#xserpx

[xserpx]

Chapters: 2/3 Fandom: Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Valentino/Vox (Hazbin Hotel) Characters: Valentino (Hazbin Hotel), Vox (Hazbin Hotel), Velvette (Hazbin Hotel) Additional Tags: Vox is Bad at Feelings (Hazbin Hotel), Valentino is Bad at Feelings (Hazbin Hotel), Love Confessions, Angst and Humor, Porn with Feelings, Character Study, Valentino is From Florida, They Are Messy Your Honor, One-Sided Alastor/Vox If You Squint, Arguing Like The Old Married Couple They Are, Self-Harm, Valentino and Velvette and Vox Care About Each Other (Hazbin Hotel), Mentioned Shok.wav | Vox's Shark (Hazbin Hotel) Summary:

Vox and Valentino are having a great time together when Vox accidentally says something he shouldn't. Vox is forced to wrestle with his trauma from 70 years ago, while Val is faced with a confession he didn't think was possible.

Omg a multi-chapter fic?! Legit was starting to think myself incapable of doing this, so thank you to the commenters for encouraging me, it really means a lot 🥰. Honestly pretty happy with how this is shaping up too! There’ll be 3 chapters total, so stay tuned!

[shehungthemoon]

Omg you're making me want to get back into Black Butler so badly. I ditched the anime after the godawful second season, but if it's following the manga plot again I should really get back to it... also you're 100% right about the dub, Brina Palencia & J Michael Tatum are so freaking great in those roles 🥲

Bestie.... my love......

You shouldn't have sent this bc now every kuroshitsuji post I reblog will aggressively be dedicated to you until you start watching again 🤗🤡

They started following the manga plot again right after s2, and we've gotten a whole season for Book of Circus, a two part OVA for Book of Murder, AND a movie for Book of the Atlantic... and they're all so STUPID good. The animation has gotten better every release and it's uber faithful to the manga, so if you've ever just loved Black Butler for the plot/aesthetic/etc. you 100% should jump back on it!!!! (And Brina and Tatum are there for the whole thing and are INCREDIBLE.)

I have to admit I haven't read the Public School Arc manga so I'm watching totally blind atm! But we're only 3 episodes in so there's definitely time for you to catch up... and come watch with me..... we can scream about it all together i promise I'll be sorta normal..... promise 👀👀👀💘💘💘

[pathfinderswiftpen]

Learning how to put up wallpaper AND washing her (I presume it's your sister's) dog! You are THE best sibling! 😆❤️

A pupppy photo for your kindness, dear Serp!

[bluestockingbaby]

Tomgreg for the ship meme?

ahahahaha

I just love when Succession goes full weird and codependent for Tom and Greg. I’m both a Tomgreg and Tomshiv enjoyer, and I think the problems with the fandom around them are more problems with the wider internet culture and poor interpretation around a wider shipping culture, rather than with the fandom itself. The video of Tom calling Greg when Greg was driving Ewan to Thanksgiving dinner was one of the things that got me into Succession. I was CACKLING when they did the Nero-Sporus comparison in the show!

[random-jot]

15, 20, 25 for the bookworm asks? :)

15. Do you prefer chapter titles or not? Table of contents or not? Prologues and/or epilogues or not?

Love a chapter title, I think they just add a little extra flavour y’know, gives the book itself a bit more personality, a bit of pizazz

Table of contents I don’t miss too badly when they’re not there, but when they are there I always do enjoy them - I like to look at the chapter titles that are gonna be coming up later down the line and think ‘ooh what’s going on there, that sounds interesting’ and it’s nice, especially in a longer book, to sort of use the TOC as a way to track how far you’re getting through it

I always enjoy including chapter titles and Tables of Contents in my own work too, so yeah they’re good

Prologues and Epilogues are very hit and miss for me; sometimes they can be really effective to set a tone/establish worldbuilding, other times they just feel like they drag down the opening of a book. For a good example, I think all the prologues in ASOIAF are really well done, they’re enjoyable to read and they set the tone for the book, even if they’re not too integral to the plot.

A bad example, or rather to say an example i did not enjoy, I think would be the way Sanderson opened The Way Of Kings with multiple prologues - I was just like, ok Bran, when does this book actually start, y’know

20. How does your choice in reading material compare to your family’s?

I’m a much more avid reader than most of my family, they tend to read more classic fiction and crime fiction, whereas I’m all about that fantasy, sci-fi & horror life. I got my dad interested to read ASOIAF once but I don’t know if he’d have read it or his own volition. My stepbrother’s wife I think has the most similar taste to me, in terms of enjoying the fantasy genre

But I’m probably the biggest SFF guy in my immediate family.

25. What books do you read over and over?

I am the kind of person who has read The Silmarillion multiple times. Like, I’ve read Silm more times than I’ve read LOTR now, that’s where I’m at 😂

I also will always enjoy re-reading books I read when I was growing up, especially the Alex Rider books and any of the books in the Goosebumps series, I’ll always get that sweet lil’ nostalgia kick from

And I’d also say ASOIAF because there’s so many characters plotlines and conspiracies and intrigues going on, so every re-read of that always feels like there’s some new clue or piece of foreshadowing to uncover, although rereading that is a fairly big undertaking, so gotta be in the mood to commit to that

And of course First Law is a series I will happily return to and devour in re-reads if I’m in the mood

But basically, if I really enjoy any given book, I’ll quite happily read it over and over again.

Thanks for the ask!! 😄

[autoapocrypha]

The First Law for the fandom ask! 🥰

send me a fandom and i’ll tell you…

the first character i ever fell in love with:

Logen and Jezal, simultaneously. Before i read the books, my friend the wise and beautiful @ossimatic​, sent me some excerpts as she was reading it. I think it was Logen and Jezal’s first interactions while walking through the Agriont (PIPES! UNDER! THE STREET!) that made me want to read it for myself.

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

I suppose West? I like him well enough while reading the trilogy, but upon reflection realized just how deeply toxic he really is.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Orso/Savine. I tolerated it rather than actually liking it, honestly there was never that much substance to it and they were never really suited to each other. But Orso still somehow loving Savine at the end of TTWP, after all she’s done and how generally shallow and small-hearted she is as a person, just soured me on the whole thing retroactively.

my ultimate favorite character™:

 Jezal is my perfect baby son now and forever. I... just really like Idiot Rich Boy Becomes Better Person as a trope.

prettiest character:

Orso. Chubby and a bit femme? YOU’RE IN MY HOUSE NOW  

my most hated character:

Nicolas Costco, glad ur dead fucker

my OTP:

Orso/Rikke. I’m holding onto the illusory hope that they’ll get a Shy And Temple ending 

also maybe Jurand/Jappo just for fun, they’d do right by each other I think

my NOTP:

OH BOY, 

Orso/Savine for reasons mentioned above, Jezal/Ardee as I don’t think they could have made each other happy long term, Shivers/Monza was an end-to-end disaster, basically 90% of people in the Circle Of The World should stop dating until they get some therapy.

favorite episode chapter:

So This Is Pain, from Before They Are Hanged. Lots of good Jezal moments as he starts his journey to being less of a shithead. 

saddest death: 

I know Aliz didn’t actually die, but her fate upsets me to this day. 

favorite season book:

Before They Are Hanged. Logen, Ferro, and Jezal bouncing off each other is great.

least favorite season book:

Best Served Cold. Revenge stories aren’t that interesting to me personally, and all the POVs were one kind of chore or another.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

Sand dan Smug-Ass-Shut-Up-Forever Glokta. The common fandom thing of making him out to be a galaxy brained mastermind is irritating, and also characters who’re constantly making snide comments in their heads are overdone and not charming, say it to my face cowards  

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

LOGEN LOGEN LOGEN. He’s brutish, self-pitying, and ultimately kind of coward but I love him for it.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

Maybe Orso, but he’s made enough bonehead moves to push himself out of this category. So I’ll go with Forley, a small nice man who deserved so much better than he got.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

Leo/Stour. What a horrible trainwreck that would’ve been, I’m so sad we won’t get to see it.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

Isern/Shivers. You two crazy kids go have fun :) 

[proto-language]

Aubreyad for the fandom meme! 🐝⚓🦥

thank you!!!!!!!

the first character i ever fell in love with: look, it’s gotta be stephen maturin, because i am also the exact kind of person to tell the people around me at a concert to shut the fuck up (actually, i did at a blink-182 concert when i was like 12)

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: hm, there’s no one i’ve really “fallen out” with (so far - i’m still only five books in, somehow), but i do remember growing more and more fed up with clonfert throughout the mauritius command (i think?), where he started out as “painfully and tragically relatable” and ended up as “jesus christ dude”

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: ....................... hms polychrest?

my ultimate favorite character™: ok ok i love jack and stephen both SO MUCH but i think i’d actually say sophie? she’s just so GOOD and SWEET and occasionally FUNNY AS HELL (”oh my god stephen you’re a genius, i should run away and disgrace myself so that mum can’t say jack isn’t good enough for me”). she’s so earnest (”stephen please explain the war to me so that i don’t accidentally pray for the wrong people”) and i really love her relationship with stephen as well :)

prettiest character: anyone who isn’t stephen.

my most hated character: i’m Struggling because (again, so far) i don’t really tend to feel a lot of hatred while reading the books and there’s no one who’s consistently bothered me enough for them to really stick out in my memory rn?

my OTP: basic but jack/stephen really are just Good, and jack/sophie are very valid. stephen/diana make me cry but in a good way, i think.

my NOTP: i dunno, diana/people that aren’t stephen?

favorite episode book: i think so far it has to be HMS Surprise, which really gives us all the goods - the scene where jack’s told that stephen’s been “taken” is one of my absolute favourites for the way it relies on their closeness and knowledge of each other, we get to further to car crash that is stephen and diana’s relationship, and, obviously there’s the sloth.

saddest death: i think i have to come back to clonfert again here! like, “your Jack Aubrey destroyed him” just fucks me up

favorite season:

least favorite season:

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: i can’t really think of anyone because the fandom’s not huge and i don’t really hate many/any characters? i guess maybe i don’t feel as bad about hollom (in the film, anyway, i haven’t read the book yet) as some others probably do?

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: ok she’s not a FAVE but i do so love to hate mrs williams!

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: SOPHIEEEEEEE

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: i was trying to think of literally anything to put here and then the thought of jack/killick floated through my mind and i cannot stop laughing at the mental image of a much larger aubreyad fandom painting them as like a “grumpy one falls for the sunshine one” dynamic.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: i guess jack & sophie? like, i do love them, but they’re probably also not the kind of ship that would inspire me to write fic about them.

[thessalian]

Top 5 books? :)

I should have expected a Sophie’s Choice question like this. I mean, it’s not as bad as songs? But it’s a situation where in the interest of fairness, I have to go for individual books in series. Very, very good series. So I kind of hate you right now but I also love you because I GET TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS.

5. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters

I like this one at least in part because it reminds, quite forcibly, that a) queer people are not a new phenomenon by any means and b) by and large, no one who matters really cares in the way of “ABOMINATION AND SIIIIIIIN!” It also reminds how London really is just a collection of smaller towns absorbed into a larger city by the amoeba that is the Square Mile, with all the cultural and socio-economic diversity that implies. I like historical fiction in general and in this case, it’s not ... okay, it’s a little whitewashed but it’s not straight-washed, if you see what I mean.

4. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

I think I like this one mostly because it gives me a look at people so essentially different than I am. I mean, yeah, a lot of the characters are kind of shitheads (even the POV character) and their motivations are a little opaque at times, but I think that’s the beauty of the piece; it’s written from the point of view of someone who idolises these fascinating people and comes to realise that they’re just as flawed, fallible and real as he is - perhaps more in the case of ‘fallible and flawed’. There’s a touch of magic that might or might not be real, a little bit of How To Get Away With Murder, and the inner lives of people so entirely different that it’s kind of hard not to be engaged.

3. Retribution Falls, Chris Wooding

First book in the four-part series Tales from the Ketty Jay. This one’s like Firefly but ... not quite ‘grittier’, but more magical and more realistic at the same time. In Firefly, the ‘band of merry misfits’ trope is played more for comedy; Wooding reminds with the crew of the Ketty Jay that it’s not all attractive people sharing witty banter; that often it’s genuinely morally ambiguous people with genuine issues that genuinely make you wonder if a happy ending’s even remotely possible. It makes the group finally bonding feel that much more worthwhile. That quite aside from airship piracy, a sort of magitech that blends steampunk with electropunk in a Bioshock-ish sort of way (just without the art deco aesthetic), and a world built out of a combination of wild frontier and stereotypical English Nobility.

2. Anne of Green Gables, L M Montgomery

You can have this book when you pry it from my cold dead hands. I haven’t watched many of the TV adaptations (just one, back in, like, the 80s or 90s I think) but the book? The book is my childhood. I was Anne once. I kind of still am Anne, in a way, and I think I always will be. Her struggle to find love and acceptance from others and from herself while still staying true to herself is entirely my jam.

1. Feed, Mira Grant

Now, I could name just about any Seanan McGuire novel in the top spot - Mira Grant being her more ‘hard sci-fi’ pseudonym. However, Feed is always going to be my favourite. Any book that I can read over and over and over again, possibly going on a hundred times now, and still have a certain climactic moment reduce me to tears every single time ... that book has a power that simply cannot be matched. The world-building is also interesting, though I kind of wonder how its take on US policy in the wake of a devastating virus that requires precautions to control would change if it was written today instead of sometime before its publication date in 2010. Basically, it’s a unique take on “post zombie apocalypse” assuming a world where George Romero actually existed so people knew what to do ... but that’s just the setting, the backdrop. The zombies aren’t the story; the story is the social, cultural, economic and most of all political landscape in the wake of a world that survived the apocalypse and now has to manage the disease still lingering. Basically take the core premise of Zombies Among Us, give it a Black Mirror spin, and then throw in a combination of The West Wing and 24. It comes highly, highly recommended. (Then read everything else that Seanan McGuire / Mira Grant has ever written because I would read that woman’s grocery list, I swear.)