ink-stained ramblings

reading | writing | listening to taylor swift | photos are mostly pinterest <3

[mehreenkhan]

Desi Cottagecoreº・.*

[letsbelonelytogetherr]

— via whoriyat

[fairydrowning]

– Noor Unnahar, Instagram account "noor_unnahar"

[TEXT ID: / [Lemons] / My father's mother loved lemons. Years after her passing, / we run out of everything, but never / lemons. / Nothing else shelters grief / better than memory. / It's my father way of saying, / even in your absence, you will be / cared by me. / END ID]

[etheltempest]

me for the last 24 hours

[enchantedbook]

Art by Ulla Thynell

[thepeacefulgarden]

[hwhwgwhnwnwbwbwg-deactivated202]

@/raniatsilipanou

[happyheidi]

a little bunny looking at the stars in case you're having a bad day.

　　 　　˚ 　　　 . ✧

✧. ★ ˚

★ ☄︎

˚ ✧ ˚　

*. ⋆

༘ * 🔭🐇

[inkyskye]

this type of fictional man🫠

Cardan Greenbriar (The Folk of the Air)

Morozko (The Winternight Chronicles)

Colton Price (The Whispering Dark)

[inkyskye]

books that feel like nostalgia

you know those books you read that, instead of feeling like you're discovering something brand-new, they almost remind you of something you already know? like you already read it in another life? here are some books that gave me that feeling of returning home.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Circe by Madeline Miller

The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Normal People by Sally Rooney

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

[inkyskye]

i present… astrology/celestial academia???

so i don’t know if this has been done already but!! celestial/astronomical/astrological academia aesthetic

think…

purple half-moons under your eyes from staying up late to watch the meteor shower from the university’s observatory tower

ink stains across your hands, smudges on crisp parchment as you scrawl essays about planetary alignment and black holes

learning about the stories behind the constellations from different cultures’ mythologies around the world

lectures in glass-ceilings rooms, candles burning low into the evening

lying on your back under the stars at midsummer, watching the moon on the shortest night of the year

[avendell]

The Wicked King 👑

[inkyskye]

'Closeness Lines Over Time'

[inkyskye]

(more) moments from the folk of the air that are perfectly paralleled *spoilers* pt. 2

Because 1 post wasn’t enough, even though it was a long one and I rambled. A lot. Anyway, more:

Burning. Okay so the metaphor is not exactly the same, but hear me out: In Chapter 14 of TCP, Taryn says "He's flint, you're tinder" (about Jude and Cardan), and then in Chapter 27 of TQoN, when Jude admits talks through her feelings for Cardan, she tells him: "I thought if I let myself love you, I would burn up like a match. Like the whole matchbook."

Under the table? In Chapter 21 of TCP, the chaos of Prince Dain's coronation is the first time, Jude realises, they are really cooperating. She manages to hide him under a table so they can escape - and then in Chapter 27 of TQoN, still disbelieving Cardan is alive and well, Jude thinks, "what I want to do is hide under a table in the brugh with Cardan until I can finally convince myself he's all right." I think it shows the significance of that chapter in the first book, that Jude goes back to that moment, possibly recognising it as the first time they really cooperated (Cardan was drunk, but, yk, in vino veritas and all that.)

The earrings!! Okay so it's not really a parallel, but it crops up at 2 significant moments. First, that time in Chapter 28 of TWK when Taryn pretends to be Jude, tricking Cardan, she's wearing the earrings - the enchanted earrings that make the wearer more beautiful. Cardan thought it was Jude because in his head, Jude is the more beautiful one (even though they are literally IDENTICAL TWINS). And then, in TQoN in Chapter 7, Cardan reveals he knew it was Jude pretending to be Taryn for the inquest: "Jude, you can't really think I don't know it's you. I knew you from the moment you walked into the brugh." And she's wearing the earrings, of course.

link to pt. 1

[inkyskye]

tropes i’d like to see more of

mirror/circular structure where the first line mirrors the last line of the book

female characters with dark/dirty sense of humour

boys who cry

characters who secretly have feelings for each other, but both are surprised and slightly embarrassed when one ends up impulsively protecting the other in a moment of danger

friends-to-lovers where their families/friends have been teasing them for years about being secretly together (but now it’s actually true)

enemies-to-lovers but instead of enemies —> lovers, it flip-flops back and forth or feels like both at once (a la Romajuliette or Judecardan)

equally, characters who DONT have romantic arcs

characters who are genuinely really messy or lack common sense (not just clumsy in a way that’s “cute”)

[inkyskye]

moments from the folk of the air that are perfectly paralleled *spoilers* pt. 1

Here are some parallels that show how well-constructed The Folk of the Air is!!

Cardan and the prophecy. In the prologue of TQoN, Baphen divines Cardan's fate from the stars: "the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne." Cardan's destiny is written in the stars, and in the very first description of him, in Chapter 3 of TCP, he wears "a long black coat...the whole thing stitched with the pattern of constellations." Along with his "midnight hair", imagery of Cardan constantly likens him to the stars, maybe foreshadowing the role the prophecy will play...?

Jude, Queen of Mirth/Faerie. Less subtle, but... in Chapter 11 of TWK, Locke makes Jude the 'Queen of Mirth' to humiliate both her and Cardan. (I'll always be a bit annoyed Locke is unalived before he can know Jude's married to Cardan and therefore is Queen of Elfhame. Would've loved to see Locke's reaction to that.) Anyway, the parallel between the mockery made of her as Queen of Mirth and the power she gains in Chapter 29 of TWK when Cardan says "Marry me. Become the Queen of Elfhame" is pretty cool.

Snakes. The whole Cardan-becomes-a-snake thing is so utterly bizarre and fairytale-like. This one might be far-fetched, but I noticed it when I reread TQoN: In Chapter 5, Jude has a strange dream in which Taryn says to her "You're the sister who spits out toads and snakes. I'm the sister who spits out rubies and diamonds." As well as possibly foreshadowing Snake-Cardan (Snardan? Snakedan?), this made me think of this fairytale where identical twins end up enchanted, one with jewels falling from her mouth, the other with snakes.

link to pt. 2

[inkyskye]

atmospheric books to read this winter

for when you want books with those frosty, slightly unhinged vibes~

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

The Snow Song by Sally Gardner

The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton