petals on a wet, black bough
hi!
I love October. Halloween is a good time, but for me it’s the cherry on top of the wonder that is October. I love to see the leaves change, and begin to fall. I love going to Target and searching for cute things with skeletons and bats on them to use the whole year round. I love it when the sky is already dark as I’m leaving work, and when it gets gray and rainy. I especially love it when the air gets crisp and cold, although this year the heat and humidity seems determined to linger. I just love the autumn, and October most of all.
Dog Thing
Mixed Media
In college, I took an English class that I truly hated. That was unusual to begin with–English classes were across the board my jam, and this was a class in which we were reading sci-fi and fantasy. But the professor was awful, and that ruined things. The only assignment I recall from the class was a paper I had to write about liminal spaces. I hated the paper, but after marinating in liminality for a while, I came to love the concept. In retrospect, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the idea of a threshold, a nebulous boundary between places, would take hold of me, a person who chose the name “door” as an internet handle.
I accidentally found myself consuming a lot of media about liminal sorts of places this week, and then once I realized what was happening, decided to lean into it. It seems appropriate for autumn, itself pretty liminal. I started with a story called “Silver in the Wood” by emilyenrose, about a wood in England and the man who lives there. It’s a wonderful, atmospheric fairy story, the sort of fantasy that works best because it seems just real enough.
Next, I read Fire & Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. Despite my deep love for Howl’s Moving Castle and its sequels, I hadn’t read anything else by Jones, mainly because I wasn’t sure where to begin. I saw Fire & Hemlock recommended somewhere, and jumped on it. It’s fantastic. It’s another fairy story that sits right on the edge of our reality, overlapping just a little. The book is Jones’ take on the fairy tales “Tam Lin” and “Thomas the Rhymer,” and tells the story of Polly, who at age 10 stumbles into a strange house and a strange funeral, both of which change the course of her life.
At this point, I realized I was really digging hanging out in fantasy liminal spaces and decided to watch Coraline. Coraline is a stop-motion animated film based on a book by Neil Gaiman. It’s about a girl who moves with her parents into a strange old boarding house, discovers a portal in a wall, and on the other side find…her home, but better. Her parents, but more fun and less busy. It’s a lovely little movie, and the perfect finish to my unintentional liminal themed week.
The anime adaptation of one of my favourite manga series, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, has started coming out here, and I am thrilled. I’ve been listening to friends rave about Ookiku Furikabuute, or Big Windup!, a very cute baseball anime, for ages and this week I finally caved and checked it out. I’m loving it so far.
I was in a reading dry spell for a few weeks, stuck in the middle of The Stone Sky, the finale of N.K. Jemisin’s fantastic Broken Earth Trilogy, and I finally dragged myself out and finished it. It was incredible, a fitting end to a wonderful series. I also read Jane, Unlimited by Kristen Cashore. I loved Cashore’s earlier trilogy, and had been eagerly awaiting more from her. Jane is about a girl who is invited to stay at the island estate of her very wealthy friend, and becomes aware of many things afoot while she’s there. I disliked the ending, which felt tonally different from the rest of the book in a way that was a little jarring, but genuinely loved the book on the whole. Finally, I read the most recent Magnus Chase book, The Ship of the Dead. It was wonderful.
Anxiety Pyjamas
Fics I Shouted About
Death’s Aegis by PitViperOfDoom // My Hero Academia, Midoriya/Todoroki, Greek mythology AU. I am nearly always a sucker for Hades & Persephone aus, and this one flips the script and had Todoroki has a god of springtime and Midoriya as a god of death. It’s lovely.
Is The New Prince K Here To Stay? by emilyenrose // Course of Honour, Kiem/Jainan, future fic. This fic is written like an in-universe news article, a device I adore. It works especially well here, as the reporter is an established character. Is the serious new Prince Kiem for real?
Keep Your Promises by MaudMoon // Ace Attorney, Phoenix/Miles. A bet on whether Phoenix & Miles are dating gets back to Phoenix, and leads to a long overdue conversation. VERY satisfying.
anywhere i go, there you are by astrid_fischer // Yuri!!! On Ice, Yuri/Otabek, future fic. After years of friendship spent brushing off rumors that they’re MORE than friends, Yuri realizes he…wants to be more than friends. And doesn’t handle it well. I love this fic so much, particularly how it sets up the romance without discounting the importance of the friendship.
Gravity by Euphorion // Ace Attorney, Apollo/Klavier. Apollo & Klavier’s close rivalry has not gone unnoticed by some of Klavier’s fans. How do you convince a guy to date you when you’ve accidentally made his life hell?
in death, at the end of the world by theroyalsavage // My Hero Academia, Midoriya/Todoroki, ghost hunters AU. While investigating a haunted house, Midoriya comes across a ghost-who-isn’t-a-ghost and a much larger mystery than he bargained for.
Lastly
that’s all from me!
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