Setting the stage: J.A. Jablonski (Jude) writes in three different genres (mystery, speculative SF, and magical realism) while trying to still keep one foot in the academic scene by researching material culture in utopian fiction. In 2024 I plan to focus on the first two (though it's possible that a hybrid fantasy story about a girl with synesthesia & an odd, one-eyed schoolfriend may find it's plot along the way!). For more about me, see the links here: https://jajablonski.com/linktree/

I meant WHO is Jon?

A fella

[ID a very simplified sketch of Jon sims sitting with his legs straight out, holding a tape recorder and frowning deeply. Three disembodied eyes hover behind him and look at him. End ID]

‘Look,’ said Rincewind, ‘a mysterious urn turns up and suddenly it’s all about football. That bodes. It means something bad is going to happen.’ ‘Come now, it could be something wonderful,’ Ridcully protested. Rincewind appeared to give this due consideration. ‘Could be wonderful, will be dreadful. Sorry, that’s how it goes.’

-- Terry Pratchett - Unseen Academicals

when i enter a people pleasing contest but my opponents are mary macdonald, narcissa black, penny haywood, cedric diggory, teddy lupin and scorpius malfoy.

how much do we wanna bet that Kipperlilly was at the Ashgrove Cemetery mourning a parent when she found the rogue teacher?

"It is that which turns my soul to water."

Little moments from Granada's The Return of Sherlock Holmes S2Ep5, "The Abbey Grange" (1986). Dir. by Peter Hammond. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson, Anne-Louise Lambert as Lady Mary Brackenstall, and Oliver Tobias as Capt. John Crocker

"Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic."

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Advertising is a nightmare and I have no idea what I’m doing so I’m just gonna rant about the book that I’m writing

It’s got cool monsters in it. A not so secret society. Academic modern setting but with the Oxford gothic vibes ifykyk. Uhhh Ill-fated yin and yang lovers(not the main characters dw). Duo POV from our two main Characters, the student and teacher. Vigilantism— magical realism. Found family of course.

It’s called When Red Meets Blue and it should be getting published in August :) follow me for more updates. I’m sure it’ll be a fun time getting there

Can’t talk right now, I have to study.

does anyone have resources for learning how to read german very quickly.

💫 aesthetic of the week: Dark Academia

an academic aesthetic that revolves around classic literature, the pursuit of self-discovery, and a general passion for knowledge and learning.

That adage "write what you know" is often taken too literally. Instead, write what you've seen and heard, what you've been and where, what you've eaten, what and whom you've loved. Write large. Take it all in then let it seep back in whatever way suits the story. I made myself into Poe's Red Death character some many years back. In Bk 1 of my academic mystery, I took the costume and its making and gave it to a character. She wears it Halloween night, the night an arrogant and much disliked gentleman meets a rather gruesome demise. You can read about the costume's creation over on my art blog, Dante's Wardrobe.

i'm intrigued by how, along with li xiangyi and di feisheng's interactions speaking for themselves in depicting a much more familiar bond than one might initially think, mysterious lotus casebook is also actively highlighting the importance and nature of that relationship— to di feisheng at least— by comparing/contrasting it to his dynamic with jiao liqiao in multiple ways.

on a couple different occasions (up to episode 31 as that's as far as i've watched scenes from at this point), these two relationships are framed in dialogue as being equal and therefore vying for attention. in episode 16, you have jiao liqiao giving a speech about how di feisheng ignores her, rejects her romantic/sexual advances, actively seems to despise her, and the reason she finds for all this is li xiangyi. she views however di feisheng sees li xiangyi as being rival to her feelings, something to compete against. it's brought up again in episode 27, where she complains about how di feisheng was obsessed with duelling li xiangyi to the point that he cared about nothing else, and that obsession with him apparently hasn't changed in the present.

jiao liqiao is thoroughly obsessed with di feisheng herself, deeply possessive/defensive of him, which extends to her declaring to the as-yet-unnamed man in the hood (again in episode 27) that di feisheng is hers and no one else is allowed to touch or hurt him. later in episode 31, going off of the preview trailer, di feisheng tells his henchman to tell the wansheng clan that li lianhua/xiangyi's life is his. the wording of both lines is similar and gets across the same message, phrased as a threat: this person belongs to me, and everyone else is hands off. the two relationships involved are being understood by the script here as being similar in sentiment.

aside from dialogue, there's some other events that come up where these dynamics interact in comparable settings, but the details mark them with vastly different emotions. take the meal between di feisheng and jiao liqiao in episode 19. in my opinion it's a very smart scene that's absolutely horrible to watch, because di feisheng and jiao liqiao's relationship is so off— neither of them trust each other and never will! their conversation and interactions are poking at the power dynamics of status and knowledge and it's a very, very uneasy back and forth. there's horror movie-esque violin sawing in the background throughout. the scene ends with di feisheng telling jiao liqiao she doesn't belong at his side, but under his sword with the other traitors he's killed. no one comes out of this scene feeling good, including the viewer.

a singular episode later and we have another meal, this time centered on fang duobing, li xiangyi, and a-fei, newly woken up without his memories. despite the natural wariness a-fei currently carries, this entire sequence is far more lighthearted and easy-going for him. he's squabbling over food with fang duobing before the latter storms off, and then it's just a-fei and li xiangyi. their conversation, too, is far more honest and earnest than any exchange di feisheng has had with jiao liqiao, and rather than his part ending with threatening to kill someone, the most significant thing a-fei says is that although he doesn't believe everything li xiangyi has told him, he believes his past self wanted li xiangyi to live. it's the only thing he believes for certain.

another contrasting component of these two scenes is eating behaviour. throughout the show di feisheng treats food in a very deliberate way, and he does not eat around other people. or when he does, such as in episode 8 while sitting with fang duobing, it's very hurriedly (i know it's played for laughs, but where/why do you think di feisheng learned to eat like someone was going to take his food away from him?). even without recalling past experiences, a-fei tends to separate himself from others during meals; he walks by and takes fang duobing's rice before eating by himself outside lianhualou in episode 20, and in the girls' mansion, while li xiangyi, fang duobing, and qing'er/zhaoling discuss the case around a meal, a-fei sits by himself at another table. as late as shishou village in episode 26 he still prefers to stand guard by the door, instead of being seated at dinner with li xiangyi, fang duobing, and the village elder.

this is a pattern that endures during di feisheng and jiao liqiao's meal. i don't know that they actually got to the food given the weight of their conversation, and the scene cuts before we see the end. given how unhappy di feisheng looks at the sight of the laid-out table (and her), and how close she presses to him when they sit down, i'm inclined to think he wouldn't have been comfortable enough to eat. we only see them both drink wine. as far as i can recall, there are only two occasions in the show so far where we see di feisheng eat with both contentment and while taking his time, and the earlier one is this first meal he has as a-fei. he's bantering and smiling and seems genuinely happy where he is, sitting with li xiangyi. (the second instance is in shishou village when he's alone with fang duobing and they swap bread and water. but that's for a different time.) within the environments of these two meals there's a massive contrast in how trusting di feisheng is around the other person he's with, shown in both dialogue and uncommented-on behaviour. with li xiangyi he seems to feel far more safe.

in all these different moments throughout the show, there are parallels between di feisheng's relationships with jiao liqiao and li xiangyi. although the feisheng/xiangyi relationship cannot be said to be explicitly romantic, this pattern compares it to a dynamic that does have romance involved (albeit in one-sidedly). in relation to that dynamic, feisheng and xiangyi's interactions are seen as either equal to it in intensity, or even stronger in trust. this all works as a way of indirectly coding these two as having a romantic relationship, or at least you can read it as such. at the very least, it shows that di feisheng holds his relationship with li xiangyi as more meaningful or significant to him than any other prospect of romance presented to him in the show. good job, lotus casebook. i'm blowing the writing team a kiss

“There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty, unless she is wed to something more meaningful—is always superficial.”

— Donna Tartt, The Secret History

stalking jack the ripper never had a bad track. academic rivals to lovers? BANGER. 19th century london handwritten notes? SLAPS. calling each other by their last names? SEXY. don’t even get me STARTED on falling in love while catching murders and performing post-mortems.