Reading

Alter Ego by Estelle Daurore

Alter Ego by Estelle Daurore was absolutely amazing! Nivalis aims to become weapon master of the kingdom, but the awakening of his magic threatens to give him a different destiny.

I bought this novel at a local book fair. It was originally crowdfunded, so I got a pretty illustration and free bookmarks with it. The author's genius idea is that the glossary is on one of the bookmarks.

All the characters are hermaphrodites (reminder not to call actual intersex people "hermaphrodites," which is only to be used when the whole species has male and female characteristics) and fall under three genders. Most of the enbies use the French neo-pronoun ul and a grammar invented by the author. A bigender character and a genderfluid character use il/elle.

My darling Nivalis is autistic and I ship him with an enby. <3 They're likely to become canon in the future, I think.

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The Immoral Thor: JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #30, WAR OF THE GODS #2 (JLI 85)

JLE #30 (Giffen-Jones-Robertson) begins with a dream sequence that’d disorient you whether you’d read Armageddon 2001 or not. In “Breakdowns Part 5,” Captain Atom was alive and well and being reinstated to the League, so you’d expect that to still be the case at the start of “Breakdowns Part 6.”

But if you had read A2001, you would’ve seen Captain Atom “dying” a hero and future Captain Atom as a mournful, crazed victim. ( You’d also have seen two other characters assassinated, one figuratively and the other literally, but let’s move on from that. )

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Tinderly Twitch stream

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Discarded video for 420 Day post

I kept finding better videos for Hemp regulation and marijuana legalization updates for 420 Day.

Watch on YouTube

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multifandom icons.

Fandoms: Alias, Bed Friend, Derry Girls, Free!, Good Trouble, Heated Rivalry, Merlin, One Piece, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Last of Us, XO, Kitty

the rest are HERE @

mundodefieras

Current Music: Snail Mail, "Dead End"

There's more room on the basement couch

It was very nice to be told by the ophthalmologist this afternoon that I do not need surgery on my eye. I had been given some reason for concern. It was aggravating to be told that I should persist in spending hours of my time with a warm sheep, i.e. the cereal-filled microwaveable hot pack that lives in our freezer applied to my face, but at least it's working.

I read like a medical diary. Yesterday had social interludes in the form of

rushthatspeaks and

selkie and

genarti who dropped unexpectedly by with a lifetime supply of bagels and other heymishe staples from Mamaleh's. I paused Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (宮本武蔵完結篇決闘巌流島, 1956) in order to show

spatch that Kōji Tsuruta lived up to his character's billing of looking more like an actor than a swordsman, which had sounded self-referential until he stepped onscreen as if exactly out of an ukiyo-e print. This evening I felt so set on fire that I curled up in bed for an hour and Hestia snuggled herself under the covers and pushed her head kitten-fashion against my knee. I made myself a sesame bagel with chopped liver and watched another of the Warners B-pictures written by Raymond L. Schrock that TCM has been running to more than fast-cheap effect so long as they do not contain Ronald Reagan. I feel as though I measure my time by what I can do in between managing my health.

I cannot manage the state of the world and it remains exhausting. Nearly a decade of my life seems to have folded itself like a tesseract of the Echthroi and it is hard at the moment not to feel that all that happened in the interval is that people died.

Current Mood: ditzy
Current Music: Spice Girls - Step to Me

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Aryana (80.4% completed)

I'm 152 episodes done of 189 and so much stuff has happened and is still happening! The status quo has shifted in a major way now that everyone knows Victor is Aryana's father, which has led to Stella and Megan having mom-daughter evil bonding time trying to figure out how to get rid of Aryana, while doing the "keep your enemies closer" by actively spending time with Aryana. (Which has a funny/tragic consequence of forcing Marlon on the outs, as he sees her even less since Aryana's been spending time with her other family.) After Megan forced Aryana to reveal her water powers, there was a batch of episodes where Megan pretended incompetence in trying to keep Aryana's secret, like "oops I'm so bad at keeping your secret haha sorry I didn't mean to almost out you" which is A+ perfect and awful and funny.

Unfortunately I think that's over now that in episode 152 Megan revealed her hand by forcing Aryana's transformation into a mermaid and recording her on her phone. The merfolk storyline has come back in a relevant way, too, with Neptuna almost being captured by merfolk --> Neptuna is recorded being violent towards humans --> there's now an anti-mermaid hysteria --> Aryana WILL be caught by frightened and angry people if she's revealed as a mermaid. Consequences! Omg! We're heading into a climax, I would expect!

There's also been a turn to make Stella's ex Jason relevant, and I think the show had Stella accidentally confirm that Megan is Jason's daughter instead of Victor's? Unless that was Stella manipulating Jason, but I don't think so. But Stella finally discovered a use for Jason by triggering his protectiveness of Megan in order to target Aryana, which is sneaky fun.

All this excitement is great and Aryana gets to be at the center of the action in a good way, but I have to say it's come at a cost of flattening the other characters and relationships back to what they were near the start of the show. Stella and Megan are full-on manipulative villains again without the depth of the anxieties, vulnerabilities and surprising thoughtfulness we saw from them through the middle episodes. Victor is once again being drawn by the problem right in front of him with no consideration for his other responsibilities. Ofelia's only job is to worry about her daughter and panic whenever something goes wrong. At that sense, the show is fulfiling the promise it made at the start, but it is a bit of a shame after getting other points of view and relationship complications.

As a side note, I finally do not find Adrian annoying! Because we barely see him in these episodes, yes, but his blunt rudeness is pretty funny when he's using it to bitchily stand up for Aryana against Megan, unlike Hubert's too-gentlemanly waffling about. It'll stop being funny once the show tries to ship them again, but I'm enjoying it while I can.

Current Music: メロディー_1_S E R E N I T Y - snowpoint lounge

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Nightwing #136 began " Blüdhaven Lore ".

The previous arc " Cirque du Sin " was the transition from Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo's brighter run, smoothed by the fantastic parts of that threat.

What the Cirque did in Blüdhaven led to reconstruction, set-up for some of writer Dan Watters' thoughts:

" As someone who moved from the UK to the US, American infrastructure fascinates me. The shapes of cities here can be entirely different- there's just so much more damn space.

" The psychogeography of a sprawled city is so different to a more European-style city, which I'd generally pigeonhole Gotham as- walkable, easily accessible via public transit, with people living stacked on top of each other.

" Cities where each stop of the day is a 45 minute drive away makes for a different way of living, and invites a different kind of story.. "

" It is wild to me to build infrastructure that is ostensibly to facilitate and improve human living, and to have so much of it inaccessible to the pedestrian. Engaging with your own town primarily through windshield glass.

" These are the things swirling around in my head as I consider what makes Blüdhaven different to Gotham. And I decide it means Nightwing needs a cool new car. "

( Another axis on which Blüdhaven is worse than Gotham. )

Current Mood: busy

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Nature

Spring is a perfect time to start a nature journal. I've been talking about it with some friends so I wanted to share some resources here. It doesn't have to be fancy. It can have text, art, photos, pressed leaves, whatever you want to include. There are different approaches; all of them are good. Grab a blank book with plain or lined pages as you prefer, something to write or draw with, and head out to your yard, garden, or a nearby park.

( Read more... )

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I have a clean house!

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Notes of Desperation: Skullport

AO3 Link | Notes of Desperation: Skullport (2,250 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 2/3
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Zaknafein Do'Urden, Jarlaxle Baenre, Malice Do'Urden, Drizzt Do'Urden, Vierna Do'Urden, Original Drow Character(s)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Torture, Escape, Rebuilding, Reunions
Summary:

A winding tale of how three Do'Urdens find family in full.

Notes of Desperation: Skullport

"Rule number one," Zaknafein began as they were situating the few things they had in a shared room. "Don't leave this building without me or someone I designate. Rule two, don't let on that you never went through school. Rule three, tied to that, try to act a little older."

Drizzt twisted up his features in distaste for that last; he didn't know what he was supposed to be like! He'd gone from being a student of Zaknafein to a curiosity in a mercenary band's den!

"I can take most typical fighters," Drizzt reasoned. "I have command of several cantrips now. I don't think anyone would notice I never attended.

"But… what do you mean by acting older?" He took the magical statue his father had given him out and settled on his narrow bed, just tracing the warm lines of the animal shape. Zak had told him it was a surface cat, and he was hopeful he'd see one in this strangely half-lit place.

Zak paused, glancing over. "If you have questions, hold them for me, for when we're alone. Try not to be too amazed at new things you see. And focus on being seen as serious. It will hold others at bay, while we get to know them, and figure out who will actually test us, and our placement here."

Drizzt wanted to ask why that was even a thing, but all of the discussions to this place, and ones he'd had in the other place with the mercenaries, had led him to believe that drow were just… given to being difficult at each other.

He didn't like it, but he still had a lot to learn, to understand what he wanted to be.

"Is there a wizard on staff?"

"No. We'll figure out how to find one to pay to find the thing's name, son," Zak told him. "Just try and be patient. You could live a very long time, now we're away from the women of that city."

Drizzt didn't understand that either, except in all the ways he'd been hurt by Maya and Briza both. Mother hadn't, not often, but Zaknafein had explained that too. Mother had wanted him to be like Zak, in skills, to replace the older man. But also be more pliable, someone she could actually control.

"So pretend to be as sour-faced as possible, and don't talk much? I can do that. It's how I survived Maya."

That got a wince from his father, and then Zak was in his space, folding him into a tight hug.

"Just until we understand where the threats are, son. I prefer your smiles, and I don't mind your questions… even if I don't ever seem to know the answers."

Drizzt hugged him back, and then settled back on the bed, so Zak could finish placing his traps how he wanted them.

Generally, Elkantar was not asked to go into Skullport for any of the bands that wandered the Sword Coast. While it was not spoken of openly, elder members in every group knew he had been rescued there from his enslavement.

The only reason he had volunteered this time was because he distinctly remembered a certain lichen that would benefit them all could be found in the lowest levels, and it was needed to treat an ailment that had settled on their younger members, a rash that thinned the skin and caused sores if it was pressed or abraded too hard.

He did let Laeral be the one to spirit him down inside the subterranean city, rather than risk taking a party with him through the ways they had learned through the Undermountain. She had disguised herself as a half-drow woman, having made the acquaintance of the up and coming sword mistress to Qilué's wanderers.

Elkantar kept his eyes open, his ears attuned to the threats around him, and a light touch on Laeral as he took her all the way down to the lowest levels on their gathering run.

"Fewer drow out and about than Shana said to expect," he murmured to her.

"My sources say that unaffiliated group recently had a leadership change. Wagering that led to a shuffle of power in all factions," she responded just as quietly.

"Hmm, if you hear more, do pass it on to us."

"Of course."

Zaknafein was flat on the roof of a building, his son beside him, as both observed the movement in the compound nearby.

"What do you see?"

"The women and children are frightened, obeying out of fear," Drizzt began, and Zak filed that under 'strange things about Drizzt' for that to be the first observation. "The soldiers are swaggering, being cruel just because they can, but their posture and bearing is arrogance based on perception. Whatever skill is under it is probably not at the level you demand of our fighters.

"The openness of the courtyard implies magical traps. The lack of protections from above could be carelessness, but is likely more magic. There is no obvious ranking officer outside, though, so they do not believe their protections are without weakness."

"Go on," Zak encouraged.

"The wagon boxes are sitting low for those designs. There's already merchandise in them, heavy merchandise. The traces are in place for beasts of burden… probably those large rothe we saw, given it is set up for two beasts per wagon. They mean to move those goods soon."

"Well done," Zak told him, even as he saw violence starting between two men and one of the women, the kind he had no wish for his son to see. "Come." He hoped Drizzt hadn't picked up that part yet, and hopped up into a low crouch. "See if you can beat me back."

There was a flicker of something in his gentle son before the boy obeyed, though not to race.

"Are we planning to attack them?" Drizzt asked.

"No. We were hired to get the information, which will be delivered to our contract holder. We do not provoke those drow, or the ones in the Temple. We merely cause them inconvenience, and promise better service with our own merchants."

Drizzt looked back, and Zak wanted to swear, seeing emotions flicker over that mobile face before Drizzt started in the direction of their own warehouse.

Maybe he had not understood what was happening and only reacted to the rough treatment, Zak hoped.

Drizzt was sitting on his bed when Zak came in, well after the contract had concluded, and saw his son running his hands over the cat figure. He did that a lot when he was thinking heavy thoughts.

"What is it?"

"It's not right that anyone, woman or man, be as scared as they were. It's not right that people take and hurt."

Drizzt's face came up, resolute, but fear in his eyes for voicing the feelings he'd been growing into since coming fully under his father's tutelage in this far off place. He still remembered, vividly, the beatings for daring to ask questions that implied drow ways were wrong.

Zak came and sat beside his son, bringing an arm up around his shoulders. "Power is the way of drow. It also seems to be the way of every species that lives in this city. Fear, from those that have no power, is normal. Power comes by skill, or position.

"I don't know what to tell you, Drizzt, to make this better for you. But that is the truth that was beaten and shaped into me in Menzoberranzan. Here, at least? There are connections between people, to share the burden of not having power. There's the ability to be family, and keep solid alliances to protect what power can be taken."

Drizzt looked at the figure he held, letting the warm magic it emanated soothe him. He didn't have answers to the gentle words, rebuttals to make his case. His heart just knew this was wrong.

After a full minute of silence, Zak stood, leaving the room so that Drizzt could be alone in his safe space… and wishing he knew a better way to help the boy.

Shana immediately put hand to dirk, beneath the view of the stranger approaching her, using the counter she had her offerings spread on to hide them. Other drow in this city were all too often a problem. The two fighters with her were more visibly ready to stop any altercations, both of them on the street side of things.

"I'm told you three follow different ways, something about a goodly goddess," the man said from several steps away. She appraised him fully, taking in the well-made but functional garb, the twin scabbards of equal length, the fact he wore his hair free save for two side braids to pin the mass of it back. Typical red eyes, slightly above average height for a deep drow, and he could be no other type given the polished jet of his skin tone.

"It need not be cause for strife," she said evenly. "We sell and trade to any in good faith."

His eyes did flick over the wares, mostly dried foods and components not found here, but from above.

"I'm actually looking for someone to teach my son," he said as he closed the last of the distance. "Has very un-drow ways of thinking, and I'm told they line up better with your people.

"Zaknafein."

"Shana," she responded to that unprompted offer of name. No bats, no other symbols of Vhaeraun in his clothing, and she'd caught no symbols of the spider either… but surely the clerics would have known if there was a goodly child here!

"He's my only surviving child, and his heart is just not suited to the work I do here," Zaknafein told her. "Do your people offer teachers for such as cannot be practical in their way of living?"

"We accept any who choose to follow ways closer to our goddess, even if they do not accept Her as their patron deity," Shana said. "We also, saer Zaknafein, tend to know when to seek such people."

The man grunted at that, with a grimace. "He's complicated. Third born, in a House of that Bitch's making. My friends say he's not able to be scryed, sent to, and he's always been resistant to divine healing. Only the salves work easily on him."

Third born. That had notorious meaning from a Spider city. And yet the boy lived.

"Meaning he may be touched by Her magic." Shana took a deep breath. "I cannot make these kind of decisions. But if you can keep him safe for a full moon, I can arrange for someone to meet with you and discuss it more in depth."

"He'll stay safe. I will not let harm come to him." Zaknafein's fierce loyalty to his child came through strongly, and Shana smiled a little.

"Are you sure you do not wish to seek our ways, where children are raised with care by their families?" she offered.

He looked at her, a myriad of complex emotions crossing his expressive features before he ruefully shook his head. "I would not fit in other ways, and have commitments here. I will meet your envoy in one month, at the place they call the Dimmed Lantern."

He then looked at her wares again, and produced coins to buy some of the dried fruits. "For taking your time… and because he delights in trying new things," Zaknafein said, before making his way back the way he'd come.

"Things are very unusual this trip," Neerbryn said, having specifically come to get a feel for the differences in the drow factions that Elkantar and Lady Silverhand had mentioned. Lleona would have come herself, but for once they had overruled their bard-leader.

"I know. Well, nothing for it but to finish our selling and buying, then get back to either your folk, or the Sister herself."

Lleona proved closer, with the rest of the Marauders, and listened to both Shana and Neerbryn describe the encounter. She was blessed with the deep memory a true bard found so useful, and from the mention of name and weapons, she was weighing just how to advise Shana.

"Qilué took her band to the southern tip of the mountains, guided by our Lady," Lleona said. "Rylla went with them, but we should find one another by mid-autumn. However, you don't need to seek her for negotiations on this matter."

"I don't?" Shana asked, but she respected Lleona's insights. The woman had one of the highest success rates for going into the Underdark and bringing all of her people out alive. Or at least able to live again.

"Any of you lot have sending on tap today?" Lleona asked her band.

"I do," Mynera offered, without even looking up from the scroll she was reading.

"Ask the other First Sister if she can clear her plate and come here within the next few days. Tell her no rush, as I'll go speak to this man if she can't make it in time, but it will be worth her while."

"You really think it is the same man?" Cirtlari asked, as she pieced together what had Lleona asking for someone from the other side of the continent.

"Well, she's as good as she can be; maybe the man just breeds goodly people," Lleona said cheerfully, before sitting back to let Mynera handle contact.

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Flight of the Raven - Part One, Chapter Six

As mentioned in my last post, updates may be a bit more sporadic in the next few weeks. But hopefully it'll even out soon enough.

In the mean time!

Last time, Aidan met a shar tahl and got somewhat less than helpful advice. Alas.

( The only useful priest in the series is the Death-Harpist, sadly )

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Six Sentence Sunday

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Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Beyond the Trailer

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Sam Heughan of 'Outlander' at the NYC Tartan Day Parade 3

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: enthralled

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Weekly proof of life: media intake

(Thank you for the comments on my post yesterday about Claudia. I'll try to respond at least a bit.)

Reading: I finished Rachel Reid's Tough Guy, and then my digital hold on Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shroud came in from the Queens library, so I started in on that. I'm maybe a bit more than halfway through that now? It's interesting and I plan to finish it, but it took a long before I actually got interested, and I mainly kept reading through that chunk because I've enjoyed the handful of Tchaikovsky's other work that I've read quite a lot more than I was enjoying the beginning of this one, so I kept figuring I'd give it a bit longer. I doubt I'll wind up loving it, but I do want to see how things play out.

Watching:

scruloose and I have finished everything we were watching! (And glancing at last week's proof-of-life post to see where we were then reminded me to cancel Crave just now, so yay for that. We'll be back eventually, Crave.) "Everything" in this case was the second seasons of OPLA, Frieren, and The Pitt.

My thoughts on Frieren at this point are, I think, more to do with the experience as filtered through its translation, and I'm going to ignore that for now and instead say the most important thing that I can possibly say at the end of that week of TV watching.

And that thing is this: against all odds, the live-action One Piece (which, as I have said countless times aloud and probably at least once here, if not more, should never have worked at all because it's One Piece, FFS) pulled off Chopper. I am floored. I am agog. I am delighted. I am still sort of mumbling "WTF???" about it under my breath once in a while. CHOPPER.

I won't say that he ever feels so natural to me that I forget he's a marvel of technology onscreen, but he works, and the voice is wonderful, and somehow even when I was at my most aware that he's not being performed by an actor in intensive makeup, he felt like...a stuffed animal/puppet brought to life? Not like CG? (Nothing like the plush Luna from the Sailor Moon drama, for the record.) It's incredible work and I love him so much. (I should also note that I haven't watched any making-of material, so all I know about the creation of Chopper is what Naye mentioned about his huge, shiny eyes accurately reflecting what he's looking at.)

As for what I'll/we'll watch next...I still haven't seen past the initially-released chunk of Justice in the Dark, so I'm trying the tactic of seeing if

scruloose will watch it with me, which means an excuse to start over and refresh myself on the drama, as opposed to my blurry combination of memories from watching those episodes and from reading the fan translation of the novel ages ago.

scruloose is willing to at least give it a shot, so hopefully even if they don't wind up sticking with the show, I'll get some momentum on it.

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SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony (1991)

In the decade between the original SimCity (1989) and The Sims (2000), Maxis released an interesting variety of life simulation games on different scales, many of which are now largely forgotten in the shadows of their two juggernaut cousins. Coming close on the heels of the macro-scale SimEarth: The Living Planet (1990), lead designer Will Wright zoomed way down into the weeds to bring us SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony (1991).

popup describes ant castes over a map of an underground nest

While you can learn a lot about real life systems from many of the early Maxis games, SimAnt leans more educational than most. You'll learn how ants forage, communicate, build and defend the nest, and produce new queens to found more colonies. Then you'll apply your knowledge to defeat and eliminate enemy ants, spread across the back yard, and invade the house until the homeowner gives up and moves away. It's a good time!

( More on SimAnt [content warning: talking spiders] )

You can play SimAnt in your browser, though the performance is sluggish. Running it in DOSBox is a little better.

Episode 2767: Backfire When Ready

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2767.html

Episode 2767: Backfire When Ready

If players are debating what to do and someone suggests the worst possible thing that could happen...

Well, they've just written the next part of your adventure for you.

aurilee writes:

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Hm! I'm surprised by Annie's response. Perhaps it's a "something to think through later" or maybe just an "I want to look into this more later." Either way, that was much more subdued than I'd expected.

Which is almost the complete opposite of the spaceship fight. Only point-defences? Ok, there's thousands of them apparently, but where's all of the thousands of fighters? If we've got this silly large number of star destroyers, surely we can have thousands of little TIE fighters as well. I guess if we're only having the small Resistance fighters versus the star destroyers, the fluorocarbon atmosphere is a good enough reason for that to not happen. Not that the Resistance needs the deck stacked any more against them, but it feels weird without the TIE fighter swarm at the same time.

Transcript

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2767.html

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(no subject)

I was cleaning up some of the older tabs on my phone when I came across this. I’m pretty sure someone on my reading list shared this way back when, but I can’t remember who did.

The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly

Simply read my name three times into any mirror or other reflective surface and I will return her to you for the extremely reasonable tithe of nine (9) years of your life.

Lowkey tempted to write something for Queen Jaref/Constance Connelly. Unsure if I want to follow the epistolary format or not 🤔

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DCU FEMSLASH SELF-PROMO WEEKEND

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FFA DW Post #2466- Make sure your explorers' paddling pool doesn't have any polar bear designs on it

... as that will cause stress and prey fear responses.

It's actually common misinformation that polar explorers need freezing temperatures to thrive. Yes, they adapted to the Arctic with their thick coats, but their ancestors came from much milder climates.

I just keep mine in a room with dark wooden paneling and lots of portraits of dead old white guys, and they seem to be doing fine.

... But that's how you get an unexpected clutch of cabin boys.

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author: k,
fiction

Recent Reading: The Salt Grows Heavy

Today while waiting for my car’s brake pads to be replaced, I finish The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. This is a short (fewer than 100 pages) fairy tale-inspired horror story about a mermaid and a plague doctor who get wrapped up in the sick games of a village they pass through.

I liked the idea of this story a lot more than the execution. Have you ever had the sense a book really wanted to say something profound about human nature? This book felt like that constantly. It also felt like the author desperately wanted the reader to be impressed with her large and esoteric vocabulary. Things were phrased and rephrased in ways that felt keenly like they were only there so the author could use a specific word. Which, fair, we’ve all done it, but the scaffolding showed so plainly here it felt very clumsy. I’m not usually one to fuss too much about purple prose, but the language here often felt decorative enough that meaning was obscured rather than clarified.

I like the vibes in this book, and the two main characters were engaging (although I felt like the half-mermaid children were a pretty glaring dropped thread) and the plot interesting, and some of the writing was beautiful, but more often it was distracting. I never sank into the book, which was too bad, because there were some cool moments.

Can’t say I’m inclined to look into more of Khaw’s writing, because I think her style is just not for me. I don’t think I wasted my time with this book, but I don’t need to see more from her.