#and SUSANNA good GRIEF that was so good
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okay lads what did we think of that
#THAT OPENING SCENE#yeah kat and thomas's relationship was rushed maybe to the point where it felt shoehorned in#but that opening scene OUGH#chyler leigh the actress that you are#the way my heart just sank when kat realized cyrus would be dead if it weren't for her like this girl does not need to feel yet again#that she's messed everything up. oh the parallels!#very good hallmark very good#<- words I should have no right saying and yet here I am#the way home hallmark#though I do feel they rush by the major emotional beats like thomas's and colton's death#and also I'm a bit ?? over the ending because it almost seemed like kat expected jacob? when I thought we all knew he wasn't going back?#and also by pond mechanics he couldn't do that?#I don't think they gave it as much cliffhanger suspense as they could've#also did I cry when del and kat finally finally made up? maybe!#and it was all because of VICTOR my WORD#casey is a mystery and a wonder and a marvel I love them#and SUSANNA good GRIEF that was so good#and I'm still not on board with sam lol#del and colton are perfect it just feels so wrong for sam to come in#what an episode what a season what a series#season three save me save me season three#earl crow ramblings
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i love gales story, cause you can tell hes a naturally caring person. He loves his family, he stepped up to take care of them and wanted to make sure theyd never have to take out tessera. His dad died in the mines, and he probably has the same hatred and fear of them that katniss did and yet he still went down the first chance he got so he could support his family. He takes care of katniss and prim hes basically part of their family too. And he even takes care of peeta a bit in the books. Because he cares deeply for those hes close too and the people they care about too.
And yeah hes stupid and a dick sometimes but ive never met an 18-19 year old who wasnt, expetually one thats traumatized and probably trying to work out his feelings too. And i deeply feel like he wouldve supported katniss being with peeta and still been her friend. But the problem is war corrupts, he was made into a high ranking soldier at 19, they gave a vengeful kid who wanted to make all those who hurt him pay (which is normal to feel) a way to do that in gruesome horrible ways before he fully understood the nuances of good and evil.
And then his ideas were used to kill someone i believe he cared about. And wither you believe he knew about it and helped decide on it, or that he didnt know/only knew some of the idea doesnt matter because he has to live with the guilt and grief of loosing both prim and katniss. Despite wanting to keep them safe.
Im not saying hes a good person (though hes certainly better than some people make him out to be) im saying susanna is really good at writing complex characters that feel human.
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I read The Goblin Emperor and Witness for the Dead awhile back, and I really liked them (especially The Goblin Emperor, I loved Maia as a protagonist). Do you have any book recommendations with protagonists who are kind? I miss that. Doesn't have to be the same genre. Thank you!
Oh gosh. Um. Thanks for the ask and I'm glad you liked the books! I'm still waiting for my library to put Grief of Stones into circulation. For me, and probably for you by the sounds of it, one of the things that makes the books so great is that you don't see pure kindness in a protagonist very often. I'll give it my best shot though!
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett - A novice monk who's quite happy tending a garden and getting in nobody's way suddenly finds himself the only person who can speak to his god (who is currently a tortoise). Everyone else is too busy playing politics, converting people, and heating up the pokers to believe anymore.
The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones - A sorcerer and his family are elected to represent Evil in the annual "let's play fantasyland for the people from Earth or else" show. His secret mission is to end the show forever—but he's really bad at being bad.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley - A government clerk is saved from a terrorist attack only because he got a watch in the mail. His mission to find out who sent it and why leads to all manner of life changes.
honestly, the main character dynamic in any Pulley novel is "kind, gentle, sort of lost man meets aggravating and mysterious stranger, they heal each other", and I'm a sucker every time.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - A man determined to explore the infinite House he lives in (and maybe help the new albatross family) discovers there's an awful lot about himself and House that he's forgotten.
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree - An orc, newly retired from adventuring, moves to a river town to start a coffee shop. She's not always the nicest person, but she tries and it's an incredibly kind and gentle story.
A Man and His Cat by Umi Sakurai - An aging teacher and a cat who's grown up in a cage find their forever home together.
A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic Durbin - A boy is evacuated to live with his grandmother and discovers a mysterious garden with a riddle and a faun.
I have Heard Good Things about the Murderbot books by Martha Wells and Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers as well, but haven't read them so can't rec them for sure. I also have a hunch you might enjoy the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik. They don't fit the kind protagonist request even if Lawrence is a fundamentally decent person and tries his best to do right, but they're a very hopeful series about striving for human dragon rights and reconsidering perspectives.
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I used to post semi-frequently about what I was reading and obviously that hasn’t happened for a while, so here are some books I’ve read recently that I think fans of Strange the Dreamer might like and why!
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: No plot just vibes, beautiful metaphorical writing, and star crossed lovers. It’s a bit out there so not for everyone but one of my all time favorites now.
The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire: Travel to fantastical worlds, friendship and found family, beautiful writing, and themes of grief, trauma, and growing up. I haven’t read all of the novellas but I love the ones that I have read, and the audiobooks are great!
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: main character similar to Lazlo imo, immersive world, and the power of being a good person. Another one of my all time favorites that I recommend to everyone, plus a pretty quick read.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger: magical realism, fantastic friendship and family dynamics, and super engaging. This one is more middle grade/YA than the others but I loved every second of reading it and think that if you liked Strange the Dreamer you’d love this one too, even though they’re very different books.
Currently I’m reading Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel and liking it so far! Have you read any of these books? What are you reading right now? Do you have any recommendations?
#strange the dreamer#book recommendations#this is how you lose the time war#wayward children#piranesi#elatsoe
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FINALLY FALL BOOKTAG! I stole this from YouTube, and I changed one question for this format. I decided it limit it to books I’ve only read this year to help myself!
In fall, the air is crisp and clear: name a book with a vivid setting Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is about a man named Piranesi who lives in a House that is his entire world. Here is my edit for it. One of my favorite books of the year.
Nature is beautiful, but also dying: name a book that is beautifully written, but also deals with a heavy topic like loss or grief. King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender is a middle grade novel about a young boy struggling with the death of his older brother.
Fall is back to school season: share a non-fiction book that taught you something new. We Had a Little Real Estate Problem by Kliph Nesteroff about the history of Native Americans and their relationship with comedy. Learned so much!
In order to keep warm, it’s good to spend some time with the people we love: name a fictional family/household/friend-group that you’d like to be a part of. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. My edit for it! One of my favorite books of the year. Listened on audio, will definitely buy a hard copy. Can’t stop dreaming about it!
The colourful leaves are piling up on the ground: show us a pile of fall-colored spines! A fall book on your TBR: I’m going to go in my dark academia era: If We Were Villains by ML Rio and Babel by RF Kuang.
Fall is the perfect time for some storytelling by the fireside: share a book wherein somebody is telling a story. The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, in which a writer is sending her murder mystery draft to a beta reader, who is becoming obsessed with her. (To clarify, 95% of this book is the murder mystery story! The beta reader is just an extra little spice.)
The nights are getting darker: share a dark, creepy read. The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson is a retelling of Carrie with a Black protagonist, set at a small town’s first integrated prom. If racism is too real-world horror for you, try Slewfoot by Brom (a gorgeously illustrated story of a woman in a Puritan town who befriends a demon) or the Katherine Arden middle grade horror series called Small Spaces (about a group of young friends who battle a monster who comes for them every season).
The days are getting colder: name a short, heartwarming read that could warm up somebody’s cold and rainy day. I mean... it’s Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. That’s gotta be the answer.
Fall returns every year: name an old favorite that you’d like to return to soon. I’m itching for a Jane Austen revisit...
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Book asks 3, 8, 9, 17, 22
thanks bestieee
3: What were your top five books of the year?
this is so difficult. I'm only including books I read for the firs time. Ummm let's go with Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison. and Trigun: Maximum by Yashiro Nightow.
8: Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?
I wanted to read 30 books this year and I did!
9: Did you get into any new genres?
yeah! I don't know if manga technically counts as a genre, and I found myself enjoying sci fi (as opposed to SFF) a lot more than I have in the past.
17: Did any books surprise you with how good they were?
already answered!
22: What’s the longest book you read?
discounting Trigun: Maximum and Vinland Saga (which were each over 2000 pages bc that's how manga is), I think the longest book I read was Winter by Marissa Meyer, which was around 800 pages.
end-of-year book asks
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Happy December! What were your favourite moments of 2022 on simblr? They can be from your blog or someone else’s <3
Hey, Ayanna. Happy December to you as well. After careful consideration, I have determined my top 5 moments of 2022:
5.
Eleanore and Ibrahim tying the knot on @theroyalsims. After a controversial first engagement between the couple back in Al Simahara, having had it called off, Ibrahim relinquishing his title and Eleanore's being stripped, they went through hell and back, and they finally got their forever I do's. I'm just glad Eleanore reconciled with (almost) all her family in the process.
4.
Niamh and Sebastian from @houseofcameliard. After Niamh was abducted, held hostage, she was rescued by Sebastian. Well long story short, they became a couple and got married. I love those two.
3.
Helena and Cora reconciling in @thegrimalldis. Cora, being the daughter of the late Prince Nicholas (we still miss you, bro!) and Eliza, After her father's death, Cora... well, processed her grief... not so healthily. should say. She ended up being stripped of her titles, and found out she was pregnant. After giving birth to Mere, Helena visited her in the hospital, and they reconciled.
2.
Pandora standing up to Abraxas in @olympianroyals. First off, lemme just say that Abraxas is a complete jackass, and Callista is no better. In fact, I'd say she a snobbish prissy bitch. Any-hooty, back to this scene, Abraxas practically called Sweet Miss Panda, his own granddaughter, a teen whore for carrying her YOUNGER SISTER, Iris, with her after the girls' parents accident, questioning the toddler's paternity as if Pandora was a TEEN MOM!! Wtf.jpg, Abraxas?! Pandora told his dumbass off for that and stormed away. Needless to say, this guy is just a Grade A asshole, and I'm sorry that Pandora, Daphne, and Iris have a grandfather like this. Seriously, fuck him!
And my #1 moment is *drum roll, please*:
NICKY AND MINNIE'S ENGAGEMENT!!! I've been following the collaboration between @simsroyallegacy and @officalroyalsofpierreland since 2020, before I started my own story, but OMFG, I'm so excited to see what the future holds for this couple!!! Well done, you two! And congrats, Nicholas and Minerva!!!!
Honorable Mentions:
From my own story - My gothy hidden princess, Susanna finally giving birth to Linnea. After some distress during the pregnancy and Ekant's near-tragic accident, Linnea was in the breach position and so Sue had to have a c-section, but thankfully, Nea was born without any further complications.
And, Kaya and Michael's Wedding. This wedding, like all mass-collab events, was a bitch to put together, but in the end, it was amazing! Michael is a really good man for Kaya, and he's a good adoptive father to her two kids.
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Fortnight of Books 2022: Days 1 and 2
Day 1:
Overall - best books read in 2021?
It hasn't been much of a year for five-stars-on-Goodreads books (at least for traditional books, but there have been quite a few that I did enjoy a lot. These have included:
The Sylvia Game by Vivien Alcock
She, the Adventuress by Dorothy Crayder
Rebecca's War by Ann Finlayson
A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge
The List of Unspeakable Fears by J. Kasper Kramer
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Secret Detectives by Ella Risbridger
Spineless by Samantha San Miguel
A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Long Lost by Jacqueline West
Best series you discovered in 2021?
Honestly? The best series were all comics. My most favorites were Impulse, Young Justice 1998, and Super Sons.
Best reread of the year?
Most of the rereads this year were old favorites that have that status by being wonderful, so lots of options.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Howl's Moving Castle and Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones
The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
Tenthragon by Constance Savery
The Kit series (American Girl) by Valerie Tripp
Mike and Psmith and Leave It to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
Day 2:
Most surprising (in a good way) book of this year?
I read Mercury Falling for context when I started reading @brown-little-robin's Strange Redemption. I did not expect to love it as much as I did. It's a fairly simple, straightforward story, but the level of emotional depth went beyond what I was expecting of the genre. I got attached to the characters, and now you're getting sporadic comics analysis. Who knew.
Most disappointing book/Book you wish you enjoyed more than you did?
I expected a lot of The Edge of In Between by Lorelai Savaryn, since it was a Secret Garden retelling with a C. S. Lewis quote as an epigram. But I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. Savaryn's themes and characters are so far off from TSG, to the point that it really shouldn't have been presented as a retelling at all. It's about grief, which is fine, but TSG isn't. And the characterization did not draw me in; I felt that many of the characters functioned more as symbols or archetypes than as believable people.
(Petty: the other epigram is the "whole world is a garden" quote from the 1993 movie, vaguely attributed to "The Secret Garden." That should have told me something from the start.)
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2022, the year of great books
i had a fantastic reading year in 2022. these were some highlights in no particular order:
Susanna Clarke, Piranesi. What a peculiar little book. A man lives in a gigantic ruinous house - a kind of castle with grand halls and statues - where life is dominated by the tides of an ocean in the lower levels of the building. The protagonist is a kind man with almost child-like curiosity, he seems like a monk living with the utmost worship for this strange place. Like the house, the story unfolds like a labyrinth and as a reader you only slowly discover what exactly is going on. Best read in January by the sea.
Jonathan Franzen, Crossroads. I mean, yes, guys like Franzen rewrite the same kind of book again and again, but man, are they good at it. I'm a sucker for the same story told from multiple perspectives, and who doesn't love to think about God and a complicated relationship with faith through the eyes of one of the most pathetic protagonists I have read about in the past years, a housewife with the most unhinged backstory, and a bunch of unnecessarily dramatic children.
Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire. One of my absolute favourites. A retelling of Antigone set in modern Great Britain about three siblings - a set of twins and their older sister - whose father was a jihadist. I found the classic themes of Antigone - struggles with family, duty, sacrifice - really well updated to reflect more contemporary struggles with identity, faith, as well as political issues like immigration and the toll it can take to be pulled into two different directions: tradition/modernity, fitting in/staying connected to your roots, conforming/preserving some form of inherited cultural identity.
And yes, you obviously know how the story ends from the start, but the ending is still so heartwrenching. As we know from Fleabag, the greatest love stories are still between siblings ("the only person i'd run through an airport for is you" and such).
Ali Smith, Autumn and Summer. I have been a fan of Smith since reading "How to Be Both" and I am now three quarters through her beautiful Seasonal Quartet. I hardly know another author who writes about our contemporary times with such ease. i love how art is always present in her works and how her prose is playing sly tricks on the reader. she is sometimes so literal in her imagery that you can only think something is meant poetically or metaphorically, only to find out two sentences later how it was indeed meant literally.
Rachel Cusk, Transit and Kudos. One of my favourite discoveries of 2022. I loved reading about Faye's encounters and her conversations with friends and strangers alike. It reminds me a bit of Salinger's "Nine Stories" in the best way, enough love and squalor to please Esmé. Especially Transit was so full of great stories; Cusk really is able to capture that uncomfortable, liminal space in between two situations, to describe what it means to go through upheaval, to not know how something will turn out. To know something old - a relationship, a flat, a homecountry - was not the right fit, but not knowing at all that what will come will be any better.
Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait. "Hamnet" is a fictional account of Shakespeare's youngest (real) children - insightful, inutitive twins Hamnet and Judith - as well as of their mother, Agnes (the secret protagonist). O'Farrell's descriptions of grief and quiet domesticity are very lovely. The scenery is a bit mystic or unsettling at times, especially chapters about Agnes' life, and I found the novel generally beautifully written. (As the Guardian put's it: "read it and weep").
The Marriage Portrait takes place in Renaissance Florence and also features a very insightful, inutitive child, Lucretia de' Medici, the smart and rebellious daughter of the Duke of Florence. This story is about her arranged marriage at 15 to the Duke of Ferrara, and - as stated on the first page of the book - about the rumour that her husband killed her less than a year after their wedding.
I found the book quite suspenseful, but also very tender, poetic and loving. Also, I love books about artists and seeing through their eyes how they approach their art, which was a big part of TMP.
Honorable mentions:
Stine Pilgaard, Meter pro Sekunde - features my personal favourite, most fun protagonist of 2022.
Katja Oskamp, Marzahn Mon Amour - tales of a pedicurist/podiatrist and her clients.
#stine pilgaard#hamnet#maggie o'farrell#rachel cusk#transit#kudos#ali smith#autumn#summer#jonathan franzen#crossroads#home fire#kamila shamsie#susanna clarke#piranesi#books#the marriage portrait#metaphysical spells
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top ten books i read in 2022
in order of how much i enjoyed them, not necessarily how good they are, although i do stand by them all being good. limited myself to one per series bc i do think otherwise seven out of these ten would be the raven cycle and the locked tomb series. add me on storygraph @strawberrrysky for more book opinions and also bc i desperately want more storygraph friends
(i promise my descriptions get shorter as i go on)
1. The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater
i somehow missed reading trc when i was a teenager and then avoided it for a while out of a combination of stubbornness and a total misconception of what the books were about. fortunately this year my friends responded to my plea for fantasy books in a modern setting by telling me to just suck it up and read the raven boys already and by the end of chapter 1 i was intrigued, by the end of chapter 7 i was locked the fuck in, by the end of chapter 15 i was like “oh okay this is gonna be my personality for a while.” the prose, the system of magic, the atmosphere, and above all the characters...augh. i love these books and i love the raven boys in particular i think maggie stiefvater REALLY knows how to establish her characters and her world and how to pull a reader in and how to give you that bubbly “it was starting!” feeling right alongside the characters. also the whole last act of this book made me experience brand new emotions. i could go on but i think everyone who hasn’t read these books yet should at least CONSIDER it.
2. Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
it’s CRAZY how good this book (the second in the locked tomb series) is. it’s CRAZY. it shouldn’t work but it absolutely does. the prose, the set-up and payoff, the hiding things in plain sight. there’s NOTHING more satisfying than the way everything clicks together at the end. tamsyn muir said “you ARE going to read this book that’s inexplicably in second person and seems at first to totally disregard the first book in the series and you’re going to love it” and i respect her so much for that. and the CHARACTERS! the PLOT! genuine masterpiece i think it’s one of the smartest-written books i’ve ever read
3. Gravity is the Thing, by Jaclyn Moriarty
i LOVED this book. Jaclyn Moriarty’s prose is so melodic and fun to read--usually when i read a book in three days it means something about the plot really seized me but in this case it was more just how much i was enjoying her style. it manages to balance a sense of whimsy with feeling real and honest, which is exactly what i want from this kind of contemporary fiction. book about connection, book about grief, book about hope, loss, healing, resilience, imagination...when i finished it i cried for half an hour and it felt like my soul had taken a shower
4. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi had been “at the top of my to-read list” for over a year by the time i finally got to it and i was a bit worried my expectations were going to be too high but oh my GOD was it every bit as good as everyone said. NO one is doing it like this book and I don’t want to tell you much more about it because I think the less you know the better but what a win for slow reveals and satisfying endings.
5. The Book of Eels, by Patrik Svensson
my nonfiction winner for this year. I learned so much about eels and also cried about humanity and family which is always what I’m looking for from a book
6. The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones
i have GOT to get into reading more horror this book was so awesome. scary and brilliantly written and atmospheric and didn’t pull its punches even at all.
7. Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton
one of my few re-reads this year but i LOVE this book, especially the masterful slow build in the first half of it. the horror of a dinosaur eating someone is one thing, the horror of human hubris and dramatic irony is another.
8. The Devourers, by Indra Das
the most visceral book i’ve ever read i think. now THIS is love and consumption! now THIS is a book about telling stories and being human!
9. Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells
The murderbot diaries are like. 80% funny and fast-paced and action packed and then all of a sudden you’ll hit a line or a concept that makes you have to put the book down and take a few laps around the room. Murderbot’s relationship with ART especially made me really feel like I was losing my mind. This is what I like about sci-fi.
10. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
this book is incredibly well written and i think the horror elements stuck with me more than some of the actual horror books I read this year. just a really gorgeous and atmospheric and dreamlike story that manages to convincingly feel like it’s playing with huge things while still keeping the scope of the story very small. like a whole ocean in a pond, one could say,
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
11. The Queen’s Gambit, by Walter Tevis (can’t help it i’m a sucker for a chess game)
12. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn (i think i’d’ve liked it more if i hadn’t already known all the twists but even knowing what was going on it was still fucking awesome)
13. Owls of the Eastern Ice, by Jonathan C. Slaght (i think i learned more from this one than anything else i read this year)
14. The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson (no one is doing it like her)
15. Black Cake, by Charmaine Wilkerson (a win for my book club)
#tlt#trc#booklr#top 10 books#long post#all these books are awesome. if you read them dm me. or if you've ALREADY read them dm me.
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Year 1600 Part 1:
The Century began with Matilda and Cuthbert becoming teenagers. Both of whom were deeply cared for by the ones close to them. Susanna became an adult though she wanted more time to think on getting married.
Rachel learned she was pregnant after she and Rodrigo finally decided to begin trying for a baby. Of course, her jealousy began to run rampant much to Susanna and Rodrigo’s disappointment as she was constantly watching over them despite them not doing anything improper.
Far away, Henry Akiyama married Benedict’s cousin, Mikaela, though no one in the family was present, he did send a letter to Henford to let his siblings know that he was still alive and was willing to consider reestablishing contact.
With the good news of Henry potentially returning, the Carlisle home in Tartosa was still full of grief as they continued to mourn Thomasin’s loss. That said, Thomasin did visit though no one was awake to see her, she was happy to see her children beginning to grow up well.
The Jaleel family and the Laurent family had always been close ever since Wilmot was the nanny for the previous family head so it was no surprise that their children would also get to know each other. Still it was a shock when John III proposed to Clemence and the two announced they had left town for a week and eloped shortly before Clemence’s eighteenth birthday.
#Matilda Markovic#Cuthbert Ember#Rachel Maeda#Rodrigo Maeda#Susanna Ashtor#Henry Akiyama#Mikaela Soto#Thomasin Carlisle#Agustin Carlisle#Clemence Jaleel#Clemence Laurent#John Laurent III#The Carlisle Chronicles#Decades Legacy Challenge#1600#1600s#ts4
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I was 30 years old.
I was married.
We were happy.
We were established.
Our 401k runneth over.
We decided to start a family.
I got pregnant right away.
Like right away.
We were over the moon.
I kept a journal of every day of the magic.
I got a bump.
I felt our baby kick.
I embraced it fully.
I rejected tests because "it won't change our path"
Emily sent out baby shower invitations.
The nursery was under way.
And then.
I'm almost halfway there!
I'm 18 and a half weeks pregnant.
The doctor called.
It was 7pm.
I was out at dinner with my friend Deb.
I stepped outside.
The day before on a whim I agreed to a blood test.
"There's probably nothing to worry about but we need you to come in. There's a 1 in 36 chance something is wrong"
I called Liza sobbing.
My sister told me to lay out 36 straws and see that there's still such a good chance that everything is fine.
I didn't sleep.
We drove up to Forsyth because that was the first available amniocentesis.
The needle was long.
The room was dark.
The news was really bad.
I changed in that moment forever.
It's a girl!
We had named her Audrey.
Audrey Roesel -- the girl who will make me a mom.
She was missing her nasal bone.
Her kidneys were tiny.
Her heart was missing a chamber.
She had an extra chromosome.
Part of her brain wasn't formed.
Her head was growing at a rate 4x faster than her limbs.
I want to be a mom.
This is my girl.
This situation could really hurt my body.
She will be in immeasurable pain.
I didn't understand "incompatible with life"
I cried.
I cried some more.
I was already a mom.
Moms keep their children from pain.
Time is ticking.
I'm 19.5 weeks now.
We are in Georgia.
There's a time limit, you know.
It's Labor Day now.
Doctors go on vacation.
Somehow the world around us keeps on.
Not for me.
In the interest of time…
They sent me to an abortion clinic.
Me.
At an abortion clinic.
After 20 weeks, it's illegal, you know.
It's the night before.
I ran a bath.
I said goodbye to my daughter in that tub.
Just the two of us before the world turned upside down.
Did you know…
You have to go 2 days in a row?
1 to dilate
1 for a D&E
It was brutal emotionally.
It hurt physically.
I begged to be put under.
A kind doctor took my hand.
His hands were large and warm.
He told me I would be a mom one day.
He was an angel.
I woke up in a group recovery room.
In a recliner. Next to a young girl. Maybe 13. She was also recovering. I took her hand.
My milk came in.
Nobody told me.
It hurt in my body and my soul.
I grieved. Hard.
For months and months.
I held onto a teddy bear the size of a newborn.
I ached everywhere inside and out.
It was a fluke they said.
Fast forward four months.
Pregnant again.
Scared.
Excited.
First ultrasound.
Baby’s gone.
Go to the hospital for D&C.
This is also considered abortion.
They tested the tissue.
it was a boy!
Chromosomes were normal.
Isn’t that good news?
Grief ensued.
So did genetic testing B and me.
I’m not ashamed.
I never was.
I’m what abortion looks like.
So is the 13 year old girl in that recovery room.
In Texas we’d be criminals. [And Oklahoma as of 4/14/22]
Access to safe abortion is a woman’s right.
And abortion is a decision to be made between a woman, her doctor, her family, and her god.
…Not a majority white male cohort of politicians with a false sense of morality.
And your judgement?
It matters not.
Susanna Roesel
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A Decade Through Time: The Alderberg Legacy: Year 1572
From the Beginning I Resent
The church bells rang of Anne’s 18th birthday in 1572, as she reluctantly married John Wardeby, the village smithy.
There was no smile on the bride’s face, and the bride’s brother felt less joyous.
William truly loved his stepfather, but his decision was one which he would never forgive for it cause his beloved elder sister so much grief.
He promised, if he outlived Geoffrey and became his younger sisters’ guardian, that he would never let this happen to either one of them. It would be their choice, not his.
John understood that clearly Anne was not ready to consummate their marriage.
So on their wedding night he only kissed her forehead telling Anne he won’t try anything else until she was ready.
All he asked for was that she helped him taking care of his father and the house. Anne was grateful for that, at least.
A few months after the wedding and it was Audrey’s sixth birthday.
The little girl was happy and cheerful, refreshing after almost two years of sadness and mourning.
She loved animals and to spoil his adorable little girl, Geoffrey went to the village and brought a puppy for her, who she named Essex.
She loved animals and to spoil his adorable little girl, Geoffrey went to the village and brought a puppy for her, who she named Essex.
One day , William decided to take a stroll across the meadows to the other side of Outland , to his surprise he meet someone he wasn’t expecting.
Sitting by on a rock , sobbing , was Rebecca Chelsey.
William fell on his knees next to her and asked what was wrong, however she just bitterly told him to show it and leave her in peace.
William was about to do that when a idea struck him. Instead of leaving , he started to sing. It was a silly little song filled with jokes and high-jinxes , but it seem to do the trick as Rebecca stopped crying and listen.
Rebecca had lost her father , whom she was so close to. She felt that she couldn’t cry at home like her mother and sister did, so she ran off to lament. William understood, grief works differently for everyone, then asked if she wanted to hear another song, which she did. Rebecca even started to sing along in a few songs.
Afterward , William followed Rebecca home to the village. He felt good for helping but there was also a new feeling blooming in his heart, which he was unsure what it could be.
Eleanor Horthall still paid visits to the Dawne Farm with August , to make sure her younger siblings were well taking care off now that Anne no longer lived at home.
She even had excited news to share: She was expecting her second child! In six months time her beloved brother and sisters would have a new nephew or niece.
However, this pregnancy was not easy as Eleanor felt more nauseous compared to when she had August. Her mother-in-law thinks it will be a girl , but Eleanor was skeptical.
It’s a good thing that Audrey was there to give her beloved sister a hug to help her feel better. She can’t wait to meet this new baby!
August is a 2 year old with a big personality. He could be very loving and sweet one minute , the next he will be acting out of hand, like when he throw food on the floor.
William asked for Eleanor’s advice regarding the new weird feelings he felt towards Rebecca , which Eleanor was shocked that the mean-spirited Chelsey twin was the one to capture her sweet little brother’s affection, if anything Susanna seemed more fitting for a courtship.
She told William that only he will know about these feelings , and if they are pleasant then to start slow. So William started writing everything down, into letters or songs. Hopefully he will be brave enough show Rebecca one day…
#The Alderberg family#sims historical#the sims 3#the sims 3 legacy#The Dawne Family#ts3#ts3 legacy#A decaded through time
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Top 5 books and top 5 quotes? (I hope your editorial goes well!)
!! oh this is a really good one, let's gooo
books:
good omens. yes yes i know, but the fact is that it was my favourite book when i was eleven, and it continued to be my favourite book for many years after, and it went with me to various different countries and to two different universities, getting more and more battered as it went, and after a while it became less about the story in the book and more about the book as an artefact - the messages from friends written on the inside front cover, the tea-stains and dog-eared pages, the way it fell open at all my favourite bits, and so on. i know neil and terry joke about how this is the most perennially "dropped-in-the-bath" book ever, and boy is my copy proof of that.
(and of course the show is also a delight. but the book feels like... childhood. it feels like comfort. it's not perfect, not by any means, but it's very special to me.)
we have always lived in the castle, by shirley jackson
deathless, by catherynne valente
never mind, by edward st. aubyn (when i found out the writers of succession based it loosely on the patrick melrose novels i fucking YELLED)
this last slot is currently being fought over by jonathan strange and mr norrell (susanna clarke) and grief is the thing with feathers (max porter). i'll let you know when one of them wins.
quotes:
"We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown." -T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
"Eventually something you love is going to be taken away. And then you will fall to the floor crying. And then, however much later, it is finally happening to you: you’re falling to the floor crying thinking, ‘I am falling to the floor crying,’ but there’s an element of the ridiculous to it — you knew it would happen and, even worse, while you’re on the floor crying you look at the place where the wall meets the floor and you realize you didn’t paint it very well." -Richard Siken
"All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand Enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed." -Richard Adams, Watership Down
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely." -Roald Dahl, The Twits
"People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict." -Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events
and a last bonus quote, because i felt bad leaving it off: "Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters." -Neil Gaiman
top five anything
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Marinette: Stone Cold
Ok so i love this prompt but it took forever to get to. And as soon as I did its like suddenly I was swamped with everything. So frustrating. But I finally finished it. And I love it. @vixen-uchiha
Marinette was six-years-old when her parents died in a car crash. She had been at school when the vice principle, Mrs. Valmontes, stopped by and pulled her out of class. The little black haired girl had known something was wrong instantly as Valmontes had smiled just a little hard at her and much more gently than what she was known for.
Still, she had been really surprised to see Office Raincomprix, her classmate Sabrina’s dad, waiting for her in the principle. Marinette always thought he was really nice; always jolly and quick to lend a hand to the teacher at the end of the day if he got to class early to pick up Sabrina. However, he too, seemed rather despondent when Marinette entered the room. His partner, a rookie named Lorna, looked really sad too.
They took her down to the station where she was led to one of the back offices. Sabrina’s dad waited with her there. And then woman name Susanna LeFlont, who Marinette would later learn was a grief counselor. Then they told her.
Susanna held her as she cried and begged and called them liars, until she couldn’t cry anymore. And then they gave her a stuffed animal, and said they would try calling her relatives to pick her up.
They came back an hour later, saying they got ahold of her parents’ emergency contact…
Marinette’s Uncle Jareth Dupain.
She had frowned when they said his name because to her he had never been Jareth Dupain. No, he was always her cool Uncle Jagged. So it took her a second to remember that his real name was Jareth Dupain-Stone, her father’s younger half-brother. Marinette even briefly remember her dad mentioning having to change their emergency contact after his mom, Gina, passed away a few ago.
He was only 20 when Marinette born and he was always a budding Rockstar so he wasn’t around too much. And 6 years later he was the biggest rockstar in the world. Still, that didn’t stop him from rushing to the police station, Penny hot on his trail, and pulled his sweet niece into the biggest hug he could.
Jagged took his niece to the hotel room to get her settled and had Penny go back to the bakery to get some of her things. He didn’t think it was a smart idea to take her there yet; not when the wounds were still so fresh.
Still as the twenty-six year old Rockstar stared at the small form cuddled up to Fang, he realized for the first time that he was all Marinette had in the world; the only family she had left. The only family he had left.
So he knew, despite the lawyers taking days to contact him regarding who Marinette’s guardian would be, that it was him. Jagged was the person Tom had entrusted to protect and watch the most precious thing he had the entire world; his daughter. And he wouldn’t let his brother down.
Tom had always been the best big brother anyone could have. And when Jagged’s own father, Tom’s Stepfather (as tom’s own father had suffered a heartache when Tom was a teen), had walked out, Tom had stepped up. He showed Jagged, who was still called Jareth at the time, how to be a man. He believed in Jagged’s rockstar dream when Jagged didn’t even believe in them himself.
Jagged would do right Tom, by Sabine; he would do what they would do if the situation was reversed and they were given Jagged’s kid to care for.
He would raise Marinette as he own. And though he knew would never come close to being the father that Tom Dupain had been…
Jagged would damn well try to be.
…
…
Jagged Stone, Shattered Roses, Nightmare’s Hail Mary, Unmasked Dragon, True Born Rejects, and Emancipated Mirrors were some of the biggest rock band in the world. Whenever, they went on tour together, they were the epitome of what people thought Rock Stars were. They were loud. They partied all night. Groupies hung around everywhere. To them, it was paradise. When all the bands were invited to go on the Kings of Neverland tour, with Jagged Stone headlining, they expected very much the same as they were used to. Jagged always had the most Rockin tour bus. His parties were legendary. They came to expect it.
However, when Neon Savage (front man of the Shattered Roses), Austin Knight (Leader of Unmasked dragon and lead Guitarist), and Niklaus Bane (Lead vocalist of True Born Rejects) showed up with beers and all other sorts of alcohol the day before their opening concert for the tour, they came across something very unexpected.
Or rather someone.
A little Asian girl with pigtails in her Blue hair, a tiara on her head, in a rainbow tutu paired with a black too large Guns N Roses shirt, her hand on her hips, no shoes, and a rather large crocodile next to her.
“What’s with the ballerina?” Austin asked. He had dyed silver hair done in a stereotypical emo style, grey eyes, and too many piercings. He was slim and tall.
Niklaus sighed in relief, “Oh good, you see her too!” He had curly blond hair, dark brown eyes, and wore mostly black. He had ripped jeans and a red tie. The tie was as red as the whites of his looked. “Why is your hair blue?”
“Because Uncle said I could,” She answered and pointed a figure at them, “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Savage scoffed, “You got that twisted, kid.” He was a bulk guy, with long dark hair, and a severe expression on his face. His arms were covered in tattoos. He played in a metal band, and it was obvious. “Where’s your mommy?”
“Dead,” The little girl said bluntly. “I live with my Uncle Jagged now. This his tour bus, and you’re not supposed to be here.” She glared at them. “Fang, Stranger Danger!”
What happened next was a bit of a blur. One minute they were fine, the next they were being chased around Jagged’s tour bus by a rather vicious crocodile while pint-sized twerp laughed.
Lucky for them, their yells for help were overheard by Penny and Jagged who had been working in back, “What’s going on?” Penny asked as she ran in.
“Mates, what the h. e. double hockey sticks is going on?” Jagged asked right on his assistant’s tail.
Austin, who had jumped on top one of the shelves, gave Jagged a confused look, “Better question; what the hell did you just say?”
“Ooohhhh! There’s five bucks for the swear jar!” The little girl taunted.
Jagged glared at rockstar, “Watch it! A Kid’s in the room!”
Savage glared at his longtime friend, “Who the fuck do you think set Fang on us?!” He cast a dark look at the crocodile. “Stranger danger my ass! I’ve known you sent you hatched, you overgrown cheap pair of boots.”
“That’s ten buck for the swear jar!” The girl said.
“Ten bucks?” Austin frowned. “Kinda of steep for just two swear words.”
“I swear to God-” Savage growled but was cut off.
“Chill, mate,” Jagged said. “This is my niece Marinette.” He gave her a loving smile. She beamed up at him brightly. He had been taking care of her for a year now. “I told ya about her.”
“You didn’t say she was Satan!” Austin whined. Fang had bitten him, the slowest of the three, quite a lot, and he had a giant hole in his jacket.
“I’m not Satan,” Marinette huffed. “I’m a ballerina, princess, Rockstar on my way to a tea party with Duchess Rosy Sparkles, of the Unicorn Fairies. And guess what, you’re not invited!”
“Oh that’s just mean,” Niklaus complained.
“She sicked a mini dinosaur on us,” Savaged hissed.
“Yeah, well, now she hurt my feelings.”
Jagged sighed. The guys were some of his closest friends, and by the look up the “entertainment” they brought, they were ready to raze it up like always. But things had changed. Jagged couldn’t be that guy anymore. “Marinette’s staying with me from now on,” He reminded them. “No parties on the tour. She has a bedtime. And doesn’t need to see “us” at our finest, no matter how Rockin we are.” Jagged shrugged. “Spread the world, my bus is off limits.”
The rock stars grumbled a bit but didn’t leave. They could hang with Jagged without presence of booze, weed, loud music, and groupies. It would be a little weird but they’d managed. Jagged was their friend; they’d known him before any of them became famous and stayed close well after. They hadn’t been there for him as much as they wanted to after Tom died; too many commitments, too many required appearances in different countries that had taken them away. But they were there now. And if being there for one of their best friends meant regularly chilling with a six-year-old, then they’d deal.
Savage grunted, “Austin, get rid of the booze.”
“By ‘get rid of’, I assume you meant put back in my tour bus,” The silver haired guitarist corrected.
Niklaus raised his hand like he was a student in class, “I get the whole no alcohol thing; that stuff will kill ya. But what your feelings on pot?”
Jagged just sighed. It was going to be a long summer.
The three musician, and even the other Rockers on tour, slowly but surely got used to the seemingly near constant presence of a six-year-old around Jagged or running around backstage. And the swear jar was a serious thing. It didn’t count when they were singing on stage but off it and anywhere near Marinette and they found themselves forking over five dollars for ever swear word. It added up a lot. And quickly.
Jagged’s tour bus, instead of being the Party palace it used to be, now was the chill zone. It was also the cleanest of all the tour buses. No empty beer bottles everywhere. No one random passed out anywhere. No having to watch out for throw up. No rabid fans, as Jagged had increased his security to Tony Stark worthy levels.
All they had to do was mind their manners and remember that Marinette was very impressionable at her age.
“OH screw you!!!!!!” Savage roared as he jumped up and frantically mashed buttons on his controller. “I’m not losing!”
They had been babysitting Marinette all day while Jagged did an interview Buzzfeed.
Austin snickered, “Says you.” His character raced past Savage’s. Only for something to hit him and send poor little Yoshi spinning out of control. “Did you- did you just blue shell me, bitch?” He hissed at Niklaus.
“Nooo!” Niklaus said sarcastically. “Hey!!! Not nice, brat!” He told Marinette after a banana caused him to slip off the ice.
Marinette smiled easily, but there was a determined look in her eyes. Her hair was jelled into a faux-hawk courtesy of Ashley Crimson, from lead singer for Emancipated Mirrors, an all-girl punk rock band.
“Die, scumbag!” Ashley roared as her racer zoomed by. She was a vivacious redhead. Her and her bandmates got used to being some of the only girls around that weren’t either working for one of the rock stars or were scantily clad fangirls who do “anything” to get backstage.
“You’re going down, twerp!” Savage told Marinette.
“Bite me!” She snapped back just as Jagged and Penny walked into the tour bus.
Jagged crossed his arms, “What did you morons do to my sweet little niece?”
“Nothing!” Niklaus, Ashley, Savage, and Austin chimed together.
“Savage taught me to throw a punch, and or kill a man.” Marinette smiled happily. “I helped Austin set up a glitter bomb in Nightmare’s Hail Mary tour bus. Niklaus and I are banned from Chuckie Cheese. Ashley and I spray painted her ex boyfriend’s car. Cleo and I got arrested. We disturbed the peace!!” Cleo was a pink haired girl who played drummer from Nightmare’s Hail Mary. She had to rush off for her own interview. “Oh and we’ve only been Playing Mario kart for an hour but they each owe like a hundred bucks to the swear jar.”
There was silence as the words were processed.
“And not one of us taught her how to keep a freaking secret?” Ashley face palmed.
Jagged just sighed.
…
…
For the next few years that was Marinette’s life. Austin, Niklaus, Savage and Ashley became pseudo Uncles and Aunt to Marinette.
She spent most of her childhood on tour with her Uncle; going from to place, concert after concert. Marinette was homeschooled and didn’t mind it. Jagged went on tour with a bunch of different people over the years and she got to meet all sorts musicians; Clara Nightingale, Ed Sheeran, Adam Levine, Brendon Urie from Panic! At the Disco, Taylor Swift. Her favorite were the award shows though. Through them, she got to meet all her favorite actors. And was inspired to start designing on her own clothes after seeing so many fabulous looks. She got to model and do some acting. In her free time, she ran a very popular fashion blog/youtube channel.
The press had always loved her. To them, she was Marinette Stone (Jagged didn’t want her real name released to the media). She was always on the best dressed list, frequently seen with various celebrities, and could be found on the cover of various magazine.
However, when Marinette was eleven, she begged her Uncle to let her go to school with other kids. She was getting older and she wanted to have some type of normal childhood. It took him a year to agree. Her uncle Jagged had become quite protective over the years.
So Marinette went back to Paris. She cut her hair, used her given name of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Her Uncle bought a grand penthouse not too far away from her new school, and whenever he was gone her bodyguard, a sweet woman named Harlow who was former CIA, was in charge of her. She started at her new school with a smile on her face.
Not long after, she became the hero Ladybug.
Everything was great. She had friends, a normal social life, went to school with other kids her age. She wasn’t constantly being followed around by paparazzi. She still ran her fashion blog and had frequently updates. It was perfect.
It took two years for it to go bust.
The reason’s name was Lila Rossi.
And she was the biggest liar Marinette had ever met. And Marinette had grown up in the entertainment industry.
Lila made wild claims that the other kids just ate up. A simple google search could refute all of them. The ones Marinette could stand was always about Jagged. Like her Uncle, or an airline, would be reckless enough to let a kid race on to an airport to save a cat; not that Jagged had ever own one. Fang was territorial.
Lila made her out to be a bully, and slowly Marinette lost all her friends. Her only one left was Adrien, her partner Chat Noir. The blond and Marinette had modeled together a few times and he had recognized Marinette despite her new looked but he kept it a secret. Because of their history, Marinette developed a crush on the other and Adrien was quick to lose his crush on Ladybug once he found out it was his dear friend behind the mask.
When Marinette was exiled to the back, Adrien was quick to join her (much to Lila’s fury) and nothing could change his mind. Mostly because he was sick of Lila always touching him despite his vocal protests, and Bustier not doing anything about it.
Soon Marinette things started being messed up or destroyed; her homework, her sketchbooks and pencils, her jacket. She was tripped and called rude names. Her cellphone, (Well one of her phones. She had two; one she used as Marinette Stone. One for Marinette Dupain-Cheng; a number only her classmates had.) was filled with mean texts.
Bustier caved to demands and had her excluded from class trips and events due to being a negative influence; again Adrien decided not to go either, and Lila was Akumatized once he said this. Marinette hadn’t been surprised. Bustier always ignored the bullying and harassment clearly happening in front of her. Still, Marinette decided to start recording her classes a hidden camera on her desk, on the corner of the celling and even on top of the whiteboard behind Bustier. It was just in case anything took a serious turn.
Still losing all her friends because of a few promises and dreams of glitz and glamour had been a wakeup call. Her Uncle had warned her. Her Aunt Penny, who Jagged had married with Marinette was ten, had warned her. So did Savage, Ashley, Cleo, Austin, Clara, and Niklaus. They told Marinette to watch out for fake friends and gold diggers, coattail clingers and desperate wannabes; people who would sell out every secret she had to the paparazzi behind her back just for five minutes in the spot light. So called friends who would do anything to get ahead, to get famous.
And it was clear that’s who most of her ex-friends were. Even Lila learned the hard way. When she told Alya about her mom meeting with some important celebrity about their Go Green initiative, this wasn’t a lie as it would turn out. However, the glasses-wearing girl posted it online, despite Lila legitimately asking her to keep it a secret. Lila got in big trouble with her mom apparently.
The teacher, Bustier, was awful but she always had been. Marinette ignored it in the past because at least she had her friends. But if that witch told Marinette to be a better example one more time, it was over.
Everything came to a head after Marinette got expelled, granted she was brought back after evidence that it was impossible for her to have cheated surfaced, and the bluenette decided enough was enough. She finally gave in and told her Uncle everything.
Jagged was pissed. He cursed up a storm; enough to fill the swear jar ten times over and buy Marinette a car.
It took a while to get him to calm down. And to convince him that Marinette could handle it. She had a plan.
Still, she remembered that Uncle was a wild card.
Friday, during lunch, Marinette was eating in the cafeteria, when suddenly the lunchroom doors burst open, “Marinette,” Jagged called as he entered, trailed by a happy Penny and bodyguards “Where’s my favorite little fashion designer?”
Marinette just sighed.
Adrien smirked at her; looking way too amused. The jerk must’ve known. She had thought it was strange that he wanted to eat in the cafeteria. The two rarely ate on the school grounds, opting and preferring to go to local restaurants rather than deal with terrible food and pesky classmates. Still Marinette didn’t mind as long as they away from her classmates. And they did.
Kagami, Aurore, and Claude gave her perplexed looks.
The students in the cafeteria went wild. Girls and guys screamed, and tried to get pictures. Jagged ignored them and went straight to Marinette’s table, walking passed where Bustier’s student at lunch. Alya shook Lila’s shoulder and pointed at Jagged, and loudly asked if Lila could get her an interview. Lila looked horrified.
Jagged beamed when he reached Marinette, “There you are, you’ve been ignoring my texts,” He accused. Which to be fair, Marinette had been. Her Uncle had been coming up with way too many revenge plots to be healthy. “I decided I need a new look for the VMAs; something rockin, something tasteful, something to show remind the world the amazingness that the Rock Gods have blessed them with.”
“I’m at school,” Marinette told him.
He smirked, “Then Learn to answer a text,” The Rock star shrugged. “But fine; we can talk later. How about at my concert, yeah. You and your friends” he motioned to the kids at Marinette’s table, “Can have backstage passes. We’ll talk then. But I really want you to wow me. Maybe get a matching hat for Fang too.”
“Fang?” Adrien asked innocently. Still Marinette could practically hear see the script he was reading off of. “Is that your cat?”
Jagged gasped as if insulted, “Cat? Do you think I’d ever own anything as ordinary as a cat? Me? Jagged Stone?! I should be insulted, mate. I hate cats, always have. Never owned one, never will. Fang’s a crocodile. Marinette’s knows. Fang loves her.”
“That is strange,” Kagami shot Marinette a smirk which caused Marinette to nearly hiss at the betrayal. Kagami knew too?! “Lila said you did.”
“Lila?” Jagged asked. “Who’s Lila? I don’t know a Lila.”
“Lila Rossi?” Aurore offered. “The Ladyblog practically swears in an interview that Lila Rossi saved your cat from being hit by a plane or something.”
Jagged scoffed, “What a loud of bull! Any journalist that believes that is not worth the pen they write with.” Gasps were heard. “But I heard that rumor. Didn’t know where it was from. Thanks for letting me know who I should sue. This Ladyblog and Lila Rossi will be hearing from my lawyers.”
It was a photo finish as to who fainted first; Alya or Lila.
Lila went home right after that. This caused the reactions of the class to be split. Half the class still defended Lila; refusing to believe their golden ticket was lying. The other half was ready to burn her at the stake; they had carried her books, done her homework, wrote her notes, nearly everything for her.
Marinette just sat back and watched with amused eyes. If they thought this was bad, they hadn’t seen anything yet.
That weekend Marinette Stone released a video on her blog about bullying. She had been mentioning her own trouble with bullying for months and people had asked her for more information.
The title of the video was:
Bullying Stone: The Expose
In it Marinette revealed that at her school she went by Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her real name, and had a new look. She told about how much she liked school at first. And they what changed; that it all started when a new girl arrived and started telling lies about celebrities about Marinette. She told the story of how she was expelled; and just how many procedures were broken when it happened.
Marinette used the recordings she had of class, and even showed up the horrible texts she got.
“As you can see the teacher does nothing,” Marinette frowned. “It’s all happening right in front of her and she does nothing. In the next video, you’ll see someone being sexually harassed, in front of the teacher and she doing nothing about it. And then what victim blaming looks like. Again, as a reminder, all these videos and pictures are unedited.” She had offered to blur Adrien’s face but he declined, and even appeared in the video too and talked about his own experience.
At the end of the video, Marinette looked straight at the camera, “Anyone can be bullied; famous or otherwise. If you’re being bullied; speak up. Tell your parents, your Aunts, your Uncles, your siblings, your cousins, teachers who you know will actually do something about it. I waited too long to tell someone. I regret that. They thought what they were doing was hurting me. They thought I’d be miserable without them. They thought I’d cry and break and come crawling back to them. They thought wrong. You can bully Stone but it takes a hell of a lot more than that to break it.”
The video went viral in an hour. And people were angry. The people who knew Marinette and loved her were beyond furious. Jagged, even more so, as he hadn’t seen the videos before, read the texts.
Marinette Stone’s phone blew up with texts and calls. She was tweeted and retweeted thousands of times. And she got far too many, ‘You want me to kick their asses for you. I can kick their asses for you,” texts. But she had known she’d get them.
The Ladyblog was ripped for lies by celebrities who been lied about on site and fans.
Gabriel Agreste, Adrien told her, was pissed about what had been happening to Adrien, in front of a teacher no less. Lila Rossi fired. And if Lila ever had dreams about working in the fashion industry, they were over.
Savage, after berating her for not kicking Lila’s ass, told her he and the gang (Austin, Cleo, Ashley, and And Niklaus) was coming over for some Mario Kart and artery clogging fast food.
When the call disconnect, Marinette got a text from him.
Why did you sic Fang on them?
And that’s a five for the swear jar!
Marinette couldn’t stop laughing.
#ml salt#ml fic#ml salt fic#marinette dupain cheng#Marinette deserves better#adrien deserves better#adrien agreste#alya salt#class salt
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Hello! You mentioned reading Piranesi a few months ago and I finally got around to reading it and I love it so much - thank you for the lovely recommendation <3 If you don't mind can you talk a little about what you loved about the book (I love hearing your thoughts)? Also have you read Jorge Luis Borges' Ficciones (I believe it inspired Piranesi)?
HELLO my friend!! first of all tysm for taking the recommendation, I'm so happy it worked for you! honestly what do I NOT love about this book? it's hard to wrap my thoughts about piranesi because it was such a lovely reading experience which i honestly need to repeat ASAP because the layers to explore in piranesi are so numerous. secondly let me admit that i haven't read any borges yet BUT he's definitely on my radar and I've been looking for his books on my used bookstore runs since i read piranesi, not to much avail unfortunately but i added ficciones to my tbr for reminder!!
anyways I'm gonna stop right here for anyone who has not read piranesi yet because i think you'd benefit from going into it not knowing much except that it's told in vignettes and that it has elements of mystery which become more and more central to the plot as we advance and unravel the world that piranesi lives in. so don't keep reading past this if u haven't read piranesi yet! i did keep it spoiler-free though so no pressure. also putting everything under a read more bc i truly was obnoxiously verbose adlkjglsjk if it didn't work my apologies 4 it
NOW let's talk about what i loved about the book which honestly will probably just be a flimsy overview bc again i think a re-read would make what i love about it more salient and richer but i guess we can already have a start here!
first of all, the character of piranesi. when i first started the book and immersed myself in his inner voice, i was kind of thinking ok there must be a reason as to why he is so incredibly wholesome but also with an extremely sharp mind and immaculate observation skills. the childlike wonder of his perspective was an absolute joy to read from but also provided some tension because i think pretty early on you catch that he might be a bit of an unreliable character and that what he tells you may not match the reality of what his experiences and observations mean to the reader. you're very much the prisoner of his limited perception, his sometimes bizarre but always delightful thought process, and also again the childlike wonder with which he observes the world and which makes everything carry so much more weight w/o resorting to pompous/pretentious gravitas. a statue isn't just a statue to him, it is the Statue, something important in and of itself, with its own story/mythos and it harkens back to a child's point of view which hasn't yet been shaped by the world and therefore isn't as limited as our jaded adults' minds, even though he is an adult himself, which is apparent in his very keen mind.
then we have the form, with the novel being told in vignettes. i personally really like novels such as these because they feel a lot more personal but also propels the story forward. I'm not a fan of huge chapters tbh because my attention span is trash lmao. it was so easy to immerse myself in his world because the writing was so vivid and honestly made me reevaluate a lot about myself adjdjslg. I'm not much of a quote person but "the Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite" lives rent-free in my mind because 1. it appears at two key points in the novel and both iterations echo the other brilliantly in their respective context and thus add even more meaning to the quote and 2. i think it's a beautiful metaphor for the world we live in, which leads me to the next point
what i mostly clung to during my reading experience was the theme of confinement to a specific physical space, which can feel suffocating and limited. susanna clarke suffers from a chronic illness that has kept her within the confines of her home for many years and this book very much reflects that. from my personal experience with that theme, i was less reminded of how thematically relevant it was in the middle of a pandemic, and more about how much goodness there is still in this world at a time where everything seems so bleak, and unkind. i myself suffer from an ugly case of chronic cynicism which i think is very unappealing lmao but at least I'm self-aware! being reminded that we live in a world where kindness is indeed infinite in the smallest and biggest of ways is the balm that my shriveled soul truly needed. i guess it's my emotional support quote lmao.
then we have the setting of the book which, while limited spatially, is also so full of wonderful things and imaginative configurations that i was just in awe of everything that was being done with it. the plot is closely tied to the setting and i really want to keep this spoiler-free (just in case) so I'm not going to delve too deeply into it but i'd love to visit this place and have piranesi guide me through the labyrinth of the House and the many wonders (and tragedies) that it holds.
finally we have the MYSTERY and omg i love picking up the clues and kind of forming my own theories along the way bc it truly isn't an in-your-face mystery like a thriller would be. we buddy-read this with some ppl from the book club so the experience of sharing our theories made it all the more pleasant. i really loved how clarke presented the many mysteries of the story in such a subtle yet gripping manner that soon i was just obsessed with knowing who was whom and what they wanted from piranesi and who piranesi was and how this all came to be. all the different players felt fully fleshed out and made me feel veeeery strongly (i.e. i wanted to kill some of them like literally daydreaming about choking them to death... not to sound unhinged or anything). they provided such good foils to piranesi's inherent goodness and all that they lacked in terms of decency. their shamelessness and infinite greed and how they see piranesi as a pawn to use set my teeth on edge so i was just biding my time for the karmic retribution that they'd get akjdlkgj also great exploration of how ambition can be the downfall of mankind
then we have all the clever-people-themes of neoclassicism and philosophy and plato's cave and whatnot and it's not what held my attention so i can't speak much on it bc I'm not one of those clever people who picked upon these themes LMAO but I'll for sure spend more time unpacking these layers on my re-read of this book because there are so many smart ideas hidden in the nooks and crannies of this story that i think you could get something different from each read, kind of like i feel about pride & prejudice by jane austen which offers me new delights to enjoy upon each re-read.
honestly i have so much more to say about how religion is handled, the rituals surrounding grief and their importance in the celebration and respect of of life, birds being amazing creatures, identity and how it can create contradictions etc etc but at this point i might as well just write a college essay on literally every theme explored in this book because it was just SO GOOD! thank u piranesi for me life
tl;dr this book made me feel like my brain was buried in a thick coat of dust and let some much-needed air in
#also i read this message at like 6am and thought long and hard about it#and then started crying bc i'd die and kill for piranesi period
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