🦊🌱🌵🕋🥬🌈

Trash side blog

[byjove]

I like stories where a normal human child is being raised by a sinister supernatural being who is totally malevolent except when it comes to their kid. Those are so much better than the “kids are scary” changeling type horror movies.

[byjove]

Like a perfectly well-adjusted well-mannered friendly child that is like “This is my dad, Surazal. He comes out of the mirrors in dark rooms. He makes really good blood pudding but he’s bad at playing catch. Most people can’t see his corporal form but I can because he says I have special eyes.”

[byjove]

“Mom says that you can stay over but you have to promise not to leave my room between midnight and 1 am. You can play Mario Cart with me! But you have to knock on every closed door in the house before entering just because dad might be in there and if you look upon his visage without drinking the holy fruit juice, you might go crazy or something. Also dad is really excited I have a new friend and he’s going to to make hardtack and mystery stew for us! You’ll love it!”

[byjove]

In high school the kid gets a friend that is an amateur demonologist who initially befriends them in hopes of exorcizing their house but ends up becoming buddies with Surazal too because they crave parental affection.

[byjove]

Surazal stands at the end of the vast dark hallway and says “You Too Have Special Eyes, Little One. You Can See Me Without Being Taken By The Madness. Within You, I Sense Great Turmoil And Sadness. In My Younger Years, I Would Have Exploited The Sadness As Weakness In Your Very Soul. I Would Have Worn Your Skin Like A Mask And Run Through The Village Streets, Supping Blood From Every Man I Encountered. But Now I Have No Use For Woe. Perhaps You Would Like To Watch Beetlejuice In The Family Room With My Daughter While I Prepare Cupcakes. I Am Sensing You Have A Fondness for Red Velvet.”

[rotationalsymmetry]

Monsterfucking is out. Monsterparenting is in.

[halalgender]

The Last Human (in a Crowded Galaxy)

She's the galaxy's worst nightmare: a Human. Fortunately, she's the last one. Now her adoptive (alien) mother is realizing that raising a yo

[shayesinterlude]

Aftg peter pan au but Andrew’s Peter pan.

Emo black clad doc martins Peter pan Andrew or Peter pan Andrew in a green I’m a little lad who loves berries and cream get up. I don’t know which is better.

Instead of a whole love story thing it’s like a parent trap thing and we have Aaron as Wendy.

Like maybe Andrew and Neil zipping around London messing around?

Neil hovering teasingly in front of what they don’t know yet, is Aaron’s open bedroom window, when Andrew shoots forward after him and they both fly through. (or something)

Aaron and Andrew see they’re literally identical and Andrew’s like, “yeah, you’re coming home with me.”and Aaron’s like “fine. anything for just a second away from Tilda, no would ever know.” Plus he wants answers from his apparent twin brother. Also Andrew wouldn’t probably give him a choice.

Neil’s tinkerbell. And while he can speak in fairy language (the little bell sounds), he speaks english. But I imagine him close to fluent in all the other languages native to Neverland. I feel like Andrew would also know the fairy language. (Kind of like how they both learned Russian in Nora’s extra content? also pint sized Neil taking crap to Aaron?? priceless.

Him having to suck it up bc Andrew makes it very clear no one he lays a finger on Neil.

But that doesn’t stop them from bickering, getting in each other’s faces and being general smarta***s all the way there.

I can’t place any of the team as Wendy’s little brothers so “only child” Aaron??

The upperclassman, plus Nicky as the Lost Boys ?

Instead of the Lost Boys it’s The Foxes ??

Dan leads the “Lost Boys” instead of Andrew, and they’re way more cooler and put together than in the movie. I don’t make the rules.

Not them calling their little hide away The Foxhole.

Kevin as Princess tiger lily ??? Chief Wyamck ?????? (done correctly, without stereotypes, appropriation or racism period)

Captain hook as Rico ??

notJeanMonreauasMr.Smeed.

Inspired by an instagram post of artwork by @rainbowd00dles and @frisslimbim on instagram bc i seen fairy neil one time and now i’m obsessed.

[funnytwittertweets]

[thejostenator]

The Foxhole Cinema: Chapter Fifteen

Read on Ao3

Read on Tumblr

Neil sat on the couch, nodding every now and then as Nicky raved about his day. He'd been sitting through hours of this and it was wearing pretty thin by this point. His mother had taught him how to tune out everything but essential information, so, naturally, he’d taken in very little of the tale. He'd zoned out mere minutes into Nicky’s epic retelling, which came complete with hand motions and infuriating voices that Nicky swore were different but were really all variations on the same strange German accent.

He found himself hoping that the constant stream of noise pouring from Nicky’s mouth like blood from a wound not yet stitched was an effect of the new routine- after all, Neil was a fresh face, someone new to talk to. If Nicky stayed on like this forever, Neil might have to borrow one of Andrew’s knives and cut out his tongue.

He tuned back into the conversation, if you could even call it that, when he realised Nicky was staring intensely at him as if he was waiting for the answer to a question.

“What did you say?” Neil asked, and at Nicky’s offended look, added, “You were talking too fast- I couldn’t pick apart the words. I heard ahgdfsghfgdhfzsdlfghszdjlkgfhjkszdfg, but that was about all.”

Andrew snorted and Neil jolted in surprise. He’d been so silent that Neil had almost forgotten he was there. Somehow, Andrew had mastered the art of turning pages without making a sound, something Neil had never gotten the hang of well enough for his liking. After his Father caught him reading past lights-out twice, he’d stopped trying.

He removed his hand from where it had unconsciously drifted to his shoulder- beneath the fabric of his shirt lay the puckered red scar and bumpy red skin left by a hot iron swung through the air at him. It had never healed quite the way he’d hoped it would, but it had done exactly what Nathan had wanted. The problem was, it had done it too well.

Sure, it had been the last time he’d broken one of his Father’s rules, but it was also the last time he’d viewed him without careful calculation, the last time that careful innocence had reared its drowsy head before it was pushed back beneath the depths. His Father had chased it away, and in doing so, created the monster Neil saw when he looked at his true features in the mirror. That had been the day that Neil had started measuring the distance between him and his Father, the day where he finally tuned into his wickedness. Neil could never trust anything his Father said or did ever again, and all Nathan’s hopes for having him as an heir were flushed away. How could someone follow in your footsteps if the very sight of them, embedded in the ground by steel boots, was physically repulsive?

Nicky smiled nervously at Andrew before turning back to Neil.

“I asked why Allison was in such a huff.” He said slowly, sounding out the words like Neil was some exotic animal. Great- they’d gone from one extreme to the other. “Get it that time?”

Neil nodded, and Nicky looked relieved.

“Why did you wait so long to ask?” Neil asked. “Wouldn’t it have made more sense to ask me when you came in, before the Epic Ballad of your life and times?”

“I meant to ask earlier, but I got distracted,” Nicky admitted with a cheery grin and a shrug, “but when I got to that point in my story it reminded me. You did understand the story, right?”

“Yes,” Neil lied, and then made an educated guess based on what he already knew about Nicky from their meeting the day before, “Grumpy customers, phone call with Erik etc…”

Nicky somehow looked even more relieved, like a puppy that had been handed a treat, or a drowning person thrown a lifeline.

“You did understand!” He beamed.

“Yes,” Neil grimaced. "Once again, new, not stupid. Allison was pissy because Wymack kicked her out before she could hear the gossip."

It was a simplified retelling, lacking Nicky’s flair for the dramatic, but it would do.

“That bitch,” Nicky sighed fondly, flopping backwards. “What gossip was there?”

“You’re just as bad as her,” Andrew said. “You’ll find out soon enough since Wymack is calling his Emergency Team Meeting in a few minutes.

“But what if I want to find out now, Andrew?” Nicky whined. “What then?”

“Then you’re out of luck,” Andrew said, snapping his book closed and sweeping from the room. Renee took his place in the room, followed by Aaron and Kevin, then Allison.

“Spoilsport,” Nicky groaned at the door, leaving Kevin looking confused, before turning to Neil. “Now he’s gone, are you going to spill the beans?”

“No,” Neil said.

“Neil, apple of my eye,” Nicky said, placing his arm over Neil’s shoulders, “What would I have to do to get you to talk?”

“Stop treating me like a pet, for one,” Neil snapped, shaking off Nicky’s arm and rising from the couch in one sharp motion, “You all can. I’m not some exotic animal here to be prodded, poked and pampered. I don’t need fancy clothes to dress up in or trinkets, whistles and bells. I don’t need friends, and I’m not a fucking plant, you don’t need to talk to me to make me grow.”

“Neil-” Renee started softly.

“No,” Neil snapped, cutting her off at the chase. From the corner of his eye, he saw Andrew step into the room. He no longer had the book. “It’s my turn to talk now, and you are going to listen. I am not some puzzle for you to put together and I don’t need people prying in my business, trying to figure out my sexuality, triggers and loose ends, to piece me together like a thousand-piece puzzle.”

“You can say Andrew,” Aaron scoffed, “It’s okay.”

Neil rounded on him, and when Aaron physically flinched from the fury in his glare, he knew it was his Father’s expression on his face. “I’m not just talking about Andrew! This is the first time you’ve willingly spoken to me the entire time I’ve been here. You didn’t even open your mouth when you took me to the lost property, the first thing you’ve said is an attack on one of the people on your side, and you have the gall to think I'm not talking about you too? You fucking hypocrite.”

Aaron shifted in his seat. At least he had the good grace to look uncomfortable.

“I’m talking about you all,” Neil continued, “and I get it, I really do, the need to dump your mistakes and idiosyncrasies on someone else, but now is not the time to do it.”

“That I can agree with,” came Wymack’s voice from where he stood in the doorway, flanked by Matt, Dan, and another girl Neil had to assume was Katelyn. “You all need to own your shit and stay on top of everything.”

“Oh Coach,” Andrew said, “When have you ever known Aaron to own his shit?”

Dan and Matt shuffled in and sat around Renee, steering clear of Andrew and his lot. The Monsters.

“I don’t care if you’ve been miserable messes for every second of your lives so far,” Wymack growled, “That all needs to change now, because, and bear in mind I’m not one for exaggerating, we have literally made enemies of the Yakuza.”

The reactions were immediate- looks of pure shock on Dan and Matt’s face, resignation on Kevin’s, wide-eyed horror on Nicky’s. On Allison’s, a sneer that made it clear she thought it was some sort of prank. At least, she did until she looked down at Renee and saw the look on her face- the same resignation as on Kevin's.

Allison twitched, breathed deeply through her nose, then rose in a way that left her looming over the entire room. Her voice came out clipped and heavy with rage when she looked dead at Andrew and said, “Monster. What did you do?”

[blackpyrefly]

new sound effects to replace the [BWAH] [BWAH] sound in tainted love:

[honk] [honk] (bicycle horn)

[honk] [honk] (seal)

[extremely loud explosion] [extremely loud explosion]

[bark] [bark]

gwa gwa

Hanna-barbera running sound effect

[dark souls 1 armour clank] [dark souls 1 armour clank]

[splortch] [splortch]

squeaky toy noises

[saturn-munchies-deactivated2024]

im so obsessed w/ this post i had to make it Real

[blackpyrefly]

FUUUUUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zemestoun]

[ms-demeanor]

Anybody want an exhaustively in-depth, step-by-step breakdown of how to write a research paper for a college literature class?

[ms-demeanor]

Okay, so you start by identifying the work that you're going to write the paper on. Most lit classes will announce in the syllabus that you'll have a paper due at the end of the term, and usually it will be a text that was covered in the class. The FIRST thing you should do is skim the wikipeda pages of all the assigned readings. One of the BEST things that you can find on a wikipedia page about a work you're considering for a research paper is a section discussing debated meanings or controversy about the text - this means that there is a LOT of material on the work you're going to break down.

The reason to do this at the start of the class is twofold: One, it gives you more time to prepare for the paper, Two, you should know what the readings assigned at the end of the term look like before you panic and choose a work that the class has already covered. I have been in twenty English classes where pretty much no one went over the works assigned for the last couple weeks of the term. This is a mistake! Those works are usually assigned late in the term because they're what the rest of the term has been building to in terms of complexity and meaning, which, again, probably means that there's a metric fuckton of research on those readings.

Anyway. I'm doing my paper on George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant," which you can read here if you want to play along with this post.

The next step is to read the work. If you have already read the work earlier in the class, now is the time to go back through and skim it to re-familiarize yourself with the text. You are making very big, very general notes. The notes that I made on this read-through were things like "baited," "performance of empire," "the ugliness of empire," and "performance to one another." You're just getting the biggest, vaguest ideas out, because now it's time to do your precis, which is not as precise as that name would imply.

The way that I approach a precis is as a very, very, very broad statement about what I think the work is saying and what I want to say about it. In this case I think Orwell is saying that imperialism is both cruel and pointless, that it is mutually degrading to those subject to empire and enforcing empire, and that it makes the world worse. Cool. Orwell doesn't like empire, that's not a surprise.

At this point I have a general idea of where I think I'm going to go with this paper (in the direction of performance; i'm going to talk about the way that Orwell fixates on empire as performative) and it is time to go dig up research.

*nineteen articles later*

The reason you do your precis before you do research but that you do not write a thesis statement before you do research is because you need to guide your search, but you don't want to box yourself into a corner by only looking at one specific argument. For instance, for my Austen project I am examining radical politics in Austen's work but I have bought books written by biographers who understand her as a conservative as well as a whole book of marxist criticism of Austen that considers her a conservative; that is not totally in line with my reading of her work or her politics, but it's important to see what arguments people who *aren't* totally in line with my view of the matter make.

So what I have done for this Orwell paper is searched my school library's database for terms like "Orwell and Empire," "Orwell and Violence," "Orwell and Authority," "Orwell and Policing," and "Shooting an Elephant."

I went through the results from most to least relevant for each search, and opened them all in other tabs. I didn't read them, or even skim them, I just opened the database link to the articles in another tab. You DO NOT need to read every single one of these that you open, you do NOT need to read them one at a time before choosing to open another.

Okay, so, now that you've got a bunch of articles to sift through, you start an annotated bibliography. The way that I *personally* do this is to start by putting the info I will need to cite each of these articles/books/etc, into a document. I also create a new folder and download everything that I possibly can.

Two of my sources were books that I have institutional permission to view but not to download, so I have those open in my browser.

Downloading is an important step. Download, download, download. Don't just leave these up in the browser and close them after you've skimmed them and decided they aren't necessary - download them because you could get a third of the way into your paper and realize that, actually, that WAS a necessary part of your paper and downloading will save you the hassle of trying to go find the paper online again (this is also why you START this process by getting the citation/publication info into a document).

At this stage you have STILL not read any of these documents. You are still NOT going to actually read them for at least one more step, you are going to start by skimming.

Your next step is to just skim each of these documents to see if they are *at all* relevant to your research paper.

So, for instance, that paper on "Landscape and the mask of self" is actually a paper on *geography,* not a paper on literary criticism. There's a good chance that it is not going to have anything to do with my topic, so I am going to skim it [pause for skimming] and after skimming it, it's an intertextual exploration of geography and Orwell's story, history, and other writings on empire. This text *IS* relevant to my paper, which I now need to note in my bibliography document.

I'm not going to completely read this paper, yet, or pull any quotes out of it, I just make a note in my document that it touches on themes that will show up in my paper.

Then I move on to another document and skim it [pause for skimming] and it appears that "This Side of the Barricades" is okayish background on Orwell that I might use if I really need to justify a statement, but is more journalistic than literary and is not really on the subject of the work that I'm discussing. It is not useful to my paper, so I make a note of *why* it is not useful in my document.

What I also start doing at this point is sorting out "useful" and "not useful" with visual cues. I use a highlighter in my document, and I also change the titles of the PDFs so that they will be sorted in my file explorer with useful stuff at the top and less useful stuff at the bottom:

And that is all for the moment. I'll write more once I've skimmed all my possible sources but I'm getting worried that tumblr is going to crash and eat this post.

[ms-demeanor]

If you need to skim a BOOK rather than an article, that is also a multi-step process.

First, you read the table of contents to see if the ToC has any direct references to the subject you're exploring or has any chapter titles that touch on the issues you're looking at. "Doubleness and the Value of Decency" has a section titled "learning how to write about Orwell" and includes an exploration of Burmese Days, which means there's at least a bit of material that is in the correct ballpark for what I want to talk about in this book.

After you read the table of contents, skip to the end and read the index. Look for your subject.

The story I'm writing about is referenced three times, so I can hang on to this book and move on to skimming other works, but there is not going to be a ton of material for me to work with here.

The other book that came up in my search has a whole chapter that plays off the title of the story I'm researching:

But the book as a whole doesn't seem useful, since it's about politics in post-9/11 America. So Just in case, I'm going to skim by checking the first sentence of the first few paragraphs of this chapter.

"George Orwell did not have a good opinion of the language of politics."

"Ten years before penning his analysis of the emptiness of political language, Orwell, in his first great essay, told a story from his days as a subdivisional policeman in British-ruled Burma."

" 'Don't think of an elephant,' advises linguist and cognitive scientist George Lakoff."

"Our inability to not think of an elephant illustrates the way language frames work."

"One of the ways negative political attacks work is they can force the target of the attack to invoke the negative frame while denying it."

These are all the first sentences of the introductory part of the chapter. This is not useful for my assignment, I don't have to look at this book anymore. But I WILL make a note of why it's not useful in my bibliography document, and I will note how and where the other book might be useful.

[ms-demeanor]

PRO TIP: as you are skimming and checking, check the bibliographies and works cited sections of what you are skimming. One of the papers I've downloaded is referenced in one of the books I skimmed and in the bibliography of another paper. That likely means that it is VERY relevant and means that I'm going to pay more attention to it when I do my first full reading of it.

[ms-demeanor]

ALSO PRO TIP: As I'm selecting what sources to skim I typically work backwards from the sources I think I'm less likely to use to the sources that I'm more likely to use. I'll typically check the things from the geography journals, ethics journals, and political books first before I move on to articles from books with Orwell as their sole topic, articles that directly address what I want to cover in the title of the article, etc.

I find that it saves time to first narrow down the field of what you'll be looking at, instead of immediately diving into things you want to take a lot of notes or pull a lot of quotes from. It's really easy to end up spending an hour looking at a twenty page paper, get a lot of good info out, then step back and realize you have another fourteen papers to go through and lose some steam. Knock seven less useful papers out of the way first, THEN dive into the good shit.

[ms-demeanor]

For the record, here's how to skim a paper:

1 - Read all the titles of all the sections

2 - Read the first paragraph, then the first three sentences of the next three paragraphs.

3 - Read the conclusion.

4 - Either text search or just look through the text for words relating to your area of focus (in this case I'd probably be looking for "white" "empire" and "imperialism").

5 - If you're still not sure if the paper is a good source for you or not, read the first and last sentence of a few paragraphs.

This *should* be enough to give you the general idea of what a paper is about, if the author is in the same ballpark as you are in their interpretation of the text, and if it's going to be a text that you can work with.

For instance, skimming the geography paper didn't mean that I read the whole thing, but I read the headers and some of the pullquotes and the conclusion, and in handling the text I almost put it aside because it uses the kind of academic language that drives me up the wall and that seems particularly ironic when applied to Orwell. I decided to keep it because it has some very pertinent-seeming sections, but I know that when I deal with it, it is going to be frustrating to read.

One of the papers that I've got in the "maybe" pile is there because its analysis is from a feminist lens instead of a postcolonial lens and so it focuses on patriarchy instead of on imperialism.

One of the papers in the "no" pile is there because its tone is too unacademic and it reads like something out of Time Magazine.

This is what you're looking for in your skimming. "Does it address the topic I'm researching?" "Is this a paper that *I* can understand?" "Does the paper explore the topic that I'm researching in a way that is relevant to my approach to the work?" You're *still* not reading these papers. That still comes later.

[ms-demeanor]

Okay, you (I) have completed your first skim of all of your potential sources. You have pared down your field considerably - now it must be time to read the papers, right?

Wrong!

Probably at this point in your research, the plan you had in your precis has changed. I am still interested on writing about Orwell and Empire, but skimming has made me more attentive of stuff that I had been overlooking before. There *IS* an element of performance that is important to the story, but now I think that's maybe a paragraph or two of something that's a larger point. So I rework my approach a bit: George Orwell doesn't like empire, sure, fine. That's not a surprise. However, for someone who doesn't like empire and is talking about how evil it is, the narrator of this work sure does hate the Burmese people a lot and there is, in fact, a lot of racism going on here.

Four of the papers that I looked through discuss this, and two of them discuss it in depth. So, okay, now I'm writing about Orwell and Empire and Race and the performance of whiteness. Cool. Keep your new approach in mind, and then organize your sources in a new document in order of most to least pertinent to the argument that is taking shape in your head.

As I do my first skim, I have a 4-tier system, Good, Okay, Okay I guess, and Nope. I started with 19 sources I was looking at, immediately dropped that to 17, and now my "good" and "okay" list have a total of ten sources, so I only move the top ten over to my new document. If you have fewer than ten "good" sources keep some of your "okay I guess" sources on the new document.

The 4 Tiers of Supporting Material are something like:

Good - Talks about the work that I'm exploring extensively OR another work by the same author on the same subject; explores the work through the analytical lens that I'm using to approach the topic; explores the same concepts that I'm looking at, but also makes me consider new concepts about the work.

Okay - Talks about the work I'm exploring and/or other works by the same author on the topic. May explore the author in question as part of a larger conversation comparing other authors (Kipling and Forster were common in this, all three being English authors who had written about the British in India). Perhaps uses a different analytic lens, or is slightly off-topic in terms of approach (cross discipline geography paper and paper from the utopian studies journal aren't Lit papers per se, but they'll do).

Okay I Guess - Mentions the work you're researching as a footnote in a larger discussion, uses an analytical framework in the same neighborhood as your approach (a marxist approach to a work you're examining through a postcolonial lens is probably going to have one or two lines you can use; a psychoanalytic paper might not).

Nope - Off topic, irrelevant. The name of your subject might come up but is not discussed. Using this paper in your assignment would be a disingenuous grab for sources because you couldn't find enough pertinent information and your professor WILL notice this.

So you have sorted all your papers into a different document and you have ordered them from most to least helpful, surely now is the time that you actually read them, right?

Wrong! Open your two best sources and look in their bibliographies.

These weren't in my initial searches, now I need to see if I can go find them. [pause for searching] I don't have institutional access to Stephen Ingle's paper, but I was able to just find Mohammad Sawar Alam's paper online and download it. After a quick skim, it gets added to my bibliography.

So now, surely, it must be time to read these papers?

Nope!

Now it's time for you to re-read your primary document, this time you're making more notes. And I'll be back later when I've got more notes.

[ms-demeanor]

At this point in your writing process you should be miserable and doubting yourself. Don't worry! That's normal!

The tension and doubt that you are experiencing are because you are changing how you thought about the work in the first place.

Personally, I'm torn between the feeling that Orwell intentionally made the speaker of "Shooting an Elephant" exceptionally racist in order to underscore the idea that the Raj was specifically structured to amplify and widen racial divisions and the feeling that Orwell was just pretty racist.

I'm not personally familiar with enough of Orwell's works from this era or specifically about empire to say, and this is something on which my sources are conflicted.

This is made more difficult by the fact that this work is alternately described as an essay and as a story; whether it is a work of pure fiction or if it is supposed to recount an actual incident is debatable, and that makes a difference because that would clear up if Orwell is narrating his own thoughts or if he is narrating the thoughts of an unnamed speaker who shares exaggerated versions of Orwell's opinions.

I can't make up my mind yet, and I don't have to, because now it is time to read my sources.

Please note, I am now several hours into working on this paper, I have read the work that I'm analyzing at least four times, and I do not yet have a specific thesis.

When you are writing a paper like this you *DO NOT* settle into a thesis that you're going to argue for until you are DEEP into the process.

So now, let's go through the steps of reading some literary criticism together. This is an active process even on the first read, and this is part of why your annotated bibliography is going to be *annotated.*

I'm going to start with Alan Blackstock's "Narrative Hysteria" essay, which I am delighted to have found under a digital commons license, so I can link it here for you to read along. Blackstocks' essay approaches the work of three English writers discussing the British Raj. Blackstock is examining these authors through a feminist lens. His discussion of Orwell is largely limited to the novel Burmese Days, which I have not read, but Blackstock is discussing empire in Orwell, so this is fairly relevant to my research. This is one of my "okay" sources. I have already done a quick skim of the essay once, so I know the discussion of Orwell is limited to pages 193-199, and that there is some talk of empire in the conclusion; I noted this in my annotated bibliography when I was doing my first fast survey.

This is one of sub-optimal sources, so I am not going to read it multiple times.

Start by carefully reading the first few hundred words of the essay. You want to know what the paper is talking about to know how relevant it is to your research, but you don't want to waste time reading a few thousand words about a book you're not familiar with by an author who you're not reading. I don't need to read Blackstock's analysis of Kipling to parse his thoughts on Orwell. So read the introduction. [pause for reading] Having read the introduction, I see strong parallels between the portrayal of empire in Burmese Days and "Shooting an Elephant." I'm going to need to be somewhat familiar with Burmese Days to get more out of this, so I am going to read the Wikipedia plot summary of the novel; the novel comes up in other sources I have so now is a good time to get a basic handle on the story.

Now that I've read the introduction and a summary of the work that this essay is primarily discussing, I am going to skim the discussion of Kipling and then start reading the section on Orwell. (Even if Kipling isn't relevant to my research, essays are often internally referential so likely the section I care about will refer to the section on Kipling).

Because I am only going to read this once, I am going to do it with my annotated bibliography open in another window, and I'm going to copy potentially relevant sections of text into the annotated bibliography as I go.

When I started today my annotated bibliography had 438 words just for the citations of the 10 collected sources. After reading the Orwell section of Blackstock's essay I now have 788 words. I'm going to skim the section on Forster and then read the conclusion closely.

I am now laughing because the entire conclusion is relevant to my paper and I have added another 400 words to my document, including two citations made by Blackstock that I may need to cite if I cite this section of his conclusion.

However, the whole purpose of reading this source was to mine it for resources and close the document and never have to open it again. I have a brief note about what Blackstock's essay is about, four long sections of the text copied into my bibliography that I may quote in my paper, brief notes about each of those sections explaining why they're relevant to my research.

The point of reading Blackstock's paper in this way and collecting the quotes in an annotated bibliography is to close the paper and never need to open it again. All of the sections of this paper that are useful to me are now in one place with my notes about my thoughts on in. When I sit down to put my arguments in an organized essay I do not want to have to flip back and forth between ten documents and page through them looking for the quote that I need and struggle to remember if it was in the essay on empire written by the Iranian sociologist or if it was the one written by the American geologist.

Your annotated bibliography is the most work that you will do on any research paper. It is where you transcribe or copy relevant text quotations, it is where you make your arguments to yourself, it is where you will eventually copy or transcribe the sections of your primary text to figure out what in-text evidence there is for the argument you are making.

Okay. We have read one paper. I have two papers listed that I've determined I need to read twice and nine other sources that need a reading similar to this one. I'll see you when I'm done with the other sources like this and it's time to go through a close-read paper.

[ms-demeanor]

Depending on what kind of obsessive weirdo you are and how prolific the author you're researching is, please be ready for your "fast reads of mediocre sources" to involve reading a minimum of four more essays from the author that you will have to incorporate into your paper. (I am currently less convinced of Orwell's racism than I was this morning and it has a lot to do with several essays and one book discussing Orwell's repeated use of animals as representatives for oppressed people because he was aware of and disgusted by the fact that the English - himself included - could forgive racism but drew the line at animal abuse).

So I'm not precisely back to the drawing board, but as I read further I am continuing to adjust my expectations for how my paper is going to come together and how many sources I'm going to include.

This part of the process is IMPORTANT. It is REALLY important if you're later in your college career and are writing about a subject that you ostensibly know well, but it is still important even if you are just supposed to be writing for a low-level class. Part of why you cast a wide net with your research is to broadly familiarize yourself with the state of the research on your subject. I mentioned earlier that I wasn't personally familiar with enough of Orwell's work to comment on the combined topics of racism and imperialism, but the scholars who have written about this have written a lot about it and conveniently discuss the same works a lot - my "okay" sources on Orwellian Comedy and Doubleness and Decency both heavily referenced the essay that I just linked and the introduction to Doubleness and Decency has a whole section on race in Orwell. Now I know that instead of searching that book for "Shooting an Elephant," I need to search it for "Marrakech" to get the information that is pertinent to my topic. I'm going to continue reading the introduction and once I'm done with that I will repeat my process of searching the index for references to the texts I'm now adding to my pile-o-references.

[ms-demeanor]

Okay. So.

This is a hard thing you may encounter if you are researching a compelling subject that you are personally interested in that has a significant amount of controversy.

I have now read three more essays by my original author because I found myself profoundly disagreeing with one of the sources I was looking at. I have now also found two more external sources, one of which is a full length book of criticism that I'm 28 pages into reading.

If you are experiencing this, you are experiencing scope creep.

What you do at this point is open a new window, put the new essays and sources into that new window, minimize it, and go back to your annotated bibliography. You have to put on blinders. You will get through those other sources eventually, but if you just keep indiscriminately researching you're going to fail to write your five page essay because you got engaged in writing a fifty page thesis. If it's REALLY that interesting you'll still be interested in writing about it later, and if it was REALLY that pertinent to your paper it would have showed up in your first search of the subject.

This is another place where your annotated bibliography can come in handy: I found myself profoundly disagreeing with a specific postcolonial interpretation of Orwell that I don't think is just poorly argued, I think it's a willful misinterpretation. Now is a good time for me to prioritize reading other papers that use a similar lens to see if they seem similarly disingenuous to me.

(There is a difference between disagreeing with an essay's conclusions based on different readings of a text and disagreeing because you think that an essay's premise is based on a blatantly incorrect or uncharitable interpretation of a work; the first can still be helpful in making and shaping your argument, the second is more troubling and less useful.)

BUT! As you go, if you find that something is totally useless and you have not added any text extracts or notes to your annotated bibliography, remove the citation! As it turns out the geography paper had a citation on nearly every line and was extremely up its own ass, and the ethics paper was a fine ethics paper with nothing to say about literature. I don't have to worry about those anymore, so I'm removing sources as I'm collecting more sources to look into.

[ms-demeanor]

Okay, so of the original 19 sources that I found, five have survived my reading and weeding process and are alive and well in my annotated bibliography.

The document has gone from under 500 words of pure source listings to over 3300 words of notes and copy/pasted citations.

For the record: I will likely use significantly fewer than a thousand words of direct quotation in my final paper. I will probably use under 200 words of direct quotation. What I have done is I have pulled significant, multi-paragraph chunks out that will give *me* the context I need to ensure that I'm using the quote appropriately to inform the reader and make my argument. The reader will see very little of this actual work, but an experienced reader reading an experienced writer will know to assume that this is the level of effort going on in the background.

So, enough about that, now on to my four new sources. We're going to explore the exciting world of readmores today, because first we're talking about how to read your subject-author's further writings and chuck those in your bibliography as supporting evidence.

So this is going to be "how to read a short story or essay by your subject author to include as supporting evidence for your argument"

In particular, I will be looking at Orwell's "The Lion and the Unicorn," which is linked so that you can play along if you'd like.

Okay, so in one of the readings that I did yesterday that frustrated me, an author paraphrased some statements from "The Lion and the Unicorn" ("LatU") that seemed disingenuous, so I opened the essay and didn't even skim it, I just searched for the relevant term ("India") and read the paragraphs that included that word. In that initial bout of searching and scrolling, I realized that this essay is a useful document for comparing how Orwell articulated his thoughts on empire in his early career and after a few years of development as a writer and a political thinker ("SaE" was 1936, "LatU" was 1941).

I have not read the full essay (it's about 20k words long, I likely won't read the full thing for this assignment). The first thing that I do is scroll through the essay and look at the format. It's got three chapters, each of which is divided up into sections with Roman numerals. I am now going to read the first few paragraphs of each major section.

The first chapter is about nationalism and a national character, the second chapter is about socialism, and the third chapter is about revolution; all of the chapters area about war.

As I scrolled through this time I was moving more slowly, and noticed a section in the final third of the book that has a slightly different structure; it is a six-point plan that Orwell is proposing. I make a note of its location, because if you find a structured plan anywhere in a book or essay, it is probably pretty important to the author.

From here, I read the first paragraph of each section in the first chapter, and the first sentence of every paragraph in between, pausing periodically if something catches my eye.

After that skim I've made notes for a couple places that might be relevant to return back to but it does largely seem to be about defining national character and talking about preparedness for war, so I move on to chapter two and I'm going to do the same thing, read the first paragraph of each section and the first sentence of each paragraph after that.

This is a much shorter chapter (the first chapter is nearly half of the book) and interesting politically, but not to the literary argument that I'm making.

Part of why I'm not just searching key terms on this read-through is because the context of the whole essay is important; I don't want to cherry-pick my arguments so seeing Orwell's arguments about the British character does actually matter.

I'm now on to the final chapter, which is the one I know had the highest keyword density in my search last night and which I know has a suggestion for a structured plan, so I'm going to read every other paragraph or so to get a closer look at this chapter than at the other two.

Again, I am paying specific attention to discussions of empire and imperialism.

When I get to the six-point plan, I see that these are points 4 and 5:

IV. Immediate Dominion status for India, with power to secede when the war is over.

V. Formation of an Imperial General Council, in which the coloured peoples are to be represented.

And I know that I'm going to pay a lot of attention to those (the others I will skim as I have been doing).

I ended up copying about 1400 words of text into my bibliography and I have made some notes on my thoughts. Reading much more of this essay than the isolated chunks I read last night significantly changed my opinions on a lot of it, but I still believe it is relevant to my argument.

EDIT - one thing I forgot to add: if at all possible, I will avoid using a website as my source for an essay because I really prefer to be able to use page numbers, so while I read this from the orwell foundation's site, I will be citing an ebook of a canadian republication of an edition produced in England in the 80s because that's what I was able to find online and get page numbers for.

I have two more essays from Orwell to read (those are shorter and I will actually *read* them), so the next post I make in this chain will be on *reading* a short work for inclusion in your source material.

[ms-demeanor]

The next piece that I'm reading is another work of Orwell's that is set in Burma; it is just under 2000 words long and it has been mentioned by at least five of the authors who I have been reading for my research project, so it is important to include. Because it is so short I am actually going to *read* the thing, so here are the instructions for reading a short work of fiction/personal experience essay/letter that you will be citing in your research paper.

This particular work is George Orwell's "A Hanging," and is linked if you'd like to read along.

So the first step here is to set aside all your highlighters and notepads and bookmarks, and to actually just read the work. You're reading for content, not for depth, so a quick read will do on the first go around.

Once I have read for content I will mentally compare it to the other stories I'm working with and what I have learned from the criticism that I've read.

On a first pass the things that I immediately notice is the story's focus on tonal incongruities; the dog, the condemned man praying, the laughter and relief of the guards and wardens when the hanging is done.

There is an interest in humanization that is not present in "SaE" especially with respect to avoiding the puddle. This narrator doesn't hate the natives around him the way that the narrator of "SaE" does, but he is also unreflective and incurious - no one asks why this man is being hanged. The narrator of "SaE" is more personally involved and more personally revolted by what he has seen and done.

Like "SaE" there is a sense of "just following orders" and of doing the expected.

Also absent from "A Hanging" is the same kind of self-loathing criticism and focus on ridicule. People don't want the dog there because it's "inappropriate" but the fact that the dog makes their actions a farce is implied, not explicit.

Now that I've had some thoughts about the thing, I will read it through one more time. This will be another quick reading, except that I will spend more time on the parts that I found interesting; I will be looking for any repetition or parallels or symbolism.

Both stories have the narrator wishing for or celebrating a local man's death (in neither case do they want the men dead for the sake of seeing them dead, but to relieve the narrator in some way; in A Hanging it is to stop the condemned man's frightening chanting, in "SaE" it is because the man's death means less trouble for the narrator after he has killed the elephant)

There are layers of complicity at play; the narrator of A Hanging is complicit in imperialism; Francis and the other wardens at the jail work with the colonizers to subjugate the prisoners, the hangman is a prisoner who hangs other prisoners. It seems like at every step down the ladder there's someone worse off acting as a warning to the person on the step above them.

There is a significantly more developed sense of loathing in SaE

Difference in action for the narrator is stark; in a hanging he ties up a dog and witnesses a hanging, but is largely passive. In SaE he participates viscerally. Even the deaths are drastically different, calm and distant and hidden by the gallows vs. the Indian crushed in the mud or the slow, labored death of the elephant. Narrator in SaE comments that the dead look devilish, narrator in Hanging describes the condemned man as dead as a stone and oscillating slightly.

So now that I've read the whole story twice and have collected some thoughts/notes, I will go through and read the story one more time, copying selections of text into my annotated bibliography.

At this point my annotated bibliography is twelve single spaced pages and over six thousand words. It is sort of a messy combination of poorly formatted citations (copying and pasting from PDFs sucks so much) and half-formed thoughts and squabbles I'm having with the authors of various articles. There's inconsistent highlighting, and nothing is in order.

This does not have to be orderly yet, I am still, largely, in the brainstorming phase of this project even though I have now read literally hundreds of pages of fiction, theory, and criticism.

But I'm getting into the home stretch on the research side of things! I'm going to finish compiling information from my remaining Orwell essay, and tomorrow I will be back to teach you how to read a whole ass book of literary criticism.

[zoned-out-cat]

All for the Game AU

i just had a vision of a semi-coherent House AU, but like with AFTG characters

Andrew is, obviously, House. Medicated. Drunk. Smoking. Or all three at the same time

Neil is his supervisor

Kevin is a longterm patient that they have to be longterm patient with

Aaron is in here somewhere, being a doctor or something

Matt and Nicky are nurses

Allison is like related to the hospital director? or medical board?

and uh, haven’t watched this show in forever so I literally can’t make anymore comparisons, but basically the whole Fox gang is at the hospital and they fuck shit up all the time

do i hear the sounds of licenses being revoked, yes, yes I do

[ravenvsfox]

consider this for a prompt: the team is in the lounge, post practice, just lazing around and doing nothing; the tv is on; no one is really paying attention when andrew suddenly turns rigid; deep breaths; unfocused eyes; the reporter is relaying a shocking revelation about a man abusing the foster kids in his care; hisfacehisfacehisfacetheyareshowinghisface (-i cannot tell why my mind is such an angsty bitch but here we are)

(this is a specific and excellent prompt and I’ve been anxiously awaiting its place in line <3)

He’s boneless when he climbs out of the shower, feet tender on the glossy tile, breath sitting high and tight in his chest. Neil likes pacing through his routine after practice, adrenaline relaxing its grip on him finger by finger, change-rooms echoing and empty. He strings his wet hair up in a fresh bandana and shrugs his armbands up over flushed, shower-damp forearms. He lets the practice pull at his muscles and drafts new line-ups and drills in his head.

His teammates are back in the lounge, dotting the furniture, all of their aggression leached out of them, and he feels joy rip his chest like popped stitches. Good feelings are always more brutal than bad ones, he’s come to understand. Stronger, harsher.

He gets a round of raised hands and snappy greetings when he walks in, mostly lost in the rustle of plastic bags as Wymack and Abby unload sandwiches onto an overcrowded table.

Wymack licks stray sauce off of his thumb and points at Neil with his other hand. “Come pretend you’re civilized and eat at the table. I don’t want ranch on my couches again.”

Neil shrugs and pulls a chair out at the head of the table. Matt winks up at him, and the rest of the foxes pass wrapped and pressed sandwiches down the line. They chat and rustle, Aaron snaps for serviettes until Wymack smacks his hand away, Kevin eats his sandwich with a knife and fork. Everything smells like tangy pesto and sweet fresh bread.

“Get Andrew over here, will you?” Wymack asks distractedly. Neil glances over at Andrew, installed on the couch with his back towards them. His hair has been bleaching in the sun recently, and he’s easily the brightest thing in the room.

“Andrew,” he calls, accepting his own sandwich when it’s waved in front of him, distracted from the back of Andrew’s head.

“You really put an effort in,” Nicky teases, rolling his eyes.

“I’m not moving him if he doesn’t want to be moved,” Neil replies, unconcerned. His food is warm in his hands, chicken and cranberries and cheese peeking out of brown bread and wax wrapping.

“That’s bullshit,” Matt says, mouth full. “You know you could.”

“I don’t know why you still think I have that kind of power.”

“Uhh maybe because he does impossible favours for you? And like. Kisses your face when we’re not looking? I dunno, just a thought,” Dan says sarcastically, peeling onions out of her sandwich.

“Andrew,” Neil repeats, exasperated. When he looks over again Andrew hasn’t moved, fixed and steady as always. His shoulders are moving fast though, breath coming hard enough that Neil can hear it from across the room. His stomach throbs, intuitive and scared. 

Keep reading

[superfluoussplendor]

Happy Halloween, please accept this aftg ficlet

“Do you love him?”

Andrew blinked. His brother had gotten braver over the time they had been seeing Bee together. Even so, he rarely asked such direct questions.

“You’ll have to be more specific brother. I am so full of love.” He was stirring his hot cocoa with his spoon in the way he knew Aaron hated.

“Dr. Dobson!”

“You don’t get extra credit for formality.”

“Aaron, Andrew I feel like we aren’t being very productive at the moment. Andrew stop antagonizing your brother. And Aaron, let's frame your comment more specifically, like we’ve talked about.”

Andrew made a big show of putting his spoon in his mouth but set it down on the coaster.

“Fine” Aaron grumbled. “Do you love Neil? Is that why you were willing to break our deal for him? Is that why you’re still willing to put yourself and everyone you care about in danger for him?”

“Are you scared brother? I believe Neil and I have proven we can take care of ourselves and you wanted out of our deal. Or don’t you remember breaking it first?”

“You are avoiding the question.” Perhaps Aaron had been paying attention to the good doctor. He seemed to be picking up on some of her tricks.

Fine then. Aaron had put in an effort so he would give him a little truth if it would shut him up. “I don’t like that word.”

Betsy leaned forward. “Shall we add that to your list?” she asked at the same time. Aaron said, “Come on!”

Andrew ignored Aaron’s outburst and nodded at Bee. They’d discussed Andrew’s list early on; his boundaries, words he didn’t like, things he would not discuss in these joint sessions (that part had been new). He didn’t explain why most of the words were on the list, but he’d shared them.

Aaron had taken it as an attack and a persecution of his character instead of the show of trust it was and Andrew had stayed stone-ily silent for the next few sessions

“You can’t just add a word to your list every time you want to ice me out. It's not fair.”

Andrew scoffed. He wasn’t sure why he kept trying. “Not everything is about you and when has the world ever been fair.” He looked at his brother meaningfully.

Aaron had the decency to at least look a little guilty. Bee was looking at him with a mix of disappointment and understanding. Andrew did not miss that look being directed at him, “Aaron. We’ve discussed this before and you know better than most why Andrew has such strict boundaries.” She was referring to the trial. Andrew had been forced to tell a courtroom full of strangers every terrible thing Drake had ever done to him to protect Aaron from going to jail even though Aaron had broken their deal. Maybe it was settling the score for Aaron stopping Drake.

“I understand but I just don’t get what that has to do with this. I just want to know what Neil means to you.”

Bee nodded sagely. She could usually tell when Aaron had pushed too much and Andrew was unwilling to budge further.

“Why don’t we try this. Love is difficult to define in the best of circumstances. It could mean a lot of different things to different people. Why don’t you tell us what you think love is.”

Aaron looked distinctly uncomfortable. Andrew was gratified that the tables were turned. Typically this hour was spent trying to coax Andrew out of his comfort zone.

“I’m not sure…”

“So you asked me a question you can’t even answer.” Andrew felt like laughing but instead he sipped loudly at his cocoa.

Bee gave him a look that said ‘you’re not helping.’

He hoped his look said ‘duh.’

“Maybe you could start with how you know you love Kaitlyn.” Andrew wasn’t sure if Bee was intentionally punishing him.

Aaron was quiet for a long time. Andrew was hoping they would just quietly sip their beverages for the rest of the session. It happened more often than not and as an added bonus it pissed Aaron off. But sadly today was not Andrew’s day and Aaron did finally speak.

“I want to protect her. I want to be close to her all the time. She’s the one I want to talk to at the end of the day. I want to see her every morning when I wake up and I want to go to sleep with her beside me.”

Andrew tried not to dwell too much on that image.

“I want to be the one she confides in. I want to make her happy.”

Bee smiled warmly at him. “That’s beautiful Aaron. Thanks for sharing.” She turned to look at Andrew expectantly. “Andrew, does any of what Aaron said resonate with you in how you feel about Neil.”

Andrew and Neil had stopped outright denying there was something between them over the years. Or really Andrew had stopped denying it and Neil still wore that knowing little smirk.

They didn’t call each other boyfriend or talk about their feelings--they rarely needed to and they both spoke better through actions-- but they stopped correcting others when they said boyfriend or referred to them as dating or in a relationship. Andrew had stopped saying “this is nothing” or “there is no this.” Partially because Neil had never believed him and partially because of Neil’s smart mouth. He’d never forgotten what Neil had said the first time. “And you’ve always said, you want nothing.” How Neil could be a complete idiot and have such a quick wit was a mystery to Andrew.

“What does it matter to you? You’ve been very clear on how you feel about him.” Before Aaron could interrupt, Andrew stared him down. “You’ve also been very clear how you feel about Nicky and I.”

It was a cheap shot. Andrew knew it. Aaron had been working on his homophobia. It had been worse after the trial. Where Andrew could clearly see that the problem was consent, Aaron seemed to think all of Andrew’s problems originated from the sexual orientation of his tormentors. He couldn’t understand how Andrew could be one of them after all he’d been through. It made Andrew want to commit murder.

Aaron’s only example growing up of a gay man was Nicky who even Andrew could admit was gross. Not only did he often cross the line when it came to appropriate things to share, his orientation had gotten him kicked out of his family and was leading him across an ocean and far far away from Aaron. Not that Aaron would admit that was why he acted the way he did. As usual he needed to blame it on Andrew, ignoring the fact that he hadn’t known what Andrew had grown up dealing with or Andrew’s sexual orientation until more recently. Whereas he’d been a bigot as long as Andrew had known him. Sure he had gotten worse when Nicky had taken them in, after Tilda and after he had gotten clean but he’d had the freedom to express himself without the fear of being hit for the first time in his life. He and Nicky had mostly ignored him.

Regardless Aaron had been trying; to be a better ally, to make amends with Nicky. Andrew was sure he knew better than to try with him or maybe he was just scared. Sometimes when he thought Aaron was finally coming to understand him it turned out he was just afraid. Therapy was not a miracle cure and progress wasn’t always linear.

Aaron looked appropriately ashamed of himself. “I want to know if you are going to stay with him after we graduate. I don’t even know what you want to do. Are you going pro? Are you and Nicky keeping the house in Columbia? When we leave Palmetto will we ever see each other again?”

Andrew stared at him coolly. “Is this about Neil or is this about you?”

“You broke our deal for him.”

“No. You broke our deal for the cheerleader. You wanted out so you used Neil.” Andrew didn’t let his temper get the better of him. He would not let Aaron have the satisfaction.

“I fell in love with Kaitlyn. She is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I’m going to marry her.”

“So it was worth breaking your promise.” It wasn’t a question.

Bee had been quietly sipping her cocoa and letting them speak without interjecting but now she leaned forward. “There’s not much time left in the hour. Andrew, maybe you can think about the questions Aaron has asked,” there was an unspoken ‘that you haven’t answered’ “and we can take it up next week.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. He was always complaining about Bee choosing sides or playing favorites.

Andrew downed the rest of his cocoa.”No promises.”

They thanked Bee for her time and left. Andrew hit the unlock button once so only the driver door unlocked. Before Aaron reached the locked passenger door Andrew slid into his seat. “Seems like you could use a walk.”

If Aaron yelled something at him he didn’t hear it over the roar of the engine.

[queerboulevard]

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[aftgficrec]

Raven or butcher neils where he becomes a fox? With or without Jean and at same time or separate from when Kevin left. Ongoing or older ones? I feel like I’ve missed some since I haven’t been in the fandom a whole year yet. Complete or unfinished

Welcome to the fandom, friend! We’re very lucky to have so many talented and prolific writers and artists here, so I’m sure you’ll find plenty of fics to enjoy.

Check out our previous recs for a lot of the content you’re looking for, and we’ve collected a few more fics for this post. A word of warning though: raven!Neil fics have a tendency to be heavy on the trigger warnings, so take care! - S

Previous recommendations*:

Raven!Neil to Fox (1) here

Raven!Neil to Fox (2) here

More Raven!Neil to Fox here

long complete raven!Neil fics here

RBB 2020 Raven!Neil fics here

‘Scared to Live (But I'm Scared to Die)’ and ‘The Raven Court’ here

‘Black, The Night That Ends At Last’ here

‘Redemption’ here

‘Two Birds with One Stone’ and ‘Come Back For Me’ here

‘Wings above, dangers near (they’re coming down)’ and ‘What it takes to survive’ here

‘Shake my Tomb’ and ‘Appendages’ here

‘Shinigami’ here

*many of the fics mentioned here have since been updated/completed

Butcher!Neil:

Innominate by Major_816 [Rated E, 55361 words, incomplete, last updated June 2021]

An AU where Mary never got Nathaniel out. Instead, he became too invaluable of an asset to be killed off or 'gifted' to Tetsuji. Instead, he's raised with Ichirou and Jean as a part of Ichirou's inner circle.

He'd always had a knack for languages and lying and all the 'messy stuff' came easily enough when your father is called the Butcher of Baltimore. So Nathaniel became the Wraith. He was untraceable, unknowable, infalliable; a criminal fairytale.

When Kevin Day leaves the Nest, there's no better person to send.

tw: violence, tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: implied/referenced abuse, tw: implied/referenced nonconsensual drugging, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced torture, tw: murder, tw: kidnapping, tw: blood, tw: nightmares, tw: panic attacks

Chase Me by silverforthedemontowers [Rated T, 4179 words, incomplete, last updated June 2021]

Nathaniel Wesninski has been asked by his dearest brother (no blood association), Ichirou Moriyama, to go play for the Foxes under the guise of Neil Josten, while his other brother (no blood association), Jean Moreau, is playing for the Ravens. All for the sole purpose of making sure that Riko Moriyama (the idiot) hasn't fucked things up for everyone.

tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: implied/referenced drug abuse

Raven!Neil:

Pebble in the Water by Read_write_playsoccer [Rated M, 64845 words, incomplete, last updated July 2021]

Understanding she was not long for this world, Mary Hatford practices an unexpected bit of honesty with her son. Learning the whole truth behind why they fled Castle Evermore, Neil makes a different choice.

tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: violence, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: suicidal thoughts, tw: nonconsensual drug use, tw: attempted rape/noncon, tw: panic attacks, tw: dissociation

Die Free or Die a Failure by Mickey_99 [Rated E, 165566 words, incomplete, last updated July 2021]

“He’s joining us earlier than we anticipated.”

“He’s a flight risk. This way there should be no more risk of him getting away from you. I’ve killed his mother. He belongs to you.”

“Six years old and already training in the Raven’s nest. He will be a player that won’t be rivaled.”

Nathaniel lives a hard life in the ravens nest, choosing Jean and Kevin's safety and happiness over his own constantly. Like the martyr he is. Then one day he is given a chance. It's a fools bet, and Nathaniel is unlikely to win it.

But he has one season to take the Foxes to championships and win.

If he doesn't, well.. he doesn't like the other options.

So he makes his own. Win or die.

tw: violence, tw: implied/referenced csa, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced torture, tw: suicidal thoughts, tw: implied/referenced suicide attempt, tw: self harm

Birds of a Feather by lee_a_p [Rated M, 42357 words, incomplete, last updated June 2021]

In an effort to force Kevin back to the Nest, Riko leaves a battered Neil on the doorstep in Columbia. But Neil won't go along with Riko's plans, even he doesn't trust the Foxes. He'll do anything to get Jean out of the Nest, and he might even find a team of his own in the meantime.

tw: anxiety, tw: disordered eating, tw: implied/referenced drug use, tw: vomiting, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: dissociation, tw: attempted sexual assault, tw: panic attacks

Vendetta by Idk_bro_I_just_like_tea [Rated E, 19242 words, incomplete, last updated April 2021]

When the Baltimore Butcher kills his beloved wife for the Moriyama family and sells his only son to their elite Exy court, he unintentionally created a blood feud between the Moriyama family and the Hatford family. When Nathaniel escapes Castle Evermore, he not only finds himself on the PSU Foxes team but also in the middle blood feud.

tw: violence, tw: implied/referenced abuse, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon

Night is the Raven, Day is the Fox by aelinsfox [Rated E, 62517 words, incomplete, last updated Jan 2021]

Nathaniel Wesninski is seven-years-old when he's brought to Castle Evermore to train with Riko Moriyama and Kevin Day as a business exchange by his father, Nathan Wesninski, the Butcher of Baltimore. He's eleven-years-old when Jean Moreau joins them, creating the Perfect Court. He's twelve-years-old when he makes his first deal, selling himself to the Main Branch in return for Jean and Kevin's safety in The Nest. Constantly saving others in exchange for himself--his body, mind, and freedom--so they can get out unharmed, a true martyr that Nathaniel Wesninski is.

Andrew Minyard is nineteen-years-old and a freshman at Palmetto State University when he first meets the seventeen-year-old boy with icy blue eyes and auburn curls that fell in his eyes at the fall banquet.

Hell's floodgates can all but collapse with all that comes after but [almost] everyone would agree that they would change nothing.

CURRENTLY ON HIATUS

tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced csa, tw: rape/noncon, tw: violence, tw: eating disorder, tw: torture, tw: implied/referenced self harm, tw: homophobic language, tw: depression, tw: suicide attempt

You promised me by Justafan [Rated E, 28841 words, incomplete, last updated Aug 2020]

Riko is in love with Raven! Neil(called Nathaniel mostly). Kevin promised that he would take Nathaniel away from all this but he's gone now, what choice does Nathaniel have but to love Riko back?

tw: violence, tw: implied/referenced torture, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: brainwashing

Given It All by glittermerm [Rated E, 25721 words, incomplete, last updated Aug 2017]

Raised to be a Raven, Nathaniel knows his place as #3 in Riko's perfect court. But when #2 Kevin leaves, Riko doesn't forgive him, and neither does Nathaniel.

tw: violence, tw: blood, tw: implied/referenced abuse, tw: staged suicide attempt

Stitch Yourself Back Together by story_telling_sage [Rated M, 20609 words, incomplete, last updated Sept 2016]

David Wymack did not get paid enough for this. He got paid to coach a Class I Exy team. He got paid not make sure Andrew didn’t actually murder anyone. He got paid to get his kids to the court and whip their asses into shape. He probably didn’t get paid enough to deal with traumatized, violent teenagers on a daily basis but he walked right into that one on his own and refused to regret it.

He did not get paid to come to his office only to have the door blocked by a vaguely human shaped bleeding mess.

In which Nathaniel Wesninski never became Neil Josten. When he and his mother ran they were caught and Nathan's transaction went through with the Moriyamas. In this world Nathaniel wears the #3 on his cheek until Riko takes things too far and decides to send a message.

tw: violence, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced abuse, tw: panic attacks, tw: non consensual drug use

Raven!Neil AU by @j3mwrites [tumblr, 2017]

Nathaniel Wesninski with a little three on his cheekbone, a shock of auburn hair and just as many scars as he would have gotten if he’d been on the run. So how do the Foxes fit in?

tw: violence, tw: murder

Art

When he scores the last point of the game… by @rei-ka-ko [tumblr, 2020]

is this butcher Neil? art by @meaucrow [tumblr, 2020]

butcher neil with bodyguard andrew art & drabble by @coldcigarettes [tumblr, 2016]

dark AU Butcher!Neil and his bodyguard Minyard art by @cute-electrocute [tumblr, 2016]

[prole-log]

[bambazzle]

LGBT+ Fantasy/Fiction Books and TWs

1. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell-

(Fantasy, Witches, Vampires, kind of Harry Potter-y, Romance, TW for mention of suicidal ideation/self-destructiveness, abandonment, foster care, neglect, murder/violence, gun violence and relationship issues in the second book. It has some heavy topics but is written in a pretty light tone.)

2. Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston-

(enemies to lovers, about the son of the President and the Prince of England getting into a fight, they have to fake a friendship to fix their PR situation, TW for being publicly outed and semi-graphic sex scenes, also often politically charged discussions)

3. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller-

(Ancient Greece, demigods, exile, TW for war/violence and tragedy, homophobia, bad parenting)

4. The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic-

(It’s about the mafia/college sports and happens to have a compelling queer storyline in the process. Demisexual main character and other gay characters. (slow burn, it’s a trilogy and the romance doesn’t happen in the first book) TW for a lot of things, it’s about kids from broken homes and the mafia so there is abuse, self harm, murder, police intervention, organized crime, drug use, assault, rehab, all kinds of weapons, manipulation, slurs, etc. The second book has mentions of r*pe (not extremely graphic but it is mentioned a handful of times and there is one semi graphic scene), and torture. It is a great series but it has heavy content and is not light reading if you go in unprepared.)

5. The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune -

(fantasy, heartwarming romance, magical creatures)

6. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman-

(MLM, graphic novel, slow burn, coming out TW for anorexia and homophobia)

7. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater-

(Fantasy, about a secret private school, slow burn)

8. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera-

(Bisexual Latino characters, whole story takes place in 24 hours because at about midnight- aka the start of the book- they get a phone call saying they’re gonna die, TW for death, family in hospital, violence, police intervention, and foster care)

9. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo-

(queer characters (but no romance in the first book)

10. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (Historical Fiction Romance, Travel/Journey, Best Friends to lovers, MLM characters)

11. In Deeper Waters by FT Lukens-

(Royalty, kidnapping, MLM characters not being released until April but it looks great)

12. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz-

(coming of age story, MLM, TW for violence/injury, surgery, transmisogyny, homophobic violence)

14. We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra-

(coming of age, friendship and romance)

15. Love and Other Curses by Michael Thomas Ford-

(magical realism, a curse about falling in love)

16. More Happy than Not by Adam Silvera-

(MLM main character, YA, “it's about a boy who is considering a memory-alteration procedure to forget he's gay because leading a life as a straight teen would probably be way easier for him. It's about science versus nature, friendship, sexuality, and a quest for happiness.” About the happy ending and how even bad moments lead to good. Hopeful but despairing. TW for medical procedure to erase sexuality, internalized homophobia, homophobia from others, depression)

17. I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver-

(Nonbinary main character, nonbinary muslim side character, romance/love and building a family out of people you care about. About finding your voice. TW for coming out and misgendering, family rejection/struggle)

18. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour-

(WLW, moving out and coming of age, self-discovery and childhood romance, TW for loss, depression, loneliness)

19. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness-

(Contemporary, about the normal people’s lives while living among Chosen Ones. Family/coming of age/acceptance story. TW for monsters, apocalypse, violence/explosions, anorexia, anxiety attacks, unrequited romance)

20. Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz-

(Dystopian story about a teenager struggling with their gender identity, TW for abandonment, oppressive government, outlawed homosexuality)

21. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas-

(trans main character, hispanic characters, paranormal YA mystery with MLM characters)

22. Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat-

(Bisexual main character, TW for kidnapping/stockholm syndrome, abuse, sex scenes)

23. Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey-

(fantasy, MLM, supernatural)

24. Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda by Becki Albertalli-

(romance, MLM, coming of age, TW for a closeted boy being blackmailed)

25. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel-

(WLW, graphic novel, coming of age, TW for csa, pedophilia, teacher/student relationships, none explicit if my memory serves correct)

26. George by Alex Gino-

(Trans girl, slice of life, coming out story, TW for deadnaming, homophobia, transphobia)

27. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield-

(WLW, supernatural, fantasy)

28. Witchmark by C.L. Polk-

(MLM, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, mystery, Alternate universe post WW1, TW for murder/war, depression/angst)

29. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling-

(WLW, Sci-Fi Horror, dystopian future, fictional planet, TW for psychological/emotional horror, toxic relationship, death)

30. The Culling by Steven Dos Santos-

(MLM, Dystopian Fantasy under a totalitarian, extremely cruel government. People must undergo ‘the trials’ in order to work for a government task force- if you fail at any of the trials you are forced to participate in the Culling, where the member has to choose a family member of theirs to die. TW for death, extortion, brutal violence, murder, totalitarian government)

31. Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley-

(MLM, about a court case regarding the main character and his best friend- deals with breaking points in friendships and how people and perception change. TW for biphobia, gay bashing, legal trial, abuse, knives, violence)

32. Ziggy, Stardust, and Me by James Brandon-

(MLM, Gay main character, historical fiction (Vietnam war), about a character dealing with his alcoholic father and family issues who creates a fictional world to cope where he can be out and openly himself. Coming of age. TW for bullying, alcoholism, institutionalized homophobia, familial homophobia, war mentions)

(this list is a WIP and anyone can add to it! If I need to add TWs or further explanations let me know!)

[bonduelle]

Apartment hacks masterpost

Kitchen

How to clean up kitchen (particularly the sink, burnt pots and small aplliances)

How to take care of kitchen stuff so that it lives longer

10 commandments of a clutter-free kitchen

Organizing kitchen mini masterpost

5 things to do in the kitchen before you go to bed

What is soapy bowl and why it’s awesome

How to organize your fridge (also here, here and here)

Thins you should know about your fridge

Adding more storage space in a tiny kitchen

Cleaning

Lots of cleaning tutorials and tips. And some more

How to clean up pantry

How to make your house look cleaner than it really is

How to wash pillows

Cleaning the bathroom

How to clean the nastiest places (and get rid of bad smells, etc.)

Floor-to-celling guide to spring cleaning

Recaulking your bathtub

Cleaning grout

How to dispose of toxic waste

Cleaning the medicine cabinet

How to make chores more fun

You mustn’t skip these chores, but you can delay these if you’re busy

Easily forgotten things that you should clean/replace

Why you need a catch-up day

Small cleaning tasks to do in under 15 minutes (also here)

Looking for a flat/moving

First apartment checklist

Where too look during an apartment hunt (and some more tips)

Negotiate these things with your landlord

What to do first in a new place

What do clean before moving out

How not to get crazy during moving flats

How to downgrade to a smaller place

Organisation, storage

10 habits for better home organisation

How to store off-season items

10 storage ideas for small spaces (more here)

Storage secret weapons

How to organise your closet

Things to do before twice-yearly closet switchout

How to store and maintain your sweaters

Decluttering

Why it feels great

How to get rid of clutter

How to declutter (not only a flat)

What needs to be thrown away from your flat

How to let go of the things you no longer need

Things you own too many of; you can throw away these too

Decuttering the bathroom

Decluterring masterpost

Decorating

Projects for every room in your home/flat

Add style to your home

DIY decorating ideas

How to use negative space

4 common decorating mistakes and how to avoid them

Questions to ask yourself before buying something new

How to choose furniture that’ll be easier to clean

Season-specific tips

Things to do before the cold season

Household hacks for winter

Preparing for Christmas

Green thumb 101

How to take care of succulents

Never kill a plant again

Living alone / Sharing a flat

How not to be lonely when living alone

12 things you can only do when home alone

What you learn by living alone

Things you learn while sharing a flat

What to pack when leaving for a dorm

How to seamlessly share a kitchen (or a flat in general)

Safety issues to discuss with flatmates

Benefits of living with strangers

And also how to turn a house into a home

[biladal-sham]

Rice fields in the Mazandaran Province, Iran. A. Abbas

[fuzzballsheltiepants]

three great fics to read

I’m struggling with writing lately so this weekend I caught up on some incredible fics that I think my AFTG friends should check out!

1.  00:00 (Zero o'Clock) by shadowdreams.  This one just came out, and it is as close to perfect of a fic I’ve ever read.  The build up through the different POVs is both hilarious and so so accurate.  Also, you want pining?  This has it in spades.  Delightful from start to finish.

2.  I’m No Good Tonight by likearecord.  Technically I read this like a week ago but I have been thinking about it since.  I feel like I mostly read AUs lately, but this post-canon fic is absolutely glorious, introspective and raw and healing.

3. caught by a low moon by scribbleb_red.  Ok so I did some cheerleading on this fic, but I swear I’m not biased - it is beautiful.  The entire atmosphere is so gorgeous, the environment is palpable, the tension between Jean and Jeremy is delicious.  It’s still posting, but if you want a sun-drenched beach atmosphere with angry pining and enemies-to-lovers, here you go!