down comes the night
hello!
I hit a point recently where a lot of things piled up at once, many of them bad, and all I wanted was to find myself on a deserted island somewhere, quiet and alone. Then I realized that the island wasn’t the important element–I wanted the solitude. So instead of fleeing, I deleted all the social media off my phone and sent myself to a deserted island in a digital sense. It’s been, in a word: heaven.
This isn’t a condemnation of social media, and I will most certainly be back. But it’s calm, and quiet, and I’ve read a lot of books.
Last week, friends of mine were visiting from California and we all went to the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Even months after it opened and on a weekday morning it was flooded with people, and for good reason. It’s a fantastic museum, one we lost hours in, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Dog Thing
Vista made an appropriately monochrome pal at the coffee shop.
Mixed Media
One upon a time, I was completely obsessed with webcomics. I religiously kept up with dozens and dozens. When I started reading comics for my job, my interest in webcomics waned, but recently I’ve come full circle and have been seeking them out again. (I never stopped reading Check Please! but it was the only exception.) Webcomics are, as they’ve always been, a fertile ground for people to try new things with subject matter and the medium, and it’s what I still love about them. These are my current faves:
Barbarous by Yuko Ota & Ananth Hirsh
Barbarous is the latest fiction project from Yuko & Ananth, creators who I’ve been following as long as I’ve followed comics. Their site, Johnny Wander, started as autobio comics about their life in New York and gradually segued first into magical realism, and finally into full fiction. Barbarous is their latest, about a witch who’s made a wreck of her life and has taken a job as an assistant handyperson in an apartment building, and it’s maybe my favourite work of theirs yet. Barbarous has everything: domestic magic, a hot monster dude, and....other things, probably. Those are the big ones. It’s wonderful.
Knights-Errant by Jennifer Doyle
Knights Errant is newish to me, but I tore through it in no time and have been following the updates ever since. It follows Wilfred, a prisoner in a city taken captive by a religious zealot, who escapes and ends up in the center of a political incident. The art is great, and the writing is sly and smart. I have no idea where it’s heading and have already been surprised more than once. There are queer and nonbinary characters featured prominently, which is also a plus in my book.
Their Story by Tan Jiu
Their Story is a Chinese comic that’s being translated and posted (with permission) by the tumblr yaoi-blcd (which does this for a number of comics). It’s a slice of life comic about a group of teenagers, although the focus is on Sun Jing, a girl who falls in love with a girl at a different school. The art is wonderful, and the romances are sweet as heck, and the comedic timing is incredible. It’s my favourite, I think.
Season 3 of Voltron is out, and I’m pretty sure someone at Dreamworks stole and read my diary of complaints after season 2, because the new season was everything I wanted from it, plus some things I didn’t even know I wanted, like my new crew of alien girlfriends.
A LOT. I read The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley, author of Watchmaker of Filigree Street, which I adored. I was eager for more from her, and Bedlam Stacks delivers. It follows a garderner and one-time smuggler for the East India Company, who is sent into Peru to steal tree cuttings and discovers that his family connection to the place runs deep. There’s a beautiful atmosphere to this book, and an air of mystery that Pulley masterfully builds and maintains. I’ll be eagerly awaiting new books from her for the foreseeable future. I read The Harbors of the Sun, the latest in Martha Wells’ Books of the Raksura. I continue to really love this universe. I read The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, a fun, queer, cheerfully anachronistic romp. I read Sleeping Giants, which I disliked enough to shout about it at multiple people. I found it really dry and bro-y. Finally, I read My Pretty Vampire by Katie Skelly, about a mod vampire who escapes her captor and goes on a murderous rampage.
I saw Atomic Blonde, which I loved, although the love scenes were a tad male gaze-y. It was an excellent, stylish spy film, the sort of thing that the James Bond franchise has been trying and failing to make of late. The music is great. I watched The Cat Returns, a sweet and weird Ghibli film that I’d never seen before. Finally, after hemming and hawing for a few weeks (I am really bad with second-hand embarrassment), I went to see The Big Sick, which is a very funny movie that I only had to cover my eyes for part of.
Anxiety Pyjamas
Fics I Shouted About
The Homie by legendarydesvender // Voltron, Lance/Keith, AU. Lance and Keith are internet pals who don’t even realize they’ve met in person. This is told entirely through social media, and it’s wonderful.
On the Turning Away by blamebrampton // Harry Potter, Harry/Draco, AU. An unfortunately explode-y Christmas card from his so-called friends lands Draco with probation over the holidays and Harry Potter checking in on him daily. I went searching for this fic for a friend, and decided to reread it when I found it. It’s lovely.
The Chilling Crimes of Chinchilla Chick by Traincat // Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Doreen/Nancy. Nancy discovers that being the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’s BFF/GFF comes with fairly regular kidnappings. This is so perfect that I wouldn’t be surprised if the author revealed themselves to be Ryan North.
Two Make a Pair by mousapelli // Yuri!!! On Ice, Yuri/Otabek, future fic. From sock sliding to pairs skating: the Yuri & Otabek story.
the potential of you and me by Katranga // Voltron, Lance/Keith, college AU. Lance invites Keith to stay with his family for the summer and things unexpectedly go from there.
i fucking LOVE you, i think you’re pretty by Authoress // My Hero Academia, Bakugou/Urakaka. Urakaka brings Bakugou a bento while he’s in the hospital. It’s very nice of her. He doesn’t know what to do. (Manga spoilers)
that was then by bigspoonnoya // Haikyuu!!, Yachi/Shimizu, future fic. At a volleyball club reunion, Yachi tries to gather her nerve and tell her old crush how she’s always felt about her.
The Mirror Crack’d by Femme & noeon // Harry Potter, Harry/Draco, mystery AU. Harry & Draco have a inn and there’s a murder. This is a wonderful homage to Agatha Christie, and I also loved the blended family aspects.
Lastly
anyway, back into the cave with me
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