrant articles and stuff (most recently) that are all "*gasp!* the toymaker has fixed continuity in doctor who by saying that actually it's all a mash up of different timelines!" and every time i'm just like yeah???? that isn't new that's literally the entire show

#el speaks #doctor who #dw 60th #google has long since figured out what I'm into #(apparently it's doctor who and archaeology and quantum mechanics in case you were wondering) #and i am occasionally a sucker for that specific kind of clickbait that's like #NEW STUDY SUGGESTS UNIVERSE MAY ACTUALLY BE TWICE AS OLD AS WE THOUGHT #where you can just take one look at the headline and go #nah #nah that's preeeeeeeetty obviously a massive exaggeration of conclusions made by a single preprint #maybe a chance that the authors would agree with the headline because they're going a little out there #but probably even they would say it's an exaggeration #the REAL exciting stem headlines are like #we found the first aperiodic monotile (it's shaped like a hat) #that's when you know you've found the good stuff #(the actual headlines about that were much less funny but I don't remember any examples because they weren't very interesting) #sometimes less interesting headlines = more interesting stories #but also sometimes i just want to read some dumb shit that's completely nonsensical but also 100% completely benign #because you know what? sometimes ya just gotta get way too into string theory and that's fine #fringe physics beliefs generally have utterly no impact on one's actual relationship to the world around them #and anyway how big can the overlap between people who care about this shit and people who believe this shit be? #wait what am i talking about now? i started out talking about doctor who #oh well #that's what the internet is for

[musicalchaos07]

Actually, Jancy has been endgame since they gave themselves matching little cuts if we're being honest

#AND ON THE LEFT HAND AKA THE ONE YOUR WEAR A RING ON #like c'mon #they wrote themselves into a corner with that one #not to mention by casting two actors with the much chemistry #the fact that we weren't reminded of them this season is what has th GA shipping st*ncy #but also look me in the eye and tell me i'm wrong #that's some peak love story shit right there #that's actually why Argyle calls nancy the love of Jonathan's life he found out about the scar and was like OH #Jonathan *High as a kite*: Oh that it's me and my girl's matching scar hers is bigger #Argyle: Oh you're in LOVE love #as a counterpoint Nancy needs to casually mention it to Robin next season #stranger things #jancy #jancy endgame #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #jonathan x nancy #nancy x jonathan

[vicontheinternet]

What gets me is when older gens/parents get online and angrily respond to someone questions abt how things used to work like maybe because yall didn't teach them shit. How do you expect them to know just spontaneously have knowledge of how things works when they were kids or before they were born. Or the millennials who wanna be old so bad and be condescending "most ppl under-" miss me with that bs

#i swear they wanna be old so bad #like do they honestly think ppl under 25 haven't watched things on VHS #or used map quest or used a portable cd player #they wanna shit on the younger gen so bad and victimize them for feeling old self inflicted #they look stupid because they don't know how old gen z is #like they really think we don't know what *69 is that was my cousins and mine favorite pass time as kids #shock horror we had phone books im 23 and i know what a phone book is #somewhere off in the distance you can hear a millennial cry because they found out they weren't special #and found out that they shared life experiences with a gen zer

[bookwyrminspiration]

those people whose lives will never cross with yours again but they did once and you can't help but wonder. and remember

#quil's unholy underworld #random #i moved around a lot when I was like 7-9 so I didn't get to stay anywhere long #but during second grade I lived in minnesota. just for that year. not even all of second grade I came there part way through #and there was this one girl there who no one liked. she was always alone. I didn't know why #i never spoke to her I just kinda noticed from afar #and then one day some of my friends took it too far and started picking on her and being cruel #i never talked to those other friends again. I can still remember what they said to her #so I told them off. and stood between them. and when my ''friends'' left I turned around and that's where our friendship started #in the corner of the field in the middle of winter. and it was practically the two of us for the rest of the year #i had a few other friends and they became closer with her. but at the center of it all was the two of us #we were inseparable. and my mother always talked about how her mother was so grateful #because no one else stayed friends with her for long and no parents liked to have her over. because she was ''too rowdy'' #but she was just like me. we clicked #but then I moved again. we weren't even friends for a whole year. we only had a few months and I hated to leave her #i was wondering about her #so I got out my old yearbook and found her last name and looked her up #and I found her #i may be wrong but like. that's her name. that's her face. that hoodie belongs to a school where we lived #though I wasn't there to go with her. we never made it past second grade together #and she's making tik toks with people I don't know and I'm just like. we are two completely different people now #you're sporty and popular and I'm smarts and solitude #you're the complete opposite of the girl I stood in front of to try and protect you from those bullies in the snow that winter. and I'm hap #py for you #I felt like I needed to protect you when we were kids but you look like you're okay now #and I changed my name so even if you went looking for me you wouldn't find me #i'm looking through one way glass at the past #and wishing you the best. and remembering #don't mind me mutuals i'm just reflecting rn

[leviathanmirror]

Blocking people for bad Hermes takes :)

#the point #was that those little lives should matter #and that they didn't is what let the ascians commit genocide after genocide #we watch everyone hermes tries to talk to #about respecting lives of their creations #dismiss him #including emet-selch and hythlodaeus #lahabrea wouldn't have had sympathy #he didn't give a shit about their creations either #hermes wasn't self-centered #he had a long history of being told he was weird and wrong #for caring about anything but ancients #emet-selch saying hermes might have found an answer #on this star was bullshit #hermes had looked and looked and looked and been made to feel like he was freak #emet-selch literally contributed to that during the course #of like two days he was present #hermes fucked up big time #but we weren't supposed to see his compassion as wrong #the society that made him feel broken for feeling it was wrong

[definitelyjunehomestuck]

if you feel like you need to make every other feature in the game incredibly tedious to incentivize people to explore, the problem isn't that those features are too easy to interact with, it's that your world is just horribly unengaging and has no inherent fun to it.

#minecraft #look the new biomes are cool n all but once you've seen one cherry biome you've seen em all #n some of the old biomes just feel empty like the desert or tundra #btw for context mojang is proposing that some enchantments be biome-locked to make em less easy to get #as if people don't already find villagers a PAIN to deal with #n makin em biome-locked when u don't intend to make villages for biomes that'd sell the desirable stuff it jus ruins it for newbies #it's wildly unintuitive for people who haven't played before n wildly inconvenient for everyone else #anywho instead of tryna force people to explore by puttin shit on the other side of a 5000+ block walk they should jus make explorin fun #atm the only incentive to go anywhere is that there's materials there you want n some of those materials can be reproduced back home #if there were things that were truly locked to certain biomes that WEREN'T essential for convenient play then maybe people would explore! #give us mobs or structures that do more than give us a couple items that we'll never need to get again after findin one or two #give us monsters to fight n animals to tame n ruins to plunder for unknown treasures n secrets that're more engaging than what we have now #that's why the deep dark n ancient city works so well! it's something NEW n engaging with high risk and reward #but you're not punished for never goin there if that's not somethin you're interested in! and some things can only be found there! #i want deserts with old temples that tell ancient stories and have more than one secret room with a booby trap #i want jungle temples that force you on wild chases for rare items when you miss a tripwire #i want mobs unique to biomes that are more than just zombie and skeleton reskins that provide new threats and force me to think #i don't want the game we already have to be harder. i just want more substance to what comes next