cupcake_goth | Reading

If you've never heard of Carroll, he wrote odd, quirky, dark, magical realist/surrealist novels and short stories. Probably his most famous book was Land of Laughs. I found his style compulsively readable, though he was absolutely unable to write a satisfying ending to his novels, ever; generally there would be a fantastic buildup followed by either an anticlimax or the book just suddenly stopping or a conclusion where I'd have no idea what actually happened. Still, I did very much like his style and often enjoyed the first half or two-thirds or 99% of his novels quite a bit. (His short stories were sometimes fully successful and did have actual endings.)

I came across After Silence at a used bookshop, and was surprised as I'd never heard of it. I now realize there's a reason I've never heard of it. As far as I know, it's his only non-fantasy work. At least I think it's not fantasy. It has a solid build-up, then completely falls apart in the final third leading to a truly bizarre ending. Definitely my least favorite book of his.

It begins in a somewhat Carroll-typical fashion, with the main character, a cartoonist named Max, having a meet-cute with a woman, Lily, and her young son Lincoln in a museum. It's Carroll-typical because Max's somewhat successful cartoon is deeply weird, Lily takes him to the restaurant where she works which is charmingly weird, and there's hints that something odd is up with her and Lincoln that deepen as the three of them have quirky adventures and form a family.

( Huge spoilers )

To be fair to Carroll, this really isn't typical of his writing. Even his best novels feel a bit dated in addition to always imploding at the end, but I do still like Bones of the Moon, Land of Laughs, and the first half of Outside the Dog Museum. His short stories are worth reading and hold up better. I especially like "Friend's Best Man" and "The Sadness of Detail."

Tags:

On Monday evening I had the BEST time being repeatedly summoned by someone who (it gradually became clear) was wildly lost in the Duke's Archives.

Context: in Dark Souls, you can put down a summon sign so that other players can* summon you into their game to help them out (at the risk of also opening themselves up to potential hostile invaders).

You can only be summoned by people in the same rough level range as you, so if I don't feel like moving on yet from an area after I’ve completed it, I often put down my summon sign and hang around for a bit before I level up out of the usual range for that area. It’s been a lot of fun.

VERY IMPORTANT CONTEXT: there is no channel for voice or text communication. There's a very limited menu of gestures, and a few signals (e.g. repeatedly tapping the block button to jiggle your shield or weapon, which generally seems to communicate "I'm here, let's go!") which the fandom has evolved by default.

This makes communication challenging. But it also means it makes zero demands on my capacity for verbal conversation or pretending to be a semi-normal human being.

( Cut for length )

Tags:

dark souls,
games

from norths to easts
to souths to wests
they think they have
a clever trick
they do not know

the crumbs i lick

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MY SHOW! MY SHOW IS BACK!!! Ahem.

The Pitt: 7 am - 8 am
( spoilers, mostly just incoherent squeeing )

My show is back! I AM EXCITE!!!

*

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Heartbreak a Stranger - Bob Mould

Tags:

tv: the pitt

Demand that members flame each other abundantly for OP's entertainment or face unspecified dire fates. No apparent awareness of admin privilege or power imbalance.

There's one particular consequence of estrogen use that's sometimes observed and even joked about among trans women. ( Discussion of the impact of hormones on sexual organs under the cut. )

Current Mood: surprised
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: The Sesame Street pinball segment with the Pointer Sisters

Tags:

A new comic from Ignite Press by Stephanie Williams, Letizia Cadonici (main artist) and Juliet Nneka (alternate covers.) At the turn of the century, Etta, a young Black woman, studies both science and a book of old remedies she inherited from her mother, along with some dire warnings she doesn't heed.

This is a really interesting historical fantasy with elements of cosmic horror and dark academia. Each issue has alternate covers in very different styles. I like both of them.

I'll be following this one.

Content notes: So far racism is part of the world and why the characters make some choices, rather than violent or constantly present on-page. The rabbits are used in experiments that are not cruel - Etta tests a healing ointment on one that has an injury - but they seem likely to eventually turn into zombies or get possessed by cosmic horrors or merge with eldritch plants.

Tags:

comic: roots of madness

Where is there to sit exactly
If everything is shining on me

Friend, you have buttsense
you have stone buns, as your grandma says
Here in the driftwood feeling sundrunk, sunbent
Sensate among the ebb tones of the sea

I thought you said stun bone
You draw with a stick among the ebb stones
The tide wriggles up the sand grooves
Your breathing makes the subtones shimmer

You draw the water up to bait our shoes
Just for the craft of it, just because you can do it
Like a gull riding on the sky tide
Laughing at our temporary ruin

* * * * * *

Every morning very nearly without fail I solve the Merriam-Webster Blossom puzzle, and then I re-solve it to see if I can get a higher score, and if I'm not careful this becomes a kind of intellectual busywork I can use to distract myself from actual writing.

So a thing I'm trying to do (among all the other things) is to use the puzzle as a prompt. Inevitably each group of letters generates a semantic zone. Real and nonce words produce themselves. The letterset today was BENOSTU.

Here's a less complete poem from Sunday (letterset EINRTVW):

The riverine interview of winter,
that inept vintner: cool distillate
interrogates the view, shreds and repurposes it,
turns window to vitrine
where the morning light, when it comes,
cold citrine, tobacco stain,
will ennerve us, animate the inert twin

...Not sure what I planned to do with that twin, but I will let you know.

§rf§

Tags:

. Do you have a favourite cause that you support? Yes, I have a lot...mostly, these days they involve the left wing of the Democratic Party and trying to bring it back to its roots and all that.

2. If so, how do you support it? Money, and many, many phone calls. I've pulled back a little, though, both for logistics and because it can eat up my life if I let it. Which would be one thing,if I, say, met my husband doing that stuff and it was, you know, us and our shared obsessions against the world, Jane-and- Bernie style, but my personal identity just suffers if I dive in too deeply.(And, no, it hasn't really turned out to be a great way to get a date because "You'd have so much in common." I was hoping, but not so far. For bohemians, everyone seems to be super-attached. blah. Although I guess if I ever did meet someone, I wouldn't have to worry about movement work messing up our longevity? Dig me, with the heart half-full for the next twelve minutes. I could still meet somebody! Like the peach that's still fresh...if you eat it *right now*)

3. Have you been an active member of an organization (attending meetings, volunteering, etc)? Probably the most unusual answer to this question involves the few ADAPT actions I went to, but I got sick from the plane--never flying again without a mask--and I promised my mother I'd stop, as I infected my everything. I still talk up the fact that I did it though.

4. Have you ever led any group? Does it sound like I ever led any groups? I've been on several advisory committees and people don't take my advice.

5. If so, how was your experience with it?
OR: 5. If not, why, is it a conscious choice, of lack of opportunity?Yes, both.

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

Tags:

fridayfive

(Here in Phoenix, not on Dreamwidth) but I went ahead and sent the op-ed to the newspaper. Which they will probably ignore because "I've lived here my whole life and I'm like a disease,"(I'm quoting "Sixteen Candles" here--people do kind of let fly about what's wrong with me in general, but nobody really said that!)
I wonder if it would be worse knowing there is somewhere I *could* fit, but that it would be really hard for me to ever get there. OR that I have given life so much side-eye over the years that I'm just...permanently outside and there is no real place that is, you know, *my place.* People don't like me here unless they've got thankless volunteer commitments to hand out.(I do try to help, but I can't always keep up, and anyway, that's not what they meant on Law and Order when they talked about Ties To The Community, I don't think.)

Even the whole "online tribe" thing feels like it's breaking down a bit. Which is probably inevitable, given that one doesn't stay a wide-eyed rookie who can't believe her luck forever(and my whole twitter list broke up... I still think I'm glad I didn't hobble over to bluesky and start being the same fool twice(probably three times, really) by reconstructing something that can't be rebuilt.

Current Mood: lonely
Current Music: wind and rain outside!

Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov in Heated Rivalry (s1, e1-6)

here @

sweeticedtea

Tags:

tv: heated rivalry

Currently reading: The Virgin in the Ice, Ellis Peters. Not really intentionally, but last week I discovered that Hoopla has at least a few Brother Cadfael novels, unabridged, narrated by Patrick Tull. Patrick Tull is one of my two favorite narrators -- the other being Stephen Briggs. Tull narrated the whole Aubrey-Maturin series, which is how I came to adore him. He's so VERY good. Anyway, listening to him describe Brother Cadfael riding a horse through a snowstorm is a good way to manage my stress these days.

I'm also rereading Acuteneurosis' Don't Look Back Star Wars time-travel AU, in which Leia goes back in time and gets adopted by Shmi just before the Clone Wars start. It's similarly soothing, even if so far unfinished.

... so many unfinished SW AUs. Sigh.

!!! but wait! somehow my subscription expired? there's a whole new story! YAY!!

Just finished: The Leper of St Giles, see above. Also, over the holidays I read Cahokia Jazz by Henry Spufford, and although I went in cautiously, I enjoyed it. It's very much a noir novel, and apparently I didn't read it carefully enough to figure out the trigger for the AU. And I thought throwing Kroeber into the mix was a bit too much. A real strong piece of worldbuilding about the city itself. Sadly the noirishness meant that the female characters didn't get as much development as I would have liked. I enjoyed it over all, though, and have recommended it to a few people.

Up next: Not sure. I may see if I can find a copy of The Women of the Copper Country, by Mary Doria Russell. I somehow missed it when it was published, and I have loved some of her work.

OTOH I bought A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine and The West Passage by Jared Pechacek over the holidays, so I may start one of those instead.

***

In other news, apparently it's a thing to reread LOTR and blog about it. Currently under way: Abigail Nussbaum at Asking the Wrong Questions, and Roseanna from Nerds of a Feather. Oh, and Jared Pechacek--but that's on his Patreon; it's $1/mo, so I joined, and if anyone cares I can report on whether I think it's worth it.

***

Everything is too horrible right now. Keep the lights on. Hug your pups and kittens. Make things. Sing. Dance. Drink water. Breathe deep. Lift heavy things. Remember you are not alone. Ask for help if you need it.

***

In other news, I think my boss is worried about me. In an I-am-making-my-stress-too-obvious way. I'm so grateful we have him, and I'm worried about what happens when he transfers this summer.

Tags:

books

Her 1TB titties get me to a solid state.

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Ough I love skiing! I don't like talking about it much because I feel like Upper Middle Class Final Boss and I'm smart enough to shut up about it when I do rich people shit. But boyfriends have been telling me that skiing is Cool and I should talk more about it. So. Skiing.

Yes I am actually a hobby skiier, like I own equipment and have been skiing at a lot of different mountains in different states, although there's places with better snow I still want to cross off my list. I've been doing it since I was a kid, so it was really nostalgic for me to go back after manyyyy years of not skiing. I used to be hardcore about it in middle/high school, but fell off around when I started university. But I'd really love to ACTUALLY get back into it. Yesterday, I skiied my first black diamond trail in like, 6 years or something :) It was a little bit of a struggle since I was rusty and the conditions were a bit icier than I wanted. I did also wipe out at least once on the black trail + definitely a couple other times on blue trails... but man, I was having FUN! The past couple of times I went skiing, I was really taking it slow on greens and trying to enjoy the scenery more than anything, but yesterday I actually broke a sweat for the first time in a while and rediscovered that oh my god I LOVE going FAST!!! I collapsed on the hotel couch afterward lol. Even though I was rusty, I still think I was pretty good this go-around. I've definitely improved my parallel turns.

I ended up with a huge bruise on like the side of my shin from when I fell and my leg collided with my opposite ski. Plus I just have bruises on my shins from pressing against my ski boots. My boots are a little small, which makes sense since I've had them since like. I don't know. Middle school??? So it's not out of the question that my feet would've grown. I think my helmet is also still a youth size and a bigger one would also be nice. Then again, will I even go skiing enough to warrant all new equipment????? I can probably trade in my current stuff to offset the cost, but. Man.

Anyway I drew my oc/sona (her name is just "cringe sickgirl") skiing... please let this image work, lol. I tried to make it look like she could conceivably be on the slopes, so she's wearing a helmet and has goggles and her hair is in unobtrusive twin braids as opposed to giant twintails like she usually has. Although I clearly took artistic liberties too.

Current Mood: cold

Tags:

https://bohemiancrip.blogspot.com/2026/01/government-small-enough-to-fit-in-your.html
Really, it started with a jar of marshmallow fluff.

Current Mood: pleased

Tags:

Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander in Heated Rivalry (s1, e1-6)

here @

sweeticedtea

Tags:

tv: heated rivalry

61 icons of angelina jolie in lara croft: tomb raider (2001)

over here at

yeonmo

Tags:

movie: !2000s movies

It's a zombie apocalypse, only instead of zombies, there's cats.

In a future in which 90% of the population owned a cat, a strange virus spreads. If you cuddle a cat, or a cat nuzzles you, you turn into a cat! It's a catastrophe! A catlamity! A nyandemic!

Not only are cats everywhere, but the cats are either instinctively trying to turn humans into cats, or they just want to be petted. Cue every zombie movie scene ever, but with cats. Cats scratch at the doors! Cats peer through the windows! Groups of cats ambush you in tunnels!

The characters are all very upset by this, because they love cats! And now there's cats everywhere, just begging to be skritched! And they can't skritch them! "We can't even squish their little toe beans!" The horror!

Needless to say, they would never ever harm a cat. In fact they feel bad when they're forced to spray cats with water to shoo them away.

I'm not sure how this can possibly be sustained for seven volumes, but on the other hand I could happily read seven volumes of it. The cat art is really fun and adorable. I would definitely do better in a zombie apocalypse than a cat apocalypse, because I would never be able to resist those cats.

Content notes: None, the cats are fine.

Tags:

Celebrated going off call with one of Brit Jean's FLINTA* open decks nights at the Blue Moon. I'd missed two of her nights in as many weeks, so it felt like payback.

I got to see, but not hear, Onyx; I still have to go to work this morning. But I did get to hear Hazelwood, Juju, and Miss Min D, who brought the sweet, sweet house music. Miss Min D even introduced herself as I was sitting, drinking a beer, and head-bopping. As always with open decks nights, there was one DJ I just wasn't feeling: River. Kids these days and their uppers, or something. But! It was a most enjoyable night out, and I even went to bed at a reasonable hour.

*Female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, trans, and agender. I like it better than ABCD — anyone but cis dudes.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: boots in the dryer

Tags:

clubbing,
techno

As well as Venezuela, I think you might want to start phoning your representatives and screaming about how very much you do not think the US should invade and occupy Greenland.

I don't know how it's being reported on in the US, but it's looking extremely imminent over here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/06/trump-greenland-control-us-military
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/07/france-and-allies-discuss-possible-response-to-donald-trump-us-invasion-of-greenland
https://news.sky.com/story/trump-is-likely-gambling-he-could-get-away-with-greenland-grab-as-nato-needs-us-more-than-he-needs-it-13491116

Tags:

dance apocalyptic

Tell all the people that you do not know

After Silence, by Jonathan Carroll

Anyway lately I've been crossing the gaps between the worlds to engage in jolly co-operation (tm)

FFA DW Post #2413 - i am a bull / i lead the guests

but it's all coming back in a way

Performative anger at the lack of recent entries in this community.

Nun runs out of... juice.

Roots of Madness 1-3

Poem post: stunbone

First Friday Five Of 2026

I Don't Belong Here...

30 icons ilya rozanov | heated rivalry

reading wednesday

FFA DW Post #2412: "I have 32GB tits." -- that upgraded my 💾 to a hard drive iykwim

Skiing! (2)

Crossposted from the blog...

30 icons shane hollander | heated rivalry

lara croft: tomb raider (2001)

Night of the Living Cat # 1, by Hawkman & Mecha-Roots

Nun gets payback at the Blue Moon.

PSA to US people

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