Discworld is so delightful because you get lines like "When banks fail, it is seldom bankers who starve" except it's spoken by a 7 foot tall sentient clay statue named Pump 19 and directed to a man whose name is Moist von Lipwig

Like to charge reblog to cast

You’re not casting

Also, because it's Tumblr I have to spell everything out. Use your own personal definition of what constitutes a major versus a minor holiday

Happy Doomsday (末日快乐) | Nian Zhong (年终)

Here is the third Nian Xhong novel in my marathon! This one is!! Extremely good! And I adore it!! Somehow once again a Nian Zhong novel is formulated exactly for me!

Ruan Xian wakes up 12 years after his untimely death to a completely intact body, and the world ruled by the Mainbrain. The handsome android that fished him out of the ruins, Tang Yibu, has coerced him by force into keeping his secret. And somehow, another Ruan Xian has been running around outside! And is the leader of the rebels?

This novel has So Much Going On it really puts into perspective just how much love and care goes into the entire setting of the story. I can't talk a whole lot about the plot points because its another novel where it starts off small in scope but ends with challenging the world! But every step of the way feels organic and well thought out, and the world building is well detailed and relevant to the ongoing plot. Side characters are well fleshed out and are fun! Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le, along with Ruan and Tang's sidekick Pi, are good additions to the main team and have a great balance between all of them.

Ruan Xian is! Super antisocial. He lives his life with a mask in place, hiding the 'dangerous' self within him. He cares little for his own kind, sympathises more with machines than living things, and possesses an intellect far above others. He is a grade a actor, he doesn't understand his own emotions, he's never felt love, he never trusts anyone. He's a scientist with a fierce beast hidden inside him that he never lets out.

Tang Yibu is. An android that feels detatched from everyone around him. An observer, a researcher, he assesses others for their usefullness before even considering getting close with them. He's resource hungry, guards food (and Ruan Xian) like its the last thing on earth, he's insatiable. He's the perfect companion, as long as you work on his rules. He'll kill Ruan Xian instantly if he so much as hints at threatening his safety. He trusts no one.

In trusting no one, they're perfectly compatible with each other. One the creator, the other the creation, they balance their relationship precariously. They are comfortable in being able to kill the other at any time, even as they start becoming more intimate.

And somehow, they become unable to part.

I am sooo in love with a lot of the characters in this novel. Even characters that have only one or two main appearances like Major Ding leave a huge impact on the reader (I want to draw him 🥺). Some of the content of the novel is a little heavy, but warranted considering the setting of the novel.

Trigger Warnings: Self harm, Suicide, Gore, Human experimentation, Eugenics*, Drug abuse, Cult control tactics, Parasites (plants), Rape**, Torture, Animal death, Animal testing and experimentation, Major memory modification, Human and/or android trafficking, Human and/or android prostitution, Psychiatric institutionalization, Child abuse, Medical malpractice, Yu Le says 'retard' once, Domestic violence

* The eugenics in this novel refers to the pre-doomsday societal situation in where minor disabilities were cured or mitigated via existing medicinal practices and fetal screening and routine testing for more 'major' disabilities (like the genetic one Ruan Xian has) made terminating those children early (before 5 years old) much easier. For a 'better world' or whatever. Completely changed by current day, but mentioned many times in Ruan Xian's backstory.

** Rape is mentioned a few times, with the early example bringing swift retribution and the other being implied because of the existing android sex trafficking. Memory modification is a big point in the android trafficking, but the whole business is taken down by the main group. Nasty stuff.

The only other thing I'd want to mention is that there's a 16 year age gap between a side pairing but they dont get together until after the events of the story (in the extras) and honestly they're fine. They're also shown like 20 years into their marriage afterwards doing perfectly fine, and with what they went through in the main story I don't really see much of an issue.

Arc names and specific triggers under the cut, along with some stuff from my notes (no spoilers):

Due North | knifemartin

I've been reading a lot of Rusty Quill Gaming fanfiction lately, and @knifemartin's series Due North is one of my favorites and immediately climbed to the top of my to-bind list. I love its explorations of grief, hurt, comfort, and hope, and it really made me love Carter as a character so it will always have a special place in my heart.

This was the first bind that I made after the Rengade server's February bookbinding event, Binderary. I'd attended a ton of workshops and subsequently bought a bunch of new tools and materials, and I got to use all of them and more on this book! Of particular note are the edges, which mark my first time chisel trimming a book and painting the trimmed edges; the endbands, which are my first go at double-core style sewn endbands; and the title page, which includes my first time using vellum in a bind as well as a sample of my first batch of hand-marbled papers. This book is also my first that uses short-grain paper, and I'm delighted at the feel of it and how well it drapes!

Overall, I'm absolutely thrilled with how this book turned out, and I can't wait to finish my own copy and add it to my shelf 💜

Ficbinding: Salvage by @muffinlance (typeset by @no-name-publishing)

I've recently been getting back into AtLA fic as my kids are watching the series. I was already thinking about binding Salvage when I realized that @no-name-publishing had already typeset it; thank you for letting me use your work!

The marbled paper on the cover is a piece I made myself a few months ago, but unfortunately I only had one letter-sized sheet and couldn't do a standard paper w/leather spine cover. But restriction breeds creativity as the saying goes, so I cut the paper on the diagonal, and built the rest of the cover around that.

I decided that a wave pattern would look cool to fill the remaining space, so I cut a stencil with my Silhouette and painted the design with Angelus leather paint, which I used for the first time here and can't recommend enough for applying titles/designs on leather covers. The endpapers were done with the foil quill attachment; both designs are from this artist.

I have told my eldest that she can read this if she's very careful with it :D

gouache falin

Jingyan is such a bitch 🥰🥰🥰

Bonus under cut

....you folks know how old your phone is/how long you've had it?

i looked up the purchase confirmation email (june 2021), i didn't know offhand

I had to look back in my photo gallery to when this batch of photos originated (October 2021.)

The limits of desire

okay but for REAL we as a society need to do more with the fact that Wen Ning is to Wei Wuxian as Su Minshan is to Jin Guangyao. willing to kill and die and betray his entire sect for a guy who gave him one (1) compliment. icons, the both of them.

(for the purposes of this poll, there is no monkey's paw situation: the chore you pick stays the same level of difficulty/grossness/etc. as it normally is for you, and you only have to do it as often as you want to. the chores you don't pick are magically done for you exactly the way you'd want them to be, just with zero effort on your part.)