Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

flvffs asked: for the ask meme: dog person or cat person, and are you a musician? cheers!

Lol I said I’d be on top of my shit with this ask meme, but then I discovered there is in fact a physiological limit to how long you can sleep for four hours a night before your body hits the Off Switch.

Dog person or cat person?

Normally I’d say I like both (DOGS ARE AFFECTIONATE AND FLOOPY, CATS RUMBLE LIKE TINY ENGINES, WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE), but the new RD in my dorm has a pupper except he’s not a pupper he’s like a woolly bear who is probably bigger than me, his name is Charles and he is the most amazing thing in the world, he goes “boof” whenever he’s wandering the dorm and someone comes through the door.  Also he loves scratches and to have his ears flopped and he always tries to follow me back to my apartment and I AM GOING TO STEAL HIM, so per force I am currently a dog person.

Musician?

I sing, to variable degrees of success, and I used to play the flute, HOWEVER, I can’t read sheet music for love nor money.  I’m just fucking incapable.  But I have excellent pitch and I learn pretty well by ear, which is pretty much how I fumbled by with the flute thing.

flvffs asked: Although re the grammar post I have seen "wonton", the dumpling, spelled both "wanton" as well as "wantan", and I personally am more inclined to pronounce it "wantan".

I had no idea that was a thing!  I now know ‘wantan’ is an approved alternate spelling of the pinyin (did some research because I love Google), but it looks like ‘wanton’ is just the sex thing.  And I think the issue comes in more when people talk about ‘moaning wontonly,’ which just.   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.  I dunno, that always brings me up short and makes me ask Questions. 

flvffs asked: top six female characters (if this is still running??)

Oooo-hooo-hooo, it’s been a goddamn WHILE since I went into my inbox, yeah, I have a lot of stuff to catch up on.  But yes!  This is still going!  This is the top six meme, for those of you who (justifiably) have forgotten since a month ago.

Also, this ask if just goddamn MEAN.  How???  Am I supposed to pick????

By cheating ruthlessly, that’s how.

Books

• Jamethiel Priest’s-bane, of the Kencyrath Chronicles, because she’s fierce as fuck and rides a rathorn into battle and is probably going to end the world.  Literally what else could you WANT in a character.

• Harimad-sol AKA Harry Crewe and Lady Aerin Dragon-killer, and I’m cheating MORE by putting them in the same category because they’re from the same series.  They are my beloved childhood friends and heroes, okay, the Blue Sword and the Hero and the Crown are goddamn glorious.

• RACHEL.  Because GODDAMN ANIMORPHS.  I’m not going to say more because I’m writing an epic rant about every book as I reread it.  Also Cassie gets honorary mention because GODDAMN CASSIE.

• Hermione Granger.  C’mon, y’all, I’m part of the Harry Potter generation and I’m a Gryffindor, Hermione is basically mandatory for this list.

• Kitsune Yukiko from Stormdancer, my L O V E.  Someone come cry with me.

• Um!  Um!  I only have one more, um!  THERE ARE TOO MANY.  Fuck it, Galadriel.  And Arwen.  They’re tied for LOTR lady-love.  With Eowyn as a close second.

Movies/TV

• IMPERATOR FURIOSA, ‘nuff said.

• The Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher, because I’m literally watching Miss Fisher right now and remembering that I adore this show and have the worst crush on Phryne.  Also her lesbian doctor friend is awesome.

• Buffy Goddamn Summers.  

• Echo from Dollhouse.  “I’m not broken.”  And honorary mention to Dolores from Westworld.  “I imagined a narrative where I wasn’t the victim.”  God, stories about empty bodies being filled up with souls are my SHIT.

• Rey.  And General Leia Organa.

• MAKO MOTHERFUCKIN’ JAEGER-DRIVIN’ KAIJU-STOMPIN’ MORI

Comics

• Rogue.  I like shitkicker comics Rogue a lot more than movie Rogue, not gonna lie to you.

• Natasha Goddamn Romanoff.  

• Wonder Woman.  Because she’s fucking Wonder Woman.

• Kitty Pryde.  I feel that she has been grievously wronged by the movies and I’ve taken it very personally.

• Ororo fucking Monroe, god, Storm is everything to me, she’s a goddess.

• Jean Grey.  I know a lot of people think Jean is…I don’t know, boring or something?  But I just.  I love her a lot, I got started on the comics rather than the original movies, and Sophie Turner CRUSHED IT in Apocalypse.
  

flvffs asked: have you ever seen the musical matilda (and i ask this for the way jenny honey is portrayed because it made my heart hurt in a good-bad way) (also because its been ages since i read the book and i cant remember)

I actually have not!  In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t like musicals as a rule, they kind of aggravate me, save for a select few–Les Mis, aaaaaand…um, no, yeah.  Les Mis.  Oh, and Disney movies.  I can sit through Moulin Rouge, I like some of the songs.  I know exactly one song from Chicago but I’ve never felt motivated to watch it.  I have seen RENT, but my interest in the plot is slim-to-none–again, I like a couple songs, but not the musical as a whole.  

On the other hand, Matilda was my SHIT as a kid, so I’d honestly be prepared to see the musical just because MOTHERFUCKING MATILDA.  And I love Miss Honey, she deserves the whole world.

flvffs asked: BUT THEYRE NOT EVEN REALLY HAIRY THEY JUST have like soft spiky things

and PEACHES you keep adding to this list of perfectly palatable foods peaches taste perfect with cream

Peaches have FUZZ and that is just…no.  I can appreciate that peaches even taste pretty good, I can admit that, I just CAN’T DO FUZZY FRUIT.  AND RAMBUTANS ARE SCARY, I STAND BY THIS.

flvffs asked: BOTH RAMBUTANS AND AVOCADOES ARE BRILLIANT FRUITS AND THEY DONT DESERVE YOUR HATRED

i just to eat some avocado out of PURE SPITE

Okay, I G E T that avocados are some kind of a superfood and I just…like…canNOT get past how mushy they are, if you can more power to you.  BUT RAMBUTANS HAVE HAIR???  I CANNOT.  I DO NOT DO HAIRY FRUITS.  LIKE.  I DON’T EVEN LIKE PEACHES.  EVEN ONCE THEY’VE BEEN PEELED.  FRUIT SHOULD NOT HAVE HAIR, HAIR SHOULD BE AN ANIMAL-EXCLUSIVE OCCURRENCE.

Look at this

WHAT FRESH HELL IS THAT????

flvffs asked: mangoes are fantastic and i will fight you

Mangoes have a weird-ass flavor and texture, and FURTHERMORE, they’re like 93.56% pit and therefore a huge pain in the ass.  In the hierarchy of fruit they rank slightly above fruit with hair and avocados, ie not in the edible range.

flvffs asked: please, tell us more about your horsemen of the apocalypse.

*maniacal laughter* 

You have made a BAD MISTAKE, my buddy, my guy, because now here are 1600 words about this novel.  More stuff is here in the tag.

Right, so, remember how I write novels when I’m pissed off about stuff?  Like…I got pissed off about the lack of happy F/F ships with superpowers and wrote a novel about that.  And I was pissed off about misuse of all-powerful sorcerers (Merlin, I am cranky about the show Merlin), and I wrote a novel about that.  And I was pissed off about use of psychic powers and Antichrists and Apocalypses (*glowers at SPN*) and I wrote Falls the Shadow, this novel.  Kind of by accident.  Like.  I meant to write a fifteen, maybe twenty, page thing playing with the idea of a character who had visions of the Apocalypse.  Smash cut to eighteen months and 250K words later…

So yeah.  The basic premise of this novel is that Sam Lightworth and her older brother Oz have been the best hunters in the country since they were kids, until it came to light during a hunt when she was fifteen that Sam has precognitive dreams.  Since most hunters don’t really have a concept of grey areas (such as a human girl with visions of the future) Oz takes the logical solution of getting his baby sister the fuck out of the life before someone can kill her.  Cut forward a year and a half, Sam’s been in hiding at a boarding school and, for the first time in her life, she has something like a normal life, with a normal friend (Kit), and normal demands on her life.  She hates it.  When her brother turns up, bloody and battered and bearing news of their dad’s death, it’s the best thing that’s happened to her all year.  So she and Oz leave, with Kit in tow.  They also pick up Michael, an old…friend who met Sam exactly once when they were both kids.  She broke his arm and he cracked four of her ribs.  Naturally that…happens.  The majority of the plot rotates around Sam, Michael, Oz, and Kit learning about their places as the Four Horsemen.

Keep reading

flvffs asked: this will not hold a candle to your fic recs, but im plunging right in regardless. alright, so *cracks knuckles* where do i begin? you are the bastard child of royal blood, the son of a prince who has no legitimate heirs and stands next in line to inherit the throne. you are made the royal assassin, which is generally not a child-friendly occupation and the kind of thing you introduce yourself with, hence many lies about what you do up in the keep. (1/?)

As you grow, you are still known to much of the keep as the Bastard. You never see your father, but come to be regarded fondly enough by the common people of the keep. Still, you have no close friends, and the combination of loneliness and pressure from the people around you molds you into an extremely loyal bastard with little to no concept of self-worth.  (2/?)

Robin Hobb places you squarely in the heart of the story with compelling narrative, excellent character development, and enough pain to make a brick wall weep tears of slow-dripping cement. (3/?)

This doggedly loyal character is thrown into danger again and again, giving everything he has to the service of the crown despite such trivial factors such as love (ah, who needs love? Not this sorely bereft-of-affection bastard, that’s for sure), reputation (what’s in a name, anyway?), and, well, pain (so much pain). (4/? and deeply apologetic for clogging up your askbox)

The Farseer trilogy, high fantasy, with dragons, magic, growing up, little details, and everything in between. You want a story with seamstresses and cooks doing everyday things? This has it, losing none of its compelling plot in the process. Starring: love, animals (animals!), friendship, FitzChivalry Farseer, whose name literally means ‘son of Chivalry’ and never gets round to changing it (you got the url guess right) (5/? is this 5?)

Also starring: fabulous worldbuilding, combat, mental issues (I just really want to hug him he has been through so much), strong women (so many strong women), great description, diversity (royal family canonically described as having dark skin, I don’t know who keeps fuckin up the book covers), childhood, love, so much love, the idea of duty over choice, tenacity, humour, magic used in cool and realistic ways, what happens to kids when you cut them off emotionally from everything they love (6??)

The series is my favourite right now, perhaps because it doesn’t shy away from the grittier details, and maybe because it’s so fascinating watching Fitz grow up. Thanks for sitting through that rambling, badly-planned book rec, and I really do hope you read it. Assassins! Magic! Old anger! Animals! Pride! Love! (wipes tears away from eye) I just cannot recommend it enough. This is one of the best fantasy series I have ever had the privilege to read.

Dude, I am fucking sold.  I am gonna acquire these books.

flvffs asked: hello, have you ever read the farseer trilogy by robin hobb?

I have not!  Is it good?  Do you recommend it?  Is there magic?  Details, mon ami, I am curious.  A cursory Google search reveals assassins, assassins are good.