dear toe collector,

PLEASE show the pigshifter that'd be so fucking cool

also hypothetically if i had some screenshot edits from an old idea for a toh au would you be curious

thanks, ♠️

ya i think i still have the file on me hold on rq

boom

okay so the lovely @imbicilite​ / @whitrph​ and i were talking and it gave me the idea and we thought it was a great idea to spread it around so here’s how it goes: when talking with someone about pretty much anything tbh, but especially for something that could potentially be triggering, communicate with color codes based on city traffic lights ! GREEN means it’s good to talk about these things and you’re not feeling triggered by the topic, YELLOW means to slow down or stop talking about the topic at for now while RED means to stop the conversation about the topic immediately until green again where the conversation can divert into another topic or they feel safe to talk about it again !! this is EXTREMELY important, because it’s a way to alert others that you’re going to be talking about something that could possibly upset someone because of the subject matter, especially for those who may get triggered by a certain topic - even without you realizing it because squicks and triggers can honestly be anything, it could be different words or phrases or certain topics - and can cause severe anxiety in those affected, even panic attacks or flashbacks, and because we want to be considerate and respectful towards one another, it’s important that we use these to help our friends and fellow rpers know that we’re going to be posting or talking about something they might not want to see or talk about, and it’s of utmost importance to make them feel safe, it’s best to use this to be a more supportive friend and a member of the rpc!!

on a sidenote, i’m also here to tell you about tone indicators !! keep in mind that i didn’t come up with nor invent the concept of tone tags itself, but it was being spread around for a while now and i’d figured i’d talk about it !! essentially, tone indicators are used to indicate if the person is joking, being serious, etc., neurodivergent people often have trouble conveying and understanding emotion and tone through written text, using tone indicators is really helpful for neurodivergent people to make it easier for them to read/convey, it is also very helpful for people with anxiety. i encourage anyone who reads this to also type the meaning of the tone tag ( i.e: i love you !! /p for platonic ), so it is more accessible for neurodivergent and disabled people, like those who use screen readers.

“why should we use tone tags?” one might ask, but as an autistic, disabled and otherwise neurodivergent person myself, sometimes i don’t always get my friends and fellow mutual’s tones by their message but when they use tone indicators, it helps me understand and, not to mention that it can be really helpful and avoid misunderstandings. i would also like to note that NOT ALL neurodivergent people want you to use tone indicators on them, so if they don’t want you to use tone tags on them, please respect their wishes.

“i don’t like tone tags!” one might add, well, okay... but don’t make fun of the people that use them, it’s not a big deal, and if you’re a neurotypical who insists on not using tone tags when a neurodivergent person clearly asked you to, get your head out of your ass.

“using /j at the end of a joke ruins it!!” one might bitch, and okay but... it might be ruined for you, but it still makes me laugh, personally, so please try and get used to it, and not to mention, what’s more important: making sure you’re clear with your tone so that there’s no misunderstandings or throwing a fit just because the joke’s ruined for you?

additionally, some other things to keep in mind !! please do not mock the use of tone tags, you may not need them but some people do, not everyone can tell when something is a joke, when someone’s either being platonic, romantic or sexual in intentions, etc.,, especially when there’s no visual cues or tones of voice to help us, just be nice about it, it’s... really not hard, man. if you don’t use a tone tag and someone reads the tone of your statement incorrectly, do not get upset with them or laugh at them for not getting it - that is perpetuating ableism and/or sanism, whether you intentionally intend it or not. just kindly clarify and next time, keep in mind that tone tags are very helpful for neurodivergent, disabled and people with anxiety disorders. using a tone tag isn’t an excuse to be mean either, you can’t just say something mean or not cool and then put /j ( “joking” ) after it to get away with it, don’t be an ass. if you’re saying something that could be anxiety inducing for others, i would highly recommend putting the tone tags at not only the end but also the beginning of that post. do not intentionally use tone tags incorrectly “as a joke”, to confuse people, etc., the entire point of tone tags is to clarify, not confuse people, if you intentionally use them incorrectly, you’re an ass. keep in mind that no one has to use all the tone tags, use what you’d like, respect others who use what they would like, use them however feels rights to you. for me personally, sometimes i use multiple, sometimes only one, or sometimes none at all, just do what feels right, depending on who i’m talking to and how long i’ve known this person or group of people i’m speaking to, it’ll be fine, and if someone asks for clarification on what you mean, that’s okay, kindly clarify for them. additionally, please be patient if people don’t know what tone tags are, someone might not even be aware of what they are and that’s not their fault, just patiently explain it to them or link them to a source !! education always helps !! please don’t use “/srs or serious” as a joke, some neurodivergent and/or disabled people don’t need you to use three tone tags, and in my case, i’m presuming you’re neurotypical if you’re doing that when conversing with me, but what i’m trying to say is it looks like you’re babying us neurodivergents / disabled folx, so try to use only two tags ( that is, if that person is okay with it !! ), because some people don’t need you to use three tags.

please note that the following aren’t every single example out there and there are different terminologies in different languages, but they are important, a few examples of these are: 

“/j = joking / used when saying something in a joking manner, “so im pretty much the president of oreos /j”, 

“/hj = half joking / used when saying something that’s kind of a joke but kind of serious / “well,,,,, im usually right /hj” / 

“/s or /sarc / refers to the opposite of what you really want to say / “i just [clenches fists] love...... being sad..... /s”, 

“/srs / used when saying something you really mean / “i really appreciate you /srs””, 

“/nsrs = not serious / used when saying something not too seriously / “you’re the worst /nsrs”, 

“/lh = lighthearted = used when something’s said lightheartedly / “hEY LEAVE ME OUT OF THIS /lh” / i’d say something like this when me and my friends would get into a silly argument and they’re trying to ask my opinion on a topic”, 

“/ij = referring to something that’s only understood by people with special knowledge about something, typically only a small group of friends or a group of people would be aware of, those outside of the group would most likely be confused by it or not find it funny in the same way people within in the group would / “aAAAAAAAAA MY NUGGIES!!!!! /ij””, 

“/ref = a reference to media, usually movies, tv, music, etc., “yOU SHALL NOT PAAAAAAAASSSSSSS /ref”, 

“/t = teasing, use when teasing someone or provoking someone, often playfully, “aiight sure mx idk wtf im doin /t”, 

“nm = not mad, to indicate you’re not actually mad or upset about something / “ow... i felt that /nm”, 

“lu = a little upset / used when about about something or someone, but not too upset / “oh... that sucks /lu”, 

“/nbh = “nobody here” = often used when talking about something vague to ensure your friends it’s not indirectly to or about them / “sometimes i just wanna..... tell someone to shut the fuck up /nbh”, 

“/nay = not at you / used when saying something but not meaning it at the person you’re responding to / “god i can’t stand lame people /nay”, 

“/ay = “at you”, make the person aware you’re addressing them”, 

“/g or /gen = used when saying or asking something for real / “i’m proud of you /g” or “have you watched the news?? /gen”, 

“/th = threat, used when giving a genuine threat / “if you don’t stop, i’ll block you /th”, 

“/p = platonic, a friendship type of love, used when saying something with platonic intentions / “i love you /p”, 

“/r = romantic intentions, typically of partners when saying something with romantic intentions / “i love you /r””, 

“/a = alterous, an attraction best described as wanting emotional closeness without necessarily being at all or entirely platonic and/or romantic, used when saying with alterous intentions / “i love you /a””

“/m = metaphor / used when saying something metaphorically / “god you’re a shining star /m””

“/li = literal / used when saying something literally / “i hate pears /li””

“/rh = rhetorical / a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer / used when saying or asking something rhetorically / “who cares? /rh””

“/hyp = hyperbole, exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally ; “i have a million things to do today”

“/sx = sexual intent, used when meaning something in a sexual way”, 

“/nsx = nonsexual intent, used when meaning something in a not sexual way”, 

“/pos = positive / used when saying something and meaning it in a positive way / “omg im gonna cry /pos”, implied they’re crying for a happy reason”, 

“/neg = negative / used when saying something and meaning it in a negative way / “omg im gonna cry /neg”, implied they’re crying for an upsetting reason”, and 

“/neu = neutral / used to show that what you’re saying is neutral or that you feel indifferent about it / “yeah i don’t care man do what you want /neu”, you don’t care about something but not in a mean or a negative way, you’re just indifferent”.

on a final note, HERE is a list of tone tags both in english and in other languages ( namely italian, spanish, portuguese, french, polish, german, lithuanian, serbian, dutch, indonesian, romanian, bulgarian, russian, hebrew, japanese, mandarin and korean !! ) and HERE are the list of sources about the content of tone tags !! i wish everyone reading this a lovely day !!

Radfem-friend anon from earlier! My friend does (at least seem to) genuinely care about my transition and making sure I'm comfortable/getting gendered properly and cares about other trans people getting the same respect, and I find it really hard to believe she'd intentionally hurt anyone? I've also found myself agreeing with a lot of the radfem stuff she posts and it doesn't seem as bad as people make it out to be?? Idk if I'm being swayed, should I still be concerned about this?

Yes, I think you should.

It’s difficult to talk about stuff like this for a couple reasons. The first is that we run the risk of making radfem communities seem appealing through internet atrocity tourism—the urge that makes people, say, hateread blogs they don’t like or lurk in horrible subreddits to make fun of them. When a whole bunch of people tell you how awful something is, and you haven’t necessarily experienced that awfulness as a direct target, or haven’t seen someone you care about be a target, it’s tough to consider the harm that the thing has in the concrete rather than the abstract.

Then, when you have trouble seeing it as concrete and real and affecting people’s lives, it becomes a lot easier to say “well this doesn’t seem so bad”. The harm becomes hypothetical, and the thing in front of your eyes seems a lot more salient. This means that you don’t have a readily accessible “defense” in your mind that you can compare someone’s words to, and it makes it a lot harder to counteract what they’re saying to you.

Think about, for example, a homophobic relative that you see during holidays. Say it’s your uncle Steve. Every time Steve says something homophobic about Gay Marriage, you might think of your own relationship, if you’re part of the acronym community, or you might think about your gay friends Jean-Paul and Kyle and how they’re scared to hold hands in public. Your cousin Wanda is a lesbian, and just married, and she gets mad at Steve because she’d waited to be legally married for a very long time. These are personal connections. Steve knows that you have those connections, and he chose to say homophobic things anyways.

But your aunt Peggy is straight, and doesn’t know very many gay people, and she says you’re just being too hard on Steve. It’s not like he wants to personally deny gay people marriage licenses, and besides, she has a gay friend, Natasha, who thinks that you should just sit down and talk to Steve to convince him of your view. Maybe Steve doesn’t outright say “the gays are ruining marriage”, he just says that he thinks you should have to marry for the “right reasons”, and that you should have to “prove you’re really in a relationship”. These are statements that you might, on the surface, agree with—you think hey, marriage is a big commitment, maybe people should have to swear that they’re doing it for love. But Steve isn’t saying these things because he believes in the sanctity of love, he’s saying them because they don’t sound as outright homophobic.

Maybe Steve is a huge racist and is saying this about immigration. Maybe he’s saying it about disabled people on welfare. Maybe Steve is a TERF—instead of marriage, he’s talking about medical transition, and claiming that people should prove they’re transitioning for the right reasons, because it’s a big irreversible decision, and you should prove that you’re a real transsexual with real dysphoria in order to seek medical care. Some of these things, if you see them outside of context, you might kneejerk agree with—“hey, medical transition is a big and irreversible decision, maybe we should make sure that people are really sure before they do it”. It’s not a moral failure to kneejerk agree with these statements, because they’re worded very intentionally to get you to do that. They give you a little bit of truth (“many parts of medical transition are irreversible”) and then, once their foot’s in the metaphorical door, it’s a lot easier for them to get you to agree with the rest. This is literally called the foot-in-the-door technique.

TERFs apply this technique constantly. Online, it’s wrapped up in concern trolling—e.g. “don’t you think that we should protect children from being attacked in locker rooms?”. You want to agree with that statement, because who doesn’t want to protect children? Children being attacked is objectively a bad thing. The words that they say are explicit content—children, attack. These are what you read. The meaning of their words is implicit content—they are trying to get you to agree with the concept “trans women are dangerous”. In order to do that, they hide the target (trans women), often omitting the idea of the perpetrator entirely; it becomes a question of children, the “victims”, being “attacked” by a nebulous force on which your mind can project whatever it thinks is the scariest thing that children could be attacked by. Once they have you agreeing with that sentence, they introduce the next concept, maybe “did you know that men commit more violent crimes than women do?”. Again, explicit versus implicit content—the phrasing itself is not factually incorrect, and you want to agree with it. But they don’t mean men when they say the word, because they view AMAB trans people, particularly trans women, as men, and they’re trying to get you to make that association too.

This goes bit, by bit, by bit, until you’ve agreed to a whole bunch of premises that seem logical and then suddenly you’re tricked into agreeing to things that are very explicitly transphobic. All along the way, you’ll be praised for listening, for being logical, and for finding people who really care about you. Every time you agree with a statement, you will be reinforced somehow—your friend might say they’re happy you agree, or randos on tumblr might like your posts or send you hearts. If you agree with someone else, you will also feel a social link to them (which is why this article is so resonant; cw ableist language), which is inherently reinforcing—who doesn’t like to belong to a community?

And that is the second reason why it’s difficult to talk about things like this. TERFs call trans communities “cults” a lot, and will refer to people from said communities who interact with them as “desisters”, or frame them as escapees from some dangerous ideology. Ironically, TERF rhetoric is textbook cult tactics. But just me telling you that, even though it’s true, sets up this “us vs. them” concept—even though it is that, because they are inherently opposed to our existence. But because I’ve said those words, too, when you see something that doesn’t seem that bad, it doesn’t fit with the concept of TERFs in your head. So you think wait, maybe these people aren’t really so bad. And then they have an opening to try this kind of language on you, trickling it past you bit by bit until you’re in the middle of the river and being swept along.

That’s why I’ve written all of this out. I don’t want to tell you “cut your friend off and don’t read that”, because you’d likely go “wtf hell no”, and it doesn’t help explain why trans communities are largely so insistent about no-platforming TERFs. Instead, I want to urge you to evaluate everything you read with a critical eye, and to ask yourself “is there any hidden meaning to this language that I might not immediately see? what does this person really mean when they say this? what motivations could they have? what would people I trust say if they read this?”. That applies for everything you read, including from us—I generally try to lay things out in detail, personally, because I think that it helps people to be able to see someone’s intentions. You know, writing into this blog, that we’re a group of trans people who have an interest in not exposing ourselves or our followers to transphobia. You also know from Rabbit’s previous response that at least a few of us (some of our answers go through committee behind the scenes) feel strongly about no-platforming TERF ideology.

It is fully possible that your friend does legitimately care about you, just like it’s possible that your homophobic uncle Steve cares about you, his trans nibling, or like it’s possible that Peggy and Natasha are actually friends despite Peggy’s apologism. But you should be careful not to let that care and the social bond between you two overshadow the impact of someone’s words on the world. You might love Steve because he’s family, but he still lobbies his congressperson to challenge Obergefell v. Hodges and reverse the legalization of same-gender marriage in the States. You might have a friend who’s a TERF, or a radfem adopting TERF ideology over time, but you should examine the impact that the things she believes have on trans people’s access to legal recognition, medical care, and quality of life. Be wary, read with a critical eye, and understand people’s motivations so that you can protect yourself and others.

- Mod Wolf

Your fantasy world is so overwhelmingly amazing and detailed; every time I see it it tears my eyes a little bc it's so amazing to see!! Have you thought of doing a comic or zine??

Ohgg, thank you so much!! Nanyevimi is so complicated (in my head) and there’s so much I feel like I’ll never be able to touch on, so as an overly detail focused type person I always feel bad about not having enough nuance or not giving enough info to things (or giving too much in a boring way), so your compliment is meaningful as an indication that perhaps things are better than I thought lol! I really appreciate it~ 

About comics and stuff: no! Unfortunately, I am bad at plot and figuring out how to make conflict (I’ve spent a majority of my life playing puzzle games and analyzing human behavior and fixing things and my mind really has a strong compulsion to figure out everything and RESOLVE everything possible, to create order,, so I usually am 100% stumped as to how to initiate conflict in a story since my brain is just like “oh yeah but that would easily be fixed if the character just acted rationally and did X, X, and X” , like I’m such a ‘’solver’’ type person I resolve my own conflict before it can even begin and I have a lot of trouble thinking of ‘compelling thing that could happen to be the central focus of a story’ since I just want everything to be logical and make sense all the time lol), so I couldn’t ever come up with a story to begin with. I can spend months fleshing out elaborate background details and designing what a world would look like and creating religions and languages and cultures and history and etc. and even individual characters down to how they would walk or which way they would hold a pencil, but then ask me to actually like… DO SOMETHING.. with any of those things.. move them forward or create a narrative out of them, I’m  just like

I’ve written a few things in the past but they’re all psychology focused short stories written in first person like diaries of characters and etc., since I’m better at taking a narrow focus on the fine details of internal thoughts and personal flaws rather than broad world stuff (you don’t really have to manufacture much conflict and consider grand scale history or etc., a very flawed person’s main conflict is with themselves, and that’s simple to figure out once you know their traits intimately, and if it’s a short story again, there’s not much of a broader plot for me to ruin with my conflict-solving nature), and I plan to maybe make a game set in Nayevimi but again, that would be simplistic and character focused and mostly just lighthearted casually talking to people in the world with not much of a larger goal, rather than something broad scale having to do with the more complex state of things. 

I absolutely love building background details and coming up with everything about a setting and characters, but I’m just not very good at inciting plot since most plots start with a problem and my brain just.. likes to fix problems too much to come up with good ones or really let them linger (I’m bad with building mystery too since my compulsion is to lay out every detail of everything and solve the unknown, rather than leaving it as something to be compelling I want to further over-explain and flesh out everything bhbb, the same detail obsession that makes me enjoy worldbuilding in the first place ends up causing me to never be able to do anything with my worlds lmao). I’d probably be better off collaborating with someone or working on a team where I design all the details of the world/setting, characters, groups in the world, background history, etc. etc. and then they just have to.. like.. find… something to actually damn do with it all lmao ,, but I don’t know anyone in my life that I get along with who’s interested in something like that, and idk what type of job position that would even be called (”that one weird hermit who is like, ALMOST filling the role of writer but they can’t actually WRITE so they’re just like, that little bastard that designs a bunch of plants and fake religions”) so I wouldn’t be able to do it in a more official/professional context either (in addition to being probably too disabled to handle most types of actual employment anyway).  It’d be cool to find an actual application for what I’m doing but, for now I’ll just keep making species and stuff because it’s very fun and relaxing lmao, maybe one day I’ll collaborate with someone who has plot ideas and actually have a use for all of it but, I think it’s worth doing just as a side hobby even if I’m not working towards a main goal, even if that’s all it ever is lol. I used to be very caught up on having a grander purpose and frustrated by my plot ineptitude but I feel a lot better since accepting that nothing really HAS to have a plot or overarching goal for it to still be worth doing, I’ll put hours and hours into talking about random aspects of magic just because I find it personally compelling, and if one day I have a use for it then that’s great, and if not, that’s cool too since I’m still enamored with the bare process of it all lol. 

Anyway, yeah unfortunately not!!! I sometimes wish I had something more Big And Significant to show for my efforts like a book or game or comic or etc, but for now and in the foreseeable future I’m just doing worlbuilding stuff since it’s fun with no grander purpose or narrative, since my brain can just like.. barely cognitively process the concept of plot and for all the details I can create I legit can never harvest even the most basic idea for a story lmao bhbbb. But thank you for asking! I hope you have a nice day ~ 

[ 5 March — 14 March, 2021 ]

1K Pages Readathon wrap-up

Here are all the books i read for #1kpagesmarch challenge! 💗

Total pages read: 1104 / 1000 (if my math is correct)

Here are my book reviews:

The Old King in His Exile (2017) by Arno Geiger

Arno Geiger tell in great detail of his father's slow change into dementia, how his strange behavior and mannerism suddenly isn't made to fit in their everyday life, as if he'd been put in exile. But also of his father's childhood, in a way to explain the new ideas and needs the illness put in the old man's head. Beautiful story of a man struggling to chase his memories as the world around turn stranger. 180 pages 🌟 4/5 stars

- - - - -

Diary (1956) by Olof Lagercrantz

Went into this book blind, don't think i've read this author's books before. Idk, i couldn't get into it. The text doesn't feel 100% genuine, feels written specifically for an audience instead of personal journal and even if the language is poetic - is like uninteresting smalltalk. Olof lives near a graveyard, and when he isn't thinking deeply about death and life, he mention cute women he has seen during the day. I dropped this book at 55 pages read (out of 159 pages), giving it 1/5 stars 🌟

- - - - -

111 Ways to Save the Planet (2019) by Jonna Karvonen and Marie Schjulström

111 listed ways to save the environment as a single human being! First the book tell of the bigger picture, if each person change their old ways and educate, we are bound to make a difference. If not for everyone else, at least do it for the animals.

I haven't read much environmental books but after some severe signs of our dying earth lately, i felt i wanted to do something but had no idea what. Found myself incredibly inspired by this book! Many of the points speaks to different kind of people: like the regular joe or the broke student or the business owner or a parent. Like the book have something that everyone can do within their own restrictions and boundaries.

I used post-its to remember a few points that spoke to me. 92 pages and 5/5 stars 🌟

- - - - -

Aniara (1956) by Harry Martinson

Tried reading this sci-fi novel after watching a super interesting youtube movie review, but the language of the book made me too impatient to continue. The concept sound insanely good though! The spaceship Aniara on its way to Mars suddenly end up off course and hover indefinitely waiting for an asteroid to help turn them back, but as the years go by, the passengers grow more desperate and crazier.

When reached chapter 15 (out of 200) i felt frustrated, like "i can't go on like this". Got myself through only 32 pages out 188 pages before calling it quits. 2/5 stars 🌟

- - - - -

Homework (1989) by various authors*

Anthology short stories about childhood school memories from early 1910s up to 1960s. Very interesting how school looked, worked and felt like during those days - more god praising and physical punishment than i far expected. But every story had something i enjoyed reading. 223 pages, 4/5 stars 🌟

*Bengt Anderberg, Mats Arvidsson, Sun Axelsson, Jonas Gardell, Lotten Gustafsson, Staffan Göthe, Cecilia Hagen, P. C. Jersild, Nina Lekander, Bodil Malmsten, Agneta Pleijel, Margareta Strömstedt, Maarja Talgre, Karl Vennberg, Claire Wikholm, Herta Wirén and Pia Zandelin. Editor: Lena Persson.

- - - - -

Desperate Characters (1970) by Paula Fox

Sophie and Otto are a married couple in their 40s. She is a bit naive or at least timid while he is cynical and bad at showing emotions.

Sophie gets bitten pretty severely by a wild cat, and for some reason she doesn't want medical attention. I think it's because the bite is the most exciting thing happening to her life since forever, or maybe she just doesn't want to be a bother? So she let it become infected spreading up her arm, but with the pain, her personality changes from being someone passive - to being able to argue, angry and be loud.

Meanwhile Otto has a problem of his own. His longtime business partner and friend Charlie has decided to start his own lawyer company. Charlie manipulate their customers to turn their back on Otto and join his new company. At first Otto is very cold about this, as if he doesn't care but as the story progresses he slowly open up how betrayed and hurt he feels about the whole ordeal.

Other stuff happen in between, memories of when Sophie had a secret romance with someone else, their house get vandalized, they go to dinner parties.

All the other characters speak in this weird similiar manner btw - they hold monologues about something that leads to another topic that leads to another, then back to the first one. It reminds me of the theater somehow. 182 pages and 3/5 stars 🌟

- - - - -

It is Strange Nowadays (2009) by Karin Flygare

Birgitta cares for her mother who slowly succumbing to dementia. It's ugly and tragic and frustrating, but also beautiful. When suddenly becoming a mother for her own mother, Birgitta finds herself struggling to maintain her own identity and life to care for a woman who is rude, reluctant and downright bothersome towards her with constant need for attention. I quote "Even though i'm worried, i'm angry over the fact that she's ruining my day." and i can't help feeling frustrated with her. Every waking moment, always calling, taking care of everything and still get no recognition. But also a child's love for their parent, staying through everything despite getting hurt. I can relate so much with my own life situation.

I know this is fiction but it all sounds so realistic, and even the care-home process feel well researched. At one point, the agent of a low quality home tries to sign themselves as their legal guardian for her mother, but luckily she is quick to notice and makes herself present. Good job! Also, good book! 207 pages and 5/5 stars 🌟

- - - - -

The Sea-man (2012) by Carl-John Wallgren

A big sister witness how some guys at school drench a cat in gasoline and sets it on fire, killing it. This leads to the bullies to daily harass her little brother who has slight intellectual disability. One day they get jumped, the brother is forced to eat dirt and the big sister get a branch shoved up her rear (no joke, wtf). Then another classmate shows up and bargain to leave them alone in exchange for something. The bullies want $100. The big sister and classmate start stealing clothes from shops to resell them. I only read to page 106 out of 287, when the sea creature finally gave an appearance. But by then they had already payed the bullies and gotten rid of the conflict. I felt exhausted and unmotivated to continue. 1/5 stars

- - - - -

In the Grip of the Lindworm (2014) by Hans Ohlsson

One of many horror stories from his novel collection called Stranger, Intruder. The story tells of a grandfather taking his granddaughter on a three day hike through mountains and forest, as a pick-me-up after a recent accident took both her parents. She is bitten by a snake during her pee break and start getting really sick. We feel stressed with grandfather as he tries to find help before it's too late. It's based on a Swedish mythological creature called Lindworm, which could bring both luck or misfourtune. Never heard of it causing illness but wish he would have filled in some info instead of relying on the reader to automatically know. I'm definitely going to continue reading this collection though! 4/5 stars and 27 pages 🌟