Summary of the book 📖 The Secret 🗝️ by Rhonda Byrne

Shout-out to loyal Joel laying down his Yellow guess on Pearl's task, deliberately incorrect, just to show her she's safe with him.

Shout-out to Mumbo immediately turning on his own team and trying to kill them horrifically with anvils. I expect no less after how wild he went in Last Life.

ok so. forgive me for a second but i've been abnormal about skizz and ren since the hiatus between third life and last life and holy shit this season is already not helping.

let's talk about skizz, ren, undying loyalty, and golden apples, shall we?

so the thing that you need to understand about skizz is that he is loyal to a fault. impulse literally says this exact thing about him in limited life, and skizz himself says himself: "you know me and my factions, i never turn." the second thing is that the first person their loyalty manifests for in third life is ren. he and ren run into each other on the second night when ren is getting accosted by mobs outside skizz's door and skizz gives him a place to stay the night. ren decides to trade skizz for his leather, for the upcoming enchanting buisness, and gives skizz a golden apple in exchange. skizz thinks this is wildly more than he deserves but is very thankful. skizz doesn't say it here, but this is the moment he swears his loyalty to ren.

throughout third life, he is willing to do or get basically anything for ren. the two of them literally die together to the tnt trap. when ren dies on the alter and everyone thinks martyn betrayed him, skizz is the first person to get there in the morning. he's in half broken gold armor and borrowed tools from bigb and he still tells ren "get behind me", still tries to protect him from martyn. when skizz is on red, he goes a bit crazy, but he channels that bloodlust into protecting ren. he kills jimmy in the red desert, he kills cleo when she tries to attack ren, he chases down impulse when he betrays dogwarts and dies trying to kill him.

when skizz dies in third life, he's got an unused golden apple in his hotbar. after he dies, he remembers the first time he met ren, etho, and martyn, and he spends quite a bit of time on his memory of ren and ren appears in his first memory of etho. after he dies, ren wields a blade named in his honor.

skizz spends third life loyal to ren- he dies for him and he dies with him.

in last life, ren and skizz end up on completely different sides, and it very quickly gets bad because when ren becomes boogey, he kills skizz. he lures him into a trap. he tells skizz he loves him. skizz literally says "i am broken hearted" when ren kills him. ren holds no regard for the relationship they used to have and yet skizz cannot help but compliment ren's skill with the trap, outright says he can't be mad at ren.

and then it only gets worse because skizz tries to storm ren's tower with impulse after they've gone red. and that! doesn't go well! and while skizz is retreating, while he is eating the golden apple in his hot bar, ren shoots him dead.

and that is the last time they've spoken. two years ago.

because skizz isn't in doublt life. and ren isn't in limited life.

and when skizz's time comes in limited life, he ensures he doesn't have a golden apple in his inventory this time. this time, he hands the apples off to his teammates, where he knows they will go to good use. and then he hands etho a diamond fucking axe (red winter is coming) and asks him to execute him for the sake of their alliance. ok! sure! fill ren's role more explicitly, why don't you!

and that first session of secret life genuinely only made it worse. when skizz is talking to tango and cleo about their alliance, skizz says he wants to give leadership over to someone else: "i want to be more of a soldier than a leader this time." cleo says she'll fill the roll of leader- she doesn't take orders well - and then seals their alliance by giving tango and skizz a golden apple each. because of course she does.

and well, we all know that didn't really work out, so that's one person off the list that skizz can fill the dogwarts shaped hole in him with, so then he goes to bdubs. he says he'll lay his sword at bdubs' feet. he says he'll win bdubs with his loyalty. he calls bdubs "my leige", jesus christ dude, you couldn't be less subtle unless you straight up called him ren's name.

skizz has been (whether accidentally or on purpose is up to you) trying to recreate the experience he had with dogwarts, and particularly what he had with ren, since the moment dogwarts fell. he can't have it with ren because he missed his only chance in last life, so he'll fill the void with whoever he can. his fellow soldier. ren's successor. ren's new kingmaker. anyone. and it's never gonna work. i need ren to come back for like, 900 reasons, but i especially need him to come back so skizz can have a shot at making it to spring.

Fedz, I am horrified by your tags. Summaries are fun and easy? I have delayed fic posting by several days because summaries are awful to write. While I have never taken longer than five minutes to find a fic title. What is your secret? Whose soul did you steal for that power?

You take FIVE MINUTES to find a fic title?! You can just pick a specific limited number of words to encompass the entirety (tone, theme, brand) of your fic within 300 seconds, the tenth of the amount of time it takes for me to wake up in the morning?! THE TITLE, which might be acronymized one day and what your readers will refer to when they talk about it in their little servers and blogs and tiktoks? Do you have any idea how much I fret over accidentally making my titles have an accidentally rude acronym? Or how sometimes my first titles are too bland, easily recreated and duplicated? You pick them in five minutes and they're iconic as is??

Summaries are fun because I literally just spit on the keyboard and the summary box is filled for me. Better than A.I. (Not that I'd ever use it). If only I could do the same for the main body of my fics.

The Secret History

Author: Donna Tartt

Book: 1/1

Genre: fiction, mystery/thriller

Summary: The Secret History is a thrilling novel told through the eyes of Richard Papen. He narrates the story of his and his college classmates’ act of murder and the desperate measures taken to keep their secret hidden.

Review: If a work of art could be transformed into literature, The Secret History would be it. It was dark, mysterious, fascinating, and fulfilled all my dark academia dreams. Tartt’s story structure and pacing was perfect; it was as though each major part of the story blossomed before my eyes as new details were revealed and secrets were uncovered. What made this book stand out to me was how the plot emerged. Tartt would reveal key plot points before they would happen, making it almost feel like a spoiler. This was what grabbed my attention and made me desperate to read more; every page turn was thrilling. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mysteries, thrillers, and a dark academia aesthetic.

Rating: 5/5 stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Keep reading☕️

Less than half of these are actually On my blog oops

my 2023 scribbles 🌼

Silver Mulan AU

(image for this au here)

Silver is a girl here, taken in and raised by the fae General Lilia. Despite her father adoring her as his angel, Silver always felt like a burden on him. Not only was she always told by others that she owed Lilia for raising her but she was human which brought discrimination to them (though not for long once Lilia found out). On top of that, she was a girl so she couldn’t even inherit the name. She tries to bring honor to the family by applying to the matchmaker—something her father only supports for her sake as he worries about what will happen to her if he dies before her. However, things go wrong due to honest mistakes and Silver is told she’ll never be a bride and only a mistress at best. Lilia tries to cheer her up but then he gets the summonace to war against anti-magical people. The big issue, however, is that at this time Lilia has lost his magic. The two argue about his leaving and Silver, concerned for his life, decides to take his place even though she’s aware she’ll be executed if discovered. She cuts her hair and takes her father’s armor which resizes itself magically to fit her. (Though she needs to make other adjustments to it to hide her—assets, as she’s well endowed.) After going to the army camp, she’s lucky enough to meet up with her childhood friend Sebek who helps keep her identity a secret from the other soldiers. There are difficulties but luckily Lilia had trained her alongside Sebek so she could defend herself. (He was convinced that she was so cute someone would try to steal her away, or worse.) Because of this, Silver was able to impress her peers, even her commander, Riddle. They get a letter for help and discover the destroyed village, which is covered in red lotuses. They are attacked on the mountain but Silver defeats the army by causing an avalanche. As the snow falls, she saves Riddle but is injured. This leads to everyone learning Silver is a woman. It’s nearly off with her head, but Riddle spares her as repayment for his own life. Sebek stays behind to help her, despite the dishonor this would bring on his family, and the two start to head back iun shame. However, along the way they discover that the villains survived. The villains attack the capital and Malleus is nearly captured but Silver and Sebek arrive to save him. This earns Silver warrior honors despite her gender and she is offered a position as his royal guard. She requests to talk to her father first. She returns home with her boons, but all Lilia cares about is his daughter and embraces her in tears. After this, she takes up a position as Malleus’ guard and a war hero.

the nursery rhyme puzzles might be one of my favorite parts of game. They’re one of the aspects of Saga’s storyline that early on introduce the FBC and the theme of fiction with reality that would be an entire case for her, and later a major source of conflict. All the whimsical poems and dolls that are soon revealed to have direct correlation to Saga and her worries. Is it all a coincidence? Was the act of making this art already affected by Saga’s role and that’s why some of the rhymes are personal? It adds to the mystery that’ll likely never be fully answered, and makes Saga and the player uneasy.

Then, the final doll!—the father that looks like a certain talk show host in the dark place, holding his child. Specifically contained away from any other dolls and the witchfinder’s station, but never given a reason why. Of course, there’s a creepy poem repeated over the station paralleling Saga’s life, but I love that it speaks of the father, Door, keeping an eye on and trying to protect the hero, Saga.

Naturally, Campbell, the annoying FBC researcher, was listening in and wanted to see Saga face the consequences of opening a threshold and seeing what comes through the “doorway.” Only for him to die (?) instead. Such a classic mad scientist ending; It’s comically funny after the haunting mystery of the station. While it could simply be him being sent or consumed by the Dark Place, the chance that it could be Mr. Door watching Campbell try to sabotage his daughter and opening a door for Campbell to face whatever Horrors of the dark place is. so good. What a conclusion to what seemed like a fairly nonsensical puzzle side quest.

"I think it would be easier if we were a team."

Day Five of @bylerweek2023 - Secret Identities aka - the Modern!Byler + DnD AU no one asked for

The details for their character sheets came from here + here, though only Mike's is confirmed secondary media. The details + story behind these versions of byler under the cut!

The Secret

The Cleric (Will) & The Paladin (Mike) have been playing digital campaigns together for nearly five years now, after Mike‘s then-newfound investment in Critical Role inspired him to hunt for an online DnD game to play for himself.

Inseparable on the pixelated battlefield, their half a decade of campaigning together has slowly turned them into the best of (digital) friends, as they’ve shared their deepest secrets in the anonymous-but-meaningful way you can only online. From Will admitting that his main concern even outside being ridiculed for his sexuality is healing from childhood PTSD to Mike admitting that his picture-perfect family hates his interests and would never accept that he likes guys, both of them have learned to defer to each other in and out of campaigns—they have grown deeply fond of each other through their characters’ adventures…and chats that mean more to both of them than they would dare admit aloud.

Even so, all the Cleric and the Paladin really know about each other on a practical level is that they’re both 20 this year, are both in college now, and that they both come from the Midwest—though they do hope to meet one day if it ever makes sense.

There really is nothing like a friend who gets to see the sides of you you’re not allowed to show in any other space—and neither of them wants to live their entire lives without someone who treats them as well as their longtime D&D companion.

The Identities

Mike Wheeler and Will Byers have been in each other’s orbit since elementary school in Hawkins, though Will’s been pretty distant about keeping tabs on Mike since he dated (and subsequently broke up) with his sister El during freshman year. Mike always enjoyed the time he spent with Will and could tell that Will felt the same, though Mike knew from the second he broke up with El that Will’s love for his family was going to take precedence over their mutual interest in the same (nerdy) things—the same way it did for his sister Nancy when she broke up with Will’s brother, Jonathan, when they went to college.

It’s been years since that happened now, though—and the last time Mike spoke to Will was when they gave each other a friendly hug goodbye the day of high school graduation. Now well into his 3rd year of college, Mike only knows that Will goes to IU just like he does…but on a campus of over 30,000 people and as an English major to Will’s Visual Arts, it’s not like they see each other.

Even so, time away from his exacting family has made Mike more comfortable, and he has slowly realized that it’s time to branch out of his solely hypothetical “rebellious” spaces and into meeting real people who share his interests—to fully embrace is love of DnD in real life to learn the fine art of figurine painting, soak up all the wisdom to be found in classic printed dungeon master guides, and experience the ruckus of a well-strategized in-person campaign. That’s why, on one rainy Friday night in March, he wanders into the Hellfire Club—the on-campus DnD group he’s heard of but never been brave enough to join.

Given his knowledge of Will from all those years ago, seeing the guy he grew up with sitting next to him for Eddie Munson’s grungy basement campaign wasn’t all that much of a surprise, actually. What was a surprise was what happened when he looked down at the table in front of the boy next to him….only to see “Will the Wise” at the top of Will Byers character sheet, plain as day.

tl;dr - you're 20, and your long-time online crush bestie who knows all your secrets turns out to be the brother of the girl you dated for five seconds at 14. Chaos ensues.

SECRET SANTA ART for zyuna (instagram | twitter) of their mh avatar playing with a palamute 🐺🏀

✨️ Sunday Summary ✨️

🦋 I started drafting an additional set of scenes to conclude the main prologue section. Originally it was just a scene for Noah, but I'm playing around with making branches for each of the interests instead. I'm still undecided whether I will keep it in or not, but thought I may as well draft it out and see how I feel after!

🦋 I've been working out all the different assets I'll need and have created design docs for each of them to help steer me as I work through the lists!

🦋 I've started making thumbnail designs and sketches for backgrounds! There's going to be quite a few in the prologue but fortunately most of them will be used in the routes so it's effort now that will hopefully save more time when I get onto the routes and the full game!!

🦋 I've been chatting and answering questions on my new discord server!! 😊 It's been a lot of fun sharing my excitement and hyperfixations with others! Do come and join if you'd like, I'd love to have you!!

I've also included a screenshot of my canvas which has my draft and all my thoughts written on there! I tend to write by hand as I find things flow better, but as you can see it ends up very messy! 😂 Still, the draft has come together and I've covered all the main branches so excited to start writing more formally!

WIP summary tag

Thanks @illarian-rambling for the tag here!

Rules: give a summary of your WIP in fifteen bullet points, each 2-5 words long

Let's do The Secret Portal Part One

Secret portalllll

Attached to a middle school?

Alternate dimension??

War??? Prejudice???

You have superpowers! Congratulations!

So many POVs

This is funny right (-me)

Sprinkle in some angst!

Oops! All queer

Oops! All neurodivergent

Mommy issues here

Daddy issues there

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Cute wholesome fun

FUCK depressing cliffhanger??

Anyways let's do an open tag this time

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @fairy-tales-of-yesterday

Art summary but I ignored the months and picked my favorites! :D

This year is probably my most fruitful in a while! For a long time all my art was school related, but not anymore! I had a blast creating this year and hope I can continue this trend through 2024 :)

I posted this, along with each artwork on my TikTok and twitter if you’d like to see full images.

Anyway, hope everyone has a happy new year and I’ll see y’all in 2024!!

Rebelcaptain Trees for @rebelrainfall​: Firefighters AU (with bonus secret relationship and protective Jyn)

“I don’t care,” Jyn’s voice rang out loudly in the room as she tried to wave off Bodhi’s attempts to keep her lying in that goddamn hospital bed, “I want to see him!”

“The doctor told you to stay put — hey.” With lightning-fast reflexes, he caught her just as her legs began to wobble, then gave her a pointed look that said “See?”

“Then get me a goddamn wheelchair,” she growled through gritted teeth but allowed Bodhi to help her back to bed. Normally, she wouldn’t have caved so easily. But maybe he had a point… She hadn’t expected her legs to feel so wobbly or the room to start swimming when she stood up, and she wasn’t sure she could make it to Cassian’s room.

But she needed to see him.

Needed to know he was okay.

Or maybe he wasn’t. Bodhi said he had two surgeries while she was unconscious and he hadn’t woken up yet, but not much else. She was afraid of how much he was holding back in order to spare her while she was still in recovery as well. If anything was seriously wrong, he’d tell her, right?

“Jyn, you really should rest. I know you two are close, but —”

“No, you don’t!” she snapped, forgetting herself for a second. Of course he didn’t know. He couldn’t have, because they never told anybody.

There were reasons for that, once, but she was struggling to recall them now.

It was just so easy at first. They sneaked behind their friends’ backs like teenagers, making out in the alleyway behind the bar on drinking nights or holding hands under the table while everyone was preoccupied. There was some kind of thrill in the secrecy, in catching Cassian’s eyes across the table and seeing them sparkle with the same excitement, in knowing this belonged only to them and no one else. A room full of people, and they were all oblivious to the truth. Their little secret.

But they never committed, not really. They didn’t want to upset the team dynamic, they said. Didn’t want to be serious with someone who risked their lives on a weekly basis just as much as themselves. It was just some good fun. Or it was supposed to be.

But somewhere along the way, she’d fallen. Hard. And she never realized it, not until he pushed her out of the way of that falling beam in that crumbling house eaten by fire and told her to go. It hadn’t fallen on him, thankfully, but it had obstructed the only way downstairs and out of the building, and as Jyn looked at him, she knew they both had the same thought. He wasn’t leaving.

The crying child in her arms was the only thing that gave her strength to turn around and leave him there. Still, she promised him, “I’m coming back.”

But as soon as the little girl was safe outside, her vision went blurry and her knees buckled. She’d inhaled too much smoke. She’d wanted to get up, to go back, but darkness swallowed her instead.

When she woke up in the hospital, she thought he was dead, and for a shamefully long second, she wished she hadn’t woken up at all. But the floorboard on the second floor gave away, and Cassian fell through, landing in the living room and allowing the rest of the team to extract him in time. Bodhi said it fucked up his back, which was why he needed surgery, but it also very likely saved his life.

And she needed to see that with her own two eyes. Living and breathing. She needed to replace the last memory she had of him; standing on the other end of that beam, reserved to his fate but apologetic and his face behind his helmet shining with a thousand things he never said to her. Not aloud.

She needed to hear him say those things, and she needed to say them back.

Realization dawning on Bodhi, his eyes went wide. “You two are…?”

Jyn let out a small groan, taking deep breaths to try and slow her racing heart. There was no point in denying the truth; she wasn’t sure she wanted to anyway. Sneaking around was fun at first, but she wanted more than that now. She wanted the real deal. And the thought of letting Cassian go through his recovery alone while she pretended there was nothing between them made her sick. Nothing was worth abandoning him again.

“Please just…” She raised her gaze to Bodhi, pleading with him. “I need to see him.”

xxx

The rest of their team had congregated at Cassian’s bedside when Bodhi wheeled her into the room. Faces immediately turned in her direction, questions and well wishes on everyone’s lips, but Jyn only had eyes for Cassian. He was still unconscious, but his chest rose and fell with steady breaths, and her eyes welled up at the sight. Bodhi parked her next to his bed, close enough that she could reach out and graze her fingers along Cassian’s stubble.

Which she did. So what if everyone was watching? The truth was already out now that Bodhi knew.

Her hand still gently caressing his cheek, Jyn closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath, willing the tears away. That suffocating weight on her chest began to ease a bit.

“Is he going to wake up?” she asked, turning to face the rest of their team watching her in silence. No one commented on the slight quiver in her voice, or the way her hand was now clutching Cassian’s hospital gown like a lifeline, but she could see the realization written on their faces. And she felt nothing but relief to have it out in the open.

“Doctor said he should wake up soon,” Melshi confirmed, his tone reassuring. “He might not be able to stay on the squad with his back but —”

“I don’t care about that,” Jyn cut him off, turning back to stare at Cassian again. None of it mattered as long as he was safe. “I just want him to wake up.”

She curled her hand around his, lacing their fingers together. She’d wait by his side until he did. And then she’d tell him how she felt and kiss him. And make sure he never got into so much trouble again.

Lifting their hands, she pressed her lips to his palm and whispered against his skin, “Come back to me.”

Cassian’s fingers twitched under hers, and her gaze flew up to see his eyelids fluttering with movement. The breath whooshed out of her in a shuddering gasp, and a couple of tears escaped her anyway as she squeezed his hand to let him know she was here.

She wouldn’t be leaving him again.

“The dead appear to us in dreams, because that’s the only way they can make us see them; what we see is only a projection, beamed from a great distance, light shining at us from a dead star…”

— Donna Tartt, The Secret History