Just saying but like how are there no darlington x reader fics? Like boy fits all the requirements. GENTLEMAN OF LETHE? GENTLEMAN DEMON? HELLO?
(just reread ninth house for the fifth time and going crazy there isn't even a release date for book 3)
the-midnightwriter reblogged
I GOT A FUCKING RAISE THE POTATO WORKED WTF
This potato works. Every. Fucking. Time.
Reblogging because it’s a damn potato and I want to encourage people to assume potatoes are magical.
the-midnightwriter reblogged
people are like “i am fine” and then stare into the void all night.
its me, i am people.
the-midnightwriter reblogged
the 'breaking expensive glassware' scene in ninth house is so important for darlington's character (it's essentially an extension of 'the moths' scene)
first of all. he's a man of knowledge and preparedness. he believes he knows all there is to know and that makes him prepared for it. alex easily challenges that belief, breaks his rules.
“It wasn’t the ritual.” “Was it the blood?” “No. One of them grabbed me. You didn’t say that was going to happen. I—” Darlington couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re saying one of them touched you?” “More than one. I—” “That isn’t possible. I mean …” He set down his wine, ran his hands through his hair. “Rarely. So rarely. Sometimes in the presence of blood or if the spirit is particularly moved. That’s why true hauntings are so rare.” Her voice was hard, distant. “It’s possible.” Maybe. Unless she was lying.
his very obvious disbelief and distrust toward her is understandable - not only is what she's saying so incredibly unlikely, but he's also read her file. he has some surface level knowledge of her life and the state she was in when sandow recruited her. she's an uneducated, untrained, unprepared, a juvenile, an addict with no prospects (he never stops to consider how she got to that point, deems it irrelevant) who somehow wound up the only survivor at a murder scene. what incentive does he have to trust her?
she was fortunate enough to be born with what he considers a gift - the ability to see grays - something lethe took notice of and rewarded generously. that's the only reason she's here. she has no other redeeming qualities to him, unlike each of the thousands of lethe house candidates he was supposed to review and pick from, that opportunity, that honor ripped away from him. this would've never happened, if not for her.
“You need to be ready next time. You weren’t prepared—” “And whose fault is that?” Darlington sat up straighter. “I beg your pardon? I gave you two weeks to get up to speed. I sent you specific passages to read to keep it manageable.”
she doesn't mean him in particular, but he predictably misunderstands (and i'll explain why). he's confident he did the right thing, that he did enough. he readily gave her what was most dear to him in a silver platter - his knowledge, the key to this world of mystery. partially he did it for lethe, partially he did it because he felt for her (referencing he moth scene here). he doesn't take lightly to being accused of being wrong, of having done the wrong thing. especially by a seemingly ungrateful newcomer throwing a temper tantrum after fucking up and possibly even lying about why.
“And what about all of the years before that?” Alex stood and shoved her chair back. She paced into the breakfast room, her black hair reflecting the lamplight, energy sparking off her. The house gave a warning groan. She wasn’t sad or ashamed or worried. She was mad. “Where were you?” she demanded. “All you wise men of Lethe with your spells and your chalk and your books? Where were you when the dead were following me home? When they were barging into my classrooms? My bedroom? My damn bathtub? Sandow said you had been tracking me for years, since I was a kid. One of you couldn’t have told me how to get rid of them? That all it would take was a few magic words to send them away?”
“They’re harmless. It’s only the rituals that—”
Alex grabbed Darlington’s glass and threw it hard against the wall, sending glass and red wine flying. “They are not harmless. You talk as if you know, like you’re some kind of expert.” She struck her hands against the table, leaning toward him. “You have no idea what they can do.”
“Are you done or would you like another glass to break?”
his distrust also very reasonably drives her mad. she's sick of not being believed, not being trusted her whole life - even here at lethe, where magic is a widely accepted fact, people like him, who've never had to live a day in her life, with her ability, still think they know better. she's supposed to be safe, understood, helped here. she isn't. she's only being used for lethe's agenda. and darlington? he perpetuates that fact. he's her mentor, for fuck's sake. she'd barely began to trust him when he showed her magic, when he taught her to protect herself. she must've misjudged him. he did all that for lethe, not for her, just like how he covered up the almost butchered ritual from scroll and key.
“Why didn’t you help me?” said Alex, her voice nearly a growl.
“I did. You were about to be buried under a sea of Grays, if you recall.”
“Not you.” Alex waved her arm, indicating the house. “Sandow. Lethe. Someone.” She covered her face with her hands. “Take courage. No one is immortal. Do you know what it would have meant to me to know those words when I was a kid? It would have taken so little to change everything. But no one bothered. Not until I could be useful to you.”
this is why he misunderstands. she doesn't challenge him directly, she attacks lethe, but he's taken it upon himself to assert lethe's authority, to protect its credibility and integrity from such accusations. he's embodied lethe. it's a part of who he is now. he considers himself an extension of it, its golden boy, its gentleman. so this criticism, he takes personally. but it's not about him.
Darlington did not like to think he had behaved badly. He did not like to think that Lethe had behaved badly. We are the shepherds. And yet they’d left Alex to face the wolves. She was right. They hadn’t cared. She’d been someone for Lethe to study and observe from afar.
He’d told himself he was giving her a chance, being fair to this girl who had washed up on his shore. But he’d let himself think of her as someone who had made all of the wrong choices and stumbled down the wrong path. It hadn’t occurred to him that she was being chased.
he's not a fool. he pieces it all together. he realizes she's right, she isn't lying. his blind trust in lethe prevented him from seeing it all before. her records start making sense. her anger now and her fear earlier start making sense. but that doesn't mean he's equipped to help her, to comfort her, to deal with the weight of what it all means. i imagine her sudden depth and pain must've scared him. he was raised by his grandpa who thought the solution to everything was alcohol, ice and manners. only thing darlington seems to have added to that list is breaking things. and alex seems to already be well versed in that.
After a long moment, he said, “Would it help to break something else?” She was breathing hard. “Maybe.” Darlington rose and opened a cupboard, then another, and another, revealing shelf after shelf of Lenox, Waterford, Limoges—glassware, plates, pitchers, platters, butter dishes, gravy boats, thousands of dollars’ worth of crystal and china. He took down a glass, filled it with wine, and handed it to Alex. “Where would you like to start?”
the-midnightwriter reblogged
friendly reminder that darlington was so pissed when he learnt alex could see the grays in color that he spent a whole day in the training room
the-midnightwriter reblogged
It’s always “I wanna fuck Xaden Riorson” and “I’d let Xaden Riorson do xyz to me”
Just let me fuck Bodhi Durran. Let me fuck him. Make fics about him.
He’s literally described as being “closely resembling Xaden, just less angular”
the-midnightwriter reblogged
I'm written by Donna Tartt. Not in the way that I'm ethereal and smart and well-read. But in the way that I will do anything to be perceived well by a bunch of pretentious people. In the way I never feel smart enough, worldly enough, or that I'll ever fit in, but I'll pretend that I do to a fault. In the way that despite it all, I still have a god complex regarding my intellect
Where are all the brennan and garrick and bodhi one shots and imagines I desperately need them and can't find a single one 😫
the-midnightwriter reblogged
ー 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 🍂🕯️
cr. the artists of the photos
the-midnightwriter reblogged
October belongs to the ladies and the vampires
the-midnightwriter reblogged
Ok so who's gonna take one for the team and create daniel arlington on character ai
Just asking for a friend
the-midnightwriter reblogged
zlibrary gone... FUCK TIKTOK FUCK BOOKTOK I hope that app burns in hell
library genesis is still up (very similar site) and r/freemediaheckyeah and r/piracy have lots of other alternatives. zlib was the GOAT though. fuck tiktok
(originally commented. putting as a reblog as its important)
for anyone that wants to know about other sites, I also didn't know so this is a big help!!! thank you!
some sites i use to read online: - https://libgen.li/ - https://www.pdfdrive.com/ - https://libretexts.org/ - https://openlibrary.org/ - https://novel80.com/ - https://www.allfreenovel.com/ - https://bookreadfree.com/ - https://allbookshub.com/ - http://thefreeonlinenovel.com/ - https://www.epub.pub/ - https://www.readingsanctuary.com/ - https://yes-pdf.com/ - https://www.booksfree.org/ if none of the links work if you just search up "(book title) read online free" there's almost always gonna be a pdf link and those are always good to read from too
the-midnightwriter reblogged
Manifesting academic success and an unlimited supply of cute stationery for the person whom you reblogged this from
the-midnightwriter reblogged
lil-stark-deactivated20240119
reblog to manifest a pass in all your classes <3 thank you for the growth beloved universe <3
exams are tomorrow ahhh <33